Lost & Found (A Human X Anthro Shark story) - Chapter 8: Chapter 8

After I told Cillia I was a human, she seemed confused, her brow slightly raised, pondering what I had just said. A moment of silence enveloped the three of us in the house. Before it got any more awkward, Kara brought me the clothes and told me to go upstairs and change to see if the clothes he had bought fit.
Knowing what was happening and Kara's true intentions, I complied anyway. Once I was upstairs, I heard them talking and could make out their conversation about me.
Taking one last glance, I saw the fuel rod still resting near the front door, hoping that Cillia wouldn't touch it or do anything rash that could destroy it.
I ignored the rest because I needed new clothes, and, besides, it was none of my business to hear what they were discussing. So, I returned to the bedroom, closed the door behind me, and walked to the bathroom, setting the bag on the toilet seat as I stood in front of the sink.
Looking at myself, I opened the bag and rummaged through to see what kind of clothing Kara got me. After searching, I found two T-shirts: a classic grey one with a logo I didn't recognize and a plain blue short-sleeve T-shirt. After setting those aside, I found another set of clothes consisting of a pair of grey shorts and a pair of swim trunks, which also happened to be blue.
Before I was about to forget, I retrieved my compass and iPod and put them in my pocket for the new clothes I was wearing.
I checked if they fit, and to my surprise, they did. I dressed in new clothes, wearing a grey logo-marked shirt and grey shorts.
They felt a little tight around the waistband, but after adjusting, they felt more comfortable.
Once ready and comfortable, I walked out of the bathroom, through the bedroom, and down the hallway.
After leaving the bedroom and was right in the middle of the hallway, I could hear Cillia and Kira talking aggressively and confusedly.
I caught words like, "What the hell is he?!" which I assumed came from Cillia since she was the only one I knew who would ask a question like that.
Stopping mid-way in the hallway, I overheard their conversation, still focused on me.
"Didn't you hear what he told you? He's a human!"
"Yeah! I got that, but what the hell is a human?"
"I don't know! We might as well ask him. And by the way, stop freaking out!"
"I'm not freaking out!" Cillia exclaimed, trying to contain her voice, hoping not to let me overhear her.
"Your tone says otherwise," I heard Kara respond.
I could hear a grumble, and I assumed it was Cillia expressing her frustration or irritation, which I figured often went hand in hand.
"I think I've heard enough," I thought.
I walked down the hallway and came down the steps. At that moment, I was greeted by Kara, and I saw that Cillia perked up when I started to come down the steps of the stairs, only for Kara to give me her usual smile, but her expression appeared forced and not genuine.
"Oh, good. I was worried if those close I chose weren't the right size, but it turns out they were."
She looked for a moment, and I felt the silence of awareness again.
"Are you okay?" I asked, looking at her uncertainly.
She seemed to notice my doubtful tone toward her smile and hesitated; her smile faded as she spoke up.
"Micheal, I think, I mean, Cillia and I would like to ask you a few questions about where you came from and what you are, exactly."
I stood there momentarily, looking from Kara to Cillia, who had a doubtful expression on both faces.
I wasn't sure if telling them where I was from was a good idea, but I sighed softly after Kara gave me a pleading look, full of curiosity like a child wanting to know.
"Okay," I said with a small sigh escaping my nostrils.
She gave me a reassuring 'thank you' face. I nodded knowingly to her and gestured that the food was on the dining table, but it hadn't been unpacked yet. I also saw three glasses of water on the table for hydration in case we were thirsty.
"You don't mind if I help you pull the food from the bag?"
"Of course not; that would be helpful," Kara said, pushing her glasses back in place with her free hand.
I went to the dining table and started pulling out Cillia's takeout. All the food was out and ready; Cilia and Kira walked over to the dining room area of the house.
We were both in the dining room, sitting at the table. I sat in utter silence, watching Cillia and Kira as I helped unpack the food from the bag that Cillia had brought for us all.
We focused on retrieving what appeared to be Chinese takeout from a container typical of Asian cuisine. The container held rice, cooked veggies, egg rolls, and soup, all stored in a large, clear plastic cylinder.
The soup resembled a hot and sour soup from my world but looked lighter brown, like maple syrup—a slight similarity to the soup from Earth.
I wasn't grossed out; I was just curious to know if this soup would differ from the regular Asian soup I'm used to.
Once everything was on the table, tension filled the room until Kira broke the silence by saying, "I'll go grab us some plates." She scooted away from the table, leaving Cillia and me alone, and I could feel her gaze upon me. I wasn't sure if she would ask me anything after I explained what I was to her.
"Okay, for starters, I am a human, but you already knew that," I explained, leaving Cillia to look at me with a death stare. This concerned me because I wasn't sure if she would lung at me.
"So, a human is a mammal. I am an omnivore. I eat meat and veggies, and my kind evolved from another source of creatures called apes, and over time, we evolved and turned to, well, you know," I said, gesturing to myself with my hands.
Cillia seemed to ease from her stare and looked more relaxed, also to understand what was going on.
Before I could explain anything further, Kira returned plates and silverware so we could put the food from the containers on the plates.
Once we had grabbed what we wanted, we got the food we needed. We ate for a bit in silence before Kara spoke up.
"I heard you guys talking a bit. Did I miss anything while I was gone?"
I was about to speak when Cillia casually responded in an interested and more eased tone.
"Micheal here told me that he originally evolved from another creature called uh...apes, right?"
I nodded to her.
"Really?" Kara said, her ye bro slightly rose in purpose.
I nodded to her. Kara took a bite of food using one of the silverware Kara had brought.
"so..."
I looked up from taking a bite of one of the veggies that so happened to be good.
"...Micheal, what can you tell us about your world?"
After a moment of chewing and swallowing, I sipped water, and after a moment of drinking, I finally spoke.
"I..e from Earth, and... it is a planet where my kind, as I relate told you before humans live."
"If I understand this correctly, your kind evolved from the creation of apes, correct?"
I nodded to Kira and Cillia, who took a sip of water from their glasses and assumed they wanted to ask more questions about me and where I came from.
"who, many of your kind are there?" Cillia asked, her tone slightly intrigued.
"Let's see, in my world, it was 2025, so the last time I remember, it's 8.2 billion people on Earth."
After I said the last part of that sentence, both Kara's eyes and Cillia's bulged the size of dinner plates after hearing what I had just told them.
"Billion?!" Kara and Cillia blurted out simultaneously.
"Don't you have other colonies that could support the number of people on your planet?" Kara asked.
I was confused, and so I answered.
"Well, in the late 1960s and 1970s, we could go to the Earth's moon. I'm unsure if that counts, but that was one of our greatest achievements in human history. Some nut jobs believe it was all a fluke."
Kara and Cillia looked confused, and the two looked at each other, which gave me the instant idea that I might've confused them as well.
"I'm trying to say we are not yet close to that technology."
"to colonize other planets?" Cilia asked.
"Unfortunately, my people think that's all science fiction in my world."
Kra and Cilia only nodded, and I assumed they were finally understanding that my kind was not close to that time of technology to do that stuff, space travel, colonizing on other planets.
"Wait, are you telling me you can colonize other planets?" I asked. My tone was hopeful and curious.
Kara was about to intervene until Cillia spoke before she did.
"Yeah, it started about 15 years ago. We could travel to planets close to our solar system; we even met some aliens. Well, for our kind, we met an alien race, a reptilian species called Viterrians. They are from a planet called VI, the sand-dune-populated planet they lived on. A religious and extremely peaceful species to live in our world in peace and harmony, they have lived here with us ever since."
"What are they like? Do you mind me asking?" I asked.
Kara took a moment to recollect her thoughts, continuing to speak again.
"I have one working for me at work, and they even work at the beaches that we are close to. They are kind and heartfelt creatures. But they are extremely religious to their goddess back in their world," Kara explained.
"That reminds me that in my world, we always believed in a higher being than us, like for all of the people who believed in that source of power, and that would make sense for such a species to have a being they worship as well." I thought before returning my gaze to Kara and Cillia.
I looked at her and stared wide-eyed,
"What do you mean by your kind?"
"We didn't tell you? Our apologies. We are called Anterrians." Kara said, placing a hand on her chest to gesture to what she was, what Cillia was, and what her kind was called.
"Anterrians?" I asked.
They both nodded.
"This...this is incredible." I thought inside of my head.
"I only dreamed of this kind of stuff when I was only a kid, but now this is a reality; this is real." I thought again.
Before I could conceive more of my internal thoughts, I felt a soft yet firm yet gentle touch on my hand, and I returned from my thoughts and saw Kara giving me a look of concern, and Cilia seemed to share that concern with me as well.
"Michael?"
"Yes?"
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm okay."
Kara then looked from me to Cilia.
Then she returned her gaze to me.
"Is this too much for you?"
"No, I'm just... surprised. My kind only thought of such things as a dream; I never expected to know that somewhere out there, from where I was, there was a life out there in the universe."
This only left Kara and Cilia concerned, as I noticed their facial expressions shifting slightly after I told them what I had just told them.
"Did I say something wrong?" I asked.
Kara and Cillia looked at me for a brief moment before Kara asked.
"Well, now that you know about our kind world and greatest achievements, what is it like in your world?"
I wasn't sure that telling them about the world I was from would change how they would see me. Kara would probably think that after telling her and Cillia about our technological advances and being unable to reach and touch the stars, I'm this primitive alien to them, which worried me.
But I was going to be straight with her from top to bottom.
"My world is complicated. Our govmernest are a pain. People are living out on the streets as homelessness is increasing, conflicts and people are rebelling against others in different parts of the world, privacy is not a thing anymore, and mobile technology and social networks are used at an increasing rate. There, trash pollutes the earth's waters and destroys wildlife in forests and oceans. And no matter how hard my people try to fix it, there is always something in the way, such as politicians and politics that reject that the world needs to get better; they create conflict and violence and pain and hatred everywhere, and no matter how hard we try to help them, it's never going to get better."
Kara and Cilia were silent, staring at me, dumbstruck by what I had just told them.
And knew their behavior towards me had changed. I assumed they would think less of me after I told them where I was from.
But at that moment, I didn't feel Kara's hand leave; I tightened my grasp around mine.
She felt the heat and softness of my bare skin from my hand.
"I don't care where you're from; I think you are nothing compared to where you came from; you are kind and caring and..." Kara said, her eyes directly at mine as if she was staring into the depths of my eyes and soul. That made me feel as if she was telling me the truth.
And I knew I could tell what she was telling me was the truth, and I believed her because her eyes and voice told me so.
I nodded to her. I felt like I was about to shed tears, and nobody had ever told me that before, not for a long time.
"And what?" I asked, wanting her to finish her sentence.
She stopped and looked at me, and I could tell she was trying to find the words for what she wanted to say, which confused me even more.
After a moment of silence of her trying to speak and find the words to say to me, she did.
"And... I'm, I mean, we are grateful you're here."
I was shocked she said those words and was grateful that someone like her would say something like that, especially toward me.
"Kara, to be honest, I thought you did not want me to be here," I said.
She was slightly taken aback by what I said. But she squeezed my hand over her dinner plate-sized hand.
"No, of course you are not. I am grateful that you are here."
I smiled at her, a genuine smile crossing my lips to feel a sudden warmth of something I hadn't thought about for a long time: belonging, fitting in, and being accepted.
The Anterrian Federal Investigation Agency.
The AFIA was notified of a sudden surge of energy that caused a power outage in the southern-western region of the area. They sent out their well-known Anthro penguin special agent, Arca, an excellent officer in the agency.
She lived an everyday life with a mother and father who supported and loved her, living in the ice and snow land. It's kind of like a Surf's Up scenario.
Then, she decided to move to work, train in the candy, and become an agent at the AFIA. She had no close relationships; she was focused on her work and continued to be, but sometimes, she felt alone. But she had her family for that.
Usually, at the end of Christmas or thanking, she would come over to celebrate the holidays with her family.
She was assigned to investigate the source of the cause because they speculated it was an unknown source of energy or the unknown source of the surge.
Arca was in her office, sitting in her chair, reviewing the file on the case she had been assigned, reading to keep up with the investigation that the agency's boss assigned her to where the surge originated. So, she needed to go undercover to find out what caused the incident. It originated at one of the southern western islands.
She would have to be there alone in deep cover to find out who or what was responsible and report to HQ for future updates.
She is packing her things to go on a trip to the islands to be an uncover agent and act as a widow. She is on vacation to enjoy the waters and sand of the beaches of the southern islands.
Inside the building of the AFIA HQ, the main office, the cat in the leader, the holy grail of the agency, and the boss of all bosses, who happens to be an anthro tiger wearing a black and white suit, her name on a golden-plated sign, was sitting in her business chair near her desk, looking through her desktop.
The news was a live news report of the unknown pheromone on her holographic glass computer on a rectangular-shaped screen.
She was fiddling with a pen, twiddling with her orange and white-furred paw fingers as she focused on the screen on her desk.
"We are live tonight in the southern western region. A sudden shockwave of unknown origins has caused a system to fail outside the coastlines. Experts and specialists are trying to determine what has caused this effect; some believe this is the Viterrinas planning an attack. We will come back after these messages."
She came over to the keyboard and pressed a key, causing the monitor to cancel the video screen that she was watching from.
"It's not the Viterrians, that's for sure." The boss muttered in a low, gruff, dry tone.