FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"Hey bud! How's your day been so far?" Skyler seemed awfully chipper for it to be such a depressing day. The ridiculously optimistic rainbow tail mocked Tyrus from the other side of the lunch table, sky blue fur contrasting with the darkness he wished to be surrounded in.

His defeated eyes looked away in slight shame and decided to focus instead on the meal, not wanting to worry his friend. "It's been alright..."

Tyrus looked dismally into his chicken bowl as Skyler took a break from unchewable pizza crust to shoot him a concerned glance.

"Well, your lying skills have gotten worse, but it's your business, so I'll just leave it alone. I, for one, have had a really blech day. This government class is going to kill me so hard, I'll be screaming for mercy after only five minutes of that stupid test on wednesday." He paused for a second to take a drink from his flavorless soda. "Is your program coming along alright?"

"Mhm."

Skyler waits for a moment before responding, expecting to learn more about the computer science experience. "Crazy teacher actually learn how to explain anything?"

"Yep."

"Hard to believe. Makes me wonder how people could survive a full four years of that."

"Mm."

Tyrus slowly picked up his fork and stuck it into the bowl, bringing it back up to his mouth with absolutely nothing on it. A rumbling stomach reminded him of how he had skipped dinner to go to an HvZ orientation and start creating code for his program. He knew that starving himself would only hurt both him and Kalid. But as he stuck his fork back into the bowl, Skyler reached across the table and stopped him with a gentle grab on the arm.

"Umm, what is going on? This isn't like you at all, Tyrus."

"Kalid's been abducted by ninjas and I'm too much of a wuss to help." A quicker pump of flowed through him from the surprise that he actually said what was on his mind. "She texted me early this morning saying so and I thought it was a joke. Turns out it's not. How am I supposed to find her though? They're freaking ninjas, the whole point is that you have no clue where they're at!"

Frustration quickly turned into utter self-hatred as he continued through his tears, "Why can't I help her? My whole life, I've been waiting for the chance to be somebody's hero, and now, when it actually matters, I just get it thrown back into my face! This is my reward for keeping faith in myself all this time? This is what I get for finally believing that caring for people could mean something?! What's the use of-"

"Tyrus!"

The heartbroken leopard looked up from his sorrow to see the majority of the lunch room distracted from their meals by his short rant. He hadn't realized he had been loathing so loudly. From across the table, Skyler gave a horrified but concerned expression. Slowly, he let go of his arm, leaving Tyrus to feel like he had truly gone insane. His eyes fell back down to the chicken bowl before closing in agony.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to get so-"

"Shut up and eat your chicken."

Tyrus sighed and scooped up a forkfull of the gooey chicken bowl, slowly closing his lips around it. As he swallowed, his appetite began to kick in, and the rest of the bowl was gone in under a minute. By the time he reached the bottom, Skyler had brought him another bowl. He took this bowl a little slower than the first to keep his body feeling agile. The gnawing in his stomach began to fade and he was able to keep his thoughts straight for the first time that day.

Skyler looked up and smiled as Tyrus scraped up the last of his food. "Now that looks more like a ninja-fighting leopard to me. If only domestics were meant to do the same, I'd help ya." He grabbed his own dishes and stood up, moving the chair aside.

"She's in the basement of Baldwin. Happened to hear a scream as I was walking back from McClain. You know I would wish you good luck," he shook his head and chuckled, "but luck ain't really your thing. That's why you have claws."

Pushing the chair back in with his foot, Skyler started to walk away. Before he got more than ten feet, he felt warmth on his back and a pair of arms wrapped around his shoulders.

"Stay safe though, I'd miss these hugs."

Impenetrable brick walls loomed over Tyrus as he stood outside of Baldwin hall, assessing the situation.

Okay, so the doors are an absolute no-no. I would either get swarmed with linguistics majors or tackled to the ground by assassins. All the windows are second-story and don't have any trees nearby. If only I had my D&D powers, this would be so much easier...

He scoured the perimeter of the building, searching for any other kind of entrance into the fortress. Inch by monotonous inch brought him nothing but sturdy mortar and windows that remained just out of reach.

As he neared the front doors once again, a disturbing smell began to waft his direction. Nervously, he knelt on the ground to identify its source. Noticing a grate near the foundation of the building, he sniffed his way toward where he felt the scent was coming from. Sure enough, the air ducts were emitting an odor that left him unsure whether or not he was glad to encounter it.

It's definitely her scent, but something isn't right about it. I swear if they hurt her, I'm gonna take those stupid handcuffs and shove 'em somewhere they didn't even think possible.

Tyrus slowly felt around the edge of the grate, trying to find the weak spots. One unlucky screw shook when the claw felt its way inside, and, not wanting to damage the beautiful building, he carefully maneuvered the grate out of place using only the screw holes. He looked around at the other oblivious students before crawling into the suspicious air duct, his usually bright muzzle quickly fading into the darkness as he closed the grate behind him.

At such a tense moment, his senses became twice what he was used to, and the odor forced him to choke down a gag. His sensitive nose guided him through several turns as his muzzle slowly became more illuminated. Finding both the source of the light and the smell, he looked down through a hole in the duct to see two ninjas silently standing side by side. The horrid odor wasn't coming from them, but from the far end of the room. And he knew exactly what it was.

Raw flesh.

The determined leopard took a deep breath and swung himself into the room below.