FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Sexy Beasts: An Awakening by BlackWolfe Coyoten

"My price is twofold. First, I require an alteration to the scenario you have proposed, to better enhance the enjoyment of all concerned."

"What kind of alteration?"

"I wish to broaden my experiences, to experience some of the fear that your own proposal provides for you, and to enhance the fear you have requested."

"I... guess that's okay..."

"Excellent."

"What's the second part? Of your price, I mean."

"I wish you to consider a proposal. We will discuss it after the scenario."

* * * * *

Candace grinned maliciously, elbowing the tall redhead beside her. "Hey, Michelle," the petite brunette said. "Check it out." She nodded towards the approaching figure.

Michelle grinned. The athletic young woman grabbed her lover's rump playfully before increasing her stride. Up ahead, shoulders hunched, head bowed, was the freak. And it hadn't even noticed them yet.

The freak in question resembled nothing so much as a silver-and-gold-furred tiger, if you stood it on two legs and gave it a human-shaped body. It had long black hair, but the grey hoodie it wore covered that. Two rounded feline ears protruded through holes cut in the hood, glinting in the light from the street.

It wasn't safe in the alleys at night, which was part of why Michelle and Candace used them for shortcuts. Michelle was fairly strong - she worked out regularly - and Candace, despite her small size, was both a rather vicious fighter and a skilled one. The fact was, they were looking for trouble. The thrill of a brief struggle was one of the few things that excited them, and the sex the two of them would share after an encounter was nothing short of spectacular.

They'd become addicted.

They'd also become more aggressive and belligerent over time. And here was the freak, alone in the world, trying and failing to blend in. Even with its shiny metallic fur (and equally shiny obsidian hair) concealed by its clothing, it was clearly not human.

It was going to have a bad night, the two decided. Quickly, they moved in on their unsuspecting prey. The tiger-morph stopped short as they blocked its path.

"Can I help you?" it asked hesitantly.

"Alleys aren't safe at night," Candace said. "Didn't you know? Come on, we'll walk you home."

The feline creature stared back and forthe between the two of them. Something wasn't adding up. They'd always been so aggressive before. Why were they being nice now? Nevertheless, she shrugged, and led the way back to her tenament apartment.

"Jesus, what a dump," Michelle muttered under her breath the moment they saw the interior. Somehow, she'd expected something more... grandiose. The tiger-thing looked rather regal when it wasn't hiding under those baggy clothes, after all. She'd seen it once in the locker room and been stunned. Candace felt the same way.

The extra equipment they'd noticed -- it was nigh-impossible not to, given its size, even sheathed -- had been a bit of a distraction, but they decided it wasn't much different from a strap on anyway. Still, the creature was clearly neither human nor female, and they'd made its life a living hell at the community college ever since then, just on general principles.

If it thought its life had been hellish before, though... After following it into the apartment, Candace waited for it to leave the living room, then locked and chained the door. "We're really gonna do this, aren't we?" she asked Michelle in anticipation.

"Oh, yeah," the redhead whispered back.

The two of them shared a passionate kiss, then stalked into the thing's bedroom, on the hunt.

The tiger-thing was sitting on the foot of a beat-up brass bed. Its hood was pulled back and it had pulled its long, obsidian hair out of the hoodie, letting it fan out majestically on the dilapidated grey bed behind it. "Do what?" it asked.

Candace grinned. Michelle just shrugged.

"I heard you talking out there," the tiger said. "I have excellent hearing. I heard you lock the door. And you smell of desire. What is it you want?"

"I heard," Michelle said instead of answering, "that catgirls like you are, like, always in heat."

"Impossible," the tiger said. "I don't think you understand what 'heat' means."

"I heard it's even worse for hermie freaks like you," Candace added.

"We're gonna make your night," Michelle said, "whether you think you want it or not." She stood imperiously before the tiger. "Strip. I wanna see that luscious fur of yours. I wanna see what that cock looks like when it's ready for action instead of hiding away."

The tiger cringed. "B-but..." it stammered.

Candace undid her belt, slid it out of her shorts loop by loop, smiling menacingly. The tiger stared at it, mesmerized. "She said strip," the brunette said, then punctuated the statement with a vicious lash with the belt, which would have left a visible mark, had the tiger's face not been covered in beautiful metallic fur.

The door shut behind the two humans, but their attention was focused on the tiger.

"Very well," it said. It pulled the hoodie off. Beneath that, a white T-shirt hugged a lean, well-curved body. Pert, round breasts strained against their cotton confines, and a pair of upraised bumps betrayed the tiger-herm's burgeoning excitement. "You had a chance," it said.

Michelle glanced back at Candace, who was beginning to look worried.

"I heard you talking out there," the tiger said. "I heard you lock the door." When it had finished peeling off the T-shirt, it stood up before them, and they were surprised to find that it was taller and more athletic than they'd remembered. "But more than that," it said, "I heard you thinking."

Its baggy jeans were a lot less baggy now, the two girls noticed. Where they had scuffed the ground with each step, growing frayed at the cuff, they now looked more like form-fitting capri pants. And that cuff was slowly riding up a pair of calves that they were shocked to realize were thickening.

Michelle was the first to break and run, shoving her brunette companion aside as she scrambled for the bedroom door. The door, she was terrified to find, would not budge. She heard a soft popping sound behind her, the seams of the tiger-herm's pants slowly giving way to the steadily building pressure of growing muscles, lengthening limbs. When she turned back around, she was shocked to find that her 5'8" height was barely enough to bring her to chest level with the growing beast.

And on the topic of growing beasts, she found her eyes drawn downwards, to the telltale bulge in the tiger's crotch. The button-fly of its -- hir jeans gave way, one button at a time, and a lengthening, thickening, vastly intimidating maleness began to snake its way up out of the exposed panties, which strained against it uselessly.

Candace shook off her stupor first, picking herself up off the floor, and launched herself at the massive, now-tremendously-muscled hermaphrodite. Her side-kick never connected. The tigress reached out with a massive hand-paw and grabbed her roughly by the calf, ebon claws gently pricking her skin, drawing a single drop of blood each.

"Do not do that again," the tigress warned, then dropped her on her rump.

"W-w-w-what are you going to do to us?" stammered Michelle, starting to cry.

"You're going to get exactly what you came here to get," the tigress said, eyes flashing with righteous fury. Casually, with the unconscious grace of a predator, shi hooked hir clawtips into the waistband of hir already nearly-shredded jeans and tore them apart. Michelle and Candace found themselves nearly hypnotized by hir raw power, eyes following the way hir powerful muscles rippled beneath that metallic fur.

She stalked over to Michelle, powerful body moving with sinuous grace. Hir shaft, now fully erect, was larger than the athletic human's thigh, easily three feet long and four inches in diameter. "Kiss it," she said.

Michelle whimpered, shaking her head, and the tigress reached out with a powerful paw, wrapping it around her head. She struggled, but the hermaphrodite's sheer physical power was such that she was sure shi couldn't even feel the resistance. Inch by inch, she found herself pulled face-first towards the tip of that monstrous shaft.

"Kiss. It."

Crying, disgusted with herself, she did so.

"You came here for sex with the freak," the tigress said. "You came here for rape and humiliation, and for bestial carnality, and that is what you shall have," shi promised.

Michelle was surprised to find that she had, unbidden, begun to stroke the massive member with both hands. It was hot and smooth as silk. She squeezed it and it didn't yield in the slightest, hard as steel or harder.

Candace, horrified, only watched.

"You will have your turn soon enough," the tigress promised her. Shi turned her attention back to Michelle. "You are very skilled at this," shi said, "for a lesbian. Tell me you want it."

Michelle, no longer crying, but still terrified, whispered something in reply.

"Louder," the tigress said.

"I want it," Michelle said, and realized it was true. The situation was reversed - she was the victim now, but she had come here because she had wanted the throbbing, steel-hard member she was now caressing with hands and lips. She ran her tongue over it.

The tigress shuddered. "You do want it, don't you?" shi asked. "Tell me you need it."

"I need it," begged Michelle. She felt it throbbing under her tongue, felt a warm slickness against her cheek as pre began to soak into her hair and coat the tremendous, hot member.

"No," the tigress said. "No, you don't." Shi pushed Michelle away, gently but firmly, and took a step back. Shi really was majestic in this powerful form, the human thought.

Michelle whimpered slightly. "I do," she begged. "I don't care what you do to me, I need it. I've needed it since I saw you in the showers."

"You don't understand the word," the tigress said. "You said earlier that catgirls are always in heat. Would you like to know what that means? What it really means?"

Michelle whimpered, a burning desire building in her loins. The hunger she'd felt earlier grew from want to desire to need, and just kept building. She'd die without satisfaction, but she didn't dare move closer.

Candace glared up at the tigress. "You bitch," she said. "What did you do to her?"

"I am giving her an education," the tigress said. "And now it is your turn."

Candace moaned. She couldn't help herself. The silver-and-gold tigress simply looked at her, eyes flashing, and she felt a heat wash over her body. She was burning up, she thought. She would be consumed by... by... in an instant, she realized the heat she was feeling was sexual. Her body was being consumed, not by fire, but by an overwhelming sexual need. She moaned again, louder, and fell to her hands and knees, unable to stay standing in the face of this need.

"A bitch, am I?" purred the massive tigress. "I think, like your friend, you have chosen your punishment well."

W-what? Candace could barely form the thought. The heat within her flared up again, hotter, more desperate than before, and her back arched involuntarily. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Michelle, panting and glassy-eyed, watching her, and that only made her situation more sexually charged. She turned her head slightly to look at her friend and lover, and experienced a strange double vision. The tigress reached out with a massive hand and turned her head to face hir, staring into her eyes, and while her vision filled with those gold-flecked eyes, she also saw herself as Michelle did.

Michelle, moaning in time with her lover, was entranced by what she saw. Her insatiable desire wasn't forgotten, but she found it intensely focused on her petite lover, who was becoming less petite by the moment. Well-defined muscle strained against the girl's T-shirt, causing the seams to slowly part, one thread at a time. Both Michelle and Candace found themselves chanting "more, more, more" as the process continued, enraptured by what they saw through Michelle's lust-focused eyes.

The tigress, smirking slightly, sat down on the bed, which groaned ominously before the brass frame gave out, hir tremendous weight too much for the comparably flimsy metal. Casually stroking hir massive member, shi let hir tongue loll out of hir mouth. "Yes," shi purred. "More. More."

Candace moaned as her body--

Tempus.

The tableau froze. Candace, Michelle, the tigress -- even the air ceased its invisible movements as time stopped.

_ WHAT?! _ Candace's thought was hot and sharp with need and frustration. You've got to be shitting me! We're just getting to the good part, and now you decide to safeword?!

Peace, the tigress thought at her, then directed hir attention to the redhead. Is the scenario too intense?

Oh, fuck no, thought Michelle back. I mean, yeah, it's more intense than I'd thought it would be, but holy fuck , wow!

Then why the fuck would you interrupt it now , right when we're getting to the best part?!

Peace, admonished the tigress again. Though you raise a good point, your satisfaction -- shi placed an emphasis on "satisfaction" that would have made Candace's sex clench, had time not been frozen -- is my sole desire from this point forward. What is the problem, child?

Well, Michelle thought hesitantly, it's like Candace said, we're getting up to the good part, and I can't see anything!

Can't see anything?! Michelle's sexual frustration was matched only by her incredulity. I'm seeing it through your eyes, remember, and I'm seeing plenty.

No, the tigress said. I see what Michelle means. A better angle can be had, and it will require a very minor adjustment to the scenario. Shi turned hir attention back to Michelle. I had intended your own transformation to include your fantasies of bondage, but were I to... The thought trailed off from Candace's perceptions, becoming a shared, private thing between the tigress and her lover. She could, however, feel Michelle's already overdriven lust spike at whatever it was the tigress suggested. Sure enough..

Do it, Michelle begged. Please.

Though their bodies were frozen, Candace got the impression that the tigress was nodding. Very well, shi thought at them. It will require a minor adjustment to what has already occurred, however. On the positive side, the build-up of energies will make things that much more intense for you , Candace.

Before Candace could form a thought in reply, however, the tigress had thought Fugit, and the scenario resumed, albeit from a slightly earlier point.

Candace panted slightly, overwhelmed with lust from having watched her lover caress the tigress' tremendous maleness, and even moreso at seeing her domme brought to heel so readily. "Fuck," she moaned. "What... what the fuck did you do to her, you bitch?"

"I am giving her an education," the tigress said. "And now--" Shi stopped, as Michelle dragged her sweaty body over to hir, reaching up to take that majestic shaft in her hands again. "No, no," the tigress admonished, as wiring from the ceiling snaked its way down to pull Michelle's hands away from their prize. "It is your lover's turn to learn, now. You must wait."

Michelle moaned, her need overwhelming, as the wires snaked themselves around her arms and legs and lifted her up to the ceiling. She hung there, pressed against the rough stucco, her desperate writhing restricted by the insulated cords that held her there, and watched as the tigress returned hir attention to her petite lover on the floor directly beneath her.

"Where was I?" the tigress said as Michelle moaned above her and Candace trembled beneath. "Ah, yes. Now, as I was telling your needy friend, it is your turn to learn. A 'bitch', am I? I think, much as your friend has, you have chosen your punishment well."

W-what? Candace could barely form the thought. The heat within her flared up again, hotter, more desperate than before, and her back arched involuntarily. She fell back onto her back, writhing and moaning, and her eyes locked with Michelle's above her. She experienced a peculiar double vision for a moment, then found her perspective shifting to that of her bound and suspended lover above her, affording her a view of what was happening to her body.

Michelle, moaning in time with her lover, was entranced by what she saw. Her insatiable desire wasn't forgotten, but as it was becoming more and more focused on her petite lover beneath her, her struggles became weaker. Candace was becoming less petite by the moment, her writhing body lengthening and thickening by the moment with well-defined muscle. Her T-shirt strained against a powerfully built torso, capped by swelling breasts that already put Michelle's own D-cup beauties to shame, and showed no signs of stopping their expansion. The fabric began to part at the seams, one stitch at a time, and both Michelle and Candace found themselves chanting "more, more, more," as the process continued.

The tigress, smirking slightly, sat down on the bead, which groaned ominously before the sturdy metal frame gave way beneath hir tremendous weight. Casually stroking hir massive member, shi let hir tongue loll out of hir mouth. "Yes," shi purred. "More. More."

Candace moaned as her body's growth sped up. Her shirt peeled away from a powerful body that was growing by the moment, and lush black fur began to sprout across her body. She threw her head back, lost in sensation, and through Michelle's eyes watched as her neck expanded with powerful muscle, that same ebon fur spreading up it to her face. Michelle's gaze swept down, to where Candace's lower body had expanded similarly. The brunette's legs were tremendously muscled and bare, the shredded remains of her pants sliding off of them as they watched, and that black fur was beginning to cover them as well. In seconds, the only covering that remained was her pink silk panties, which were already sodden.

"Fuck," Candace moaned, "oh, fuck yes ," and as she continued to grow, her tongue lolled out of her mouth. It was too long by half and growing longer and broader and flatter as they watched. She felt a prick, and turned her head slightly so that she could see better through Michelle's eyes. My teeth, she thought. Her teeth were growing longer and sharper along with her tongue, and her mouth began to push forward into a broad muzzle.

They watched as her ears tapered to points, then moved up her head, until they were black triangles pushing up through her lengthening brown hair. Michelle's gaze swept up and down Candace's new body, desperately longing, and lingering over this detail or that. Eight feet tall, the wolf-bitch was, and still growing, her powerful physique even more impressive than the tigress sitting just to one side. In fact, the only things more impressive about the tigress than the newly-made she-wolf was hir lustrous metallic fur, and her--

Candace let out a startled yelp. Her body still burned with unbearable lust and, she realized, power, but that burning desire had focused not on her sex but immediately above it. She began to grind her hips, wedging her silk panties into her sex and stimulating herself, but that didn't help, as it failed to rub against the place she needed it most. And then, suddenly, she felt horribly constricted down there. Something was pushing painfully against her panties, and the wet silk was pinching horribly.

Michelle's gaze, driven by sexual desire, focused on the newly-shifted wolf's groin, and they were startled -- and aroused, it must be admitted -- to see a bulge forming at the front of Candace's panties. The bulge grew and grew, and Candace whimpered as the silk pinched her more and more, and then, finally, even that strong fabric had more than it could handle, and Candace's new member, large and red and growing, burst free of its confines.

Michelle whimpered, needing that hot red cock even more than she'd needed the tigress, but no matter how much she struggled, the wires held fast. Candace felt a strange sensation in her throat and realized with a start that she was growling instead of moaning as her -- now hir -- need and pleasure continued to build. As hir changes finished, hir perspective shifted back away from Michelle's eyes to hir own.

"F-f-fuck," shi growled, turning hir attention to the tigress, who was still languidly pleasuring hirself and watching. "Oh god, fuck me, please," shi begged hir. "Please," she said.

The tigress stood. Michelle whimpered, as the massive hermaphrodite was so close that if her hands were free she could caress hir, but the tigress ignored her. "Very well," the tigress purred. "Since you ask so nicely."

Candace growled in anticipation as the tigress lowered hirself onto hir shaft with agonizing slowness. Shi tried to reach up with hir new, powerful arms, but the tigress merely glanced at them and they were pinned to the floor invisibly.

"Ah-ah-ah," chided the tigress, and began to work hir way up and down the wolf's shaft, slowly, deriving as much pleasure from teasing the needy beast as from fucking hir. Soon, though, all pretense of control was abandoned, and the two were in a blind rut beneath Michelle, yowling and growling as the wolf drove hirself into the tigress with as much force as hir powerful body could manage.

It seemed like an eternity, especially to the lust-crazed, sexually-deprived Michelle, suspended above them. She needed it so much more than Candace did, she thought, but there they were beneath her and oh GOD did she need them to fuck her so badly right now, and it was only getting worse. She could barely think, barely remember what had happened. Somewhere, deep inside her, she was terrified, and she couldn't remember why, couldn't remember anything except the burning need, and it was still growing, and holy fuck, were those two still going at it?!

They were, though they had both climaxed at least twice, soaking the floor beneath Candace with hir feminine pleasure while the tigress' own climaxes painted the wall and ceiling. Michelle found herself opening her mouth invitingly as the tigress arched hir back during hir third climax, and she was rewarded with a mouthful of the tigress' hot spunk as a jet of the stuff sprayed against the ceiling, coating her from her tits to the top of her head.

She swallowed. She couldn't help herself, not that, in her lust-crazed state, she wanted to. And as she swallowed, as the tigress eased hirself off of the wolf's still-turgid shaft, she felt the heat of the tigress' spunk spreading itself through her body. Her lust, already unbearable, continued to grow, and she felt the cords binding her tightening around her struggling limbs. Her thoughts had been reduced to mere imagery, cocks, pussies, tits, any and all variations on the sexual act. She wanted it all, she needed it all, and soon enough, even those thoughts became blurry.

Candace panted with release. Something was wrong, shi thought. Something was different. Shi couldn't quite put hir finger on it. In hir post-coital haze, all shi was aware of was that shi had been played, been used. It made hir feel dirty, which, in turn, merely turned hir on again. Hir shaft, slowly becoming flaccid, sprung to attention again, and shi greedily turned hir attention up to the girl on the ceiling. They'd come here together, shi remembered. They'd come here planning on rape, and on slaking their lusts. Hir own need had been taken care of, thanks to their intended victim, who watched hir with a satisfied smile. But Michelle, well... look at her. That yearning desperation. The way her slender limbs were straining against their restraints, bulging with muscle...

Wait. Bulging with muscle? Shi ran hir gaze lingeringly along the young woman's body, admiring the way the tigress' spunk had plastered her shirt to her body so that Candace could see Michelle's nipples through the fabric, as her already bounteous bosom began to swell. Here we go, thought Candace, and then the girl above hir practically exploded with burgeoning muscle. Her clothes ripped to shreds, falling in soggy bits around the massive wolf on the floor, and the wires holding her up had to slacken their grip in order to make room for the girl's expanding physique. Brown fur swept over the girl in a wave, and she roared in frustrated need as the transformation finished itself in moments.

Candace blinked stupidly up at the bear girl suspended above her. Something wasn't right. Something was off, beyond the transformation itself. Michelle roared again and she, too, developed a male organ, just above her sex. It was large, though not as large as the tigress', and throbbing with need. Michelle roared one last time, and finally, after a seeming eternity of need, climaxed. If the tigress' climax had been impressive, plastering Michelle's clothes to her body and painting the walls and ceiling, Michelle's was something else entirely. A jet of semen sprayed forth from hir new cock, splattering against Candace's leathery nose and--

Tempus.

Okay, you goddamned hypocrite, complained Michelle. You got your goddamn transformation and fucking, and wasn't that a better angle to watch from?

It was great, the wolf thought up at the bear. Shi directed hir thoughts at the tigress. It was better than great, thank you!

Oh, no, the tigress thought back. Believe me, the pleasure was very much mine. For one who had never had a cock before, you do such wonderful things with yours.

So what's the goddamn big idea, stopping things right when I'm finally getting my payoff?! Michelle thought angrily down at the wolf.

Candace's thought in return began with a disdainful snort. You call that a payoff? shi thought up at the bear. I mean, really, what happened to the long, sweaty, lusty busty fun transformation?

I couldn't take it anymore, all right?! Michelle's thought was colored with embarrassment at hir lack of control. Is that really what it's like to be in heat? shi asked the tigress.

Oh, no, the tigress replied. That was, perhaps, three quarters the intensity of true heat. I did not wish to overwhelm you.

And now, Candace complained, you're going to get my new fur all sticky. I mean, you could have given me time to move, but no , you had to get it over with! Who the fuck gets sex over with?!

Would you like me to move things back so that you have a chance to move?

_ No! _ thought Michelle. I mean, no, please. I don't think I could take that again.

Candace snorted mentally again. In that case, shi thought, I am so gonna make you pay for what's about to happen to me. I'm gonna use you like a fucktoy, and when you can't move anymore? I'm gonna fuck you some more.

I take it, then, the tigress thought, that we are finished with this scenario? We are all three satisfied with the outcome?

So long as we're not done with each other, Michelle thought, still desperate with need. I need a fucking so goddamned bad right now.

I believe, thought the tigress, Candace has already expressed a willingness to accommodate you.

Then yeah, Michelle thought. I'm done. Got my bondage, got my new body... hell, I even got the most intense orgasm denial ever , and I am ready to make with the fucking.

In that case, the tigress thought, we can dispense with these grim surroundings.

In a flash, the ratty apartment was gone, replaced with a spectacular mansion. The bedroom they were in was lushly appointed, and, while Michelle remained bound to the ceiling and Candace sprawled languidly on the floor, their appointments had changed to an enormous degree. Instead of the collapsed remains of a ratty old bed, the tigress sat upon a mountainous pile of pillows that looked almost like a throne, but with implications of carnal pleasure. Beneath Candace's massive body, a plush carpet made hir far more comfortable than the bare floor of the apartment. And instead of wiring, Michelle was bound to the ceiling in jewel-studded manacles of gold and silver.

Fugit, thought the tigress, and the jet of bear-cum completed its downward journey, liberally coating Candace from head to toe.

Candace's revenge was complete and thorough. Shi did, as shi had promised, and put hir tremendous rod to good use satisfying Michelle's desperate need. Though the scenario was over, its effects had lingered, and even beyond the heat, Michelle had gotten herself very worked up.

It took hours, and each moment was both an agony and the greatest pleasure they had ever experienced. Eventually, however, all were sated, and the only thing keeping them from being exhausted was the tigress' magic.

"Wow," moaned Michelle, nuzzling hir companion. "Just... wow."

"I am inclined to agree," the tigress said.

"So... is that it, then?" Candace frowned slightly as shi asked. "I mean, we're gonna be like this forever? No catch? Big, sexy, muscle-bound..." Shi trailed off, realizing that shi was getting hirself excited again.

"There is," said the tigress, "one other matter to attend to. The matter of payment."

"Right," said Michelle. "You wanted to make a proposal?"

"Indeed," said the tigress. "I knew when I first read your petitions, and the information my spells gathered from you when you sent them, that I would want to do this. However, in the wake of what we just experienced, I think that desire has only been amplified."

"Do what?" Michelle and Candace sat up, interested.

"I am," said the tigress, "very, very old. I have been alone, apart from encounters such as this one, for, oh, centuries. And I find it grows ever more tiresome as the years wear on. I have no desire to face eternity alone.

"I once had companions. Three of them. Mentors, really. In fact, your current forms appear to have been influenced, subconsciously, by my fond memories of two of them. The third was much as you see me now.

"They were there the night my powers first awakened, better than three millenia ago, and they spent the better part of a millenium teaching me how to use those powers, how my ability to alter things could be used for far more than superficial changes.

"And then, one day, they each kissed and hugged me in turn, bid me good luck in the future, and told me to go out and seek my place in the universe.

"I miss them terribly, but, as each of them was as powerful as I, and there were three of them, their powers prevented me from using my own to track them down. They told me, as we parted, that it was for the best, that I needed to stand on my own... They told me that I would find my own companions someday. They seemed quite certain of it."

Shi smiled wistfully. "That was three hundred years ago. I was beginning to lose hope when I received your petition. Now, I begin to hope again.

"I have made it a habit never to give my name to any. There is a small truth to the superstition that knowing a being's true name gives one power over it. The truth is that knowing someone's name does give one hold over that person, simply by virtue of getting their attention. When you hear your name called from across a room, do you not respond? Even if you do not know the person calling? Even if it is someone else being called?"

The two newly-transformed hermaphrodites nodded.

"So, I have avoided that connection with others. I never give any my name. You two, however, I would share that with, and much more. I would have you join me, for as long as you choose. Travel the universe with me. There are worlds within worlds out there, and among them are trillions of people we could touch as I hope I have touched you tonight."

Candace couldn't help it: shi chuckled lewdly. "Oh, you touched us, all right," shi quipped.

The tigress smiled. "That is not what I meant," shi said, "but I acknowledge the truth of it. You remind me more and more of the one whose form you share. But enough of that. The question remains: will you join me?"

"I... what about...?" Doubts crowded into Michelle's mind one after another.

"You would not be bound to me," the tigress said. "Goodness, no. You would be free to come and go, to, perhaps, visit family for any length of time you choose. So long as, someday, you come back to me." Shi was so sad, so wistful, that Candace and Michelle felt almost physically pained looking at hir.

"We'll do it," the wolf said.

Michelle nodded, hesitantly at first, then with more conviction. "Of course we will!"

"Oh, excellent!" The tigress threw hir arms around hir new companions. "Then I shall tell you two great secrets. The first, of course, is my name: Shirana. In the tongue of my people, it is the name of the Eastern Wind. The second is what I sensed within you that made me so certain that I would ask you this tonight."

"What's that?" Candace asked.

"You have within you the potential to be like me," Shirana said. "It would take the slightest of efforts to unlock it. In fact, what we have done this night has already begun you two along that path. Soon, unless I interfere, you will find that you are able to affect yourselves in much the same manner as I have. Soon after that, you will be able to alter inanimate things. And very soon after that, the living."

"How soon?"

"I do not know for certain," Shirana said. "In my case, I had no external stimulus to trigger the first stage, but it took a year for the second to manifest, and the third... I hardly realized it had happened until I used the ability some years later.

"In your cases, I believe it will happen much more quickly. I would not be surprised if you find yourselves able to manifest self-alterations by morning, if not sooner."

The wolf giggled, while the bear just looked stunned. "But.. I mean... What are the odds?" Michelle asked.

"That I would find you?" Shirana smiled. "It was almost inevitable, I think. I think our kind are drawn to each other, so that those with experience can guide us as our powers awaken."

"That... kind of makes sense," Candace said, though it was clear to Michelle, who knew hir best, that shi had doubts. "In any case, we've got plenty of time to figure it out, don't we?"

"That we do," said Shirana. Shi drew each of them to hir, planting a kiss on their muzzles. "That we do."