FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I struggled to reply. Did I respond with my name, my species, my personality? Did I try to run? I doubted I could escape the creature if I tried, with how fast it was.

I expressed my name. My full name. I spoke its audible part, and I displayed its history, even its sadness, on my face in heat.

"Ra-mank."

We stared at each other. Perhaps it understood me, but I had no way of knowing. I didn't know whether to be fascinated or terrified anymore. Then the tall creature stepped back from me. I wondered if it was leaving.

It looked to our side, its eyes glowing bright again. They grew brighter and brighter, when something impossible happened. The light from it hung in midair, stuck in time. It curved and changed colors, though not in heat. It formed objects, as though they were real. When I stood on two paws and my tail and touched the light, it vanished behind my grip. Truly unreal, like something drawn.

Mesmerized, I tried to make sense of what was displayed. They were more creatures, again unlike anything I had ever seen. Different colors, different shapes, some swaying as though in water, others flying, still others striding on dry land. It showed small creatures of similar proportions of those next to it. Younglings. While it showed life, it also showed death--the Hunt. Two-legged creatures striding after a sprinting animal, slowly catching up to it and throwing a pointed object, killing it. The picture changed. They were eating the animal now, cooking it with fire.

Next it depicted some kind of plant next to the two-leggeds being pulling apart. They consumed part of it and stored the rest. The view changed, as though we backed up from their house, revealing an entire settlement. The plant grew all around them. A foreign, yellow sun rose over their land. The picture stopped and changed, though on close inspection not completely. It was the same village, but larger. More structures, more of the smooth-skinned creatures.

The picture changed again and again. The structures grew taller and taller like the tall plants of this world. First they grew of dirt and stone and lumber, then of metal and material that reflected all the star's light. They dominated the ground. Soon, there were no forests at all, only the structures. One picture showed the strange settlement at night, alight with a million tiny fires like those in the creature's eyes in front of me.

The perspective changed again, approaching a wider building that still managed to tower over the two-legged creatures. It focused on only a few of them. They walked inside, took off some of the strange material covering their bodies and put on different material, this time pure white. You could no longer see their flesh, only the white and their small eyes. They stood in front of a strange creature that seemed torn apart. Was this the Hunt again? It was almost unrecognizable.

They approached it, some with strange devices that emitted noise like shrill wind. The pictured shifted again, showing the creature becoming whole, building it as though you built a home. The creature stood, black and glossy. It was not unfamiliar; it was the same type as the one found in front of me outside the picture.

"You were built," I said.

The creature did not acknowledge me, still alight with the image in front of it. I kept watching the image change. It showed the creature moving, walking on four legs. It was put inside a smooth metal object like a windowless prison. Then that was put on a black structure, so tall and thin that I could not see where it ended, going into the sky without end.

The room it was in moved upward, carried by an invisible force up this hypertall structure, leaving the ground behind. With the picture following the room, the sky turned dark as night, brightened only by unfamiliar stars. Soon the ground grew so distant it seemed to curve away, like a small ball at the end of a long rope.

Finally the rope ran out, reaching a large mess of rock, metal, and light. It floated against the black sky, suspended only by the rope. The cage with the metal creature was moved to another part of the building. It was attached delicately to a smaller structure, which pushed itself away, left to drift into the void.

One part of it grew a thousand times, metal and perfectly flat. White light reflected from it, illuminating the true ground around us like it was daytime. I reflexively closed a set of eyelids to keep my vision from being damaged.

The view changed yet again, moving away from the flat surface till it was a tiny square, then nothing at all. The world the object originated from appeared small and insignificant. The view moved even further away, making this sun appear as though it was just another star. Perhaps that all they ever were.

The picture approached a new sun, a red one now, and continued to move in on one sphere near it, red and yellow. The flat structure appeared again, illuminated in starlight. They separated, leaving behind the flat grey sheet and moving above the sphere, circling around it over and over. As part of it separated again, and the picture focused on only one half. The surface of the sphere slowed and slowed under the object, growing closer till it morphed into something like distant ground. A huge amount of fabric erupted from it and expanded, catching in the wind.

It slowed down even more, close to the ground now. It seemed familiar again. The ground was red like dirt, the plants their shades of yellow, the sky that beautiful blue-green hue. This was our world.

"H'Roh," I said, pointing at the image, trying to make it understand.

As the object fell through the air, the built creature dropped from it, hitting the ground. I could hear the clang of metal on dirt as it landed. It stood, unhurt. The rest of its strange home landed next to it on six metal legs.

The creature showed itself walking away, investigating every part of its surroundings. It showed itself seeing a H'Rah in the undergrowth, clambering over to my huddled form. Abruptly, the pictures stopped. The lights dimmed from its eyes, turning to me instead.

The creature spoke again, but without any heat revealing its inflection. That by itself was extremely confusing, but it was also speaking short, almost meaningless phrases, with long breaks between them.

"What are you... Ra-mank... You were built... H'Roh."

It was repeating me. I believed it didn't understand what it was saying.

I made up my mind. This crafted beast was dangerous, with abilities that did not seem possible. I had to leave it before it attempted to do me harm.

"Goodbye. Do not follow me," I said. Through my facial heat, I expressed no ill-content, wishing it peace.

It failed to do this, finding itself in front of me. Its face lowered down to mine, eye level. Though its stance did not change, its heat did. It mimicked me, this time in heat, expressing a version of my peaceful wishes that was slightly flawed. If I hadn't known better, I would have guessed it was trying to express its wish for solitude.

"You don't understand what you're doing, do you?" I said, my face alight with confusion.

It looked at me, its head tilted.

"What is that supposed to mean?" I asked.

"What... doing... you," it said in my tongue.

"What am I doing?" I cried, still unsure if it knew it asked me a question. "I'm trying to leave! Leave me be, creature!"

Spines raised, I darted around it, moving for the undergrowth. Its eyes followed me instantly, but its body did not. Taking no chances, I twisted and turned through the dense plants, putting as much distance between us as possible. A stray Gahfu branch sliced my shoulder, though I hardly felt it. In my hunger, I was quickly becoming drained of energy, unable to run. Before long, I could neither walk nor run; I had to stop. I stood on my tail and swiveled my head, scanning for signs of danger. My hunger-driven exhaustion was overpowering. I collapsed where I stood, my tail betraying me. Before many moments had passed, the chitter of small creatures lulled me to an awful sleep.

When I started to wake, the proud sun stood over everything, warming me pleasantly. But something was immediately out of place. The smell of meat just beginning to decay. Extremely close. I turned left, then right, and saw it, the half-eaten carcass of a Wahbih. Above that stood the unwavering metal creature, staring into me.