FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Gabarus was slightly suspicious when he opened his mailbox to find a very thick envelope with his name and address on it and the words, "Congratulations, you've won!" across the top. It wasn't the first time he had gotten some kind of scam mail telling him all he had to do was sign-up and he would almost have that trip to somewhere exotic. He would've thrown it in the trash can, save for one reason. The "to" line was hand-written instead of printed like a label. That piqued his interest enough that he carried it inside his apartment.

He tossed it on his 'coffee table'. It was more likely to be described as 'the object he had grabbed which worked as a place to put his stuff while he was on the couch'. Gabarus wasn't exactly working the best job, but he was trying to find something a bit more long-term and career-like. In the meantime, retail paid the bills, but didn't get him nice things. He sat down on his couch, his deep blue eyes scanning the rest of the mail. He had to push his ears back twice as they tended to flop down in front of his eyes when he leaned forward like that. Being a rabbit had its own share of troubles, ears being the least of them. He would go to interviews at nice office buildings, looking as nice as he could afford. His brown fur was trimmed and his hair put back in a ponytail. Each time, he was told politely that he just what they were looking for. So he often went back to his jeans and tie dye look. Then again, when he was at home, his naked look was his favorite.

Gabarus could never tell if their words were sincere. They always told him they wanted someone with a predator's edge in the business world, even for meaningless positions. Cogs in the bigger machine. He thought it might be the fact that he never took off his gay pride necklace or his earring. In either case, he still had a job, selling stuff and getting paid (minimally). With a sigh, he picked up the thick envelope. He prepared for disappointment as he ran a finger along the edges that sealed it. It ripped pleasantly. He never could figure out why there was a bit of fun doing that. He pulled out the contents and was surprised when an airline voucher was on the top.

He quickly grabbed it and scanned it. There was no, "Call here" or "Sign-up now". It was an airlines voucher for $500 in his name. His jaw fell open and he quickly grabbed the folded letter with the voucher. It was typed on a softer paper than he was used to. It had none of the crispness of printer paper, but felt more authentic.

"Dear Mr. Gabarus, a ticket was bought on your behalf for the rocky mountain snow get-away. This letter is to inform you that your ticket was drawn and you've won a one week stay at a private cabin high in the snow-clad mountains of Colorado. Your stay will include airfare to your destination, travel money, all food covered, and spending money. Once again, congratulations on your big win! Please call the number below to finalize the claim of your prize. Once you call, you will not be charged anything and everything will be put in your name."

Below it was a 'sincerely' and a name, but it was barely legible. Gabarus didn't care. He quickly grabbed his cheap cell phone and dialed the number. His heart was pounding and his head felt light. He put his paw against his forehead and felt a light sheen of sweat on his forehead. The line picked up, "Hello, this is Lucky Hare Lottery, how can we help you?"

Gab took a breath and made sure he was being logical about this, "Um, I got a letter in the mail, saying I won? What do you need for me to claim my prize?"

The voice seemed bored, "Name, please?"

"Uh, Gabarus?" He waited for them to ask for his card number or social.

"Dates you plan to arrive? You have a full week you've won that you can claim anytime between now and December, hun."

Ohmygawd, his mind raced. "Can I get next week? Next Monday? I mean, I know it's soon..."

"Done and done. Have an excellent day. Please book your flight to Colorado immediately. There will be a chauffeur waiting for you at the airport to take you to your private cabin. All amenities will be waiting for you there. Thank you and have a 'lucky' day."

Gab dropped the cell phone when the line went dead. It was real. He had won a weekend getaway. He quickly leapt onto the wobbly 'coffee table' and shouted loudly, "Yahoooooo~!" As his big hare feet landed on the table with the rest of the weight coming behind it, the legs broke and the whole structure came apart. Gabarus lay on the floor, not caring if he had broken anything on his body. He felt so good that it didn't matter. He pumped one fist in the air, then grabbed his cell phone. He had a plane trip to arrange.

One week and an argument with his manager later, he was in Colorado, stepping out of the airport terminal. He could not remember the last time he had been this excited. He had splurged a little, spent some of his savings, and bought a thick jacket for the higher altitude's cold air. He took a deep breath and felt a certain crispness in his lungs. It felt amazing. A man in a heavy coat and wearing a cap held a sign with his name on it. He glanced at the gentleman. He was a wolf, but he wore very fine shoes and trousers and had a grin on his face, waving to folks as they walked by. Seemed friendly enough. He walked up to him, "Uh... I guess that's me?" The rabbit pointed at the sign, brushing some of his longer hair back.

The wolf gave a big grin, "Well, a fine how-do-you-do, sir! What a pleasure to meet'cha, Mr. Gabarus! Oh, here, here! Let me take those bags for ya. The limo is waiting right over there." The wolf reached out and took the one suitcase from Gabarus.

He offered to even take his backpack, but he shook his head politely. He might have even responded back, but he was in awe of the slick black limousine waiting for him. "Oh man, no one is gonna believe this."

The wolf chattered to him the whole time they drove. The kind of talk that a local could share. He told him about some of the ski slopes, places to eat, and some of the nice people out here. He really didn't even quit the whole drive. Gabarus actually didn't mind one bit. The background nice was pleasant. The drive was magnificent. Once out of the city, the trip held wonders. Pristine snow-laden fields. Trees that had a festive air to them in the way the snow clumped in stripes around the trees. It was all so wonderful and amazing, mostly because it was all free.

The drive lasted three hours. They got to the cabin and Gabarus couldn't help but notice how isolated it was. It was a very beautiful cabin, built into the side of the mountain, but he was sure he hadn't seen any other buildings for the past fifteen minutes. "Uh...Mr. Wolf...? How will I eat?"

"Oh, young sir, there's food in the fridge for a few days, plus you'll be driven into town to eat out every evening. Where would you like me to put your bags?" He stepped out of the limo and popped the trunk.

The brown rabbit stepped out and walked back to the trunk, "Nah, it's alright. I can take my own stuff in." The wolf stepped back and let the rabbit lean into the trunk. Gabarus' mind was filled with dreams of long walks on the mountain, filled with serenity and quiet. Then something hit him from behind and everything quickly went black.

-

When Gabarus awoke, he was confused. His head pounded and his neck hurt, plus he wasn't in a familiar place. He blinked his eyes and looked around. He was seated somehow. He wondered just how much he had had to drink the night prior. Then he felt it. His jaw was stretched wider than it normally should be and something was in his mouth. He tried to get his jaws to a more comfortable position, then winced in pain. Something was in his mouth, keeping it that wide. He tentatively checked it with his tongue. It was metal and round. A...a ball gag, he wondered.

He next checked his arms. They were pulled behind the chair he was in and tied extremely tightly. He could feel his heartbeat in the veins of his arms. It was this point that panic began to set in. The room was empty and looked fairly shabby. There was a single window, but it was boarded up. In the opposite corner of where he sat, there was a table with papers on it. He began to try rocking his chair back and forth. It didn't budge. It must be bolted to the ground, he realized. He replayed the events leading up to the situation he was in and he couldn't find a single point that had seemed out of sorts. Yet here he was.

The door opened and in walked a figure. Whoever it was wore a monk's robe of sorts, complete with a cowl. It was dirty and stained and obviously old. The robe barely came below the figure's knees and was staring to fray at the bottom and sleeves. Yet it the way only the muzzle peered out at him was terrifying, especially given the circumstances. He tried to mumble something, but the ball made it come out as gargling sounds. The monk chuckled, "Well, well... It seems I've caught a very lucky rabbit, haven't I? Hmmm...? Oh yes, Lucky Rabbit Lottery. Did you even think to look them up online or did you just jump at the chance to win that trip?" The monk chuckled and pulled the cowl back. It was the wolf who had picked him up at the airport. "I've been looking for you for a long time. Do you know who you are? You're the one...The one who can bridge the gap...the one who can make these noises stop." The wolf moved his paws to his head and waved them about.

Gabarus shrank away from this figure and his 'noises'. He was obviously insane. Yet the wolf continued, "I have searched for months...to find the writer. It's you, isn't it?" Gab shook his head as vehemently as possible, tears beginning to flow down his cheeks. He had no idea what this insane man was speaking of. His denial seemed to anger the wolf, who turned and grabbed the papers from the table and held a few of them up, screaming, "You wrote this, didn't you?!"

The rabbit glanced at the papers and his eyes widened. Among the papers that weren't crumpled, he recognized a few bits and pieces. They were his writing. Not anything he'd ever been published for, but stuff he had posted online for fun. In a moment of exposed terror, he nodded that it was his. The wolf seemed to relax and dropped all the white papers to the floor, muttering, "All the planning...almost ruined. Almost lost. Noises...so many noises. I have to...I have..."

Gab wanted to scream, but the gag prevented anything but gutteral sounds. He could only pray that the wolf wouldn't kill him and eat his insides. He began to work on the ropes around his wrists, his body screaming at him to get free somehow, but unable to. The wolf grinned at him, then pulled the cowl back up, pitching his face back into darkness. "You...you will help me bridge the gap. The gap must be crossed. Only by blood." He pulled out a knife. It wasn't some kind of crazy ornamental knife. Oh no, that might have been a little bit okay and made the whole thing somewhat surreal.

Instead, the knife was a simple steak knife and looked far too sharp for Gab's own good. "Together, my little rabbit friend...after all my preparation. After all the money I spent on you and this trip...I can end it." Gabarus wanted to scream. He wanted to beg for his life. He wanted to do anything other than strain his arms and legs, but those were each denied to him. His life was about to end and he had no one to mourn him. Well, except for that jerk Marcus, at work. He still owed him twenty bucks. He would only mourn the loss of his money.

The hooded wolf raised the knife up high over Gab. The rabbit's whole life flashed before his eyes. The knife came down in a flash and the rabbit winced. He waited, eyes shut. There was no pain. No stabbing anything actually. He hesitated before slowly peeping out of one eye. The wolf stood before him still, but the knife was buried in his stomach. Gabarus opened his other eye and watched as the wolf smiled a toothy smile and fell backwards. "So...I...am...freed." Gabarus sat there, still tied up and chained, as the wolf's arms and legs twitched once and then were still. The monk's robe blossomed red from the gut. It spread quickly. Soon, it began to stain the paper scattered on the floor a scarlet color.

Gab, if he weren't still gagged, might have screamed any number of unknown obscenities. Having the option taken from him, he could only watch in terror as his only chance of escape died in front of him. He should have started working to untie the ropes that held his hands, but he just watched, morbidly fascinated as the wolf passed. That should have been it, if the world was a perfectly sane place. The wolf died, the rabbit was tied up, but he would work for hours and eventually free himself. Then he would flee this place, call the cops, and they would come investigate. It should have been that simple.

It wasn't that simple. Gabarus felt like he'd already been wrung out when the body began to twitch again. Then it wiggled and a single, impossibly long digit shot up through the body. It bent at the joint and began to search around the body. Gab just assumed he'd snapped and was in the land of the crazy people. Then the second finger widened the stab wound wider, pushing the knife out and joining the first in the search. It wasn't until the fingers went straight and touched the ceiling that Gabarus began to laugh an insane gurgle. The two fingers seemed to hone in on that sound. They turned and adjusted, then reached out. Their full breadth brushed the side of the chair holding the rabbit and easily bent behind it. The chair snapped out of whatever was holding it like it was made of tissue. The two fingers closed around Gabarus and the remains of the chair and pulled both towards the opening they had come through.

It wasn't until the rabbit felt himself somehow being pulled through the opening that he realized that none of this mattered. It wasn't happening. Oh no, this was all in his head and everything would be alright once someone came and gave him the right kind of medication. He kept being pulled. The hole in the wolf's stomach long behind him. He was somewhere 'else', dark and cold. It sent a shiver running down his spine and played on some visceral fear that he couldn't identify. The space was perfectly silent. Not a single sound. It was in that silence that Gabarus realized this was the 'gap' that the wolf had spoken of in his madness.

He came out the other side suddenly not so certain that he was crazy. Something in the silence had convinced him this was real. The other side had a full hand waiting for him, curling four digits and a thumb around him. Then the whole hand, easily big enough for three of him, began to shake and move, rattling him around and making his still-persisting headache all the worse. A very girlish voice began to chant in a loud sing-song voice, "I did it, I did it, I did it!"

The experience of being bounced around like that was nauseating. Gab did his best not to throw-up, thinking that such an action wouldn't go over well with the gag in his mouth. He reached his paw up to cover his mouth, instinctively. When he felt a paw touching the front of the metal ball, he realized his hands were free. The rope was still around his wrist, but he was able to pull the gag out and throw it aside. Despite there being other priorities, he began moving his jaws in small circles to get it working again. Having it forced open that long was not a pleasant experience.

"Little one, enough of your foolish antics," a deeper voice commented. It was just as loud as the first, which meant that it was loud enough for Gabarus to feel like everyone was yelling around him. The hand opened and Gab found himself suddenly dangling upside down, the fragments of his chair falling to the floor, which was apparently a very long way down from where he was. He gulped, feeling the grip around his feet as the only thing that was holding him up.

Around him, he found a world very much enlarged from the one he had known. A single figure stood, flipped the wrong way by his position. It seemed to be a black crow wearing a brown robe with a white belt around it. The crow cawed, "Now! You must dispose of that creature before it adjusts to our reality and begins to morph. Understand?"

The feminine voice replied, "Yes, master! Still...I can't believe I reached into the nether and pulled him out! My first time too!" There was a very loud girlish giggle that sent vibrations through Gab's floppy ears.

"I would say either beginner's luck or perhaps a talent for summoning. Now, little one, take it outside and kill it. I will not repeat myself again." The world began to shift and Gabarus began to panic again. They were talking about him, weren't they? He tried to bend at the waist to grab the two fingers holding him up. Once he got hold, he began to try to slide his leg free, but he quickly found it was like trying to move a mountain. They had him firmly in their grasp.

He was carried outside of whatever structure they had been in. Then he was set down in a very muddy puddle. The sun was blotted out by her shape. She was massive and somehow, he was incredibly tiny here in this world. "Please," he begged her, getting on his knees and holding his hands wide open. "Please, don't..."

She gave no sign that she heard him. Her fur was white, he noticed, a cream color. She had touches of gray here and there and two very triangular ears. She was a husky. She was also lifting a very large paw over his head and beginning to daintily lower it on him. He had never really given much thought to how his life would end. Yet being squished into mud by a giant dog had never been anywhere on his list. The paw came close enough to begin to force his body down into the waters before it suddenly lifted. The face reappeared and studied him, "You don't seem to be morphing or whatever..." Her voice was curious. Gabarus lifted his head up and stared back at her, dirty water streaming off his face. Her eyes were blue like his, but hers were the size of pools to him. Her eyes suddenly lifted at the corners and her mouth followed suit. "You're kinda cute, ya know. Maybe I can keep you?" A hand reached down and picked him out of the muddy waters. "I'm going to make you my own," she whispered to him as his muddied fur seeped onto her white fur.

"Oh thank god," Gabarus whispered and collapsed against her paw. He felt his eyes sink closed as he was moved into a pouch of some kind. His world went dark.

For the mage apprentice, she had herself a new pet that might even be her familiar one day if she trained it properly. She just needed to keep it from her master for now. But she would take very good care of her little pet until then.

-

To be continued...?