FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

_ _The wind howled as I trudged along. The Towers came into view, and I breathed a sigh of relief. I could see the gate up ahead. I glanced to my right as sudden motion caught my eye, as I was passing a small park that had been nestled between the Towers and the adjacent office-rental building for as long as I had rented here. To be honest, the rusted iron gate and ancient swings made it appear that it had been here much longer than either.

I paused, my left hand in my pocket, ready to reach for my keys. Then, with more movement, I saw what had caught my attention. Huddled amidst a pile of leaves, a dog lay, chained to a nearby bench. What was stranger, was that the dog's collar was not just an ordinary nylon strap, but a thick metal ring. In the dappled shadows of the trees, it almost seemed like there were letters etched into the band of the collar. I moved closer, and watched as the dog's attention came to me. Its ears perked forward, and it rose up on its feet, though shakily.

As it stood up, I saw how emaciated it seemed. How long had the dog been here? I certainly hadn't seen it this morning when I had left for the museum. It wagged its tail weakly, its head hanging low. I approached it cautiously, putting my hand out, hunkering down.

At first, the dog had seemed like a husky, maybe a malamute. But as I drew closer, it seemed to grow larger, less emaciated. Its mouth drew back in a strange expression, almost a smile. I stopped. Were my eyes deceiving me?

Suddenly, the collar and chains disappeared in a brilliant flash of light. The heck?!

The dog lunged at me, seeming now more like a wolf than a dog. I stepped backwards, but not quickly enough. The beast's massive jaws snapped down onto the hand that I had thrust out. Stupid... Stupid, stupid.

"God, damn it!" I cursed, feeling the dog yank me forward in its grasp. Its teeth dug into my skin. But then, after a few short moments, it released me. I fell to the ground, my hand bleeding and throbbing in pain. I scrambled backwards, trying to get away.

I expected the dog to follow, or... something, anything besides that strange. panting smile that it gave. Maybe... maybe it had just been scared. But, what could have happened to the collar I had seen? Surely, it couldn't have just vanished, unless... Had I imagined that is had been chained up? I sighed, and looked at my hand.

An arc of puncture wounds marred my right hand. Remarkably, though, the bleeding had seemed to have stopped already. I felt tingling run along the back of my hand, into my fingers, and then down along my arm. Damn... I hoped I had rubbing alcohol at home. Wincing, I looked to my left, up to the Towers.

Unnervingly, the dog seemed to follow my gaze, wagging its tail. It moved closer, and a strange sound came on the wind, like distant laughter.

More tingling made me look down at my hand, but what I saw terrified me even more than the strange sounds I had just heard. The bite-marks themselves were closing up, like something out of a science fiction movie. Blood disappeared like mist, but stranger still, hairs began to grow on the back of my hand.

To start with, there were only a few, although they grew in length at remarkable speed. "Christ fuck!" I exclaimed, "What the crap is..?" Suddenly, more and more hairs began to grow. I touched the back of my hand with the fingers of my left, shuddering as I felt them crawling up out of my skin. What on earth was happening to me?

Electric sensations ran through my hand, and I felt my bones begin to change. I let out a scream as my fingers changed themselves, becoming stubbier. In a flash, that stange grey hair had come to cover my entire hand. I let out a scream as it continued to change. My nails lengthened, turning into long, black claws. Thick, black pads grew on my palm, and on the underside of each finger. No, no, no. This wasn't happening. This wasn't POSSIBLE!

I felt that same electric sensation run through my other hand, and in a flash, the same changed had occurred to it. I screamed again, looking at the dog, which still stood by the bench with that unnerving smile. I flexed my new fingers, looking down at my hands, which had become more like an animal's paws.

I looked around, glancing back to the street for help. How... how could someone help me? What even was happening? I felt new hairs growing along my arms as the effects began to spread. Soon, both arms were covered in grey and white fur. The laughter filled the air again, and the dog, or whatever it was, began to change again. It shifted its form in a cloud of mist, rising up, taller... As the mist faded, I could see that the creature now stood on its hind legs, with a frame like that of a human, but still very must an animal in all other aspects. I scooted further away, trembling in terror.

"Ssssshh..." she said, "Do not fret. Soon, you wi-"

"Please," I interrupted, "Stop this. Whatever this is... Whatever YOU are... Please," I begged, feeling the fur begin to spread to my chest, to my back, crawling from my skin to press against the inside of my clothes. Some of the hairs even began to poke through the thin fabric of my t-shirt.

She smiled, "It isn't what I am, but rather, now... What we are. Do not fear, for soon you'll be part of an ancient fellowship."

"I don't want this. Please! I DON'T WANT THIS!" I shouted.

She chuckled, "It can't be stopped, now. In fact, you're already one of us, but the body is slow to accept change... The mind, perhaps, moreso. You humans are strangers in your own skin. But you will get used to it, in time. Trust."

Suddenly, I felt the muscles in my legs tighten as the bones beneath them changed shape. Then, they relaxed, flowing beneath my skin like liquid. As my legs changed shape, becoming flatter wider, the fur followed. I felt alarming changes happening in my groin, and as I watched my legs grow fur, I also felt something long slither down my short's leg. I sat up, and saw a long, furred tail flowing along the ground as it grew.

I cursed to myself, looking with horror at what I was becoming. How was this even happening? I groaned, trying to sit up. My senses cried out in alarm, in contest with what my mind knew to be right. This wasn't my body...

Before I could get up, before I could flee, the creature came down upon me, pressing my back to the ground by my chest. Her strange paw-hands grasped my shirt, eliciting a strange tingling sensation. She looked down at me, tilting her head to the side.

"Awww," she cooed, "Your human face still lingers. Do not fret. For, change is... only natural."

At that, she waved a clawed finger in front of my face. I heard a whimper rise from my throat. I shuddered, a gasp rushing from my lips.

Next, she pressed her finger to my forehead. The skin of her fingertip was rough, like the sole of a dog's feet. Her long claw spread upward along my skin as she pressed it closer. I felt something quiver from deep within me, a sensation wholly impossible to describe, like a wavering within my very being. It affected my thoughts, my senses all. Then, I felt what could only be described as a snapping, a severing from that selfsame place within me.

My ears went numb. My body stiffened, and I was deaf for a moment, before a tingling sensation returned my hearing. My new ears flicked back and forth. My scalp crawled with the same sick crawling, tingling that had brought hair to the rest of my body. I felt it all along my head, now, up my neck, pressing in towards my face. The sounds of the park grew distant as I felt myself falling, rushing... downward and upward...

I fell upward through an abyss of light and shadow, crying out in a voice which was not my own.