FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"...and that's tonight's news, thank you for toning in and we'll see you tomorrow." Sai turns off the TV after the ten o'clock news ends looking tiredly at the screen. It had been nearly a month since his wife left him and took all the money they had saved, a total of over 2.5 million dollars, for them to buy their dream home. After she left, he drank away most of the rest of his money, and lost his job. She had been the major source of income but since she left, he couldn't afford the apartment they had lived in and had to leave.

He moved to the metropolis of New York City to stay with a friend; though the apartment barley had enough room for one person. He had to sleep on the sofa at night and clean the place every day to make up for the rent he wouldn't be able to pay. He got a job working at a small restraint as a custodian of sorts, but at minimum wage, he still didn't have enough. He's just lucky that his friend understands and has empathy for his long time friend.

Sai turns off the TV and heads out the door, thinking out loud "one more drink couldn't hurt." As he stumbles out of the apartment and into the streets, he watches the busy night goers and city bicyclists, remembering the times when he was 20 years younger, and still had the energy to ride a bike. Back when he was still in high school and star of the track team. He looks down at what used to be the envy of every guy at school, his stomach. What was once a toned six pack was now a protruding heap of bear induced fat.

The shirt that covered his stomach, though doing a poor job, was nothing special, a white shirt with bear stains on it, made him think twice about going to drink, thinking how stupid he must look with a stained shirt and torn up pants. As he's thinking this, he brings his hand to scratch his bald head, long devoid of hair, and ponder just what he should do.

After a quick survey of the area, he notices the local bar is slow and decides that if he's going to get a drink, it might as well be someplace where no one will say anything about his attire. He starts to walk across the street, thinking of nothing but the bear he wished to consume. The walk is short, but as he steps into the street to make the quick dash to the other side, his attention is caught by the screeching of tires and a car being chased by two police cars.

He tries to get out of the way, but too late, he's hit. As his vision is fading, the scurrying of feet and the frantic voices of bystanders can be hears. The last thing he remembers is the familiar face of his ex-wife kneeling down next to him, repeating "I'm sorry" and "I love you" over and over before his world goes black.

As Sai wakes up from his sleep, he feels a sharp pain in his head and reaches up instinctively, expecting to rub his hand over his scalp, but instead finding semi-long hair in its place. Freaking out, he jumps up and looks over the rest of his body. His bear belly gone, replaced by the abs he once had, realizing that he's completely naked. As he looks around for his cloths, he starts to take in his surroundings.

He's in the middle of a huge plane, grass as far as the eyes can see, with tall grass that seems to move like an ocean when the wind fly's though it. From horizon to horizon, all you see is this long grass and spots where short grass, such as the place Sai is standing at this very moment, dotting the feels like islands in the Pacific. He kneels down and touches the grass at his feet with his hand, admiring how soft it felt against his skin; it felt softer then feathers. He shifts his position, so that he's now lying on his back in the soft grass, letting the blades caress his bare skin, not caring about the shamelessness of such an action.

Just as Sai was about to fall asleep, a gale swept across the field, sending the grass into a frenzy. Sai was startled by the strong gust of wind, cold to his naked form, and he curled up, bringing his knees to his chest in an attempt to warm up. Just as the gale died down, Sai began to relax, but was alarmed by a pair of foot steps heading towards him. As he was getting up to find the source of the foot steps, he silently wondered how he could have heard such a thing on grass as soft as this. As he gets to his feet, his eyes become locked on the figure heading towards him. The creature walking towards him is what he would describe as an animal, just not an animal. It's a creature in the form of a wolf, but is standing on its hind legs, and is easily 2 feet taller then Sai's 5' 10". As Sai gazes at the impossible creature, he forgets to move and by the time his legs decide to start turning to run, the creature is on him already, staring down at his comparably small frame.

It opens its mouth to speak, but the words that come out are a mix of growls and barks, impossible for Sai to understand.

"I don't understand" Sai says as he starts to back away from the creature, figuring it could rip out his throat without any trouble. The creature gives Sai a confused look and starts laughing full heartily. At this, Sai starts to run in the opposite direction, trying to get away from the strange creature, only to meet the wall of grass; crashing into it as if it were an actual wall.

"Do not fear me human, I am harmless unless you attack me." The creature says, picking up Sai with one hand and setting him back on his feet. "My name is Æsequeçtop, but you may call me what ever you wish since I doubt you'll be able to pronounce my name in your human tong." Æsequeçtop extends his paw to Sai, and Sai tentatively takes it into his hand and shakes it.

"I cannot even begin to pronounce your name, so I'll just call you Seth, is that ok?" Sai asks, trying to hide his fear, but failing miserably as his body is visibly shaking, still not used to seeing the creature before him, despite the soothing tone of voice Æsequeçtop speaks in.

"That is fine," Æsequeçtop, Seth, replies, "but enough of these introductions, its time for me to carry out my job. First things first, you must know that on your planet, you have died." Seth takes a moment, waiting for the stunned expression on the humans face. And there it is the priceless face that makes this horrible job he has worth while.

Sai's mouth drops at that comment ‘dead? How can I be dead? I'm standing right here' he thinks to himself, Asian eyes opening wider then should physical be possible. A hundred questions go through his head as he tries to comprehend what has happened. He starts to think back on the apartment, the drinks, and the car crash. Then he realizes the car crash must have killed him.

At the thought of his ex-wife being there right when he died brings tears of both joy and sadness to his eyes. "She came back, she still loved me" he says, and falls to his knees, tears streaming down his tan face and landing in the grass. As one hand comes up to wipe away the tears, another hand comes to rest on his shoulder. When he realizes its not his own hand on his shoulder, he looks back up to the strange creature standing next to him, his expression changing from an amused one to one of more concern.

"I'm sure your death was tragic, as are all deaths of the creatures that come here, but now is not the time to cry about it. There is no time for that; you had six months to cry about it." The creature says and then starts to pick Sai off the ground.

"Six months? What are you talking about?" Sai asks, more then a little confused.

"You've been here six months, give or take a few human days. If you'd let me finish talking you'll know why you're here and why things are the way they are." Seth explains, stopping directly in the middle of the grass. "You are here because you've died, once every year, four creatures from each planet with intelligent life that has died before their time may compete for a chance to be reborn with all your memories. Usually, once a creature dies, his soul is exchanged to another universe, and another planet, keeping all the planets in balance. This can also be seen as how energy is always constant throughout the universe, life is a form of energy, which is why its so rare to find planets with life, because it takes a large amount of energy to make life possible, at the same time, if the planet has too much energy, then it still cannot produce energy; its hard to explain to simple creatures like your self and all the others that enter the competition. If a planet ever loses a mass amount of its inhabitants, that's when other planets become over populated, like how many of the countries on Earth are overpopulated, it's from another planet having some sort of epidemic that whipped out a large amount of creatures.

"Now, getting into what you'll actually need to do. You and the other Earthlings must team up and fight the other creatures from the other planets. If you are to die during the competition, then you are permanently disqualified and will be thrown back into the life cycle, leaving the rest of your team one man less. In all planets there are four main elements that make life possible, earth, fire, wind, and water. Each element is universal and can also be seen as the four most basic forms of matter, solid, plasmas, gaseous, and liquid. Each person on your team will be given an element that he/she may control. I have been sent here as a tutor to teach each of you how to use your powers. We must start your training immediately. You control the element water, which is the most unique of all the elements for water also includes ice, a form of solid, and steam, a form of gas."

Sai, trying to absorb all that has just been said, sits back and try's to sort out all his thoughts, ‘is this possible, what the hell is this life thing he's talking about? Will I actually have to fight others just to come back to life? Do I have a choice?' just as all these thoughts go through his head, he feels something cold splash against his body. It feels like ice water, but as he looks around, there's no water in sight, and he's not even wet. As he stands up, he feels another splash against his face.

Seth gives that same heartily laugh of his at Sai's confused expressions. "It's the wind, as long as you don't have control over your powers; you'll always feel like water is being splashed against your face whenever wind hits you." Seth explains, going in front of Sai and holding out his two paws so that they are cupped together with palms facing the sky. Water starts to collect in his palms, creating a clear gloss over his palms, slowly building into a small puddle of water. "You must first learn how to move he water." He says as he stares into the water and a small whirl pool formed. As Sai reaches up to touch the water, still in a state of shock, the water stops spinning. Seth pours the water into Sais hand and it evaporates on contact, leaving his hand completely dry. "Until you can control your power, you may not feel water either, that includes drinking water, so you'd better snap out of it now and get to work. I can provide the water, but you must learn to control it." Seth says as he opens a small hole in the ground to the left of Sai, water slowly bubbling into it as if a spring formed.

"How do I move the water?" Sai asks, as he dips his hands into the water, which evaporates constantly, creating steam that surrounds his hands like gloves, never letting a drop of water touching his hands.

"Close your eyes and focus on the energy that burns in your soul. Every one here has this power, and its strongest when the creature in question was at his or her prime; which explains your youthful façade opposed to your actual age." Seth explains, grabbing Sais hands in his and holding them as if they were about to play the old child's game "Down by the river". Here, I'll help you.

Sai closes his eyes, and lets Seth hold his hands, wondering whether he should push Seth away, or let him do as he pleases. He decides that the later would be the better choice, seeing as he will not be able to drink anything till he can control this "power" he supposedly has. As he relaxes, letting his hands loosen and fold into the hands of the wolf, he sees a small amount of light in the back of his eye lids. He opens his eyes thinking some one was shining something at him, only to se the extremely relaxed face of his wolf companion, his eyes closed, and a small smile upon his muzzle. Sai takes this in, deciding that it must be what he has to do, so he closes his eyes once again, letting his entire body relax as the light reappears in his mind and grows bigger.

"The light you see is your power, do not fear it, it is inside you, and as corny as this may sound, you must embrace the light, go to the light!" Seth says as he yells at Sai, causing him to cringe slightly from the ear shattering volume.

Sitting there, he can't help laugh to himself thinking ‘this guy is weird, but not bad company' as he lets the light fill his closed vision. A split second later, he can feel his body moving, almost like its being pulled. He tries to open his eyes, but finds the already open. Confused as to what's going on, he tries to look around, finding that his eyes are being forced forward by some invisible force. He try's to scream, but when he opens his mouth, not a sound comes out. Fearing for his life, he lifts his hands in front of him in an attempt to protect him from whatever force is surrounding him, but as soon as his hands go up and his eyes close, he stops moving. Opening his eyes again, he finds that he's still in the strange white area he had just been a second ago, only this time, there's something else there, Seth.

Seth just stands there, with a big smile on his face and his arms crossed over his impressive bulk, which seems to be even bigger when posed like that. "Welcome to the inside of your mind Sai." He says with a slightly cocky grin on his muzzle, "it's blank because you haven't had time to put anything here. When you die, your mind naturally blanks out, preparing for the next life." He says, walking slowly towards Sai, unfolding his arms and looking straight at Sai, as if looking into his very soul, which in this case is a literal sense.

"But how am I able to remember how I died then? If my mind goes blank, shouldn't I lose all of my memory" Sai asks, stepping back slightly. "How am I able to do anything if my mind is blank? I should be like a new born baby."

Seth appears right in front of Sai, almost as if taking one step to cover ten feet. "Your mind and your memory are different; you are able to remember your death because it was so recent, if you try to think past that, most of it will be a blur. When a person dies, it usually takes several years for them to finally be reincarnated into a new form, but for you, since you've only been dead six months, still retains some memories. As to your motor skills, those have been etched into your soul, as is all natural skills; the only reason baby's have a hard time adjusting to these skills is because their physical limits stop a lot of the movements, and their souls are still forming and reentering the living realm, causing them to be extremely fragile and too much strain on their souls could cause them to have incomplete souls or slightly retarded souls." He explains as he places a hand on Sais right shoulder, "we don't have time to go through the entire process of explaining all of this, let us begin the process of attaining your powers." He says in a strict, but soft tone as he turns Sai around and starts walking him to a small circle on the ground that Sai hadn't noticed before.

"What is that?" Sai asks, now less interested in what's going on as his mind starts flying to hundreds of different topics, like a child in a new area.

"That is where you'll become full again. Your soul is slowly deteriorating, we need to stabilize it so that it is at the appropriate age, and my guess is that your mind's eye is at the age of a twelve year old." Seth chuckles to himself as Sai's eyes dart around, trying to find something to focus on, landing constantly on the circle that they are walking to. Seth had seen this many times over, and it still intrigues him on how wandering and unfocused the human mind can be.

Sai is bouncing as he walks along side his companion, only half listening to his speech as he wonders what would happen if he ran as far as he could in one direction. ‘since this is my mind, would I be able to run one way, and then end up on the opposite side like I had run in a circle? If I poked the ground, would I feel it on the inside of my brain? If all I see is white, does that mean the sky is white? Is there even a sky in this place? That circle looks funny. If I jump, would I be able to fly like an astronaut? I think that circle is glowing different colors...' his mind continues to wonder as they reach the circle, and he's pushed inside, forced to sit down by a big paw on his head. As he sits there, his mind starts to become less jumbled, allowing him to actually think of what's going on around him, and some what calming him of his initial confusion and his more recent A.D.D.

"there, now just sit there for a few more seconds, and we'll see what your mind really looks like" Seth says as he site cross legged in front of Sai, his legs uncrossed and laying out in front of him. Sai's face is blank, his mind too preoccupied with sorting out his thoughts to worry how he's sitting. Seth looks over Sai, admiring the toned abs the human has, and the long dark hair that slightly covers the blank black eyes that are slowly regaining their luster with focus.

Sai blinks, his eyes a few times, finally adjusted to the quick change of pace his mind just went though, and looks around, noticing his white surroundings, remembering where he was and how he got there. He looks down, and notices that all his glory was being presented to the wolf in front of him, he quickly moves to cover them by closing his legs and bringing his knees to his chest, feeling extremely exposed at that moment. Seth laughs, amused at the humans antics and stands up, holding out a paw to Sai. "Now that your soul is fully healed, let's finish here and get back to the real world"

Sai reaches out and grabs a hold of Seth's paw, getting pulled up from his sitting position, still embarrassed that he's naked. He can only assume that the awkwardness of being exposed only dawned on him now because he's now fully aware of what's going on. As he's pulled to his feet, and stands next to Seth, the white surroundings begin to morph and change shape, turning into a landscape of water, like the vast ocean, except that they aren't sinking into the water. They're walking on it ‘just like Jesus' Sai thinks to himself, remembering all the Sundays he spent at church reading about his savior. Now, all that seems like a fairy tale compared to this. He reaches down, and can feel the cool water against his hand, and scoops some up and brings it to his face, splashing it against his face, letting it trickle down his body, leaving not water streaks, but clothing in its path.

As it runs down his head, his favorite cloths from high school appear on his body, three piercings along his ears, two in his cartilage, and on in his lobe, a black wife beater's tank top and a thick black jacket cover his upper body, and black trip pants falling on his hips. He laughs to himself as he remembers all the students criticizing his wardrobe, saying how it clashed with his jock personality. He never cared what anyone else said, he always followed his own path, wearing what he thought looked good, even if it wasn't convenient at all times.

Seth takes a look at the now clothed human, thinking to himself ‘what a weird style these humans have now days' he thinks back to the days when the humans he used to get were clad in Victorian appeal, laughing at the style from back then as well. He always preferred to stay in nothing but his fur, licking the freedom it gave his body. "now that your mind is at its original state, lets return to the real world" Seth says, as he reaches out a paw to grab Sai's shoulder, only to be interrupted by a large tremor, or vibration along the surface of the water as a giant ice burg emerges from the water, growing bigger and eventually appearing below his feet paws and ending about ten yards away, creating a beach of ice.

"I always loved the snow and the beaches" Sai explains, "I've always felt the most at home around water and ice, it's a good thing this is the element I am to control." He says with a wide grin on his face, cupping some of the ice in his hand, changing it to snow and blowing it out, letting the dust like ice spin in whirlwinds across the ice, leaving paths of snow in its place. The landscape turning from ice and water, to ice water, and patches of soft snow and trees, like the Alaskan tundra's, just with less trees.

‘He's a natural' Seth thinks to himself, watching Sai change the landscape of his mind to his licking. ‘This will make his training much easier, if any training is even needed.' He watches as Sai begins to run around like a little child seeing his first snow, falling in the snow and creating snow angels. He can't help but think how fun it must be to be free like that, to be able to do whatever your hearts desire, instead of being a slave to the souls of the universe whose only purpose is to instruct them on how to fight and then watch as they all eventually leave him alone. A tear falls down his check as he reminisces on all the humans he'd met in his hundreds of years of service, remembering all the good times he had shared with some of them. Sticking with them throughout the entire tournament, watching some of them finish the tournament, and some of them dying before his eyes.

Sai doesn't notice Seth as he runs around in his home made snow, loving how the cold feels against his skin, and how soft the snow is to lie in. Remembering when he was a child and first seen snow, making snow angels and filing to make snow men. This gives him an idea, and he falls into a big patch of snow, and creates a snow angel in the middle, laughing at how childish he must appear, but not caring as he reaches down and packs a bit of snow together, creating a snow ball. He takes a look at Seth, seeing him deep in though, and an evil smile crosses his face. He pulls his arm back, aims for Seth's head, and throws as hard as he can, landing it square in the middle of his eyes.

Seth, startled out of his memories by a could projectile hitting his face, falls back and lands on his rump, yelling slightly out of surprise.

Sai, startled by the yell, runs quickly over to Seth to make sure he hadn't hurt the wolf that he was slowly becoming accustomed to. Upon reaching the giant arthropod, he kneels down and places a hand on his shoulder, "hey Seth, are you ok? I'm sorry, it didn't hurt you or anything, did it?" Sai stammers out, afraid he just ruined his, at least in his opinion, good relationship with the wolf.

Seth, regaining his composure, feels the human grab his shoulder and hears his ask if he's ok. This causes him to laugh hysterically. It had been ages since some one had hit him with one of those soft balls of ice. He looks over at the human and smiles warmly letting him know without words that he's fine. As he starts to get up, he tells Sai "ok, enough fun, we need to return to the real world. You must learn to use this power outside your mind. It's a good thing you can already manipulate your minds element, which lets us skip several steps in your training, but that leaves the last step, which is going into reality and you using your powers there. After that, it's all on how well you use your powers during the tournament." He says, holding out a paw digit in front of him, pointing to a distant object that couldn't be distinguished, drawing a circle with his finger. A small swirling hole appears, like one of those worm whole things you see on "Star gate".

"Let us depart your mind, and don't worry, you may come here any time you wish after his point." Seth says as he starts to walk towards the worm hole. Sai, relaxing with the knowledge that the wolf is ok, gets up from his kneeling position and follows the wolf to the hole. They step into the dimension gap, and Sai's world goes white again, feeling that pulling feeling he first felt upon entry to his mind.

Still not used to the feeling, he closes his eyes, only to stop a second later. As he opens his eyes, he notices that his position hadn't changed from when he first closed his eyes. His hands still laying in those of the wolf, who also blinks open his eyes, and smiles warmly at the human. They pull their hands away and each stretch out their aching bones from the long period of time they had stayed still.

As Sai stands up and reaches his hands over his head, he feels his jacket ride up. Looking down, he notices the cloths he had created in his mind. Wondering how it got there, he brushes the thought aside, figuring it was another weird characteristic of this new, bizarre planet. He looks to Seth who is still stretching out his body, no all fours like a real dog. Sai silently laughs to himself at the funny scene playing out in front of him, but then his attention is drawn to the pool of water Seth had created before they had ventured into his mind. Kneeling down, he dips his hand into the water, noticing that it didn't evaporate. Smiling outwardly, he brings both hands into the water and cups it up to his face, sipping some of the water down his mouth, savoring the cool liquid running down his throat. His can barley believes how good it felt to have the water run though his system.

Seth finishes his stretches, and looks to Sai, who is currently drinking out of the pool of water, a small smile of satisfaction crosses his muzzle as he watches the human cup the water and bring it to his mouth without the water evaporating on him. He takes a look around him, noticing that is has turned dark. He looks up and notices the three beautiful moons in the sky. ‘That took longer then I thought it would, it's already night' he thought to himself, then remembered the ice burg that Sai had created and all the adjustments he added after that. ‘that's what must have taken so long' he thinks again, hearing the human in his care sigh in relief as he takes one last drink out of the spring.

Sai gets up from his drink and looks down at the water, seeing the reflections of the moon in the sky. He looks up and admires the beauty of the three moons he sees. One has almost a purple hue to it, the biggest of the three, and has one giant crater at the lower right, reminding him of the "Death Star" from "Star Wars". The second largest has a light blue hue to it, and is half covered by the largest moon. The last, the smallest of the moons, has a brilliant red hue to it, standing several hundreds of miles away from the other moons, making it look lonely amongst the stars. "They're beautiful." Sai comments as he looses himself in the beauty of the celestial figures. Just then, he feels something wet against his cheek.

Seth watches the human become absorbed in the beauty of the moons, he remembers those many nights he spent just staring at the moons. He couldn't help it, something in his mind told him to always watch the moons when feeling lonely and down. He looks the human and his eyes go wide. In all the years he's done this, he had never seen such a thing. As the human was preoccupied with the moons, his body glowed with a white aura, and aura more pure then the wolf's own aura. The aura grows larger, and the wolf can feel Sai's power start to flow out of him, causing the water to be drawn from the spring and wrap around his body in a spiral, ending at his face as some of it splashes against his cheek.

Sai looks to where the splash had come from ad sees the water at his face, almost like a snake staring at him. He follows the body of water circling around him, and realizes the slight glow that is radiating from his body. Reaching out with a tentative hand, he touches the water, feeling the warm energy he had felt in his mind flowing though it. The words of the wolf run though his head just then "you must learn to move the water" he hears repeat in his head, and gets an idea, ‘if I could do that in my mind, what's stopping me from doing it out here?' he thinks, and then closes his eyes.

He sees the white flash in his mind again and opens them, feeling the energy flow all through his body, and into the water. He focuses the energy, and the aura surrounding his body focalizes and becomes thin, streaming into the water formations, and he brings the line of aura up with his hand as a medium. The water follows his hand, and separates from the basin of water, creating a line of water floating in mid air, only supported by Sai's power. He slowly moves his hands around his body, untwisting the water so that it is no longer wrapped around him, but is instead, flowing in front of him, waving in the air like a flag blowing in the wind. "Hey, is this what you meant by moving the water?" He asks Seth who is staring in amazement.

‘No one has ever learned to control their power that quickly, at least, none of the humans I've ever seen.' Seth thinks to himself, as he watches the human twirl the water around. ‘This is amazing, I wonder if-‘his thoughts are cut off by Sai's question. He snaps his head forward and looks directly into the humans eyes; he can see nothing but pure joy in his eyes. "actually, no" Seth starts, immediately seeing the expression change in the humans eyes, "what you are doing is far past just moving water" he continues, "this is an advanced technique most creatures take months learning. You managed to learn it in one day!" Seth almost screams, as he runs up the human and hugs him. Seth can't believe how happy it makes him feel to see such a miracle; he had never hugged any of his other students, at least, not till it was time to say good bye.

Sai is startled by the hug, and also scared. He's not sure if he should be happy or scared, but all he knows is that if the wolf squeezed any tighter, he'd be ripped in half. "Can you let go please? You're killing me." Sai says to Seth as he's struggling to catch his breath. The wolf releases him and gives a very sincere apology. Sai smiles as the wolf explains to him that he's never seen anyone gain control that quickly, feeling extremely confident in his abilities.

The rest of the night, Sai and Seth exchange stories of their past, and how they got to where they are now; Seth's being the sadder of the two. As the moons rise higher into the sky, Seth tells of the history of this world, and of the many humans he's encountered. Sai is amazed at all the stories Seth has to tell, but eventually becomes tired. The two agree to fall asleep, and Sai relaxes, thinking that the next day he will be able to relax. Until Seth says one thing that gets his skin crawling: "since your so far ahead, I think I'll be able to train you twice as hard as any of my former students! This will be fun!" and Seth falls asleep with happy thoughts of the days to come while Sai tumbles around in the grass, thinking of the days to come.

"I'm going to die." Is the last thing Sai says before sleep over takes his worries and he falls soundly to sleep.

TO BE CONTINUED...