FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Even through a landscape as regular as Darmia’s, Kale could still see the fractures in the crust which swelled as plateaus into the sky. They dominated the horizon and everything beyond it, their jagged facades struggling to fall into the place they were cracked out of. Estimates were that the planet wouldn’t achieve perfect stability until up to a century from now. It had only recently settled enough for recolonization, though quakes still abounded. It was a mighty fear of Kale’s that one would strike while the train zipped through its see-through tunnel. At the hypersonic speed it was currently traveling, just a minor bump or miscalculation would pulverize the car and everyone inside it. The metallic links connecting each segment of tunnel were several hundred meters apart and several feet wide and yet they passed by Kale’s window at a blur like the blades of a fan.

He tried not to let it bother him. The station was less than 20 minutes away, and the tunnel had been built with catastrophic quakes in mind. If anyone knew how safe the rails were, it was him. His entire career on Darmia had been spent planning and building these things. With the planet still recovering from multiple UOR strikes, it was crucial to put everything in the right place. Alongside a team of some of the galaxy’s greatest geologists and engineers, it was ensured that every rail and structure built was in the safest possible place.

He knew all that, and yet he couldn’t fully buck the paranoia towards something, anything, preventing a reunion with his girlfriend Tetha. Two months had passed since his trip into orbit kicked off. Scratchy phone calls and grainy video chats made for poor expressions of affection. The best either could offer without having to worry about getting cut-off mid-sentence was emails. They included pictures of one another on the job. In a perfectly sanitary, nigh colorless space station high above the planet, Kale was mostly reserved to selfies with the great, big, amber sphere that was the planet looming over his shoulder through a port window. Tetha could be more creative, showing him how the settlement was developing and the friends she was making. Kale was honest and told her how jealous he was. She said she felt the same since he was the one up there with the stars.

Now he was back planetside, watching the overhead screen in his cabin countdown the minutes towards arrival. The miles blipped away like milliseconds, the monitor’s framerate unable to display every number. Still, they hardly moved fast enough. Like a schoolchild he’d turn his attention away from the clock in hopes that the seconds would burn more quickly. A watched pot never boils. Instead, his gaze was back on the world around him, that jigsawed horizon of sand and dust whirling and coughing about.

“[i]Reaching Station Eta in five minutes[/i],” said the craft’s AI in a calm woman’s voice. One time Kale thought about programming his to sound like Tetha’s. He decided not to, wanting to keep the real one special. He felt the G-forces pull him towards the frontside of the cabin. The train was decelerating and would do so for the next five minutes. The timer clicked down as steadily as ever, but the mile counter’s plummet towards 0 started to visibly slow. [i]Five minutes. Twice as long as it takes to reach low orbit[/i], he noted dryly.

The blur of tunnel segments began to solidify outside Kale’s window. There came another announcement. “[i]Arriving at Station Eta. Please wait until instructed to exit your cabin. Thank you for your patience and enjoy the rest of your day.[/i]” Kale let out a long sigh. I’m finally here. The train slowed into the station. Kale gathered his belongings and put them in his Baggage Buddy. His cabin number was announced, and he stepped through the pneumatic door into the cabin where he saw one of his friends headed towards the exit with his own Buddy zooming along behind him. Kale followed at a brisk pace, finally coming through the exit tunnel. “[i]Thank you, and enjoy the rest of your day,[/i]” the AI said one last time.

Kale all but ran into the main lobby, ignoring the chatter of his crewmates as they expressed their own eagerness to reunite with their loved ones. His and their attire struck an odd contrast with the surrounding structure, its semi-chromed interior polished to a shimmer while the travelers pitter-pattering about wore no more than brown togas. Above was the glass dome spotlighting the central fountain. Friends and family had gathered around it, their happy squeals silenced by back-breaking hugs and emphatic kisses. Kale slowed down to scan the bunch, hoping he would spot Tetha among them, that her diminutive height would not be buried among the more statuesque species.

She was sitting on the edge of the fountain. The mix of black and white fur that was splotched across her rodentian frame made her a beacon. That and the patient smile she wore. She stood up to greet Kale as he came jogging after her, his Baggage Buddy’s electric motor whirring its little heart out to keep up. Without a word he skidded to a stop and bent over to hug her, his nose smushing into her twitchy, pink rat snout in a traditional Darmian kiss. She was so tiny, but in his arms, she weighed like a titan.

They parted the kiss with a mutual “mwah” as if their lips had been locked. Kale saw the tears in her eyes and felt his own threatening to fall down his cheeks. “I missed you so much,” she said in a squeaky voice. “How was your trip back?”

Kale realized he was holding her off the floor. He let her down and slid his hands down her arms so he could hold her paws. There was a light squeezing around his left ankle where her muscly worm tail coiled around him possessively. “Long,” he said. “Way too long.”

“It was only a couple of hours, wasn’t it? Those trains are fast.”

“Not fast enough.” His thumbs rubbed the back of her bony, pink paws. The four fingers left enough room in his grasp for perhaps a dozen more. He realized he was shaking. “God… I’m just so happy to see you.” A dumb grin flashed across his face. I must look like an idiot. [i]Fuck it. I don’t care. [/i]

“So am I.” She hoisted herself up to him and pecked his cheek with her cold rat nose, tickling him with her whiskers. His coworkers were starting to give their goodbyes and dispersing throughout the lobby, leaving Kale and Tetha alone by the fountain with his human height all the more conspicuous. “So, what do you wanna do first? Head home?”

“Eventually, yeah, but I’m itching for a drink. Still a little antsy from the train ride and they don’t serve alcohol.”

“Bummer. Don’t worry. There’s a new place out in C block. The gang likes to go there after work almost every day. If we leave now, we might see them.”

“Yeah, yeah. That sounds awesome. Let’s do that.” Kale looked behind him at his Baggage Buddy. “Go home and wait for me. Be safe.” The Buddy gave an affirmative [i]bee-bee-boop[/i], then zipped ahead on its own, electric motor whirring. “Alright, lead the way.”

The couple headed out of the station into the lip-splitting dryness of the open desert. Kale was forced to tie a scarf around his head while Tetha left herself exposed. The walk to the tram was a short one that reintroduced Kale to the joys of dune-trotting. Tetha maneuvered through the sand effortlessly while he was forced to wobble and adjust his gravity in his grain-choked sandals. He could see dozens of wheel marks cut through the sand where his and many other people’s Buddies had journeyed through the desert. Looking out on the horizon he could see perhaps a hundred more making their way to wherever they had been ordered to go, no more bothered or inconvenienced by the sand than the landscape itself.

The tram station greeted them with the roar of an AC unit the size of the buss giving off an icy breeze converse to what the scorching elements provided. The tram was a triple decker, its wedge-shaped cabin able to knife along the track like a shark’s fin. Tetha paid the fare and the couple climbed on. A three-decker colossus of a vehicle and Kale felt like he’d been stuffed inside. The hold loops hanging from the ceiling were in front of his face, requiring him to stoop among the shorter half breeds as they swayed to the shifting G-forces. He was the only human among them, the first ever seen by a few people riding with him. He was mindful of their curious and sometimes frightful glances, though he was careful not to return them. The irrational, if warranted, fear that pure-humans would come back to Darmia and create discrimination ran through their gazes. Kale often wondered if they thought that he was the first step in human recolonization, the first step in finishing what the orbital strikes had started. Tetha’s resolute grip around his ankle reminded him that there was nothing to worry about.

The tram pulled into the station. Kale was the last person on that deck to file out. The streets were loud with the hum of engines and chatter. Pedestrians walked the dusty roads casually, blind to the wind whipping up their togas. Kale squinted through his scarf so that he could admire the brutalist, rebrick façades of the settlement’s architecture. “It’s just a few blocks from here,” Tetha said. “Wanna walk? Or you wanna hitch a Buddy?”

Walking there would’ve seemed like a nice gesture, if just to spend more time right next to her. A particularly brutal gust of wind changed his mind. “Let’s get a Buddy.”

“No problem.” Tetha twisted her back to reach into her tail bag where she pulled out her omnitracker. It got a bead on one passing buddy that was headed in that direction. “That one,” she said, pointing at the large, black container rumbling forth on its treads. The couple hustled over to it and jumped up on one of the sidesteps. The Buddy acknowledged their presence with a solemn Doo-doot and continued its jogger’s pace down the street. Tetha pointed to the bar once it had peeled into view. The couple hopped off as it passed. The very moment Kale had his footing Tetha wrapped her tail back around his ankle and guided him into the bar. The interior greeted them with the typical roar of AC. There was a brief vacuum of silence where the desert winds did not blow, soon replaced by the friendly chatter of bar patrons having drinks and enjoying life.

The bar was on the left side of the floor, occupied from end to end by halflings. Interstellar sports games were on the screens, some of them as old as 20 years, only now reaching Darmia. At the end of the bar was a chubby rat fellow with tan fur. He happened to be putting down his pill mug when he looked over and saw Tetha wandering in with her prize. He raised his hand at her. “Tetha!” The rest of the bar heard, and they gave her an equally warm greeting. Tetha met the fellow at the end of the bar where they shared a squeaky whisker kiss. His head leaned back to look up at the human she was tied to. “And you must be Kale.” He extended his nose for a kiss before quickly recalling human customs and instead extended his chubby little mitt. “Name’s Ganch.”

Kale shook it. “Nice to meet you, Ganch.”

Tetha tugged on his ankle. “C’mon. Let me introduce you to the bunch.” She guided him down the whole bar, giving the name of each of her coworkers. All of them were familiar with the pure-human greeting, but a few refused to partake, extending their snouts for a whisker kiss. Kale, much more familiar with their customs than they were with his, reciprocated his lack of whiskers notwithstanding.

“That’s a nice one you got there, wire biter,” purred one sultry woman upon finishing her whisker kiss with him.

“Don’t I?” said Tetha, her tail tightening on him just a little.

The couple sat at the bar, Kale coming well above it as usual. They both had a drink courtesy of Branch. A toast was had, and everyone took a big swig. Sweet liqueur flooded Kale’s tongue, a luxury he hadn’t enjoyed thanks to the station’s strict no alcohol policy. He’d been dying to get drunk for a while now, but had no intentions here with Tetha, not on a day as momentous as this. While he chatted with her about the ZG-Ball game that was on he thought about his Baggage Buddy, wondering if it had gotten home alright. When Tetha wasn’t looking he checked his omnitracker. It had one notification: [i]Your Baggage Buddy has arrived.[/i] Kale hid a smile and tucked the device away, happy he could enjoy the game with Tetha and her coworkers.

“What’s wire biter?” he asked during a timeout.

“Huh? It’s my nickname,” she said.

“Oh yeah? Y’all got nicknames?”

“Of course. Makes things a lot more interesting than just plain ol’ Tetha.” She pronounced her name with some cartoonish derision.

“I think it’s a pretty name.”

“I know you do, but isn’t wire biter cooler?”

“I guess. Why they call you that?”

“I’m in computer repair. Half my time on the job is spent buried in a terminal, surrounded with wires and shit. They say it looks like I’m eating them, so they call me wire biter.”

Kale chuckled. “You know, on Earth rats and mice have a habit of chewing stuff up inside of homes, wires included.”

“Really? That’d be like calling you an orangutan.”

“How so?

“I’m only a few genomes away from you. In fact, I think you’re closer to an orangutan than I am a pure mouse.”

Kale simply nodded, amused by her pedantics. “I see.”

“You miss it?” she asked

“Miss what?”

“Earth, where you’re from.”

Kale was silent for a moment. “Sometimes, yeah. But then I remember everything I have here, and it doesn’t hurt as bad.”

Tetha smiled. “Well, whatever I can do to make things feel like you’re at home, I’ll do it.”

He laid his hand on her paw which was atop the table. “You’re doing it right now.” They shared a warm smile, then kissed. They stayed and watched the game until it was over. Kale wasn’t that big a fan of ZG-Ball, but he could feed off the excitement of his new friends, hooting and booing alongside them as the tide of the game ebbed and flowed. It came to a climax well into the evening when the sun had finished its rapid descent into the horizon. The winds had died down, but replacing it was a deathly desert chill which froze any and all activity in the streets. The rest of Tetha’s coworkers dispersed, and so did she and Kale. They stepped out into the frigid streets below a dome drenched in star light. Brightest was the Bloodstar, that Cygnian hypergiant gurgling its crimson light within the Milky way’s soup bowl.

“The meteors are going to be in a few minutes,” Tetha said. “Wanna stay and watch?”

Kale was clinging to his toga tightly to ward off the cold. He managed a smile and a nod. “Hell yeah.”

“Awesome. I know a place.” The couple wandered through the streets alone, their only company the few Buddies still making deliveries. She brought him to the crest of a particularly tall sand dune just outside the village where they were afforded a brilliant view of the sky and the Bloodstar. One of Darmia’s moons blotted out some of the stars. It was probably Irash, but Kale couldn’t tell.

The first meteor made its appearance as the couple sat on the very crest of the dune. It was joined by dozens more shortly after, their blazing white streaks peeling into the atmosphere with visibly flickering tails of plasma. Kale enjoyed the sight like he had from space, though in orbit he could see them every 45 minutes. Down here it was every 14 hours, and during the freezing cold. Sensing his shivers, Tetha scooted over and sat in his hip, her pleasantly plump hindquarters filling out his thighs with a blissful warmth and weight. He wrapped his arms around her and laid his chin on her head between her ears, their eyes guided up into the streaming rock storm. [i]If I’d known we were going to do this I would’ve kept my Buddy with us,[/i] Kale thought with some regret. Now would be the perfect time. [i]Oh well. Doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy the moment.[/i] That they did, remarking every time a particularly massive meteor would carve its way through the infinite.

“This is fun, but I kinda wanna head home now,” Tetha said after an hour of stargazing.

Kale’s heart started to pound. “Yeah, me too.” Without any Buddies on the street they were left to walk to Tetha’s apartment. It was in one of the settlement’s many residentials, a multi-storied complex packed with single rooms. Kale followed her to her apartment which he found in a mess, scattered togas and discarded meal packets were everywhere.

“Sorry about the mess,” she said after finally letting go of his ankle and waltzing towards the couch. She calmly peeled out of her toga and tossed it aside, the backside of her chubby curvature for Kale to look at. She came around to the front of the couch and lazily fell back on it. Flashing Kale were the two columns of beady pink nipples which ran down her pale, velvet under belly. One blubbery leg was kicked up on the backrest, the other with the foot on the floor. “I thought about cleaning up before you got here. Then I thought, ‘Nah.’”

Kale chuckled. “Yeah, that sounds about right.” He slid out of his own dress, his much scrawnier and hairless frame squeezing into the space between her and the backrest to form a spoon with her. Just the press of her back into his trunk sent ripples of delight through his body. The gradual stiffening of his penis was inevitable, but nothing he would capitalize on, at least not yet. “Wanna play some Drier Odyssey?” he asked.

“Oh, so you’ve been dying to play that game more than fucking me?”

“Maybe, maybe not. Which do you wanna do?”

“Oh, I’ll kick your ass in some Drier, if that’s what you’re after. No problem.”

“Heh. You’re on.” Kale called upon his AI to turn the TV on and set up the game. They played a few rounds, Kale’s skills putting him more on par with Tetha than she had boasted. She could thank the Baggage Buddy for distracting him through most of his losses, its presence on the charger near the wall drawing his gaze every other minute. [i]Tonight. It has to be tonight.[/i]

They went best of seven. Tied 3-3, Tetha was able to come in clutch and beat him soundly. She wore nothing but a smug grin as she let go of her holocontroller, making it dissipate in what was effectively a mic drop. “Looks like space got you a little rusty, boy. Better luck next time.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know.” [i]Do it now, while you’ve got her in a good mood.[/i] “Actually, there’s something I want to show you.”

She was squirming back up against him, purposefully grinding her haunches on his erection. “And what’s that?”

She was met with a gentle hand on her back, pushing her away. “Sit up.” The both of them did, and Kale called over his Baggage Buddy. It beeped to life and whirred off its charger towards them, coming to a stop in front of their feet. Kale’s heart was in his stomach. [i]Here we go.[/i] He leaned forward and opened the Buddy’s compartment, revealing his folded clothes and a small, black box. Tetha recognized what it was immediately. He picked it up, held it in one palm, then began to recite the words he’d been memorizing for the past two months. “Tetha…” He found it hard to move onto the next word. He cleared his throat. “[i]Ahem.[/i] Tetha, it wasn’t easy for me to move to this planet. I left a lot behind, a whole century of life on Earth, the people I knew and loved going through lifetimes and dying before I got here. I didn’t know how I was going to do. A whole war was fought here, one I had nothing to do with and never suffered because of. Now I’m here with people who have, and it’s like I don’t belong. At least that’s how it was.

“Then I met you. You helped me get a job, and I found my place in this world. I don’t know how I’d be doing right now without you, and now… Now I want to spend the rest of my life with you.” Kale slid off the couch onto one knee. He opened the box, revealing an extravagantly large emerald strapped into a rhodium-plated osmium ring. “Tetha, will you marry me?”

Tetha remained quiet. She’d listened to his confession with hardly any other expression other than dull interest. Her gaze fell onto the emerald for just a moment before she looked back up at him. “Yeah, sure.”

Another moment of silence as Kale tried to register what she had said. A key moment of his life, one that should’ve triggered the purest euphoria, and he barely reacted. “Oh, OK. Cool.” He plucked the ring from its cushion. “Hold your finger out.” She splayed her rat paw out for him so he could slide the precious accessory down her middle finger. She balled it into a fist and held it up to her eyes.

“Yeah, that’s pretty cool. How much did it cost you?”

Kale stood up feeling lightheaded. “13,000. Three months’ salary. That’s human tradition.”

“Woof. That’s a pretty penny.”

“Yeah, well you can save a lot of money when you’re on an all-expenses paid trip into space.” The adrenaline was starting to fade, making his muscles twitch. He sat back down on the couch where he was greeted by Tetha slithering onto his lap, straddling him with her paws on his shoulders.

“I’m so happy I met you too, Kale. I love you.” It was as genuine as his proposal had been, he could feel it.

He smiled. “I love you too.” Then they kissed.

Her muzzle squirmed up and down the curves of his face, schlubbing him with her mousy love scent. “Take me to the stars,” she whispered.

He nuzzled her back while his hands ventured to her buttocks. “I intend to.”

A snide chuckle rumbled out of her as she wriggled her bum deeper into his lap. “How’s it feel?” she asked.

“Right now?” He thought for a moment. “Right now, I feel like an alien abductor.”

Her smile vanished into a pout. “I wanted to feel like one of those purple-skinned alien princesses from those melodramas you showed me from Earth.”

Kale laughed. “You want me to treat you like one?”

“Please.”

“Alright. As you wish, Princess.” Then he made good on his promise, completing his welcome home.

[center][b]THE END[/b][/center]