FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

So I've decided that Anchor by Tritonal is the unofficial/official theme song of this story series. Give it a listen and let me know what you guys think! Other than that, have a good read! ^.=.^

____________________________________

Nick clutches the warm mug full of hot cocoa that Jason's mother made him along with breakfast. He stares through the steam rolling from the top of the mug at the map splayed out on the table.

"Are you sure everything is ok, mom?" Jason asks his mother for the fifth time as he is poking at the sausage link that she set down in front of him.

"Yes, honey. Your father is just having some issues with the equipment on the boat. We'll be fine." The female panther says as she goes back to cooking some more eggs and sausage on the small gas powered stove in the kitchen.

Both Nick and Jason share a look across the table. He didn't need to say it but Nick was still scared, Jason could see it in his eyes and how his pointed ears flattened down a little. Jason sighs and looks away and down at his sausage that he is attempting to cut with a fork.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" The feline asks before he pokes the chunk of meat with the fork and stuffs it in his mouth.

"Actually, could you go down after breakfast and check the oil in the bio-diesel for me. Your father wanted me to do it but he needed some rest so I need to do a couple things for him and won't be able to."

"Sure mom!"

Jason liked to work on the diesel motor that he and his dad built. They both spent a lot of bonding time over building it and taking care of it meant a lot to him.

The panther looks back up to his friend and sees him still holding the mug but clutching the pendant under his shirt and just staring at the map.

Breakfast after that was short and quiet. Jason finished first and helped his mother wash their dishes and then Nick's after he finally finished his food.

"You gonna come with me?" Jason asks the seemingly distracted wolf as he finishes towel drying a cup and putting it away. Nick looks up at him from the table and the map and raises his eyebrows.

"Huh?" Jason walks over to his friend and pokes his nose.

"Silly, I said, are you gonna come with me to check the diesel motor?"

"Oh... uh yeah, I guess."

"Great! Let's go!" The panther exclaims as he grabs Nick's paw and drags him out of his seat and down the hallway to the steps leading below to the lower hold and the engine bay.

On the way down to the engine bay, Nick tries to gather the courage to talk to Jason about the way he's been feeling lately and about the night on the beach. As they pass the threshold of the engine bay door, Jason lets go of Nick's hand and the little wolf prepares to ask Jason the hard question but is cut off by the taller feline's gasp.

"No!... Who- What!?" Jason yells incredulously as he walks over to the motor, stepping over leaking fluids and cut hoses. The smell of leaking diesel suddenly hits his senses and he wrinkles his snout before covering it with his paw and taking a step back away from the dangerous fumes.

"What?" Nick asks as he tries to peak around the panther and sees the mess of cut wires, smashed electronics and slashed hoses followed by the sudden and overwhelming stench of the diesel fuel. Gasping, he stumbles backwards and away from the smell and into the narrow hallway.

"Damnit! *cough cough*" Jason sputters out, still trying to clear the heavy chemical smell from his lungs as he shuts the door to barricade themselves from the mess.

"What happened?" Nick asks as he leans a paw on the wall next to him and tries to clear his lungs as well. Jason finally coughs out enough of the stench to take a couple breaths in.

"Somebody destroyed the motor!" Jason growls as he clenches his fists. Nick flattens his ears and ducks his head at his friend's growing anger. The feline pounds his fists against the door and stomps off towards the upper deck again to alert his parents and leaving Nick behind.

As the little wolf watches his friend leave, a familiar scent hits his nose. His fur stands on end as he slowly turns back towards the door to the engine bay. A small tuft of dark fur that had been caught in a crack in the door frame catches his eye. Following his nose, Nick verifies that the fur was, in fact, the source of the scent. Breathing a sigh of relief from the fact that the fox burglar wasn't, somehow, on the boat again, Nick turns to head up and tell everyone what he found. Meanwhile on the top deck...

"Honey, slow down! What happened?"

"I told you mom! Someone destroyed the motor!" Jason yells, still fuming.

"Who would've done tha-" The pantheress stops in mid-thought as her husband emerges from below deck.

"What the heck is going on up here!?" The elder panther shouts as he steps up onto the top deck and walks over to them.

"Someone destroyed our motor." Says Jason, turning to his father.

"What!?" Jason's father shouts as he immediately turns and runs down the stairs, practically running over Nick as he is making his way up. Nick moves out of his way and flattens his pointy wolf ears at the elder panther's growing rage. Jason is behind his father and Nick turns and follows his friend as he passes.

"I found something." Nick says to Jason as they descend down towards the engine bay again.

"Not now!" Jason growls, his anger getting the better of him and making Nick flinch at his tone.

"No! I found something by the engine bay door." They reach the door just as Jason's father starts yelling and throwing his paws up. Nick stops and backs up a little, afraid of being in the way of the elder panther's rage. Just as Jason's father starts to kick some of the debris away, his wife comes down the stairs.

"That's enough! We need to stay in control here! Especially out here!" The female panther's loud and authoritative tone stops her husband dead in his tracks and makes everyone turn to look at her.

"I found some of the burglar's fur caught in the doorway." Nick takes advantage of the momentary lapse in chaos to inform everyone of his discovery.

The others follow the little wolf's pointed paw to the partially cracked door frame and the little tuft of fur stuck in it. Jason's father walks up to it and pulls it out of the crack and holds it for a moment before he begins growling again and grips his paw around it.

"Ok, honey, you help your father clean this up. Nick, you come with me and help me with getting our bearing." Jason's mother delegates to the group before holding her paw up to her snout.

"Turn on the engine bay fan, honey. Those fumes are getting too dangerous." She says to her grumbling husband before turning to head back up on the top deck. Nick glances back at Jason as he is following her. The two share another concerned look before Jason turns to help his father find the vent fan switch.

Nick follows the female panther up to the top deck and up to the helm where she digs around in a large chest next to the wheel. Nick stands by quietly waiting, a little unsure of what to do and a little uneasy with the elder female.

"Ah ha!" She finally pulls out a smaller wood box and a large folded map. Nick watches as she sets them both down on the table next to the large compass located next to the helm wheel. After opening the smaller box, she pulls out a strange looking instrument with a small telescope, mirrors, lenses, knobs and gears on it. Nick quirks an eyebrow.

"What's that?" The little wolf asks as she holds the little telescope up to her eye and begins adjusting, turning knobs and moving mirrors and lenses around.

"It's called a 'sextant'. It's what sailors used long ago to figure out where they were on the sea." Nick chuckles at the name but shrinks back as she scolds him a little then continues to adjust the knob and move the gears and lenses around.

"With this, the almanac, map and a little math we can figure out where we are without the GPS." Nick's ears perk up a little.

"I'm pretty good at math..." She smiles back at him.

"Good, you can help me figure out our latitude and longitude then." The female panther says as she hands Nick the Almanac and instructs him to find the current day.

A short time later the two manage to figure out their rough position at sea. They both look at the map and each other a couple times after double checking.

"I... I don't see how that's possible. We couldn't have drifted that far over night..." Jason's mother says, looking at the map again and thumbing through the almanac.

"How far are we from shore?" Nick asks, the fear of dying at sea surging within him once again.

"A good two maybe three days sail straight back if the winds are on our side." She says, looking up at the limp weather flag halfway up the main mast.

"And right now we are in a dead spot... if we don't get that motor running we may be stuck here for a while..."

The sinking feeling in Nick's gut intensifies just as Jason walks up on deck.

"Um, mom, dad's breaking the motor more... He's really mad." The female panther growls and walks around the helm, setting the sextant down on top of the chest.

"You boys stay up here. I'll deal with him."

"But-" Jason starts as she begins to go below deck.

"I said stay." Jason wasn't about to go against his mother's word when she was like this. He watches her disappear below deck and flinches when he can hear them arguing again.

By this time Nick had shrunk down and sat with his back against the helm stand. He was hugging his knees and shaking a little as Jason walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. The little wolf flinched a little before noticing it was his friend's hand, his previous blank stare being unfocused and at the deck floor.

"We'll be ok. Don't worry." The young panther tries to comfort his nervous friend.

"M-Maybe I shouldn't have come with." Nick mumbles from behind his knees as Jason sits down next to him.

"This isn't your fault. Things happen. We'll be ok."

For the next few minutes the two sit in silence as Nick clutches the pendant under his shirt and leans his head on Jason's shoulder as the panther wraps an arm around him.

"Why did you kiss me that night on the beach?" Jason's sudden question almost startles Nick and he stammers for a moment while he tries to process it.

"Wha- Wh- I-I I thought you kissed me?" The little wolf stutters as he sits up and scoots away from the panther if only to turn towards him but avoid eye contact, thankful for his darker fur as he can feel his blush flushing across his face.

Jason chuckles and shoulder bumps his friend.

"Nope, I'm pretty sure you started it. I was just along for the ride." Says Jason as Nick's reaction to being put on the spot deepens, his blush hitting harder and his ears fold back as he covers his face and a whimper squeaks in his throat. Jason notices this and eases off a little.

"Hey, it's ok. I-uh.. I kind of-uh.. liked it." Says the young panther, now folding his own ears down in embarassment and gulping at the sudden feeling of a dry throat. Nick's ears perk up and he looks up at his friend, mouth slightly agape.

"R-r-really?" Jason looks back up at the smaller male and gives him a little grin with a nod of his fuzzy head. If there were a spotlight next to him, Nick's facial expression would have outshone it as his face lights up from Jason's answer. The little wolf pounces on Jason and hugs him tight making the taller male squeak a little.

"I was so worried about how you felt about it! I wanted to know but I was so afraid to ask!" Nick says as he finally lets go of Jason and allows him to breathe again.

"I wasn't sure how you felt either. I guess I'm not as brave as I thought I was.. I couldn't bring myself to ask either." Jason says, chuckling a little.

Silence fell for a moment after that as the two sat and looked from each other to the deck and back.

"Does.. does this mean.." Nick trails off, still somewhat unsure of how to feel about it. Jason just smiles at the little wolf.

"It means whatever you want it to mean. I won't push you to do anything.. I would never hurt you."

The feline's answer put a little lump in Nick's throat and he couldn't stop himself.

"I- Umph!" Jason's voice is cut off as the little wolf pounces him again and locks lips. It wasn't long before the two resumed the position they shared on the beach two nights ago, Nick sitting in the taller male's lap and pressing himself against his friend as they explore each other's tongues with a somewhat inexperienced vigor.

The loud slam of a door just below deck and the heavy footsteps of one of the elder panthers coming up the stairs to the top deck jolts the two out of their increasing fervor of intimacy. They both pull apart and Nick rolls off Jason's now straining lap and sits a foot or so away from him.

"I swear! Your father is so hard headed!" Jason's mother states as she comes up on deck, walks back over to the helm and looks at the two who are looking away suspiciously. She raises an eyebrow.

"Are you guys ok?" They both look up at her and smile, nodding their heads. Suspicion still somewhat evident in her face, the elder panther shakes her head.

"Anyway, Honey, could you go back down to the engine room and help your father mop up the fuel? The fans have cleared most of the smell so you should be ok." She says, turning to her son. Jason nods and glances over to Nick who's pointy ears droop a little. The young panther gives his friend an apologetic look as he stands up and heads back down below deck to help his father.

"Ok, now we've got to chart our way back to mainland but first we need to cast the sea anchor." She says, now turning to Nick who looks up at her quizzically.

"Sea anchor?" The little wolf inquires as he stands up. She nods.

"A sea anchor is kind of like a big underwater sail. We can't carry enough rope to make it all the way to the bottom of the sea so we need to at least slow down our drift." Jason's mother explains as she leads him to the bow and the crate where they kept the large sail.

For the rest of the day, the two little pirates didn't see each other as Jason continued to help his father try to salvage the motor and radios and Nick was busy with Jason's mother trying to plot their course back to land and figure out how they drifted so far off course the night before.

Night begins to fall as Nick finally finishes helping Jason's mother readjust the sails to catch a small wind that had developed in the cooling sea air after they had pulled the sea anchor back up. The poor little wolf wipes the sweat from his fuzzy head with his sleeve just as Jason and his father emerge up on deck.

"Well, we tried everything but the motor won't run until we get to shore and get some parts. We got the radio working but we can only receive transmissions.. the transmitter is broken and we can't fix it." Jason's father says to his wife as they all join by the helm where she is holding the wheel.

"It's ok, honey, at least you tried." The female panther says as her husband takes over the wheel for her.

"You boys go and get ready for dinner." She says to the two little pirates who were already in the process of sneaking off.

"Ok!" Nick says as he drags Jason off with him down below deck to their room.

"Oof!" The wind gets knocked out of the panther a little as the shorter wolf shuts their room door behind them and pins him against the door in a hug. Jason chuckles a little and hugs him back.

"Hey, what's up?"

"Oh nothing... just have been wanting to do this since you went back down below deck."

"Ah."

Both little pirates stood there for a moment and just nuzzled each other, Jason's snout buried between the little wolf's fuzzy, pointed ears and Nick's paws clasped tightly behind Jason's back. Despite his sense of smell not being as keen as Nick's, Jason found himself slowly breathing in the smaller male's scent and sighing at how it made him feel. A smile crept across his muzzle as he breathed in again.

"We need to get ready for dinner or my mom might come in here..." Says Jason, finally, as he rubs the little wolf's back a little. Having been enjoying the panther's scent in turn, despite having to fish through the other complicated smells from the engine room, Nick takes another deep breath and finally lets go of his friend.

"Ok."

The two go about digging out some fresh clothes and cleaning up as best as they can for dinner. Removing his shirt, Nick tosses it on the floor next to the wardrobe and opens the door to look for another one. As he is moving some of the other clothes around to look for a lighter shirt, he bumps his hand on something below some of Jason's clothes. Scooting the pants and shirts aside, he finds the box with the map in it they took from the captain's quarters.

"Hm.."

As Nick stares at the box, chills run up his spine. He could swear that the same deep, black ink that bled into the thick parchment of the map was seeping out from the seam of the lid of the box. That same feeling of dread he had been having since they found it surfaces under his skin and a light shiver quakes through his slim, topless body. The ominous feeling surrounding him and the shiver overtaking his body are suddenly cast aside as fingers slide around his waist and a warm body presses against his back making the little wolf yip and almost jump into the wardrobe closet. Keeping a firm hold on his frightened friend, Jason nuzzles the back of his head.

"Hey hey, it's ok. You looked cold. Why haven't you put a shirt on?" The panther's soothing voice calms Nick down and he leans back against him.

"I- uh... just spacing out..." Muddled thoughts get drown out as the little wolf turns around in Jason's arms and drowns himself in the taller male's scent again.

"Hm.. well hurry and get dressed so we can go eat dinner. We'll have all night to hug after that." Says Jason with a little chuckle and a scritch to one of Nick's ears. With a sigh, the smaller male finally lets go and fishes out a simple white tee from the wardrobe and slips it on over his body.

As the two head back out of the room, Nick glances back at the wardrobe.

'Maybe it was a bad idea...' He thinks to himself as he runs a paw over the pendant under his shirt.

"Come on!" Jason's voice down the narrow hallway jerks him out of his momentary trance and Nick closes the door, casting the small crew's quarters in darkness.