FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Leo didn’t awake with the usual snap to attention. Instead he awoke slowly, getting his body to work in unison with one another until it was one chorus. He rubbed his eyes and pawed at the phone on his night stand. Seven twenty three, that was pretty good time. He took a moment to stretch and twist his neck a bit to work out a crick. There was a noticeable lack of furry vise wrapped around his body. Leo inhaled and looked back. Missy was still turned away, just as his foggy mind remembered it last night. Some other thoughts from last night came tumbling back into his consciousness as well. With the dim early moring light it was a little hard to make out the natural rise and fall of her breathing. She was breathing, right?

Not wanting to let panic get the better of him, Leo sat up and leaned over to get a better look at Missy. Even still, it was hard to tell. Not wanting to prod at her, he went with the next best thing. “Missy?” he croaked. “Missy?” She twitched and a few moments later began her own motion of stretches.

“Don’t talk so loud,” she said, inhaling deeply. She brought a large hand up to her head. “God, my head’s killing me. We didn’t have any booze, did we?”

“There’s none in the house,” Leo replied. Missy flinched at his response. None that she should know about, anyways.

“Yeah, OK.” Missy wobbled onto her back and pulled the sheets up over her chest. “You go have fun at work or whatever the hell it is you’re gonna do. I’m out of it.” She mumbled something afterward but all Leo could make out of her slurring was ‘I should’ve’. He eased off the bed and got ready for the day. As quietly as possible, of course. Occasionally glancing back to make sure she wasn’t beginning to vomit on his bed. Leo made a mental note to check on his supplies later after work.

With a quick shower and the rest of his daily routine taken care of, Leo did the last of his adjusting in the bathroom mirror, lest the silent rubbing of fabrics somehow agitate Missy. He stared at his relfection for a moment before opening the cabinet behind it and pulling out a bottle of headache medication. It was... probably safe for her to use them. Best only set out one for her. Leo placed a tablet on a bit of tissue and promptly closed the bottle back up, silently thanking the inventor of the safety cap. He decided to give Missy the benefit of the doubt and not leave explicit instructions. Hopefully that wouldn’t come back to bite him. Or that she wouldn’t come back to bite him.

_

The work day progressed slowly. Leo’s usual work trance had slipped, letting his thoughts wander aimlessly, mulling over the past few nights. The one person he could air his grievances vaguely at unfortunately had a meeting for the day, leaving Leo in a box of bouncing emotions. He glanced back, almost hoping Vernon would be there to at least say a thing or two to get his thoughts to shut back up. It didn’t help that nearly all of his assigned filing and emailing for the day was over with, leaving him with tedium that had no substance.

Leo couldn’t shake off the scare he had in the morning, as odd as it was. Still, he couldn’t imagine having to deal with her own personal health problems. Doubly so with being female and— Leo furrowed his brow. She didn’t actually do the whole period thing. He sighed. Look at him, lunch time and he was thinking about menstruation. Not wanting to lose his appetite, he flicked off his monitor and scooted over to the opposite empty desk in his cubicle. Fortunately he bought a quick prefab lunch of massively produced croissant and factory farm eggs.

Out of sheer boredom, Leo pulled out his phone with one hand while the other stuffed his face with food. With no real thought behind it, he typed ‘Wolficus’ into the search bar. Much to his exact expectations, the results were only gibberish and some people who probably deserved to be smacked upside the head. That was just a dumb made up word, but somehow he felt that was probably the most accurate scientific name given to them. In a dusty old room sat around an all-too-big book. Maybe there was some sort of... what was the term? Cryptid? Cryptid that described her. Assuming that the people who wrote about these things weren’t all lunatics hellbent on seeking attention.

Sasquatches were definitely a no. At the same time, Leo figured Bigfoot himself would probably be a far more polite roommate. He scrolled through more of the mythical creatures. Hopkinsville Goblin? Certainly, Missy in some way could be called a goblin, but no, too small. Dover Demon had the proportions, although Missy didn’t have a globular head and wasn’t a stark white. Unless there were albino Wolficuses. Wolficii. Hm. Leo nodded. Wolficuses. Or they were suited for the snow. Either way, he didn’t quite trust the word of two fifteen year olds from Massachusetts. He would’ve thought there would be more sightings than that. Leo paused. Unless they’re really good at hiding with roommates. Dover Demon was a maybe.

It was almost astounding how many random monsters there were for every part of the world. Leo tried to keep his search to the United States, since as far as he was concerned, Missy was a red blooded American, but still, there were many things that came close to being very Missy-esque. No doubt people’s minds played tricks on them and went for the most terrifying form they could think of. Wide eyes, gangly limbs, sharp teeth. A sometimes cute smile. Leo stuffed his face with more food. At least Missy didn’t look like the Flatwoods monster, though it would probably be better if she did at this point. A ‘momster’ shirt wouldn’t fit her then.

No matter what Leo looked through, he couldn’t find the definitive Missy. Leo wasn’t entirely sure what he was hoping for. Maybe closure on his sanity or a reminder that she’s from some otherworldly place. Maybe he was hoping some insane biologist actually managed to get a wrangle on what Missy was. That’d give Leo at least the vaguest idea what to do if anything went wrong. He started shaking his leg. Hopefully Missy’s morning headache was a passing thing. He forced his attention back to his phone. It could be that no one ever survived to see a Missy. Perhaps they were all annoyed to death. Wait, that’s right, she had those other friends of hers that kicked her out. Supposedly old friends of his too, back from their hometown.

Leo shook his head. He highly doubted they knew any more than he did about Missy, and judging on her descriptions or if they existed at all, he also doubted they put thought in her health at all. Some vague curiosity scratched at his mind, wondering where they were now, but he hardly remembered them if at all. Leo leaned back in his chair. Plus they would probably be intensely jealous about his successes. Internet domain management beat out gas station worker, right? Didn’t really matter regardless, he wouldn’t want to see them in the off chance some thoughts more confusing than Missy being real came back somehow.

Finding no more vaguely useful information, Leo set his phone down and finished off his lunch. Still a Wolficus. Still a human. Still hungry too. He should’ve gotten something else.

_

Turn key. Open door. And there was Missy, back on the couch, enjoying her free lazy time. She snapped to him and waved. “How’s it goin’, Lion?” she said. Leo quietly closed the door behind him. “Oh, thanks for the headache stuff.”

“You’re fine now then?” Leo asked.

“Yeah, good thing you had a different brand. I already got used to the Advil junk. Doesn’t work for me any more.” Of course. Missy was already so used to downing pills that she built a tolerance to the stuff. Nothing to worry about at all.

Leo relaxed himself and asked, “Took out the trash?”

“Yeah!”

“Swept the floor?”

“Did that too!”

“Didn’t make a mess anywhere?” He began walking to the bedroom.

“Nope, no siree.”

“Good work.”

“As you’d expect from me.”

Leo glanced over at the storage room. Hopefully now she’d get into gear and beg to get her own room. He supposed he would have to give her his bed, though. That was part of his stupid deal after all, and something told him she wouldn’t break that part no matter what, but that would be OK. If he pulled the inflatable bed out of storage, he could have her out in an hour. Leo moved into his room and changed out of his work clothes before walking right back out into the living room. “You ready to set up your new room?” Leo asked, adding a dash of energy in the hopes of getting her excited.

Missy craned her neck to look back at him. “Uh, sure! But what bed are you gonna sleep on?

“I’ve got the inflatable, so we can start moving the mattress out.” Leo paused. Actually he should probably check if that old thing still turned on let alone inflated. “Hold on one second.” Fortunately it was one of the few things he kept handy under his bed, in the off chance something ruined his current mattress. He walked back into his bedroom and pulled the box out, but not without some firm tugging first. It’d probably been years since it had last seen the light of day.

“You keep relics down there? Maybe a chest of gold too?” Missy asked.

Leo set the box down and began opening it up. “It’s not that old. I used it for just a few trips so it should be fine.” Though with it rotting away down there, he was really only guessing. Leo spread it out on top of his mattress.

“You going for that extra cushioning?”

“Something like that.” Considering it had been in that box all this time, who knew what muck stuck to it. Wasn’t too smart to just toss it on. He was getting too excited, he supposed. Leo plugged the thing in and let it roar to life.

“That’s louder than the vacuum! You gonna use this every night?” Missy yelled over the fan.

“I won’t need to every night!” But it sure as hell was loud.

The thing inflated, and inflated, and inflated, and— A small section of the bedding peeled away. Leo swallowed and placed his hand over it, only to be greeted with a rush of air and an end to any hope of this working. For today, anyway. He flicked the thing off, much to his ears’ relief. The small whine of deflating air replaced the deafening whirr, deflating Leo along with it. Tentatively he pushed against the mattress. It was losing air, fast. “Well, that sucks,” Missy said flatly. “Or I guess it blows? Anyways, it didn’t hold, huh?”

“No.” Leo sighed. “No it didn’t.” He didn’t have a clue where the sealing kit was either, or if he ever owned one. His thoughts briefly entertained the idea of use any number of random adhesives around the house, but he knew they wouldn’t hold, and didn’t want to wake up in the middle of the night lying on wooden slats.

“So!” Missy said, stepping over to Leo’s side. “Movie tonight? I’ve been in an early two thousands mood.”

Leo rubbed his eyes, then walked over to tear the plug out of the wall. “Sure, OK, whatever.” She’d get her room some other time. “What do you have in mind?”

Missy pulled a sheet out from under the deflating bed and draped it over her arm. She brought the covered arm up to her face and peered over it. Her other hand clawed at the air. “Something spooky!” Missy replied with a growl.

“Alright, sure.” Leo pulled the cap on the bed, letting it deflate faster. “What did you have in mind?”

“You weren’t scared?”

“Did you take a shower today?”

“Well yeah,” Missy replied, lowering her arm.

“Then no.” Leo sat on the deflating bed.

Missy sat down next to him. “Nothing in mind, just whatever’s on the stream things.” Leo looked to Missy. His mind picked right up where it left off at the office, though instead of mythological creatures, his thoughts started matching animal parts. At the very least he knew she was mammalian, for many reasons. Leo kept his eyes steady. Her face didn’t lend itself to anything specific other than something predator with her forward facing eyes. Dog? Cat? One of those. “I got something on my face?” Missy started pawing at herself, wiping down her face. Her sharp teeth similarly had no real biological tie other than meat eater. Missy turned her head. “Uh, why are you staring?”

Maybe Missy was actually some terrible mix of cougar and wolf. No, that wasn’t right. Calling Missy a cougar felt incredibly wrong anyways. Plus where’d the tail go? “Leo?” she whispered, leaning forward. “You OK?” He blinked.

“No, yeah, I’m good.” Leo shook his head.

Missy leaned back. “Oh, OK, good.” She looked around the room and patted her legs. “You think we can watch that movie now?”

Leo looked down. “Let’s wait for this to deflate more.” Missy began bouncing up and down on the bed, forcing more air out. “Don’t do that.”