FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Red passed by a razorglider nest in a crevice and was careful not to disturb it. She made sure to point it out so no one else made that mistake either. A few more feet and the search party was at the base of the formation. That's when Red's nose picked up the scent of something she didn't want to smell.

"Totht!" She exclaimed.

Parsons bit his lip, "You sure?"

Red nodded. "Absolutely. One passed through here recently, and it's on the hunt too."

Peter's mother had caught the conversation. "Oh God! What's a Totht? Is it dangerous?"

Red didn't answer her. There was a loud crash as thunder rumbled overhead with bright flashes of lightning dancing across the sky. The wind was howling and bits of sand particles were stinging eyes and noses.

"Red! We've got to take shelter!" The sheriff shouted.

Red pointed to one of the halls of stone and said, "Should be somewhere to take shelter in there."

The sand was stinging her nose and making it difficult to track Peter or the Totht for that matter.

Peter stumbled blindly over the rocks that were partially covered with sand. He caught himself, but didn't stand back up as tears stung his eyes. It looked like he was in a dense fog, but it wasn't fog. It was sand. He had been stumbling along for he didn't know how long.

"Help!" He cried out.

Only the thunder answered him like the voice of an angry giant. There was a bright flash and a crackle as lightning struck in close proximity to him. Peter ran. He didn't have a direction picked out. He stumbled forward blindly for a wall of rock. Things were about to get worse.

There was a flicker of movement and Peter turned his head to find a monster bearing down on him. Peter screamed as he started running faster. He saw a hole in the wall of rock and dove for it. Claws scrabbled behind him and there was a snapping sound as the monster snapped at the air where Peter used to be.

The terrified boy scrambled back as the monster tried to squeeze through the cave entrance. The Totht's jaws seemingly unhinged and pushed forward as it chomped for the kid again. Peter threw rocks at the thing in sheer terror, but that seemed to do little to deter it as it started to gain inches towards him. The smell of something rotting wafted from its jaws. That maw of sharp teeth was getting closer to the kid every second.

The search party was scrunching together in a cave that they wished was a bit larger.

"Get in!" Red shouted and practically shoved the parents inside.

Only her and Parsons remained outside the cave. The howling winds and thunder made shouting necessary.

"After you sheriff!" Red gestured for him to get inside.

"Ladies first!"

Red was about to retort when she caught something over the thunder and wind. Her ears twitched as she tilted her head. It sounded like... screams!

"You hear that," she asked before cursing human's poor senses. "Of course you don't!"

She started sprinting towards the sounds.

"Hear what? Red? Red! Get back here," Parsons cried as he lost sight of the hunting guide in the dense sand.

Red struggled through the wall of fog like sand. The dusty smell mingled with ozone from the electrical storm that was everywhere. Red knew she was getting closer as the sounds of a kid in terror and a Totht trying to get a meal were growing louder.

Red had her rifle at the ready. The sandscreen had cleared enough for her to get a view of a Totht trying to get into a cave that was too small for it. Red brought the rifle up slowly. A well placed plasma bolt right between the shoulderblades would probably do the trick.

The sand obscured her target again before she could fire. Red cursed as she fiddled with the settings and tried to switch to infrared on her scope. Unfortunately, she couldn't really pick out the target from all the reflective heat. Red moved in closer, trying to come from the side of the Totht.

Red didn't want to fire blindly. She wanted a clean shot. Unfortunately, she ended up almost colliding with the creature. Red paused and lined her rifle up. She was mere feet away and just as she fired, the Totht turned from its target and went for her. The blaster bolt seared the side of the creature instead of going through it because of the last second change.

The Totht howled in anguish as it slammed into Red's legs. Red felt her lose grip of her gun, but quickly she had her knife out. It was made from the tooth of the apex predator known as a sandlamprey.

Red wasted no time driving the knife into the side of the Totht's neck. The blade embedded itself in the skin and the Totht shrieked again. She put more pressure in the knife; trying to drive it through an artery. The Totht would not have any of that, it twisted its neck, and took the knife with it.

However, Red's legs were free. She drove both her booted feet into the Totht's side and then rolled away. She stood and drew her Daedalian blade.

The creature and the Daedalian circled each other warily. Red's gaze fell to her gun. She could dive for it, but she wasn't going to risk it. The Totht lunged forward on clawed legs growling. Red growled back as she met the charge. She brought her blade down upon the creature's head and split through the skull.

The Totht spasmed a bit and then lay still. Red extracted her blade and knife. She made sure they were wiped clean before picking up her rifle.

Peter stayed where he was. Something had drawn the monster away and he'd thought he'd heard a gunshot as well as sounds of fighting. Then another creature appeared in the cave entrance. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought it was a werewolf. Peter hadn't really had a lot of interaction with other species, so he screamed thinking something else had come to eat him.

Red flinched as her sensitive ears were hit by the high pitched sound.

"Ow! Calm down kid. I'm here to save you. You're Peter, right?" Red spoke calmly and tried to get through to the terrified child.

Peter nodded and stammered, "What are you?"

"I'm a Daedalian. You've never seen one before?"

Peter shook his head.

"Well we aren't that much different from humans. May I come in? There's a storm out here."

Peter hesitated.

Red sighed. "I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here with your parents and it's getting worse out here."

Peter finally nodded and Red made her way inside. Brushing sand from her fur and clothing, she sat down cross-legged on the floor.

"Thank you," she said as she started inspecting her rifle for any damage done by the storm.

"I want to go home!" Peter shouted.

Red nodded. "So do I. But we're not going anywhere till the storm passes."

Minutes passed of awkward silence with no sound except for the storm. Peter kept holding himself and quivering. Red shook her head. The poor kid. He was probably scarred for life from this experience.

Red felt like she had to do something but she didn't exactly know what. Finally it came to her! She swiveled an ear back before crossing over to Peter and putting an arm around him.

"It's alright. You're safe now. You're safe."

She felt the kid nuzzle up to her and listened as his heartbeat began to slow.

Parsons and the search party exited the cave, things weren't going good now. They'd lost Red and the kid.

"Red! Peter," The sheriff shouted.

The sun was beginning to rise and it looked to be a rare clear day as they could clearly see the rays.

"Over there!" Sable called out.

The sheriff smiled at the sight as he recognized Red, but frowned as he saw she was carrying something in her arms. Peter's mother gasped and ran forward.

"Peter!" She shouted.

Red regarded her with bright green eyes and whispered, "Shh, he fell asleep."

Peter's mother gently took him from Red. She continued to sob her eyes out as she hugged her child.

"Good work Red!" The sheriff said clapping her on the back.

Red involuntarily bared her teeth. She was tired from having been up for an entire day.

"Can I go home now? I just want to shower and go to bed."

"Sure thing Red. Thanks for your help! We couldn't have done it without you!"

Red nodded and then her gaze grew steely as she faced the parents. "You two are lucky he's alive! He almost got eaten! Do either of you realize how dangerous it is out here? Next time you venture out somewhere you better take a guide with you!"

The parents didn't have any retorts. They stood there silent an motionless. Occasionally they glanced down at the ground.

The sheriff shook his head. "Alright Red. Come on now and I'll give you a ride back."

That sounded fine to Red. The whole trip back Red kept thinking about the irresponsible parents. Did they not realize how precious life was? Especially the life of a young one? Back on Red's home planet, her people were facing death everyday in the face of a brutal occupation from a hostile race. Red had barely escaped, but in her escape she'd seen so many lives snuffed out. When she'd become a hunting guide, she'd taken it upon herself to always ensure the safety of whoever she took with her.

After they arrived back at her home, Red thanked the sheriff and went upstairs. She was tired as she cleaned herself up and changed for bed. She hoped that now those idiotic humans had at least learned a lesson.

Sighing, she felt sleep take her. She was taking the rest of the day off unless someone else needed her. The following day, Red had just opened shop when Sheriff Parsons stopped by.

"Hey, Red," he said cheerfully.

"Sheriff."

"I just came to give you this," he said and handed her a piece of paper. It was always unusual to get paper instead of datapads. Red looked at the paper and saw why. It was a crude drawing of something that she guessed was supposed to be her and a smaller child like figure she was seemingly protecting.

A simple message was scrawled at the bottom, "Thank you."

Red smiled. Her day was now better.