FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Things returned a bit back to normal several days later. There were no deliveries for a few days and Dice used the time to maintain the transporter trucks. Petrash almost bumped into her as she made her way into the spare part storage behind the garage.

'I'm sending out an order this afternoon, do you need anything?' he asked.

'Nah, I've got the parts I need. I just need to search all the way in the back in the dark.' she said and held up the lamp she had with her.

'Okay. Good luck then.' he said and went back to his office.

The storage was a mess as well with parts and materials stashed wherever there was room on shelves and in corners. She made her way to the back where she suspected the part was and tried to pull it from between other boxes.

'Damn!' she said, put down the lamp on a free bit of shelf so she could use both hands, then pulled again while bracing one foot against a box..

This time it came loose suddenly and she bumped back against the shelves. A can of highly flammable liquid toppled from a shelf further back and broke open on the floor, together with the lamp which crashed right at the edge of the puddle, igniting it. A hot fire erupted at once and Dice stumbled back into the corner in shock. She looked around but was trapped between the racks of shelves and the fire spreading at the other end of the row. She froze in panic.

Petrash was just talking to Ghost and Rusty when the fire alarm went off.

'What's that!?' he asked.

'Fire alarm!' Ghost said and sniffed the air.

'Sounds like it's coming from the garage!' Rusty said and they ran off.

They found the fire in the storage room and Petrash saw Dice huddled into the corner. 'Where are the extinguishers!?'

'Here!' Ghost said and handed him one.

They tried to fight the fire that had spread forward but it wasn't enough to kill it, fed by more flammable material stored there.

'We need more!' Ghost said, her extinguisher spitting out the last bit of its contents. 'Come with me Rusty!'

'Dice!' Petrash shouted at her, but she didn't react, staring into the flames.

He saw her eyes filled with fear and the fire sneaking up on her. 'Dammit!' he shouted, looking for a way to get to her.

When he saw a blanket draped over some boxes he got an idea. He sprayed the last of his extinguisher on it and wrapped it around him, hoping it would last long enough.

'I'm coming over!' he shouted at Dice, took a deep breath and rushed through the flames.

'Dice, Dice!' he shouted and shook her. 'Get a hold of yourself!'

She still didn't react to him. He figured he had no choice or time with the hot air coming down further. He wrapped her up in the still partially cool and wet blanket, took another deep breath despite the warm air and spurted back through the fire again.

Just as he came out the girls got back and sprayed the both of them for a quick cool down. He coughed and carried Dice to the living room while the fire was put down by the other girls.

After the fire was under control Ghost hurried into the common room to find Dice starting to get back to reality and Petrash lying down on the cool floor for relief, coughing a little.

She checked on Dice first, then on Petrash who waved her off.

'I'll be fine. Take care of Dice first.' he said. 'I just need some cool touch and fresh air.'

Rusty returned saying it was safe and got out the medical kit to cut away the charred parts of hair and fur and treat his burns.

'Dice has a trauma from a fire during the time she was little, so that's why she froze.' she explained.

Dice came to and shook her head to chase away the fuzziness in her mind. 'What happened?'

'You got trapped by a fire.' Ghost said.

She checked her body for wounds. 'I'm not hurt?'

'Nope.' Ghost said en gestured at the floor in front of the couch. 'Thanks to him.'

Dice looked at Petrash covered in a pile of bandages by an eager Rusty showing off her skill. 'Oh shit!'

Ghost laughed. 'It's not as bad as it looks, but he did save your ass from getting grilled.'

Petrash gave Dice a wink and smile when she looked worried and guilty at him. 'Thank you.' she said softly.

'Never mind.' he said, 'It's just a scratch.' then yelled out in pain as Rusty slapped his back.

'Scratch this.' Rusty said. 'It'll heal but these are real burns so don't try to act like a tough macho in front of dumb young girls.'

'Haiii..' he said with tears in his eyes.

Petrash's back felt somewhat better after a night of sleep and he decided to take a cool shower first thing after getting up. Making sure the bathroom was free he went in under the shower and let the stream of water cool down his back. After some time of relief the door slid open and Dice walked in.

He turned around in embarrassment. 'I turned the sign to occupied!'

She took off her shirt and walked up to him touching his back. 'I'm only here because your back needs tending, and it's my way of paying you back for what you did for me.'

He looked back at her stern expression. 'It's okay, you know?'

'It's not!' she said as she checked the state of his skin, seeing if there were complications. 'You saved my life.'

Her gentle touch felt good so he let her get on with it. 'More importantly, how are you doing?' he asked.

'Fine. It's not important.' she said.

He turned around and took her hands in his. 'It is! My wounds will heal anyway, but a trauma is something different! I don't want to see you suffer from it!'

She didn't know what to say to his worried expression and looked away.

He let go of her hands. 'Gomen, maybe I shouldn't talk about it, but I just prefer to see you happy.'

He remembered the situation and turned around. 'Thank you for your care but you don't need to repay me.' he said. 'It's a given I'd try to save someone in trouble.'

To his surprise she silently hugged him from behind. Her cold, wet fur felt good and he held her arms for a while until she let go reluctantly.

'I'll dry your back and rub the salve on it.' she whispered.

He nodded and turned off the shower, then sat down on a bench where she patted his back with a soft towel. The coolness of her touch with the salve seeped deep into his back and he closed his eyes enjoying the feeling.

'Thank you.' he said after she was done and washed her hands.

She turned back to him for a moment with a shy expression, then took her shirt and walked out of the bathroom.

When he walked into the common room the girls had already set up breakfast.

'For your heroic deed you deserve a break. So for today we'll take care of things.' Ghost said as she poured him a cup of tea while Rusty pushed him on his chair. 'Mind you though, it's only for today.' she added quickly.

'Thanks, I'll cherish the time.' he said, feeling special.

'You're just lucky only two of us have freight to deliver today.'

After breakfast he was ushered onto the couch with orders to do nothing while Ghost and Dusk got ready for their jobs and Dice and Rusty cleaned up the table. Dawn jumped on his lap and grabbed all of his attention.

'So, you want your dose of petting now?' he chuckled as he hugged and pet her.

He looked around while Dawn made herself comfortable on his lap and found a stack of magazines on the low table next to him. Looking at the covers they seemed to feature items like custom trucks, cars and bikes, the rougher side of music, cooking which mostly involved grilling meat and more for the tougher crowd. He picked one up and leafed through it looking at the photos mostly when he came upon an article about booth babes, their work at events and the training they received. One photo showed several examples of sexy outfits made to arouse the male population while revealing nothing. Curves were tight, simulated and enhanced to attract primordial attention. Other outfits were deliberately loose to hope for glimpses of the hidden body. He agreed that these did grab his attention and understood how it worked.

A metallic crashing sound coming from the kitchen startled him and Dawn.

'Oh dear.' he said to himself as they got off the couch and hurried into the kitchen.

He found the girls looking at several bowls and plates scattered on the floor. 'Are you okay?'

'Yeah,' Dice said. 'they got knocked off the top shelf when I wanted to move them.'

He wanted to help pick up when Rusty held him off. 'We would do the chores today, you just sit back and watch.'

'Ah, okay.' he said, only taking a step back to keep an eye on everything though.

He watched as Rusty picked up the plates and bowls, checked them and handed them to Dice while she put them back on the shelf.

"Heh, another kind of metal and babes." he thought, then began to notice them more. As Rusty bend over occasionally the wide opening of her shirt revealed some of the curves of her chest, just like when she held up one of the bowls for Dice to grab. And each time Dice stood up on her toes to push one of those things to the back of the shelf her shirt lifted up enough to show the lower line of her rear. He already knew that they were good looking, but now he really noticed just how naturally sexy these girls could be. He felt himself getting more curious about them and his heart beat faster.

'It's safe now.' Dice said.

The girls leaned against the counter and noticed the look from Petrash. 'Something wrong?'

'Ah, no, you're really fine.' he answered, then his brain noticed what his mouth did. He shook his head embarrassed and turned around. 'I mean, I'm fine, just a little tired from all that happened, I think I'll go lie down for a bit again.' he said and left for his room to cool down his head.

'Could he have gotten sick from the wound?' Rusty asked. 'He looked very red just now.'

'Maybe.' Dice said as she went into the room and sat down on the couch. 'We'll check up on him later when he's awake again.'

Rusty nodded and sat down on the other couch where Petrash sat and pulled the magazine from under a pillow.

'What's that?' Dice asked.

'Ehm, maybe there's another reason.' Rusty said as she looked at the article in front of her.

'What do you mean?'

Rusty tossed her the magazine and saw Dice understood what she meant when she raised her eyebrows.

'You think he only just now noticed we're girls?' Dice asked.

Rusty pulled up her legs in a lotus seat. 'More like he just noticed we're girls that have an effect on him.'

Dice turned her head towards the hallway. 'Would we really? Us?'

Rusty nodded and grinned deviously. 'Let's find out today.'

Petrash had cooled down enough after sleeping a couple of hours to feel he could face the girls again. But to make sure he had something to distract him with he took one of his books with him to the common room.

'Feeling better?' Dice asked.

'Yeah.' he said seeing her lie on the couch with one leg up on top of the back, her shirt barely covering her down there. Quickly he looked away and sat down on the other couch, opening his book. 'Thanks for asking.'

'Rusty's heating up some soup in the kitchen if you want some too.'

'Ah, okay.' he said, looking up a chapter with a battle scene in the book. 'I'd love some.'

It explained the sounds he heard from the kitchen and he tried to start reading the book when a shout from the kitchen grabbed his attention.

'Rusty!' Dice said worried.

He jumped up quickly from the couch and moved into the kitchen worried Rusty might have hurt herself. 'Are you okay?' he asked.

'I'm okay.' Rusty said as he found her looking back while standing over a couple of fallen tomatoes. 'I just wanted to put away the bad ones and they slipped out of my hands.'

Feeling relieved Petrash took a deep breath, then nearly choked as he saw Rusty bending over to pick up the tomatoes. The sight as her tail flipped up for a moment was enough to make him remember it for a long time. Turning red he went to the sink, grabbed a wet cloth and wiped the floor.

'You don't have to..' Rusty started.

'It's fine! It's fine! You just put those tomatoes in the recycling, I'll take care of this.'

She grinned and winked to Dice as she walked past her out of the kitchen. 'Bingo.' she whispered.

During the rest of the day the girls noticed how he kept avoiding looking at them. When Ghost and Dusk arrived he took their papers quickly and left for the office to process them and the girls told them what happened.

'Seriously?' Dusk asked.

Dice nodded. 'Yes. We're making him nervous.'

'I guess we found his weakness.' Ghost said.

'Want to make a lasting impression on him?' Rusty asked with a devious smile.

Ghost poked her head around the office door a little later. 'Got a minute?' she asked Petrash.

He looked up from the keyboard. 'Sure, I just finished. What's up?'

'We need your opinion on something.'

'Okay? About what?' he asked, glad to hear they wanted his and stood up to go to the common room.

To his surprise she walked in naked. 'We want to know who has the best looking fur.'

He stumbled against his chair when he stepped back and hit the wall behind him. 'Wait, what!?'

'I'm telling you mine's better.' Dusk said as she walked in naked too.

'Mine's way softer than yours.' Rusty said next.

'I'm the only one with a cool pattern.' Dice followed.

'So,' Rusty said as the girls stood naked in the office. 'we need to put an end to this discussion and decided to ask your opinion.'

Dusk leaned closer to him with her hands on her hips. 'You need to take a good look and then tell us what you think of our fur. And no lame or dishonest answers or I'm going to bite you!'

'Ehm..' he mumbled, thinking of the most distracting things he could imagine..

Ghost walked up to him. 'So what do you think of this?' she asked, running her fingers from the throat down to her bellybutton.

Her fur was mostly a light grey with her front and inside of her legs turning pure white, her tail and hair just a light grey with strands of white accenting the way her hair fell over her shoulders. The tuft between her breasts was bright white.

He had no choice but to look. And to speak the truth because he had no doubt they'd find ways to make him very miserable if he didn't. Which they would anyway with what he thought right now.

He cleared his throat. 'Ehm.., with the bright desk light your, ehm, fur looks really shiny and reminds me of the sparkling light of fresh snow early in the morning.' he said to Ghost.

The girls fell silent for a moment, then Dusk moved in front. 'So what do you have to say about me, hmm?'

He swallowed and looked at her blue-grey fur, her lighter coloured front, white tuft and white tipped tail and ears. 'You, eh.., remind me of the sea at the town I stayed over before the last trip by train. The soothing sound of the waves coming up on the pebble beach together with the wind brought calmness to me.' he said, wishing he was there. It was probably safer.

'Wow.' she said softly and moved away.

Dice turned around in front of Petrash this time, curious to hear what he thought of her looks. She was more like the inverted version of the usual black and white pattern, her body white, but her front, hands, feet, tuft, tail, hair and a stripe down her back were pure black.

Petrash thought his head might explode from the pressure and heat of all the blood pumped into it. 'Your pattern, follows your.., beautiful curves perfectly.' he said and coughed once. 'Making it seem like you dance gracefully with every movement you make.'

Feeling rather happy by his description she looked at the others. 'Okay, now you, Rusty.' she said turning to her, but Rusty looked away.

'Ah, it's okay now.' Rusty said. 'No need.'

Dice nudged her and whispered. 'Hey, it was your idea.'

Rusty sighed and plucked at her tuft. 'I know, but after what he said about you three there's no way anything good can be said about my boring looks.'

'Then it's all the better to get him into trouble. now go.' Dice said and pushed Rusty to Petrash, making her stumble into his arms.

'Ehm.' he said as he held her and they looked each other in the eyes.

He saw a sadness in her eyes before she looked away.

'So, out with it.' Dusk said.

'I., I'm not sure..' he whispered.

'Can't say anything anymore? Can't make anything up anymore?' Dice said.

'No, I told the truth.' He sighed. 'It's just, embarrassing.'

'Now you really have to come out with it.' Dusk said. 'Or we will sharpen our fangs on you.'

'Okay, okay!' He said giving in to the threat. 'She's like the plush I loved when I was a kid! I couldn't sleep without her and I never let her go if I didn't have to.' The girls saw sadness appeared in his eyes. 'Even as I grew older I always kept her close. And then one day when I returned home she was gone. Fire had broken out in the apartment next to mine and it had drifted over into mine.'

Rusty watched his down turned face and held his hands gently. 'I'm sorry.' she whispered.

'It's okay.' he said softly. 'Nobody knew about this silly childish secret of mine. It's time I outgrew stuff like that.' He gave her a forced grin. 'Besides, I know you're only trying to tease me. But now I got some good memories of some very sexy girls.'

The girls looked at each other, then started hitting him while he put up his arms in defence. 'You bastard! Perverted fiend! Smooth talking Casanova! Cheat!' they shouted.

He sniggered quietly in a small victory as they left the office, pouting and huffing. Straightening his chair he found a pluck of Rusty's tuft on his chest, caressed it between his fingers and felt melancholic again. Movement caught in the corner of his eye made him notice Rusty in the doorway. She stepped up to him looking seriously, but he was glad she was wearing a shirt again.

'If you came back to hit me more, please, the left arm, my right can't take more.' he joked.

She shook her head, then hugged him gently, whispering. 'Don't act tough when you're not good at it.'

He embraced her, caressing her back slowly until the melancholy died down and the reality of holding a sexy girl took its place.

'Thank you.' he whispered and let her go grinning a little. 'Better go before they suspect something.'

She hit his left arm once. 'There, now we're even.'

She walked back to the common room where she sagged into a couch.

'Well, if we were really competing it would be obvious who won.' Dice said. 'He must've really loved her.'

'One thing's for sure, he was honest in what he said, so maybe we all won something.' Ghost said as she poured another drink. 'Not one of us has ever been complimented in this way.'

Dusk nodded. 'He deserved those memories of us.'

'But he'd better not abuse those or I'll kill him.' Dice grumbled.

'If he did, I'm sure he'll be very gentle with us.' Rusty said, holding a pillow. 'I sensed the change in his touch when he felt better, and he ended it like a perfect gentleman. He's the type who wouldn't do anything unless he really loved the girl.'

'Which makes me wonder, why the hell did he get sent here anyway?' Dusk remarked. 'The previous victims were all assholes and slimebuckets.'

'No idea.' Ghost said. 'All I heard was that one day he worked at HQ administration, the next he sat on the train to Freezerville.'

'I'm curious, let's ask.' Dusk said, stood up and walked to the office which was empty now. Next she tried his room and indeed found him there although he was already asleep. The others had come as well and looked at the sleeping figure on the bed.

'Look, it's like he's holding something.' Dice whispered.

Sneaking closer the girls saw the pluck of Rusty's tuft in his hand.

'I guess it must have really exhausted him.' Dice whispered. 'And now we know his favourite.'

'Are you sure?' Rusty whispered and pointed at a book about traumas and notes on how to improve fire security in the building. 'And even this.' There was also a book about taking care of huskies.

Ghost gently stroked his hair. 'If he is a fraud, he's a damned good one.'

'We'll hear it sooner or later anyway.' Dusk said and they left after tucking him in.