FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The sound of a car screeching outside woke Dienza from his sleep. He rolled over and peered at his clock as the engine backfired and the car grunted its way down the road to wherever it was headed. It was ten minutes to seven, still early but a two hour sleep in by his usual standard. He stretched out and yawned, feeling his feet press against his bed footer before rolling himself onto his feet. Instinctively he reached for the electric guitar racked beside his bed, lifting the strap over his shoulder and making a few quick strums. The sound was a pleasant way to wake up, one he wished he could rig up to his alarm clock. Once his fingers were feeling loose, he broke into a fast paced guitar riff and growled in a slowly building euphoria. Music was his passion and his soul and it would be his dream realized one day. Once he had played for a few minutes, he replaced the guitar on its stand and pulled on a change of clothes. He remembered the situation from last night and realized that neither he nor his mother would be having breakfast until one of them had gone for a walk to the shops. With a slow and careful walk down the hallway he deduced that Nereen was still asleep. Which meant he had time. The leona made a quiet dash to the kitchen to check the pantry and fridge, reasoning that if both were as empty as Nereen had said then he might as well take the chance to make it fully stocked. He opened the fridge, taking care to avoid making too much noise. As he suspected, it was empty. He took a few nots in his head. Milk, cheese, eggs and butter. Nodding to himself, he opened the freezer door above it and sighed at the empty box in front of him. Steaks. Lamb too. He turned to the left and took a step forward. A tiny sound caught his attention and he pulled the door open hastily. Micen, two of them on the centre shelf, both dashing towards a hole in the back of the cabinet. Dienza's hand lashed out, batting one of them off to the side but failing to hit the other. It escaped, leaving only the one he had clipped. With a quick movement, he scooped it out and held it tight before him. 'Thieving little runt.' He growled, glaring at his prisoner. It was a female micen, beige fur with short black hair. 'But we didn't take anything!' She protested, struggling uselessly in the leona's grasp. 'There's nothing in there to take!' 'No thanks to your thieving kind.' Dienza shrugged. He managed to catch one of the micen on rare occasions. Usually he would end them on the spot, unless his mother was around. She didn't like seeing them die, but she was still in bed so this one was out of luck. 'Where's the colony?' '...I-if I tell you, will you let me go?' The shivering mouse woman asked. 'Sure I guess.' Dienza nodded. The micen stared back at him, the expression of fear she wore slowly turning to dread as she shook her head. 'I-I don't believe you.' She sobbed. 'You're gonna kill me anyway.' Dienza sighed and shrugged again. 'It was worth a shot I guess.' Without wasting further time, he opened his maw and put her on his tongue, closing his lips around her squirming body at the waist before drawing her in. Her struggles were feeble, like any micen's would be, and he found himself smiling at the pleasant squirming as he took in the flavour. Micen were a rare treat. He didn't know how many were in this colony, but he knew that there had to be enough to sustain a population of at least a couple dozen. He swallowed and sighed as he closed the door behind him and started walking at a brisk pace. The streets here were cracked concrete and faded asphalt littered with potholes. How exactly was a mystery since hardly anybody in the area seemed to own a car. The mall was a twenty minute walk, through the dregs of the suburb and past the medical centre. The houses there were much nicer than the dilapidated shacks he lived in and around and the dream was to one day be able to rent one. Or even own one.

The mall was a shining example of how the better off lived in this town, and the prices on even the basic foods reflected that. It was little wonder that his mother had so little in the pantry and fridge, after paying the electric and plumbing bills each quarter and the rent at the end of each week, she probably barely had enough for a few cans of soup and a loaf of bread. He sighed, but filled a trolley with food nonetheless. Everything he had thought of at home, plus a few treats he stumbled across as he traversed the aisles, bacon, cheeses, even a few bars of chocolate. A sale was going on the soup cans yet they were curiously untouched. 'Soup is the poor man's cuisine huh?' Dienza mumbled to himself, loading up on a dozen of them and picking up a second pack of lamb. Not that the soup was good on its own, but Nereen always added extra cuts of meat to them, plus some seasonings that the leona wished he had taken notice of now. The cashier gave a curious glance but said nothing snarky, a decision that doubtless saved her the same level of humiliation Dienza usually dished out to judgemental types. Having no car meant he'd be walking the trolley home. If he felt like it he'd probably bring it back as well but that was a decision for later. The next pressing thought on his mind was how he was going to assert to Nereen that she was going to have three real meals today and the rest of the following week.

He made it home before she was awake, quickly unloading the soup cans into the pantry. They were useless to the micen unless the runts had some means of opening them. He giggled at the thought before putting the meat into the freezer and then pondering where he could safely put the bread. He left it on the counter for the time being and emptied the cold items into the fridge. Once everything was away he rolled the trolley back outside and pondered for a few moments. 'Fuck it.' Dienza kicked the trolley and sent it rolling out onto the street. He watched it tip over the kerb and fall onto its side with a small grin of amusement before turning and heading back inside. Nereen was there when he returned to the kitchen, noticing the bread on the table. 'Dienza?' She asked. 'What did you do?' 'I took care of the shopping.' He replied. 'Do you feel like breakfast?' 'What?' Nereen rushed to the fridge and opened it, gasping in surprise before making a similar look into the pantry and turning to face him. 'How much money did you spend?!' 'Ma will you relax?' Dienza replied. 'I still have plenty of savings. It's not like I bankrupted myself. Just let me do this once in a while huh? I'm tired of seeing you... go without so much.' 'I'm doing fine.' Nereen responded. 'Really Dienza, I want to see you succeed before anything else. I can support you, so you should be saving your money.' 'Stop!' Dienza snapped, slamming his hands onto the counter. 'You ate half a bowl of soup all day yesterday and slept an extra three hours than normal. You're not fine! You're putting your own health on the line for an ambition I'm not even sure I can make happen... Just... Please. Stop doing this to yourself. I love you. I don't want you to put yourself in an early grave.' 'I...' Nereen stammered, unable to form a reply. She turned away and took a deep breath, raising a hand to her face. 'Alright, I'm sorry.' 'I am too.' He said after a moment. 'I didn't want to yell. But I had to get my point across. You've been getting worse lately.' 'Okay.' Nereen replied with a sniff before turning back around and smiling. 'So, what do you feel like?' Dienza smiled back and walked over to the fridge. He pulled out the eggs and cheese, sitting them on the counter followed by the bacon. 'Show me how to make omelettes.' He said.

A little under an hour later, following a cooking lesson and a bigger breakfast than either of them had enjoyed in almost a month, they sat at the table in a quiet contentment. Only a few crumbs were left on the plates and the feel of a full belly was a welcome feeling to them both. Nereen stood and walked around to her son, wrapping her arms around him and kissing the top of his head. 'I'm sorry... And thank you.' 'No problem.' Dienza replied, hugging back. 'Let me help out, okay? I'm still saving plenty of money even after this. You don't have to go so far.' 'Right. I'll remember-' She stopped and both of them turned to face the other side of the kitchen. Tiny footsteps could be heard again. 'Oh... They must have heard you loading up the pantry.' 'Good luck to them.' He smirked. 'Only soup cans are in there.' 'You're so mean to them.' Nereen smiled. She lifted the two plated and poured all of the crumbs onto one of them. Walking over to the pantry, she placed it inside on the top shelf. 'Wait, are you feeding them now?' Dienza asked. 'Really?' 'Shh.' She shook her head to him. 'When we were growing up, my brother and I always left our scraps to the micen in our house. It was like a game. They'd get food if they were lucky, and we'd get them if they weren't.' 'But... You don't hunt them.' Dienza shrugged. 'This is just... this is feeding them. When did you stop hunting them? And why?' 'Oh. About your age I guess.' She shrugged as well. 'I... dunno. But it's not so bad. Besides, if you're going to insist on pitching in, we'll have a little food to spare right?' 'I guess.' He nodded. 'But I'm still gonna eat any that I catch. And... Wait. You were literally going without food because money was so tight, why weren't you hunting them?' 'Well the lack of food was their problem as much as ours really.' Nereen told him. 'They had enough worries without worrying about me eating them.' 'You must be going crazy from the lack of food.' Dienza joked. 'Seriously, they're just micen. All they do is crawl around the walls and steal from us. It's not like they're losing much.' 'Whatever you say.' Nereen said softly. 'It's not like we have much to lose at the moment either though, is it?' She smiled back at him before turning and walking into the living room. Dienza smiled and shook his head. Even when he'd gotten one point across, she was still stubborn on plenty of others.