FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The click clack of heels echoed down the bare hallways of the local community college. Clara rushed as best she could in the awkward footwear, a bundle of papers and a large three-ringed binder clutched in her arms. Her eyes scanned quickly over each number plate that stood affixed to the wall next to each nondescript door and her lips silently counted them out as she went. She turned a corner in the hallway, her pace constant, and nearly collided with a man in a jumpsuit pulling a rolling trash can. She yelped in surprise, nearly dropping her burden to the ground.

Recovering quickly, she moved for the last door in the hall and pushed inside. Every eye in the half empty room immediately settled on her as the lecture came to a grinding halt. She flushed with embarrassment and shuffled awkwardly to find a seat.

"Class starts at 7:30pm sharp, miss," the professor called out lightly, a hint of mockery in his voice. A few half-hearted chuckles followed his comment, but luckily most were sympathetic to the frazzled young lady taking night classes. Clara was desperate to get out of her job as the file clerk at her office and this business administration degree was her one lifeline. She settled into her seat and let the lecture wash over her tired mind. She took notes, worried that her exhausted brain was not going to retain the information vital to her escape.

An hour and a half later, Clara's classmates filed out of the room as the professor cleaned up his space. It looked like he wanted to admonish her for her tardiness, but he gave a half-hearted shrug and let her depart without comment. This was community college, after all. Leaving the building the college night classes were held in, Clara pulled out her phone and texted her roommate.

Finished class. Be home in an hour.

Sara's reply didn't take long, the chime of a new text was followed simply by the letter K. Rolling her eyes at the characteristically brief nature of the message, she stowed her phone and headed for the subway station at the end of the next block. Descending the stairs and swiping her fare card, her mind ran over her plan to escape corporate hell. Get my degree, apply for management, get an office with a window, meet someone, settle down... her inner monologue was thrown into disarray when she collided with a young man as they both attempted to occupy the same space on the train.

She looked around in confusion, as the train was far from crowded and noticed the other passenger stowing his phone hurriedly and mumbling an apology. The blush on his face made it clear that he was equally embarrassed at the impact as she was confused. Clara regarded her travelling companion for a moment, the young man maybe only a few years her junior. He still had the telltale signs of having recently entered the adult world, that sort of nervous awkwardness of the late teens and early twenties. Deciding to make the best of the weird disruption, Clara offered her hand in greeting.

"I'm, uh, Teagan. Nice to meet you," he said a little quietly. The teen seemed a little shy, but they made idle chatter for the few minutes it took for the car to travel the underground portion of their journey. Clara's stop was the third after it moved to aboveground rail and she was eager to collapse into bed. The subway train exited the tunnel and the pair looked out the window in utter disbelief. There, far above in the sky, shapes and colors danced and wheeled in a chaotic spectrum that would put the Northern Lights to shame. The pair pressed to the plexiglass window of the subway car and stared agape at the unimaginable beauty before them.

The colors and shapes pulsed urgently, seemingly one giant heartbeat in the sky. Clara almost thought she could make out discernible figures somewhere high above, but as she turned to Teagan to ask if he had also seen the galloping horse, the lights pulsed impossibly bright and darkness slammed shut on Clara's mind.

---

Several Months Later

Clara awoke, as usual, with a feeling of tightness around her entire body. By now, the sensation was no longer alarming or disorienting and she managed to slowly rise out of sleep with that pleasant fog over her mind being blown away. Also as usual, Teagan had slept in, his newfound bulk pressed firmly against her. She squirmed slightly, pressing against her tight confines and got comfortable again. If the big equitaur wasn't awake, Clara wasn't going to be able to do anything about it.

With a small sigh, she nestled back down to her neck in the springy flesh of the male's sheath. Not for the first time, her mind started to play through the myriad disappointments and lost dreams that The Event had caused for her. She looked up with a small amount of resentment at the sleeping equine centaur, wondering how fate decided that he got to turn into a trim, athletic, handsome horse man and she was now his genitals. The unfairness rankled her, especially now that she felt the growing urge to start her --their-- morning routine and she was reminded of another indignity she was forced to endure.

Sliding an arm free of the taut flesh of her natural sleeping bag, Clara lightly thumped her hand on the barrel-like belly of her new body and called out, "Teagan! Wake up you lazy ass! We've gotta go pee." The equitaur, who had been lightly snoring, woke up with a startled jump which jostled Clara in her perch between his legs. Soft, confused sputtering noises accompanied a rush of blood flow through her new body as the big horse shook himself fully awake.

He rolled a little more onto his side and looked down his newly elongated body at Clara with a sleepy smile, "Hey. Did I wake you up?"

The equine shaft rolled her eyes in exasperation, "No, Teagan. I woke you up. Now get up, you hulking beast, I know you have to pee and I want to get that out of the way as soon as possible." A sleepy nod and a soft knicker answered her as Teagan shifted his considerable frame and rose to all four hooves. The conjoined pair both stretched the sleep away, Clara sliding free of her sheath and popping a few stiff spots from her joints. Teagan clopped across the hardwood floor of their room and slid into the bathroom that would be oversized for anyone of normal size, but fit the pair quite well.

This bathroom was actually converted from the second bedroom of the house they now occupied, so it was very spacious and purpose-built for their new frame. Teagan slid the door aside and stepped into the space, heading for the shower. Clara sighed inwardly. She missed baths, especially ones where she lounged in the tub for an hour, but Teagan was very much a short, effective shower type. The water hissed on and the initial spray of cold against his back startled Teagan, while Clara felt an urge to retreat into her sheath. She resisted and instead grabbed the second nozzle mounted at her height, directing the rapidly warming water over her mottled skin.

As she cleaned herself, Clara had to wonder if her admiration of her interesting new skin pattern was a result of her change or if she simply enjoyed the colors she now sported. She hummed pleasantly for a few minutes, removing the sweat from her body before she felt a familiar rising urge. What little enjoyment she was drawing from the shower now almost literally went down the drain as she was reminded of their urgent need to urinate. With a resigned sigh, she opened her mouth as Teagan's bladder flexes. She closed her eyes and waiting until the sound of urine hitting the shower floor subsided. By whatever mercy remained in the universe, Clara could neither smell nor taste their pee, or, if she could, her mind blanked out any unpleasantness involved with the act.

Minutes later, the stream of steaming water subsided and the pair worked to towel dry their body. Teagan trotted them into the large living space that served as combination living room and bedroom and began to eat breakfast. Clara enjoyed this moment of domestic casualness, the trunk of their equitaur body turned on its side so she could browse the internet on a laptop provided by the government agency helping them take care of themselves. She craned her neck and looked over at Teagan, his long face sporting a comical milk mustache as he ate cereal.

"Don't forget, they'll be here soon for our checkup," she said. Teagan looked up at the clock on the wall and mumbled something. "What?"

"I forgot, thanks. Do you know if they want to do anything special today?" The horseman said through a mouthful of colorful sugar.

"Don't talk with your mouth full," Clara chided. "And yes, they want to take another blood sample or something. They think we might help them cure cancer or the common cold or something."

"I thought they were working on fixing us?" Teagan said, mouth finally empty. Clara rolled her eyes, and smiled ruefully at him.

"They're doing that too, but I really doubt it's ever going to work. Besides, you have the better end of this whole thing. You can still walk around and you don't have to deal with your urges like I do."

"I said I was sorry!" Teagan whined. "You try spending your entire life with normal junk and then having to ask permission from your cock to take care of your needs."

Clara softened, "You're right, that wasn't fair of me. I keep forgetting that this is a huge change for you, too." She smiled and patted his belly, "At least I'm stuck with someone who actually gives a shit about me. Who knows what would've happened if I'd been elsewhere?"

Teagan got up, carrying the empty bowl to the sink as Clara used her hands to help her move around his underside so she could help him put the cleaned dish in the dishwasher. Their eyes met for a small moment and they exchanged a small smile before a chime sounded through the room. Clara looked up at the clock, "That'll be them. C'mon big guy, let's not keep them waiting." Teagan nodded, trotting over to the door. Waiting on the other side was their usual contact, another horse by the name of Benji. Unlike the pair, he had weathered The Event much better, only gaining the features of an anthropomorphic bay horse. His bright green eyes twinkled as he smiled at them, one of the few among the staff that picked them up that had never shown revulsion at all.

"Morning, you two," he said cheerfully. "I figured since this was your last battery of tests and checkups for a while, we should treat you today." He stepped aside and gestured to his mode of transportation. Normally, the government would only send a truck with a horse trailer, something Clara complained about the indignity of constantly. Today, however, the pair were standing in front of a converted RV, a back ramp open for their large bulk to access.

"Oh, thank god," Clara sighed in relief. "I may have a modified sense of smell, but I still haven't exactly gotten used to the smell of other horses." Teagan and Benji shared a small chuckle at her relief and the horsetaur climbed up the ramp and settled onto the plush cushions left for them. The trip wasn't long, but the new luxury was enough to let Clara relax and doze a little. What felt like an instant later, she was roused by gentle pushing by Teagan. The pair rose and were led inside the nondescript building and down to the medical level.

What followed was the usual embarrassing, invasive, and somewhat dehumanizing battery of needles, sensors, probes and swabs. All the while, Benji and a few other horse anthros hovered nearby and tried to keep the pair in good spirits. Teagan weathered the treatment better than Clara, as he had quite the sizeable body for them to work with. Unfortunately for her, most of their focus was always on her, as she was the real medical marvel. By the time the tests and checkups were done, the poor girl was exhausted draped over the medical bed lethargically. Mercifully, once they were finished, they were bundled back into the RV and driven home. As they exited the RV, Benji hopped from the cab and came around to meet them.

He exchanged a few quiet words with Teagan and they shook hands before the horse crouched down by where Clara rested inside Teagan's sheath. She looked at him with a little bit of exhaustion and annoyance, expecting to be told of another test or inspection.

"I pulled some strings with the agency," the bay said instead. "I convinced my supervisor that we have enough blood, hair, and skin samples to build another one of you entirely and that you both deserved compensation." The stallion reached into a pocket on his coat, producing a small phone. He handed it to her and continued, "in that phone are my number, the number for a private security firm, and a driver. If you ever run into any problems the two of you can't handle, call. We'll handle it."

Clara looked at the phone with delight, realizing that this was a physical representation of their freedom. Looking up at Benji, she smiled warmly, "Thank you. You didn't have to do this."

He smiled and shrugged, "It was the least I could do for a friend. You look after Teagan, though. I have a feeling if you don't make him, he'll get lazy. A big guy like him needs plenty of exercise." The two exchanged a laugh and Benji opened his arms to her for a hug. Clara hesitated only a moment before wrapping her arms around him. "Take care. I'll be in touch."

Clara and Teagan stood in the doorway as Benji drove off, waiting until they could no longer see the tail lights of the RV. Clara looked up at Teagan, who smiled down back at her. "Well, we've got the rest of our lives ahead of us. What do you want to do now?" He said.

She smiled up at him. Suddenly, her hopes and dreams didn't seem so impossible. With friends like Teagan and Benji, she could figure out how to still live a life she could be happy with. She gave a small laugh and patted Teagan's underside. "You may not hear it, but I can feel your stomach rumbling. We should do dinner." The equitaur blushed and scratched the back of his neck, stepping into the house and closing the door. As the two chatted pleasantly over their meal, Clara realized that this was not so bad at all. Settling into bed that night, as she slid back into the warm embrace of her sheath, it no longer felt constricting. Now it was a warm blanket which lulled her quickly to sleep, her mind calm for the first time in months.