FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

• Chapter 3: CHASING TRAINS,

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Benji wasn't sure how it had happened, but he suddenly found himself pressed into the ground with a paw on his ribcage and a row of sharp teeth uncomfortably close to his neck. So much for the good introduction...

"Who are you!?" the owner of the sharp teeth roared, making his entire body tremble in response. Benji desperately tried to think of something to say, but of some reason nothing came out.

"It's me" he finally hissed out.

"Who?" The white dog's face tilted just slightly in confusion.

"It's me! We met at that park a few days back. It's me, the dog you played with, remember?"' Suddenly all the words blurted out at the same time. "Get off me!"

Benji looked up at the white dog whose snarl, to his relief, was immediately replaced by a wide smile. "Oh it's you! I'm sorry." Bolt apologized as he jumped off the Labrador. "I hope I didn't hurt you." He stretched out a helping paw to the Labrador.

"It's okay. I'm probably not gonna need those ribs anyway." Benji muttered and looked up at the white dog. "What are you doing?" he asked, looking at Bolt's big white paw.

"I'm offering you a hand."

"Well you look silly, put it away". His fear had been replaced with irritation. All he wanted was to come out and say hi. This dog was obviously crazy.

Bolt did as told, retracting his paw and looking a bit baffled. He sat down on his haunches and observed the strange black Labrador who got up on his paws and shook, sending leaves and twigs from his fur flying, before sitting down in front of him.

For a while, the two dogs were just sitting on their respective haunches, staring at each other while birds were singing in the tree tops around them, obvious to the tension of the scene played out below.

Bolt was the first one to break the silence. "I didn't hurt you, did I?" he asked carefully, trying to look as unfrightening as possible. No reply came from the black Labradors direction.

After a few more minutes of silence, Bolt tried again. "So, if you're not a spy, why are you following us?"

"I'm not following you. I was just going to introduce myself, I didn't know I was going to get karate kicked to the ground for it!" Benji barked in response.

Bolt looked at the black Labrador who seemed pretty irritated. "Again, I'm sorry. For all it's worth, it's nice to see you again."

More silence. Around them, the forest stood quiet, save for the distant sound of a train approaching.

This time, Benji was the first one to break the silence. "So what's your name, then? Cujo?"

"It's Bolt!" He smiled as warmly as he could while once again stretching out a polite paw in Benji's direction. "What's yours?"

Benji just glared at it. "There you go with the paws again. What's up with that?"

"I'm just making an introduction. This is how people greet each other, isn't it?" A confused expression grew on the white shepherd's face.

"Well, we're not people. We're dogs."

"I figured so much" Bolt chuckled. "I'm still trying to learn this whole dog language thing. I have to say I prefer shaking paws over having someone sniff my behind. Mittens has taught me most of what I know."

"So the cat you're with teaches you how to be a dog? The cat? Were desperate or were you just trying to find the most ironic way possible to learn it?" the Labrador chuckled.

"I didn't get to meet many other dogs when growing up. It was pretty much just me and my person. I guess I never got the chance to learn it. I never got a chance to do a lot of things I would have liked."

The black Labrador looked judgingly at Bolt. "You're a peculiar fellow, aren't you?" he said after a while.

"I guess" Bolt said. He was getting a bit annoyed with this strange black dog. "Well, it's been nice meeting you whatever your name is. However, unless there is anything else about me you want to comment on, I really must be going. I have to get to the station before the transport unit leaves."

"Transport unit? You mean train, right? And isn't that the one down there?" Benji pointed in the direction of the train station from which a train was indeed leaving." Without as much as saying a word, the dog in front of him turned around and started running back towards the train station.

Benji looked after the white dog. Peculiar fellow, indeed.

...

"Bolt shot over the field like a white, furry lightning bolt, sprinting as fast as his four legs could carry him. The cold air burned in his throat, his pawsteps echoing in his ears as his surroundings blurred and bled like a painting around him. Adrenaline coursed through him, and before his conscious mind could percieve his change of environment, the soft grass underneath his paws was replaced by cold, hard concrete as Bolt *found* himself on a train platform.

"Mittens!? Rhino!?"

Bolt called out, but there was no response. Around him, the small concrete platform that made out the station stood abandoned. There was no humans around. There were no cats or hamsters either. In the distance, Bolt could see the transport vehicle pulling away.

I'm too late!

The white dog set after the vehicle, which was picking up speed. Bolt ran and ran, he ran so fast that the tracks he followed blurred out before him, and all he could see was the backside of the vehicle pulling away. Whenever he managed to gain on it, the vehicle accelerated away. But Mittens and Rhino was onboard. He needed to reach it, somehow. _He should have never haft left. Why did he have to let that stupid Labrador distract him! _

His lungs were burning and his entire body ached for him to stop and breath. Instead, he pushed himself to run faster, and almost managed to reach the fast vehicle, with his nose so close to its backside he could smell rusty undercarriage of the machine. With the last strength his body could master, he jumped, attempting to board the vehicle by clinging on to a metal bar attached to the vehicles backside. His last experience with these speedy vehicles had been painful, but he had to get onboard. If he lost the others, his chances of finding Penny would be lost with them. With his front paws locked around the bar, he tried to lift himself onboard, but instead he lost the grip and fell headfirst on the grass beside the track.

Bolt hit the ground hard, his body rolling around for what felt like a hundred times before collapsing in the grass.

He lay there, panting for a few seconds before finally building up enough strength to force his aching muscles to lift him. Blinking to clear his vision, Bolt saw to things. The first thing was water, splashing and roaring, it was crossing in streams in front of him. And below his paws was sand. He was standing on a beach, and in front of him was a river.

The second thing he saw was the hill he had just tumbled down from, and above him, the tracks he had followed had turned into a bridge over the thundering water, a tall steel structure the transport vehicle was now crossing. Soon, it would be on the other side of the river. There was no way Bolt would be able to climb up on the tall steel structure, and there was no time to run back to the hill and try to cross it that way.

The sight of the thundering water made the hairs on his back stand on end. But he had no choice. He had to get across. Someway, he would manage it. It was just a little water.

...

Benji must be a really stupid dog: Because now, rather than trying to find his way back to the dog pound, which certainly would be what a smart and sensible dog would do, he was running along a train track, in search for some crazy white dog he had just met and didn't much like to begin with. The dog pound wasn't so bad when he thought about it. It was warm, and there was probably a bowl of food waiting for him if he returned now. But he didn't. Instead he kept on running. The cold night air was freezing and the fog around him made it hard to see but at all, but he had to find Bolt. It was that strange, peculiar feeling again. Stronger than ever.

He finally reached the train station. It was a lonely concrete platform in the middle of nowhere, populated only be a few crates and a forklift. He had never been this far from home before. Only once, the day his family had taken him to the pound, never to been again. Benji didn't like this train station.

"Bolt!" he called out in the fog, but from the fog came no reply, and there was no white dog anywhere on the platform.

Suddenly, his floppy ears picked up the unmistakable sound of a train whistle. Turning his head, he could see the headlights of a train in the distance. He set off running towards the light source, and as he got closer, he was met by a peculiar sight.

An orange diesel locomotive was speeding away, and behind it was a small white dot, running quite a bit faster than Benji thought it should be possible for any dog to run. He was actually chasing the train.

The dog must be crazy!

Benji started running again, now in the direction of Bolt and the locomotive. He reached the hill with a bridge leading over a wide river. But where was Bolt? Benji looked down towards the riverside, and saw something that defied all reason. He saw the white dog jumped, headfirst, into the wavy water of the river. Almost immediately, he saw his white dog disappear under the powerful waves.

The dog IS crazy!

...

The second Bolt fell into the river, the world around him was suddenly replaced by water and bubbles. The cold was the first thing to hit him, it overloaded his senses and made it hard to even move. It was as if something inside of him short-circuited and he couldn't think in the icing wetness that was surrounding him.

Oxygen. He needed oxygen. That was the first thought that came to him. He instinctively kicked with his legs before his muzzle shot out above the surface. He opened his mouth to take a deep breath, but instead of air, he got mouthful of water as another wave crashed over him, dragging him down below the surface again. Panic grabbed him. He kicked with his legs, paws, everything, trying basically to get back to the surface, but it was like an invisible, watery hand had just grabbed him and pulled him downwards into its cold breath. Bolt had never seen so much water before, let alone swum in it, and now he feared for his life.

Focus Bolt. You're better than this. You're a superdog. You've trained for these situations all your life.

He forced his eyes open, looked around and spotted the gleaming light coming from the surface. He forced his desperate kicks into a rhythmic cycling with his paws, and he managed to move towards the surface.

Once again, he managed to get above the water around him. His wet ears were immediately met by the roaring thunder of waves upon waves surround him. He took a deep breath and looked around. He was still near the shore. He could try to make it back, but then he saw the train pulling away in the distance. He had to make it across. He started cycling his paws again, moving slowly but steadily across the wavy river towards the farthest beach, focused and with a clear goal in mind. He had to make it. He knew he could. Just a few more kicks. A few more watery half-breathes. With each kick, his head would shoot over the surface, and each time, he could see the opposite beach coming closer.

Suddenly, he felt something grab him. Teeth clenched around his neck scruff, pulling him in the opposite direction. "Hold on, I got you!" a voice behind him shouted.

"No!" Bolt fried himself from the Labrador. With nothing holding him over water, he immediately lost control as another wave rolled over him, pushing him under the water. Bolt sank deep, deep into the dark depth. Around him was nothing but darkness. He kicked towards the surface, but he had lost all sense of direction, and he didn't know where the surface was. His kicks only pushed him deeper into the watery depth. The watery darkness was now total and all around him. It got inside of him, numbed him. His brain still screamed for oxygen, but he was too tired to listen. He went limp, too exhausted to think, too exhausted to do anything but les his body sink deeper into the darkness. The last thing he felt was teeth around his scruff again, before the pleasant darkness befolded his senses.

...

Benji dragged Bolt's limp body out over the water, through the wet sand of the riverbed and then collapsed beside him.

The two drenched dogs lied there on their backs, panting, both too utterly exhausted to do anything else than grasping for air.

"It's ... it's Benji" the black dog suddenly said. "My name is Benji. I'm sorry I didn't tell you before." he panted out.

Beside him, Bolt slowly rose on shaky legs, still panting and shivering. He looked considerably smaller now with his once dried and fluffy fur drenched, hanging in strands of soaked white hair from his neck and belly, but Benji could still distinguish a lot of muscle under that drenched fur. "Why did you do that, you fiend!?" Bolt suddenly burst out at the surprised Labrador.

"That's a strange way of saying thanks." Benji retorted in surprise.

"You're welcome by the way. When I find you, you were drowning. I thought I lost ... HEY!"

The last word was shouted out as Benji saw the white canine dive back into the roaring water.

"What on earth are you doing!?" Benji immediately jumped into the river after Bolt, biting down and around his scruff and dragging him back up against the shore. Luckily, the shepherd was too exhausted to offer much resistance.

"Are you crazy!? The safe shore is that direction." Benji pointed with a paw.

"Don't you understand I just saved your life!?"

"You don't understand!" Desperation was apparent on Bolt's face. "I gotta get across. I gotta get on that train!" he blurted out between chocking up water". "Mittens and Rhino are on there. I got to get to Penny ... only a few waffles... I gotta find my person..." he collapsed in exhaustion, falling down on his side in front of the confused Labrador.

Benji rushed to Bolt, pressing an ear against his side. Thanks God, he was still breathing, but his eyes remained closed. Benji looked desperately at the canine, wondering what to do. He nudged the unconscious dog's side but there was no response. A part of him considered leaving him where has. He wasn't his problem after all. Another part however knew that leaving the shepherd soaked out in the cold wasn't an option. His own body was already shaking from the icy cold. He suddenly noticed that rain was pouring down on them, and the sun had gone down.

This day is only getting better and better...

First things first; he needed to find shelter. Someplace where they could both spend the night which wouldn't mean deep-frying their drenches bodies. There was no way he'd be able to drag Bolt all the way back to the train station. Instead, Benji looked over the riverside which seemed completely void of potential shelter, save for a lonely trawler docked next to a pier. It wasn't the fancy private kind of trawler, more like the rusty old fishing kind. It probably smelled too. Benji looked back at Bolt. He didn't look like he was about to start moving, nor that he would care about any risks of fish odors. Trawler it is.

"Don't worry, crazy dog, I'm not gonna leave you" Benji whispered before once again biting down around the dog's scruff and starting to drag him through the beach sand towards the pier. Getting the unconscious dog up on the pier wasn't difficult, but getting him onboard the trawler proved to be a hassle, and Benji was ultimately forced to push the unconscious Bolt onboard the small boat. Fortunately, the door to the cabin was unlocked so getting himself and Bolt inside wasn't difficult. The second they were both inside the small cabin, Benji fell to the floor next to Bolt, now absolutely exhausted after the ordeal. The cabin was not much warmer than the beach but it least it didn't stink of fish. He turned to Bolt, and a shock of sorrow washed over him as he saw that the shepherd was still unconscious. If it wasn't for the slight raising and lowering of his chest, Benji would have feared the worst. Not knowing how to perform CPR, and not feeling quite comfortable enough to perform a mouth-to-mouth either, Benji wasn't sure what to do about the situation. So instead, he lied down next to Bolt's soaked body, draping a paw over his side. Before he could stop himself, he started licking him, his warm tongue brushing against Bolt's wet cheek, wanting desperately for the white dog to wake up.

After a few minutes of continuous licking, he stopped momentarily, wondering just what he was doing. This certainly wasn't normal Benji-behavior. Benji certainly didn't lick other dogs he barely knew, certainly not male ones, and he is the kind of dog who would stalk said dog for over a mile, and throw himself into a plangent river after him...twice. It was as if the crazy canine he was currently in the process of licking had infected also him with craziness.

Just as he was in the process of brushing his tongue over Bolt's white cheek, Bolt's eye unexpectedly opened and he found himself staring into that deep, brown orb which stared back at him, seemingly just as surprised to see him as he was to see it.

Benji quickly retracted his tongue and got up on his feet, watching in fear as Bolt coughed up water. "Are you okay" he asked carefully, equally worried about the white dog's health as the idea of him noticing his tongue on his cheek. The shepherd didn't reply, just stared into the floor with an empty expression on his face while water seeped from his muzzle down to the parquet flooring. Benji was about to move closer, but the white dog turned away from him, and remained quiet.

"Why did you have to do it?" he finally asked, speaking quietly, still staring at the floor.

The Labrador was taken aback by the question. "Save your life I mean? That's a strange question to ask!"

"I was so close to making it. I would have reached the shore if you hadn't stopped me", the white dog continued, his ears drooping and gaze firmly looked on the floor below his paws.

"That's not what I saw; a saw a suicidal dog drowning and decided to save him. What were you thinking trying to get over a flowing river like that, just to catch some stupid train?"

"You don't understand!" Bolt turned to Benji, two intent eyes staring at him behind a pair of frowned eyebrows. "I really really needed to get on that train. It's just... I can't explain why."

"It's complicated, huh?"

"It is complicated, yes". Bolt nodded. He felt as something inside of him was broken, and everything had been turned upside down. He had failed to get back in time. He had failed to catch the train and make it over the river. He had failed everything.

Bolt walked to the corner of a cabin and sank down, without even taking the time to circle his sleeping spot like he always used to. He just wanted to fall asleep, fall away from all this and perhaps when he wakes up, he'll wake up to see the sight of Mittens and Rhino and he can tell them what a horrible dream he had.

On the other side of the small cabin, Benji felt equally miserable as he watched Bolt lie down without as much as a word to him from him. His first meeting with the dog had gone nothing like he had planned. He had hoped that saving Bolt would make him happy and grateful, and they could start over despite his horrible "introduction". Instead, it seemed like he had made everything worse. Bolt hated him. Yet that peculiar feeling was stronger than ever.

Benji let out a deep sigh, then lied down on a pair of blankets in his own corner on the other side of the cold cabin. From his spot, he could see the white back that belonged to Bolt.

To the sound of the rain pouring down outside, the two dogs closed their eyes.

He woke up by his own shivering. It was now completely dark outside, but across the room he could still see the white shape of the shepherd. He could even see his chest raising and falling softly in the moonlight from the window. He could tell he was still awake. His back looked so soft and furry. His eyes wandered along the curve of his stretched out body, the slight elevation of his firm hip, his slender belly, strong legs and necks, those perfect pointy ears. That peculiar feeling rose within him again, it conspired against him, took control of his muzzle and words came out, against his will. Words that Benji would never say.

"You want to come a bit closer?"

Bolt's head rose. Suddenly, those brown intent eyes looked at him again, glimmering in the darkness.

"It's cold so we could, you know, sleep together. Lie together I mean. You know, for the cold."

"I'm fine", Bolt replied in his typical concise and earnest way, his head returning to its spot on his crossed paws.

"Are you sure? I have blankets..." Benji smiled invitingly while doing an exposing motion with his paws over the dirty rugs next to him. But there was no answer. Benji waited and waited, and after a few minutes he just assumed the white dog had fallen asleep. Not only had he made Bolt hate him, now he had embarrassed himself too. He gave up and closed his eyes.

Suddenly, his floppy black ears perked up as he heard the faint sound of paws tripping on a wooden floor. Pretending to be asleep, Benji remained still but kept his left eye open. With a quiet thump, Bolt lied down next on his side next to him, his back lying right beside him on the blanket, and Benji's heart jumped. "Goodnight" the white dog mumbled.

Benji's heart felt like it was experiencing a meltdown. But that peculiar feeling still burned inside of him, and this wasn't enough. In a sudden act of bravery that surprised even himself, he's arms flew out, wrapping it over Bolt's side, pulling him closer until the soft fur of his back pressed against his chest, and their warm bodies interlocked. The warmth of his foreign body, the scent from his fur, the sound of his breath. It was all overwhelming. Bolt opened and eye and looked at him, then closed it again, without uttering any comment. Benji thought he could see a smile creep across his muzzle, if but a faint one.

Lying there with the warm body pressed up against him, Benji finally felt that peculiar feeling die off to be replaced by a calm euphoria. For the first time in his life, he didn't want to fall asleep, knowing that no dream could possibly be better than the reality he was experiencing right now. However, the warmth from the white shepherds body, his calm breathing, it was all too much and soon his eyelids closed. Oh my God, I'm actually touching his body, was the last thought that entered his mind before passing into deep sleep.

Bolt was utterly confused and surprised, yet found himself completely tranquil. A few minutes ago, he felt like his life was effectively over: depressed, chaotic and scared. He didn't feel that way anymore, and he guessed it was something to do with that weird Labrador that was now hugging him from behind. That's what confused him_. Why? How does that make sense?_ As his fuzzy head was trying to understand of the situation, he suddenly heard quiet, happy whines coming from the dog behind him. Bolt couldn't help smiling a bit. He decided to forget the logics of it all for now. Instead, he just closed his eyes, enjoying the softness and warmth coming from the body behind him.