That's what happens after you fav anything here. The artist or writer can suddenly delete whatever they posted or change accounts, etc. Used to have a ex that would save everything he faved and would full up his hard drive fast. X3 There really isn't much you can do about it unless you want to save all those stories.

Best advice would be to create a "Stories for later" folder on your hard drive and save them there. I have learned that if i fav a story, i am never going to get back to it for one reason or another.

They deleted it, or they deleted their account

I really really wish furry artists wouldn't ragequit and yell "I'm wiping everything! Fuck all y'all!"
But furries gotta drama.

They were probably removed from the site at some point, so you can't bring them back, unfortunately. If you want to save a story permenantly you need to store it on your hard drive.

That said, if they weren't removed from the site then they would still be in your favorites. I keep a lot of stuff favorited even though I haven't downloaded it, and as such I have lost several things.

Oddly, there are times when someone can be banned or leave the site or set their profile to deactivated, but this doesn't remove them from the favorites lists of other users, so you can still see them.

P.S. If you remember the writer, they may still have the stories up somewhere else, or you could find them on the wayback machine or other internet archive.

If I just favorite a story aren't I supposed to be able to see it in the favorites section of my account?

Yeah, and anyone else can see what you've favorited. But, if the owner of the story removes it from the site, it's completely removed, including from your favorites.