FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Hi there! a/s/l?

That's how easy it sometimes was to make a connection in the SoFurry chatroom. Hardly anyone actually jumped into a conversation unless goaded into it somehow. Whether it took kind words or rude insults, I was usually ready to respond somehow. I'd type on the keyboard and hit the Enter key, or stab it if I was being slightly more emphatic, which I never really understood. Why do some people type so hard when they're in some mindless erotic roleplay, or knee-deep in a discussion about the Big Three, Politics, Religion and Guns.

Even as I'm typing this now, I honestly don't feel the need to be emphatic or forceful on the keys. If anything, I guess I just want to rush through this letter and print it before Christana comes back. I just want people to know somehow, even if I can't ever show my face in public. I'm supposed to be missing, but by this time I'm probably the person of interest in the triple murder out there in the woods, if not the main suspect.

Wait, I'm getting ahead of myself.

So anyway, I liked the chatroom on SoFurry. Conversations were interesting at times. I wished many times to be able to speak to some of these people face-to-face, but at that point they were just words encased within my HDTV monitor like faded memories, until I either scrolled up or left the chatroom entirely. Funny how we take these computers for granted. We think we're just having fun, meeting other people, sharing with them, having vehement arguments with them, even threatening them with bodily harm, or giving them their deepest desires.

And each message takes merely a microsecond to deliver.

I had to grin at the name that had contacted me just then. MoonLightEnchantress, and a pretty hot looking avatar she had too. Deep ebony fur framing dark green eyes, with long flowing hair down to the shoulders. I didn't have to see the rest of her picture to know she probably had a great wolfish body drawn to go with the head.

Still grinning, I replied, "Hiya. Um, 20/very male/Wherever you want me..."

MoonLightEnchantress_whispers, "Oh you're awful. Your avatar is so cute. Just wanted to say that. ^^"_

I looked at it for a moment and realized we were probably furry siblings, in a way. I was a wolf too, with black fur and green eyes, but my hair was shorter, just to the bottom of my throat, and baring sharp teeth for whatever camera was in front of me. My fursona, Duran, could be such a ham sometimes. I'd chosen the name because of the song "Hungry Like the Wolf" by Duran Duran, probably the greatest 1980's song of all time. Though I was pretty young, I was blessed with awesome parents who rocked out with the stoners crowd back in high school.

"Well, thanks, I really love yours too."

I immediately wanted to slap myself. I was feeling mildly like an ass now. I know it's impossible to convey feelings and emotions in a textual conversation, apart from the occasional emoticon thrown in for emphasis, but I wasn't thrilled with myself. I felt I should say more, but didn't know what. I've never really been comfortable talking to girls.

Unless...I was talking to a guy. There were certainly enough girl-pretenders in our ranks.

MoonLightEnchantress whispers, "Is there something else you wanted to say...?"

This was new. She was actually giving me a chance to continue talking to her. Usually I got the "hey-hey, how are you? I'm fine, okay, see ya later" routine, and that was it. From then on, there'd be small-talk now and then, like uncomfortable classmates in a high school hallway waiting for the period bell to ring so we could get away from one another.

I thought about it a moment and decided honesty was best. "I'm just not sure what to say. I don't talk to a lot of people for very long."

MoonLightEnchantress_whispers, "*giggle* Maybe they're afraid of the Big Bad Wolf..."_

I snickered. "Careful, I'll blow your house down, madam."

MoonLightEnchantress whispers, "It's Christiana, actually. Christiana Cole. Hi."

I wasn't ready for that. In all the annals of my adventures on the Internet, I'd never in my life gotten a girl's real name before. Caught offguard, and because I felt I should reciprocate, I replied, "Oh. Um...Bryan. Bryan Masters. Hi yourself."

MoonLightEnchantress_whispers, "So where you from, Bryan? I'm in Toronto, Canada."_

"Chicago here. Born and raised. I'm about a 200-mile swim from you. Once I drove to Detroit anyway."

MoonLightEnchantress_whispers, "*laughs* I don't think wolves can swim that well. ^^"_

"We can't. That's why we take the ferry. =)"

MoonLightEnchantress_whispers, "lol! I can swim, but I'm not that good. I took lessons at summer camp though."_

"Me too! But I had a really terrible teacher..."

MoonLightEnchantress_whispers, "Not as bad as mine!"_

And that's how it started. I guess that's how these little romances always start. It's all about the common ground. I mean, let's face it. We all have a connection to someone about something. The trick is to find it. Soon the conversation means something more than just words on a screen. We don't necessarily care who we're talking to either. All we really care about, at first, is that we're talking to someone, communicating openly, curing our bouts of loneliness, or maybe curbing our wanton sexual desires.

We chatted for the next two hours and finally decided we should talk to each other on the phone. I was half-expecting some deep male voice to pick up, but it was definitely a girl who answered. She had a really silky voice too, primed and ready for one of those 1-900 sex lines. We reviewed our chat material from online, and talked more about our respective adventures at summer camp, where innocence was lost as easily as you found it, there amongst a beautiful wilderness filled with nature spoiled by curious, sex-crazed kids.

She lived in a rather quaint, squat log cabin, she told me, outside Toronto proper, tucked away within seemingly endless miles of dense trees and wooded hills. Not too far from where she lived, there was a beautiful sparkling pond about neck-deep she loved to bathe in. At night, the surface of the water would glitter like diamonds in the moonlight. And thus, she happened upon the name MoonlightEnchantress.

I couldn't help thinking I'd made friends with a girl very attuned to nature and was a little hesitant. Me, I was a video gamer, with my own 10th-floor apartment just off campus, cable TV, gym, laundry room, a snack bar if I had a craving, and best of all, the Chicago skyline just outside my window. I joked about the story of the country mouse and the city mouse and she giggled, explaining how lucky she was to get Wifi on her tablet. Just goes to show you, even in the heart of the natural wonders of our world, technology pokes its disgusting head in someplace.

"Talk to you soonest, Bryan. Goodnight," she breathed out sexily as we ended our first chat together and she hung up. I'd been stroking myself off the whole time we were talking and about the same time I heard the click of her phone hooking off, I felt a wet spatter against my legs as I came.

The roleplaying between us was private and never shared. We spent a great deal of time in our own chatroom, appropriately titled "Summer Camp", with me as the camp counselor, and she as the young, hot and nymphomaniac virgin she-wolf eager for excitement and discovery. Oftentimes our roleplay became real sex over the phone, telling each other how much we were exploring each other's bodies with our hands. Every time she cried out on the phone, I knew she was cumming just for me, and I knew at that very moment, I had something amazing.

I guess we were in love from that point. Intimacy, in all its forms, means there's some kind of connection, an attraction, physical or psychological, that supersedes the usual online decorum of myths and fantasies. Our first six months together were incredible. We talked at least once a day, no matter what, but she insisted not too late at night. I just figured she had a 9-to-5 job and needed to be in bed early, which I could understand. She helped me through a few bouts of the common cold, and I helped her through the painful passing of a kidney stone. Our lives became shared. Intimacy was still there, but it wasn't as frequent. I could take it or leave it, and Christiana felt the same way. It wasn't just sex anymore. We were becoming the best of friends, and I really started to realize just how terrible and lonely my world would be without her.

There was talk about meeting one another in some way, since we weren't thousands of miles apart, but every time I'd mention the idea, she'd casually push it aside, becoming evasive and off-putting. I joked that I could probably swim up to Toronto if she met me with a boat and a large net, but time and time again, despite our video chats or naughty pictures we'd send one another, she just didn't want to see me face-to-face.

During my second year at Illinois University, I made plans to finally see her during my spring break. I had wanted to go to Windsor, Michigan to check out the casinos there in celebration of my 21st birthday, and was excited that there was ferry service to Toronto. But when I told her about my idea, she seemed hesitant and this bothered me. How could she not want to see me, especially for such an occasion?

"It's just not time yet, my love," she sighed into the phone.

"Look," I struggled to keep my temper. "If you're seeing someone, or you're married or whatever, just tell me, okay? No games with me. My heart can't possibly take it. I love you, Christiana, but please tell me if there's someone else in your life, okay?"

She was already laughing that sweet laugh of hers that always made me smile, no matter how I was feeling. "Darling Bryan, there is no one else in my life. It's just you. It's always just been you...and I love you too..."

My heart thumped and I grinned, feeling back in control of the situation. "Then let me come out to see you, honey. Or...if you like, you can come here."

But she politely refused again, telling me that I had to be patient, and that I'd see her when she was truly ready to.

Another few months passed, and the pain of not seeing her became bone-deep. I would spend nights in bed, stroking myself off and thinking about her in my arms, or imagining her behind me in her moonlit pond , pressing her breasts against my back as she bathed me. Despite our phone sex, the naughty videos we took of each other, and the erotic emails and texts we'd send, being without her physically was taking its toll on me.

And pretty soon, I couldn't stand it any longer.

**

I was dreaming Christiana and I were naked together. For some reason, we were both out in a forest, making love against a large oak tree. When I had finished cumming inside her, she locked her legs tightly around my waist and pointed behind me, warning me of something coming towards us...but when I looked over my shoulder, all I could see were trees. Then suddenly the breeze rustling the leaves around us whipped up into a heavy gust, and I heard a loud roar that sounded like a freight train. I looked at Christiana's face worriedly, as the wind started to whip her long black hair around.

"It's coming..." she whispered again and then my forest world vanished, replaced by my bedroom, as the cellphone next to me rang with "Hungry Like the Wolf" and I groggily reached for it, my other hand still firmly around a useless erection.

"Hello...?"

"Hello! Is this Bryan Masters?"

"Yeah, this is he. What do you want?"

"Hi! Uh, this is Nev Schulman, from the show "Catfish". How are you today?"

I blinked a few times and then jerked up from the bed, nearly crying out as I let go of myself, suddenly ashamed. "Oh hi! Yeah, um...I'm good, I'm good! It's nice to hear from you."

Nev laughed. "Didn't expect to hear from me, huh?"

I hadn't. I'd emailed Nev about a month ago, in May, and never got a reply back. "This is really unexpected," I managed to keep from bouncing up and down. "Did...did you like my story, I'm guessing?"

"Absolutely loved it," Nev replied, his usual bubbly self. I could see why people took to him immediately. He was very charismatic. "And since we've not done a show yet in Toronto, it's perfect for us. I have to ask, you're okay with all this? I need verbal consent to continue and all, you know, rules and-"

"Oh sure, sure! I'm ready, I'm ready!" Without even thinking, I started to dress, keeping the phone on speaker on the nightstand. "So...um, what do I do first?"

Nev chuckled, "First, relax! Just be yourself. Alright, we're filming. First, could you tell me your story, how you and Christiana hooked up?"

So I told Nev pretty much as I've told you so far, about meeting her in a chatroom, getting to know each other, and slowly falling in love. I didn't know how the whole furry genre would go over, but I figured they could always edit in post-production.

"Furries," Nev replied politely, "have always been an enigma to me, I gotta admit. I just always thought they were people who dressed up in these costumes and interacted, right?"

"Well, there's a lot more to them than that, really. Um, they really love animals, and no I don't mean sexual..." Nev snickered but didn't interrupt. "We just...have an affinity for them. We see ourselves possessing the qualities of animals at times, either psychologically or physically. Ever watch "CSI"?"

"Oh yeah, "Fur and Loathing", I remember that."

"Yep, that's about it how it is. The furry fandom is like that. We go back to the times when Native Americans wore fur-outfits during tribal dances. It's really quite an honor to be a part of it all."

We chatted a little bit more about Christiana and I, and our problems meeting up. He seemed genuinely interested especially in knowing why she was telling me it wasn't time yet. I gave her number to Nev and I had his complete assurance that nothing bad was going to happen, and that he was taking all the risks. I didn't know what Christiana would think about me airing out our personal relationship laundry to a national audience, but I had to let her know somehow that I cared about her very much, and I wanted to see our love blossom, no matter what the costs.

**

I met the "Catfish" team a few days later. Nev was fantastic to talk to, a true listener. We talked and shared a few sandwiches at the Starbucks café near my college, talking about his own experiences with online relationships in the past, while Max Joseph, his business partner on the show, kept the digital camera rolling.

They really did make a great team, and it just makes me more sorry that they're both dead now.

"So, tell me about Christiana and her being hesitant about seeing you."

I shrugged at Nev and Max both. "Well, she just keeps putting me off all the time, like I said. She kept saying how it wasn't time yet, and that she would let me know when. At first I thought maybe there was another guy, but she's sworn up and down that that's not the case."

"Well," Nev sighed, thinking out loud. "You've seen each other, and even video-chatted and all that, so we can rule out looks."

"Definitely." Christiana was absolutely beautiful, one of the prettiest furries in the fandom, to me. She had the same long dark hair and striking green eyes as her fursona MoonlightEnchantress, with a really great body that certainly seemed bikini-friendly to me. She had showed me her breasts once and I was rather aroused that there wasn't a hint of a tan line on her light brown skin. Her father was full Italian from the old country, and her mother had been an immigrant from Germany, and together they'd made a very lovely daughter indeed.

Max added his two cents. "Any chance she's handicapped in some way, or going through some sort of illness?"

I shook my head. "She'd have told me. I mean, we share everything with each other. She just doesn't sound like someone with an incurable disease or something like that, no."

"Well, Bryan, I'll tell you what, let's get her on the phone and see what's going on, shall we?"

"Sounds good." I watched as Nev dialed his cellphone and put us all on speaker.

"Hello?" her voice answered.

"Christiana?"

"Yes?"

"Hi, it's Nev Schulman and Max Joseph. We're from the MTV show "Catfish", and we've got Bryan here with us, if you'd like to say hi for a sec."

There was an uncomfortable silence and then she replied coolly, I thought. "Hello, Bryan. Um...what is this all about?"

I quickly cut in. "Hi Christi. Um, the guys here are just trying to find a way that you and I could hook up somehow. Is there any chance that we could maybe come up to Toronto and visit?"

"I told you, it's not time yet..." Her voice sounded much more hollow, as if she were already moving away from her phone. "Bryan, please...you have to wait, alright?"

"Why do I have to wait?!" I nearly shouted.

"Christiana?" Nev took over again. "Look, Bryan here is absolutely miserable that he can't come see you. He wouldn't have bothered to get in contact with our show if he didn't care quite a bit about you. It's obvious the man is in love, and my people are determined to see you two hit it off as a wonderful couple. Isn't there something we can work out, please? For the good of your relationship?"

Boy, he was good. I could see why couples all over the country essentially bowed to his every whim.

There was another pause on the phone and then I heard Christiana sigh deeply. "There...may be time. It will have to be very soon. Can you come to my house Friday at 6:00 PM?"

"This Friday? June 28th?"

"Yes, Nev. But it can only be until 9:00, as the sun is setting. My place is very dangerous at night."

Nev chuckled, "I don't think we'd have a problem, unless you live in a really, really bad neighborhood. Is that why? If you like, I'll pay your flight ticket for you to come to Chicago and-"

"No!" Christiana nearly shouted, then quickly lowered her voice again. "No...it...it has to be here, that's all."

Nev and Max exchanged a glance and I spoke to her again. "Christi, thanks very much for allowing me to come see you, baby. I love you, you know that? I love you and I just know when we meet, we're never going to be apart again..."

Something in Christiana's voice seemed to crack and I couldn't tell if she was softly crying or laughing as she replied, "Oh...I have a feeling we won't either, Bryan. I'll see you all on Friday then. I love you..." And then as an afterthought, she pleaded. "Please don't be late. Goodbye."

As she hung up, we all grinned at each other. "Okay, Bryan," Nev said, getting up from the chair. "Looks like we got a date for Friday!"

I was so ecstatic I could barely breathe. I hugged the two men tightly, my eyes filled with tears, and we left the café, already making plans on what I'd wear, how I'd look, and places to stay in Toronto.

Not that it mattered. We were never coming back from there again anyway.

**

It was the old woman in Seat 3-C of the business class section of United Airlines Flight 450 that really did us in. She was cantankerous and senile, and everything had to be her way. When her daughter, apparently a wealthy lawyer out of Boston, was late getting on board, of course we all had to wait on the tarmac while airport officials tracked her down.

We ended up taking off about two hours behind schedule, and despite profuse apologies and extra Frequent Flyer points, we were all livid. It was "Catfish's" first production on board an airplane. Nev had been really lucky to grab United as a sponsor, and the airline was determined to make the trip a world-class experience for the sake of its 12 or so million viewers.

The best laid plans...

I glanced at my cellphone. The time was 4:45 PM. With luck, we'd touch down and be through Toronto Customs by 8:00.

I leaned back, gripped tightly to the seat arms and waited for the droning roar of the twin jet turbines to fade into the background noise of the cabin as we departed O'Hare Airport. I took one last look at downtown Chicago as we drifted up into the clouds, and never saw it again.

**

It was 7:45 by the time we handed our passports to Customs and were able to grab a taxi that would consent to our filming. I quickly rang up Christiana as the taxi tore through downtown Toronto to tell her we were running late and that I was really sorry. She sounded distant and a little disconnected but said she understood, and then asked us again to please hurry.

Soon we were out of the city and going up into a range of high foothills adjacent to the city proper, with a long, winding two-lane road as the only path. I pinched my nostrils as the air pressure changed the higher we went up. I had no idea Toronto had mountains. Well, now I know a great deal more about the terrain, but I'll get to that.

We pulled off the main street and the taxi barreled down a dirt road, towards a copse of towering trees in the short distance. My heart started to pound a bit, but something else was nagging at me, as if I'd forgotten something. Something really important.

I looked at my cellphone again. 8:00. Two hours late already. Damn, we were pushing things close. Darkness had already started, in fact, it was a lot darker than it should have been for summer. As we drove through the dense forest, I looked around for a hint of sunlight, and saw nothing but clouds. Maybe a storm was coming. That would be just the perfect end to this day. What if Christiana wasn't home, or didn't even live there? Had she led me on a wild goose chase the whole time?

Nev must have been reading my thoughts. "You alright over there, Bryan?" He grit his teeth as the cab bounced over a few large holes in the dirt road and grasped the door handle. "Don't worry, I'm sure she's here...this is what you expected, right? She told you about where she lived and all that. You've got the right address too, remember."

I nodded and felt a little better. It was exactly as Christiana had described her area, down to the last row of pine trees we zoomed past, and then her log cabin was right in front of us, surrounded by several more trees, and a nice garden of flowers and vegetables on either side. Despite its quaintness, it looked still very out of place amidst the natural beauty of the forest glen. Sitting on cut-wood porch steps, looking unhappy, was Christiana. She didn't move as the cab screeched to a halt, spraying gravel under its tires, and the three of us got out in a daze, still breathless from the ride.

Max immediately started a new file in his digital camera and we walked over towards Christiana, who got up slowly and came down the steps to greet us. She was as beautiful as she looked in her photos and videos, even more so now that I knew she was real. The white sundress she wore was startling, making her skin look even darker. She ran a hand through the most beautiful ebony hair, straight and long, the way I love it. I breathed a deep sigh of relief and stepped forward, my arms out. She smiled tightly and then embraced me, finding my mouth and giving me a very warm, deep wet kiss. For some seconds we stood there, a tableau of romance against the backdrop of the Ontarian forest, while Max and Nev talked excitedly between the two of them.

Finally, Christiana pulled away from me, swallowing hard, and looked at me shyly. Her green eyes practically bore into mine. I started to reach for her again, but she took a step back, looking troubled at the other two men. "Y-you're late, Bryan..." she said, her voice filled with regret.

I started to protest but then I nearly slapped my forehead as it hit me. I suddenly remembered what I'd forgotten to do, what I should have done the moment I stepped off the airplane. "Oh my God," I groaned, "Oh, fuck...dammit! I forgot the time change!"

Chicago was an hour away from Toronto in the time zone. We'd come to her house exactly when she told us not to - the moment the sun was down and darkness set in. I saw a rather intense glow on the horizon as the clouds cleared away, and the beautiful yellow light of the full moon bathed us.

Christiana sighed deeply as she looked at the moon, and then turned towards Nev and Max. "I'm...I'm really sorry about all this. If it makes you guys feel any better, I used to watch your show a lot..."

The two men looked at one another and smiled. "Well, we're here now..." Nev replied, coming forward, "Want to show us around? Maybe invite us in?"

"There's no time..." she whispered, shaking her head.

"What do you mean? Oh come on, honey, we just got here..." Max added, joining beside Nev and continuing to record. "You're gonna seriously tell all those people out there we can't stay?"

Then Christiana looked hard at the camera. Her eyes, I'd...I'd never seen eyes do this before. They glowed. That's what it seemed like to me. They just suddenly looked like two green flashlights coming from her face, which had screwed into an expression of seething rage. I'd never seen her look so angry before.

"Run..." She said, and a lick of saliva fell from her mouth.

Nev backed away. "I...I beg your pardon?"

Christiana was struggling hard to form words now. Her head jerked around, moving from side to side and up and down, like a mad bobble-head doll, her teeth bared. "I...said...RUN..." She snarled the last word out.

The cab driver had seen enough. No fool he, I watched him turn tail and head back for the cab, slamming the door shut behind him and gunning the engine.

And then Christiana flew past us, dropping to all-fours, and letting out a tremendous growl as she sprang up to the cab and ripped open the door. I watched in horror as the door went sailing behind her and she entered the cab, pouncing onto the driver and clawing at him.

"What the fuck?! HELLLLP!" the driver had time to yell, and then I saw Christiana's head dart forward, and then heard the sickening rip of flesh. A splash of fresh blood spattered across the windshield. The cab rocked back and forth hard on its springs as louder snarls and wet sounds filled the air, mingling with the screams of agony from the cab driver.

"HOLY SHIT!" Max yelled, still unconsciously filming, and backed away in terror from Nev, who was now trying to make a beeline for the house and open the door.

I stood there transfixed, in stunned silence, as Christiana slunk back out of the cab, her mouth still dripping blood.

At least...I thought it was Christiana. What actually came out was MoonlightEnchantress.

My mouth dropped open as she stood up to her full height and there she was, my SoFurry fantasy come to life. She was at least six feet tall now, and her face was no longer human. Her arms and legs looked at least twice as bulky now, and were covered with coarse black fur, now matted with blood. From a large, narrow muzzle poked several glistening fangs, dripping crimson saliva, and as she growled again, I swear I could feel the earth beneath my feet tremble. Her eyes shined like lanterns as they darted back and forth, looking at the three of our faces frozen in various expressions of horror.

The wolf-creature dropped to all-fours again, raising its hackles, and I noticed a large fluffy canine-tail swaying slowly through ringlets of long, ebony hair.

Nev had finally managed to yank open the cottage door and slammed it shut behind him, locking us outside with our new playmate.

"HEY!" Max yelled and finally dropped the camera, running towards the porch and waving his arms.

Wrong move, Max.

Before he could take the second step up, Christiana had reached the erstwhile cameraman in two leaps and threw him onto his back on the ground. I nearly vomited as she dug her teeth into his chest, snarling loudly, oblivious to his cries of anguish as she kept chewing into his flesh. In a few seconds, she had broken through his ribcage and to his beating heart. Max made one more soft gurgling sound as a glut of blood spurted from his mouth, and then died, the look of horror still frozen on his face.

"I called the police!" Nev shouted from the apparent safety of Christiana's house. "You hear that, you fucking bitch?! You're dead, you're fucking dead!"

Christiana raised her head and howled. It was an amazing howl. The stuff of the best werewolves in Hollywood films. I was so entranced it felt like my body and soul had separated and drifted apart, and I was no longer on the ground at all, but safe in the air a few feet above it. In this euphoric state, I watched as Christiana jumped up the porch and ran towards one of the windows. In a shower of sparkling, moonlit glass, she leaped through the window and into the house with a splintering crash. I heard Nev scream once, a short cut-off shriek, and then I didn't hear anything at all.

I stood there, my mind trying to grasp everything I'd just seen. Part of me wanted to faint, and yet the other part was still incredibly intrigued. I regarded the taxi cab in the driveway and saw a flow of blood running along the twisted door frame. I could have probably ducked out just then. Just toss the dead cabbie out, drive away and high-tail it back for Toronto and then-

What? Tell them the truth?

While I was rummaging through my head for an acceptable excuse for three dead people, two of which were MTV celebrities, I heard the door to the cottage slowly creak open and out came Christiana. I let out a little cry and backed away, running to the cab and hopping up onto its roof, glaring down at her as she approached, still growling.

"L-look," I said, deciding now was probably the right time to make peace with whatever god there was. "Don't...don't do this...I...I don't want to die, please..."

Remarkably, the wolf-girl got up to its legs and folded her arms on her chest. "This is all your fault..." she growled. "Look what you made me do. Oh Bryan, if you had just waited..."

I was beyond words. I opted for silent fear and curled up into a protective ball on the roof, sobbing pitifully.

"Now do you understand why you couldn't come here? I tried to tell you, but you wouldn't listen. If you could have just waited...just another month." She walked gingerly towards the cab, "I only get the one day, the one special day, and I was saving it for you, for us...the blue moon. The second full moon of the month. It was next month, Bryan..."

I looked up at her and her face, though painted here and there with flecks of blood, seemed almost kind. Even her eyes had lost their intense glow and were warm again. "I...I don't...I don't understand...any of this...Christi...what the hell is going on?"

She sighed and sat down on the ground, crossing her legs. "Do you know what I am?"

I could feel my sanity slipping a bit and I got flippant. "Well, let's see...Full moon, wolf, I'm gonna have to go with "what is a fucking werewolf", Alex, for 200!"

She snorted haughtily. "Hardly. And I don't like being associated with those vermin, thank you."

I looked hard at her. "So...w-what are you?"

Christiana shook her head. "I'm what you'd call a lunar wolf. If it makes you feel better, I wasn't always like this. I was a normal girl. Have you ever been in Toronto before?"

"No...seeing you was my first time here."

She nodded and sighed, looking defeated. "Probably just as well. I'm not quite sure how to explain this but, there's this nightclub in the heart of the city, close to the playhouse and all? It's called The Rabid. I went there with some girlfriends one night about a year or so ago. We...we met up with these guys who were having a party at this big mansion. We didn't think there was any harm in it and..." She paused, and it seemed like she was trying to decide how to tell the story. "We...we...we were all in their backyard and dancing, and then someone mentioned about the moon in the sky. It wasn't full or anything, so no big deal to us. Then all of sudden, the men around us started to transform...God, it was horrible. They all stretched and then skin fell away from them and...and...they just all changed into, well, wolf-creatures like me. Then they came at us, pinned us to the ground and...and..."

"What?! What happened?!"

"They...r-raped us...violently. I remember one of my girlfriends screaming so much, and...I never saw...any of them again. I just remember waking up on the cool grass of some field somewhere, naked, in the sunlight. There was no sign of my friends at all. I managed to steal some underwear from a nearby house, and walk back home. I was ready to go to the police and explain everything right then and there, but I was so far from home, it took me much longer than I thought. And then when darkness fell..."

She looked at me steadily. "I changed...for the first time. I remember everything about it, that's the really terrible thing. I remember I was howling at the moon, shaking my head back and forth while my body started to split, and then...a-and then...the hunger set in..."

"P-people...you killed someone?"

"No...not that time. It was a deer in the woods near the road I was traveling. I realized at that moment, while I was licking its blood, that those men, the wolf-men at that nightclub had done this to me. Maybe it was the sex we had, m-maybe they bit me, or all of us...I don't know...All I knew then, and know now, that I couldn't go home. At least not in the darkness, after the moonrise. It's funny, everyone sees werewolves only during full moon nights. With our kind, it's every night...as soon as the sun sets."

"Well, that explains why you'd sign off at night after our video chats. So it wasn't about getting up early, you just wanted to keep me from...watching you change..." The whole idea seemed entirely too incredible to believe. Yet, there she was.

She looked into my eyes and smiled softly. "You're just as cute as I thought you'd be..."

"Christi," I cut in, raising a hand, "It's not really a good time to butter me up. I just watched you kill three people."

She winced at that and nodded. "I'm sorry you had to see that. I'm sorry about...well, all of this mess. I should have told you the truth in the first place. I mean, we're both furries. I'm sure you'd have understood my...problem...better than anyone."

"Problem?!" I sat upright on the cab roof and glowered down at her. "I could get if you didn't want to see me because you were suffering from some terrible disease, or that you were a post-op tranny. But this..." I gestured at her form and she folded her paws in her lap, looking away. "Christi...this goes way beyond, miles beyond, light years beyond..."

"Okay, okay, I get it!" She snapped at me, spraying some spittle. "I'm a freak, a low-life, I shouldn't have been born and I should just die right now..." She curled up into a ball and rested her head against her tail, starting to cry softly.

Guilt washed over me and I slowly slid down from the roof to the ground, coming up close to her. The stench of blood was still heavy on her fur. I took a look at the passenger side of the car, where the cabbie lay in several pieces. Propped on the seat, severed neatly, was his sightless head. I nearly gagged. I held in my bile and walked up to Christiana, looking at her for a moment before placing my hand gently on her back.

"I didn't mean that at all, Christi," I said, slowly caressing her fur where the blood streaks weren't. "I just...Jesus, you smell..."

Christiana chuckled and raised her head from her tail to nuzzle at my hand. "Well, you're not a rose yourself, you know." She gave my fingers a few licks with her broad tongue and unwillingly I stroked her head and ears.

"Christi...what Nev said. Do you think he meant it? About the police?"

The wolf-girl looked tense for a moment and lifted up her head, her ears twitching like little sensors. "I suppose I'd better not take the chance." Christiana uncurled and hopped to her feet. "I need to get a few things. Wait here..." She frowned as she looked at the cabn and sighed. "Well, I had to move eventually. I really thought I'd be safe here for a while longer..."

I watched her pad upright into the house and I looked again at the carnage she had left behind. I still had a cell-phone. I could have probably called for help and tell them that-

Yeah, like anyone would believe me. Or worse, think I had something to do with it? They had records, I'm sure, at the MTV Studios, about the "Catfish" people coming here and arranging everything. I suppose I could have told them that Christiana went completely mad, and grabbed an axe and...

I wasn't looking forward to the interrogation I'd be facing. That more than anything else kept me where I was, and when Christiana came back out of her cabin, holding a small book in her paws, I was right there waiting for her, just as I always had.

"My diary," she muttered to herself as she walked up to me. We were nearly nose-to-nose now, and for some strange reason I felt warm. Like we were back in the role-playing chatroom and enjoying one of our fantasies together.

"You keep a diary?" I chuckled and reached for it. "Am I in here?"

Christiana grinned, showing her teeth, and rubbed noses. "You are. In fact, you're the reason I started writing in it again. For the longest time, I just didn't know what to do after I was raped. I didn't really want to associate with others, and certainly not face-to-face, at least after sundown anyway. I...didn't trust anyone, I guess. I wasn't the same. I didn't like what I had become. They told me that happens sometimes. That some people change for the worse, not the better. And becoming a wolf was the WORST possible-"

"Worst possible thing!" I exclaimed with her, and that was it. We busted out into mad laughter over our private "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" moment, when the beautiful Rarity would get extremely upset over something that happened to her and utter the phrase. We looked at each other for a moment, and then I kissed her, full and deeply. She whimpered and I felt her paws cling around my shoulders, unsheathing sharp claws and digging them into my skin. I nearly choked on her large tongue as it moved and twined around my own, and pulled away again, gasping for breath.

"Sorry..." she whispered and nuzzled my nose. "It...takes some getting used to. You're the first guy I've kissed since..."

I couldn't help but laugh. "Well, you're the first werewolf I've kissed, if that helps."

"Lunar wolf," she corrected me politely and we kissed again.

**

Even with some camping and survival skills I picked up from my time in Scouts, nothing quite prepared me for the rough terrain of the dense forest we escaped into. Christiana held my hand for most of the time, leading the way through thickets, brush and trees. My feet were tired after about an hour, but Christiana kept me going, always encouraging me to keep up with her, to remember our fantasy summer camp exploits, where we'd go on virtual hikes to our secluded pond to make love.

In time we were deep enough inside the mass of trees that, after climbing to one of the shorter ones to look around, there was no sign of any country road, nor flatlands, or anything. More than two-thirds of Ontario's 415,000 square miles of land area is forests, and I had the feeling Christiana knew every inch of them, how to track through them, how to escape through them and be hidden forever from the rest of the world. If there were any authorities truly on the way out, they'd never find us.

Christiana slowed up as full darkness came upon us and started looking around for a place we could bed down. With some effort, we arranged a group of branches, some thick brush, and my t-shirt to make a small fire. At first I worried about the smoke giving away our position, not only to Ontario police but larger predators that doubtless surrounded us, but Christiana assured me we were quite safe. I believed her. I'd seen her rip apart three good-sized human beings as if they were kindling.

When the fire really started to take off, she knelt down next to it and shuddered, crossing her arms over her breasts.

"Christi, you okay?" I got up from one of the logs we had found and walked carefully over to her, keeping the wolf-girl at arm's length. I still didn't trust her completely yet.

She looked over at me and wiped her muzzle, sniffling. "No...I'm not. I'm so sorry, Bryan. I...I didn't mean for this...any of this to happen, you know?"

I scooted closer to her but stayed silent, watching the flames dancing. Every now and then I'd hear a splintering crack of wood and a spray of embers would erupt, competing for the attention of wandering summer fireflies. What was I going to say? I didn't have an answer right then. She turned to look at me steadily, and I saw her beautiful green eyes glistened with tears. "Heyyyy, come on," I unwillingly settled an arm around her. Her fur was so silky-soft and warm. "It could happen to...any...body. Yeah, okay, that sounded lame..."

She giggled softly and bumped her nose along my cheek, growling in her throat. "Very lame, Counselor." She winced and drew one of her arms up to her chest, sighing. "I think I'm bleeding a little."

I looked at her arm and noticed a small gash there, close to her paw and wrist. "What happened? When we were running?"

She shook her head. "No, this came from Nev, I think. He had a knife..."

"Oh shit...here, hold still." I reached down and undid my hiking boots and socks, prepared to make a bandage for her, but she stayed my hand with a paw on my arm.

"Relax, it'll heal as soon as the moon sets. Part of my gift."

"Oh," I said, quite taken aback. "Well, you're just full of surprises."

She laughed then, almost a cackle, and then swatted my side, sitting closer to me until our bodies touched. "Hold me?"

Whether it was the chill of the night or the desperate situation we were in, somehow my lust came up. Christiana may have been part-wolf now, but she still had that lovely voice, even if it was a bit more gravely now, and the infectious attitude and personality I'd always dreamed about. Besides, she was still naked. Even with the course fur now covering her breasts, I could still detect the dark areolas and tight nipples poking through. I stole a glance down between her legs, and amidst the thicker, lighter fur surrounding her crotch, I saw her sex, two dark brown netherlips that appeared to be quite tight and aroused.

My mind was cramming with the craziest thoughts imaginable. I wanted to go home, to forget I ever took this trip, and to never watch MTV again. But part of me really wanted to fuck this beautiful wolf-girl. I wasn't repulsed by the way she looked, not one bit. If anything, I was even more attracted to her. She caught another glance from me and flushed visibly, her gaze dropping sheepishly to watch our fire. One of my hands reached around her to rub her stomach slowly and she growled softly, closing her eyes.

"Mmm...that's so nice, Bryan..." she whispered against me, and I felt her paw press against my groin, "J-just like...camp..."

I grew unbelievably hard inside my pants, so hard I thought I could burst right from them. "I know..."

"Do you want me?" she asked, and her paw pushed down, mashing my hard cock against my stomach and drizzling a flow of pre inside my jeans.

I whimpered, "Yes...I want you..."

We didn't say anything after that, not in words anyway. After some cock-teasing, I was more than ready and I moaned in delight as Christiana got up, faced me, and then got to all-fours, unbuttoning my jeans before lowering her mouth down on my stiff cock and giving it several hard pulls, her tongue wrapping around my length and adding to the stroking. Every so often, I could feel her razor-sharp teeth graze over my flesh. I begged her to stop, before I made a huge mess, but she ignored me, opening her mouth wider and practically engulfing my full thickness and balls.

My hands shakily moved up to her head to hold it, and I traced her scalp, the long twining hair, the soft, pointed ears. In time, I was moving with her, eagerly guiding her head up and down on my cock, working myself up towards a feverish climax. As her tongue wrapped around my throbbing flesh one more time, I was pushed over the edge, and the many months I'd spent frustrated, deprived and alone in the darkness of my campus dorm room came out in a flood. I don't know how long I came. I just remember Christiana holding her head still, my cock buried in her throat, growling as my sweet cum filled her mouth as she eagerly gulped it down, then suckled me off to milk a bit more.

When I stopped moaning and my breathing slowed back down a bit, she pulled her mouth slowly up and off of my cock, looking up at me with a playful and mischievous twinkle in her eyes. "So that's what you taste like..." she growled and smiled widely. "Come with me..." She got to her feet and reached for my hand, and together we started walking naked hand-in-paw again. My flaccid and spent cock bounced against my legs, but as we started to move through more of the trees, I found myself pressed up against her shapely rear. She felt me and her tail immediately lifted up to stroke my cock, getting me hard again. "Almost there..." she giggled, and started to tug me forward again.

The pond was breath-taking. Across the far end of this scenic pool, a rushing waterfall cascaded over a rocky bed from a short height of maybe ten feet and spilled out over frothy and reflective moonlit water. Just beside it, a dead, hollow oak tree spread out huge branches across the water, perfect for climbing and jumping from.

Christiana released my hand and stepped into the water one foot at a time, giving me a beautiful view of her from the back. The water clung greedily to her fur as it came up to roughly her neck and her long hair floated behind her like a veil. After a few steps she turned and beckoned me in, lifting her dripping tail from the water and splashing me. "Get in, Counselor," she giggled, then took a breath and sank below the water. I watched her form under the surface, moving fluently, silently, with hardly any bubbles appearing on the surface, and then she was at the falls, surfacing again with a sharp gasp.

"Mmm, ohh it's perfect," she said, her voice hardly reaching my ears. "Bryan, get in here. I need a bath. The...the blood, you know?"

I nodded wordlessly. Of course, the stench of blood must have still been quite overpowering. Strange how I hadn't noticed it though. I hopped into the pond with her and waded out to where she was under the falls, tilting her head back and running her paws over her breasts slowly, massaging her fur. I looked down and noticed, even in the dark water, some rivulets of blood seeped down her breasts and arms.

She reached for me and pulled me to her, kissing me hard and passionately, panting, clawing at my shoulders until the sharp nails found purchase just inside my skin. I hardly felt the pain at all and eagerly wrapped my hands around her furred ass, squeezing each taut, firm cheek. She bounced a few times on her toes, and then splashed hard as she leaped up and into my arms, continuing to kiss me, wrapping strong legs around my waist. I took the invitation and thrust forward, my newly-stiff cock finding and parting her furry heat. I felt my cock being grabbed and then pulled as her tight, silky netherlips closed around my cock jealously, working me deeper. She threw back her head and howled, baring her fangs, and then dipped her head forward, finding the warmth of my throat and biting down on the soft flesh. I stood on my toes, mashing her form against the rocks as I bucked, giving her sweet tight, almost-virginal pussy the fucking it so needed.

She started to lose control first, and I could feel hot breath from her nostrils assaulting my neck as she bit harder, sinking her teeth into me. With a loud cry matching her own, I came heavily into her. I could feel her pussy clamping around my spurting cock, welcoming the flow, eagerly lengthening the release with rhythmic squeezes with every shot of cum I put into her. Then I felt her own flow of cum settling over my cock, wetting it, soaking it in her hot juices, until our love-lust mingled underneath the water, becoming milky tendrils floating away with the gentle current.

**

"Bryan?"

I felt a cold, wet muzzle against my cheek and opened my eyes. We were still at the pond, wrapped around one another on the bank, our feet trailing in the water. We'd fallen asleep.

"Yeah?"

She giggled that sweet giggle again. "Come on, sleepyhead. The moon sets soon." Her paw came down my bare stomach and toyed with my cock slowly, caressing the tip with one of her thick digits. "We need to...find a new place. Alright?"

"What do you mean?" I sat up slowly, as she did as well, crossing her legs underneath her.

"Well...I can't go back to the cabin. At least not yet. A few days perhaps. I'll just have to wait for the authorities to come and then leave again. At night, we can go back and get things we need. Food, clothes...anyone still watching the place should be gone. And if they're not..." Her eyes narrowed and a cold smile played over her mouth. "We'll deal with them..."

I suddenly felt scared out of my mind. "But...what about me? I mean...what happens to me, and..." I shook my head. I think I knew the answer at this point.

So long, Chicago. So long, college. So long to the life I had. My mind insanely rattled "No more pencils, no more books, no more teacher's dirty looks..." and then it felt like an ice-pick jammed into my forehead and I squeezed my eyes shut against the pain, seeing red spots in a blank field of blinding white.

Then just as suddenly, my headache passed again. My vision returned slowly, but different somehow. Everything seemed sharper around me but...with less color. And I could hear things. The soft current of the pond. The lightest steps of a bunny making its way across the grass. The far-away sounds of moose calling to their offspring. The rustle of leaves. The drops of early morning dew dripping down from overhanging bushes.

My hands suddenly tingled violently and I looked at them. Across each digit, the dark hair was becoming thicker. The nails were already beginning to grow outward and sharpen.

"Christi...?" I whispered, looking at her, and she smiled, taking my new hands into her paws.

"You'll be fine soon..." she promised, and kissed me.

**

We returned to the cabin, and just as Christi had predicted, the area was devoid of any law enforcement. Yellow crime-scene tape was still across the door, but we were able to crawl through one of the broken windows. I guess we'd come before they could board the house up. They'd done a good job of cleaning the place up too. No trace of Nev's blood anywhere. Which was probably good. The smell of blood would have set me off, and Christi and I would have to abandon our moving night to deal with my new craving.

"We can come here, now and then," Christi explained while she packed up a few garbage bags of food and clothes. "Get supplies as we need, maybe even manage to buy a few things. As long as this place stands, we can come back here. But...we'll build again. I'm going to teach you how to build a log-cabin, Bryan. You'll love it."

"Can we get cable?" I joked and she threw a bra at me. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding. Hang on a sec, okay? Before we leave, I want to check the other rooms, see if there's anything else there for us, alright? Maybe a few books?"

She lifted her head up to take a few sniffs. "I'm not sensing anyone. We could stay the night here, if you want to..."

I shook my head. "No, I'll be ready soon..."

"Well, while you're gathering things, I'll go outside and pick up some wood for us. Thirty minutes, okay?"

"Take your time..."

She kissed me softly and left the cottage. I went into one of the rooms, found a table and chair, sat down, and started to write:

Hi there! A/S/L?

I snickered at the first line and a crazy thought went through my head. "Hi. I'm 21, I live in a forest and...I'm a lunar wolf..."

After some time getting over the insane laughter that wanted to bubble out of me, I started writing again.

**

Oh, one more thing. If you're reading this right now, you really need to leave.

It seems somehow in your travels you've blundered into this dense copse of woodlands, and you've found a metal box I placed inside a splintered oak tree beside a beautiful sparkling pond. Or maybe you decided to go exploring and came across a small wooden cabin seemingly out of place in the middle of the majestic forest around you and, like the veritable Goldilocks, decided you'd go inside to see what there was to eat.

Either way, you don't have a lot of time left.

You see, we lunar wolves can distinguish and follow our own scents from hundreds of miles away. It's how I'm able to stay close with Christiana in the endless wilderness, and also how we're able to find more of our kind.

Oh yeah, there's a lot more of us, in fact more than you might think. I'm learning a lot about what I can and can't do in my new life. I might not be the experienced huntress Christiana is, but I'm getting better at it.

A lot better.

And my scent is all over these pieces of paper you've picked up and now hold in your hands.

I might not be able to catch you, but I sure as hell know she can...

...

...

Run.