FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Even after everything he did, Vincent looked at me with the most causal smile. He was our leader for crying out loud and no one remembers him at all! Not only that, the tattoos that covered his body and face were nonexistent, including his eyes. No longer did they glowed that beautiful golden color that I was so fixated on but instead, they were black, devoid of anything meaningful.

“Without this guy's help, we wouldn't been able to find ya so quickly. I didn't know you two were close friends before the war.” Hunter said, wrapping his arm around Vincent's shoulder.

“But we are not fri-”

“you guys should get yourselves cleaned up while me and dex catch up.” Vincent quickly interrupted while he closed the door behind him, only to reopen it again. This time, the door revealed a entrance leading into a locker room separated by a wall so that both male and females can go about their business in private

Hunter nodded and excused himself, shuffling passed us to make his way through the door along with everybody else. It wasn't long before we were you out of earshot “How are you even here? I thought you were just apart of my mind!” I whispered to him.

“I still am in a way. You see, without a soul, our bodies are nothing more than fleshy husk used as nutrients for plants and insects.” Vincent responded. “The nursery is like a factory that manufacturers human bodies for our very souls to return to.”

“That still doesn't explain how you are here.” I could tell that he sensed my frustration as he tried to calm me down.

“let me finish. Anyway, I'm an exception. I do not contain my own soul but small bits of yours Dex.” I almost lost my composure when he said that. sounded silly back then when I was young but the more i learned about our past, the more it made sense for me. “Creating a body was child's play for the queen but creating a soul from practically Nothing was challenging. I don't remember much from what happened back then but as far as i know, you admired me Dex. Along with bringing all of your friends back from oblivion, our generous queen gifted you, the ideal version of yourself: me.”

“But why would she do such a thing just for me and how do you know all this?” I softly asked Vincent as he placed a hand on my shoulder.

“ just trust me on this one Dex. Your new found purpose is to stand by her side as a advisor, like those before you. She will trust your word in everything so in a way, you may decide the path humanity might take….. probably.”

The office fell silent as he said that, I looked around to see that the gang had already returned and was staring at the both us before erupting in a uproar. “Holy shit, Dex is gonna be an advisor? That's awesome!” The medic boomed as he shoved a book he was looking at, back into the shelf. “More importantly, Queen Helios is also coming back. The beastmen have another thing coming.” Hunter joined in.

“Big brother? Is it true that the pretty lady is coming back?” Mira asked as she comb her hair down with a brush. I could never forget that look she made when I answered her question. “Definitely and I get to work directly under her as well. This also includes all of you too but it won't be easy. We need to learn the ropes around here so we know what we are doing.”

****

Trapped like rats, that's the most accurate thing i could describe our situation back then. There was only place we could go to besides the office and that was locker room. So with nothing else to do, I had everyone grab a book and read to past the time. To be honest, it was fun! One book in particular talked all about how these doors worked. They're called temporal gateways and they were commonplace in the past, mainly by the organization that previously served the queen. They act as a sort of portal that could send any person to another location, regardless of the distance.

I'm not gonna lie, I was pretty excited along with everyone else that we could basically jump from point to point with little effort. Sadly, the only places we could jump to at the time was the locker room. The book did state that there were hundred of thousands of doors placed across the planet. That's when it dawned on me that queen Helios mentioned something about the beastmen doing something that was preventing the nursery from functioning at full power. It must have been the reason why we couldn't travel anywhere.

Time flew by as we all sat around and did nothing but read books until the lights began to flicker slightly. Vincent was the first to noticed what was happening which made his smile grew wider. “Dex, we should try getting out one more time.” I asked him why but he dodged the question and egged me towards the door, I reluctantly gave way to his pestering and grabbed onto the handle.

I walked through to see thousand of stars dotting the night sky. The chilly breeze I felt that day I died, welcomed me back with a vengeance. Luckily, the suit I had on was warm enough for it to not be a major issue. I found myself inside what appeared to be an abandoned logging cabin with its roof completely missing. shards of glass covered the dirty floorboard along with old beastmen magazines. Grizzly was the first to follow close behind me, remarking how cold it was.

“I knew we would eventually find a way out. What's the plan boss?” the medic asked me as he and the rest of the group proceed to step through the door.

“All we can do now is wait unt-”

A gurgling sound nearby drew my attention off the boy and through the broken window outside. A large shadowy figure trudged, both hunter and grizzly immediately sprung into action and took positions in front of me just as a large claw like hand punched through the window, easily tearing it away to reveal its face or lack thereof .

I learned later on that they were called sacrificial pawns due to their simple minded nature. human beings fuzed together with the help of the queen's…..‘light’. Thus, a brute of flesh and fire is born into this world. They are more than capable of taking on multiple beastmen at the same. The one we saw for the first time was an sight to behold, having several limb-like appendages protruded out from various parts of its charred body. The main head held no facial features but was still somehow able to talk. “M-must protect h-her…. children F-from….them.” I heard it say in an heavily deformed voice as it thrown something right in front of us with an thud.

A female cougar dressed in a blood soaked naval uniform laid before us. Both of her legs looked as though they were bitten off while one of her arms was twisted in a Mangold directions, the lady couldn't escape even if she tried. “H-help me.” she sobbed, crawling towards grizzly.

The pawn noticed the cats movements and let out a ear piercing screech, using one of its many arms to grab onto her good arm and drag her back. The beastwoman continued to howl as the pawn lifted her up from the floor and wrapped its main hand around her chest. “DIE DIE DIE DIE!” The pawn hissed as its fingers slowly closed. I could see her form slowly give way to the pawn's superior strength. The gut curtailing screams were getting louder as I could hear bones snap.

After the it was sure that the beastwoman was no longer moving, the pawn tossed her lifeless body over the shed and out of sight. Vincent stood his ground along with grizzly and hunter, I half expected the rest of the gang retreat back into the door in terror but was stunned to see all of them marvel at the creature.

“Um… excuse me, what are you?” Mira asked, hiding herself behind my leg. She wasn't trembling with fear from what just transpired but was in fact had the face of a curious little girl. “W-we are….her humble servants. For so l-long, w-we s-struggled within the s-shadows in a world of animals but her voice r-reached our hearts and gave us all purpose. U-unifying us all as one.” It said in both a male and female voice.

Without a second thought, Mira shuffled forward a little to get a closer look at the creature. She gave it a soft smile before patting its head. “You don't seem bad at all, just very protective.” all of the blood drained from my when the little tried to make peace with the pawn but the most surprising part how it reacted to her actions. “T-thank...you.” Was its response before turning to leave.

While everyone crowded around Mira to see if she was injured in any way, me and Vincent went through the opening the creature made and tried to follow it. “I guess that thing is on our side right.”

“Guess so, didn't know Mira had bigger balls than the rest of us.” Vincent joked as we came to a cliff, the pawn was nowhere in sight but we did find something else entirely. It was a dome, a large one at that, with a few of what looked like ships surrounding it. All of them were completely engulf in flames and was going through the process of sinking.

“Dex, I know this might sound weird but I have a feeling we are gonna have a lot of fun together.”