FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I was not starving anymore. That wasn't supposed to be possible. Fifty days had come and gone since I had made what should have been a fatal mistake. It felt like dodging my tribe's punishment, because they meant for me to die. Anything less is almost unheard of.

Yet here I was, with a stomach full of carrion, talking to a creation that couldn't talk back.

"How are you finding these animals? What took me all day to find, you seem to know where they had their final breath instinctively."

Of course, it didn't respond. Though it did look at me like it always did. Its eyes always left me equal parts terrified and mesmerized. Because they didn't move like eyes. They shifted in shape, flowed in color, and glowed like fire. They were unnatural, but they were beautiful.

Finishing the last of the edible flesh on the Shirrph, a creature that was more bone than meat, another question came to mind.

"Why don't you eat? You have a mouth, though it is as if you don't use it for more than grabbing. What, do you eat the air?" Curious, I stood on my tail for a better view of its jaws. They blended in almost seamlessly with the rest of its metal head. Only a thin, dark line gave them away. I hesitated, wanting to touch its face, but decided against it. Though I was still close, it didn't recoil, it only stared. Another thing was bothering me, too. It was dark that night, but I didn't notice its mouth when I first saw the creature. The more I learned, the less it all made sense.

I fell to the ground again.

"I suppose now you're going to leave again. Where have you been going at night... anyway?"

My ears strained, literally growing in height slightly.

"We cannot be here. You need to follow me!" I said, panic starting to push its way into my heat pattern.

It tilted its head, otherwise not moving. I took a few paces backwards, flicking my tail to tell it to follow. But of course, I should have expected it did not make sense of this.

The first time I followed, it led me to food. It showed me how it brought me that first mangled carrion by using its inexplicable light-image tool. The image showed it carrying it in its small mouth, bringing it to me. Then it showed a different journey, from where we were in the forest, to a new place and a new rotting animal. With that, the images stopped, and it started walking. So, I started walking. I didn't fully believe this could be true, but my hunger led me to follow.

But now the roles were flipped. This creature wasn't hungry, and I didn't have some impossible tool to show intent. I didn't even have my words or heat.

I searched my thoughts for everything I knew about this creature and found one truth. It knew to point.

Standing on my tailbase, I pointed at the horizon, the pulse of the ground in that direction growing, and growled out its danger, my face showing it too, and pointed the other direction.

"This way is hidden. You come with me," I said, pointing accordingly. The rocks shivered around us. It seemed to notice this, its head looking to the dirt. Finally, its face reflected mine of the danger about to come. We were standing apart, but it started to shrink that distance. I bounded up a shallow hill, waiting for it to follow.

Slowly we got away, into a depression in the ground atop the hill. The valley would bring them around rather than up. Hr'salacs were predictable in that way.

By the time our backs were hidden, I could already see them approaching. Hr'salacs are grazing creatures, feasting on the tallest plants outside of large forests. Their long bodies made up for their lack in height, four sturdy yet slender hind legs giving them ample ability to reach for the canopy.

Hr'salacs are not fast. They're more likely to get twisted on their own fuzzy bodies than outrun a predator. But they had their defenses--and their wits.

My old tribe members were pursuing them voraciously, about a dozen of them after the small herd of plant-eaters. Though they followed close, they struggled to down any of them. Their backs were impossible to grab, interlinked metal shells protecting them. Worse, however, was their hind legs. The spikes on their outer thighs were as sharp as nature allowed, threatening to impale any predator who attempted to follow too closely. And they were impossible to separate, holding in tight formation as they tore through the valley. Sometimes they reminded me of a small river, flowing around rocks, changing direction in unison.

I saw one of the hunters leap for a 'salac in the middle, going all the way for its neck. With a creature this long, that jump was dangerous for almost anyone to attempt. But this was not just any Hunter. I knew her.

"Rua!"

The metal beast had been watching the Hunt like me but took a moment to look at me instead. "Rua?" it repeated, though it did look distinctly like a question.

"Rua was... a friend. Those days are past now." My heat failed to hide my internal confusion.

"A friend?" it asked.

"Yeah, she--please, you don't even know what you are asking."

I turned away and looked down at the valley again. Rua had secured the lengthy hr'salac with the help of four others, soon repurposing its humble life so that they and the rest of the tribe might live another day. Though 'salacs were large, their meat and bones went quick.

The group rolled the corpse onto a sled they had assembled from material stowed on their bellies. With all that weight, they would have a long journey back home. They wouldn't be eating any of it until they arrived.

I fell to my feet, hiding my eyes from any who were watching the hills. But my strange acquaintance kept watching. Not like I could tell it to stop.

It was going dark now, the sky going from teal to yellow to red at the horizon. This would normally be about the time that the beast would leave me for the rest of the night. It wouldn't slow any more deceased animals with its tool and just wander off, frequently stopping to look at only the most boring rocks.

But by the time my old tribe finally disappeared over the horizon, I was ready to be left alone. You can only spend so much time around an unnerving creature like that and stay sane. Instead I saw the tell-tale signs of its image tool coming to life. One more scavenging trip? So late?

No, this was no fallen animal, but something built. It did look strangely familiar. A sidewards glance at the creature brought the memory back. This is what it fell to H'Roh with.

"You want to go to that?" I asked.

"Yes," it said.