FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

::::::::::::::: Authors Note :::::::::::::::

First I have to apologize to everyone who has been waiting for the next chapter of the Woodland Visitor. Some people say that when they can't write, that they ran into a wall. My wall feels like the Great Wall of China. Soon I hope to have another chapter ready to but until then I decided that I would dust off another series I started a while ago and see how well this one goes. Again I have to apologize for the long delay in my posts. Returning from my third tour of Iraq, moving back to Texas, going to school, and preparing for my fourth tour has taken all my time.

And now the most beloved part of any story, the legal mumbo-jumbo. If you are not of legal age in the area you are reading this in, stop and go no further. Star Fox and all related characters are copyright Nintendo, all other characters were created by me and are strictly fictional. Any resemblance to any person living, dead or in any quasi-living state is strictly coincidental and has no bearing on the passage of time in the universe and should be taken as such.

Now on with the story.

Chapter one: Change

Screaming, I sit up in bed and cradle my head in my hands. It takes me a few minutes to calm down to the point my breathing returns to a somewhat normal pattern. My heart is racing as the nightmare slowly recedes to the back of my mind.

Looking around, I find myself in what appeared to be a hospital room. I say appeared to be because I've seen the TV shows and been in a couple but the equipment is nothing like I've ever seen before.

Before I could concentrate on this puzzle, the nightmare comes back full force and my mind replays it for me.

In the corner of the room, a set of crystal blue eyes watches me. The owner didn't like doing this but they needed to find out what happened. Slowly they drew the images from my mind, making me repay the events.

* * * * *

I was on my way to school, being my senior year I was excited. I had only four months to go before I graduated and then it would be off to college. It was only yesterday that I received the letter from them stating I was accepted under full scholarship. It seems there was an anonymous letter of recommendation sent to them that they couldn't refuse.

I wanted to get to school and find out which one of my teachers sent the letter. And most of all I wanted to find out what was said that made the college unable to refuse me.

Reaching down I began to change the channel on the radio trying to find something with a fast beat. Something that would go good with the mood I was in. Maybe that's why I never saw it coming.

The first thing I heard was the noise. Loud, hollow banging that made me jerk my head up.

My body reacted next before my brain could comprehend what it saw. Jerking the steering wheel, I tried to turn the car avoiding the 18-wheeler that lay across my path spilling its load of steel pipes all over.

Mother Nature had other ideas. The snow made the road slippery and refused to do more than turn the car sideways as it still headed right for the pipes.

Slow motion kicked in as I watched several pipes bounce up and come right at the side of my car. As the steel pipes impacted into my car I couldn't do anything but watch.

The first pipe flew through the passengers window and right by the front of my head, missing me by a little bit.

The second pipe I didn't see, but it came through the passenger's door and hit my seat in such a way as to twist my seat and turn me more towards the side to face the next ones.

The third one came through the passenger's side window and caught my left arm causing a searing pain to shoot up it to my brain.

Then there was the one that came right at me. It was heading straight for my chest with nothing to stop it. Before I felt it hit me though my head was jerked sideways, slamming it into something which knocked me right out.

* * * * *

I reach over and rub my arm subconsciously, only to feel a sharp pain when my hand brushed across the bandages that were wrapped there.

Suddenly the door burst open and in ran two... umm... people that I could only assume was a doctor and a nurse. They dressed the part but that was about it. I slid further back on the bed as I watched them come over with their hands up trying to cam me down.

"My name is Dr. Tolliver. I'm not going to hurt you. I just want to make sure you're alright." He reached down to a table beside my bed and picked up some kind of PDA looking tablet and started touching the screen. "How do you feel Mr. umm..." He looked down at the tablet. "Mr. Price is it?"

I could only watch him look back down at his chart. I was stunned to say the least. I had to be dead, or on some strong medication that was making me hallucinate. My mind kept twisting and turning on itself trying to comprehend what was going on. The monitors had picked this up and gave a warning tone as my heart rate rose. I just sat there as he came over and started looking me over, as if he was looking for something.

"What's happening?" I heard the nurse ask.

"I don't know. Mr. Price, can you hear me. Are you ok? Do you feel any pain anywhere?"

"He's in shock doctor." Came this voice from the far side of the room causing the doctors head to turn. My head twisted too, trying to see who this newcomer was.

She stepped out of the shadows and looked directly at me. The first thing I noticed was her eyes. They were the most beautiful blue-green eyes I had ever seen. They seemed to be looking into my soul.

"He's never seen anything like this..." She said sweeping her arm to indicate the room we were in. "Or us for that matter. His mind is going crazy just trying to accept what he's seeing."

My eyes were finally able to break the lock that she held them in. From her eyes I took in every detail. It didn't take more than a couple of seconds for me to recognize who was speaking.

"Where he comes from... we don't exist. We're just creatures of fantasy." Her eyes went wide. "But he knows who..."

That was all it took. My eyes rolled back into my head and I slipped into unconsciousness again.

* * * * *

I slowly opened my eyes only to see the white sterile ceiling of a hospital room. Slowly my head turns and I recognize the same room that I saw...

I jerk my head the other way trying to see the corner where she came from but immediately regretted doing that as it made my head throb. A noise behind me made me look over at the door as the nurse who was here earlier came in.

She smiled when she seen that I was awake. "Good morning Mr. Price. How are you feeling this morning?"

I smiled as I took in her features. Everything from the feline face to the golden fur to the black spots that decorated what I could see of her body. For some reason I wasn't as surprised as when I saw her earlier. I mean, I should be freaked out. Before me stood an Anthromorpic Cheetah. A real flesh... I mean fur and blood cheetah.

I suddenly realized that she had been talking to me the whole time I was checking her out. "It would be a lot easier if you could understand me."

"And it would be a lot easier if I knew how I got here. Or even where here was." I said quietly causing her to drop the tray she held.

"You can talk?" She gasped.

"Yea," I replied.

She came over to the bed and grabbed my hand. "How are you feeling?"

"Like shit."

Her eyebrows arched as she looked at me. "I'll take that to mean not good. What's wrong?"

"I have a head ache and my arm hurts."

She turned to the tray she had dropped and picked up some weird looking contraption. Placing it against my neck near my shoulder I heard a soft hiss and then felt a sting before she removed it.

"That should help with the head ache. Now let me look at your arm and see." Gently I felt her lift my arm and unwind the bandage from it. Pulling the pad from over the wound she gently ran her fingers down each side of it before setting my arm back down. "I'll be right back." She said before she turned and walked out the door.

Two minutes later the doctor came in followed by the nurse who had a smile on her face.

"Good morning Mr. Price. I hear you have a pain in your arm, is that right?" The Large grey wolf who was Dr Tolliver asked me.

"It feels as if something is ripping it open."

He gently probed around the wound, and then turned to the nurse who had already opened a towel that had several instruments on it. Picking one up, he turned back and again took my arm.

"This may sting for a few seconds, so bear with me."

I looked at the nurse who smiled back at me. "Just try to relax a little."

I closed my eyes and tried to relax as the doctor began to work on my arm. With my eyes closed it felt like he was trying to pull an adhesive bandage off of it. I could feel him tugging on something and every so often there was a sharp pain like he was pulling my skin off with it.

"There, that should do it. How does it feel now?"

I heard the clanking of an instrument and something... I don't know how to describe it. It kinda sounded like he threw down a piece of meat. Opening my eyes I saw that it was a fair description of it for in a small tray in front of me looked to be a four inch square of my skin. I quickly looked at my arm and noticed that there was a red patch about the same size around a three inch long cut on my upper arm. The cut looked like it had been done a while ago but was just recently opened up.

"We tried to patch a piece of skin that we grew from your tissues over the cut but for some reason, it didn't take. What you felt was the piece of skin being pulled apart from you moving your arm. I think if we just bandage the wound, it'll heal eventually."

I ran my finger around the cut and felt no unwanted pain. Stretching my arm out, I rotated my shoulder and extended my arm and felt no more pain. I smiled as I turned back to the wolf. "That feels a lot better. No more pulling."

"Good, now if you feel up to it, I'd like to run a few tests on you. We don't actually have anything to compare them to besides the tests we took when you came in here."

"How long have I been here?"

"Eight days. You were unconscious when they brought you in. we didn't know what to do because we've never seen anything like you. I decided that the only thing we could do, is treat you like you're one of us and hope the treatments didn't kill you. We only did minimal treatments until we were sure that they didn't hurt you. When you responded positively to the treatments, we did more."

He picked up the tablet that I assumed contained my records. "I also ordered a bunch of tests, things that one of us would need in your condition. Then as an afterthought I ordered other tests so we could get some information on you and an idea of what to look for if you needed to come here again. Yesterday, we ran some of the tests again to see if there were any changes. I would like to run the tests again when you have fully recovered."

"What tests do you want to perform today then?"

"Well they're not really tests. It's more like checking you over. We just want to make sure that you've recovered. Things like see if you can walk and if you have full use of your arm. Not really test but those in charge of them think they sound more important if they're called tests. Anyway, if we find that you 'pass' these test we can release you."

My eyes popped open at this. "Release me?"

"Yup, you'll be free to go."

I looked down at the blanket that was over me. "Go, good, but go where." I quietly said.

The cheetah nurse put her paw on my arm. "Arrangements have already been made. Someone will be up later today to see you. By that time we'll know if you are going to leave or not today."

"Arrangements? By who?"

"I don't know. All I know is that someone is supposed to be around today to pick you up if you are released."

"What if I'm not released today?"

"Don't worry about it. If something happens, I'll take you home with me."

I quickly looked up at her. "Ummm... well thank you."

She ducked her head as she quickly turned to pick up the instruments the doctor had used. "You're welcome." She softly replied.

* * * * *

The 'tests' were more like physical therapy, they had me walk around and move my arms and legs to make sure there wasn't any damage or restriction to my movement. The workers who were conducting the tests were constantly asking about my movements. Trying to judge the extent that my limbs moved, I would assume since they didn't have anything to go off of.

I was taken back to my room where Doctor Tolliver was waiting for me.

"Well Mr. Price, it seems that your results beat you up here. As far as I could tell, you can go. But you are to inform someone if there are any problems, both for your health and our records. Now if you will come with me, there's someone you need to see."

The person who brought me up from therapy turned me around and followed the doctor out of the room. "Like I have a choice here." I said with a smile as I looked back at the nurse who walked beside me. She covered her face to hide her smile as I looked back again at the doctor.

"Now behave or I'll have Stuart here show you how 'accommodating' we can really be Mr. Price." He replied with a big grin.

Looking over my shoulder, my eyes opened wide and I quickly turned back forward placing my hands on my lap and began whistling while I looked up at the ceiling. Everyone laughed as we stopped in front of a door at the end of the hall. Inside was a conference room with a table and chairs and a large white wolf setting down going over some papers that were in a file on the table. He looked up and smiled when I came in. Standing up he walked over to us and held out his hand.

"My name is Major Maxwell and you are Mr. Price I assume."

My jaw just about hit the floor. To say that he was big would be an understatement. He was like a cross between the Hulk and Hercules... On steroids even. I was shaking when I shook his hand but his friendly smile and firm but not overpowering grip calmed me down a bit.

He settled back into his seat and again looked down at the file on the table. "Mr. Price, I'm to get you settled in. I assure you that everything has been arranged for you. I'm to take you over to the academy and get you settled in then help you wherever you may need it."