FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The Odd Jobs and Rehabilitation Institution’s office was awfully quiet this evening, when it came to jobs that is, the main room was currently holding a special meeting that just included Kim and a very stern looking giraffe who was struggling to get the old horse to understand something that for her was as basic as breathing.

“When I say to tap the screen I literally mean it, you don't need to hold it there for so long.” Remmi said with a sigh, the horse looking intently at his newly acquired portable phone thingy.

“So I just touch it?” he pressed his index finger flat on the square that had a rather simple rendition of the phones he was used to having. “Like that?”

He was barely able to get it out of the screen in time to avoid getting the option to delete the app, which was honestly enough for the giraffe, at least for the time being.

“You'll have to work on your finger positioning, but that's better. Now try to add me as a contac-”

Before the lesson could continue the ringing of a genuine landline phone startled them both. They looked at each other, “Try doing that again while I go pick that up.” She pressed something on the bottom of the screen and Kim was promptly taken back to the start screen.

Remmi dashed off to pick up the phone, at the very least they'd have something to do, outside of the phone thing of course. The giraffe slumped on the chair in her cubicle and politely greeted their customer with the usual pitch, after that she exchanged a few more words and started writing something down on one of the many pieces of paper they had lying around the floor.

The horse tried to get back to his lesson while the giraffe kept at it, from time to time repeating certain things to make sure she heard their client right, what especially caught Kim's attention was when she said something about snacks, but he was going to withhold himself from asking any questions. It was still a weird thing to mention.

Kim pondered as he started at the phone's screen, he had reached the contacts list but when he tried going back he must've pressed something other than what Remmi did since it just made the screen he was in smaller and a bunch of weird options turn up, so he would just have to wait.

By the time the giraffe was done she hung up the phone and went back to Kim, scribbled paper in hand. She took one quick look at the phone screen and then at the horse, “I see what you were trying to do,” she snapped her fingers and pointed at the bottom middle part of the screen and pressed a little circle thing, making it go back to the home screen. “We'll end today’s lesson with you adding my contact, just in case. Before that though.” She handed the horse the piece of paper.

Looking at the thing the most interesting details were that this was taking place in the university district, yet again, and the aforementioned snacks. Kim looked up at the giraffe with a raised eyebrow, “Why the snacks, am I working as a delivery guy for a supermarket or something?”

“They said something about needing them for the night,” she shrugged. “They also said you can expect the job to last around three or four hours, give or take.”

“That's a pretty long shift, don't you think?” Kim chuckled, but was quickly shut down by the giraffe frowning. “Uh, did they give you any details?”

“Something about being able to act things out, they compared it to a play,” she smirked. “I have a slight suspicion of what they might want you to do.”

Kim did have some acting chops on him, or, well, he knew a thing or two about classical plays from the few times he was doing protection on the Golden Shell, that should probably be enough. Still, he had to ask, “What do you think I'll be doing?”

“I think it'll be funnier if I don't tell you.”

Kim crossed his arms, “Really?”

“Of course,” she smiled to herself, “and besides if I told you I'd have to explain a bunch of things, and you're getting paid by the hour so I'll leave that to the client.”

“Fair point.” The horse sighed and started to get up from the couch, before Remmi pushed him back down and sat beside him.

“You’re not leaving until you finish the lesson.” She said pointing at the phone. “I want to make sure you add me as a contact so you can tell you if you mess up something.”

“You should have more faith in me.”

***

After what happened on his last visit Kim understood that he should probably go to the district with more than a vague explanation of where to go and an address written down on a crummy paper. Apparently their clients were in a community apartment block, mainly reserved for students from what Remmi was able to pick up, the name was something way too generic for him to be able to find without an exact location, even then it would've been a struggle, if it wasn't for his self proclaimed guide.

This was no other than Elias, the okapi he helped not too long ago. Back when Kim got that hand-me-down phone from him, he took the liberty of adding himself to the contact list to keep in touch with the horse. Kim appreciated the gesture, though he did feel a little bad about barely responding to him, mainly because he had no idea how to properly use any of the apps on his phone.

By the time he caught wind of needing to go to the district he called the okapi with the knowledge Remmi bestowed onto him and told him about where he needed to go. The okapi was delighted to hear from Kim again and told him that he'd pick him up with his new car, a thing he proudly sent him a picture of a few days after their rather unfortunate introduction.

The okapi was looking rather well dressed today, one of those eco leather jackets and a plain black hoodie underneath.

“So, what brought you here again?” The okapi asked, his eyes set on the road. “Seeing what you have in those bags, I doubt it's work related.” He said with a chuckle, pointing at the two bags resting on the horse's lap, one of them was stacked with the cheapest snacks he could find and the other with a bottle of soda from a brand he had never heard of and a tallboy for himself.

“You'd be surprised.” The horse chuckled.

“So it is work?”

The horse nodded, mainly to himself since Elias was still way too focused on whatever the other drivers were doing. “Yeah, and no I have no idea what I'm doing.”

“Is that always a problem?” He asked, genuinely.

“I guess you could say it is. I usually find out whenever I meet up with the client,” Kim looked at the okapi's ears dropping. “You're good though, that's how we work.”

“Yeah, I'm sorry about that.” His voice was a little flustered. “So uuuh, I'm going to a party with a bunch of my friends not too far from where I'm leaving you, actually I'm getting off in the same parking lot so you know, if you wanna drop by when you're done with work…”

Kim raised an eyebrow. “I think I'm a little old for college parties.”

“Well, we do have a bunch of older classmates, so you know.”

“I'll think about it.”

The rest of the drive went smoothly, Kim found himself laughing with the okapi more than once, and to think about the state he found him in when they first met, he would've never guessed how fun he would've been to hang out with, let alone how helpful he insisted on being. It honestly made him actually think about dropping by the party later, but he was still pretty unsure.

Before they got there Elias made a few stops to pick up his aforementioned friends, a deer named Delilah and a panther that went by Ashley, they were dressed equally as showy as the okapi and were surprisingly chatty, even if they did give the old horse a pretty telling eyebrow raise in unison, as if they were telepathically connected, though he was still unsure if it was directed towards him or his friend, given by the okapi's blush it was probably for him.

Eventually they arrived at the parking lot, which ended up being way more packed than Kim had anticipated, much to Elias' chagrin, who had to spend a good chunk of time looking for a parking spot. It took a while, but they managed to end up finding a half decent spot near one of the street lamps.

The cold winter air felt somewhat less harsh under the worn out lights, the apartments that surrounded them probably played their part too in keeping the stronger of the winds from reaching them. The ambiance would've felt oddly tranquil, were it not for the drowning sounds of music and dozens of animals talking to their heart's content. All this brought back memories of Kim's earlier years in the beach district, which was objectively the hub for Cixraxian nightlife, but this was not too far off, quite the contrast from the more pristine look he saw in his first visit, like the students were reclaiming the crevices where the hand of those on top didn’t care enough to reach.

“Hey,” Elias startled the horse by patting him on the shoulder, he turned to see him smiling at him, his two friends looking at them weirdly from behind. “We're going to the apartment next to the one you're going to.” He said pointing at the apartment with the blue bricks, well, brick painted blue Kim assumed, “now if you wanna drop by after you're done you know where to find us, and I'll drop you by your place after we're done too.”

Kim sighed, “You really don't have to Eli.” He was surprised by how the okapi reacted to the sudden use of a nickname, the look he gave him was a bit disproportionate. The other two behind him just looked at each other. “But I appreciate it.”

He was met with a smile. “Well, have fun then!” He beamed awkwardly before gesturing to the other two to go, but he turned back to Kim one last time. “It's on the first floor by the way.”

The horse chuckled. “I'll keep that in mind.”

After staying there for another instant, in case the okapi had forgotten yet another important bit of information, Kim went on his way. He tried his best not to bump into any of the inebriated college students while he walked through the crowded parking lot, though they weren't as considerate as he was. More than once they bumped into him in their drunken shamble, almost making him drop the bag of snacks he had so laboriously picked up on his way here. A few of them even had the audacity to snap at him for purposefully getting in their way, and as much as he would've like to confront them he was already late enough, so he swallowed his pride and continued on to the apartment with red bricks, the city put a lot of thought into how to differentiate the two. The horse shook his head.

The inside was ever so slightly better, not as many drunk students, and the ones that were were only respectably drunk, hanging out in the lobby, smoking and nursing their drinks in a cut down cola bottle foaming with black liquid. Kim tried his best to avoid looking at them, after all he had been trying to leave the regular drinking behind (the tall boy he bought didn't count, everyone knew that), only ever partaking in casual drinking with the others in the bar, which was easier said than done, especially with guys the same age he was back before he was locked up enjoying the same thing he used to. It was still surprising that it was as popular as it was back then.

No matter how enticing it was, or how many inviting looks they gave him when he glanced at the drinks he kept his cool, he wasn’t here for leisure after all.

His clients were kind enough to mention the apartment number, 24, second floor, obviously, so not that far up, something to be thankful about given the sorry state of the elevator. Kim looked at the passed out student with a wine box flopped inside of it and knew better than to try his luck.

So up the stairs it was, as he ascended he came upon small groups of animals sitting on the steps chatting and drinking, the smell of cigarettes impregnated on them, or maybe on the apartment's walls themselves, there was no way to be completely certain. Most Kim could do was give them a formal nod as he squeezed through while carefully balancing the bags.

Eventually he managed to be face to face with apartment 24. The sounds of chatter and music Kim had never heard of before was all he could make out of the place for the time being, so he carefully placed one of the bags on the floor and knocked on the door.

The chatting stopped, only a few barely perceptible hushes being left, and then the sound of steps and then a quiet voice.

“Can I help you with anything?” It sounded apprehensive.

Kim could feel whoever was on the other side looking at him through the peephole, so he grabbed the bag again and lifted both of them up slightly. “Delivery service, courtesy of ojri.”

“Oh, you're the guy?” The voice now sounded hopeful, much to the horse's pleasure.

“I am indeed the guy.”

The door quietly swung open when Kim's identity was successfully confirmed. The sound of the music grew louder as he got a first glance at his client, a skinny gazelle with glasses, dressed in a black flannel, he gestured the horse to enter quickly which he did.

The inside had a little walkway, no longer than a meter, that had a coat hanger and a place to hang keys, nothing too out of the ordinary. Past it was what looked like a living room, but he could make much of it right now, only that there was certainly some kind of weird music playing and also the smell of pizza, that was pretty apparent actually.

He shut the door behind them as Kim entered. “I'm glad you could make it.. sir?”

“Name's Kim, I'd give you a handshake but my hands are a little busy at the moment.” He shook the bags a little before quickly being helped by the gazelle.

“Oh, It's a pleasure Kim, I'm Theo.” He shot him a warm smile and he ushered him into the supposed living room.

“Like, Theodore, right?”

“Uh, yeah. But call me Theo, ok?”

He chuckled. “Sure thing.”

It turned out to be a living room, well, in the same sense that his apartment was a living room, this one was well organized and neat however. A brown sofa looking over at a modest tv with a bookcase full of pretty big books, displayed so that their colorful covers would show, though Kim wasn't very sure about what he was seeing on them.

Behind the couch was a dining table, not that big, but big enough to house two pizza boxes and drinks, though from the looks of if they were already fresh out, mostly. Those things weren't exactly what caught most of Kim's attention however, that would actually be the Jackal clad in what looked to be plate mail armor, completely overshadowing the otter sitting besides them, who only had a green-ish cardigan.

They both stared at him expectantly, luckily Theo managed to read the room. “Guys, this is Kim, he's the guy from that thing I called.”

“He actually arrived, huh?” The jackal said, her voice raspy and her tone reserved. The otter waved behind her, though Kim was still having trouble even acknowledging him.

“Uh, that's Carmelia,” the gazelle stepped in, “she's really into getting in character…”

“So that thing's real?”

“The armor?” She crossed her arms, the metal clanking as she moved. “It's a replica. I made it myself using light materials, I'm not going to come here in genuine plate mail.”

“That- yeah I guess that makes sense.” He raised an eyebrow. “So it's for the play thing?”

“Play thing?” Now the gazelle was wondering what he was going on about.

“I was told I was going to act things out for the job, like for a play.” He said, crossing his arms.

The jackal shot Theo a confused look, “didn't you tell them what we were doing?”

“I did, I mean I did talk to a lady on the phone…” Theo turned towards Kim. “She didn't tell you anything?”

He sighed, “she said it'd be funnier if you guys told me.”

The three of them exchanged a look and then turned to Kim, he was starting to feel a little self-conscious about himself with all the staring, serves him right for the armor thing.

“You've never played a roleplaying game?” The gazelle asked, his hopes unfortunately up.

“I mean, I've heard the term in- well, you know.”

They all exchanged a look again.

“Why don't you take a seat and grab some pizza sir.” The otter finally spoke up, his voice sounded a little weaker and shy compared to the other two, but he was certainly trying. “I can, uh, explain a bit, it shouldn't take that long.”

***

The otter, who went by Marko, turned out to be surprisingly articulate when it came to explaining how this roleplaying thing worked, despite Kim's first impressions. Turns out it's nowhere near what he had originally thought of, not that you could blame the horse, when you work in a glorified red light district for most of your life you start associating certain things to certain things.

Marko had pulled one of those colorful books from the bookcase and used it to teach Kim the basics. They would be playing a game called Dungeons of Tregya, basically a tabletop game that mainly took place in the mind, the otter described it like improv with a fun chance factor that makes it more dynamic and engaging.

From what Kim could gather they would be playing as a group of “righteous heroes” that wander around the world fighting monsters and getting into hijinks. Both Theo and Carmelina had already established characters, and so did their other friend who couldn't come today, though he didn't give them a reason why, which is why they called Kim on his place, apparently he had been a little skittish around the group lately, even in college so they got fed up with him and decided to call up ojri.

When Kim asked them why they didn't just invite another one of their friends, Carmelia went on a rant about how they just didn't get the game and how they would just spend all the time on their phones.

After that Mark helped Kim make his character, who turned out pretty ok, all things considered, at least that's what it looked like to him. He even got to roll some pretty weird dice while doing that, for all he knew only six sided dice existed, and then this game used one with twenty sides. Imagine his shock when Mark pulled out one with the size of a tennis ball that had a hundred sides. It was truly shocking.

And yes, the pizza was pretty good, maybe a little too greasy, but it was far better than anything Kim had at the office’s celebrations (He felt a little bad for feeling like that, given how eagerly the boss looked at him when he tried his homemade pizza).

“And that's basically it.” The otter muttered as he finished writing something on his little brown notebook. “I think you should be ready for at least a short session.”

“He better be.” Carmelina shot them both a look from the other side of the table.

“I mean, better than spending another week just playing that stupid fighting game again.” Theo added as he picked up the empty pizza box from the table, promptly after whipping it a little with a wet cloth. “You feel like you're ready Kim?”

The horse nodded. “I think I understand most of it.” He crossed his arms reclining on the chair. “Still, it's a little far from what I'm usually hired to do, but I can handle it.”

The otter's ears twitched. “What do you usually do?”

“I, uh- I usually do manual labor, and personal defense.” Hopefully that sounded convincing enough.

“Like a bodyguard?”

“Something like that.”

Kim could feel the otter's curiosity, but he felt a little self conscious about what he usually did on his regular outings. Maybe because of how tame this was compared to everything else, he didn't really want to look like a weirdo, for lack of a better word. All of this coming from a middle aged horse about to play roleplaying games with college students that hired him specifically for that.

Crazy how his life had turned out after everything.

Luckily before Kim could begin to sulk about his predicament Theo finally sat down at the table besides Carmelina, leaving them looking over at the horse from the other side, which made him even more self-conscious.

Mark slowly got up from his chair and positioned himself so he could look over all of them, then pulled up a suitcase from under the table and opened it up. From it he pulled out a mat he spread across the table in front of Kim and the others and a little rectangular cardboard cutout he placed in front of him, obscuring him from the rest of the table, only leaving part of his face on plain sight.

“What's that thing?” Kim nodded towards the otter's cover.

“This is my game master screen, Theo made it for me.” something about the way he said that last part made Kim wonder if the screen was hiding his blush. “I have a few things written down on sticky notes for tonight’s session.”

“He's a pretty good game master.” Theo jumped in. “He's been doing it since we were in highschool.”

“You’ve known each other for a long time, huh?”

“Yeah, me and Mark go waaaay back.” He beamed, so much so that even the game master screen wasn't able to hide the otter's blush. “We moved in together to save on costs, and we've been at it for a few years now.”

Kim couldn't help but to smile a little, this reminded him of how things were back in the day, the whole chatting part, not that he ever went to college.

“What're you guys studying?”

“We're all studying system engineering!” He looked over at Carmelina. “Though we met Carmen when we started our master's last year.”

She frowned. “Call me Carmen one more time, asshole.”

“We really hit it off as you can see.”

The horse chuckled. “Sure seems like it.”

Before they could continue Mark waved to get their attention. “Are you ready guys? I think I am.”

“Finally.” Carmelina sighed.

—

The seas were clear, the sound of rushing water slowly coming to a stop as the group's ship slowly but carefully docked into a city they had stopped at many times before to resupply. However there was something different on the air this time, the usually crowded streets of the docks were pretty much dead, only shady looking individuals making their way into the deeper parts of the city.

“Looks like trouble.” Said Chamba, a fennec fox that spent the better part of her life working on the church of the sun goddess as a paladin, training under the rule of a tyrannical priest with delusions of grandeur. She agreed to join forces with the group in order to finally bring an end to him and free her girl-

-“Does he really need to know all that?” Carmelina shot Mark a nasty look, the otter slowly retired under the screen.-

She was a great warrior and did a bunch of stuff.

“When isn't there trouble in this town?” Jeremiah said as he looked overboard. The great wolf sorcerer was no stranger to the city being under distress, after all he had been living in the bloody place for most of his formative years, perhaps some of the issues had been created by some misplaced magic explosions, but beyond that most of it had nothing to do with him. Besides, the city was indebted enough with the group to look past his prior transgressions.

They looked over at the figures scurrying their way towards the inner city. With a closer look Chamba managed to figure out where they were headed.

-Kim picked up surprisingly fast on what a perception check was.-

“Looks like they're going to the tavern.”

“There's quite a few of them around.”

The fennec sighed. “The Cackling Cow, mage.”

“Perhaps you need to be reminded that there's quite a gap between what a mage is and what a sourcer is.”

They continued to bicker while they stepped out of the ship climbing down the ladder, the fact that no one was there made it quite easy to hear each other as they did.

This, of course, continued as they walked along the wooden docks and into the cobblestone floor, the empty stalls with fresh fish still hanging looked eerie in the complete stillness of the streets.

Only as they pressed on the direness of the situation began to loom over them, enough for their banter to cease as they tried their best to listen for any sign of life, but nothing. Only time they would hear something was when another one of the shady figures bumped into them on their way to the tavern.

They were rats, hooded with black cloaks and red markings stitched on their back, neither of them were able to pick up on what they were from, but something was clear, they didn't sound like good news.

If their gut feelings weren't enough to give them a hint what they saw next did.

A black mass, with the same markings on their back had surrounded the normally cheery tavern and completely defiled it. Bodies of paladins from the Moonlight order were scattered around the premises, their insides spewing out through their armor. Whatever they were they had been able to rip right through plate mail.

The mass chanted something dark and guttural, as they screamed towards the entrance of the tavern. A beast, a deformed rat three times the size of its companions, white fur tainted by blood and gore, was massacring the rest of the paladins that stood in defense of the door. Blood spewed out from every claws it sank into the paladins, they screamed in terror as the beast threw their broken body to the crowd, screams muffled as dozens of daggers repeatedly sank into their exposed fur.

One that tried to sneak in a mighty sword thrust was grabbed and promptly ripped in two as the beast let the blood taint its fur further.

Their chanting drew to an abrupt end as a ball of burning hot fire exploded into their midsts, blowing part of the crowds away and opening a way to the beast.

It turned back to look at them through the charred remains of the cultist, claws and dripping with blood. It gave them a fiendish smile as it approached the duo. The crowd now turned towards them as they began chanting and drawing closer.

The creature prepared to pounce on them but before it could lunge forward it shreaked.

It got up, in pain, trying to claw at its back it spun around revealing a live paladin, long sword stuck on the creature's back.

The paladin, through his struggle to hold on locked eyes with the duo. He was a horse, his brown fur rugged and filled with scars. From the look on his face he was barely holding on to the creature which was their cue to get in there and help.

By the time the creature spun around a blast of fire was flung at its head, shrieking as the fur on its left side slowly burned, before it could even retaliate a a flash of light blinded it's vision, followed by the searing pain of burning steal striking its belly as it was smitten down by Chamba’s long sword.

The creature fell on its knees, reeling in pain, leaving the duo to be face to face with the horse mounted on its back. They gave each other a nod of acknowledgement as he pulled his sword out of its back before Chamba properly struck it down.

What was left of the crowd had turned into a group of hissing cultists who slowly dispersed whenever any of them approached, eventually dispersing from the place, leaving just the three of them and a whole lot of death surrounding them.

“Didn't expect to see a Moonlight paladin being helpful for once.” Chamba turned to the horse, looking him up and down.

“Uh, well, I'm full of surprises.” He replied, clearly still shocked from what had happened.

“That thing took one hell of a beating.” Jeremiah stepped in the middle of the two, creating some space, he was well aware of the rivalry between the two paladin orders. “You were of great aid. Sir?”

“I'm.. uh I'm Paladin Kelp.”

Jeremiah turned to look at Chamba, who just shrugged. “It's a pleasure sir Kelp.” He looked around at the mess that was left and then back at him. “Perhaps you have an idea of what all that was about?”

“I… I don't know, quite literally.”

“He's right, he doesn't.” Another horse replied, coming out of the tavern, drenched in blood himself. He was wearing the moonlight paladin's armor too, yet something in his deep blue eyes and his twisting white mane wasn't as inviting as… Kelp's…

“And who might you be?” Chamba stepped up. “You were holed up inside all this time? That's the kind of moonlight behavior I'm used to.”

The pale horse’s expression remained unchanged, “Hold your tongue Sunbathed, your kind has no say on how we do things in this city.”

“And is getting your men slaughtered in the middle of the streets your way of doing things?” She smirked. “Perhaps you ought to reconsider your course of action, less you want to be replaced by more capable groups.”

He huffed and turned his back towards her. “Kelp, keep an eye on the Sunbathed, don't let her terrorize the locals.”

“Yes… yes sir.” Kelp did a salute, or at least tried too, leaving the pale horse to school his head and leave.

“Should we ditch this guy?” Chamba turned to Jeremiah, but the wolf seemed to be lost in thought.

“Perhaps that might be for the best… however,” he already knew the fennec wasn't going to be happy with this. “Perhaps he can be of help, we are missing Bart after all.”

“As if the lizard would've been any help in that fight.”

The wolf frowned, “say what you want about him, but we'll need all the help we can get if we want to get to him, and deal with whatever's happening here.”

“And what, we let this guy keep an eye on us?” She added quotation marks with her fingers on that last one. “We can't trust him.”

“I say we give it a try.” He shrugged. “If he tries anything I burn his face off.”

She crossed her arms. “Yeah, that could work.”

“You guys are very pleasant, huh?” Kelp managed to get a good comment there, he was starting to gain a little confidence. -Mark gave Kim a little wink.-

The duo, now a trio, turned towards the tavern, the blood and viscera strewn around the place would've made anyone else be spewing out their lunch right now, but they had already experienced their fair share of carnage, for better or for worse. They approached the door avoiding the mess the monster made and pushed it open.

Inside was a mess of huddled civilians, from crying children to scared drunkards that also joined in on the crying. The bartender looked at them, his expression grim, a steak contrast from the welcoming bear they had come across countless times before.

“Is it bad out there?” he asked, there was still hope in his voice, hope that things weren't as messed up out there. He pressed his hands on his forehead when Chamba shook her head. “Gods, this has gotten out of hand.”

“Do you have any idea who the cultists out there were?” Jeremiah said, stepping deeper into the tavern and seeing the mess that had been left there too.

“No one knows, kid…” he sighed. “There's always something wrong with this damned city, but this is too much.”

“You can say that again.” The wolf nodded solemnly, he has lived through enough stuff here to understand this wasn't at all just an exaggeration. “Still, there must be someone who knows.”

“You could always ask-”

-given how immersed Kim had been with the entire thing he would've overlooked the sudden ringtone of a phone as a stand in for a magical artifact of some kind, but Mark's face painted a different picture in his head.-

—

“Wait guys, Samuel's calling.” Mark said, now out of that surprisingly deep narrator voice he had adopted during the game. He picked up the phone. “Sam, you good? Sam?” He looked back at the phone. “He hung up.”

“So what, he just called to pull you out of it?” Carmelina huffed, “what's gotten into him? Geez.”

It was hard to gauge Mark's expression from behind the screen but the otter clearly looked distressed about something. “Guys, d-do you think we should help?”

“Mark?” Carmelina sounded concerned for the first time since Kim had gotten here. She got up from her chair and moved over to where the otter was, stopping for a second to read before she muttered a curse under her breath “Those fucking assholes…” She stormed off to another room.

Kim was left there in awkward silence as Theo went over to the otter's side, his arms around him as he tried to calm him down, though his expression also changed when he got over there. The mood in the room had completely changed in a matter of a few seconds, and to imagine he had actually been enjoying the job so far. He wasn't going to let that keep himself from getting involved, he was already too far into it to let go.

“What's wrong?” Kim looked over at the two of them.

“It's.. well,” Theo managed to calm down the otter enough for him to continue. “Our friend Sam's in trouble.”

“What kind of trouble?”

“He went to a party in the apartment next to this one, and…” he took a deep breath. “A bunch of old classmates from highschool were there and they were being pretty nasty to him…”

Kim sighed and got up, getting both of them to look at him. “What's the apartment number?”

“I don't know…” the otter began getting more and more frustrated. “He, didn't tell me anything, he just sent me a picture, I-”

His struggle suddenly stopped with the sound of a door opening. A jackal dressed in a surprising stylish coat for someone that just spent the past two hours dressed in full plate mail stepped into the room, and she looked pretty pissed off too.

She practically slammed the door behind her. “I know where he is, I went to that apartment a few times. I'd recognize that shitty lava lamp from a mile away.”

Kim had completely forgotten the fact that lava lamps were a thing back in the day, and that somehow they used to be all the rage, goes to show how good they actually were that he didn't even remember they existed.

“Can you show me how to get there?”

“I'm taking you there. I want to have a few words with those assholes myself.” She said moving towards the door. “So get a move on.”

He huffed and turned to the other two. Seeing the otter in this state was a little hard, he looked like a completely different animal, only holding it together because of Theo's support. “You guys stay here for a bit, we'll go get your friend back.”

“Kim, you really don't have-” the gazelle was cut short before he even had the chance.

“I’m doing my job, don't worry about it.” Kim gave him a reassuring nod and then he was off to the entrance.

Carmelina stomped out of the apartment with a look nasty enough to get a few of the animals partying in the halls to step aside and go quiet, even the ones Kim came across on the stairs didn't want to cross her right now. Kim had a slight suspicion that this wasn't the first time this had happened.

“You know those guys?” Kim said, trying to keep up with her while she almost banished through the stairs.

The jackal slowed down even so slightly when she realized the horse wanted to talk. “Yeah, they've been a nuisance for a while now.”

“You mean like regular bullies.”

She scoffed. “If you call grown ass college students bullies then sure.” She said as they finally reached the ground floor. “Met them in the college I went to, insufferable good for nothing jocks that got there because they knew how to throw a ball and the sports team needed something to look less pathetic.”

Kim raised an eyebrow, that was some pretty strong hostility, it made him wonder what other stuff they might’ve been up to in the past to garner such a reaction from her. As much as he would’ve liked to ask, he knew better than to pry, at least for the time being.

Briefly catching a whiff of the heavy smoke scent of the outside as they strut on over to the apartment with the blue bricks.

Was it any different from the one they were just in? Well, the amount of socially acceptable drunks had fallen, quite drastically actually, the problematic drunks however were thriving, so was the sounds of music, akin to what could be heard outside nightclubs but ramped up, which was quite a feat. Kim wondered about the sheer amount of noise complaints they could accumulate in a single weekend.

The jackal went up the stairs, just once this time, luckily with no one to push aside and risk having a genuine accident happen.

The first floor wasn't packed, though music could be heard from behind more than one door, making it a little difficult to figure out where their party was taking place, good thing Carmelina knew where she was going, otherwise this would’ve been a mess.

Further down the hall the jackal approached a stork smoking outside of one of the apartments, she lowered the cigarette as she approached. After rolling her eyes the bird gestured for her to get inside with Kim promptly following suit.

Beyond the door was a way bigger apartment than Mark's, though considerably more crowded, still enough for both of them to make their way through easily. The place was a mess however, the stench of smoke and alcohol, the amount of animals dancing and screaming in order to even hear themselves over the speakers blaring ear piercing music.

The furniture of the main room had been pulled over the edges to leave space on the center, where most of the guests were partying, though a lot of them were drawn to specific pieces of furniture and would gravitate to hang out close to it, for example the horrendous lava lamp they mentioned back at the apartment. Their friend however, was not near it like Kim had suspected, not that he even knew what he looked like.

He tried looking around for a reptile amidst the group. Not a lot in the main party room, just a bunch of drunk mammals, like the okapi laying down on the couch with a bottle of beer in his hand, laughing with a panther while a concerned deer looked over them, sitting on the couch’s arm rest…. The moment it took Kim to double check it was Elias was enough for the okapi to notice him and drunkenly wave while shouting his name, but the music was still loud enough to keep anyone from giving him weird looks. Kim had to gesture to him to wait for a bit, as curious as he was about the okapis’s current predicament, it didn’t seem wise to make Carmelina wait.

When Kim turned to look at her he found her looking straight at the kitchen, which was way bigger and fancier than he had expected for a college student, fancy enough to have an island, a proper one separating the main kitchen area with the rest of the apartment. Fancy, even if it was filled with drinks and a few animals sitting on top of it, like a lizard for example, though like the rest of them he didn't look as thrilled to be there.

He was surrounded by a group of four gray wolves, a pack if you will. They looked quite inebriated, generally that would spell trouble, especially given their erratic body language. Before he could approach them himself Carmelina had already rushed towards them.

A rather loud scream made the wolves turn their attention towards her, they didn’t look very pleased. Kim took the precaution of moving next to her in the off chance that they or Carmelina did anything stupid.

One of the wolves took a step forward, he had a noticeable red stain on his white shirt, wine, most likely. “Hey what's the bitch doing here?” They already seemed like charming young lads. “When did anyone invite you here?”

“Go crawl back to wherever you came from.” Another one chimed in.

“Yeah get lost Carmen, no one wants you here.” The comment wasn't really what got to her, mainly the nickname.

The lizard looked down, his greenish scales looked a bit scuffed up, and so did his black sweater and white shirt combo, as a matter of fact it had a pretty nasty red stain on it, similar to the wolf’s.

She took a step forward and so did Kim, just in case. “Leave him alone Jake.” She barked at the wolf with the stained shirt, but he seemed unfazed.

He threw a considerably nastier insult than bitch at her and then smirked. “This asshole isn't going anywhere until he pays for my shirt,” he turned to the lizard, “and this shit wasn't cheap.”

“He's not paying for anything, now let him go.”

“Or what?” Him and the other three wolves started closing in on her. “What're you gonna do bitch?”

Kim sighed and stepped in front of her. “Do you really want to do this?”

“And who the fuck are you old man?” He snarled at the horse.

“Personal security.” He shrugged, and then cracked his fists. “Look, you guys are drunk enough for me to give you another chance to back off. No take backsies though.”

The wolves laughed and looked at each other, then back at the horse. “And if we don't?” One said defiantly. “You think you can go against us asshole?”

“I’m pretty positive about it.” Kim said adjusting his stance, knowing they had already confirmed their course or action. “I'm just waiting for you to step up.”

“What are you doing?!” Carmelina whispered in the horse's ear but was promptly nudged to the side as the wolf in the stained shirt lunged at Kim.

With the jackal to the side Kim effortlessly dodged the drunken wolf and tripped him over with his foot, leaving him to fall with a thud drawing the attention of the other party goers. Before they could even process what had just happened two of the other wolves rushed him.

They tried throwing the horse on the ground, but their drunken strength wasn't enough to knock down the equine, the best they could do was wobble around as they tried pushing him down. It would’ve been quite a pathetic display was it not for the fact that in his frustration, one of the wolves bit down on Kim’s left arm, sending a wave of pain through it as the booze ridden fangs sank deep into his flesh.

He tried shaking his arm to get him off, but his mobility wasn’t the best with both because of his weight and the fact that he still had the other wolf trying his damndest to push him down. With neither of his assailants showing any signs of stopping Kim had to resort to headbutting the wolf that was latched onto his arm, the sheer force of the strike was enough to disorient the horse for a second, only catching a glimpse of the wolf with crimson on his mouth falling to the ground.

Streaks of blood dripped down his arm all the way down to his hand, he could feel the pain spreading as he lifted the arm to pummel the other wolf until he let go. However that didn’t keep him out of the fight for long, as his drunken resilience pushed him to charge the horse again.

The wolf wrapped his arms around Kim and pushed him backwards towards where the furniture was, Kim could feel the other party goers chanting as they moved out of the way. He tried wrestling with him, but he kept on pushing them further back until Kim felt his back make contact with something, this gave him enough support to push back.

With a grunt the horse tried using his knee to hit the wolf’s groin with his newfound support, and miraculously was able to connect, this was enough to soften his grip and for Kim to push him off. The best turn of events would’ve been for the wolf to fall down on his knees, but he seemed intent on throwing himself back at him.

In a split second decision Kim moved slightly to grab whatever was supporting him, which just turned out to be that horrendous lamp, something that made what he was about to do a little less unfortunate.

Combining the strength of his intact arm and the one that was now making a mess on the floor with all his blood, he managed to lift up the lamp. The wolf looked at him in shock as the tacky lamp came down on him, throwing him down to the ground.

Kim was expecting the thing to break down as soon as it made contact with the wolf, but somehow it didn’t, which was probably for the best. It did get a pretty nasty crack though.

He left the lamp back where it was and tried regaining some sort of stability from the pain, only then realizing that basically all the room was looking at him. Half of them were too drunk to even realize what was going on but they were still drawn to the commotion, the others were either drunkenly chanting to stir up the flames or pointing the portable phone thingies at him, for some reason.

He huffed, relaxing his stance ever so slightly, looking over to the couch where he saw Elias and his friends. He was planning on looking cool and giving them a thumbs up, which turned out to not be his best move, as they were already preoccupied pointing him in the direction of the kitchen, with Elias shouting something desperately.

It didn’t matter how fast he reacted, there was no way he could’ve stopped the bottle that struck him on the side of the head.

A ringing could be heard on his left ear as he wobbled around the room dazed.

He heard a muffled scream of his name through the dizziness.

Hazy figures and lights surrounding him, only being able to make out the silhouette of another wolf standing in front of him, clutching something in his hand.

The wolf’s arm lifted up, the hazy light illuminating the bottle as he held it high, ready to strike him down.

Before Kim could meet his end at the hand of a drunken college student a loud swear was heard and then, in an instant, the wolf was no longer towering over him.

Instewad it laid on the floor, bottle shattered beside him as someone pinned him down.

Whatever happened afterwards was completely overshadowed by the pain that started taking over Kim’s body, pushing him down to his knees as he held his head, his fist clenched.

Despite his best efforts his conscience started escaping him.

His knees finally gave out and he dropped to the ground.

***

Kim woke up to a stinging sensation on his arm and a mild disorientation, which was to be expected after everything that went down. What he didn’t expect however was to be back at Mark’s apartment, resting comfortably, in a way, and not in the middle of the hallway or something even worse, had the wolves managed to retaliate, but it looked like things turned out well, if well meant having his left arm bitten and probably a concussion to boot.

It took a bit for him to fully regain consciousness and take in his surroundings. When his eyes finally adjusted to the light he realized just how crowded the room felt now. Not only were Mark, Theo and Carmelina sitting on the table, but also their reptilian friend and, for some reason, Elias’ friends were also here, but there was no sign of the okapi.

His hand reached for his head, he could feel the spot where the wolf struck him and the bump that was left there, he sighed as he dropped his arm back on the couch.

“Good to see you’re finally up.” That was Carmelina’s voice, of course. Kim looked over at her, the reptile sitting by her side, holding his arm and looking down. “They got you pretty good.”

“Yeah, but I’m good.” the horse said with a grunt. “I just need to sit up a little.”

“You really shouldn’t.” A different voice called out to him from the table, he recognized it as one of Elias' friends, Delilah the deer. “You shouldn’t be moving right now, you’re concussed. You need to rest.”

The horse sighed and despite her warnings tried getting up, but then a headache started taking hold, and he decided to follow her instructions. Defeated, he looked over at his left arm, realizing it had been bandaged, which was probably a good call. “I’m guessing you did this.” He said lifting his arm lightly and immediately regretting it.

“Yeah, and please try not to move it that much.” Her tone turned quite stern when she said that last part, almost as if she had to deal with this kind of nonsense daily.

“If you say so.” He left his arm resting on the couch and laid there for a bit, waiting for someone to speak up, but they stayed quiet. If he had to guess they wanted him to keep his mouth shut because of the concussion, which was thoughtful yeah, but the last thing he wanted right now was for things to stay this awkward, also he was curious as to what had happened to Elias. “Where did Eli go?”

The deer sighed, “he’s sleeping beside the couch, he was pretty drunk,” Kim turned his head to the ground and lo and behold he was there, sleeping without so much as a sound. “Also you should try to avoid talking, it’ll make it worse.”

“Are you a nurse or something?”

“I went to medical school if that puts you at ease.” Kim could feel her huffing when she said that.

“Point taken.” He remained silent for a little bit longer after that, but somehow things now felt even more awkward, so a part of him started pushing for more talking, or maybe the concussion wasn’t letting him read the room properly. “No one else got hurt right?” He didn’t dare to turn and look at the deer.

“No, mostly you.” Luckily it was the jackal speaking now, so he wasn’t going to get a talking to, at least for now. “Sam’s a little shaken up though.”

Kim turned his head a little, avoiding the deer, to get a look at the lizard. He had taken off the stained sweater, some of the wine had managed to reach down onto the shirt too unfortunately, but he looked alright, all things considered.

When he realized the horse was looking at him his head went even lower. “I’m sorry I got you into that. I should’ve just paid.”

“It’s ok, really.” He gave him a reassuring nod. “I deal with this kind of stuff all the time, and I usually don’t get medical treatment, so this is a step up.” He managed to catch a glimpse of the look that deer gave him and he started to wish he had never said anything. “Point is, it’s all part of the job, Eli can confirm that, whenever he wakes up.”

“Yeah, don’t beat yourself up about it dumbass.” Carmelina gave the lizard a friendly nudge, which lifted his spirits ever so slightly.

Kim smiled to himself and went back to being quiet. With most of the tension gone it looked like the others felt a little more eager to talk amongst themselves, still quietly as to not disturb the horse or wake Elias up, though from how hard he was sleeping they could probably start screaming and he wouldn’t even flinch.

Lying there on the couch with them as background noise made him think about a few things, among them how much he missed this, hearing animals you know just talking, staying over at a friend’s place. He wished they did more of that at the office, it’s true that the boss always tried getting them to go out, and they usually agreed, but it didn’t really feel the same. It still wasn’t scratching that itch of connection he was sorely missing in his life.

Thinking about it, he hadn’t really asked any of them to go out himself, most of the time he let the boss handle that, maybe planning one of those meetings would make him happy. He could probably figure something out with Remmi and surprise him and Yulian.

Speaking of the giraffe, she was probably wondering why he hadn’t shown up, or at least called her to let her know the job was done. So he should probably put the phone thingy to use for once, at least to let her know.

He snatched the phone out of his pocket and saw that he had two missed calls and a few messages from her. He would’ve called, but the time on the device was already nearing three, so she was probably asleep by now, so he just opted to send a message.

Thanks to her lessons it was less of a hassle to reach the messages app to see what she had sent.

• Picking up a job the boss wanted to give you

Way less fun than yours, you’re lucky

It was a little weird for the boss to come up with work that late, who knows what that might’ve been about. Next messages were around an hour and a half after the first ones.

Had a few problems, like usual

It’s done though

How is it in your end?

There was a pause in the messages, maybe when she tried to call him.

You should try picking up

You didn’t fall asleep on the job, did you?

Kim felt a little bad about leaving her wondering like that, but also it was funny seeing her show some kind of concern for him.

He sent her a message the best he could.

• Sorry for taking so long Rem

Sounds like you had fun

Had to beat up a few drunks

They got me pretty good but I’m ok don’t worry

I’ll let tell you at the office

Good night

Typing that out took him way more time than he would’ve liked, he even started getting a bit of a headache, but he did it, and now he could rest his eyes for a bit. Though now that he thought about it he didn’t know if he should stay here, but getting back home would also be a problem in his current state.

He looked over at the table and to the deer, “You think it’s ok if I go back home?”

She raised an eyebrow and then shook her head. “I told you, you need to rest, Mark said you can stay the night.”

“Really?”

“Of course!” The otter chimed in, but then turned down his voice a little remembering the situation. “No one’s sleeping on the couch so you might as well, and it’s the least we could do after how you helped us.”

“I told you it’s all part of the job.”

“But we called you for the game, not for that.” He said, a little embarrassed.

Kim chuckled, even though it hurt a little. “Then take it as a complimentary gift.”