FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"You're absolutely sure it's your family's" Nate asked, his claws scritching across the ceramic plates in his hands.

"I'm sure." Adala replied, still examining the picture on the laptop. "It's an older design from a century or two back, but it's definitely our sigil."

Setting down the plates on the table, he took a seat beside her, taking a bite from his sandwich. "Huh, luck of lucks I guess."

"Can I get a look at it in person?"

Nate shrugged thoughtfully. "I don't see why not. I'd just need to call my boss first. That and lose the fur." He added with a chuckle.

"Just give it time." Smirking back. "You'll be able to turn at will soon."

"I hope so. I'd like to get back to a normal life as soon as possible and put this whole lycanthropy thing behind me."

Adala's smiled dissolved quickly as he said that, a flicker of disappointment flashing across her face. "Yeah, that... that makes sense."

"Is there something wrong?" He asked, catching the look on her face.

"Wha? What do you mean?" Her innocent reply was an easily detected fake, something that only served to drag him in even more.

"You looked kinda off there. Like you wanted to hear something else."

"It just feels a little wasteful." She admitted, her eyes lowering. "You aren't even giving life as a lycan a chance."

"I don't see why I should." He countered, frowning a little. "My life was nice and simple. I have a good job, a degree, I'm finally looking at finding a long-term relationship. Why would I throw a lycan-shaped wrench into all that?" To emphasize his point, he held up his spotted arm. "If I'm like this, I can't go outside, I can't see anyone. It's more of a shackle than anything."

"Again, you haven't even been one for one day yet. How can you be so sure this'll complicate things?"

Nate wrinkled his nose. "I don't know." Sighing, he kneaded his temples. "Look, my brain's just fried right now. I'm having these weird-ass dreams, I don't know what's happening to me both inside and out, I wanted to chase a deer for Christ's sake. I just need time to think alright? Then we can talk about the whole lycanthropy deal."

A smile tugged at the edge of her face and a spark of eagerness lit her eyes as she stood. "Here, finish up and I'll show you a something in a sec."

Nate, following instructions, went to finish the last bites of his sandwich, only to choke when Adala pulled her shirt off and undid her bra, facing away from him. "What are you doing, stripping in the middle of the kitchen!?"

Laughing openly at the expression on his face, she smirked back at him. "Hey, you'll have to do this too if you don't want to shred your clothes."

As if to emphasize her point, fur had already started to sprout on her back, and her bones shifted under her skin. Nate watched, mesmerized by the transformation. Limbs lengthened, bones moved and muscles tightened as her body took on more and more lupine aspects. Her auburn-grey fur spread in a wave over her entire body, growing with the tail that extended from her abdomen. As a muzzle pushed out of her face, her eye colors swam for a moment before settling on their bright amber color from the night before. Two small lumps appeared under her hair, from which ears poked out when she freed her braids from the leather string. Now in proper light, the elegance in her werewolf form was much more evident than it was in the darkened alleyway.

Adala chuckled a bit as he stared. "Come on Nate. Less ogling, more eating."

Glancing down at the crust of his sandwich, he quickly set it aside to follow her into the living room. Finding a clear patch of floor, she sat down cross-legged, patting the floor before her.

"What are we doing?" Nate asked as he sat down.

"Meditating." She extended her hands, closing her eyes. "Hands."

"Err.....Okay...." Still confused, he took her hands. "So what do I do? Try and bring out the animal part of me?"

"There's no animal part of you. There's just you." She corrected, opening a single eye. "Nothing's changed about who you are. Now close your eyes and just try to find your balance."

"Balance?"

"Yeah. I know you're stressed as hell, but just try to clear your head right now." Shutting her eye, she pulled him forwards, pressing her forehead against his, her voice dropping to a murmur. "Like you said, you're a lycanthrope now. Nothing you can do now, so just calm down and focus."

Nate took a deep breath and closed his eyes, following her lead. With Adala so close to him, he could hear everything she did. Her breaths were slow and deep, an almost trance-like rhythm set. While initially he thought that she was making a shot in the dark at helping him, his opinion quickly changed when he saw how serious she was about it. Hoping he could find calm just as she seemed to be doing, he sought to clear his mind of any worries or questions he had. As time went on, his breathing eventually matched hers, and he finally cleared his mind, the churning he felt before slowly disappearing. It was cathartic, much more than he expected. The longer he laid there, the more the stress of becoming a lycan seemed to disappear. Sitting there with Adala, he lost track of time, but didn't care.

"Feeling better Nate?" Adala asked softly.

"Yeah, a bit." He admitted, just as quiet as she was. "Feels like I can finally think straight again."

"Good." She released his hands, sitting up straight. "You've turned back by the way."

Eyes snapping open, he looked down to find his body human again. "I didn't even feel anything."

"That's good. You're further along than I expected." She tossed over a blanket from the couch for him to cover himself with.

"Huh." Wrapping himself up, he stood, glancing around sheepishly. "I'm uhhh...."

She smirked back, wandering back to the kitchen as she turned back. "Go get dressed."

It took a minute for Nate to shuffle away to his bedroom. It felt like in that time, the results of the mediation were lost, as questions flooded back. At the forefront was Adala's family pendant. With how quickly she reacted, it was clear she was very interested in it, but something nagged him that it was a little more than that.

Returning to the kitchen, he leaned up against the counter, watching her rebraiding her hair. "So, about your pendant. You seem pretty interested in it."

"I'm less interested in the pendant and more interested in how the Haida got it." She dug down into her pockets, fishing out another almost identical pendant. "It's been a family tradition for generations that on your 20th birthday, you receive a pendant to show you're an adult now."

Connecting the dots, he tilted his head slightly with a raised eyebrow. "You think that one of your ancestors ended up with the Haida?"

"Or got killed by them. In case you didn't notice with Daryl, we lycans scare the hell out of people, so usually it's kill first, ask questions later." Tying off the leather strap, she patted her braid down flat.

"Ah. You seem to pretty interested in this stuff."

"I'm a seeker." She announced proudly.

"A seeker?" Nathan scoffed at the stereotypical title, much to Adala's annoyance. "Sounds interesting. What do you 'seek' then?"

"Anything related to lycanthropy in the past. That, and new guys like you." Shooting a glare at him, her voice was indignant. "Keep you guys from screwing life over for all the other lycans out there."

Still skeptical, he crossed his arms. "I don't think there's much history to you lycans out there. If there was, we'd have found it by now."

"Well maybe you guys don't know where to look then." She shot back. "And why are you so confident there isn't there much history to us?"

"Are you kidding? You live in secrecy, there's no place for you guys to run around freely and live as full lycans, and you're practically being assimilated into human culture. That's not much room to make a history for yourself."

"Stars save me from ignorance." Adala muttered, before her gaze turned upwards, boring through his skull. "What are you doing this Friday night?"

"Nothing, why?" He raised an eyebrow in skepticism. "Let me guess, you want me to meet the other lycans in the city?"

Snarling, Adala stood up, seizing Nate by the collar. "Yes, and I don't care what you're doing. You may not want to be a lycan, but I am damn well going to show you the good parts of being one before I leave your sorry ass. Friday, we are celebrating the summer solstice, and the beginning of a new celestial cycle. You're coming along to the party." Releasing him, she spun on her heels, braids nearly clipping Nate in the face. "Tomorrow, we're going out the woods."

It was Nate's turn to become annoyed, starting after her. "Excuse me miss wolfy, but I've got work tomorrow. I'm not going."

"Yes you are. You run like a sissy human, so I'm going to teach you how to run properly."

"And if I don't come?"

Gathering up her belongings, Adala made for the door. "Then I come and find you in the museum and slap you around until you get pissed off enough to turn over, then we go."

Not long after she had left, Daryl returned, giving Nate a befuddled look. "Hey man, did you say something to Adala?"

Nate, having laid down on the couch to zone out while watching TV, replied flatly. "Nope, she's just being an ass."

"An ass? Why?"

"Long story short, she's just pissed at the fact that I don't want to be a lycan."

"Umm... okay. Why not?" Daryl asked, taking a seat on the couch as Nate moved his legs.

"Because, I'm happy as a human."

"Okay, but how do you know that being a human is better?"

Groaning, Nate sat up, giving Daryl an exasperated look. "You too? Come on man."

"Hey, I talked to Adala, she's done some amazing things."

"I don't care, I just want to live my own life."

"Nate, you really need to work on loosening up. I know how much you love working with history so much, but you need to get your ass out of the museum more often."

"I get out enough, I don't need to have a fuzzy ass while doing it." Rolling back onto his side, he looked down at Daryl. "Look, I've had enough crap with Adala over this, can we drop it for now?"

Daryl nodded, turning his attention back to the television. "Sure man, whatever you say."

***

The air was tense in the car as Nate drove down the rough, abandoned logging road. Adala sat beside him, sifting through her backpack, not saying anything. True to her word, when he had skipped out on picking her up to go to the woods, she hunted him down in the museum and badgered him until he had security throw her out. It appeared though, that she had security beat, for only 2 minutes later, she had somehow made it back inside to continue her harassment. It didn't take much for her to have an effect on him with his eyes shifting into their feline state.

"You're a bitch you know." Nate hissed at her, breaking the silence.

Adala either ignored him, or didn't notice, still sorting through her backpack silently.

"All my co-workers think that I'm insane now. I had to lie straight-faced to my boss, so if he figures out what I'm doing, then my ass is on the line."

"Not my problem kitty." Adala replied dryly. "The way I see it, I don't need to take your shit."

Growling under his breath, Nate felt his vocal chords turning into his feline set as he fumed from her comment. As much as he wanted to shoot back, he knew that she would simply use it to aggravate him even more.

"Pull over here." She ordered tersely.

Parking on the side of the road, he turned off the engine. "So what now?" Turning to Adala, he found her already stepping out of the car. Following her lead, he stepped out, surveying the forest.

"Here." She reached into her backpack, tossing a vial at Nate. "Drink this."

Swirling the contents around, he regarded the thick, dark red liquid. "Is this blood?"

"Drink." Already half turned, her angry hiss already blending into a low growl. "The taste of blood will help trigger it."

With no other option, he pinched his nose and popped the stopper off the vial, taking a cursory sniff. "Yeah, I'm not drinking MMPH!"

Ignoring his objection, Adala casually walked over, pushing the vial into his open mouth. "Enough chatting. By the way, you better strip quickly before you ruin your clothes."

Cursing loudly, he struggled to outrun his body as it shifted. First came the fur, the golden brown spotted coat sprouting up like grass. Next came his bones, as they lengthened and lightened, drawing his muscles tight. His face shifted, canines elongating and muzzle pushing out as new jaw muscles knit themselves into place. As he pushed his jeans down, his tail swung freely, lashing behind him in agitation. His human ears disappeared, replaced by feline ones protruding from his hair.

As the changes tapered off, Nathan looked over his body again, flexing each joint as if to test if it still worked. The jingling of keys brought him back to reality, his gaze drawn to Adala as she plucked his car keys from his jean pockets. "What the fuck are you doing?! Give me my keys!"

Dodging his grasp, she dropped them into a quiver of arrows, which she strapped to her back. In her left hand she held a fiberglass hunting bow, but made no attempt to raise it at him. "We're going to play a game of tag." Stepping back again, she caught his throat in her grasp, shoving him back and tripping him.

"Give me my fucking keys!"

"Not unless you catch me." She growled back. "You'll have until sundown to do so." Extending her hand, she scowled at him. "Get up."

Taking her hand, she hauled him back up to his feet. "Let me guess, I'm going to be dodging arrows the entire way?"

"As much as I'd like to do that, no. One of my friends is starting on the other side of the forest. If they get to me before you do or you run out of time, then I drive home in your car and leave you to walk home."

"You fucking bitch!" Nate lunged forwards, hands sweeping with claws outstretched as he attempted to snag her quiver.

Adala deftly ducked his grasp, throwing her bow over her shoulder. "The game starts now!" She called back to him as she bounded off into the forest on all fours.