FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A couple of hours later, and the tour was over, the students getting ready to climb the buss that brought them over and was ready to take them back to the university.

"Aren't you coming back with us?" Kyle asked Sasuga as he was ready to get into the buss.

Sasuga shook her head, "No. I'm heading back home. It's been a long day."

"Oh. Okay..." Kyle muttered, obviously disappointed. "If it's about what those mean nasty snubs said, don't give it any thought. They're nothing but empty-headed, unsecured, old hangs!"

"I know. Don't worry about it, I'm fine. Thank you for standing up for me," Sasuga appreciatively said and petted the cat's noggin, making him blush slightly.

"Naw, it's nothin'!" He purred. "Well, how about after school, we can... you know, go hang out or something?" he then coyly suggested, pulling on a whisker of his with a sheepish grin.

"Oh, I'm sorry Kyle, I can't. I'm supposed to have lunch with someone," Sasuga regretfully declined.

"Oh... it's that new neighbor of yours, right? The wolf guy?"

"Yes. He's still kinda new here, so I want to show him around the city," Sasuga answered with a smile. Kyle frowned. Ever since Hazard showed up, he had been seeing less and less of his closest classmate. Not that he could do anything about it, anyway. "Sorry, Kyle. Maybe next time, ok?"

"Oh, yeah, yeah! Sure!" Kyle washed away the gloom on his face and beamed at her. "Well, I better get going now. You take care, okay?" he waved to her farewell and climbed into the buss as it drove away shortly after. Sasuga watched the buss as it drove away until it vanished out of her sight among the busy traffic, letting out a dire sigh after that. She acted as if what Katherine and the other girls said didn't bother her, but it did- a lot. No matter how much she tries to convince herself that all the mean stuff they say it nothing but rubbish, she couldn't help but get hurt by them, starting to believe they're true. Why is she a kirin, how come she was the only one that existed, was she really nothing more than a freak, are the things she sometimes wondered. She looked down at her hands, covered in those brownish scales. Putting a palm over the back of the other, she felt the smooth pelt, thinking how unattractive they were. She let out another sigh, figuring that it couldn't be helped and took that usual walk home.

When she arrived at her building, she went straight up to her apartment and dropped her bag and school belongings there, heading over to Hazard's afterwards, which was just next door to her. She knocked on the door three times, but there were no answer. She knocked it again. Still nothing. She found that a bit strange; she was certain he'd be home, since it was his day-off and he was the one who came up with the lunch suggestion and told her to meet up here at this time. Tired of waiting, she opened the door and entered.

What she saw took her a bit by surprised. Hazard, wearing nothing but a slack black tanktop and a pair of green short trousers, was sitting on the living room's couch, with an MP3 player in one hand and snapping his fingers with the other in tune with the music he was hearing through the headphone he had plugged between his pointy ears. No wonder he didn't answer the door, Sasuga thought with a head shake. He was so into the music; his own bushy golden tail wagging about left and right in melodic rhythm, he didn't notice her come in.

Sasuga grinned, tip-toeing on her hooves and sneaking up right behind the wolf like a stealthy spy agent, him not having an idea about what was the kirin scheming. In a swift and surprise move, she pulled the headphone away from his ears and yelled, "Heeey! Hazaaard!".

"Yipes!!" Hazard yelped startlingly and the next thing he knew, he jumped off the couch and dropped his bottom down on the hard floor. "Ow! Wh-What the...!?" Hazard stammered and looked over his shoulder to see Sasuga laughing out loud.

"Oh man, you should've seen yourself!" the kirin chortled, trying her best not to burst out even more in laughter at the clumsy looking wolf.

"Ho ho... hilarious," Hazard replied stingily, standing up and straightening his puffed out tail.

Sasuga's laughter calmed into a soft giggle. "Sorry, couldn't help myself when I saw you too engulfed into your own world. What were you listening to?" she then asked him curiously.

"Uhh... Green Eyed Beans?" Hazard answered bashfully, scratching a fuzzy cheek of his with a claw. Sasuga's eyes blinked a little, she didn't expect him to be the kind to be interested in these kinds of bizarrely-named hard rock music bands, but then again, there must be a lot of things about him she didn't know. "So, how was the museum?" Hazard sought to change the subject and inquired the kirin.

"Oh! It was fun! There were all sort of interesting things to see there," Sasuga excitedly replied.

"Ah, what sort of things?"

"Too many to say, but the what I liked the most was the Asadian era section of the museum. There was an old portrait of the last king of that era that especially got my attention. King Lowefang, was his name, I think..." she pondered as she tried to remember that lion king's full name, and didn't notice Hazard's expression change into a very stunned look.

"Re-Really? Well, uh, that does sound... interesting," Hazard murmured coyly.

Sasuga nodded. "It looked really wonderful. He was so handsome and dreamy..." she wistfully said as she recalled the image if that lion king in the ancient portrait, as the golden wolf blinked at her contemplative sigh. "Well, anyway! Aren't you going to get ready?" Sasuga then said after coming back to reality.

"Eh? Ready for what?"

"Going out for lunch, remember?"

"Ohhh! Right! Right! Let's get going then!" The lupine exclaimed and was ready to go, but was stopped by the kirin looking up and down at him with a strange look.

"Shouldn't you go change first?" Sasuga suggested and Hazard took a good look at himself and noticed his not-so-fashionable attire.

"Whoops... right. Be back in a sec!" He dashed into his bedroom to change, leaving Sasuga waiting for him in the living room, but not even ten seconds had passed and she heard a loud thump, like the sound of some kind of hard object falling on the floor, followed by the wolf loud yell of pain. "Ow! My foot! Ow... Stupid iron...!" Sasuga just palmed her face and shook her head in distress.

***

After having lunch at Beverage Cloud, Sasuga and Hazard spent the remain of the day touring the city and visiting some of Sasuga's favorite spots, which weren't much. There weren't that much to see and explore, to begin with. Burgstein was too normal and urban for it to be a tourist sight. Nonetheless, Hazard enjoyed this little tour, and so did Sasuga. She didn't remember the last time she hang out with someone like this and simply had fun outside without having to worry about was she representing herself. With Hazard, she felt comfortable just being herself, and that alone was satisfying enough for the both of them. They barely even noticed that the sun had set and it was dusk already, so they decided it was time to head back home.

"Time sure flies when you're enjoying yourself, eh?" Hazard remarked, walking side by side along with Sasuga, both of them holding a soda can in their hands.

"Yes," Sasuga agreed. "I hope you had fun. Sorry, I'm not much good of a guide. I barely go out much myself."

"I sure did. Don't worry about it." He smiled at her and she smiled back in return, continuing their walk home.

Sasuga then happened to notice Hazard's right foot. Like most, he was barefooted, and his right foot had a wrapped bandage around it, the result of having a heavy clothing iron falling right on it. A few hours ago, it was swollen so bad it was almost twice the size. He acted as if it didn't hurt him much, but it was obvious it was more serious than he poised. He was staggering a bit at first, but he gradually got better as the day went by and now his injured foot looked completely healed. An injury like that would take at least a week for it to recover, if it were a normal person. But were he?

"Wow, Haz, you sure got better fast," Sasuga noted out, eyeing his wrapped right foot.

"Oh, this? It wasn't that bad actually. I've been through worse, believe me," Hazard replied with a smirk. He stopped and hopped a couple of times using just his right foot with ease, to show her. "See?"

Sasuga giggled softly, "Well, you really should be more careful. You're so accident-prone, I may not be around to fix you up all the time."

"Yeah, I know, I know." Hazard chuckled at her little joke, scratching his cheek. He looked up at the sky and saw it was getting dark already. Looking around him, Hazard also noticed how the park they were going through was peculiarly void of any soul. A ominous feeling began to crawl within the wolf.

"Is something wrong?" Sasuga asked him when she noticed his slight change of manner, but was surprised by him answering her by grabbing her hand and pulling her along with him as he continued to walk away in a faster pace. "H-Hazard! What's going on?!"

"We gotta get going. Fast." Hazard hastily said to her as he continued to pull her along without a reasonable explanation, but he had a deadly serious look in his eyes that made Sasuga's scales shudder. It reminded her at that time when he rescued her from that psychotic killer; he had this same chilling demeanor.

"S-Slow down, Hazard! Tell me what's going on?!" Sasuga demanded. She could barely keep up with him and he was nearly jogging now.

"We have to hurry. Before..."

"Before what?"

To be continued...