FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Dark skies. Menacing grey clouds. Rain falling in sheets. The crumbling concrete jungle the humans called a city was in utter ruins. Chunks were missing out of buildings; fires hissed in the storm's onslaught, the streets were littered with crashed and abandoned cars. Every now and again you'd come across road blocks riddled with bullet holes, empty bullet casings littering the streets. Sometimes there would be bodies, slumped against a wall or left with a bundle of flowers clasped in their cold hands, unable to be removed from the battlefield and given a proper burial. Other times it was just blood, scorch marks, cracks in the walls where bullets had embedded themselves.

It was a truly sombre sight, R'kan thought to himself as he ground to a halt in the middle of the street. It was all so pointless, so wasteful, and definitely not his fault. So what was he doing, then? Why did he have a bulky rifle clutched tightly in his claws? Honestly, he didn't know himself. He was what the humans called a 'Demon'. No, stop thinking about horned red people holding tridents, that was just a stupid name given to his species, perhaps for the purpose of propaganda. Or maybe just to insult them. He was, in actuality, a Lahzid; a lizard-man. He had a humanoid form; two arms, two legs, a slightly elongated neck upon which his muzzled head sat. His maw was filled with quite sharp, carnivorous teeth, his eyes were slitted and bright amber in colour, and most obviously, his entire body was covered from head to toe in dull blue scales.

His back was sparsely decorated by streaks of navy blue colouring, giving him an almost stripy look, but the pattern was too irregular to be classed as stripy. Of course, the colour and pattern of one's scales varied from individual to individual, as did eye colour, talon colour, horn length, frill size and tail length. R'kan himself had a three-foot-long tail and a short, webbed frill that ran from the back of his head, down his neck, until it angled down into his upper back, disappearing between his muscular shoulder blades. He had black, retractable talons on his four-fingered hands and feet. He had two short, relatively straight horns coming off the back of his head on either side of his frill, just above his pointed ears.

His black combat boots crunched some glass underfoot as he made his way down the street. He was clad in human military desert camo gear, not exactly ideal for the conditions, but that's exactly why it had been so easy to steal; nobody would want to wear bright sandy yellows, browns and blotches of beige in the middle of a grey and black city. He wore no facial gear except a pair of goggles to keep the harsh rain out of his eyes, though they'd taken some tinkering to fit the rather wide gap between his two eyes, which weren't quite on the sides of his head – they still faced forward – but they were damn near enough to it.

Suddenly, the loud clapping of hurried, irregular footsteps invaded R'kan's hearing. His head snapped in the direction of the noise, sensitive ears twitching slightly as they deciphered the fact that whoever was running was running away from him. A human soldier, fetching backup? R'kan had to intercept or he'd be dead meat. He quickly dropped into a sprint, knowing that his physical superiority should catch him up so long as the human's destination wasn't too far away. He briefly wondered why the soldier was being so sloppy; surely he could have snuck away? This seemed clumsy, a trap maybe? R'kan made sure to be extra cautious.

The footfalls ceased, and R'kan pressed himself against a nearby alleyway wall, straining his ears.

“Shit! M-m-m-Mack! I saw one! Shit! There was a Demon! We're screwed Mack! They're gonna fucking find us!" a hysterical voice ranted.

“Daniel," another voice said urgently, sounding very strained. “Did it see you?" There was a moment of complete silence, and R'kan found himself holding his breath unconsciously.

“I-I-I-I don't know," 'Daniel' stuttered. “Oh god, what if I led it here? Oh fuck, I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" R'kan heard the footsteps from before coming closer, obviously Daniel's. It was an odd sound he made when he moved through the puddles. Splish, splash! Splish, splash! Was the human only wearing one boot?

“Daniel, where are you going?"

“I-I don't know. I need to find the Demon, make sure that it only finds me. I can't let all you guys die because of how stupid I am!"

“You're being stupid right now. Look, you only saw one, right?" A short pause, presumably in which Daniel nodded. “Right. So, we've got guns. Should be easy enough to take on one of them, right?"

“What if it goes and gets backup? What if it's listening right now!" A loud smack!

“Get a hold of yourself! We're going to be okay! We'll… we'll hold out for just a little longer, scavenge around for a radio. Then we can call in someone to get us out of here, alright?" Another lull in the conversation. “Alright?!" R'kan's curiosity got the better of him, and he peeked around the corner. A well-muscled man in a black vest and a bandanna tied around his head was looking down on a younger, smaller man dressed in a messy, grey, unbuttoned business suit, which had a brown saddlebag strapped over it. The white shirt he wore underneath was stained with mud and sweat, and his black trousers were ripped in several places, but mostly the right leg. R'kan studied his black shoes, both of which were present, and shrugged mentally. The older man, Mack, itched his small patch of white-haired beard and sighed as Daniel nodded miserably.

R'kan mentally kicked himself when he suddenly realised what he was looking at. Civilians. Neither of them were armed. The two turned to leave, but R'kan seized the opportunity and leapt out from his hiding spot, training his gun on them.

“Hold it!" he barked, gaining both their attentions simultaneously. Daniel shrieked and collapsed onto his knees, babbling unintelligibly with his arms stuck high above his head. Mack merely looked startled, raising his hands slowly.

“Easy there big guy," Mack pleaded. “Kill me if you have to, but please, let the kid live. He's harmless, barely into adulthood."

“I'm not here to hurt anyone," R'kan assured him, lowering his weapon, “I'm just here to talk." R'kan raised his hands also, mimicking Mack's pose, before lowering the limbs, letting them hang loosely by his sides, watching approvingly as Mack cautiously did the same.

“What do you want?" the gruff man demanded.

“You guys obviously have a hideout. All I want is a place to stay, out of the storm, until the rest of my unit arrives. Then maybe we can all get out of this city together, yeah?" Mack gave him an untrusting glare. “If I wanted to hurt you, I would have done so already," R'kan reminded him.

“Or maybe you're just waiting for us to lead you to the others, so you can slaughter us all at once," Mack suggested. R'kan sighed and decided he needed to take a leap of faith. He unstrapped his rifle from his back offered it to Mack. The wary human snatched the weapon out of his hands and studied it, fumbling with the buttons until the clip slid out into his hand. It was definitely full of bullets. He slapped the magazine back in and held the gun by his side. “I don't like this. I've never heard of a Demon doing this before."

“And I've never seen civilians struggling to survive in a warzone before," R'kan countered. “My fight is not with you. You have chosen not to enlist with those who would attempt to eradicate my species for no reason; therefore you do not deserve to be punished for their actions."

“Whoa, no reason?" Mack choked out. “Your species assaulted us from orbit! You sent an invasion force down here and started shooting up the place! You attacked us unprovoked!"

“I think," R'kan told him soothingly, “that this is best left to when we're all warm and sheltered – I think Daniel is about to die of hypothermia." Mack suddenly looked down to where Daniel was still kneeling, now shaking violently as he sat in his little puddle of rainwater, hair matted to his head as the rain continued pouring down on them.

“Daniel, why are you still sitting there? C'mon buddy, get up, on your feet!"

“I can't…" Daniel mumbled, looking away in shame, grimacing at an unseen pain. Mack quickly offered his free hand to the kneeling civilian, hauling the petrified man to his feet.

“You didn't break it again, did you?" Daniel said nothing, continuing to stare down at the ground. “Did you?" Daniel shrugged, unable to get his voice to work. “Can you walk?"

“I… I think so…" he whispered hoarsely. Mack clapped him on the shoulder gently.

“Okay. Okay." Mack let out a long breath and rubbed the back of his neck as he stepped away from his friend. “Stacy will take a look at you as soon as we get back, alright?" Daniel nodded, reverting back to silence. R'kan watched the scene unfold in complete and utter silence, not quite understanding what was happening. “Alright Scales, I'll lead the way. You follow behind Daniel." Mack stepped closer, so their faces were inches apart. “And if he looks any worse for wear when we reach the hideout, there'll be hell to pay, you hear me?" R'kan nodded, not understanding the full extent of Mack's words, but knowing he was never intending to cause harm to Daniel anyway.

Mack began walking, mouth set in a hard line as he led the way, Daniel close behind. However, after taking one step, his right leg gave out and he went tumbling towards the ground. Reacting instantly and instinctively, R'kan lashed out and managed to snatch him out of the air at the last second, preventing his body from hitting the hard concrete. Mack spun on his heel angrily when he heard Daniel's gargled noise of pain, aiming R'kan's own rifle at him. “What the fuck did you just do to him?" Mack demanded, thrusting the gun in his face. R'kan's expression turned pleading, and he would have put his hands up if he hadn't been supporting Daniel's weight.

“No! You don't understand! I didn't –"

“It's-it's okay Mack," Daniel cut in meekly, managing a weak smile. “He caught me. I – my stupid leg! It's acting up again! I probably shouldn't have dropped to my knees like that before."

“That's not your fault, Daniel," Mack informed him, shooting a glare at R'kan to make it very clear whose fault it really was. “Damn it. You can't walk, can you?"

“He doesn't need to," R'kan grunted as he swung Daniel's body up so the human was being held bridal-style. “You are incredibly light; do these people feed you enough?" Daniel blushed and wrapped his arms around R'kan's neck for extra security.

“At least you're trying to make up for the damage you've caused. That's new," Mack commented sourly, before turning and continuing to lead the way. “Come on, we're not far. We try not to venture too far away from our little base in case we need help."

“You really think I'm light?" Daniel murmured quietly, hoping Mack wouldn't hear.

“Well, it may just be my awesome muscles, but I have no doubt I won't be the slightest bit tired by the time we reach this base of yours," R'kan answered with a mischievous grin, glad that at least one of the humans was trying to get along. He got the feeling these 'others' would be a lot less friendly than the injured man in his arms. Daniel giggled slightly and adjusted himself so he was more comfortable, ending up with his head tucked neatly beneath R'kan's muzzle. The Lahzid could feel his frail form vibrating violently as his soaked clothing chilled him to the bone, the howling wind and pelting rain not making matters any better.

“Here we are," Mack announced. He stopped in front of an ordinary apartment building and rapped his knuckle on the door three times. “It's Mack, and we have a guest. Don't shoot – he's friendly… I hope." He muttered the last part under his breath, not wanting to cause more unease than necessary. The door opened a crack and a pair of hazel eyes peeked out at the three figures standing in the rain. The eyes took one quick look before hauling the door wide open, allowing them entrance. Mack let out a whoosh of breath. “Thanks Pete. For not freaking out. It's going to be hard enough getting used to having that around without worrying about you guys killing him." 'Pete' shrugged.

“If he's helping Daniel out, he can't be all that bad."

“Regardless, please, don't tell anyone yet. Same goes for you too, Daniel. I need to get this all sorted out first." Now inside the dim building, the door swung shut behind him and Mack addressed the small group. “Pete, could you please take Daniel to Stacy?" Pete nodded, and R'kan put Daniel down, transferring his weight to Pete. “You, Demon. You come with me."

Daniel watched as Mack led R'kan away, then concentrated on limping through the foyer into the main part of their base. In the middle of the night in a city with no power, the room had only the light of a few candles strewn about by Pete during his shift, waiting for the two to return. Pete and Daniel crossed through another doorway, transferring into a brightly-lit room, on account of a small fire in the middle. This had been the building's gym, but had since been cleaned out and refurnished by the refugees. Around the fire sat six individuals, each turning to face the two latecomers. A young lady with long blonde hair and a worn nurse's uniform leapt to her feet and rushed over to the shivering mess that was Daniel.

“Good god! Get him out of those clothes and into my room immediately!" she ordered frantically. She helped Pete lead Daniel into the gym's changing rooms, which now served as an infirmary and storage area of sorts. Pete left to go catch the others up to speed, leaving Stacy to examine the near-naked Daniel. Pete had taken all Daniel's clothes except his briefs – for the sake of decency – to be dried by the fire. Stacy clucked disapprovingly as she gently examined Daniel's leg.

She grimaced, her mouth set in a tight line. “I was afraid this was going to happen. That experimental drug made the bone set wrong. If you'd left it intact a few more days, the damage would have been permanent. You won't be able to walk around anymore, but hey, at least we can get it fixed once we reach civilisation. If you hadn't broken it again…"

“There would have been no hope," Daniel finished for her.

“There's always hope. Before you and Mack showed up, I was telling myself the same thing: I was going to die, alone, trapped in a quarantine locker until the power ran out and I suffocated. And do you remember who disabled the security protocols? Do you remember who the only person able to work those computers was?" Daniel sighed and made sure to keep his eyes averted. “Have a little faith, yeah? Mack knows what he's doing. He'll save us, just like you saved me. And as long as we all keep believing that, we'll be strong enough to help him; strong enough to pull through."

Stacy grabbed a neatly-folded blanket off a pile and gently draped it around Daniel's shoulders. He smiled gratefully and pulled the material around himself tightly. “Speaking of Mack… where is that dog now? I bet his clothes are no direr than yours – I have no cure for hypothermia here, ya know!"

Daniel chuckled half-heartedly and told her Mack was taking care of some business, before thanking her and making his way to the fire. It wasn't exactly a warm fire, but that's the downfall of using such a big room as your base of operations; the heat dispersed quickly, making the fire about as warm as a torch that runs on double-a's. A few members moved to help him, but he waved them off, using the wall as his second leg until he reached one of the bench seats that had been set up around the fire pit, where he sat in silence, shivering.

Stacy brushed past them into the foyer, then returned with Mack in tow a few minutes later.

“… only skin and bone, and his body's devoting most of his energy to his injury. You should be fussing over him, I'm fine."

“Just take a damn blanket you stubborn old goat. I'm not asking you to play strip poker with me, just let your clothes dry by the fire."

“Stubborn old goat?" Harry echoed amusedly from his place by the fire. Stacy and Mack suddenly remembered they had just walked into an occupied room, their conversation ceasing. Mack reluctantly walked into the changing rooms, and returned clad in just a blanket, dumping his clothes by the fire.

“We, ah, we have a new, temporary, guest. I'm not asking you to trust him, just don't kill him. And don't freak out either. Please?"

“Stop being so melodramatic and bring him out," Fred growled, crossing his arms.

“Okay, but don't say I didn't warn you. Pete! Bring him in please!" The door opened, with Pete holding it, and in stepped R'kan. Instantaneous uproar. People were leaping to their feet, yelling, jabbing accusing fingers everywhere. “Calm down!" Mack yelled. Everyone begrudgingly settled and took to their seats. If looks could kill…

“My name is R'kan," the Lahzid explained. “I only wish to be given shelter until such a time as my people can rescue me. I will not force you to do anything, nor will I harm any of you, and will leave whenever you tell me to. You have my word – and my gun." Pete gestured to the rifle in his hand for emphasis.

“Why the hell would you think this is a good idea?" Jerry demanded hysterically.

“He's just like us," Mack soothed. “Only waiting to get out of here. He surrendered to us in good faith."

“Yeah? There's no way in hell I'm getting any sleep with that thing around. It'll kill us as soon as our eyes close," Fred growled.

“We can post guards if it would make you feel better," Mack offered, beginning to feel exasperated.

“Or we could just kill him and give everyone a good night's sleep," Lauren countered. She got a few nods of agreement.

“I trust Mack, he hasn't led us astray thus far. If he believes this Demon means well, so do I," Pete opinionated.

“I hate to go against ya Mack, but Fred has a point. This guy can kill us all with his bare hands," Harry pointed out. “It doesn't matter how many guards we post, this guy will always have the upper hand."

“Well, I mean, if he hasn't killed us all already, that's got to be a good sign then?" Caitlin tried. “He could be quite useful, seeing as he is stronger than all of us. He could carry heavy stuff for us; help us scavenge."

“That thing is death!" Jerry screamed.

“If I know those two mug heads," Stacy started, gesturing towards Mack and Daniel with a sweep of her arm, “which I do, then neither of them asked this – Rih-kahn? – to carry Daniel. That's gotta say something about him." She received a bundle of confused stares at how she came across this information. “What?" she demanded. “I'm a nurse. I can tell if somebody's been walking on a broken leg, and there's no way Mack carried him all the way over here without damaging something."

Pete's lips moved slightly as he counted all the votes.

“That's four against, and four with Mack," he informed the group. Everyone turned to Daniel, who had been silent this entire time, making him shrink back into his blanket, as if trying to hide from the searching glares. “Daniel? Your vote decides whether this Demon, this unarmed person, lives or dies."

“Your vote," Fred grated out, “decides whether we all die in our sleep or not. Whether we ever get to see our families again, whether husbands, wives and children will lose a vital part of their family."

Daniel rubbed his eyes in frustration. That was a lot of emotive language on both sides – a lot of valid arguments. The eyes were boring holes into his soul; he couldn't take it any longer.

“I-I think he's nice," he blurted out. Then he blushed and hid his face with his blanket.

“Oh come on! Daniel's just a kid!" Fred argued. “He doesn't know what he's talking about! He's been sucked in by the Demon's act – youthful minds are easily misled."

“I'm twenty years old and everyone here knows that you'd have a very different view on my age had I agreed with you," Daniel snapped fiercely. That shut him up. Mack clapped his hands together and sighed in relief.

“Then it's settled; R'kan stays." Mack and Pete wandered over to the fire and took their seats, everyone starting a quiet conversation or busying themselves with some arbitrary task, such as whittling or polishing weapons. R'kan sensed a great tension between everyone, and knew he was the cause. There were empty spaces where he could sit, but he was more concerned about who he was going to be sitting next to. There was a place between Mack and Stacy, but Mack's trust of him was limited at best and Stacy seemed only to have some begrudging gratitude because of how he'd helped Daniel. There was a wide gap between Pete and Fred, but he didn't believe going anywhere near Fred would bode well for his health, particularly because the human had a wicked hunting knife strapped to his leg. The only other place was next to Daniel, who was alone on his bench, the closest person being Caitlin, who was smiling uneasily at the hulking Lahzin figure. It was an obvious choice.

R'kan gently lowered himself next to the blanket-covered form of Daniel.

“How's the leg doing?" he asked softly, trying to ignore the quick glares thrown in his direction.

“Ironically, it would have been a lot worse if you hadn't showed up and made me break it," Daniel answered bitterly. R'kan nodded, and thought it might be best to avoid the topic of Daniel's leg, as it obviously upset him, but his curiosity got the better of him.

“How did it happen?"

“Rubble crushed it after the building I worked at got bombed. Stacy tried to fix it up when we found her, but the drug she used was a new and untested one, designed to heal strong and fast. It did its job, I guess. I could walk pretty quickly after I took it, and the bone would have been very resilient if allowed to heal properly. The only problem is that it was healing wrong. Stacy thinks that my leg can be restored back to full health, but I myself think that if the newest and most innovative drug can't fix it, nothing can."

R'kan nodded sombrely. But questions still lingered.

“Why was your military bombing its own cities?"

“It wasn't the humans who bombed this city, R'kan," Daniel told him angrily.

“Oh yeah? And where would we have gotten the human bomber jets? We exhausted our own resources a long time ago, and have been relying on stolen human stuff ever since. Take me for example; human clothes, human gun – and I stole those from a corpse. We can't afford to raid human outposts with what we have, so how would we have gotten our claws on even one jet? Let alone enough to bomb an entire city." Daniel opened his mouth to argue, but found there was nothing to say.

“Oh god. We-we were attacked by our own people? That doesn't make any sense! They killed everyone! My co-workers, my friends… people's families… children. Why?"

“What do you think I'm here to find out?" R'kan retorted. “My people thought that there might have been a few Lahzids hiding in the city, so they sent me and a few others to scout it out. But destruction of this scale… the only thing that would justify it is if there was an entire legion of armed troops encamped here – which there definitely was not." R'kan knew there were, however, plenty of Lahzids nearby, just not in the city per se. Daniel just sat in shaky silence, staring into the distance at nothing in particular. “Hey, uh, you wanna know something neat about my kind?" Daniel reluctantly made eye contact, his eyes red and slightly teary. “We, uh…" R'kan faltered, then found his place again. “We can actually control the temperature of our scales. It's a defence mechanism of sorts. You see, we've been hunted by an extraterrestrial race for hundreds of years, and making our scales an ambient temperature hid us from their thermal scanners, and making our scales red hot made it hard for any predators to grab us without protection. Then of course, we need a nice, cosy warm temperature when nesting – sitting on our eggs, that is."

R'kan scratched the back of his neck embarrassedly at the expectant, beady eyes. “So, you know, if you're ever too cold…" Daniel quickly broke eye contact and blushed at the unspoken suggestion. R'kan was aware that they had attracted the attention of a few of the others. A very distasteful look from Fred particularly stood out to him. R'kan sighed as he watched Daniel fail to suppress his shivering and gently reached out, scooting over so their bodies were closer. “Here…" he commanded gently, lifting the blanket so as to allow his scales to touch the human's bare skin.

“Oh god!" Daniel moaned as he all but collapsed onto R'kan. Lauren jumped to her feet, wielding a crowbar, but stood down when she saw Daniel adjusting himself and his blanket so as to more comfortably press himself tightly against R'kan's side. “Y-you weren't kidding! You're like a… a… a really warm thing…" R'kan slipped an arm around his shoulders to ensure the heat was spread to both sides of his body and rubbed his arm soothingly.

“You are unnaturally cold," R'kan observed, his features creasing with lines of worry. “Why ever did you run out into that storm?" Daniel gestured over to his bag.

“Parts, to build something that can get us out of here. Does it hurt when you make your scales hot? I mean, if you can still feel the heat, won't you burn yourself?"

“Our nerves retract once our scales reach a temperature ten degrees hotter or colder than our internal body temperature. We can also detect heat from a special organ in our horns. I guess the best way to describe it is as a second sense of smell; except we can smell hot and cold, instead of bitter and sweet. It's not exactly thermal vision, considering the average horns only work in a two metre radius. But it's all relative to height you see; a taller Lahzid will have longer horns, and will be able to detect further. This is because our horns are on the top of our body, and we need to detect our heat right down to each toe, so the radius, which is always roughly an even distance in every direction, needs to be slightly taller than we are. I'm a few inches taller than average, being six-foot-nine, so I'll be able to detect heat a few inches further away. But none of that matters unless you're paying specific attention, because keeping track of so many senses at the same time would drive you insane, so we have to concentrate to use it, and some Lahzids can't use it at all."

“Wow. I don't know whether to be more amazed at your biology, or the fact that I followed all of that," Daniel remarked with a grin. R'kan chuckled softly, but was cut short when he suddenly realised all other activity had ceased and everyone had been listening in on their conversation.

“Hey Daniel," Stacy hailed, shuffling over a little awkwardly. “I made you a splint and thought you might want to put it on before we all get some sleep." Daniel nodded gratefully and shuffled forward, using his hands to manoeuvre his broken leg, gritting his teeth in pain.

“I think that drug might have killed some of my nerves too, because this isn't hurting nearly as much as I expected it to," he speculated as Stacy set to work, strapping on a wooden plank that would hopefully straighten out his leg.

“I don't know Daniel. I guess we'll find out when we get you to a proper hospital. But for now, that'll do damn fine I think." She stepped back and admired her work, nodding approvingly after giving it the once-over. Soon afterwards, the group were all busying themselves in getting their makeshift beds ready. Various soft items such as cushions were more commonly used than the two actual bed mattresses due to looters stealing most of the bedding nearby, and they only had enough blankets for the nine of them.

“Maybe you can sleep with him too?" Fred snarled at Daniel as he brushed past.

“Maybe I will!" Daniel shot back at him. “Then when you get frostbite, I'll laugh as I amputate your leg. See how much you like limping around for the rest of your life."

“I'm not saying I disapprove of your idea, but if you have sex with that thing I'll blow my brains out all over your naked bodies," Harry joked.

“Oh come on, you know I'm not that cheap. He's gotta take me out to at least three fancy dinners first." The two laughed before heading over to their corners of the room where their beds lay, Daniel being greatly assisted by R'kan.

“You would really offer me a place in your bed?" R'kan questioned once Daniel was comfortably lying down upon his sofa-cushion bed covered in his blanket.

“So long as you keep those scales nice and toasty," Daniel answered, his faintly-blushing face split into a grin. R'kan gratefully slid under the blanket next to the human, thankful for the soft 'mattress' and the energy-conserving blanket. He refrained from telling Daniel so, but changing the temperature of his scales chewed through energy; the bigger the change in temperature, the more energy will be consumed until returned to normal. “Goodnight R'kan," Daniel yawned, pressing his body close to the Lahzid's.

“Goodnight," R'kan cooed back.