FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

CHAPTER 1 -

Tires crunched fresh snow under the weight of a small vehicle as it drove into the expanse of the open Wyoming range. Max looked out of the early morning fields of empty ranges with a warm smile as he cut the power to the engine of his car. Long distance shooting, gun runs, and areas for drills were set and ready to be used for anyone that arrived. His breath misted in the open air as the sun just crept past the horizon, blanketing the crisp white snow in a golden light. “Can't pass up the rifle drills in this light. You good to stay in the car girls? I know you two don't like how loud it is." Petting the two canines in his front seat he gave them a good scratch behind their ears as they laid back down and got comfortable. “I'll give you both a treat for being such good girls too."

Their tails wagged lazily as he cracked the window with the manual knob and shut the door. His jeans and red flannel did not do much to stop the cold as he cracked open the door style back hatch of his geo tracker. A simple and clean kit stared back at him, a small plate carrier and a fast helmet with integrated ear protection quickly made its way onto his form providing another layer to help retain the heat being sapped by the sub freezing air. A simple waffle styled face covering sheltered his face from the biting breeze before the helmet made its way to his head. “Let's get cracking."

Hot brass melted the snow as round after round was spent in bounding drills, quick drawing and mag changes. Eating away at the early morning light gave way to the slight warmth the sun provided the surrounding area. Max was so focused on his groupings and target acquisition that he never noticed the other car pull into the range nor the occupant residing inside. A bundle of scarves and coats stumbled out of their vehicle carrying a brand new gun case and their pockets seemingly heavy with a small amount of ammo and other gear as they stumbled their way to one of the covered areas with heating lamps overhead.

This movement caught his eye, their slow movements wasn't what surprised him. Their massive tail that sat above their legs was. Anthros were common, at least common enough to have formed their own clicks of wolves, deer and other species that were very common to the environment but reptiles were rare, even more so in the dead of winter since they tended to travel south to try and avoid the bitter cold. Flipping up his hearing protection he made his way over to the bundle of heat trapping clothing and called out. “Everything alright?" The figure jumped as he called to them, the reptile's sluggish movements forcing the case to the ground from the table with a harsh clatter. “Oh I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to startle you!"

Taking a moment to breathe and steady her shaking legs she turned to look over her shoulder. “It's alright. Just didn't expect you to shout." Her voice was feminine but raspy and slurred. Her muscles must have been slowed due to the cold slowly seeping into the clothing as she moved to pick up the case and place it back on the cold wooden table.

Max moved over to the dial that controlled the heating elements in the awnings roof and turned it up as far as it would go. “Pretty bitter out for someone cold blooded. Are you going to be alright? I do feel a storm coming along pretty soon."

Her scarf wrapped head slowly moved to face him, dark scales and ruby red eyes leveled on him as she rose a little higher to feel more of the heat beginning to beam down on her. “I did see that on the forecast, I hope I wont get caught in it. What do you mean you feel it?"

“Pretty sure it'll be coming from those mountains over there. As for feeling it." Tapping his left elbow before patting his right hip he gives a warm smile. “Couple of old injuries clue me into this sort of thing. Something about air pressure changes and tight joints. I'm Max by the way."

With an outstretched and gloved hand he offered to take hers in a handshake. She was hesitant for a moment but slowly accepted his outstretched limb and gave a weak grip. “Elianora but everyone just calls me Eli, thank you for turning on the heat. I didn't know how it worked." She shifted slightly as her body naturally moved to the warming spots of the awning and greedily consumed any heat they produced. She rubbed the back of her neck looking to the floor nervously. “I must look pretty green huh?"

“Don't worry about that, we all start at knowing nothing." removing his gloves he looks over to the newly scuffed gun case sitting on the wooden table. “Mind if I take a look?"

“O-oh! Not at all!" Her movements were starting to speed up as the heat lamps were effective at what they were designed to do. “Honestly I just got the one the guys at the shop suggested."

Max's now naked hands ran across the case with the giant 'G' printed on its surface. “Glock is decent but I just never liked how they fit in my hand." Flipping the latches with crisp snaps in the cold air allowing the new firearm to be exposed to the morning sun. "Seems like they didn't steer you wrong though. Polymer won't seep as much heat from your body when it's colder out and a gen two G-nineteen is reliable." Black plastics and metal met his eyes as he ran his fingers over its clean lines.

“My dad suggested I get one but I'm completely lost when it comes to this stuff." Her hands tugged at the edges of her scarf covering her head beginning to expose more of the dark scales of her head and deep red eyes. Her upturned nose caught his eye as her puppy-like face met his still covered face. Her sharp brow made it look like she held a constant scowl as she looked down at him.

His eyebrows rose as he finally saw the entirety of her face that hung several inches above his. “Oh you're a hognose!" His voice was warm as his hidden smile stretched across his face.

“Is there something wrong with that?" Her voice was sharp as her eyes narrowed, teeth flashed as her stance changed. Seemingly ready to strike.

“What?" Max looked up to the woman with a spark of excitement in his eyes. “Why would it? I love those little snakes!" He moved to drop his helmet and remove the protective layer of his neck gaiter. “Well I like all snakes but hognoses particularly. They're just so cute." With a slight chuckle and warm smile his face was fully exposed to her as she slowly sunk from her aggressive stance.

“Oh uhm…right." Her brow went back to its standard sharp look as she shifted in her spot nervously, noticing that the man standing before her didn't even seem fazed by her outward hostility just moments before.

“Looks like you've got it chambered in nine mil. Pretty good for home and personal defense. Do you have hearing protection in?" Looking back at the woman in question she shifted in place slightly, her covered lower body wrapping closely to the nearest and most powerful heater.

“No, let me get that." Her hands stumbled through her pockets with stray rounds falling to the concrete floor. “Shit, I think the box opened in my pocket. C-could you…?"

Without even thinking He begins to scoop them up into one of his hands. “You said your dad suggested it. Any particular reason why?" She stayed silent as she fumbled slowly with the small ear plugs designed for her serpentine ear canals. Clearly she didn't wish to speak on it so Max replied to her silence. “Sorry, I didn't mean to pry into your personal life."

“It's alright, it's just kind of personal." She rubbed her arm as she pushed her eyes to focus downrange at a few simple steel targets. “I don't know if it was even a good idea."

The last of the fallen rounds were scooped up and placed on the table with an authoritative slam. Without even thinking about it Max scooped up the small pistol and immediately cleared the firearm and dropped the empty magazine. The loose rounds were saddled up into the tight grooves first with only four rounds before setting it down and doing the same for the next magazine. “If you ask me it was. I don't know your situation but I can help you to see why you made a good choice."

With only a simple nod she agreed while looking down to the prepared magazines. For a moment Max was awestruck by the woman in front of him. Her scales catching the light of the early morning sun outlining each individual crease on her head. As if a spider had woven a barely noticeable web in the inky blackness of space. Her eyes stood out like red stars on the canvas of her head leaving him truly enraptured until her moving mouth snapped him back to reality.

“I-I'm sorry I didn't catch that?" Her eyebrow raised as she looked at him for a moment before she sighed and repeated herself.

“I don't really know what I'm doing. Mind giving me a demonstration?" Her gloved hand motioned to the open case and the slide still locked in place.

With only a thumbs up he walked the short distance back to his fairly small car and grabbed a couple pistol targets he made out of the back. His dogs were huddled together in the warmer interior that kept it at a comfortable temperature with the window cracked. Tails wagging as he gave them a few scratches Walking back over he called out to her. “I'll give you tips on just the fundamentals right now. If that's alright with you, I don't want to step on your toes."

Her lips curled into a bright smile as she replied. “You're the one teaching a newbie so I'll follow your lead." She chuckled as she motioned to the targets in his hand. “So I'll practice with those?"

“Yup!" Moving down range he set up a target about twenty five meters away from her he made sure it would stay upright before moving back to her. “Alright so before you shoot at the target You should probably get a feel for the recoil." Max picked up one of the magazines and pushed three of the rounds into his hand before setting it down. “Go ahead and load that mag."

“Just one?"

“For now, yeah. I've seen too many accidents happen from someone not ready for the recoil so just one at a time to get used to it."

With another nod she took up the pistol with slow but deliberate movements until she fumbled with the magazine. Once it was seeded though she attempted to pull the trigger a few times and looked over her shoulder to the man watching her intently. “I don't know how this works."

Max's eyebrows shot up as he realized how new she was to this. “Oh that's too easy, I'll run you through all the basics from the top then!"

What followed was well over an hour of talking about the basic fundamentals of the firearm itself, how to clear jams, weapon cycling and the basic fundamentals of shooting. Not a round was fired as he taught the woman what he knew as politely as possible and answered any questions she had. 'What's a seer? How do you do that again? Can I shoot NOW?"

With a smile he motioned to her pistol allowing her to take her stance, unlock the slide and and squeeze the trigger. A brief flash with the resounding bang reverberated off of the surrounding landscape followed by the round impacting the snow and the twang of the small round bouncing up and tumbling through the air. Her arms were high as the shock rattled her bones and her eyes wide. Her mouth was open wide as her tongue fell out and to the side as she then began to fall backwards.

Max was just fast enough to catch her as she collapsed. Her limp body fell into his arms as he grunted while dropping to his knees as hers collapsed under her. “Holy shi-" A sharp pain lanced through his right side as he caught her weight and most of the weight landed on his hip. His face grit as the twisting agony of torn tendons ripping further burned into his mind for what felt like hours but only lasted for a few moments before rolling back to relieve the tension on his body. “Ah fuck that hurt. Are you alright?"

Hermouth was still wide open with her thin forked tongue splayed out to the side with her eyes closed. She wasn't moving but the slight rise and fall of her thickly clothed chest said she was breathing. Max let out a sigh of relief as he laid there with this woman on top of him and allowed himself to relax for a moment under the warm lamps from above. The clouds had rolled in heralding a dark sky that would drop the temperature well below zero degrees Fahrenheit and almost certainly hypothermia for his new friend. After a brief moment Eli's eyes fluttered lightly before groaning and rolling over to hug Max's torso. Her tail wrapped around his legs as she held him close with her mumbling 'warm' while she held his torso as close as possible to her thickly clothed frame.

With a slight cough Max tried to bring her attention back to the real world. “U-uhm Elianora?" Her eyes fluttered open at the sound of his voice before snapping wide and scrambling to get off of him, the dropped pistol being forgotten in her nervous movements.

Her eyes were downcast as she tried to hide her obvious embarrassment and slight fear as Max stood back up and retrieved her pistol. “Sorry about that. I have a bad habit of-"

“Fainting in high stress situations or immediate surprise?" Rechecking that the firearm was cleared he dropped the magazine and started to place it back into its case. “Sister does something similar so no worries."

She stayed silent as she stood back up and moved back over to the wooden table and watched him work. His hands dropped the rounds from the other two magazines and began to repack them back into the first before placing them next to the gun as well. “Why are you packing it up?"

With a simple gesture towards the mountain in the distance and the dark clouds looming overhead. “It would be a good idea for you to get home. These heating lamps can only do so much against the current weather let alone a blizzard."

Her brow raised as she quickly removed her earplugs and began to collect the other items on the wooden table. “??????! I need to get back! Thank you so much for the help today and sorry about the fainting on top of you." She began to shuffle through the shallow snow to her car and hastily threw her items into the trunk haphazardly before moving to the driver's side door. “Oh I hate to ask but would you be willing to help me again sometime soon?"

Max gave a warm smile. “Certainly, why not shoot for the same time next weekend? I could introduce you to my best friend as well."

With an excited nod she gave her reply before swinging the door open. “Sure I'd love that! But I've got to go!" With that she slid her tail through her driver's seat before her car started up after a couple cranks of the engine raising one of Max's eyebrows and giving a light wave goodbye. He didn't notice until she was pulling away that her car had seen better days, an old boxy thing with a number of dents and rust spots peppering the exterior giving a reason to the random clangs that could be heard from the engine before it sped up and leveled out when it reached a decent speed on the nearby road.

“Hopefully I won't have to pull anyone out of the ditches today." The first flakes of the coming storm began to fall forcing Max to begin collecting his things and placing them back in his car. Petting his excited dogs once again he spoke to them as if they would respond. “Good thing I've got my chains huh girls? Think I'll need to put them on or will the 4x4 be enough?" The only reply he got was a few licks to his bare face, their tongues roughly dragging against his stubble. “Yeah the 4x4 should be enough. Not much to get stuck." Dropping his kit and exposing his pale skin to the elements when he removed his protective clothes he jumped in after placing his items on the passenger floor. His geo tracker hummed to life as he twisted the key and began to roll through the falling snow, spent brass and a new memory in his rearview mirror.