FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Standing by the water's edge, you turn the ancient mask over in your hands. The odd looking helmet cost you a pretty penny back in the village and you are not even really sure what it is. Sure, you were told that it would allow you to breath in the water like some sort of fish, but not how or why. Its strange appearance only reinforces your belief that it was forged by the ancients and not by any modern blacksmith. Since such devices are oftentimes cursed or non-functional, you almost did not buy it until the seller convinced you into buying it with the promise that he would take it back if it failed to function and refund you. You had no choice but to take such an offer, figuring the mask would prove useful in retrieving other ancient leavings rumored to lie in the ruins beneath the depths you currently stand so close to, and if not--well, you could just bring it back to the merchant. You figure even finding a scratched and shiny bit of ancient tech in a quick test dive would recuperate some of your funds that you had spent and prove whether or not the mask was worth possessing.

Without further ado, you bring the mask to your face. It adheres easily enough to your visage and fits comfortably to the back of your head. Your view is only barely obstructed by the mask's viewport, but much less so than any of the crude present day underwater breathing apparatuses. You take a breath and the air that comes into your lungs seem fresher than when you had been breathing without the assistance of the mask. You smile, for it really does not prove anything, at least not yet. You take a step forward and look into the water. You are thankful it is such a sunny day because otherwise you might have had to go back to the village and find some sort of device to light your way beneath the depths.

Before you plunge into the depths, you look down at yourself. You are only lightly armored because it seems foolish to swim with so much weight on. In addition, there should be nothing in the water but harmless fish; after all, hunters far mightier than you killed anything more dangerous than a jaggi for miles around. Still, you do have a knife on hand, though you hope you only need to use it to cut at things other than flesh.

Feeling adequately prepared, you leap into the water with your arms out in front of you. When you sink into the depths with a splash, you immediately set about diving deeper with strong kicks and arm strokes. You take breath after breath with the mask and you really do breathe like a fish. Beneath the surface you laugh, the sound muffled and distorted as bubbles burst from your helmet. It works, it actually works!

A school of small fish seems to join in your celebration, dancing and flitting curiously around you, a silly land-thing that thinks it can swim. You enjoy the sight of their bright and varied colors, but once they are gone you set your mind back to business. You continue to dive deeper and deeper, the vague outlines of ruins becoming much clearer as you near them.

Even after being underwater for gods only know how many years, the silver ruins shine in the sunlight that filters through the water. You wonder who could have built such structures. Were they human like you or something else entirely? No one knows, and even if the ancients did leave a lot behind, their appearance, origins, and ultimate fate are not one of them.

Finally you are down far enough that you reach a rectangular portion of the ruins that resembles a house of sorts. It has two floors, so you float into the top half through a gaping rip in the silvery material of its roof. Inside the second floor you find a few fish, a lot of sand, and some hunks of silver and gold-green material poking out of the sand. You swim over to these and take your bag from your side. You take the pieces that can fit and place them in your bag. Afterwards, you move down to the first floor. There is really nothing much here either, just more of the same so you gather more of the same. You heft your bag and notice it is nearly full, the ancient material weighing more than you had thought it would. You shrug--this was just a test dive, after all. What you have acquired thus far is enough to make any blacksmith happy. In addition, the mask is still functioning, so well that you had almost forgotten that you were wearing it and that you were not even supposed to be down here for so long naturally. If you did not prefer the land and dislike seafood, you could almost live in the water.

You chuckle and leave the ruin. You are considering ceasing exploration then and there and ascending to the shore when you catch a glimmer out of the corner of your eye. Your eyes widen in astonishment when you see an ebony pearl lying against a jagged wall of ancient material. Its giant clam originator is nowhere in sight and it is not so big that you could not swim up with it in your arms. Someone would pay a lot for it, much more than the value of the all the ancient material you gathered combined.

You excitedly swim towards the pearl, thoughts of avarice going through your mind. You decide that you are most certainly coming back here if the pearl is any sign of the riches the ancient's ruins hold--and the pearl itself is not even of ancient origin!

Just as you are about to reach the pearl, you see the tip of a tail with a dark hide disappear behind the wall. Immediately you come to a near halt and fearfully listen. The sounds of the water are distorted, something the mask does not help with, so you can only tell that something is moving behind the wall, but not its size. You wonder what it could be, for mightier hunters than you had killed anything deadlier than a jaggi for miles around...or so the villagers had said. Not out of ignorance, you realized, but perhaps because they had not considered there could be something in the depths, something that hid there when its kin and competitors were slain by harrowing humans.

Your fears are proven correct when a large creature comes bursting out around the wall with a screech that is loud even underwater. It reminds you of some sort of fearsome mix between an alligator, dragon and eel, its snout similar to the one, its horns and sharp teeth like the second while its lengthy tail like the third in the strange mix. Its body is covered in lustrous black scales and its back is covered with spikes that crackle with blue light. Its red eyes regard you with hate as it opens its maw that glows with blue energy, and in that moment you realize the pearl might not be a pearl, but the creature's young yet to hatch. For some reason you try to recall the creature's name, but it escapes you. When it roars again, you realize that you do know its name--your death.

You scream and begin to swim away from the beast, knowing all too well that it is hopeless. The creature roars again and the water suddenly crackles with electricity as its spikes and maw glow even more intensely. You cry out in horrific pain as the current at runs over your whole body. Your bag rips apart, its content spilling to the depths' floor while your tunic and trousers disintegrate to the electrical embrace, the rest of your garments damaged as well. Suddenly the electricity begins to concentrate more and more upon your head. You close your eyes and grab at your cranium, futilely kicking in an attempt to move as the creature moves closer and closer...

Suddenly there is no pain, only pressure on your head. You force your eyes open in time to see that your mask's viewport is cracked and glazed over by a silvery miasma. You gasp and your lungs fill with water. You panic as you spot traces of electricity through the haze.

A moment later, your world goes into chaos as the electricity crackles once more. The mask upon your face tears apart, releasing a cloud of that silvery miasma, engulfing you and spreading outwards. You can barely see the outline of the creature, mouth open and ready to let loose another blast of lightning, when it too is covered in the fog. This does not deter its assault, and you flinch and gasp for air as electricity permeates the water once again. This time, though, the miasma absorbs it, and as it does so, it absorbs into you painlessly. It actually feels good and soon enough you are breathing in the water without assistance due to an unexpected and unseen change in your lungs.

The creature has a harder time of the matter as the miasma swirls and twists around it. The creature's blue light diminishes while it falls to confusion, flailing and flopping to escape the miasma's hold.

Realizing that the creature is no longer focused on you and that it is the perfect time to make your escape, you look upwards and kick your legs. Surprisingly, this motion carries you upwards more than it would have previously, though you credit this more to your reduced encumbrance rather than the way your legs have started to change, altering into more streamlined and stumpy appendages. You kick your legs again and your damaged boots burst apart as your toes merging into a webbed three and thrusting out into large claws. Simultaneously, white scales appear at the base of your heels, quickly replacing skin and hair as they multiply across your feet. From there they begin their spread up your legs.

You continue to ascend, kicking your legs and moving your arms in wide strokes in front of you. During one of these strokes, you notice a patch of scaly paleness amongst your otherwise tan skin near your wrist. You blink when the patch proliferates, and yet it remains. As the scales reach your hands, you wince as your pinky and thumb draw a bit inwards while the rest of your fingers push out. The scales stop spread at your knuckles, at which point onwards your fingers harden into light blue colored keratinous claws. You gasp, not quite believing what you are seeing even when you make the claws move of your own accord.

Still the scales continue to spread, advancing past your elbows, up your shoulders, and to your neck. You cease swimming when they crawl up your neck, the pain of your skull reshaping being too much to bear. You float there, grasping at your head with your strange, clawed hands as parts all over your body changes. Your ears and nose retreat into nothingness whilst your neck widens and folds into a hoodlike appearance akin to a cobra. While your face begins to push out into a reptilian muzzle, so does something at your spine. With a roar muffled by the water, your visage completes its movement forward as the start of a thick, eel-like tail forces its way out of your lower back. Twin horns grow out of the crown of your head while a multitude of electric blue crystals make their way out of your upper back. You feel the inside of altered maw with your serpentine tongue, nearly biting down on it when something unusual happens.

While your tail continues to push out, your manhood suddenly pulls in. Your member and testicles retract into newly developed feminine folds who are all too ready to take in your passé nethers. You squirm and hiss as your womanhood digests your manhood and testicles, repurposing them into a small, sensitive nub and ripe ovaries, respectively. Multiple small horns form along the back of your tail and head hood while down below a freshly formed birthing canal and womb with ovaries in place ensure you are nothing but female.

Just as you as it dawns on you that you are no longer male, you hear a familiar roar from under you. You screech when you look down and spot the creature quickly swimming its way up to you. You resume swimming again faster than ever, which your altered form helps with.

As you continue your climb, your body changes even further. Your hips widen to match your new sex and your thighs thicken, leaving you with a curvier form overall. Just as you are about to surface, fatty tissue builds upon on your upper chest into spherical mounds, flesh bubbling and pushing out under your thickening nipples until you possess two soft breasts. They finish forming just as you surface, bouncing and slapping into the water as you take a long gasp. It seems you still need to breath air from up here from time to time even if you can breathe underwater for long stretches. Before you even have a chance to relax, the creature bursts out of the water besides you with a savage roar. It stares at you and all you can do is match its red gaze. You are fearful until you notice no anger in its eyes, only a sort of amusement. It huffs and lets out of a jolt of electricity. This time as the electricity courses through the water you are not harmed. Still, you squirm because of the strangely pleasurable tingle that ensues from the electricity ticking at your sensitive sex. The creature lets out another huff and then dives down back into the depths. You watch it go in relief, finally safe.

Afterwards, you paddle towards shore, still a bit stunned from what just happened and trying to suppress an emerging heat in your nethers that the creature's discharge of electricity seemed to have started. When you reach the shore, you pull yourself up, careful not to press your breasts against the ground. Once on solid ground, you crawl a little bit until you crouch down on your knees, also careful not to sit on your tail. You look down at your body and all its alterations--your lengthy tail, your scaled skin, your welcoming womanhood, and your weighty breasts--and wonder at the reason of it all. You can sort of understand why you might be like the creature now if you could truly accept the creature's electricity melding with your mask being the cause, but you do not understand the female part. You do not, at least until you remember the pearl--the egg, for the creature was a mother, just as you can be, just as you soon will--

You shake this unbidden thought out of your mind and stumble to your feet. The heat was still building in your crotch, but you were not going to give into its haze.

What to do next, you wonder. You cannot go back to village, not like this. You sigh at it all, how you look like a monster and are not even one and how of course this happened to you. It was that damnable mask's fault--no, it was really the ancients' fault. It worked so well, too. Perhaps there is more than a few reasons the ancients are not around anymore and perhaps you found one of them today. Still, you are not particularly happy about this new knowledge, for the mask is destroyed. Even if it were not, you doubt you could get a refund like this.

You sigh, cupping one of your breasts as you gently lift it up before letting it fall back into its place. You look over your breasts, past your altered sex and to the waters. Is this truly your home now? You do not even like seafood.