Cold Case

Story by skiesofsilver on SoFurry

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A commission for someone over at FA


All it took was a bump with a haphazardly fallen branch for Brandon to lose his balance and send him flying off his snowboard. He yelled as he launched into the air. His brief flight ended when he hit the snow-covered ground with a grunt and a soft thud.

"Urgh," he groaned. "Wasted."

For a moment he lay in the cold snow, staring up at the cloudless sky. The sun shone brightly today so that despite the chill Brandon felt rather hot. It felt odd to sweat in the snow, but it was not something he was unused to.

Finally, Brandon forced himself to his feet. The fall had done no real harm. The only true annoyance was that he had lost sight of his board. He glanced up the mountain. He froze once he caught sight of his board. It lay on the start of a rocky pathway that jutted out of the side of the mountain and curved downwards out of sight.

He trudged up to his board. As he bent down and picked it up, his gaze fell on the intriguing path in front of him. His curiosity demanded that he find out what lay at the end, as if there would be a pot of gold like at the other side of a rainbow. He satiated his curiousty by following the trail and its descent until he stood in front of a dark crevasse at the path's end. He squinted into the cavern, allowing him to see a soft blue glow given off near its top, which only increased his curiosity.

He stepped into the cave, thinking too late that something might dwell within. This thought was lost as he gazed upon the cave's ceiling. It was covered with a thin layer of ice, the perpetrator of the blue luminescence.

Brandon shivered. It was colder within the cave as well, though he knew the sudden drop in temperature could not be attributed entirely to the sun's absence.

As he looked around the cave, he recognized he had a choice to make. He could leave the cave. In that case, he would continue snowboarding and maybe even forget the cave. Years later, he could see himself recalling the ice and its strange glow, something he would no doubt mention at the next social gathering. It would sound fantastical, but more likely most would think he was just misremembering or making it up. Or--or he could explore the cave. In this nearly fully understood world, it would be an opportunity that he knew he would lament missing. He wanted to complete the story, to have something to tell other than a regret. His snowboarding had been enjoyable so far, but this was something unique, a way for him to remember this trip specifically. Though he was no spelunker, he was not worried. If grew bored or uncomfortable, he could leave any time he wanted to, after all.

Brandon made his choice with a single step forward.

The mountain suddenly rumbled and shook. Brandon stumbled forward and remained on his feet. He glanced over his shoulder to the cave's entrance. When he heard a muffled "whumph" from above, he stopped breathing for a moment. Then he was lunging towards the cave entrance, but it was too late. Snow slid from above and poured over the entrance. Brandon yelled as some of the snow pushed into the cave, forcing him back. The mountain continued to shake for a moment more and then stopped.

Brandon looked upon the blocked entrance in despair. There was no way he could dig himself out. He was trapped within the cave...or was he? Maybe there was another an exit that had not been obstructed by the recent avalanche. There was only one way to find out--he had to continue through the cave. It was what he would have done anyways. Now, though, he had no choice.

He began to trek through the cave. Despite his new motivation, he couldn't but help feel a little giddy at the thought of exploration. He noticed that the further along he walked, the more the ice spread. At first it remained at the ceiling, but slowly it crept down the sides of the cave until it was beginning to stretch to the floor as well. The intensity of the blue illumination it shed likewise increased, allowing Brandon to see with no problem. He idly wondered what was causing the glow--perhaps some fungus he couldn't quite make out beneath the ice? Whatever it was, it would be something he definitely looked forward to looking up when he was out of the cave.

Brandon came to a halt when he the cave's path suddenly split into three. He paused and thought. Which way was the right way?

"The right one, of course," he said, taking a right turn.

He walked down the right path and found it was not much different than the others. His mind wandered as he wandered, so that he was no longer paying attention to his surroundings. Thus, he was surprised when he reached the end of the path. He paused. How had he not noticed it was a dead end before?

He was about to turn around when he noticed that there was an alcove in the wall. Something lay within the recess: a glimmering, translucent egg larger than his head. It was beautiful. Though he did not know what it was, an avaricious desire rose within him--whatever the egg was, it had to be worth quite a bit. It couldn't really be organic, right? Even if this was a dead end, it did not mean he couldn't get something out of it.

Brandon dropped his board reached towards the egg. He wrapped his hand around it. Even with his glove on he could feel the intense cold it emitted. Before he could even think about taking the egg with him, his hand went numb. He jerked his arm but it too had become chilled and unresponsive. In a panic, he reached out with his other hand at the egg, hoping to at least pull it loose. He did this and more as the egg was sent off the shelf and onto the frozen ground below. The egg shattered upon impact, sending hundreds of icy fragments in every direction. The fragments that struck Brandon adhered to his clothes. They quickly melted and seeped to the flesh beneath.

He shivered and tried to take a step back. About halfway through completing the action, his freezing legs gave out. He fell onto his hands and continued to shiver as the cold swept through the rest of his body.

Though his body was numb, sensations, distant though they were, still filtered to his brain. He attempted to get to his feet, but only managed to stumble. His feet seemed large and unwieldy and he could feel them press against his too tight shoes almost as if--

At this thought, Brandon's feet burst through the stressed footwear. He looked down at the extremities and gasped. The clawed feet that were attached to the bottom of his legs weren't his. They couldn't be--he had to be hallucinating or...something!

A dull throb in his hand caused him to quickly remove his gloves. He gaped once he caught sight of his digits extending into cruel talons while silvery scales overtook skin and hair. He lifted an altered hand and touched it to his face. He shivered, though not from the cold this time. The contact confirmed what he had hoped to deny--that the changes were real.

The hand upon his face moved as his mouth suddenly pushed outwards into a scaled snout. Brandon grunted as he felt the new muzzle and the absence of a human noise that had been replaced by nostrils at the end of his snout. Stranger still were the small horns poking out of his cranium and the finlike protrusions has ears had become. Thankfully his hair remained intact. He opened his mouth and touched the sharp, pointed teeth and the forked tongue within.

Before he could continue the exploration of his visage further, he heard fabric rip and tear. He turned his head and stared in disbelief at the new appendage hanging out of the back of his torn shirt above his pants: a long, silvery-blue scaled serpentine tail. It lengthened and thickened before his very eyes, growing until it was nearly four feet long.

Sensation suddenly returned to Brandon, just in time to realize how unbearably hot his clothed areas were. Without even thinking he tore off the beanie atop his head with one hand and threw off his shirt with another. He signed in relief when the heat dissipated from his chest. His calm was shattered when he saw that from his uncovered waist up was covered with similarly colored scales as his tail. His arms were likewise scaled, but they had another addition in the form of small wings that extended from his elbow to wrist. He couldn't very well see how he could fly with those; that, however, was the least of his concern. His legs still burned, necessitating him standing and pulling his pants and underwear down.

Now naked, Brandon saw that his legs' changes matched the rest of his body, though with another addition. The joints in his legs had altered so that he walked on his digits rather than heels. He took a tentative step forward and noticed how his tail provided balance to his gait.

A tingling in his crotch caused him to glance down at his still very human genitals in alarm. His manhood and testicles, shrunken and shriveled from the cold, withered for a very different reason now. He grabbed at his cock before it could fully retreat inward and managed to catch it. Unfortunately, it continued to shrink until it slipped through the gap between his claws. It disappeared into his crotch and was followed closely behind by his testicles. He stared at his smooth crotch, unprepared for what was ahead.

He yelped when a feminine slit opened with a wet splurtch.She barely had a second to comprehend her sudden sex change when developments on her chest drew her attention away. Before her very eyes two new small mounds ballooned out into two heavy breasts. She cupped the pendulous boobs in her hands and pushed one up.

"Tits!" she squealed in a high-pitched voice. "Why do I have tits?"

Her dark hair lightened to a silvery white and grew down until it nearly touched she rear. At that point, she didn't care. All she wanted to know was why this was happening at all. As this thought occurred to her, she caught movement out of the corner of her eye. She looked to the ice-covered wall and spotted the ghastly shadows of small draconic shapes perched upon them. One of them turned its head towards her.

"I see you," it whispered

The shadows swooped off the wall. Brandon cringed as they flew around her. When one dove at her, she raised her arms above her head, screamed, and ran towards the fork. This was easier said than done due her unfamiliar new body as well as the addition of her new assets that bounced with every step.

Despite her reduced speed, she was able to keep ahead of the shadows, though they did occasionally flit close by, cackling and sometimes tweaking her exposed nipples. When she reached the fork she continued her run so that she was going down the left path. She no longer yearned for escape merely for survival, but also to get away from the accursed cave before anything else happened to her.

She came to a halt when she reached the end of the left path. She couldn't understand how she again missed such an obvious stop. When she turned around to run back to the fork, she realized too late that the shadows were still chasing her. They came at her, laughing and speaking in low, sinister voices she could not fully heed. She closed her eyes and raised her hands up, hoping it would at least be enough protect her face. Without sight, she could only wait for them to be upon her

Brandon was surprised when she heard the shadows rush by her. She opened her eyes and turned around to see the shadows mingling at the ice-covered end, their numbers multiplied. As one they launched into the air and clustered together, forming an ever-circling sphere of shadow. While seconds passed, the sphere formed into a more organic shape. A wing shot out of the shadow, and then another, and then two taloned legs behind those. Deciding she had seen enough, Brandon turned heel and was about to run when something caught her. Shadowy protrusions from the creature's still-forming body dragged her towards it. She screamed and clawed at the ground fruitlessly.

When next she looked at the creature, the shadows had fully shaped themselves into a large wyvern with scales the color of the ice around them. A large male wyvern, she thought, noting the ready cock between its hindlegs. Brandon shivered in disgust at the vile, lustful gaze it gave her. She wasn't going to--no, she wasn't--

Despite her mental protests, her body responded quite appropriately to the sight of the wyvern's cock. Her vagina slickened and her nipples stood stiff and erect.

"Hmm," the wyvern rumbled, taking a ponderous step towards her. "I see you're already ready."

"No," Brandon protested. "Get away!"

She crawled away from the wyvern. When she noticed she could move, she noticed that the shadow protrusions had dispersed. She shakily got to her feet and faced the wyvern. He cocked his head quizzically.

"Maybe not."

Brandon took a few more steps back and then turned around and was sprinting once more. She sobbed as she ran. The wetness between her legs reminded her of how her body had reacted to the sight of the wyvern's maleness and it disgusted and disturbed her. She was a man, even if she wasn't one right now. Maybe exiting the cave would lift whatever curse had been placed upon her. Or perhaps this was all just a nightmare, and she had been knocked unconscious from the fall from earlier. If so, she was seriously considering seeing a psychoanalyst after she awoke.

"Don't deny desire," she heard the wyvern call from closer than he should have been. "It doesn't end well."

"Blah blah blah!" Brandon screamed, putting her hands over her finlike ears.

"My cave," he said, now speaking within her mind. "My mate."

"Shut up!" she yelled.

Brandon reached the fork for the last time. This time she chose the central path. It was the way out of here. It had to be.

As Brandon ran down the central path, the end did not suddenly appear as before. This time she saw it from afar and the sight was enough to kill any hope she had remaining. It was another dead end.

"No!" she cried. "I can't--I can't--"

"Yes," the wyvern said. "Despair."

Brandon turned around and saw that the wyvern stood before her. She didn't know how or why he had gotten there, nothing made any sense.

"My lair," the wyvern said with a cruel smile. "I've been waiting for this opportunity for centuries! I wouldn't let you get away so easily."

The wyvern lunged forward and forced her down by pressing his wings upon her. Though his wings were comparatively weaker compared to the rest of his body, he had the advantage of size and strength.

"I could wait before," he continued. "My kind is not so...promiscuous as your kind. It doesn't mean I still don't look forward to it." He licked his muzzle with a forked tongue. "We don't need to worry about finding a mate either. One of you usually works after a few...adjustments."

Brandon quaked in fear.

"But it's my time of the millennium now and I think soon enough you'll find that it's yours too."

"No!" Brandon shouted. "Never! I wouldn't--"

The wyvern lifted a taloned foot, allowing him now to only paw at her breasts but also exposing Brandon to the sight of his cock once more. The physical stimulus combined with this display caused arousal to build within Brandon's loins, a heat that wouldn't go away if she took off her clothes. They were already all off, after all.

"Better?" the wyvern asked.

Brandon moaned in pleasure. There was still a part of her that didn't want what was inevitably going to occur happen, but that part was diminishing with each passing second. Perhaps this wasn't the worst thing that could come about. After all, if she hadn't entered the cave, she very well could have died in the avalanche. And what if the cave had been empty? She was lucky such a handsome wyvern was waiting for her, one that would grant her every desire.

"Yes," she breathed huskily.

"Good," the wyvern grunted as he penetrated her at the same time.

It was a tight fit at first, but Brandon's slit stretched to accommodate the wyvern's cock. She moaned in bliss while he thrust into her, her eyes rolling into the back of her head. She reached out and grabbed his legs to steady herself. They mated rhythmically and as they did so, Brandon changed even more than before.

With each thrust, she lost more and more of her humanlike appearance. Her head was the first to change, her neck growing longer and thicker while her muzzle pushed out even farther than before. In the meanwhile, mass and muscle added to her body, lending to a stronger, larger form. Her breasts were absorbed into her chest as it became sturdier and smooth. Her nubby horns pushed out into proud spires and her hair grew only lengthier. She let go of the male's legs while the wings on her arm expanded into proper implements of flight even as her hands melded to a single claw that tipped the end of each wing. Her pussy moved down further to accommodate its place on a longer tail. The final touch was a bit more sinew on her legs. Now, she was the same size as the wyvern and her arousal had grown with her, making the loving only more enjoyable.

The male's manhood fit comfortably within the female's sex, allowing him to take a more aggressive position. He thrust even harder than before, bringing them closer and closer to orgasm. When they finally reached it moments later, they roared in unison. The female shuddered as his thick seed splashed within her. He pulled out a moment later, an action that caused her to quake in further pleasure. She flipped onto her front and slowly began to walk away from the male as she felt her womb already begin to grow heavy.

"You'll clutch quickly," the male said. "It's good for both of us. It'll give me some time to recover."

He was right. Within moments, she was already pushing out an egg, the first of many. It wasn't so nearly as pleasurable as their mating, but it brought other feelings along with it, among them the compassion of motherhood. After she had laid seven eggs, she clustered them together and gazed at them lovingly.

"Did you say this was only once a millennia?" she asked, looking up at the male.

"No," he replied. "I just don't get an insatiable urge until then, but I can still enjoy it. I'm always ready if you are--" he paused. "I don't think I asked you your name."

"Br--" she began. What had she been thinking? That old name no longer suited her. A few seconds later, she had decided: "Bayora."

"Fitting," he rumbled. "I am Leoth."

"Well then, Leoth," she said, slying grinning as she turned her hindquarters towards the wyvern. "Are you ready?"

"For you, Bayora," he replied. "Always."