FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The wind howled across the sands of the desert, kicking up clouds of it as the sun slowly began to sink below the horizon. For anyone unfortunate enough to still be attempting to travel through the high dunes it meant that the scorching heat of day was about to turn into the freezing cold of night, and for Ranza that had the potential to spell a death sentence for him if he wasn’t careful. That had somewhat already been set for him though; the reason he was out in the middle of the dunes with little in the way of supplies was due to a bandit group that had raided his caravan that morning. Most of the guard had been killed or captured along with the merchants, and with nothing else that he could do he turned and ran as soon as he had found an opening to do so.

As Ranza continued to trudge his way along the dunes he found that the only thing he had actually managed to do was delay his own demise. If he had stayed perhaps he would have been able to be captured instead of outright killed, especially since he didn’t have any means to fight off the bandits. But he had already made his choice and he was going to have to live with it, which at the very least wouldn’t be that long as the light of day began to fade. He could feel his body shiver slightly from the increasing cold and knew if he didn’t find shelter soon the next morning he would merely be food for the animals that made the desert its home.

“Please…” Ranza whispered through cracked lips as he struggled through the shifting sand of a particularly large dune. “If anyone can hear me, I will do whatever you want if you save me. My body, my mind, my soul, it’s all yours if you can just let me see the light of one more morning.”

The impromptu prayer ended with a cough that came from his parched throat and Ranza mustered as much strength as he could in order to get over the lip of the dune. It took several minutes but eventually he got to the top, feeling the sun and wind on his back as he looked over the moonlit desert beneath him. Nothing… there was nothing there to save him on the other side. The only thing that he found was an endless sea of sand as he felt his strength give out and he fell to his knees.

When he put his weight on the other side of the dune however it caused the loose sand to shift underneath him, causing him to tumble down the opposite side of the huge dune with his body kicking up sand as it went. Ranza was unsure of exactly how long he rolled down the mountainous drift until he finally got to the bottom as an avalanche of sand threatened to prematurely bury him right there. With a loud groan the man slowly pulled himself away from the cascading grains and found purchase on a flat piece of stone, taking the solid ground as a respite and lying down on it. As the temperature continued to plunge he found the heat getting sucked out of his body, causing him to shiver as he watched the moon rise up over him for the last time before closing his eyes…

Suddenly a loud cracking sound caused him to bolt upright, his heart pumping as he heard something else other than the wind as he scanned the area to see what it could be. At first he saw nothing that would have made the sound but as he slowly stood up he could hear it happen again, and again, and with more frequency as it seemed to be rising up towards him. When he looked down at the stone that he knelt on he began to notice silver lines starting to appear as the full moon continued to move over his head, and as he stared at the increasingly glowing pattern he began to see the sand around him start to get pulled down as though emptying into a cavern below. The rock Ranza stood on began to vibrate as more of the sand was pulled away until it emptied a small valley’s worth, and when it finally stopped the young man stepped to the edge of the platform he was now on and saw something had emerged from the sea of sand that receded from the uncovered cliff.

It looked like an ancient temple, and though Ranza had seen others during his travels he had never seen anything so well preserved as the one that laid beneath him. More importantly however it had a door, and if it had a door then it was likely he could at least try and shelter there for the night. As he searched the rock that he had been standing on he found that there was a path that led down to it, and though it was steep the man made his way down it as quickly as possible to get to potential respite from the elements. Part of him wondered if his prayer had perhaps been answered as he eventually got to the entrance and took a moment to see the black stone columns that stretched upwards as well as the other features carved into the face of the otherwise brown cliff.

Ranza felt the chill seeping into his bones and quickly pushed forward, going through the narrow entrance of the temple into the room beyond. It was just a small antechamber, but with the moonlight streaming in through the door he could see that the stones were etched with a variety of silver lines that formed a mosaic of pictures. It seemed whatever civilization left this here was big into felines, and as he saw that a lot of them were humanoid in nature he wondered if these were the gods they served. On the wall opposite the entranceway there was another opening and this one had one humanoid feline in particular with spots and stripes while dozens of small silver humans bowed down in front of it.

Definitely a deity, Ranza thought to himself as he moved towards the other end of the room. As he got close he began to hear something echoing further in the temple, something he hadn’t expected to hear ever again but was a welcome noise. He practically rushed forward into the next chamber and as he did he found himself in a large circular room complete with a dome that stretched up into the sky which had moonlight streaming in so he could see his surroundings, but more importantly there was a wall-sized engraving in black stone on the other side where a steady stream of water rushed down from the opening above into a large pool below. At first Ranza thought that he was hallucinating but as he rubbed his eyes and opened them again the pool remained as a glittering oasis illuminated by the moon above.

At this point the floor could have been filled with deadly asps and it wouldn’t have mattered to the young man as he sprinted forward, pulling the shawl that had been protecting him from the elements up to that point and tossing it aside. He could feel the sand that had been trapped in his short brown hair start to fall out as he went to the edge of the waterfall fountain and plunged his face down into the water in order to drink. It was cool, refreshing and it took every ounce of his willpower not to just keep his sunburned face in it until he drowned. He could feel some of his hair floating around and as he brought his head back up he felt it drip tantalizingly down his exposed shoulders.

The drink revitalized him and as he sat on the polished stone lip of the pool Ranza finally had a chance to take in his surroundings. It appeared this was the only other room other than the small antechamber and every inch of it was carved in the same black stone as what he saw outside. It also seemed that the pool he sat near was the only other major feature in the room with a very large pedestal in the middle of it that sat almost directly underneath the small waterfall. This surprised the young man that there were no other statues, no reliefs, nothing else that was on the walls or on the floor that was covered in the black sand.

“It feels like there should be something here,” Ranza said to himself as he noticed the waterfall and pool were directly opposite of where the main entrance was. “Of course knowing this area bandits probably took off with anything that was in here already. Maybe there’s something on the pedestal itself that could give a clue…”

Ranza got up once more and with his strength returning he decided to try and jump over to where the pedestal was and see if he could see if there was anything on it. After gauging the jump he took off his shoes and took as best a running start he could before leaping across the water to the platform. He managed to get one foot on it but the other one fell short, and as it did it caused him to windmill his arms before falling backwards and landing in the water with a loud splash. Fortunately the bottom of the pool was much deeper than it looked as Ranza found himself completely submerged with his feet still not touching the bottom.

As Ranza floated there in the cold water he saw something in the shadow of the moonlight on the wall of the pool that caused him to pause. They looked like little circular portals were cut into the stone and was then blocked off again, but with the lip of the fountain only a few inches off the base and these holes several feet down it wouldn’t be to release the water into the room… at least not on top. Very quickly however he began to feel his lungs burning and kicked his way to the surface. When he broke through into the air he let out a loud gasping breath, swimming over to the pedestal and pulling himself up and over onto the edge of it.

Only a few inches in however Ranza found his hand sinking down several inches as he saw that there was black sand in the pedestal too. With his wet body and clothes the grains instantly stuck to him, which prompted him to pull off his tunic to prevent it from getting any dirtier than it already was. The dip in the water helped clean his body though and as he sat there shirtless he chuckled to himself when he realized that was the first bath he had taken in quite some time. To his surprise the air didn’t feel as cold as he thought it would be with the exposed holes in the roof and with the cloth clinging to his legs starting to chaff he took those off as well and tossed both garments to the side.

This just left him with his underwear, but since it was unlikely anyone would find him here he decided to go with just that as he carefully got to his feet in order to avoid getting any more of the sand on him. As he wiggled his fingers though it actually wasn’t as gritty as he imagined, instead it felt like he was rubbing a rough marble surface as he slowly walked around the edge of the pedestal. As he got to the opposite end of where he had gotten up from he noticed that there was writing in silver letters that had been on the inner lip of the pedestal. As he tried to angle himself to read it however he found himself unable too, he would have to get closer in order to read it and instead of risking falling head over heels like he had already done today he just decided to step into the loose black sand and wash it off later.

When he got to about the middle of the pedestal he had sunk ankle deep into the material as he knelt down slightly in order to see what was written there. To his surprise Ranza found himself actually able to understand what it was, he had thought that it was going to be gibberish in some ancient language but it was actually as clear as day to him. “Stand here and be worshipped, my idol,” Ranza read out loud, tilting his head curiously as he stood back up and looked around. “So there was a relic or statue here, but I guess whatever it was is long gone now.”

Ranza shook his head and sighed as he made his way back over to the edge of the pedestal once more to pull himself out of the sand. It would have been interesting to find something here to make up for the terrible experience, but with nothing but black sand and a bunch of carvings he would come up empty handed. It didn’t really matter to him though, he thought to himself as he leaned his toned body over the edge to try and get to the edge of the pool, at the moment he just needed to survive long enough to escape the desert. Once he got home he could tell others what he found, though at the moment he was having trouble just getting off the pedestal without taking another dip in the pool.

When he tried unsuccessfully for the third time Ranza sighed loudly and decided to just swim over; the water was very pleasant anyway and with whatever idol no longer here it wasn’t like he would have some deity curse him for splashing around. Unlike the last time he just let his feet dip into the water before sliding in the rest of the way, then began to swim over towards the other side. A few seconds in however Ranza felt himself being pulled down under the surface of the water by his feet, something that caused him to panic as he kicked his way towards the relatively short distance to the other side.

More than once his head sank under the water before he managed to generate enough lift to get back up, eventually bringing his arm up and hooking it around the outer lip of the pool to keep himself from sinking as he coughed and sputtered. His feet felt like anchors and when he pulled himself up to get out of the water he saw that the arm that he had grabbed the lip with was as black and shiny as the stone itself. It was like the sand had melted onto and fused with his skin, and as he hoisted the rest of his body up he saw his feet were the same way all the way up past his ankles.

“Oh gods,” Ranza exclaimed as he took his still normal hand and tapped against his feet to find they were as hard as rock. “I am cursed!”

As Ranza felt panic rising up in his chest he put his stony hand against his chest and shuddered as he felt the same smooth, polished stone as what he sat on. He also felt his fingers move, which turned his fear into confusion as he brought his hand up and wiggled the digits in the air. Despite being completely petrified they moved as effortlessly as they always had, in fact they almost worked better than before as the pain that came from his desert travels seemed to disappear in that area. Perhaps the curse was delayed, Ranza thought as he stood up and looked around for his clothes, or that whatever deity it was that ruled this temple was allowing him to leave.

It was something that the young man didn’t want to test as he grabbed his wet clothes and made his way towards the entrance, only to remember too late that most of the floor in the temple was black sand as well. Ranza gasped as his heavier feet caused him to sink down even further and dropped his clothes, which picked up the grains as well. He cursed under his breath and reached down to carefully pick up his garment, but when he did his eyes widened as the strands dissolved between his fingers. It also caused his unaffected fingers to get coated and seemed to thicken the stone of his already afflicted hand.

Ranza quickly pulled himself back as best he could until the got to the solid stone of the altar area with the pool and when his feet had emerged at first he couldn’t believe it. Instead of normal toes and feet it looked like someone had carved huge stone paws on the ends of his feet, the black rock all the way up to his shins that felt like a bizarre pair of boots as he attempted to stand back up. As he stared at them he tried to wiggle his toes and found that the three merged toes wiggled back at him. They were also lighter than they seemed and he was able to move them with a little effort to another stone platform that was to the left of the pool.

As he laid down on the smooth rock Ranza looked up and saw the moon starting to move away from the holes in the temple, making the area darker as he felt exhaustion overtake him. As he closed his eyes he realized that he was in a strange building in the middle of nowhere with no food, water, and no real clothes to cover his body that was being petrified by the black sand that stood between him and freedom. At least he had shelter that was somewhat warm, he thought to himself as he drifted off, and maybe come morning he could figure something out…

When Ranza awoke once more he found himself still on his back and looking up at the ceiling, and as he looked through the exposed holes his head tilted to the side in confusion. Above him was the full moon, something that was impossible as he slowly sat up. Even if he had slept through the day it would have been the next night and the moon would be slightly waning, but as he stared at it he found the silver orb to be just as full as the last time he had seen it. As he looked down at his own body he saw that the stone had crept up his legs to the knees and on his one arm to the elbow, and that fissures had formed in his forearms and shin that were a bright orange sandstone coloration instead of black.

Stripes… as Ranza ran a finger along the cracks it was just like he was touching his skin, which meant the curse was growing more profound while changing him. Once he had gotten up and stretched he went over and drank from the pool once more, using his hands to cup the water to his lips. As he did the sand that had been stuck to them the previous night melded with his flesh and stone, and by the time he was done both hands sported a pair of claws and his more mutated hand looked like a paw that was still humanoid. It was clear that this place was turning him to some sort of cat statue, tiger specifically, the main question was why?

Ranza looked at the black sand of the floor between him and the exit and he wondered if he could make it, though last time with his stone feet it felt like it was sinking into quicksand. It was possible that he may never escape, and though he had warmth and water that would only go so far in his survival. Strangely though as he put his hand to his stomach he didn’t feel hungry at all, which if the sight above was to be trusted he had been down here for a month. There was something else he was feeling though, something that caused him to bite his lip as his fingers shifted down from his flat stomach towards the leather pouch that kept his modesty.

It hadn’t been until that moment that he realized how horny he was until he felt his maleness pressing against the confines. As he used his corrupted hand to feel himself up though it made him realize just how big his hand had swollen, especially when he compared it to the other one that was just recently infected. Looking further down neither limb held a candle to his feet that were absolutely huge; they were at last two, if not three times larger than what they had before and strangely felt very pleasant to rub against one another. They had been the most exposed to the sand though, Ranza reasoned, and as he had that thought an extremely lewd idea came into his mind.

With nothing else to do in the temple Ranza decided to try out his little experiment, carefully going down to the black sand of the floor and taking a handful of it. Then with his other hand he held open his leather thong and dumped it inside. The feel of the grains against his sensitive flesh caused him to squirm, but he continued to dump more in until he had packed it tight enough that it was practically stretching it out. Once he was full he cradled the straining sand-covered leather and went over to the pool, sitting down with his legs splayed as he gathered up some of the water with his larger paw. For a brief moment he couldn’t believe he was doing this, but the growing lust in him wanted to see what would happen and he dumped the water against his groin.

The effect was instantaneous; Ranza let out a howl of pure pleasure as the water seeped into the sand and dissolved the leather away, causing his transformed cock to flop out as it grew from its somewhat small length into a thick, girthy member. Waves of pleasure cascaded through his body as not only did his maleness grow but his balls underneath, feeling the tip sliding up against his inner thigh towards his knee as he bucked his hips up in ecstasy. When the growth began to slow Ranza wrapped his feline paw around the still widening shaft and began to stroke, building on the intense feelings he had already gained from the transformation. Ranza eventually calmed down enough to look at himself and was shocked to find that not only had his cock turned to black stone but the flesh around it as well, which as he used his other hand to stroke felt just as good as the rest of his body while he bucked up into the palm of his hand paw.

Just as he was about to get to orgasm though Ranza heard voices that grinded his masturbation to a stop. Had someone else managed to find this temple just like he did? With nowhere really to hide and all his clothes gone all the semi-transformed man could do was just stand there and hope he didn’t freak out whoever was coming with his changed limbs and stony cock that had begun to soften, though as he looked behind him there was one place he could hide. As quickly as he could Ranza lowered his body into the water, keeping a grip on the side as the weight from all his additional petrified parts weighed him down even more as he saw a flickering light on the side of the hallway leading into the room.

“Man, this place just keeps getting weirder and weirder,” one of the voices said as Ranza peeked over the edge to see a man walk in holding a torch with another one right behind him holding a knife. “Can’t we go back and get the others to help us explore this place?”

“What, and split the loot we might find?” the other man, a slightly older, shorter, and pudgier guy compared to the first one, stated with a snicker. “These old temples are just filled with ancient artifacts that we can sell while the other guys are offloading the stuff stolen from those merchants. They can’t miss it if they don’t know it exists.”

As the two laughed Ranza felt his blood boil and his claws dig slight furrows into the stone as he realized he recognized them. The bandits… they were the ones that had driven him into the desert and left him for dead, or at least the group these two belonged to. Suddenly the ideas of escaping and surviving no longer mattered to him as sank down even lower into the water, there was only one thing he wanted at that moment.

Revenge.

The two bandits continued to look around in the temple, their voices becoming increasingly disappointed as they walked around the large room and found nothing but stand and stone. “Figures,” the second guy said as they began to approach the pool. “Someone else probably found this place and already took all the good stuff. At least we can get a drink of water and fill our canteens before we go back to rejoin the group.”

The first guy nodded and set the torch down against the stone to get the metal container off of his neck, only to jump and suddenly turn around as he heard a scream and a splash. As the bandit called out for his partner’s name he didn’t hear anything except for the agitation of something in the water, and as he reached for the torch once more a small wave of water came out from the pool and doused it. With his eyes used to the light from the fire the bandit found himself blind as his trembling hand reached for the sword on his back while he tried to keep an eye out for potential movement. He didn’t have to wait long as he once more heard a loud splash and the sound of something rolling down the stairs before landing on the sand below.

The bandit called out for his partner and though he heard the voice of the other man it looked and sounded like he was thrashing around in the sand. By this point the man’s eyes had adjusted enough to only seeing in moonlight to see that the bigger man was down there, but it looked like he was completely coated in black sand that had started to liquify and melt around his body until it coated him like a shell. As he went down the steps to help his fellow thief out he caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned, swinging his sword down on the entity that had attempted to sneak up on him. He felt his blade hit stone, then get turned away as Ranza took his forearm and shoved the bandit back.

“You…” Ranza said as the bandit fell to the ground with the sword clattering to the ground next to him in the darkness. He could see the look of shock and confusion on the face of the other man as he was beset upon by a naked, dripping wet man with paw-like feet and hands made out of solid rock just like what they were standing on. “You assaulted a large caravan with eight wagons recently, am I right?”

“Please, don’t hurt me!” the bandit said as he got to the floor, displacing the black sand as he braced himself with his hands behind him.

“Answer me then!” Ranza replied angrily, his lips curled up in a snarl. “Caravan, eight wagons, was that your group or not?! And don’t you dare think about lying to me…”

“It… eight wagons…” the bandit said, his voice quivering slightly. “Yes, yes we did! But that was six months ago…”

The news shocked Ranza to the core, his mouth open slightly as he was taken aback by the answer. There was no way he had been down here six months, even with the full moon overhead he had thought that was maybe a month at a stretch with some sort of divine intervention. He wasn’t sure how that was possible, but as he looked at his stone hand he knew that there was some sort of magic down here at work. As his mind tried to put the answers together he took his eye off of the bandit, which allowed him to take a handful of the black sand and throw it right in Ranza’s wet face.

The bandit’s face lit up as he saw the strange creature clutch his head, watching Ranza back away as the black substance melted on him, but it soon turned to horror as the wet sand-covered face seemed to morph and twist. Groans turned to growls as something began to emerge from the gooey substance, the mouth of the transforming man opening and stretching into a muzzle as the stone seemed to spread even more over his head. That was enough for the bandit to see and abandoned both the sword and his friend to make a run for the exit. Before he could get halfway however he took a step and immediately sank waist deep in the black sand, which swirled around him and provided him no purchase to get out of as it turned to quicksand under him.

Ranza brought his hand down as the other one continued to rub over the stone that had hardened over his head, feeling the feline features that had grown out of his face as he blinked his solid silver eyes. The second the bandit had thrown that sand on his face everything had become clear to him; not only with the temple and how it worked but everything that went with it. As soon as he had bathed in the sacred waters he had accepted the mantle as the guardian for the temple, coming to life during the full moon when needed in order to protect it as well as everything within. Though he hadn’t realized it when he was human it was something Ranza would have accepted anyway considering that he would have died without the power of the temple anyway. As he continued to contemplate the screams of the trapped bandit caused his rounded stone ears to twitch as he slowly stood up and stretched his body.

There were still quite a few parts of him that were still human, Ranza realized as he examined himself; some of the sand that had been thrown in his face had dusted onto his chest and caused the flesh there to turn to stone, but otherwise he retained his lean and somewhat small physique. He walked down to the floor and over the sand that firmed underneath his paws which allowed him to cross easily as he pressed a palm against the large round stone that had been the other bandit. He would deal with that one later as he passed it to go with the one that was still human, smirking as he saw him struggling to pull himself out of a quicksand that he would never escape from. With a mental comment Ranza stopped the water he had allowed to flow underneath the temple floor sand to stop, and as it firmed the bandit started to climb out before a figure stepped in front of him that caused him to stop. He immediately stopped moving as the tiger-headed creature leaned down and looked at him, though more than once his eyes were drawn downward.

“Does the rest of your bandit group know that you two are here, or of this place in general?” Ranza asked, the bandit shaking his head. “Very well, then I’m going to let you go on one very specific condition. You will go and tell your friends to come back here, say you found a place they can stash their loot that only you know about and is only available during the full moon, and then you will lead them back here.”

As the bandit nodded Ranza took some of the wetness from his human skin and placed it on the forehead of the man, then picked up a handful of sand and sprinkled it over him to create a solid disk of black stone as his eyes rolled back into his head. “You have been thusly marked,” Ranza stated as he reached down and pulled the otherwise human man up and back onto his feet. “Go now and perform your task.”

The bandit just gave a nod before calmly walking out of the entrance of the cave, Ranza watching him leave with the essence of the temple imprinted on his mind. A smirk formed on his muzzle before he went back to the one he had initially captured, rubbing his hands over the stone cocoon as he felt the creature within completely pacified by the power of this place. “I’m going to need a servant,” Ranza said as he felt the stone begin to shift and warp under his power, allowing the creature to sculpt it to his whims. “Someone will have to serve all the guests to my ascension, as well as service me until they get here...”

A month later a group of bandits made their way along the desert carrying several covered carts that were pushed along the sand by camels. They had been traveling through the desert upon the information of one of their scouts who had found an ancient temple where they could stash their loot and possibly hide out for a while, which with the local ruler of the area putting a price on their heads definitely sounded good to the group. There were ten on them in all with each one leading a cart full of the spoils they had gained from the caravans that they had looted.

“This information had better be good,” the one in the front of their own impromptu caravan said as day turned to night, tapping the back of his sword against the man next to him who had been leading the way. “If it turns out you sold us out to that bastard back at the capital I’ll make sure your death is the last thing that I do before I’m captured.”

The man just remained silent as he continued to walk forward, his eyes staring straight ahead as he walked forward with purpose. The others in the caravan muttered that the scout hadn’t seemed right ever since he had gotten back, especially when he told the others of this secret location, but with the heat on them they had little choice. As the last rays of light faded away and the moon rose over the horizon the scout held his hand up to stop them all. The leader relayed the order and the caravan came to a halt, the wind howling around them as they waited to see what was about to happen.

The bandits didn’t have to wait long as they all braced themselves upon feeling the ground shift beneath their feet. Several shouts went up in the air as the sand shifted around their feet but once more the scout told them to hold, and as they watched they saw it drain away to reveal solid ground under their feet as the temple eventually became exposed. The leader gasped at seeing the information was real and the group let out a cheer as they found their potential sanctuary before driving the camels and the carts carefully down the path to the entrance.

“You have done very well,” the leader of the bandits said to the scout once they had gotten inside, wheeling one of the carts in with him while the others did the same with the rest of them. “I think that perhaps we can talk about your place here, perhaps move you up from being a scout and put you on some of the more important jobs.”

“That’s fine,” the scout said simply. “I’m exactly where I want to be.”

The leader just shrugged and barked back to have everyone keep moving forward and to get the carts parked as they emerged into the main room. The scout informed them there was no need for torches and after they had parked their cart near the side of the room he motioned for the leader to look around at their new hideout while he got the others ready. The older man gave him a look and then proceeded to walk forward to investigate the area, which prompted the scout to look up towards the pedestal. A smile crossed his face as he did what he had been told, feeling the stone mark on his head start to spread as his gaze met with that of the creature on the pedestal.

Ranza smirked back as he sat cross-legged, watching the bandits slowly march in with their goods in tow. While he had seen several others glance up in his direction no one paid him too much attention even though his chest and back were still human. Part of the reason was by this point the petrification had reached his shoulders and thighs with the shiny black giving way to fissures of sandstone stripes, but he wasn’t quite at the point where he considered himself to be the idol that would stand there. The other reason why they weren’t aware of his partial human nature was because a black sandstone cheetah sat in front of him, blocking most of the partially transformed tiger’s body from view with its glistening silver spotted skin while the feline’s head was in his lap.

At least there was one who certainly worshipped him so far, Ranza thought with an internal chuckle as he watched the other living statue bob his head up and down on his thick cock. The former bandit was so grateful for being given the sleek, lithe body that the tiger had sculpted for him that he turned tail and let him plow his tailhole for the entire rest of the full moon that night. When it was the next month and they were about to get more visitors he had found the cheetah statue standing on the platform next to the pedestal, animating a few seconds after he regained his senses and immediately going over to rub and grope his body. Since they had to wait for the rest of their guests to get down there he let his amorous companion service him, causing him several orgasms just before he sensed the others arriving and still continued to stimulate his maleness even upon the arrival of his former bandit leader.

With everything set Ranza motioned for the cheetah to get ready for his ascension to becoming an idol, feeling that smooth muzzle pop off of him before he did what his guardian told him. The others had been so preoccupied with securing their ill-gotten spoils that they didn’t even noticed that the two statues had started to move, or that the scout that had led them there looked like he had a black sandstone mask over his eyes; it was only when the leader went to take a drink from the pool that he saw the two feline statues were gone.

It was too late for them though, Ranza thought to himself as he watched the bandits try to figure out what was going on. As they started to panic Ranza mentally opened the portals in the pool and let the water drain into the floor, creating quicksand that they fell into one by one. Several attempted to climb up onto the carts only to have the wheels sink and cause them to fall in and be submerged completely while others with slightly calmer heads tried to head towards the exit only to sink up to their waists or chests. The only one that didn’t fall in was the scout that had already tasted the power of the temple and had walked on solid ground to where Ranza had stepped forward.

“My dear bandits,” Ranza stated to the six that remained above the surface of the quicksand. “You are here today to witness the birth of a new idol, one that you will all serve and worship. Since it was you all that made this possible I thought it would be only fitting that you are rewarded with your eternal servitude to me.”

The cheetah statue was joined by the scout bandit, who had disrobed completely until his toned body remained completely naked, in taking several prepared jars of black sand and pouring them over Ranza’s form. The black sand clung to his skin despite it being dry and the tiger let out a growl of pleasure as his handsome cheetah companion and his newest acolyte made sure the magical substance was everywhere. It was mostly a formality at this point but he knew the more there was the more powerful he would become, and as he felt those he had trapped look on in awe he felt a surge of pride and arousal. Once they were done Ranza rewarded the two with a kiss before he went to the edge of the pool and leapt effortlessly onto the pedestal that would serve to host his shining glory.

All the bandits could do was watch as Ranza turned to face them before he stepped back underneath the waterfall, letting out a loud roar that reverberated through the temple as the sacred waters bonded the sand to his flesh. As the sand turned to stone it molded itself around his body, removing any last traces of humanity and imbuing the creature even more with the powers of this moonspelled temple. His feet paws gripped into the stone of the pedestal as his body redirected the water into the sand inside of it, which flowed upwards and caused the already tall feline to grow even more. Ranza accepted it all as he felt his body quiver and stretch while growing upwards as water continued to cascade down the solidified stone of his new form while more of the sandy goo travelled up his increasingly bulked up form.

The magic wasn’t just concentrating within the transforming black sandstone tiger either, as the bandits that still had their wits about them continued to struggle to escape they began to see shapes emerge from the quicksand. All of them watched as four humanoid shapes rose up from the thick substance, and as the goo dripped away from them it revealed four feline living statues. It was hard to tell what they were since they had no markings, their solid black bodies of polished stone glinting in the moonlight as they wordlessly went about their new lots in life. Ranza could sense that all of them were far more eager to serve their new master than their old lot in life, the still growing tiger watching as the four muscular males groped one another’s bodies and even stroked each other’s hard cocks on the command of their guardian.

Ranza let out one last roar as he flexed his new muscles, showing off his bulging pectorals and washboard abs as more stripes continued to form and grow deeper in his body. As the tiger statue stepped back down from his place he saw the cheetah and the ensorcelled human both bow deeply before the guardian told him to rise. “You did very, very well in luring the others here,” Ranza said as he went to the rather handsome guy whose face had just started to push out into a feline muzzle while the skin hardened around it. “I want you to become like me, a form that will be looked upon with as much adoration as mine.”

The scout nodded his head and Ranza turned him around, wanting to show off his transformation just as much as his own. His silver eyes locked on with the leader’s as he nuzzled the shoulder of his former bandit, letting him stare as his sandstone fingers traced down the scout’s chest before playing with the semi-hard length between his legs. He could feel the animosity just through the look alone but that only fed into his lusts as he took his member with his free hand and guided it to the puckered hole in front of him. Ranza kept the head nestled there for a bit since he knew that his foot long spire of throbbing stone would split open even the most stalwart of humans without preparation, but with the aid of his lunar magic he could see the same black sandstone creeping over the scouts rear end and knew it was already assimilating his insides as well.

“I think it’s time for our guests to see about their gift,” Ranza said, taking the cheetah who was about to kneel down and help reward the scout and motioning at the six that were still trapped. “See which ones wish to join us, and which ones would rather be decoration. Feel free to dunk the latter.”

The cheetah statue nodded eagerly and hoped over towards the ones trapped in quicksand, the black substance immediately firming anywhere the graceful feline man stepped as Ranza turned his attention back to the scout. By this point the petrification had clearly started to seep into his already corrupted mind as he saw the eyes of the man turning silver as his nose and upper jaw had turned black, producing stone fangs that had poked past his still human lower lips. That actually gave the tiger idol an idea and snapped his fingers, which caused one of the blank stone feline statues to go down where a jar of black sand had been created and bring it back up to them.

As the first of the bandits that were still up got dunked below the surface of the quicksand by the cheetah that hovered over them Ranza took the jar of sand and dumped it over the man, watching the grains stick completely to his skin before the container dissolved away. At this point the scout looked like a formless, shapeless stone creature, not unlike a lump of clay that needed to be molded by the sculptors hands. All that needed to be added was the proper slip in order to make it moldable, but instead of the sacred waters that he had been blessed with he had something else in mind. The encased man let out a grunt as Ranza was able to push the entirety of his cock in one solid thrust, the tiger feeling the modified hole stretch easily around him as the black sand that stuck to the human flesh immediately began to melt.

Already Ranza could feel this creature wish to kneel down to worship him, though at this point it was the tiger that had to do it since he stood head and shoulders over the smaller man as his paws roamed over his body. He could feel the black sandstone already solidifying and forming over the thin frame, using the extra mass of the sand to sculpt him a set powerful, sturdy muscles. This wasn’t going to be like the cheetah, who had just passed over a bandit that swore fealty to him and then pushed the next one down beneath the surface of the quicksand, whose toned and graceful body was created for servile and lustful pursuits. He may be the guardian, Ranza mused as he slid his fingers around the smooth pectorals he had created, but he would need others to help defend this place in the event that their lunar temple would be discovered.

The sandstone tiger took his time as Ranza slowly thrusted in and out of the man, moving his hips forward as he took one of his hands and gave the growing feline statue a cock that others would worship almost as much as his own. As the body that he was rutting grew sturdier the tiger idol stood up, his shaft pulling up the creature impaled on it and causing him to squirm as he slid down further on the thick length. Even though it stretched out the stomach of the smaller male including the washboard abs he had just been given the only thing that his servant felt was pleasure, especially when Ranza got to his face and revealed the silver eyes beneath the sand. For his final act however as the idol shifted around and probed their way into the transformed man’s mouth he took the two fangs of the statue and pulled them down more, giving the tiger saber teeth as he felt the newly created living statue suck and lick on his fingers.

Once he had finished Ranza lowered the creature down once more and pulled out his maleness, letting it soften once more as he went to see how his other servant had done. As the tiger idol went down to the sandy floor he saw another three creatures crawl up from the ooze, the blank feline statues moving over towards their other counterparts while he looked at the rest. “Now there’s a surprise,” Ranza said with a fanged smile as he looked down at the bandit leader, who had almost sank up to his neck and was begging him to not become like the others. “Oh, don’t worry, I’m sure we can find a place for you…”

******************************************************

When Ranza next opened his eyes again the tiger idol once more felt the cool water of the waterfall he had stood under after taking his place as the centerpiece and protector of this temple. While it was hard to gauge with the way he stood he found that he had grown again, probably going from eight to ten feet. Though he still couldn’t move he saw his own muscular body that had posed with his arms down and his feet slightly spread, which allowed the water that came from above to cascade through the bright orange sandstone that had formed small valleys in his stony body. The feeling of the water trickling from stripe to stripe from his head and back down to his legs and down against the pedestal he stood on made him strangely feel very… potent, like it was pure power that ran along his hard stone flesh as his eyes gazed out towards the entrance.

As always the light from the full moon streamed overhead and shined down on the sand, which allowed the tiger statue to see everything as he waited to see what had awakened him from his slumber. All around the temple were feline statues of solid black sandstone, slumbering until the one that they knelt before had need of them, and to either side of his pedestal he had his cheetah and sabertooth tiger waiting for him as well. There were three others as well that weren’t faceless statues, but after he had turned them into housecats he relegated them to the back of the temple where they would wait to worship their master and his servants with their bodies.

At the moment however neither Ranza nor the others would move a muscle, at least not yet, and continued to look like adornments to some ancient feline deity. When his gaze looked over towards the carts that the bandits had brought in he saw that they had started to deteriorate, the wheels falling off of some of them while others were completely tipped over with the wood rotting. The tiger idol cared not for such material things, but it did make him wonder just how long he had been down there this time. While they had been unfrozen before, mostly so that he and the others could slake their lusts with one another, this was the first time his guardian instincts had kicked in and rendered him motionless.

Finally it appeared his question would be answered as Ranza saw light coming from the entrance, though it wasn’t torch light. It looked like someone was reflecting the light of the moon into the passageway, but as it hit him in the eyes and would have caused him to flinch he realized that it didn’t carry the same arcane energy. When the one that was shining it came inside the tiger found himself looking down in curiosity as it appeared the light was being generated from a thin tube that looked like a lantern. There were others that were coming in as well and at first Ranza couldn’t understand what they were saying, but as time went on the language seemed to come to him like the water flowing through his stripes as he saw the first man point at him and gasp.

“You see?” the older man said to his younger counterpart. “You and the entire department thought that my readings were just false echoes, I’m the one that knew there was something down here.”

“Well that sand trick sure was something,” a third man behind the two said, this one much larger and more muscular than the others as he held something black and shiny in his hands. “Did you know that would happen professor?”

The older man coughed and looked down, then wiped his brow with his forehead before gesturing to the ground below. “Look at that, this is the only place in the entire desert that seems to have black sand,” the professor said before gesturing up at the walls and statues including Ranza. “These statues and this entire place also appears to be made out of black sandstone, something that isn’t normally found in this area. I think we found some sort of ancient worship site to whatever feline deity these creatures are supposed to represent.”

“Given how hung these creatures are I can take a few guesses on how they paid homage,” the muscular man said with a chuckle, elbowing the younger man who just gave him a look. “What, it’s a joke.” An atmosphere of silence filled the air and even Ranza felt uncomfortable as the big guy went to one of the decrepit carts. “Hey look at this, didn’t you say some bandit tribe disappeared around here too?”

“Yes, the ruler of the area had a death warrant on a group of killers that fled into the desert,” the older man said as he looked over one of the other carts and picked up one of the pieces of gold jewelry that had spilled out. “It appears they were keeping their spoils here, perhaps this was even their tomb. But if that was the case than where are the bones?”

“This place is giving me the creeps without needing bones,” the younger man said as he pressed a hand against one of the statues, Ranza shivering as he felt the touch transferred to him. “Maybe we should just call the college and tell them what you found, you can say you were right and we can get out of here.”

“Now hold on,” the big guy said, Ranza sensing malicious intent as he gestured around. “Now what about my finder’s fee for all this? You found a temple full of treasure and naked cat men statues, that’s going to be worth something and I want my cut.”

“Sir, we already paid you for getting us here and back,” the professor said as he stepped forward. “When the archeology department gets here it’s all going to a museum-“

“And the museum can pay me!” the man shouted as he pulled out some sort of metal object that caused the others to recoil in horror, the tiger idol slowly moving forward as it sensed the need to strike. “Now either you get me the money to make this worthwhile, or I’m going to kill you two and bury you in this sand so you join the bandits that used to be here. The desert is a very dangerous place, after all.”

While Ranza was unsure what was happening he sensed the murderous intent and jumped off the pedestal, his stone feet hitting the sand with a thud as he let out a loud, booming roar. The sheer surprise caused the big guy to turn towards him and as he did the object in his hand spouted fire and launched something at him with high speed. The tiger statue felt it hit his abs and was taken aback slightly as he looked down, seeing the otherwise flawless polished sandstone cracked and pitted by the metal round that quickly fell out of him. When Ranza heard a click he saw the guy was about to do it again and with a mental order he was suddenly sucked down into the quicksand that formed around his feet.

The two other man watched on in both shock and fear as Ranza went over to where the guy was buried up to his neck, bending down first and bringing up a handful of sand to pour over the damage. As the grains cascaded down his body it melded with and repaired everything, leaving the area just as smoothed and polished as it had been before as he got to the pool that his assailant had sank into and reached down. He could feel the limbs of the man trying to flail at him but that only served to make the suction worse, a fact that put a smile on the tiger statue’s face as he found the item that the man had and brought it up. It looked harmless enough, and as he tapped the metal cylinder it popped open and several more objects fell out of it before he crushed the entire thing in his grip.

“I think you know that it’s not very wise to go into someone’s house and start harming the host,” Ranza said with a growl before he looked over at the sabertooth tiger and cheetah, the two statues coming to life and moving over towards him. “Luckily a few friends of mine are going to teach you some manners while I figure out what to do with the other intruders to my domain.”

As Ranza stood back up the other two statues had already reached down and pulled the quicksand covered man out, whose strength was no match for two magical statue felines that dragged him to a new alcove that the tiger idol had created the last time they were unfrozen. “That just leaves you two,” Ranza said as he slowly moved towards them, which caused them to back away before the tiger stopped. “Before you try to run out of here screaming I’ll tell you that you will meet the same fate as your friend… well, a similar fate anyway.”

“Run?” the older man said as he brought his hands up. “Why would I run? You are the greatest thing that I have ever seen in my entire life! A temple found only by the light of the full moon and populated with strange feline… I guess werestatues would be an interesting interpretation? I could write academic papers for the rest of my life on just what I seen and probably be put on a television circuit, people would come from across the globe to see you.”

“Across the globe… globe…” Ranza muttered to himself as he tried to figure out a lot of what the strange words this man said, though the idea of having worshippers coming in and paying homage to him was an enticing thought and he could always use more statues if there were really that many people coming here... possibly enough to give him power to expand this temple. As he looked over at the other man though he saw him holding up a strange box with that light on it. “What is that, what are you doing?”

“Putting you on YouTube,” the younger man said with a grin. “This is going viral.”

“You… Tube?” Ranza asked before a look of frustration crossed the tiger idol’s face. “What the hell is a YOUTUBE?!”

******************************************************

Meanwhile back in the nexus realm the portal closed and the huge tiger statue appeared on the pedestal next to Kirdos. “I expecting something rather artistic from you and I was certainly right,” Raven commented first. “The fact that not only is he technically a werestatue and a tiger but you also made him into that delightful water feature. The layout was really nice too, more of a contained setting where your original werecreature could show of his trophies.”

“For the personality shift I liked that even when he started to change he was still a bit on the meek side and then grew more dominant as time went on,” Viratan spoke up next. “Like it wasn’t the transformation that was corrupting him but the power that came with it. The cheetah and the sabertooth tiger servants were great too and the fact that he wasn’t just a statue but thought of himself as a temple idol was great.”

“Yeah, and I thought the transformation via sand was really cool too,” Serathin said after finishing up the muffin he was eating. “Usually when you think of werecreature it’s by bite or, well, other things, as opposed to the cursed sand or idol like you had. I also found it interesting that you didn’t go with a traditional werecreature going from man to beast but one that went from statue to living creature, a very solid performance if I do say so myself.”

“And that was our judges for Kirdos,” Renzyl said as he walked over to the last platform. “Gosh, I guess it’s just little old me left to show their werecreature. No sense in delaying the grand finale, let us begin the end….”