The Menagerie

Story by skiesofsilver on SoFurry

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Written for a trade with Fakeman


In the midst of the shrouded streets, Mason found the Menagerie. With its gleaming storesign, the glimmer of multicolored lights from the inside and out, and the sound of laughter and music from worlds other than these, the man very much felt like a moth drawn to flame. There was a promise of something in there, of what specifically he could not be sure, but whatever it was, it offered more than surrounding establishments that didn't have its glow or glamour. Somehow he knew this was the place.

"The Menagerie," he muttered, taking a step towards the place. His formerly muddled mind had intensified with desire and need. Whereas before he hadn't been sure of his reasoning for traveling through this crowded, misty city, he now knew.

"The Menagerie," he said again, his stride now sure. The words felt meaningful leaving his lips, their importance resonating and echoing in his mind. He drew closer and closer to the place, his desire to enter undercut by a reminder that a moth rarely profited from its interaction with flame. What could he hope to gain by going inside?

Uncertainty reigned for but a moment before the Menagerie opened and a gaggle of laughing, chattering patrons walked out. Mason stared at them, gaping at their tentacles and antenna, their metathoraxes and varied peduncles, but most of all noticing their glee upon their variable faces. They brushed past him, barely noticing him though he surely noticed them, continuing to stare at them until they faded into the shrouded streets. It was only then that he turned back to the Menagerie and found its door still open, its previous assortment of flashing colors having solidified into one misty pale purple glow. The sounds from inside remained the same, however, the laughter and conversation so much like those who had just passed him.

No longer doubtful, he walked into the Menagerie, shivering as he felt the purple mist engulf and caress him. As he walked through the mist, the voices' volume lessened and the lights dimmed so he had to squint his eyes and strain to hear. The further he walked through the mist, the further everyone else became. The world, his worries, and himself seemed so distant, a mere afterthought in the grand scheme of things. For an unknowable amount of time he hardly felt anything, only the knowing that somehow he was moving forward closer to his goal.

Finally, Mason made it. He emerged from nowhere into somewhere. No, not somewhere. He was in the Menagerie.

In a sense the place lived up to its name. Among the flashing lights of the dance floor and seated around in various differently shaped chairs and cushions were creatures and people, some of which he recognized but the majority he did not. There were some humanoids that resembled the animals of Terra III, other less simple creature he knew as inhabitants of Zearoc 5 or the Calcimus Cluster, and then there were those that hurt to simply stare at. No matter their look, the Menagerie's patrons talked and laughed amongst each other, some particularly amorous pairs or trios or even more journeying to the place's backrooms though there were some public displays of affection that he thought might be too much for the general public if only he could identify which parts were actually being used.

Mason looked on upon the patrons and shrank back. It was almost too much, the diversity, the choice, and the motions of things unknown but still he remained rather than retreating into the now ochre colored fog. Instead, he looked for somewhere to lurk aside from the entrance. He glanced about the place until his gaze settled on a lonely bar at a corner. He shuffled over to it and looked to the person manning the bar, a dour man in an unblemished suit.

"Hello," Mason said. "I'd like--"

The man grunted and pushed a bottle towards him before turning away. Mason blinked and stared at the man, who ignored him as he mixed some sort of drink. Shrugging, Mason took the bottle and glanced down at it. The label was written in some language he did not know or recognize, though the liquid inside reminded him enough of his regularly consumed alcohol that he figured it was safe enough to drink. He placed his back against the bar and was about to take his first swig when he noticed someone near him that had not been there before. He nearly jumped when he saw what it was, or really who it was: a reptilian creature tauric in nature with its four thick legs and thicker tail but possessing a humanoid torso with thin arms and even two thinner necks. Noticing the cloth covered bumps on its chest, Mason decided the creature was female, though he really couldn't be sure unless he looked beneath it and he doubted he would be doing that anytime soon. Rather, he continued to stare at her and she at him, her proud snouts vaguely draconic though the sleek fins atop its head and horizontally pupiled eyes made it more alien than anything. Her heads were of differing color, one an ochre orange and the other a murky purple. The orange head smiled at him while the other flicked out a bright green colored forked tongue as if it were smelling him. He wondered if they were both of the same mind, or differing entirely. His gaze dropped away from its four eyed stare to examine her body. He found himself admiring her smoothly scaled body, its colors an entwined pattern of orange and purple. He scratched his head when he noticed that the only part of her covered was indeed her breasts.

"Hello there," two voices said at once, their tone sweet and sibilant.

Mason gulped and looked up at the hydrataur's head. Now they both smiled at him, showing off their many teeth. He stared at that smile and felt their genuine mirth. Soon enough, he couldn't help but smile back.

"Hi," he said.

The smiles broadened and so did Mason's. There was something about the creature that entranced him, just like how the Menagerie had drawn him in the first place. In fact, the rest of the Menagerie seemed hazy now, no more than a distant memory. For now, the hydra and her mirth was the only thing of consequence.

"What is your name?" she asked with both heads at once, their timing impeccable. It was more than coordination, it was them being one and the same. At least, he mused, it made things easier.

"Mason," he said. "What's yours?"

"Ley," said the purple head.

"Lah," said the orange head.

"Leylah," they both said at once.

Mason nodded and absentmindedly took a drink of his beverage. It tasted fine, might fine indeed. He took another sip and was about to offer to get the hydra something when he heard a grunt. Leylah took the drink the barman had just been mixing, a bubbling concoction that they hydra took a taste of with each head. For a time they drank in silence until she finally asked a question.

"Mason," she began. "Why are you here?"

Mason paused and considered. Panic arose as he too wondered the same thing. He looked around the place and felt his head swim. Nothing was where it was before. The entrance now glowed with gold, the dance floor had been replaced by a body of glistening liquid in which swam all sorts of things he hardly recognized, and chairs and cushions were replaced by long, marble tables. Lights were now fires and the music was stranger still, a series of robotic beeps and guttural growls that seemed to have no pattern or form. He clutched his head and looked down at his drink and found he could now read the label.

"Guthrie's," he murmured, looking over to the barman who was not a barman, but some sort of lilac lady.

"What was that?"

Mason looked back to Leylah and everything stabilized. He let out a sigh of relief, glad to have a constant.

"My beer," he said, holding up the bottle. "At least...I think it's beer."

One of the hydra's heads laughed while the other drank her beverage. Mason smiled and sidled closer to the hydra.

"You didn't answer my question," she said.

He looked up at her.

"Why do you think?" he asked.

She shrugged. Mason's gazed drifted away from her again and found the swimming pool had been replaced by an arcade.

"This place is strange," he murmured.

"It could get stranger still," Leylah said.

He looked up at her and felt his gaze drawn to her chest. At that moment, something shifted.

"I'd like that," he said.

"You are certain?" she asked.

"Entirely."

She laughed again and put her drink on the bar. Motioning for him, she began to walk away. Mason watched how she walked, admiring the sway of her quadrupedal lower half. He blinked and placed his beverage down, leaving it to the robotic bartender to attend to.

Mason followed after the hydrataur, walking up a spiraling crystalline staircase that hummed with sounds of the ocean, an edifice he knew hadn't been there before. While ascending, they passed seemingly inaccessible doors in the wall, from which he could hear moans and squelching. Vaguely now realizing what he had just agreed to, he hardly cared. How strange could it get?

He received his answers when they reached the top of the stairs, at which lied a solitary wooden door. It opened at the hydrataur's approach and closed when Mason passed through. He looked back to it and found its surface entirely metallic.

"Here we are," Leylah said, her twin voices echoing throughout the cavern.

"And where are we?"

"Somewhere strange."

Mason nodded. He glanced about and frowned.

"Is something wrong?"

"No," he said, shaking his head. "I just thought there'd be a bed."

Leylah laughed, but there was nothing sinister about it. She motioned towards one corner of the cave, upon which was a contraption that Mason couldn't quite understand.

"It would not be strange if it were simple."

Mason nodded and walked towards the contraption. It was compiled of rubbery ropes and a confusing assortment of levers.

"What's this?" he asked, reaching forward to touch it.

Before he could react, the contraption did. The ropes coiled out and ensnared him, wrapping around his limbs before lifting him up into the air. He squirmed, his restraints painfully tight until Leylah sauntered up and pulled a lever here and there until the pressure dwindled to a more comfortable level though he was still kept in place.

"Um, Leylah?" he said.

"Yes?" she said, looking up at him with a grin on her two faces.

"What's happening?"

"Something strange," she answered. "Relax."

And so he did. Leylah hissed and moved forward. She grabbed at his torso while her tail manipulated the contraption's levers, pulling him close. In her strong grip, she pulled him closer still. Suddenly her purple head shot forward as the other one dipped down. Before he knew it, he was locked in a kiss with the hydra, her forked tongue entwining with his. He shuddered and closed his eyes, only opening them when he heard something tear. He looked down at saw her other head was gnawing at his shirt. She smiled up at him, nuzzling at his exposed chest for a second before tearing away the rest of his shirt. Still locked in the kiss, her other head rubbed against his stomach before letting its tongue droop out. Mason shuddered again when it dragged that tongue up against his exposed torso, its texture rougher than the one currently in his mouth. Still, it was more a pleasant tickle than a grinding drag and the sensation only improved once it reached his neck. He closed his eyes again, moaning in between licking laps against his neck and feeling himself get hard down below.

"Oh my," Leylah said, simultaneously withdrawing both her heads. "Now we are getting somewhere."

Her tail tugged at a lever. Mason yelped as he was spun around and then turned upside down so that he faced up rather than down. Leylah chortled and bent down to pull at his pants while her heads undid his belt, the rubbery ropes slipping off just a bit to allow his pants to move down. The belt clattered to the floor atop the belt, leaving Mason solely in his underwear, which did little to hide his bulge. Leylah dipped her heads towards his crotch, both tongues flicking out above his erection.

"Mmm," she said, her twin gaze looking towards his head. "So it begins."

Mason raised an eyebrow as he felt an itch on his neck and chest. He tilted his head forward and gaped when he saw green spots had appeared on his belly, patches that began to spread.

"Uh..." he said.

Leylah snorted and pulled at his underwear with her snouts while her clawed hands played against his feet, kneading and massaging his flesh. It felt good, though strange and perhaps it was how it was meant to be.

The hydra quickly tore away his undergarments, withdrawing her heads to stare down at his exposed manhood. Her heads coiled above it, contemplating its stiff appearance as he squirmed, in some way relaxed from the foot massage and another part unsettled by the continued proliferation of scales across his torso. Both were overridden once of Leylah's heads ducked down and wrapped its tongue around his throbbing shaft. He shivered as she took him into her mouth, one of her tongues caressing at his cock while the other began to lick at the inside of his thighs.

"Mmm," he moaned.

The tail pulled at another level. Disorientation momentarily cast aside pleasure as he was forced into an awkward standing position, though only the tips of his toes touched the floors. Leylah's hands too have moved to her chest and she began to pull at the cloth around her breasts. He stared at chest as she tantalizingly stripped off the cloth, unveiling her pert, smoothly scaled breasts while she continued to lick and suck at his shaft. Her nonoccupied head dipped low and looked up at him, hissing and flicking her tongue at him. He panted when she licked at one of her own nipples while her other tongue squeezed at his member. Suddenly his stomach lurched and he looked down. His torso was now mostly covered in green scales, but there was something stranger still happening. He squinted, his head shaking at the continual licks and the spread of scales up his neck and visage, and saw something begin to press out just below his hips and above the hydra's head.

Before Mason could get a closer look, he cried out as he reached climax. Seed gushed from his cock into the hydra's waiting maw and she gulped it all up, slurping noisily while he moaned. His stomach lurched again and he felt the protrusions move and developed, his hips cracking as the space between them and his legs increased. Through the haze of afterglow he stared down in surprise at the protrusions and found them to be lizardlike feet complete with nubby, underdeveloped claws and a soft hide of green scales. Squinting his eyes at them, he concentrated and then they moved, wiggling as they grew out. This was certainly something strange.

Mason lost sight of his new set of legs as the scales reached his eyes, forcing them shut. Though he couldn't see, he could certainly feel as Leylah licked his cock clean while his visage began to alter. His nose wiggled before shrinking down flat against his face before becoming subsumed by scales while his ears thinned and sunk against his thes sides of his face, vanishing completely. He moaned again, and it was at this moment that his jaw ached and pressed forward, forming into a sloping snout with two small slits for smell. Inside his mouth his teeth split into many smaller, sharper fangs, more joining their numbers to fill the inside of his new muzzle. Where scales touched scalp his hair fell out, leaving his cranium just as smoothly scaled as Leylah.

Finally Mason forced his eyes open, his pupils a gleaming gold and his eyes split horizontally rather than the normal vertical of a reptile. He blinked, finding his vision much sharper, though his scent seemed to be lacking at least until his new forked tongue flicked out and smelled at the air. He smelled arousal and the taste of Leylah's approval. He dipped his head down, noting his snout on the fringe of his vision, and looked to his crotch. He had to continue to readjust his vision as his neck began to grow out and out, thinning in the process.

His neck wasn't the only thing thinning too. Leylah continued to lick at his member like it was some sort of popsicle, and like a popsicle it was beginning to shrink at her ministrations, though all the more sensitive for it. Noticing that he noticed, Leylah's other head surged forward and nuzzled at his chest, crowing in delight at scales crawled up and over his shoulders. They lost some of their broadness as the scales spread down them to his arms, thinning these limbs before reaching his bound hands. He squeezed his fingers together, the digits wiggling as they were gloved with scale and black claws began to push out where his nails had once been.

Mason winced when his balls pulled up taut against his crotch, though he relaxed when Leylah dropped her other head so that both licked at his dwindling masculinity. Above them his other set of legs continued to develop as the scales swept down to his crotch and thighs. He hissed and groaned as his legs thickened, swelling stouter and stubbier while his heels cracked and lifted. His bonds suddenly strained as muscle and mass was added to him below the waist, his lower half now all the more heavier. Leylah simply flicked a lever and readjusted her heads as Mason's bond gripped tighter and pulled against each other as if he was supposed to be stretched apart and stretched apart he was. He whimpered, wiggling his thickening, clawed toes as the portion below his waist became more than merely his lower half. He, however, wasn't privy to watch it, only feel it because his vision suddenly churned and shuddered. At first he thought it was because what was happening was finally too strange for his mind to handle. He placed his clawed hands upon his head, pressing against his cranium and gasping when his skull began to push back.

The new few moments were a confusing series of events. Something squelched and his gasps turned into moans as his shrunk shaft and testicles retreated inwards, a warmth developing down below as they tunneled into him. He heard Leylah, both of her heads, laugh and he shuddered as she pressed her snout against something sensitive and tight. Next, he felt her drag her tongues, one smooth and the other rough, against his developing underbelly, following its growth until her tongues trailed up and swirled around his newfound front legs, teasing and sucking at each of his clawed digits while they they flailed helplessly in the air. He whimpered and moaned as a warmth blossomed below just as his head split, his hands pushed apart and away as flesh begat flesh. There was a strange sliding sensation and when he opened his snout to cry out, he felt three open.

Perplexed, he opened his eyes and found himself with more than just a pair. He had three to be exact, and he didn't see triple but three perspectives at once and all nestled so close together. He gaped and turned left to see what was the matter and found himself only seeing two heads rather than three. With some concentration, he turned his left head right and saw all his heads at once.

They were seemingly similar, somewhat draconic and snakish all the same. Their eyes bore the same surprise.

"Oh, three!" Leylah said. "How strange!"

Before Mason could reply, he heard something grind. He yelped with all three of his voices as his bonds released him. Somehow he managed to land on his four feet, though he did fall forward and catch himself with his arms. Still disoriented, he somehow forced himself up, though he still felt unbalanced and his triple-headed gaze certainly wasn't helping.

"Oh my!" Leylah hissed. "Look at you!"

And Mason did look upon himself. He was now entirely garbed in green scales, but that was the least of his changes in retrospect. Like Leylah, he was now tauric, his lower half thick and more bestial than his more humanoid torso. Experimentally he lifted each foot, feeling the heft and power in each. Slowly he ran his hands over his smoothly scaled stomach, shivering at the sensation, until he reached where his crotch once was. Of course, this was now occupied by the muscle and mass needed for his front legs, which could only mean it was somewhere down back and below. Concentrating hard, he lowered just one head and found that he was not as disoriented as he thought he would be. With more effort he ducked it down far enough to look between his legs. Sure enough there was a tight vertical slit near the back of his hindquarters, but did that mean...?

Mason didn't have much time to ponder this before he felt a pulling at his spine. He grunted, his voice much higher pitched than before and looked back with all three heads as something sprouted above his rear. It was a nubby beginning of his tail, but it grew quickly and pleasurably. He moaned and hissed, feeling every inch and bit of bone as it pulled at his spine, thickening and lengthening with every passing moment. There was similar, though softer pressure on his chest as something began to grow there too. With more ease this time he pulled one head away from looking at his tail to glance at his chest. He gasped when he saw two rounded mounds were growing upon his upper chest, his thickening nipples poking out between his scales. He raised his hands to grope his burgeoning breasts but Leylah was there first.

Leylah's clawed hands darted forward and groped Mason's growing breast flesh, squeezing and caressing them. Despite being scaled, the pert mounds were surprisingly soft and sensitive, sending electric tingles down below that when combined with his tail growth caused some slickness.

"Here," Leylah said, thrusting her chest forward. "Feel mine."

Mason did that and more. With his clawed hands he gripped at Leylah's chest, marveling at how firm yet soft the hydra's breasts were. He squeezed them, eliciting a moaning hiss from her. Satisfied by the response, he squeezed again, some part of his mind hoping his would come out just like hers. After some further caressing, he moved his fingers higher to tweak at her nipples, each touch at their hard points seeming to satisfy the hydra more. He sound found out why when she pinched and prodded at his nipples, that extra sensitivity nearly sending him over the edge. He blinked with three pairs of eyes, for he certainly felt some moistness down below and not the throb of an erection. As he pondered this, he gave one a final pleasured grunt as his tail finished its growth, his breasts swelling out to firm, full roundness seconds later.

Abruptly Leylah's withdrew her hands and scuttled back. Mason dropped his hands and let them hang by his sides while the hydra looked him over.

"Hmm," she said. "Yes. Now..."

Mason tilted his heads all at once.

"Something strange is over." Leylah continued. "Now it is time for something sexy. Would you like that?"

Mason nodded. Something strange had been strange indeed; after all, he was now a hydrataur and female too. Surely something sexy would be sexy as well.

"Umm," he said. "How are we going to do this?"

Leylah had multiple smiles. "Just follow my lead."

Leylah's tail twirled around something and tossed it to herself. She caught it and handed it over to Mason. He gawked at the thick dildo in his clawed hands, his claws uncomfortably clutching at its ridged, knobby surface. He looked up in confusion.

"To ourselves?" he asked.

She laughed, drew closer and before he knew it he hissed and moaned as he felt something plunge into his damp slit. For a moment his legs felt heavy and almost dropped on his underbelly, but he remained upright. He twisted one head around to the hydrataur's tail had snuck around to stuff a similar sex toy into his slit--no, not entirely similar. It wriggled inside him of its own accord, its ridges rubbing pleasurably against his inner walls. Now that he understood, he looked back with one head and threw the dildo back near his tail while his other heads bent forward to kiss at Leylah's. While he struggled through stimulation and unfamiliarity to handle the dildo, she and him embraced, mashing their breasts together and entwining their tongues. While one head was left out, he needed it for the extra coordination and it worked out when he finally managed to get his tail wrapped around the ridged dildo. He groaned and dropped it again when she stuffed the sex toy deeper into him, his lubricated passages clamping down on the intrusive, though pleasurable device.

In the midst of pleasure, Mason swore as he dropped the toy. Growling with one and kissing with the other at the same time, he had a better idea. As their embrace grew closer, their nipples momentarily kissing, he managed to maneuver his tail towards her sex. Though both hydras shook and shivered in their embrace, he slowly but surely moved the tip of his tail closer and closer. Finally with a triumphant hiss he stabbed his tail into her sex, eliciting a hissing moan from both her heads. With a little more effort, he forced further in, her tight lips making him fight for every centimeter though every bit of it was worth it judging from her reactions and penetrating her aroused him further as well. Hissing and moaning himself, he stuffed more of his tail in, parting her lips completely and causing him to shiver as her inner walls hungrily clenched. Then he squealed as Leylah retaliated, digging her sex toy deep into himself. He moaned, because he was close, so close...

Finally he couldn't take it anymore. With a screech and hiss, he climaxed and so did she, his whole lower half shuddering as he came, feeling his tail get drenched while he did the same to the toy embedded inside himself. He pressed his chest against her and leaned his heads on her shoulders while she rested hers on his. They shuddered and shook as she removed the toy from his passage while he removed his tail.

"That was..." he began. "That was something sexy."

"Good," she said, her clawed hands massaging his back. "But..."

"But?" he asked, his many voices echoing.

"But we're not done yet."

He lifted his heads. "No?"

"No," she said, licking at his necks. "Not yet."

"Good," he said, smiling many toothy smiles.

******

Sometime later, Mason and Leylah emerged from the cave. While they took the escalator down to the Menagerie's main floor, Leylah helped cover the other hydra's chest with the torn remnants of his shirt.

"You don't ever cover yourself down there?" he asked.

"Hardly," Leylah snorted. "It is almost indistinguishable when..." she leaned in close. "When it is not up for something sexy."

"Mmm," Mason mused before showering her with many, many kisses. "Thank you."

"You are welcome," she said, stepping off the escalator. "It is your turn next time, by the way."

"Next time?" he asked, following after her, towards the amber mist.

"Of course," she said, not looking back as she stepped into the mist, though he was able to hear her next words. "You do not just come to the Menagerie once."

He stood still and watched her leave. When she was out of sight, he looked down at his altered body and considered her words. After a moment, he laughed with his many heads and shrugged.

"The Menagerie," he murmured, stepping into the mist.