FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Felix double checked the address to be sure. He’d never been to the town and didn’t want to stumble into the wrong storefront, asking about magic. They might think he was crazy. He certainly felt like he was crazy for going on this trip just for a chance to feel what his fantasies really felt like. But his friend vouched for this place and that was enough for Felix to take a chance.

In his mid-thirties with short, sandy brown hair, fair skin, blue eyes, and average build for a man that mostly worked behind a desk, Felix was dressed for the early-spring weather. Jacket, shirt, jeans, and sneakers had him looking indistinct from the other Saturday sidewalk traffic.

It was late afternoon when Felix reached the unassuming storefront of the supposed magic shop. To Felix’s untrained eye it looked like an antique shop run by a folksy witch. His friend had mentioned the place wouldn’t look like much but the woman inside with the red hair, was the real pearl. The sign on the door reading ‘Open’, Felix headed inside.

The bell over the door rang as Felix stepped inside the warm, welcoming air of the cozy shop. There was a smell of lilac, citrus rinds, and nutmeg accompanied chatter from a woman on the phone with someone. Rows of high shelves filled with all manner of antique or pawnshop items that could be imagined. Felix perused these with no real interest while moving nearer the woman’s voice.

“... and that’s why I was very clear in my instructions about dosage. Short of sending your husband home with my assistant, I don’t know what else I could have done, Mrs. Ko. You will just have to get him someplace with a lot of room and try to discern how much of it he drank. That way we know what we’re dealing with,” a thoughtful, experienced woman was heard calmly explaining over the phone. That’s when Felix spied her around the end of the aisle. Sitting like a woman who’d lost count of how many times she’d had this exact conversation.

The red haired woman seated upon a high stool behind a wide wooden counter must have been the shopkeeper. She appeared a little older than him and was his age strikingly attractive compared to the old woman he’d expected in his head. With a full figure, light skin, long, thick, lightly curled red hair, freckles, and expressive face, the shopkeeper sparkled in the mostly dim setting. She had on a simple, scarlet halter dress with a simple leather corset overtop that nonetheless looked great on her.

Seeing the shopkeeper cooled Felix’s nerves enough to approach the counter properly. It was as he approached that he saw the large Bengal cat sprawled over the far end of the counter in a deep sleep. While it didn’t budge, the shopkeeper noticed Felix and mouthed, ‘I’ll be right with you’ to him as the woman on the other end could be heard shouting.

Felix nodded back and waited patiently in front of the chest high counter. Behind the shopkeeper was a wall of carefully labeled bottles, vials, boxes of all sizes, candles, and more on ceiling high shelves. There was also a beaded doorway to the back, framed letters from customers, and a wall of jewelry to the shopkeeper’s left. The lighting was better here too. When Felix glanced down at the mat under his feet. The worn script on it read: ‘A Pleasant Change Of Place’.

“By the sounds of it you need to get him space fast. Go do that, Mrs. Ko, and then give me a call back. I have customers here… Yes, I understand you’re having an emergency but it’s at least a predictable one. Move him somewhere with room, make sure his clothes are off, and then give me a ring back after you’re sure how much of the enchanted milk he drank. I’ll see what I can do from there. Buh bye,” the shopkeeper signed off after killing with kindness over the phone. She hung up and gave Felix her full attention. “My apologies for that and thanks for your understanding. With that out of the way, how can I help you, sir? I can tell from that twinkle in your eye you’re not lost, so there must be something I can do for you.”

“It’s no trouble at all. Hope it wasn’t anything too serious,” Felix remarked politely. Mostly to stall as he gathered what he actually wanted to ask her.

“Nothing too serious in the grand scheme of things. The sun will still rise tomorrow and my store will be open, you can be sure of that. Now, what is it you desire? Let me guess, something for yourself? Some manner of transformation by any chance?” the shopkeeper asked coyly.

“T-Transformation? Well, ummm,” a blushing Felix stammered, not expecting her directness. “How did you know?”

The shopkeeper recrossed her legs as she lightly chuckled. “It is my trade and what I’ve earned a reputation for in these parts, so it’s a safe bet. I also wager this is a personal request over a gift idea. Am I warm or cold?”

“Hot, I’d say,” Felix said with a modest smile.

“Wonderful! In that case I’d be happy to find something. What’s your name, hun?”

“I’m Felix. And you?”

“I’m your new best friend, Felix,” the shopkeeper answered with a wink. “How familiar are you with magic, Felix?”

“Zero, ma’am. I’m honestly pretty skeptical about all this. I had a friend, her name is Gale, gush about your shop. They’re normally the skeptical type but they were bought in with what you’re selling so I’m curious,” Felix elaborated.

“Curiosity is good when it comes with an open mind. If I remember correctly, Gale had some particular tastes that I was happy to make flesh and fur. She’s been a consistent customer since. She might have earned some store credit for referring you too! But enough about her, I am all about you right now, Felix. Tell me, what sort of transformation do you-” The shopkeeper was interrupted by the ringing of the store phone. “Sorry, this will take thirty seconds,” she sighed before affecting a pleasant demeanor. “Hello again, Mrs. Ko. How are things?”

There was a flurry of shouting from the woman that Felix couldn’t make out. The shopkeeper listened along, waiting for her chance to speak.

“If he confirmed he drank the whole bottle, whatever the reason, then what you read on the instructions is exactly what he’s in store for. Once the transformation finishes you’ll have a heifer for a husband for a few years at least. I know a retreat where he could even- Mrs. Ko, there’s no need for that kind of language. I gave him clear instructions with warnings about if he didn’t listen. He’s a grown man capable of choosing when, where, and how to imbibe his potion. Don’t blame me for his poor decision making,” advised the shopkeeper without losing her temper.

There was more shouting and what sounded like a cow bellowing in the background. Followed by crying from the woman on the other end.

“Even if I was there, his transformation would have to finish before I could do anything. May I suggest hanging up and being with him in the garage until it’s all done. He’ll be disoriented and very emotional but still himself under there. Calm the two of you down and then, when you’re ready, call back. When I can, I'll see if there’s anything I can do about shortening the time frame. Best to think about arrangements for the next future years if I can’t manage it. Does that sound good? Splendid. I’ll be here, hun. And no need to apologize, you just want the best for your husband,” the shopkeeper reassured. She hung up for a second time and for a second time refocused on Felix. “Sorry again. They should leave me alone for an hour. More than enough time for us! So tell me what transformations you’d love to experience? Then I’ll see what I can do to make it a lovely reality.”

“Thank you and it’s no problem with the phone call. So far as for me, well, I’ve had a thing for cats. And felines in general. Not a full one or anything, just a partial. Like a hybrid or anthro. Not sure if you know what I’m talking about here,” Felix rambled off in a single breath.

“I do indeed! I have a popular potion that can turn you into a buxom catgirl if that’s what you’re angling for. Such a common request that I have a whole rack of them in the back that I made last month that’s already half sold through. Delivers a potent, painless, temporary transformation into a catgirl and comes in a discreet glass bottle. Liquid itself is on the bright side of pinks but tastes like fizzy water. Does that intrigue you, Felix?” she merrily offered.

“Woah, that’s definitely intriguing but not what I’m personally interested in. For starters, I definitely want to stay a guy. I did like hearing about the painless, temporary, and partial changes like that. The problem is I don’t know exactly what kind of cat I’d choose. Or how much of me I’d want to change if I could. Sorry for the inconclusive answer,” Felix did his best to articulate while his eyes couldn’t resist darting to the sleeping cat on the counter.

“Don’t fret, Felix. Mentioning the catgirl was just a jumping off point to narrowing down what you may want. I have options that can provide-” Just then the phone rang yet again. With a huff the shopkeeper reached for the phone. “I’m so sorry for this. I won’t be more than a minute. Feel free to pet Ember while you wait.”

It was that same woman calling about her husband. Felix tuned out the phone call while he slid down the counter closer to the sleeping kitty, whose ears had twitched when the shopkeeper had mentioned her name. So was calm and quick to purr as Felix ran his hand down her back. A few of those had Ember unfurling and wrapping her tail around the man’s wrist.

“Such a pretty kitty you are. So soft and friendly,” Felix doted. “Ember is a beautiful name for such a beautiful furry princess. You’re the queen of the store I bet, huh?”

Felix had always loved cats and that likely informed his transformation interests. From housecats to lions, panthers, cheetahs, and all the bigger cats. He couldn’t give a favorite as it could vary day to day, hour to hour. It made giving the shopkeeper a straight answer difficult. He hoped she knew what he wanted better than he did.

As Felix pet Ember and thought over the possibilities the shopkeeper’s call dragged on longer than she wanted, straining her kindness. Neither noticed the bead curtain to the back parting and rattling as Sara, a well-fed Siberian tiger, trotted out yawning from a nap. Sara heard her friend Ember purring up a storm. Being half-awake, she thought it was the store assistant Ellah giving Ember love and wanted in on the rubs.

“Such a pretty collar you have, Ember. Looks positively magi… -cal,” Felix hesitated when it occurred to him the cat may have been human like himself once. That’s when something large, fuzzy, and warm rubbed against his legs like an affectionate dog. “Who’s that I feel? Don’t tell me there’s a store dog too. That’s why I was born with two hands! One for Ember and one for…”

The blood drained from Felix’s face and he stopped breathing upon seeing the three hundred pound plus Siberian tiger. He watched her closely as she curled to nonchalantly do it again. Only this time she stopped with her rear pressed against him and head tilted up like Ember had when desiring more pets. Out of fear Felix reached down and scratched behind Sara’s ear like he was Ember’s.

“What is happening right now?” Felix muttered under his breath at the situation he found himself in.

The shopkeeper put down the phone and pulled out the landline. “There, now I can promise no more distractions. So, so sorry, Felix. Getting back to you, I have a few things that could- Well, well, do I see a sleepyhead Sara out and about? Giving poor Felix a fright,” the shopkeeper said of her pallid customer. “Felix, meet Sara, the cuddliest store Siberian tiger you could want. Sara, meet Felix, a potential new customer. Unless he runs out the door in a second,” the shopkeeper jested as she introduced the two.

A wave of embarrassment passed over Sara’s face as she peered up at the man she mistook for the store’s bunnygirl. But as he didn’t stop scratching her ear, the feeling passed and she nuzzled an apology into his leg.

“Nice to meet you Sara. I sure hope you’re not hungry,” Felix remarked while trying to relax.

“She shouldn’t be. Not with how she eats,” the shopkeeper said on the tigress’s behalf.

Sara chuffed in response.

“You know it’s true,” she teased the tiger. “She’s practically harmless. Unless you’re a can of tuna, watermelon, or carton of ice cream... Now, we were discussing your needs, Felix. Help me get a better picture of you. Tell me about yourself. As much or as little as you want to share. Then I’d like to hear as much as you have in you about this feline interest. Sara and Ember know about those, don’t you, girls?”

Bengal and Siberian wagged their tails while sharing very knowing looks between themselves and the shopkeeper. Felix’s suspicions confirmed before he had the chance to ask. They were feline transformation fans themselves. That more than anything let him calm back down to where he could talk about himself and his special interest.

Felix gave what he felt was a modest accounting of himself. He’d moved around a lot since moving out on his own after university. Already an introvert, he didn’t rack up any deep or lasting friendships through the years. He didn’t have much family anymore and when not working, enjoyed reading, nature walks, and chill days. It was his own suggestion that this may have informed his feline tastes.

As the conversation turned to Felix’s transformation interests Sara listened with increasing interest of her own. She sat on her haunches beside him, getting her head pet exclusively after Ember hopped off the counter to go find a snack. From there she came to see Felix as a kindred spirit to her own in many ways. The shopkeeper probed with thoughtful, disarming questions. Despite sharing as much as he could Felix managed to end up after forty minutes of conversation no more sure what he wanted from the shopkeeper than when he started. Sara had been the similar type of indecisive when she made her fateful trip to the shop. While the shopkeeper discerned Felix’s needs, Sara fell for him.

“Have you been able to figure out what I want from my blabbering? I know I’ve gone from choice paralysis to choice overload. Same results,” Felix admitted with a smile.

“Better spoiled for choice than starved, in my experience,” remarked the shopkeeper as she took out a large leather bound ledger from under the counter. “You’ll be pleased to know that I have come up with some ideas from what you’ve been so kind to share, Felix. For the transformation itself, I have several methods in mind that would allow you to dabble with changes to your person. So far as the species, I could suggest some and let you try to pick one. Or… let magic reveal what your heart truly desires,” she offered to the man while giving Sara a sly wink.

“Magic that can cut through my indecision? Sign me up,” Felix half-laughed. Unsure what the shopkeeper was suggesting.

The circular mechanical device made of a bronze-like metal was large enough to fill the shopkeeper’s hand. Rather than a sailing ship’s compass, its face had an array of notched recesses with a ruby studded cat’s paw at the center. As the shopkeeper held it up to Felix a finger sized slot opened on the device’s underside.

The shopkeeper had a coy smile as she revealed, “This is a feline Telling Dial, Felix. Simply slide your finger in that little hole and let the dial tell us what you really need. It won’t hurt. Right, Sara?”

Sara roared modestly in response. Then nuzzled Felix’s leg.

“The dial told Sara her desires lay in a Siberian tiger’s stripes. I wonder what it will say about you, Felix. Once I have your finger, I give it a spin, and your choice of feline will reveal itself,” the shopkeeper stoked the man’s imagination as he slid in his thumb.

“Will it hurt?” Felix asked.

“No. I do find it funny that men always ask that after they put their finger in,” remarked the shopkeeper before giving the ruby paw a spin. The portion with its thirteen notched covered slots alone spun several times before promptly stopping. A single compartment’s lid clicked open facing the shopkeeper. Who giggled at the result. “Haha, would you look at that! What are the chances, huh?”

“Chances of what? What does it say?” Felix asked eagerly.

Also impatient, Sara put her front paws up on the counter and roared the same questions.

The shopkeeper showed them both the fine painted image of a tiger on the lid’s underside. The compartment itself was lined with stripes that matched Sara’s almost perfectly.

Felix’s eyes lit up when he saw. “Ohhh, a tiger? A Siberian like Sara? Isn’t that something!”

Sara veiled herself modesty at the reveal as she sat back down on her haunches. Letting the humans talk while she had a big think.

“The very same as Sara’s own finger produced. Back then, a better part of a year and half ago, I had each slot filled with a lovely tiger shaded powder. With just a tiny scoop I could make lipstick, lip balm, blush, or other cosmetics. Depending on the amount used, you could have tiger ears and tail or live a full weekend as a tiger on Sara’s level. Quite the treat,” the shopkeeper warmly reminisced. But as she put the Telling Dial away under the counter she sighed and shook her head. “Owing to a mishap by my often vapid assistant, Sara received a massive, undiluted dose of the powder. That’s why I keep that powder elsewhere and put the little pictures painted instead. Much safer.”

“So that’s what happened to Sara? I figured she worked here willingly or there was an, ummm, arrangement,” Felix confessed as he glanced down at the tigress..

“Sara has an arrangement that does have her doing odd jobs around the shop while I work on a cure,” answered the shopkeeper while paging through her inventory ledger.

“How’s that coming?” he asked.

The shopkeeper let out a snort of laughter. “Sara still looks like a tiger so it’s safe to say I have not. I did such a good job with that batch of feline dusts that we can’t do much but see if it fades in the next decade. Or two.”

“Oh wow. She could be stuck like that forever? Yikes. I couldn’t handle that with Sara’s level of grace, that’s for sure,” Felix admitted while giving the tigress more of the scratches behind her right ear that she loved. “Was considering going closer to all fours with whatever you offered but maybe it’s best I work up to bigger adjustments like that. I’m not the ‘jump straight into the deep end’ type.”

“Neither was Sara as I recall. Humans can be adaptive if well supported. And well fed. Too well fed in fact. That’s why she’ll be taking a vacation with a friend of the shop for a few months. Somewhere she can stretch her legs, lose some weight, and the shop can be without excess tiger fur clogging the vacuum. But here I am rambling about Sara again! Felix, I’ve got a bucket of possible methods to achieve whatever degree of tiger you want to bring out in yourself!” boasted the shopkeeper with eyes glittering.

While the shopkeeper went through her list one by one with Felix, Sara found herself on the brink of talking herself into a rather bold course of action. A little extra weight wasn’t the only thing weighing on her for the past few months. There was a strange absence in her life that she’d been living with for months. Just in the last few weeks Sara realized her body needed the companionship only a male tiger could provide.

The problem Sara had been wrestling with ever since was who. Sara wasn’t comfortable being with a real tiger for a number of reasons and set a firm red line. That diminished her already small pool of suitors to little more than chance. The animal retreat the shopkeeper had her staying at was filled exclusively with former humans so her slim hope was one being a tiger. It made a kindred spirit like Felix appealing to the point of arousing the tigress’s dormant need to breed.

What gave her pause was knowing Felix would never agree to what she wanted. Sara would have to make the choice for him, and she didn’t take the responsibility lightly. She didn’t want Felix permanently transformed. Just for a few months to a year, tops. Enough for her to enjoy and him not to hate her for it. Because there was a high risk Felix would, justifiably, want nothing to do with her for robbing him of his humanity and freewill. A desire born out of her own . And as Felix narrowed down the shopkeeper’s plethora of options to four, Sara was convincing herself that Felix really was a feline soul like hers and that, eventually, he would know she did it with the best intentions. If she could grow to love life as a tiger, surely Felix could too. Especially if he wasn’t alone.

All Sara would need is an opportunity. And maybe a willing accomplice.

The shopkeeper re-emerged from the back room with the five magical methods of transformation Felix had shown interest in. Ember was seated on her shoulder cleaning herself when they entered. Then leapt down onto her preferred sleeping spot at the end of the counter as the shopkeeper arranged Felix’s options in a row. Sara popped back up to see what there was to work with.

“To restate, all perform a generally painless method of gradual transformation into tiger with your human wits intact. Otherwise they vary in how that change is delivered,” began the shopkeeper in her saleswoman voice. She picked up the short, stout tiger striped candle and held it out for the man to smell, “We start with that trusty option I mentioned: the candle. Popular as it’s easy to use. Changes triggered a few seconds after it’s lit and will cease just as quick when snuffed out. Designed for twelve full tiger transformations but will last longer if you only let a few changes set in. I’ve also made it that even if you took the whole twelve hours in one sitting, you wouldn’t stay a tiger longer than three days. That will cost you forty.”

“Heh, I’m tempted to go with that and save us some hassle,” Felix offered half-heartedly.

“It’s no hassle at all, hun. Let’s set the candle aside as your safe choice while moving onto the next, the beads of this bracelet are the key to deciding how far into stripes you want to go. Fifteen in total that you arrange beforehand for your desired results. Comes with this little instruction sheet. There are more safety measures to ensure changes don’t exceed two weeks. Or upon removal of the bracelet. That’ll cost fifty,” she stated as she spun a brilliant bracelet of carved bone and amber.

“It is pretty but now that I see it, jewelry isn’t really my style.”

“Not a problem, hun. We’re down to four! In the middle, in this boring looking dropped bottle are tiger eyedrops. Actually made from some of the tiger powder Ellah didn’t sneeze into Sara’s face that day. In this form it is highly diluted and fortified to prevent things getting out of control. Changes last no more than a day with dosage instructions written on the bottle. Unless it interacted with certain other mixtures, results would never be permanent. However I’ve never had a customer try the feline variants so you’d be the first to give it a go. The donkey version got rave reviews so I’m confident you’d enjoy it, Felix,” the shopkeeper touted.

“Is a donkey’s transformation all that similar to a tiger’s?” Felix honestly wondered.

“Not in results but not as much as you’d think from my end. If you’re worried I’m using you for testing, I would never sell anything I wasn’t sure would perform as advertised. You have my guarantee on that. Now, shall I continue?”

Sara answered for Felix by growling and batting her paw towards the left for her to keep going. Nothing so far was exploitable in the way she needed. But Sara’s nose smelled opportunity inside option four.

“What she said. Sara is the tiger expert here,” joked Felix, giving Sara another pat on the head.

“No doubt. Now, next is that one I warned you about.” The shopkeeper carefully removed the tiger shaped lid of the small cedar box. Inside were three cups of granulated sugar with, of course, faint tiger stripes. “This baking sugar provides the most change for money. But not without risk. It comes with a book of baking recipes of my own with appropriate measurements for whatever results you may desire. Tigerboy brownies, Fur inducing cookies, or fudge that’ll have you roaring like Sara! So long as you can follow instructions and don’t have an uncontrollable sweet tooth, you’ll always be in control of your transformation. There’s enough of my shifting sugar in there to last you a year of consistent baking. In the nine months I’ve sold them no one has ever needed to refill yet. Though some have come in for different flavors. Thirty-five for all that potential,” she tittered.

“I was never really great at baking, but this would be great motivation to get better. Cheaper is good too. But you did also warn me about this. Am I guessing it’s very possible to, umm, overdose?” Felix speculated.

“In a manner of speaking. No recipe uses more than half a teaspoon of the shifting sugar. And it’s to be added to the normal amount of sugar required by the recipe. A full tablespoon would transform you completely for a month. An eighth of a cup and it’s a full year. A quarter of a cup and I would ask that you come in so I could fit you for a collar like Sara’s. I want it to fit you well, considering you’d never be able to take it off yourself. Not with the paws you’d be stuck with for good. You somehow eat more sugar than that in a sitting it won’t change you any different. But you will get a tummy ache on top of the mounds of regret. Are you comfortable with that sort of risk, Felix?”

Felix shivered head to toe before answering. “That is one hell of a big risk to take for someone not skilled in baking or magic or transformation. I think that one may be too much for my first time. What do you think?”

“That I couldn’t in good conscience sell you something magical you weren’t comfortable using. This is why I have options, Felix! Let’s just slide the shifting sugar over here and forget all about it today. Instead let’s look at the last of the five I brought out. This treat is already made so no baking or washing dishes,” she laughed as she unfolded the wax paper.

“Ohhh! I’m definitely interested! Was this the surprise option you teased?” Felix recalled.

The shopkeeper nodded. “I’ve only made two small batches of this. What luck for you that one of those was a tiger flavor. Tell me, do you like saltwater taffy?”

“I do! Is it something that could, if I wanted, change me into a Siberian tiger for maybe… a weekend?”

“It certainly can! With the right amount of this chewy treat will let you experience such wonders! I think you’ll love this tiger taff- What the? Where is it?!” the shopkeeper scoffed loudly when there was nothing inside the paper.

“Maybe you misplaced it?” Felix reasoned. But the shopkeeper had already sprung to her feet with the obvious culprit in mind.

“Excuse me one moment, Felix. I’ll get to the bottom of this,” she said politely before dashing into the back. Shouting, “Ellah! You little piglet, where are you?!”

“I wouldn’t want to be this Ellah person right now,” Felix quipped once the shopkeeper was safely out of earshot. He picked up the candle for a closer look while continuing to scratch the tigress.

He was unaware of Sara’s unfolding scheme. It involved Ember, the box of shifting sugar next to her, some coordination, and exploiting her and the counter cat’s ability to communicate with the right series of whisker twitches. First telling Ember that she knew it was her who actually ate the taffy, who was immune to the taffy’s magic but not her own sweet tooth. Then used that leverage to arrange some feline mischief.

“I’m leaning towards the candle. What do you two think?” Felix asked the two when the shopkeeper didn’t return after a few minutes.

Ember meowed while Sara laid down out of sight. The counter cat showed her stomach and wagged her tail at the man in invitation.

“Well I can’t turn down rubbing some furry kitty belly. Let me come a little closer so I can use two hands,” Felix delighted with a wily smile.

It happened so fast.

One moment Felix was taking a step and the next he was on the floor on his back. The next thing he knew the tiger shaped lid of the shifting sugar box bounced off his nose. As he went to cry out he got a hefty mouthful of Siberian tiger shifting sugar. With the excess going up his nose, into his eyes, ears, hair, and all down his clothes. Felix gagged and tried to spit the sugar out but had to swallow a significant amount first. More still dissolved on his tongue or inadvertently snorted by the time sat up.

“Ack! What the hell?!” Felix coughed while desperately rubbing the sugar out of his eyes.

Ember’s aim pawing the box off the counter had been perfectly timed with Sara tripping Felix with her outstretched paw. With the deed done Sara growled her thanks to Ember. The counter cat mewed and wiggled her whiskers back to the tigress. Warning, ‘I hope you know what you’re doing.’

The shopkeeper hurried out from the back and saw Felix leaning against the counter, red faced, tearing up, and trying to catch his breath. She sat the box down on the back counter and rushed around the counter. “What happened? What’s that on you? What is all over my floor?” she asked as she put an arm around Felix’s shoulder.

“Tripped and I fell and then the sugar, the box, I don’t know how but it landed square on my face,” Felix informed the shopkeeper in a raspy voice.

“What? Did any get in your mouth? You didn’t swallow any, did you? Tell me you didn’t,” the shopkeeper urged while piecing together the scene.

“I might have. I mean, yeah, definitely swallow… some. I don’t know how much but I’d hardly intended to jump down raw sugar! Much less magical sug- oh… oh no,” stammered Felix as it dawned on him. This has the scratchiness in his throat annoyingly spread to his tongue and palate.

Swinging the man in front of her, the shopkeeper gripped Felix carefully by the jaw and squeezed it open. “Open wide. I might be able to assess the damage,” she instructed. Felix obeyed and loosened his jaw. A brief glance was all it took and the shopkeeper let the man go. There was a rare flash of anger in her eye for the ones responsible. “Girls, did you do this? Ember! Sara! Look at me when I’m talking to you,” the shopkeeper snapped at the felines.

The cats both sat up with their heads hung as they accepted their blame. Sara raised her right paw and growled to take full responsibility.

“So you did do it? I appreciate the honesty but that doesn’t detract what you just did to this poor man! Do you have any idea how much he swallowed? Tell me that wasn’t the whole point, Sara?” the shopkeeper asked the tigress as she dusted sugar out of Felix’s hair.

The guilt stricken tigress growled and chuffed her defence. Sara’s ears were drooped, eyes remorseful, and in the end she laid down at the shopkeeper’s feet. Showing she would accept any punishment.

“There are ways to go about these things, Sara! Arrangements could have been made. I could have talked to him on your behalf and, if he was interested, we would ease into it. But you were impatient and selfish. Now I have to close the store and have a very upfront conversation with this poor man about what’s just happened. I’ll let him decide how I punish you after. You better hope Felix is a forgiving soul. For both your sakes,” she warned Sara and Ember.

Felix’s racing heart made it hard for him to hear the conversation. “What are you talking about? I don’t understand what’s happening exactly. I think I can guess but I’m afraid to be right,” he admitted in a raspy voice.

The shopkeeper put a comforting hand on Felix’s shoulder and smiled. “I’ll fill you in, Felix. Let me just take care of one thing first,” excused the shopkeeper. Who then called out towards the backroom, “Ellah! Get your big rear in gear and get out here with a broom! You’re also locking up for the day so hop to it!” Then turned back to Felix and broke the bad news. “Felix, it appears that Sara and Ember took it upon themselves to arrange that little accident of yours. By my estimation, you swallowed enough to make you a Siberian tiger ten times over. Since you’re just one man, I’m afraid that potency increases the duration of said transformation by… magnitudes.”

“M-Magnitudes?” Felix repeated with a blank stare while rubbing his sore jaw. “What do you mean, magnitudes?”

“I would need to run some tests after to be sure but by my skilled estimation, and there’s no way to sugarcoat this, you’re on the precipice of ten years of a furry new life, Felix. You have my deepest-”

Suddenly a curvy woman in a revealing tux, tophat, and bunny years burst out of the back spinning a broom. “Here I am!” she announced loudly. Right before spun the head of the broom into her own face. “OOF!”

The shopkeeper groaned and rubbed the bridge of her nose. “This is what I get for employing the shop’s old mishaps.”

Once she gathered herself the shopkeeper’s bunsisstant locked the front door and put up the ‘Closed’ sign. She hurried back and got to cleaning while the shopkeeper let Felix sit down on her stool behind the counter. With Sara and Ember made to stand beside her, the shopkeeper reaffirmed to Felix that a possibly irreversible transformation was underway. The shopkeeper would attempt to find a fix but earlier warnings about the shifting sugar’s power were not undersold.

Within a couple hours he’d be a Siberian tiger. He’d have his wits and memories. Including the who and why behind his new four legged feline life. When Felix expressed doubts, the shopkeeper lent him a hand mirror and suggested checking his tongue. The sight of feline barbs on his widening tongue was enough. That seemed to trigger an awareness of the many growing sore spots all over him and the truth sinking in.

“I know it’s a lot more than you came in for and everything is uncertain right now. I’ll do what I can to make some arrangements. In the meantime, I think you and a certain someone have to hash some things out,” the shopkeeper told Felix regretfully. “Come on, Ellah. Ember. Let’s give the tigers some room. I’ll be back in a few minutes, Felix. Try to think of how you want me to punish Sara for what she’s orchestrated. I’ll be sure you’re safely through it all.”

“But, but, but I can’t…” Felix's rough voice failed him.

The shopkeeper tilted the man’s head up by the chin and wiped the tears on cheeks with her thumb. “It’s a lot, I know, but not more than you can handle, dear. Humans are adaptive, remember? Talk with Sara and I’ll be back before you’ve got a tail to shake twice.”

The enormity of being stuck as a Siberian tiger for the foreseeable future was compounded by the magic’s spreading through him as he sat there. Felix had a thousand mile stare going. Broken only by feeling Sara’s paw patting his shoulder for comfort. She stood on her hide legs and leaned across the countertop with an endearing expression on her furry face. Felix didn’t know a tiger could look so ashamed.

“She said you did this because you wanted ‘a friend’. What gives you the right to do something like that just for that! You could have asked or- What the heck am I doing? I’m talking like you can talk ba-aaAAACK! OUCH!” Felix yelped as he leapt out of the chair while grabbing his throbbing tailbone. He ran out from behind the counter attempting to walk out the weirdness of his growing tail. To no avail.

While Felix paced in a circle, Sara followed and tried to growl and roar an explanation for her actions. Trying to calm him down and see that she did it for all the right reasons.

“My first trip here and it’s my last too. If I didn’t have bad luck I wouldn’t have any at all,” an exasperated Felix bemoaned. One hand was down the back of his pants guarding the tender skin around his growing tail. The other poked around at his curiously spongy gums. “My whole life is over because, because why exactly, Sara? You were lonely and needed a friend? Did my life really sound so terrible to you that I’d want this more? I can’t be a tiger for the rest of my life, Sara! I’m not like you!” he anxiously proclaimed as he paced a larger circle.

Sara growled that she had thought the same when her untimely tiger transformation struck. Now she was content in all things- except a partner to share it all with. Had she not acted, by the time Felix returned- if he returned at all- to the shop she would be at the animal retreat. Then who knows what path he’d take. She couldn’t take that risk and acted. Knowing full well she’d be put on the spot for it.

None of Sara’s noises made any sense to Felix. He got the impression she was trying to convince him of her good intentions. “If you’re saying something about why I should forgive you, you may as well save your breath. Should tell your owner to ship you off to the circus or the wild for this. I just want to go home and be a normal guy!”

The roughness in Felix’s voice cracked as he spoke from the emotional weightload. Suddenly one of his fingers feeling his gums nearly stabbed it. When he pulled his hand back, two of Felix’s teeth tumbled out too. His eyes shifted their focus from the bloody pair of teeth on the floor to her bulbous, coarse skinned hands with budding claws. Felix pulled the hand down his pants, letting his stubby few inches of tail hang out, to see it also in the early stages of a feline transfiguration.

The shock of losing his hands hadn’t set in when his sneakers started getting quite cramped. Felix’s toes were visibly bulging under the fabric. A twisting tightness stretched at the rest of his foot and made him stand on the tips of his very sore toes. His already wobbly legs struggled mightily to keep Felix upright in one place.

Sara appeared, curling her body close to his and holding her head up for Felix to lean on. She let out a low growl when he hesitated to take her offer.

“Fine, fine. I’m not ready for the floor. Not yet,” Felix told Sara. “How did you do it? How did you accept never being human again? I don’t even know how to conceptualize my existence without opposable thumbs, two legs, a voice, clothes…”

The lower laces of his sneakers had begun to tear apart as Felix’s feet grew. Inside his shoes his socks were being slowly ripped apart. His jeans were also getting uncomfortably tight in places while the bottom hems rising to show more of his sweaty, aching ankles.

The unseemly moist pops of transforming flesh and bone became frequent as his hands, feet, and tail swelled towards a tiger’s proportions. Sara mindfully trotted Felix to the counter to lean on. Once he was stable, she dashed behind the counter and grabbed the shopkeeper’s stool in her teeth. Then marched back out and carefully set it down for Felix.

“Thanks. But don’t think this gets you off the hook,” Felix grumbled, taking a needed seat. He bent his legs up and tried to slip his shoes off but his fingers were too big for the job. It didn't help that his nails were being dislodged as well by claws sprouting up from underneath. Adding fingernails to the growing number of teeth that Felix was losing with every other hacking breath. “I’ve hardly changed and I can’t even manage to get my shoes off. I’m going to make a terrible tiger. I’m sho shrewd,” huffed Felix with a slight lisp at the end as he lost more teeth.

Felix was tugged away from his growing sense of futility by Sara’s tugging at his sneaker. She used her fangs with surgical precision to remove the sneaker and socks harmlessly from his right foot. Then did the same for the other foot. Sara’s tail wagged as she sat down in front of him. Her big, glistening green eyes peered up endearingly.

“Trying to show off, huh? Maybe you can do thish but I don’t think I can,” admitted Felix amid the lengthening of his feet and slow disappearance of his big toes. The last joint of each toe cracked as the grisly shift to retractable claws. Felix bore the pains with eyes locked on Sara’s. “Why me, Shara? I can’t do thish…”

The tigress nuzzled his knee and hip lovingly. Sara proceeded to strut about in front of Felix. Showing herself off and looking like a proper queen of the Siberian tundra. A very well fed, well brushed, happy tigress who didn’t want for anything and loved her life. Changed as she was, Sara didn’t act like she’d lost anything from her unexpected transformation. She roared, growled, and chuffed at Felix saying as much and that she sensed the same ability to thrive.

Briefly the noises and whisker wiggles made sense to Felix as Sara told him, ‘You’ll love it. I promise.’

In from the back burst Ellah with an empty duffle bag and leather satchel. Sara sat down and calmly waited as the shop’s bunsisstant made her way to Felix.

“Hey’ho! I got a bag here for your clothes and stuff. And this bag is for your, erm, droppings. Teeth, fingernails, and hair. Don’t worry, I’ll help with both. Not my first time,” Ellah told Felix in a brisk, bubbly voice as she unzipped the duffle bag.

“O-Okay. Do you want me to shhhtrip or, uhhhh,” Felix nervously asked, the bones in his feet intermittently popping as he spoke.

“Up to you. You still got the hands for it?” Ellah inquired while bending down to pick up the man’s fallen teeth.

“Uhhhhh,” stammered Felix, glancing at his bulbous, overlarge hands that were barely usable. “I could ush a little help, prrrreassssh,” he asked roughly. His new pronounced feline canine teeth clearly budding while Felix’s fattening tongue filled his mouth.

“Can do! Let me just grab this last- no, second to last tooth here,” Ellah muttered as one of Felix’s old teeth bounced off her puffy tail.

Sara came over, nuzzled Felix’s leg, and then carefully took to removing his pants using her fangs’ precision. She opened either pant leg up and ripped his leather belt off like it was string. Felix was able to get his jacket open so that Sara could pull it off him- one sleeve at a time.

Ellah was done gathering teeth and nails in time to remove Felix’s shirt. Asking him as she did, “Pants and undies are last. Would you rather sit down, lay down, or be on all fours for that? Try not to worry too much about modesty anymore. Sara and Ember sure don’t.”

Felix’s cheek’s blushed. “I guessssh… all forsh. If I canshh,” he answered. Changing while on all fours had been something Felix had always wanted to experience. If he’d only be changing once, he’d didn’t want to miss it.

“Okeedokie! I’ll help you down. Sara will be here too,” Ellah assured.

“Thanksh you.”

The bunsisstant and Sara were deft in getting Felix down to his aching knees without issue. With faint pads of tender pink flesh showing on the underside of his hands and remaining fingers, he went down slowly on one hand then the other. The transformation reaching his knees forced Felix on the tips of his toes like a proper digitigrade feline. More bones cracked as he did and he felt the pads under his four chubby toes.

He’d hardly settled before Ellah had his pants off. Sara removed his underwear with an effortless tug of her teeth. Felix felt his blush deepen feeling Sara rub her fur against his sweaty bare skin. Then Ellah would check his mouth to be sure she’d got them all. She got a face full of wet tiger tongue before confirming that Felix was out of human teeth.

Ellah wiped the saliva from her face as she stood up. “Thanks for that. I’ll go store your things next to Sara’s in the back. I won’t be long,” the bunsisstant said as she picked up the stool and the mat in front of the counter. Revealing numerous aged scratch marks dug into the wood floor. “I’ll get all this out of your way too. The more space the better when you’re changing. Right, Sara?”

The tigress cheerfully growled in reply while making another pass of Felix. Which made him shiver all over again with a delightful pleasure. Including all two feet (and growing) of his stiffened tail.

“You keep trrrrying to butterrr me up, Shharrra. Like you’rrrre not the rrrreassshon I’m in this poshhition,” Felix said to the tigress between heaving breaths. His thighs and ass strained as the sugar’s sweet magic trickled up from his hairless tiger feet.

As Sara growled about her best intentions, Ellah put the stool back and mat aside when noticing the store phone unplugged from the wall. Unsure if she somehow broke it, the bunsisstant quickly hooked it back up. She didn’t get a chance to turn when it rang. Ellah picked it up instinctively.

“Hello, I-” was as much as Ellah got out before the woman on the end began screaming at her. The bunsisstant’s ear and tail fluffed out while attempting to listen.

The shopkeeper herself emerged from behind the beaded curtain in good spirits and twirling a large leather collar. She paid no attention to Ellah as she headed in front of the counter. Approaching carefully and respectfully, the shopkeeper knelt down near Felix’s head and rubbed a seated Sara’s ear. The tigress growled some thoughts to the woman who listened and understood.

“Sara wanted me to tell you she wasn’t trying to butter you up. The feel of fur can be calming during stressful times. As for this collar, it’ll fit snug but will adjust as your neck does with the changes,” the shopkeeper interpreted as she loosened the collar to fit over the man’s head. “If you ask me, she was helping and trying to help her case.”

“Cleverrr girrrl,” Felix huffed, half-smiling, while staring at the collar in the woman’s hands. The one destined for his neck.

“She’s a real schemer. Gets her into trouble sometimes. Speaking of which, have you decided on a punishment for Sara? Something fitting for taking away your humanity and freedom of choice? That is, if you assume things could have happened any other way than they did,” remarked the grinning shopkeeper ambiguously.

“Rrrright. Punishmentsssh,” Felix said with his lengthy tongue sticking out.

Sara roared to get both their attention. Then made a final impassioned plea to the man as he was collared.

With the collar clipped, the shopkeeper stepped back and did her best to translate the tigress. “Sara says she is sorry only for acting so brashly. She seems to think you’re a tiger at heart, Felix. She knew it as soon as the Telling Dial revealed as much. She hasn't trapped you, hun, she’s freed you from a body and life that didn’t fit- so she claims. Deep down, Sara is sure you understand. She sees in you a companion and friend for life, and more. Sara wants you to know she’ll happily live out your feline lives together. But if you want her to live at the local zoo for a while or test drive my new fur growth potion, she’ll be happy to do it. Okay, I might have ad-libbed the last part but otherwise Sara is very remorseful. Also quite convinced you’ll prefer a tiger’s life to the old. Just like she came to,” the shopkeeper related earnestly.

Her final words of her plea didn’t need to be translated for Felix to understand. Sara’s emotive face and tearing green eyes made it difficult to discern his own feelings.

“If you’re at a loss for punishments, I can suggest a range of options and then you can choose which Sara will-”

“Heeeelp! The lady on the phone is gonna make my ears bleed!” Ellah interrupted with her hand over the receiver. Only muffling the woman’s heated cursing.

“Ugh, let me guess, a woman with a cow for a husband?” sighed the shopkeeper knowingly.

“Apparantly it’s not just the husband now. Three friends from his bowling league and one of their wives got mesmerized or something and- honestly, can you just take it? I’m sure she’ll scream it all over if you ask,” pleaded Ellah with the phone held over the counter.

“Fine. Sorry, Felix. Hold onto any retribution you have for just a minute while I handle this. I won’t let it take long,” the shopkeeper promised Felix. She then took a deep breath before taking the receiver from Ellah. “Yes, Ellah told me you wanted- Mrs. Ko, I can’t hear you over your shouting and calling my bunny an idiot. There is an ongoing in-store emergency that requires my attention. Now if you can take a deep breath, lower your voice, and cease with the accusations, I’d be happy to assist with what problem his poor reading comprehension has gotten him into.”

Ignoring everything going on behind the counter, Felix weighed Sara’s appeal with her warily watching and waiting. Felix had fleeting considerations of this all being a setup or not as permanent as he was told. He didn’t think they were lying. Didn’t want to believe they could do this to a person. As he was trying to sift fact from fiction in his head a prickling heat and itchiness sprouted between his toes. It’s as coarse, pale white and black hairs are showing on Felix’s feet that he was asking the wrong questions.

Cutting through Felix’s mind was a simple question: was what he was really afraid of was that Sara was right? That deep down, Felix could be happy as an animal.

So long as he wasn’t alone.

Once the shopkeeper had soothed the woman on the phone, she was relieved to hang up and return to the tigers. “The only thing worse than people that don’t follow instructions are the ones that mistake that for my problem. But do I help them anyway? When I can at least. Anyway, Sara, punishment, bad girl, and all that. I can list the punishments from nicest to most-”

“I know, I know how to punisssh,” Felix spoke up despite his hips realigned and fur tickling up the back of his calves.

“Oh? All by yourself? Something fun or did her charms overcome?” an intrigued shopkeeper asked.

Sara bent down on all her legs in front of the man, ready for whatever judgement.

“She made me, she’ssh shtuck with me. Shee how she likesh that,” Felix chuckled before a hacking fit.

“If that’s what you want, then so be it, hun. Sara, you make a tiger, you take care of him. Show him the ropes, break him in, and I’ll tell Fair Yyrlitz to expect two tigers. On a permanent basis…” she added. Though Felix was too busy getting nuzzled and bonked by Sara to hear. The shopkeeper waited for the tigress to stop scenting and trying to hug the transforming man to excuse herself. “While Sara is showing her gratitude, I’m going to see to some other matters in the rear. I have an emergency case coming in in a little under an hour that’ll need to be seen. It’s an alley job so they won’t be coming in or anything. Until then, you two have the front of the store to yourselves. Come on, Ellah. Let’s find your eardrops.”

“Thank youuuuu,” Ellah gushed while skipping to the back with her hands over her aching ears.

The tigress and the tiger to be were given their privacy. It was timely for Felix’s ever advancing transformation reaching his ass- and loins. Cracking sounds from his lower back and pelvis reverberated through Felix were less important than the arousal making his cock hard. A throbbing in his testicles grew from a twinge to pulsating close to orgasm in a matter of minutes. His body had a sudden desperate need to empty his balls and Felix couldn’t stop it.

Red faced, Felix’s rearlegs instinctively planted as his hips bucked. Cum flooded out and onto the floor under Felix with relief tinged with bashfulness. Sara smelled the man’s climax coming and was peeking as it happened. With one brush of her head against his, the awkward moment passed. Felix’s testes throbbed more that they were empty while the shaft and head of his cock quivered in the strangest way.

“It’sh weird havingsh no clothesh, heh,” a panting Felix grunted to Sara. Who was circling the man with a particular interest on his shifting crotch.

Sara waggled her body and shrugged her shoulders. Giving a, ‘You get used to it’ vibe to Felix.

“Guessh I do have my, my collarrrr. Sho not n-naked,” he said with a heavy sweat coming on.”Sho hot in here, ishn’t it?” a fidgeting Felix commented.

As a molten heat enveloped Felix’s penis drew his legs up and to the side in order to sit. With his haunches and rump underdeveloped, Felix had one leg and the other folded under him with either paw-hand on the floor to keep him stable. This left his panting head peering down at a reddening cock. Tiny bumps had broken out over the whole thing while the very tip was squeezed to a point by careful magic. Then as the bumps were developed into feline barbs while the length was steadily being encased from the hilt in a fleshy sheath. Where his balls ballooned with a tiger’s seed.

The sum total of those changes to Felix’s genitals were having effects beyond the physical. Sara had been watching his hindquarters transform with a growing heat of her own. The kind that Felix’s tongue tasted in the air. Somewhere in his brain, intrusive male tiger desires had subtly superseded his human ones. Felix already thought she was a gorgeous tiger. Now he thought she was a gorgeous, rather sexy, lovely smelling tigress. With a really inviting rear end.

Sara’s tail flicked up and ass swayed suggestively while doing another strut. That stirred Felix’s lightly furred, fully grown tail which he’d flopped in front of himself. Followed by stirring his erection to oozing pre. The tigress merely had to turn and show off her own heated, swollen feline cunt. Felix immediately lost composure and orgasmed. In his mind a feverish, bestial desire to mount Sara, take, and make her his own overtook him.

The tigress loved seeing Felix finding pleasure as a tiger so quickly. The fur had spread closer to his ass from both legs and tail with black stripes over orange and white. Bone, muscle, and meat were sculpted to a hefty male tiger’s build. Right up to his lengthening gut and broadening midsection. He was changing into quite the specimen. Beyond her own best expectations.

Felix’s high was slow to fade. As was his smile and the blush lingering in his cheeks. Sara nuzzled Felix’s cheek on her way to lick the sheath where his tiger cock had slipped back into. A very fine lining of fur coated his balls and prickled with the tigress’s tender licks. Felix did his best to return the licks but was too out of breath.

“That’sh wash… good,” Felix muttered as Sara sauntered around in front. He took stock of himself and the changes creeping into his ribs and chest. For the first time he didn’t view the changes as this coming doom. Felix remained unsure what lay ahead for him. But it wasn’t as murky as just a few minutes ago. When Sara nuzzled his face again he told her, “While I have a voish to shay it, I forgivesh yoush, Shara. I wanted you to, to, to… knowsh.”

An appreciative Sara touched her nose to his. She expected any absolution from Felix to take weeks or months and be growled or chuffed at her. To hear it eased her own conscience and stimulated Sara’s desire to see Felix’s changes finish.

The magic’s advancing sculpting had sprouted two rows of small teats up his wide, muscled tiger gut. His ribs bursting inside his chest caused Felix trouble breathing and made him stretch himself out upon his right side. Felix propped his left leg up to better vent the oppressive heat seething off those parts not wrapped in tiger’s fur.

As his lungs and heart were beset and Sara’s attentive gaze Felix’s hands began losing what few human features remained. Fingers grew shorter, fatter, claws grew longer, pads thicker, and his thumbs tightened up into dewclaws. Felix bent the paws to his cracking chest for as long as he could to watch. They were positively massive compared to his arms and head. But were a perfect fit for Felix’s meaty, furry rear paws.

The shifting of his chest, arms, and shoulders in unison had Felix hacking and drooling copiously. Fur was filling in thick over his legs and rear while traveling up his spine to fluff again between his shoulder blades. White fur tickled up his inner thighs, crotch, and flicking tail. He couldn’t quite find a gap to speak what were likely his final words for years. Such missed opportunities were easy to bear with Sara close by. Her eyes never once leaving him.

It’s how Sara knew Felix could use a little distraction during the next few uncomfortable minutes. Amidst the broadening of his upper half Sara nuzzled down his lightly furred belly until reaching Felix’s tucked back sheath and balls. That’s where her tongue lulled out for an intimate licking down of his both areas.

The mild angst at losing use of his hands melted away when Felix felt Sara’s adoring tongue at play. With all the changes and a stiffness in his neck he couldn’t quite see the tigress at work. The sensations were enough to mask the awkward and at times painful transition going on. Like the pinching between his shoulder blades that locked Felix on all fours. Or his ribs and sternum settling. Felix bore these and the shifting position of his neck and head thinking of how he was really warming up to Sara.

“Mrrrrrrroarrrrrr. Shuchh a good girrrl,” Felix said in a deep, rough, voice that was all but lost in growls.

Sara understood what Felix was saying. Even if she hadn’t, seeing Felix’s bristling tiger cock push its way out from his heavily licked sheath was evidence enough. She kept at it, the fur on and around the sheath growing more dense with ever lengthening white hairs. The view was an exquisite one to relish for Sara. Licking up his sheath from below she saw all the changes to his upper body and arms, the spread of fur, the swelling around his neck, and best of all: the toothy grin on Felix’s nominally feline face.

The guilt she’d felt for bringing this upon Felix disappeared. Seeing him taking shape with acceptance and forgiveness validated Sara’s fateful choice. He was definitely partner material. A sublime thought that came as she licked Felix’s penis back to dribbling pre-cum.

A series of loud, disgruntled bangs at the front door startled the tigers out of their familiar bonding. Sara and Felix instinctively got to their feet. Their ears perked up and they alerted in tandem to the front door. It being his first time on all four paws, Felix wobbled a lot. Sara moved closer to steady him. With his neck and skull shifting to align with his new feline body and his cock visible throbbing, Felix didn’t have any room in his head for interruptions.

The shopkeeper emerges from the back in hurry with a stiff leather satchel hanging at her right hip and a pair of black rubber gloves recently snapped on her hands. Carefully perched on the shopkeeper’s shoulder was Ember. Who, after jumping down onto the counter for a better view, gave her meow of approval at Felix’s current state. Picking up the rear as usual was Ellah. In her arms she had six large metal pails, a stool, a poncho, and a little plastic cover just for her top hat.

“Sorry about this Felix and no, they’re ten minutes early. I also told them to knock at the back door. So go set them straight Ellah and tell them to go around the back. They cannot come through the store. Afterall, Felix is still owed his privacy,” the shopkeeper said while approaching Felix. A small, polished bronze trinket glittered in her hand.

“Yes, ma’am! I’ll take care of her. Just gotta set my stuff down by the back door first. It’s all so heavy,” complained Ellah.

“Be quick about it. This woman is about to blow a gasket. I’d rather get her husband back to normal so he can get that earful and not us,” she instructed her bunsisstant as she knelt down in front of Felix. “How are you feeling, hun? Is Sara doing her part or shall I come up with some added punishments for her?”

“Sssharrra ish perrrrrfectsssh,” Felix stated. His voice truly on its final legs.

“Awww, did you hear that, Sara? Felix thinks you’re perfect. Guess that means I won’t punish her with a week on a vegan diet,” she wryly joked as she clipped Felix’s name tag on his collar.

Shaped like a gleeful tiger’s head, it read ‘Felix’ on the front and ‘If lost, return to Sara’ on the back. The shopkeeper stood again and as Ellah was answering the front door, the shop’s owner waved for the two tigers to follow her past the counter and short of the back exit. There the shopkeeper uncovered a standing mirror from under a sheet.

“This mirror will give you a nice view of yourself. And don’t worry about its powerful magic affecting you. To anyone already transformed or satisfied with their forms, it’s just an antique mirror you can’t afford,” the shopkeeper further explained while using the blanket to polish the surface. As she finished and stepped away, Ellah hurried over.

“She’s really angry but she’s going to back her truck or whatever in the alley. She brought all five somehow,” Ellah told her boss as they met at the back door.

“Mrs. Ko was borrowing a friend’s covered trailer to get everyone here if she could. Guess she succeeded,” the shopkeeper remarked. As she and Ellah prepared to leave, the shopkeeper took note of the time. “We should be out there for about thirty minutes. Or however long it takes for me to get all those people turned cows to take their cure and recover. Not everyone is thrilled when they hear it’s a suppository… Sara and Ember will keep our newest tiger company until then. Shouldn’t be much longer for you, Felix. You’re looking great already. Just have to lose some of this silly old hair.”

In parting, the shopkeeper rubbed Felix’s head. Her hand came away full of his loosened brown hair. Laughing, she delayed going out to personally comb her hand over his head until Felix was bald and without eyebrows. The hair was disposed in the same satchel at his teeth and nails and kept near the duffle bag full of his clothes. To be kept in storage.

The shopkeeper and Ellah headed out the back door at last. The beeping of something large reversing went away when the door shut and the felines were alone.

Naturally Felix was transfixed on the reflection in the mirror. He got to see himself on all fours for the first time. Also got a good look at his hindquarters and tail all decked out in their fresh new fur coat. The brightness of the oranges and the vivid black stripes were a sight to behold.

Once he’d gone over what had changed he was drawn to where the transformation still had work to do.

Felix’s mouth and tongue showed their feline fangs and ridged tongue from the man’s incessant panting. Saliva is also resulting in him drooling more than he can handle as his skull is finally truly set on by the shifting sugar’s sweet transformation. Losing his human hair had been the precursor to aching in both ears and a squeezing tightness going from brow to top of his bald head. It spread to his throbbing nose, swelling lips, and the puffy area above his upper lip. Being able to see the twisting, aching, swelling, and other pains sculpting a tiger’s visage from his humble human one was yet another surreal pleasure.

Both ears enlarged, their ends rounding while the skull’s metamorphosis into a tiger’s made the ears appear to shift. Felix’s nose widened and expanded in line with the expanding jaw. It felt like all of his face was being pulled in every way possible. Black coloring bled into his lips the more his snout formed and skin packed on. His flush cheeks stretched with every heated breath Felix took.

One place not beset by bones cracking and growing outward were his eye sockets. Inside of which Felix’s bulging eyes were too big for him to blink. For a grueling two minutes he watched unblinking as the right eye and then left morphed. Spreading out from the rounded pupil, the iris spread into a tiger’s distinct golden. Though with enough flecks of Felix’s old blue to give them a unique shimmer all their own when he could finally blink again.

His vision changed to a tiger’s dichromatic vision. That adjustment was just another stress point for the roiling headache Felix was nursing. Felix’s jaw and mouth were near the end of their growth. Necessitating the closing of his eyes so he could open wide to give the changes room. With a few loud, wet pops the tiger’s maw was complete. A hissing rumble from his mouth ended in a halfway decent roar. Felix wanted to try again but a cough fit had him spitting up more and trying not to bite his unruly tongue.

A light trickle of blood from the corners of his mouth and down his chin were from his teeth and gums. Not enough to concern him or Sara, who stood next to him like a proud mother. His whiskers and face were really taking shape. Which meant his senses were about to be inundated with sounds, smells, and tastes. An experience that could knock a freshly transformed tiger like Felix for a loop.

‘Let’s hope he doesn’t have a sensory overload. I could use your help with him, Ember,’ Sara told Ember’s reflection in the mirror with her whiskers and mews.

Ember stood and stretched from where she’d be observing atop the counter. ‘Sure. Be down there in a moment.’

‘Be gentle and let him see you come up. Don’t want to scare him,’ warned Sara.

The exchange between felines did not go unnoticed by Felix. New intrusive instincts were allowing him to decipher large portions of their secret cat language. He looked for Ember before she made herself known and reveled in the furry support from both sides.

Felix wanted to thank them but that would have to wait until his new face was his own yet. Aside from fur, twitching muscles and tendons kept him from holding a straight face. So he accepted their kindness by laying down so both could be close to him for the rapidly approaching finale.

Fur sprouted upon his ears and the edges of his face. Felix’s arms, front paws, chest, and shoulders were well on their way to fully furred like his complete lower half. The orange, white, and black stripes spread up his neck and reached his head. His ears were by then fluffed and face lightly coated in hairs. The surge of this second wave of hairs over Felix’s face would leave nothing unfurred by its end.

The aches, pains, awkward feelings, and shifting that had been Felix’s life for almost an hour drew to a close. Fur tickling around his eyes had Felix closing them until he felt normal again. Or whatever his normal was as a tiger.

A long, wet tiger lick to the face from Sara was the signal.

‘Damn, he really came out handsome,’ a swooning Sara growled as Felix opened his eyes.

‘Oh yes. Quite the big boy too,’ agreed Ember.

‘Thanks,’ Felix growled back bashfully without thinking.

Sara’s face perked up. ‘And he’s a fast learner! You’re a real catch, Felix. I knew it,’ she boasted while nuzzling him hard with love. Which he gladly returned.

‘You two look so adorable together. I’m a real matchmaker,’ mused Ember from her seated position atop the counter. Where she was cleaning herself.

‘You only did what I bribed you too, taffy thief,’ Sara chuffed back.

‘Taffy thief?’ Felix asked in a confused growl.

‘I’ll tell you later, sugar,’ she told Felix with a lick. Then loudly growled at Ember asking, ‘How much longer until they’re back you think?’

‘Let me check.’ Ember proceeded to get up, stretch, stretch again, and then leapt from the counter to Sara’s back. Then to the floor and after a few steps had her ear to the backdoor to listen. ‘If I had to guess, ten minutes tops.’

‘Then could we have some… privacy?’ Sara requested while staring longingly into Felix’s eyes.

‘It just so happens I need a drink and a nip break,’ meowed the Bengal cat as she pranced around the tigers. She hopped behind the counter and headed for the backroom. Meowing in parting, ‘Try not to scratch up the whole place.’

‘No promises,’ growled Sara while Felix romantically licked at her neck and head.

Tempting as it was to let Felix bathe her top to bottom, Sara had a different desire to sate and nine minutes and thirty seconds to do it.

With Felix’s transformation completed, the burly, fanged, beautiful Siberian tiger in the mirror ceased to be a stranger. It was him. The ears, whiskers, that tail, those paws, those retracting claws, and at least five hundred pounds of muscled predator was all Felix. Bigger than the chunkier tigress, they had the appearance of mates. As he licked at Sara, Felix learned about giving himself over to the latent instincts of his body that had let him communicate with the others. Though he ironically didn’t pick on Sara’s budding lurid intentions until they were laid bare in front of his very nose.

As the two tigers rubbed and scented off the other Sara made sure to end with her rump in Felix’s face. A whisker’s distance from his wet pink nose was the tigress needy, swollen sex and its many aromas. From a whiff Felix’s brain was abuzz. Another sniff brought his thorny tiger cock out. The third, deep sniff of Sara’s cunt wasn’t enough and Felix’s tongue had to taste.

‘You have no idea how long I’ve wanted this,’ Sara roared while Felix’s tongue lapped at her pussy.

She roared happily and made other horny vocalizations that amounted to ‘faster’ or harder’. Most were just the bestial noises of mating. Until Sara remembered their closing window of time. So she forced herself to pull away, bapping Felix’s in the nose with her tail as she padded a few feet ahead. There she presented herself with her tail up, rear feet planted, and pussy begging for attention.

‘Well? It won’t fuck itself, sugar,’ Sara chuffed hotly at him.

Felix didn’t have a need for words in his reaction. He scrambled forward, nails scratching the floorboards under him as he went. Reaching her, Felix licked her cunt a few more times before cautiously leaping onto the tigress’s back. Powerful as his instincts were, Felix’s human mind kept trying to help or coordinate. Yo-yoing between the mindsets led to fumbling and repositioning a lot when mounting. With his repeated attempts to thrust into her missed the mark, Sara sensed his problem.

‘Relax, sugar. Don’t overthink it. Let those new intuitions guide you while your human brain rides shotgun. And be quick about it,’ a panting Sara urged. Wiggling her butt under him she enthusiastically added, ‘Breed me, Felix!’

He bent his ears at her in thanks before doing his best to heed Sara’s advice. Felix took a few long, deep breaths to steady himself. Then worked to reposition his rear paws with a little help from the nearby mirror. It also meant he could watch as his cock found Sara’s feline cunt on the first thrust. The instant they connected both tigers let out passionate, loud roars. Ones that shook shelves, left bottles rattling, and caused a woman outside to scream.

The stink of steamy tiger sex filled the room along with their aroused grunts, roars, and several orgasms on Sara’s end. Well over a year of wanting a male to fuck her furry pussy full had Sara pent up. In four minutes she’d climaxed three times from Felix’s cock and its barbs. Her legs and pussy were transforming into jelly while her brain relished in long overdue sexual gratification. With her tail wrapped around his back, Sara willed her lover to keep going.

With Sara’s urging, Felix quickly reached his climax too. He thrusted deep before emptying his tiger seed into Sara with another roar to shake the walls. It was like no orgasm he’d had in his entire life. The combined satisfaction born from his human need for intimacy and the primal tiger’s need to breed left Felix thinking everyone else was missing out. The sex was nearly as amazing as the gorgeous, alluring, and sneaky minded tigress heaving beneath him.

The two tired, panting tigers carefully separated once the deed was done. Immediately flopping on their sides, legs dangled over the other, faces lickably close, and tails loving intertwined.

Their privacy ended thirty seconds later when the shopkeeper unlocked and opened the shop’s back door. She held it for Ellah as she lurched along carrying four full buckets of milk. The bunsisstant’s clothing was disheveled, her stockings ripped, and had a tired expression. Behind her the shopkeeper hauled two buckets in one hand. In the other her empty satchel, the milking stool, and a small wad of cash.

“Can I put these down? My arms are falling offfff,” Ellah begged the shopkeeper once both were inside and the back door shut.

“Yes, you may. But be careful not to-”

Ellah hastily dropped her full buckets. Splashing their warm milk on the floor and the resting tiger’s paws. “Ooops.”

“Ellah…” sighed the shopkeeper.

“I know, I know. I’ll get the towel,” Ellah conceded as she trudged around the tigers and into the back room.

Just as Ellah passed through the beads Ember swaggered her way out to the front of the store and up onto the counter. The smell of sex in the air and the floored tired tigers were evidence enough of what had recently transpired. She and the shopkeeper traded savvy glances while the latter unloaded her things and got back to her seat behind the counter.

“Just another Thursday at my shop, huh, Ember?” remarked the shopkeeper as she leaned forward to scratch the counter cat. “Looking good, Felix. I see you’re taking to your new form with grace. The transformation can really take a lot out of you, can’t it?”

Felix replied with a low growl of, ‘It sure can.’

“Can take a lot of your partner too it seems. How are you handling your punishment so far, Sara? Is Felix a cruel master?” the shopkeeper playfully questioned.

‘He’s a real stoic, intense soul who exudes dominance,’ Sara roared proudly. At the same time Felix humbly licked and kneaded her belly like a tiger cub in bliss.

‘Sara sure knows how to pick’em,’ purred Ember.

“I would say it’s kind recognizing kind,” the shopkeeper deduced as she picked up the store phone. “Seeing you two snuggled and glowing is a good end to the day. Better than the bickering and awkward silence back in the alley. Now to break the news to my friend that I’ll be dropping off two tigers instead of one. I know she won’t mind but that won’t stop her talking my ear off about another ‘accident’ at the shop,” she groaned while dialing.

While the shopkeeper made the arrangements for Felix to join Sara’s enclosure at Glimmerwood Animal Retreat the tigress regaled him with what awaited them. A cozy country property far from prying eyes that was filled mostly with customers of the shopkeeper. Many were there for short, pre-arranged stays. Others chose to check in on a permanent basis. Whereas others like themselves were waiting out an accident, mistake, or inability to follow the shopkeeper’s. It could mean days, weeks, months, years, or a miracle before they were human again. Whatever the cause, the strange woman who ran the retreat, Fair Yyrlitz, made sure they wanted for nothing during their stay.

Ellah was wearing sweatpants and struggling to carry two large towels in her tired arms. She mopped the floor relatively clean and offered to clean the tigers too. But they’d already licked themselves clean and were now craving more. Seeing an opportunity to lighten her work load, Ellah lined up two buckets for each tiger and one for Ember. Who merrily joined at the offer for some very fresh milk.

“Drink up. Doesn’t get any fresher,” Ellah invited the felines. “If any of it’s sour, blame whoever roared so darn loud before. Scared one of the man-cow-things shitless. And I wish that was a euphemism,” she divulged with a disgusted shiver.

The bunsisstant grumbled to the back with the wet towels in her arms and the shopkeeper locked in a phone conversation. One she wishes could have been a text. For the counter cat, tigress, and newly changed tiger it was a refreshing meal after a trying rollercoaster of emotions. Most of all for Felix. Who had a whole new life to contemplate.

Felix had wandered into the shop unsure if magic was even really possible. Now he was living proof magic was possible, and extremely potent. Striking as Felix’s physical transformation into a tiger had been, the biggest change had to be his mindset. He was fully prepared to spend years, decades as a tiger so long as Sara was there with him.

There was a lot more he wanted to know about tigress. The one he kept stealing glances of and whose scent was etched into his nostrils. With Sara the future’s many unknowns didn’t stress him. Nor the things he’d lost. What became of his car or what his co-workers say were fleeting, unimportant, yet rather amusing questions.

The single lingering anxiety bubbling up whenever Felix remembered he was naked. Only to remind himself he was wearing a collar, so he was okay. Sara and Ember agreed it was one of the harder things to get used to. But also called it a ‘good problem to have’.

Later that night, after arrangements were made and supper, Sara and Ember showed Felix their favorite place to sleep: Ellah’s bed. The three ignored the protesting bun as they made themselves comfortable.

The felines were soon fast asleep. Only Ellah, her body squished between the two tigers with a Bengal cat sprawled on top, butt in the bun’s face, found it difficult to sleep. She spent the time awake warmly recalling a time when the shopkeeper’s only pets were her and a ferret.

*******

Three months later

It was the perfect kind of Saturday afternoon at Glimmerwood Animal Retreat to lay outside and do absolutely nothing. Every sun spot and window in Yyrlitz’s cabin was occupied. Outside animals sprawled in the sun, relaxed in the shade, or wallowed in mud. The latter being the exclusive domain of the pigs, two hippos, and one very undiscerning dog who loved baths.

Behind the barn was a large old willow tree whose numerous thick branches and nooks filled an unusual array of animals. Birds, squirrels, raccoons, a thirty-five foot black and green python, a fully bellied tabby cat, an owl, green parrot, a few goats, sheep, a puma, three lions, a group of various foxes, and two well-fed, closely snuggled tigers. Many more animals slumbered in the tree’s vast shade; horses, donkeys, cows, llamas, a pitbull, an elephant, a peacock, anteater, and an ox making up hardly half. The rare selection slept harmoniously together in sight impossible anywhere else.

Any normal person would keep their distance and be happy with the view. Anyone but Yyrlitz herself would be ill advised to stroll amongst the animals.

The lone exception to this rule’s red hair and tuneless humming raised heads and tails as she made one of her occasional visits. This time to drop off yet more customers who hadn’t read instructions. While Fair Yyrlitz processed them in the barn, the shopkeeper hiked towards the tree. With Ember curled atop her right shoulder, purring away.

The short trip to the willow was anything but short. Those animals on her path she petted as she passed. Others got up and walked, flapped, waddled, or however they could to greet the shopkeeper. She remembered every animal’s name and story. She gave updates where she could, solace when needed, and pets every time. It took her a while to actually reach the low hanging willow branch where tigers Felix and Sara had been watching and waiting.

After briefly chatting with a vixen further down the branch, the shopkeeper got both hands ready for rub tiger fuzz. “Here we are at last, Ember. Your special friend Sara and her partner Felix are right here making sure this tree branch doesn’t float away. And how are my very loveliest of tiger duos? Sara, you’re looking thinner! And Felix, how nice of you to take on those pounds Sara lost. Belly looks cute on you though,” remarked the doting shopkeeper.

The tigers nuzzled the woman and Ember while making their happy chuffing sounds. Once that customary greeting was done Ember pounced from the shopkeeper’s shoulder onto Sara’s back. The old feline friends did their customary greetings and Ember flopping in the tiger’s ample fur. That left both of the shopkeeper’s hands free to rub both of Felix’s fuzzy cheeks as she gave them the good news.

“Ember has been wailing for weeks about getting a vacation. Not asking what a lazy counter cat would need a vacation from, I made a two week reservation for Ember so she can finally get some time off. Ellah fully supported the idea too. Poor bun might have her bed to herself for the first time in years,” the shopkeeper admitted as she idly looked over all the familiar faces around her. “Tempted to bring someone here back just so Ellah isn’t lonely. What about you, Stephanie? If you scare Ellah dead I’ll let eat her,” she sarcastically asked the python curled in the branches above.

The python genuinely considered the idea but hissed that it was vegetarian.

“Worth a shot. I bet a tiny rubber spider would do the trick. It’s not my fault she’s a blast to tease. Thanks anyway, Stepanie. Did you shed recently? Because those scales are sparkling!” the shopkeeper gushed. Managing to make the snake blush.

Around then Yyrlitz exited the barn with two cows, a bull and heifer, in tow towards one of the pastures. The shopkeeper asked the tigers if they remembered Mrs. Ko and her husband with the excess milk problem. As the shopkeeper told it, Mr. Ko had promised to get his cow fancy under control after his mishap that day. He didn’t, but was able to keep it under the radar for a few months.

Then one night when she went to surprise him, thinking he’d kept up the bargain, with some special milk from the shop. One thing led to another and now Mr. Ko was a pregnant heifer. Mrs. Ko was angry, and a bull, but happy that they were finally starting a family.

The shopkeeper would depart Glimmerwood in her own time. Leaving not just Ember but a couple milk jugs for the tigers. The taste of which brought to mind that fateful day when they drank the same milk following Felix’s transformation. That night when they shared the milk in their enclosure with dinner it led to a sleepless night spent roaring during passionate copulation or panting in rest. Hardly the only ones at the retreat partaking.

When the tiger’s had fucked themselves too tired for another round they rested. They curled around the sleeping Ember with their bodies in their bed of cushy blankets and stuffed cats. Sara was slumbering soon enough, while Felix stayed awake for a little longer.

That taste of milk brought up more than lust for Felix. He had not ruminated on the day he woke up a man and went to sleep a tiger in months. The innocence of him remembering how happy he would have been with just getting to try out a cat tail all his own for a few hours. Knowing if he could go back and stop himself entering the shop that day, he wouldn’t dare change a thing.

Life was better now for Felix. Life meant a tail, fur, no worries, a full belly, and Sara. Turned out that was all Felix ever needed anyway.