FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

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The story contains materials improper for minor readers. If you are under the age of 18 please stop reading now. Rewriting, redistribution or selling of this story without my permission is forbidden.

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"Wolf!" a cry of terror spread alarmingly throughout the settlement, setting all its residents on their feet. Immediately, the interior of every cottage flashed with light; kerosene lamps, candles, and everything that could dispel the gloom of the cold December night.

"Wolf!" the alarm sounded again.

Those, who had been raised from the blissful ignorance of their sleep, realized that it was not a prank of their imagination, but an actual warning. Gradually, a small crowd gathered on a snow-covered dirt road, close to which nearly all the huts were placed.

When the word containing all human fears and worries pierced the souls of everyone who came outside, for the third time, it's origin became obvious to all. Armed with pitchforks, axes and other items that could be used as weapons, the group turned their heads towards the barn which stood on the edge of the village, next to the forest border. As they began to walk, the white blanket of snow under their feet crunched loudly with every step.

The night sky was cloudless and full of stars. In the middle it, the night's father - the moon - revealed his bare, bluish-white cheeks, shining in his full beauty.

After a moment everyone approached the barn. Its doors were wide open, yet the moonlight, although bright, did not illuminate its interior. A dark void was the only thing that was visible inside. Everything became silent, but for the slight breeze of wind and groans of trees.

Suddenly a horrifying scream came from the depths of the unlit barn, breaking the tranquility. The sound of fear slowly passed into a gradually dying gurgle.

The crowd froze.

When all the noises died away, someone holding a provisional torch, moved and lead everyone closer to the grim, wooden building. Holding the fire above himself, he slowly illuminated the impenetrable abyss looking for anything that might have been inside and could be the source of the scream heard moments ago. After a moment a new sound has reached everyone's ears; then another and another. Those sounds were somehow similar to cracking, munching and heavy, very low wheezing. The man with the torch took a step forward and went into the barn. As soon as he crossed the threshold of the building, all sounds ceased.

Everyone else stayed outside and watched the flame burning over the brave man's head.

He slowly moved forward, examining every corner the glow was reaching. Finally, he saw a picture, which could not be described only in a few words: on the opposite gate laid something that probably would have been called a human being, if not for the condition it was in. What the man had in front of his eyes, looked like a grotesque of a body of a red-haired woman. He knew her. He knew her very well, but now he had some serious doubts as to whether 'it' was really her or not.

Her face was contorted in a grimace of pain and fear, and her eyes were bulging as if she wanted to cry for help with them. A river of fresh blood flowed from her mouth, running down her chin. Her neck was also red from the blood, however, it stemmed from a huge hole from which someone, or something, must have just snatched, or rather jerk, her larynx out.

The man felt sick and turned his head away to avoid vomiting.

Blood was everywhere; surrounding the carrion of her body with a huge puddle and filling the entire building with a pungent smell of iron. The nightgown she was wearing, which hung on her, torn to shreds and scattered, perhaps once white, shimmered with dark red. Her entire chest and abdomen were opened or rather torn as if someone tried to break in and rip her heart out.

Once he swallowed the saliva, a rustle of hay, scattered under the wall, reached his ears. The man took a step back, trying to locate the source of the noise. Looking at the remains of the unfortunate women, to the right of it, at some point, he noticed two glowing points; big, mesmerizing, shiny eyes that were staring straight at him. Slowly, the eyes moved between him and the corpse. The creature he was looking at now was huge; bigger than the biggest dog he has ever seen. Paralyzed with fear, the only thing he could do was to stare at the four-legged monster.

A huge, black wolf watched him for a moment, smelling the human sweat and fear in the air. Slowly, it exposed its white teeth, grinning almost cynically toward the motionless man. A huge, blood-dripping piece of meat hung from between its jaws. From where the human was standing, it was difficult to determine whether it was a piece of ripped skin or a freshly torn human intestine. The monster began to growl, threatening the man.

The paralyzed human, hit by a wave of fear, dropped the torch. He wanted to flee, he wanted to scream, but neither option was now possible. His body refused to obey him, possessed by the strongest fear he has ever experienced. He knew that the wolves from nearby forests are big, but the size of this monster stopped the blood flowing in his veins, turning it into water and then into ice.

The wolf dropped the lump of human flesh, and once again bared its glistening, saliva-dripping fangs.

The fire from the dropped torch finally faded, plunging the entire barn back in the darkness.

A pair of sparkling eyes and fangs were the last thing the man has seen.

---

Those standing outside heard a sudden scream. The great abyss of the wooden structure freed the frightened man for a moment. The void, however, as if only for a moment of fun, has changed its mind and sent its dark messenger after the mortal.

A huge wolf emerged from the darkness. With one leap, it reached its victim and crushed the human to the ground with its weight. The wolf sank its teeth into the neck of an unarmed man and tore a large piece of flesh and a part of the spine out in front of everyone. The sound of screaming, tissues being ripped apart, and a rattle of bones mingled together in a disgusting symphony. The monster looked around at the shocked onlookers, spit the carrion out and rushed into the crowd. Breaking through the fleeing humans, it dashed in the direction of the nearby forest and disappeared. When the panic finally ceased and people stopped, listening to the silence around them, a long, melodious wail, passing into a strong, powerful howl, rose above the woods.

Clouds covered the moon and soon after it began to snow; slowly at first, then more and more. Several people rushed to their houses and came back with lamps and more torches.

Suddenly the silence of the night was interrupted by another loud howl. A wave of anxiety shook everyone, because this time the inhuman voice didn't come from the forest, but from the opposite end of the settlement.

"It's back..." someone whispered.

"Have you seen what it has done to Anton?" someone else asked.

"It was huge..." a female voice added.

"We have to kill it, or it will come for us."

People looked at each other.

At this point, it was snowing so heavy that the torches weren't very helpful with providing light. With every passing second, the visibility was getting worse.

"Those who have no weapons, go home and either find something or bolt the door." a tall man in a thick, sheepskin coat and winter boots ordered. He held an ax in both hands, swinging it while telling people what to do.

With that, some residents went to their homes, still feeling insecure.

"Ygor! Take someone with you and go back to Nadia's place. Take Anton's body to the church. We'll bury him tomorrow."

With that, the man called Ygor looked at a smaller guy standing next to him and without saying anything they did as ordered.

When they finally reached the barn there was no trace of the body. The snow has already covered the stain of blood and all the traces that could tell them what happened to it. They looked at each other with amazement.

"He took it away..."

Moonlight broke through the clouds as it stopped to snow.

"How could he take it?! The howl came from the stream!"

The smaller man trembled from cold. "I... I do not know." he stuttered. "Maybe...", but suddenly he ran out of air. His face grew pale and his eyes widened sharply. He looked behind his companion. That, however, the taller man could not see, because - at the moment - he was trying to spot anything inside the barn.

"Maybe, what?" Ygor looked at his colleague. At that moment he saw his face, he felt all his muscles freeze. Slowly, he turned his head in the direction his companion was looking, and what he saw, took his breath away.

In front of them, in the moonlight which was breaking through the falling snow, stood a monstrous wolf. It was staring at them. Just staring. This was the same one that killed their neighbor. Now they could take a better look at its size; it was huge, really huge, unnaturally huge, and that worried them the most. A wolf, but larger than a wolf. And its eyes had something strange in them. They werewolf-like, but at the same time not wolf-like at all. They were cutting through their minds and paralyzing their bodies. They were both attractive and warm like the eyes of a mother, and yet scary and full of deadly fury.

"Oh God..." the taller man whispered, moving slowly toward the barn.

The wolf just stood there and watched the two figures. As soon as it has noticed that one of its future victims is moving away, it exposed its fangs and began to growl.

"Stop, you idiot. Do not move... Maybe it'll leave." the smaller man whispered.

Although his companion stopped for a moment and kept on looking at the shiny eyes of the black monster, it didn't change much, for the beast did not stop growling. The only thing that did change was that now it was no longer looking at a would-be escapee but the other human being. When their eyes met again, the monster snapped with its fangs, let out a grunt, bristled, and moved at full speed towards its victim.

At this point, the man who tried to flee returned to his original plan and rushed over to the barn. As soon as he got inside, he heard a piercing scream and a thud of a falling body. Being already at the opposite gate of the building, he turned around to see the second act of the bloody spectacle. He saw his friend lying on the ground, crushed by the big, black creature, and trying - to the last ounce of strength - to fight for his life.

The wolf was no match for the human, though; with its glittering fangs, it reached the human's neck and, biting down at it, it ripped the larynx and a piece of pharynx out. Throwing his head up, the monster chewed and swallowed the piece of the human body.

The fear of what was already inevitable shouted from the eyes of the dead man. He tried to scream but could not; only a rattle came from his neck and his body trembled, torn by deadly spasms. Nothing could save him now.

The man standing in the depths of the building watched as the giant beast feasted on his companion. Suddenly, a strong irritating stench reached his nostrils. However, it didn't come from the outside, but from the inside of the barn. Ygor looked around and right next to his feet he saw a white object, which he immediately identified as a human body. He jumped to the side and stumbled over something big. He fell on his back with a dull thud. When he raised his head, he began to investigate the cause of his downfall with his hand. What he felt under his fingers was soft and moist and, soon after, he recognized what he was touching.

"Anton ..." he whispered and looked outside, at the same time turning his eyes away from the finding.

The wolf kept on devouring the dead body. After a while, it stopped and deeply inhaled the night air. The huge head lit back with two rows of teeth dripping with blood and saliva. It looked towards the barn and with its big eyes started to watch the living man who was still lying there, again.

The fear was still paralyzing Ygor. He was to be another victim of the black monster.

The wolf looked at him until suddenly his deadly face seemed to smile cynically toward the defenseless human being.

Ygor did not know whether what was happening was true, or was it just a sick product of his imagination. It seemed to him that the monster was actually smiling at him.

But the most incredible thing was yet to happen. After that crazy smile, the wolf tensed up, arched its back in a bow, and howled loudly. With that his body began to change; it began to grow and expand. The creature was growling and breathing with the accompaniment of stretching tissues and bones cracking inside of his body. What was happening to him was even worse than the spectacle of murder and the devouring of human bodies. When the metamorphosis was over, and nothing, except the low gasps of the huge animal, was audible, the strangest event of that night took place in front of the man's eyes. The furry monster slowly began to straighten and stand up on two... legs... paws... feet...

Ygor's hart has been standing still for some time now.

The thing that was now standing in the barn's gate, looked like a grotesque combination of a man and a wolf. A big, muscular creature above two meters in height, was now standing straight on a pair of muscular, clawed, half-wolf, half-human legs. It was a bit stooped. Its hands were thick and long, and the palms had five clawed fingers. At the top of his body, a big canine head was visible. It looked like an integral part of its trunk, and although it was the same head, it looked a bit different. Only the eyes and teeth - those big, mesmerizing eyes and those big, deadly fangs - remained identical as before. The monster was panting heavily and has measured its victim with its eyes again.

Now, only this nightmare, standing in the dim light of the moon in the entrance of the barn, existed for the man. The whole world around him has disappeared; it became unimportant. Everything has been closed in these fangs and these eyes. His mind was screaming that it is all a dream, it must be a dream, it's just a dream! But the smell of blood floating in the air, the sound of heavy breathing and the sight of that enormous... thing... were saying something completely different. He knew that he doesn't stand a chance against such a monster. A feeling of resignation began to fill his body and soul. Yes... The end was close.

The creature finally moved inside, walking towards the living human being. The closer it was, the more monstrous it seemed. The ground thundered under its weight like a big, empty drum. Death was approaching with its every step: dum...! dum...! dum...! The giant stopped right before the corpse, which was wading in a pool of its own, dried blood, and was separating it from its - soon to be - victim. It looked down, eyeing the sheepskin clothed carcass, and then - looking back at a living man - it made one more step forward. The big paw-foot stepped on the dead man's head, crushing it instantly.

The boom of the cracking skull, the crushed human brain, and gushing blood, reflected with a loud echo throughout the room.

The wolf leaned over to the human, reached towards him with its paw and wrapped its long fingers around his neck. Then it lifted the man as easily as a child lifts a ladybug. It looked at him and smiled mockingly. Once again its eyes lead the weak human mind into a trance.

The man closed his eyes, waiting for the inevitable. Fortunately, he did not have to wait long.

The monster sunk its sharp fangs in a place where the neck joins the shoulder, breaking the human collarbone at the same time.

A single, piercing scream came from the wretched man's mouth. A second later he lost his consciousness, and slowly drifted off into the arms of death.

-The End-