{"sf1_id":848899,"sf2_id":null,"title":"Orphans to Time","author":"Niniju","words":1150,"posted_at":"2015-04-18T00:45:00.000Z","tags":["Bear","Dragon","Fox","Husky","Leopard","Niniju","Panther","Snow Leopard","Tiger","Wolf","red fox"],"url":"https://fse.anthro.fr/stories/848899-orphans-to-time","original_url":"https://sofurry.com/view/848899","image_url":"https://www.sofurryfiles.com/std/thumb?page=848899\u0026ext=.jpg","description":"","content":"(Friz's Point of View)\n   The shock from the\ntravel messed with my head. Upon waking up in an inn that looked new, I knew\nsomething was off. I was either in Pinnacle territory or dead. At least, that's\nhow I reasoned with myself. I looked around to get my bearings. I was lying on\na bed in a three bed room. A closed door was on the far left side of the wall\nopposite me and, going right from there, was a coat rack, a dresser, a shorter\ndresser with a TV on top, and another dresser identical to the first. The wall\nto my right had windows covering most of it, but the curtains were drawn. The\nbeds on either side of me were empty, but I saw red fur in one of them and navy\nblue fur in the other. Feir and Ghast had been here. They were watching over\nme, and for that I was grateful. The left wall had a closet towards the wall\nbehind me and went further at the end opposite me. A light source was putting\nlines of light on the ground, and I assumed it to be a bathroom. The wall\nbehind me was blank.\n   The door to the\nbathroom opened and Ghast stepped out. I sat up and said his name. He jumped\nand looked towards me. His mood suddenly improved and he ran to the door and\npoked his head out, shouting, \"Friz is awake!\" the other eight anthros and a\ntaller version of Nick all came into the room, welcoming me back to the world\nof the living.\n   \"It's about time\nour leader woke up.\" Feir said with a joking tone. I stood up and immediately\nfell back on the bed due to a searing pain in my head.\n   \"Well now I'm sure\nI'm alive, at least.\" I groaned.\n   \"Are you okay,\nFriz?\" Ghast asked. I felt the bed shift as he sat next to me.\n   \"If you call 'having\na headache' okay, then no, I'm not okay.\" I complained, rubbing my head. \"This\nfeels like I was hit with a brick and then felt onto the corner of a desk.\"\n   \"I had headaches\nfrom travelling before I got used to it.\" Timler assured me, \"It should wear\noff in a minute.\"\n  \"Regardless, where\nare we?\" I asked.\n   \"The more important\nquestion is, 'When are we?'\" Timler corrected. \"The answer to that is\napproximately one thousand years in the past.\"\n   \"And it's not\nprimitive? That's unlikely.\" I said skeptically.\n   \"This era was\nactually a new beginning for most countries that we know of from our time.\"\nRegir said. \"I remember a lifetime in this era was utopian, almost. Anthros and\nhumans initially lived in piece due to the anthros' existence being a feud\nbetween human countries. The nuclear war that created anthros was even what\nmade me into what I am today.\"\n   \"Two questions.\"\nNick interrupted. \"What? And also: Freaking what?\"\n   \"I was born in the\nyear 2050. Super soldiers existed by then, and I had stolen some of the\nresearch to give myself endless youth. The fallout gave me my animal form, and\nI will finally see the prophecy I learned as a kid during this time.\" Regir\nexplained.\n   \"So you're over\n2000 years old? How is your mind not mush?\" Julio asked.\n   Regir responded, \"The\nsame way my body isn't ash, really. I'm able to keep both my body and mind\nyoung, and I would reset my memories at the end of each of my lifetimes before\nregressing to an infant and having my closest friend put me up for adoption. I\nrecently learned for about the twentieth time that my memories can never be\npermanently erased, as well.\" Before anyone else could ask questions about\nRegir's questionable past, the front door was unlocked and open by what I\nassumed to be a housekeeper. Gary swore and went into the other room, telling\nus to stay in here.\n(Gary's Point of View)\n   The housekeeper, a\npudgy woman with tanned skin and was wearing pink scrubs ad a cleaning apron,\ncame into the room and almost freaked out when she saw the state of the room.\nRegir had changed three times, and the stench wasn't that appealing. While I\nwas thankful that they were here to clean, we couldn't risk getting too much\nattention this early on. I accosted the housekeeper with my charm.\n    \"I'm so glad you're\nfinally here. We need your help. After you clean the room, go get my name put\nonto the register and get me a key. My name is Luke Robinson.\" The lady was\neasily affected by my charm, and she only acknowledged me before getting to\nwork on the room. I practiced my charm previously on Nick and found that almost\nrude authority works best, and asking for a favor doesn't work at all. Testing\nit on the others showed that the more a person idolized or was attracted to me,\nthe more easily manipulated they were. Nick had become quickly immune to my\npersuasion, probably because he loves me in a brotherly way, and naturally\ndisobeys me from the sheer principle. Unfortunately for him, if I force power\ninto my voice, he still is forced to obey, so he's careful not to openly defy\nme now. As much as I love him, I need to make sure he does what I ask without\nquestion so I can protect him. I walked to the window outside and peaked\noutside the curtains. A completely different city than any I've seen was on\ndisplay for me to see. I watched kids, anthros and humans alike, playing ball\nin the streets. I saw anthro neighbors having a friendly chat on the porch of a\nhuman's house with that human over a cup of coffee. I felt that for once we\nfound a place we could stay for the rest of our lives and be happy. The only\nproblem I had was a sense of unease that was almost tangible in some parts of\nthe big picture I was watching. I looked back at the housekeeping lady and saw\nher nametag said Hilda. \"Hilda, after you've gotten us a key, send your manager\nup. I need to have a talk with her.\"\n   \"Was my performance\nunsatisfactory?\" She asked. I heard a strange accent in her tone that I\nscarcely heard in Nethermost.\n   \"No, no. You've\ndone amazingly. I just need to ask her a few things.\" I said. It's strange, she\nsuspected me of reporting her, and so the charm implanted the idea of my\ndisappointment as an unwanted outcome into her head. I could see this ability\nbeing far more useful as I practiced, and soon this hideout would be the safest\nplace for us..."}