FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

"The Cursed Zoo: The Transformation Board Game." Tricia dropped the board game's cover back onto the carpeted floor. "What a lousy name."

"It's not about the name," said Derek from the other side of the table, with his eyes still scanning the rules manual through his sandy locks. "It's about the gameplay."

Logan hummed, before answering in his easy, deep voice. "I think meeting once a month to try out these immersive indie board games is a sweet deal. Beats binge watching a show or whatever else you lame-oh's would be doing."

"Lame-oh's?" Andrea all but drawled. Her freshly-painted red fingernails clicked against the lacquered wood of the playing table. "I'll have you know I'd be cooking a world-class crêpe. Or whipping Derek at that new fighting game of his."

"In your dreams, babe," Derek retorted. He tipped her a wink before his eyes continued scanning the rules.

"Almost forgot," Emma said. A curtain of glossy brown hair eclipsed her face as she reached beneath her chair. "I brought some healthy snacks for everyone."

She popped off the lid to her sealed plastic container to reveal baby carrots, celery, and peanut butter for dipping. Logan and Andrea gave a cheer. Derek and Tricia remained silent.

"Those aren't cookies, brownies, or chips," Tricia said. Emma gave her a patient smile.

The five friends were seated around a rectangular playing board set up on the circular table. The apartment was small, but no one else lived with Derek. Except Andrea, when she stayed over. Which was often. With not a soul in the rest of the apartment, they could afford to be at least somewhat loud. A wide mirror that Derek probably couldn't afford decorated one of the walls. A matching pair of dignified paintings hung on another. They depicted neatly stylized city skylines.

The board still had that new board game smell. Five metal playing pieces stood on the game's starting space, representing the zoo entrance. Each piece looked like a teenager shining a flashlight. The path was straight for a few spaces before the first fork in the road. Each of those paths forked again. The board was covered by these paths that looped and criss-crossed. Different special spaces lay along each. And, scattered evenly around the board were the various enclosures of the zoo.

The artwork was fairly campy, like a colorful 90's cartoon. The bats had prominent fangs and evil eyes. The lion was roaring for no reason. The elephants were spraying each other with water, wearing pleasant smiles. A clock or timer with only a single hand was embedded in the center of the board. The hand rested at 12 o'clock.

A crunch split the air as Andrea's whitened teeth bit through her carrot. "Is this going to be as 'immersive' as the last one?"

"While the Cold War code-breakers theming was great," Emma put in, "I don't want to temporarily forget how to speak English again. Or know Russian, for that matter."

Derek raised his voice to cut off the conversation. "Alright, I'm done reading the rules. The player with the most pets at home goes first."

Everyone around the table turned immediately to Tricia. She folded her bulky arms while shooting a sour look at the living room wall. The others chuckled at her self-conscious reaction.

"The stray cat you took home yesterday is...your fourth, right?" asked Andrea from the opposite end of the table with an impish tone.

Logan scratched his head, a gentle smile on his broad face. He was the rugged American farmer sort of handsome. "How they haven't gotten into that rat maze of yours is a mystery to me."

"My rats stay in my room," Tricia said. "My cats stay out of my room. Simple."

"Simplest solutions are best," Logan agreed.

Derek looked up from the rules manual. "Okay Tricia, roll the dice and move that many spaces forward. You can choose which way to go at any fork."

She snatched up the two dice and sent them rolling over the board.

"Eight," she murmured. Her eyes tracked eight spaces forward, following the path when it branched to the left. Then she grabbed one of the pieces and jerked it to its new location. The new space was a plain one. "Exciting."

Emma raised a finger to point at the clock in the board's center. "It started moving."

"It's counting down the next player's turn," Andrea said softly, her eyes tracking the hand's silent movement without blinking.

"Guess that's me, huh?" Logan said. He was the next player clock-wise from Tricia. While shaking the dice he asked, "Derek, what happens if a player runs outta time?"

Already the hand was at 3 o'clock. The dice rolled over the board. Five. The clock's hand swung back up to the top.

"The rules are vague about the penalties. Same with the effects of the hazard spaces. Probably on purpose. I know that every player gets one minute to complete their turn or else they're skipped. Cue bad things happening."

"Spooky," Andrea commented. She'd picked up the rules. Derek rolled the dice for his turn. Each showed a six.

"Boom! Twelve!" He clicked his piece on every space along the way. After only ten spaces, he stopped on the space in front of the wolf enclosure.

When Tricia called him on it, he held up a hand. "For the enclosure spaces you get to stop even if you rolled higher. That's the only space that does that. Which means I'm winning, because I've seen the most animals in this zoo, baby!"

Andrea took her turn. Her eyes narrowed with concentration as they roved the board's paths. She slid her piece along the right path.

"What's the goal of the game anyway?" asked Logan, leaning his large frame against his chair back.

Andrea read aloud from the rules in an exaggerated British accent. "The goal of The Cursed Zoo is to see all the animals without becoming one yourself."

Logan was the only one to laugh. "Wait, seriously?" he said.

Derek grinned. "We'll see exactly what that means once we get further into the game. Spoiler alert: I'm gonna win."

Logan wasn't smiling now. "There's a safe word though, right? Some way to cancel everything in case of emergency?" He looked from Andrea to Derek and back again.

"Yeah, yeah." Derek waved a hand as he raised up the game's box. At the top right corner, imprinted in plain font letters, it read: To revert all changes and halt the game, say 'This is animal abuse!'

"Don't use it," Tricia said as she tossed the dice. "If this game gets crazy, I'll stop feeling shitty about not staying home. Hm. There we go, something interesting."

Her piece had landed on what was the most common special space of the board. A simple black pawprint with a red outline.

Everyone's eyes shot to Derek. He shook his head. "I already told you, the rules don't tell you much. All I know is it's called an Animal Space and it's bad."

"I know why," Emma said, nodding at Tricia's face.

"Shit," Tricia cursed in wonder. Her eyes crossed as her nose darkened in color to a textured black. It pushed forward an inch or two while turning outward to place her nostrils at the tip. Like a stone disturbing a still pond, a ripple of change swept along Tricia's face toward her body. A coat of short brown peach fuzz sprouted on every inch of exposed skin. Her short-cropped black hair lightened to brown. Each ear rounded in shape as the fuzz overtook it.

Everyone's eyes were glued to Tricia while the changes rapidly progressed. "This kind of crazy shit is why I play these games," said Derek. "And because I like winning."

The others were too enthralled to respond. Tricia's already toned arms swelled a size larger. Her T-shirt pressed more tightly against her upper body. She held up her filed-down fingers as the nails darkened and extended an inch to darkened points. Her palms thickened into the beginnings of an animal's paw pads. Her chair tipped backward, its legs caught in the carpet, as Tricia stood. She was already a couple of inches taller. The dusting of dense brown hair washed over her shaven legs, granting her a couple more inches as her legs swelled. Finally, her bare feet widened as they hinted at an animal's clawed paws.

"Looks like you're on you're way to becoming some kind of dog," Logan murmured.

Andrea clacked the fingernails of a hand against the table. "Or a giant sloth."

"Don't feel like a sloth," Tricia said as she experimentally rolled her shoulders and lifted each leg at a time. "But I do feel heavier."

"Your voice is rather...grumbly," Emma said.

"Pretty sure she already sounded like that," shot Andrea. Logan and Derek smiled. Logan's was moderate and friendly, Derek's unabashed.

"Andrea," Emma said in a chiding tone.

"Damn. Oh, damn!" Logan said, getting out of his chair slowly to join Tricia on her feet. His gaze jumped between the timer in the center of the board, and his own two feet.

The timer had reached 12 o'clock. It stopped briefly, then began to slowly count off another 60 seconds.

"How was I supposed to know the turns kept going?" Logan asked while the changes sweep his feet.

"The timer," said Andrea innocently as she watched him.

Logan's toenails had overgrown to encircle the entire end of each foot. As the changes to his bones and tendons forced him to lift his ankles, his toes finished their transformation into small hooves. Dull, grey-black hooves. As the ripple moved upward, his lower legs changed to a lustrous cinnamon brown. His head pushed higher toward the ceiling as he gained height. His loose shorts quickly tightened around bulging thighs and hips, especially around the backside. His shirt followed, looking like it was about to tear open. Logan already had the musculature of a man who exercised his whole body at the gym. Now, his upper body was filled out with even denser muscle.

His arms remained human proportioned but swelled with muscle. When the change reached his hands, he drew in a deep breath. His pinkies swiftly merged with his ring fingers, and his middle fingers melted into his index fingers. The nails enlarged slightly. The change reached his neck. It grew thicker, longer by an inch or two, and the black hair on his head began to sprout down the back of his neck to become a light mane. Lastly, his head changed. Each ear grew an inch toward the ceiling. His entire face elongated by a couple of inches. The cinnamon brown overtook his attentive expression. The bridge of his longer nose lightened in color to a wide, blotchy patch of white, while the space around his altered nostrils and mouth became gray.

"You wore cheap clothes that you don't mind getting stretched or ripped, like I requested, right?" asked Derek.

Logan nodded silently.

"Let's look on the bright side," Emma chimed in. "Now we know the penalty for not taking your turn within the minute. You start turning into a horse."

Derek rolled the dice. "No, each person turns into a different animal." He moved his piece. "Three."

"You're sure that's how it works?" Tricia mumbled through her altered mouth. Sharp teeth peeked out when her lips parted.

"We'll find out," said Derek.

The conversation lulled as each player mechanically took their turns. Tricia and Logan took an extra second or two in using their altered hands to roll and move the pieces. As if by unspoken consent, they took back their seats and tucked in their chairs on their next turns. A thoughtful mood settled over the table, each wrapped in their own thoughts.

Andrea reached the monkey enclosure. Logan reached the wolf enclosure. The pieces scattered, each player choosing a different route through the Cursed Zoo. On Emma's turn, her piece landed on the pawprint hazard.

"Animal Space," she said. "Let's see if your theory's accurate, Derek."

As she raised a hand up to inspect it, her fingernails transformed into short white claws. Soft fur spread rapidly over her hand and down her arm. Most of it was a cheery orange, but black stripes quickly became evident. Her muscle bulked, but not nearly as much as the previous two transformees. The wave spread over her torso, then simultaneously toward her other arm, her neck, and her legs.

"Meow," said Andrea. Logan chuckled good-naturedly. His voice was subtly more resonant.

Emma watched her changes with a faint smile. As both arms finished, the short coat of fur peeked through her baby blue keyhole shirt's neckline. Milky white fur sprouted on the front of her neck and around her collar bones. Like Tricia's had, Emma's hair shifted in color to orange. It shortened until it was barely longer than the fur. By that time, her teeth had become sharp like a predator's inside of a short cat-like muzzle. Her nose transformed into the dainty purple nose of a big cat. Each fuzzy ear was round, though not different in size. At the same time, her legs were covered with striped fur. Each foot grew short claws as well, and each toe thickened. When she lifted a foot, dark paw pads had begun to appear. Her heels no longer rested on the ground when she set her foot back down, and she was modestly taller.

"Pretty," said Tricia. She ran her claws through Emma's upper arm fur. One of Emma's ears twitched.

"Stunning. Especially the stripes on your face," said Derek. He crunched into a peanut butter dipped baby carrot.

"Thank you," Emma said through her small fangs.

Andrea snorted. "Yes, gorgeous, now let's get on with it. Maybe I'll become a peacock and we can ogle at me." She said it with a quick smile and a roll of the eyes.

Derek's expression sobered and he scratched the small of Andrea's back for a second. She gave no reaction. They were the two remaining purely human players. Emma looked like she was going to reply to Andrea's comment, but kept her mouth shut.

"Hey," Derek said to the table. "We need some music in here. This is just a game and it's all temporary. No one forget that. So let's liven it up."

Tricia and Logan took their turns while Derek opened up a laptop and typed in a web address. Emma leaned back while inspecting the fine fur of her forearms. He rolled the dice after filling the room with pop music. When he slid his piece along the path, he realized he'd landed on a special space. On it, there were two black silhouettes with an arrow pointing from the first to the second. The first figure looked like a dog on two legs. The second looked like a normal dog. The dogs and the arrow were outlined in green.

The only sound that could be heard was the chorus of a new hit single. Everyone looked up and down Derek in anticipation. He sat stoically, waiting for something to happen.

Nothing did.

"That means we haven't satisfied the conditions to activate the space yet," he declared, and nudged the dice in Andrea's direction.

"If you say so," Tricia said. "Crappy game design for a space to not do anything."

On Andrea's turn, she landed on an Animal Space. Trepidation flashed across her features before she hid it.

"I was joking about the peacock, game," she said. "Oh, I think it's starting around my tummy. Let's not turn my fingers into feathers, 'kay?"

"Have fun," said Tricia with a grin of a too-large mouth.

Vivid red-orange fur bloomed up her neck and along all four limbs. It lightened to white on her front and along her chin, but darkened to black past her elbows and knees. Nails became small black claws. Little paw pads formed. Ears pointed. Hair shortened and changed color.

"You're gonna be a fox, Andrea," Logan said. "That's for sure."

Andrea's features sharpened while her nose blackened into a small canine nose. Her mouth and nose pushed out together, heralding a snout. She reached up clawed fingers to feel her fuzzy face. Now, she was noticeably shorter in height than everyone else at the table.

"Hm, I'll take it. I always knew I was a foxy lady."

"Damn right you are," Derek said, adding a playful tongue trill. He squeezed her shoulder, and she squeezed his fingers back. He reached for another carrot and found the bowel empty.

"Grabbing snacks. Preferences?"

"The carrots were excellent," said Logan with a nod at Emma. She smiled. It no longer seemed so harmless with her tiger's visage. Logan looked away.

Emma rolled the dice, which clacked against her claw-tips in her hand before she loosed them. She stopped at an enclosure space to see the alligators. Derek rustled in the kitchen during Tricia's turn. The sounds of drawers opening, plates clinking, and a soft curse filtered into the living room. Emma and Andrea struck up a conversation about the song and how overweight the lead singer had become. Logan rolled. His piece had gotten the furthest around the board, though he'd still only seen the wolves.

The conversation lost momentum. Andrea yawned. Her thinner pink tongue curled toward the tip. "Isn't it my turn yet?"

Tricia pointed at the timer. It was forty seconds into Derek's turn. "Don't say anything," she whispered, her eyes bright amid brown fuzz.

Logan raised his deep voice. "Derek your turn's almost over." He gave a sheepish look to Tricia. "Sorry, just doesn't seem fair."

Derek dashed back into the room with another curse. The timer reached the top just before the dice struck the board. He slammed his piece onto the appropriate space, but changes had already begun.

"Come on, come on. I need to win!" The hand that clutched the piece sprouted sandy fur. Short claws elongated from his fingernails.

"At least you're becoming something nice," Emma offered. "Looks like a cougar."

Derek straightened to examine his body as the change progressed. His muscles thickened closer to the degree that Logan's had, as well as his upper body's size. The fur was very short until it reached his neck. There, it exploded outward into a golden mane. The hair was a dark brown nearer the tips. His chest hair, too, was replaced with the exquisitely thick brown hair of the mane.

"Or, a lion!" Derek all but yelled.

His face pushed out into the beginnings of a lion's broad muzzle. His nose shifted until it resembled Emma's, but darker. Whiskers soon flanked it. With a clawed hand, he felt the new shape of his ears. Then he looked down as he rose onto the balls of padded semi-paws. Like Emma and Tricia, he'd gained height. Perhaps two inches.

The timer was moving. "My turn," said Andrea.

"Lion, huh? I'll take it." Derek strode back into the kitchen.

A minute later, on Tricia's turn, Derek came out of his kitchen bearing two platters of sandwich ingredients. Everyone else gave a thankful cheer. Emma, Tricia, and Andrea began making sandwiches incorporating the salami or ham. Logan's fingers hesitated over the platter.

"You know, normally I dig the meat. Today I'm feeling extra lettuce." His finished sandwich with his first bite crunched as the spines of every layer of fresh lettuce broke. The dice rolled from his spare hand, showing seven.

And the game went on. The pop music continued. Eventually a group vote changed it to a playlist of rock and classic rock. The snacks were slowly eaten, and pizza was ordered. Emma used the restroom, then Logan. They both came back with discomfited expressions. Nobody commented. Andrea took the lead in the game, having seen half of the zoo's animals. Derek and Tricia were tied for second, followed by Logan and Emma.

The urbane, gold and silver clock on Derek's wall showed 7 o'clock when Tricia landed on an uncommon space. It featured a black brain silhouette with a yellow outline. It didn't seem to do anything. Disappointed, she again blamed the game's poor design, but Derek restated that they likely hadn't yet met the conditions to activate it.

Then, Logan landed on another new space. One of the rarest. It was covered in black pawprints identical to the ones from the Animal Spaces. The pawprints were like polka dots, each with a red outline.

Logan removed his hand from his piece. Partially transformed, it only had two thickened fingers and a thumb. As he did so, each digit enlarged to a beastly thickness. The nails enlarged even more to take up each fingertip and thumbtip. Like three miniature hooves: two larger, one little more than an altered nail. Logan clicked them together, making a sound like a rock dropped on a sidewalk.

"Guess we know what that little space does," he said.

"No man, I'm transforming too!" said Derek.

"Me too," Emma added.

"We all are," Andrea said.

Tricia said nothing, her agreement implicit.

Each of them was on their feet, moving from foot to foot, holding up a hand to watch it change, tugging at clothes that sagged or constricted.

Logan rose taller until his equine pointed ears were eight feet above the floor. His shirt tore completely through as his upper body bulged with further muscle. His arms followed suit. Then his flat belly and impressive legs. The shorts he wore kept him modest, despite the numerous ragged splits down their length. The hairs of a black horse's tail extended over the back of his waistline down to his knees. Each hoof enlarged to the proper size of a horse. His neck and muzzle each broadened and lengthened, too.

At the same time, Derek was combing his fingers through a jungle of a mane. His hands and feet changed to better resemble paws, though his hands still had most of the dexterity of a human. His clothes didn't tear as much as Logan's, but they certainly tore. The vertical accent of dark brown mane over his sandy fur crept downward along his chest and belly further before vanishing beneath the belt. Abruptly Derek twisted to look over his shoulder at the new appendage snaking out behind him. The tuft of brown fur at the tip of his tail twitched as he gained control. When he turned back toward the table, his regal face looked almost like a natural lion's. His eyes remained human.

Despite the difference in sex, Emma's transformation was similar to Derek's in terms of build, height, and proportions. Her fur thickened which emphasized her tiger stripes. Each of her large breasts was undiminished by the transformation. She pulled down on her waist with strong, clawed fingers to allow her tail out. As she grew a little taller, her toothy muzzle pushed out into a veritable tiger's face. The majesty was ruined somewhat by her ordinary eyes, but her sinuous movements and new poise held the deadly promise of a peak predator. She prowled back to her seat.

Again, Andrea was the only one who shrank. Save for the eyes, her head changed to almost perfectly resemble a red fox. Triangular ears. Slanted, mischievous face. White-furred chin and lower cheeks. Black whiskers. When she smiled, her knowing smirk as a human had been replaced by a laughing grin. Her form grew slighter, more delicate, yet when she walked experimentally around the room it was with a silent grace. The growth of a fluffy tail that turned along with her hips only added to that impression. She pulled up on her loose skirt with dainty hand-paws to keep it from sliding down her furry legs. Now she was less than four feet tall.

Tricia ended up growing almost as tall as Logan. She was bigger though. Her head looked almost smaller than the others', but only when compared to her massive trunk. Her frame was gargantuan. Impossible for any human other than perhaps a few unlucky individuals throughout history. Everywhere was dense brown fur on top of rippling fat on top of a base layer of tough muscle. The twin bulges under her tortured shirt sagged slightly further down her chest as they filled with fat and milk. Each claw on her clumsy paws grew until they were like dull sickles. With her arms at her side, her new hands almost couldn't be seen past the tangle of long fur growing from her wrists and up. She ambled back to the table but second-guessed the idea of sitting her humongous bulk onto the delicate chair. A shovel of a hand came to rest on the chair back, followed by the other. Looking past a thinly-haired snout, she seemed to dully peruse the others.

One of Andrea's ears turned backward. "Not a sloth after all, but a bear. Sorry for your loss, Tricia."

"That's what I am, huh? Fine with me." Her heavy lips flapped with each booming word. A cavernous mouth lay beyond.

"You are totally tiny, Andrea. No offense," said Logan. He towered over her, especially when he craned forward with his lengthened neck.

"You're just tall, Logan." Derek was already seated again. He'd pushed his lion's tail under the chair back to curl up behind his head. "Horses are the biggest animal of all of us."

Emma smiled and let out a sound almost like a purr. Her striped tail danced behind her. "I think Tricia may be giving you a run for your money though."

"It's kinda scary," Logan said with a chuckle. It was a coarse, extended sound from the back of his throat. "We're all about the size of the animals we're turning into, if we walked on four legs, but we're still human-ish...what's the word?"

"Anthropomorphic," said Derek. He slid his piece to a plain space and gestured to Andrea. The timer jumped to the top and started ticking down the next turn. Andrea hopped up easily onto the seat of her chair, landing on black-furred paws. To reach her piece, she had to lean most of her body across the table. She almost looked like a pet fox mischievously interfering with the game.

"Right," Logan said, crossing his arms. He hadn't sat down either. The chair might have collapsed from the two hundred or more pounds of muscle and height he'd gained on his already fit body. His horse tail twitched once, jostling the glossy black hairs.

"I'm the hugest fucking bear on this planet then if I'm almost as big as a horse," Tricia said, drumming her claws with no rhythm on the wood of her chair-back.

"Yes, though there are different breeds of horse," said Andrea as she finished her turn. Her tail curled sideways for a moment as if to emphasize her point. She glanced back at it. "Hmph. Having a tail definitely takes getting used to. Pretty, though. Too bad my hair's gone. I had it styled quite nicely. It had better come back." She shot a look at Derek.

"You're covered in bright and beautiful fur, relax babe. And I'm sure it'll turn us all back to how we were as soon as the game's over, just like that." He tried to snap his fingers, and despite failing, his expression lit up. Claws had poked out of tiny slits at the ends of his fingers. "Check these out!"

No one seemed to be impressed, though Emma repeated the feat with a thoughtful expression still visible on her tiger face.

"My little clawsies are out to stay," Andrea remarked. She used one paw-hand to readjust the loose clothes hanging on her form. All the while, she crouched in her chair in order to stay at eye level with Derek and Emma. The position would doubtlessly have been uncomfortable were she fully human. Logan and Tricia remained standing.

"I got the opposite problem," Tricia said with no trace of concern as she watched Andrea struggle with her wardrobe. Logan nodded his agreement. "Hope you don't mind some bear boob spillage, if this throwaway shirt decides to fall off."

No one had a response to that. Emma shifted in her seat with a quiet but audible cough.

The game continued in silence for half a minute before a conversation arose from the hit single that came up on the playlist. This time, verbal points were punctuated by tail movements, and emotional reactions were shown by more than just facial expression. Ear position revealed much, and none of the players seemed to have those muscles under conscious control yet. Each of the five found time to look around at themselves or each other in surprise, consternation, or wonder at the new discoveries about their bodies. The plate of sandwiches was finished off, and Derek returned to the kitchen with plates of crumbs.

Logan watched Tricia move her piece to arrive at the wolves' enclosure. "Careful not to crush the new game pieces in your paw, Trish," he said as she unfolded her massive hand from around her flashlight-wielding teenager token.

"Almost wanna," she grumbled. "Stupid to bring a flashlight when you're gonna be sneaking around a zoo at night. These kids are gonna get caught."

DING DONG!

"Someone get it," Derek called from the kitchen. Plates clattered. The faucet turned on.

"No problem," said Emma as she rose to stride silently to the door.

After a startled cry, two periods of awkward silence, a quiet exchange, and a 'Thank you' from Emma, she returned to the board game with three pizza boxes. Cheese, Meat Lovers', and Vegetarian. Everyone pulled out hot slices with gusto.

"Zatimursgoin!" Andrea shouted around a mouthful of cheese, crust, sausage, and ham.

"Derek, your turn's ticking!" Logan boomed into the kitchen for clarity.

The lion-man dashed back in with a curse, his mane hair bobbing against his broad chest and shoulders. Yet the timer had already reached the top. It paused before restarting, signaling Andrea's turn.

All eyes were on Derek. He examined his hands, his feet, even bringing the tip of his tail around his waist to feel if it was changing. Nothing happened.

"You must have lost the game then, correct?" Emma said. "The object is to not become an animal. Since you're not transforming anymore, you're as much of an animal as you're going to get."

"We all lose, by that logic," Andrea said with a tail-swish. She settled back into her comfortable crouch after finishing her turn. "We've all transformed the same amount."

"True," Emma said, nodding.

"Game's still goin' though," said Logan. "Maybe just the time limit penalty's gone. You didn't feel any changes, Derek?"

His lion's head started to shake. He hesitated. Then he shook his head more definitively. "No. It was my own reaction. Just got excited about what might have happened."

"More like anxious," Andrea murmured with her head turned aside. Nonetheless, her snide words were quite loud and clear enough for all to hear. Derek's altered hand went out as if to playfully scratch at her with his claws extended, but he turned it into a gentle play-punch to her shoulder midway through. His muzzle wore a half-hearted smirk. Andrea's head was only barely larger than his fist.

The game resumed.

Not two minutes later, Tricia rolled a four. Easily, she reach over her chair back and the game board. She moved her piece three spaces and stopped. Her character was held between the pads of her stocky thumb and index finger. Beneath it was the black pawprint with the red outline. The animal transformation space.

"Go on," said Andrea with a smile in her eyes.

"No. I'm not changing more." Tricia set her piece down on the ordinary space before the transformation space.

The timer froze where it was at the 8 o'clock position.

"It paused?" said Logan, tilting his head and causing his neck mane hair to flop over to the other side.

Derek's words were preempted by a purr from somewhere between his chest and his fangs. "The game won't work if we break the rules. Come on Trish."

"Did you just growl at me?" said Tricia.

He remained quiet. Even his tail stilled.

"Fine, I don't care," she said, and pressed her piece down firmly onto the transformation space. The timer restarted in its silent ticking. Then she crossed her arms and stared down at the board. Her long jaw was set.

Nothing changed.

"Anything?" asked Emma.

Tricia's eyes quickly roved the board, then the room. She blinked and shrugged the masses of fat and muscle that were her shoulders.

Logan scratched behind an ear with one of his large fingers. "I don't get how this game works."

The game continued for a few more turns until Tricia began growing restless. She shifted her weight where she stood behind her chair.

"Logan, arm wrestle me. I feel really fucking strong like this."

The horse-man looked her up and down. He had a foot or two on Tricia's seven or eight foot height, and his corded muscles were plain for all to see beneath his short coat of hair. Yet Andrea's eyes shifted between them, scrutinizing a match-up that did not appear even in her eyes. Tricia was massive, plain and simple.

"I don't think so," said Logan with a sheepish smile. It was obvious to everyone around the table that he was uncomfortable.

"C'mon," she pressed. Logan shook his head, his gaze returning to the movement of Emma's piece. Tricia looked like she wanted to press further, but subsided.

"Let's put this board down on the carpet," said Derek suddenly as he rose to his paws. "I know those of us sitting in the chairs aren't too comfortable."

"I'm fine," Andrea murmured.

"It's no problem," said Emma.

Derek blinked, shooting them a quizzical look. Still, he started toward the game board, so the others reached in to help.

Then he scooped his lower teeth beneath the edge and gently bit down to hold his corner.

"Oh dear," said Andrea with a grin.

Logan laughed as he grabbed the edges with his altered hands. "What are you doing, man?"

Together, they guided the board and all of its pieces onto the ground. As they rearranged the pizza boxes and chairs to be out of the way in the new playing area, Derek seemed confused.

"What's funny?"

Emma and Logan shared a glance. "You were holding the board with your teeth," said the tigress.

"Yeah, I thought I'd have a better grip on it," he returned without even a whisker twitch to signal that he was joking. "You think that's weird?"

The others stopped what they were doing to gauge each others' expressions.

"Right," said Andrea. "Show of hands. Paws, hooves, whatever. Who thinks what Derek did was weird?"

Her small hand rose firmly into the air. Logan's and Emma's joined hers. Tricia's and Derek's did not.

Everyone looked at Tricia. She took her turn and said, "What's the big deal? This a witch hunt now?"

"Sorry, but you don't think Derek was acting a little strange?" asked Emma, her tail-tip contorting in an agitated dance.

Now Tricia looked puzzled. "Teeth are just as good at holding as fingers."

"It's the game," Andrea said, her snout barely moving as she murmured the words. "Our minds are changing now instead of our bodies. You two were the only ones who have transformed further since our bodies finished changing. It's as if...we're beginning to lose what it means to be human."

Silence reigned until Logan broke it many seconds later. "Guess we'll see how far this rodeo takes us. But can we kill the music? My ears are sensitive. Those high notes are killing me."

"Amen," said Emma with a smile. Derek turned off the music, his expression still thoughtful.

"Yeah, well if I start trying to take a bite out of any of you," said Tricia, "someone say the fucking safe words."

Derek's tail lashed where he crouched easily on the carpet. "This is modern society. The company wouldn't have made a game that gets people hurt. We're not turning into bloodthirsty animals."

"He's right," added Andrea. She was curled up by the board's edge, her fluffy tail rising and falling near her face. "Games like this all have to be approved before they go to market."

With some reluctance, Logan bent down and moved his piece. Derek took his turn, then Andrea. On Emma's turn, her piece landed on a new space. It showed two black silhouettes of animal heads: a dog, and a cat. A black arrow pointed from one to the other. The symbols were surrounded in a blue border.

Immediately, her shoulders hunched and she lifted her arms up in surprise. "Oh, oh!"

Even as she stood upright, her height decreased. She was collapsing in on herself, shrinking. Her strong stature diminished as she became a much different sort of beast. Her stretched and ripped baby blue shirt now wrinkled as it caved in on Emma. The skirt she'd been wearing settled against the ground like a parachute touching down. Now she was smaller than Andrea. Tinier than a toddler. Two feet tall.

The furry black stripes decorating her body had widened, erasing all signs of orange. A new pattern emerged; a strip of pure white fur ran from between her ears to the back of her neck. There it split in two to run parallel down into her tail. Her snout pushed and pointed outward to a more delicate configuration. Every claw on her fingers and toes emerged, no longer retractable. The fur of her tiger's tail stood on end before blooming outward in every direction. In a flash, her tail had become a huge poof of black and white fur.

Emma's fur became more airy, and silky. Luxurious. At the same time, she seemed to become longer and slinkier. Her changes completed with the appearance of a thin white stripe down the midline of her snout.

"Greeeaaaat," said a grinning Andrea.

"You spray us, you're dead," Tricia grumbled. Her big bottom was planted on the carpet by the board, her short legs angled straight out in front of her.

Emma struggled within the pile of clothes containing her. She finally escaped her discarded skirt. Her puffy tail flicked once as she settled down next to the board. The shirt she'd once been wearing now concealed her from the chin down.

"Wow. Everything looks humongous. I'm tiny aren't I?"

"Yep," said Derek. He sniffed a couple times with his pink cat's nose. "Smell's not much changed. Your turn, Trish."

As Tricia reached for the dice with a paw about as big as Emma's body, Logan turned to the new skunk. "It feel uncomfortable, changing again?"

Emma smiled with a mouth much less intimidating. "The second time transforming wasn't so odd. Thanks, Logan. I do feel very different now though."

The dice clattered to the board. Tricia chose the path that took her at last to the monkeys she'd been trying to reach. A contented rumble came from her huge chest. Logan and Andrea shared an anxious look at the animalistic sound. Derek didn't seem to mind.

"Andrea, your fur's mussed up," said Derek with a 'come here' gesture of his altered fingers.

The fox-woman blinked, lifting her head. "...okay?"

"Let me fix it for you. It's the side you've been lying on."

Logan slid his piece decisively toward his next enclosure. Andrea tittered, the kind of laugh that comes from being caught off guard.

"Okay!" she laughed before joining her boyfriend's side of the board. Derek took his turn with one hand while he pulled her into his lap with the other. He was sitting cross-legged, his tufted tail swaying just above the empty floor behind him. There was just enough room for the much smaller Andrea to curl up in the hollow between his folded legs.

Derek bent his upper body down to run his textured tongue along the vivid fur of Andrea's neck. And again. Moistened by his saliva, some of the unruly fur came into line with the rest of her furry coat.

Andrea's eyes were open, her ears perked, her tail still. Almost rigid. She watched the board intently. When she reached for the dice, her movements were uncharacteristically robotic.

"You're as flexible as a snake, man," said Logan to break the silence. The embarrassment was audible in his voice. "You been doing yoga?"

"Mmm," Derek purred with his muzzle buried in the fur of Andrea's side. She shifted uncomfortably.

"Oh no," sighed Emma. She placed her piece onto its destination. The size of her new paw made the little teenager look big. Everyone glanced to see where she'd landed. The space was the polka-dotted black pawprint space with the red outlines.

"No!" said Logan, rising to his hooves. "There's only, like, two of those on the board! Again!?"

The shirt draping Emma shifted -- the only sign that she was shrugging her tiny shoulders.

Logan slowly returned to where he was sitting. His heavy hooves were quiet on the carpet. "Guess it's no big deal. Bring on the mental changes, right? Anyone feel different?"

"Nope," said Andrea, though now her ears were back, her eyes half-lidded. Her tail all but bounced against Derek's leg as he continued grooming her fur.

Logan and Emma stared at the change in her demeanor. A puzzled expression grew on the skunk-woman's face. Logan scratched at his mane before looking away, as if the phenomenon was only of fleeting interest. Emma soon turned back to the board. Her puzzlement remained only for a couple of seconds.

Dice rolled, pieces moved. The silence was a comfortable one. There was an air of acceptance. Of peace. Tricia brought up her huge claws to pull at her tortured shirt's neckline a couple of times. Finally, she brought up both hands to claw at it.

"Too hot in here with this damn fur." Her shirt tore in half beneath her inexorable pull. And her bra. Furred breasts with dark nipples spilled halfway down her chest and belly, jiggling once or twice. She wriggled her big body and brushed off the tatters of not only her upper garments, but her lower ones as well. Then she brushed it all behind her dismissively before returning her attention to the game. She looked bored.

Emma and Logan looked faintly surprised by this, while Andrea looked almost pensive. They exchanged some glances.

Derek didn't bat an eye.

Logan cleared his throat, an inhuman sound. "I...think I should be really bothered by what just went down over there, Tricia. But..." He trailed off.

"But you can't bring yourself to really feel bothered," Andrea finished. "I'm in the same boat, hon. Let's just roll with it. It's the game."

"Tricia, you're naked," Emma quietly added. "I can see your, you know. And if I looked, I bet I could see some of your, you also know. If you lifted your belly fat up a bit. Why don't I feel more embarrassed?"

"Don't look at me," the bear rumbled. She used the tip of her chin to rub an itchy spot on the side of one large breast. Her eyes were on Derek. Derek, and the textured pink tongue that was grooming Andrea.

Emma blinked at the lion and the fox in his lap. "I can no longer tell what's odd or inappropriate, and what's normal. That must go double for you two, Derek and Tricia, since you each landed again on that Animal Space before the group transformation space."

Derek stopped his grooming to address the other players. "We've been through this, everyone. It's the game. Everything will go back to normal. Enjoy it. I know I am." And he let his tongue run over the edge of Andrea's fox ear. It twitched, and her jaws parted to let out a heavy breath.

"Whatever," said Tricia while she scattered the two dice carelessly across the board.

On the very next turn, Logan's, the dice sent him to a special space. It was the black brain with the yellow outline that had seemed to do nothing when Tricia had previously landed on it much earlier. This time, he stood upright immediately and backed away from the board game.

"Something's happening, my arms and legs are getting all knobbly and narrow. My fingers, they're - oh, my belly!"

Logan was rapidly transforming. His thickened fingers merged and changed to become hooves indistinguishable from the ones on the ends of his legs. Legs that had lost any resemblance to a human's shape. His already beefy thighs and gluteal muscles filled out even more, along with his shoulders. His whole build was rearranging toward that of a true horse. The remains of his shorts tore, losing purchase and slipping off his body. Logan seemed too distracted to notice.

While everyone watched, he continued, "I guess I'm turning into a real horse. Temporarily? I hope temporarily!"

Because he had already grown so much, Logan's size hardly changed if at all as he morphed from an anthropomorphic horse to a 'feral' one. The fibers of the carpet dimpled outward as he placed his new hooves on the ground. His hefty back rose to be parallel to the ground seconds later due to his lengthening forelegs. The change swelled his chest into the powerful but narrow chest of a stallion.

His words afterward were deeper and muddled as his neck and head changed, too warped to easily understand. Further, he looked like he was losing interest in continuing his train of thought.

"Damn son, I'm really...really a horse. Gonna...mmm. Wanna. Mm."

A few finishing touches remained. His horse tail lengthened to dip past his hocks. His sides barreled outward another inch or two. The robust spine he now had curved more, lifting his rump a bit more toward the ceiling. His neck, now much longer than a human's, elongated and thickened a touch more. Logan tossed his mane with a light snort, and glanced over at his friends. The whites of his eyes were gone. They'd been subsumed by the darkness of his new dull horse eyes.

Logan was gone, replaced by a chestnut brown Arabian stallion.

Andrea laughed. "Go on, let's hear it Logan, straight from the horse's mouth. How does it feel to be a bona fide horse?"

Logan took some tentative steps, glancing warily all around. His tail flicked about his hindquarters.

"Bet I'm still stronger than you," put in Tricia. She was now a bit taller than him, but still not quite as sizable overall.

Logan ignored her. His nostrils dilated as he sniffed. A few more steps took him toward the kitchen.

"No, bad horsie!" said Emma. She scrambled forward to block the doorway. The black and white of her fluffy tail was eye-catching when she shook it like a squirrel. Logan backed up and began wandering the room.

"Oh, huh." Tricia looked over his new form. "He's lost his mind."

"Literally," Andrea murmured. "He's just a dumb animal." Emma sent her a disapproving look.

"Well," said Emma with her tiny paws on her silky black hips, "let's make sure he doesn't step on the game or get into the food. I'm sure the mind loss is temporary."

"All part of the game," Derek repeated. "The game I'm winning."

"We'll have to skip his turn for now," said Emma in her small voice. "Hope this means he doesn't lose."

"Hope it does," said Derek. His tongue returned to the bright orange fur of Andrea's flank. A moist sheen marked the patches of fur he'd already tended to. They were on her head, shoulders, and upper back. He was working his way down.

"Take your turn," said Tricia, gesturing at the timer which had almost reached 12 o'clock.

Derek let out a leonine purr of appreciation as his formidable hand groped for the dice. He rolled them, and guided his piece to the next enclosure. He was in the lead. Then he rolled his golden-furred shoulder. The remains of his shirt stretched, doing their best to restrict the movement.

His upper lip pulled upward in a brief snarl. "Enough of this." Claws snicked out of all his fingers as he scratched at his shoulders. His shirt fell apart. He repeated the deed on his thighs and the base of his tail. Standing, his shorts fell away. And his boxers.

A flick of his broad foot sent the remains of his clothes into the far corner of the room. His fully leonine testicles and sheath were hidden as he sat back down around Andrea. His grooming resumed while she took her turn. Immediately afterward, Andrea followed in discarding her own clothes.

"Too annoying. Too hot." She sounded only mildly ashamed with her small but pert white-furred breasts exposed.

"Why do I not feel more bothered by all of us stripping?" asked Emma. She glanced around at the others and was met only with shrugs or blank looks.

"I suppose I might trip and bash my snout if I keep dragging my shirt around." With that, she backpedaled on all fours out of her sometime clothing, then dragged it away from the board by her sharp teeth. On her turn, the dice took her to the leopard enclosure all the way on the farthest side of the board from the start. She was the only one to have yet visited it.

Tricia had been monitoring Logan's wanderings closely. Andrea had to bat her with her fox's tail to return her attention to the game. After rolling and moving, Tricia heaved herself up and approached Logan. The horse allowed her huge form to come close. His long features held something like familiarity or recognition.

Derek turned away from Andrea momentarily, his thick mane partially engulfing her neck and ears. "Trish, I knew from the day I met you that you were interested in veterinary medicine. Let us know if he's healthy as a horse, alright?"

Tricia seemed to be examining the area of his thighs and belly. Her nubby bear tail faced the board. "Right. Because I have pets at home? Good one."

After Derek's and Andrea's turns, Emma's expression darkened. The current state of the game put her in last place. She took some of her 60 seconds to decide the best route. The game was too simple to enable more than a modicum of strategy. That didn't mean she intended on handing the game to Derek or someone else without a fight. Nodding to herself, she rolled the dice and moved. She looked up at Logan and Tricia. Her jaw fell.

Tricia had her snout around Logan's pink and black horse member. She was hunched underneath his barrel of a belly, sucking quietly on his fully equine penis. There was no shame in her posture. No effort to conceal what she was doing.

Logan shifted in place, a hoof coming up every now and then. His ears were, for the most part, pinned backward. Breaths were coming hot and heavy, evidenced by the quiet snorts through his dilated nostrils. His tail was energized by the unexpected stimulation.

Derek turned to gauge Emma's expression. It took her a couple of seconds to realize the lion was looking at her.

"Is this weird?" he asked. "I honestly can't tell."

"You'd think I'd be blushing underneath my fur," said Andrea. "Oddly enough, I can't bring myself to feel all that embarrassed on Tricia's behalf. In fact, I, or at least my body, ...well, never mind."

No one called her out on what she had intended to say.

Belatedly, Emma said, "Yes. I'm afraid it is weird. Having sex in public --"

"This is my apartment," said Derek.

"Granted. But Tricia and Logan are friends, not boyfriend and girlfriend like you and Andrea."

Tricia removed her mouth from around Logan's cock long enough to say, "Stop talking about me like I'm not here. I'm horny and Logan here's got a huge dick. You're hungry, you eat. You're horny, you fuck. I don't see what's so weird. Dice."

Emma scurried over with the dice to let Tricia take her turn at a distance. The timer readily responded, acknowledging her turn.

Logan whinnied. Tricia muttered something before taking him into her toothy snout again. Her black nose butted up against his lower belly. She twisted, repositioning her big body so her nose pressed into the saggy skin of his impressive testicles.

"This game," said Andrea. "Ha, what's next, we have a wild animal orgy?"

"Let me get you a towel, Trish," said Derek. She let out an approving rumble from deep in her belly as she sucked. He stalked into the kitchen, returning with a dish towel that he tossed at the bear and horse. Tricia snatched it with her long claws and let it cover the carpet beneath her chin.

Andrea's clawed hand was playing with one of her exposed nipples. She didn't seem to notice. As she lifted her tail-tip and moved her hand to begin stroking it, she said,"If I land on another...Animal Space, it seems I'll think Tricia's activities are just as ordinary as she does. I'm not sure how I feel about that."

"There are weirder games out there," Emma murmured.

"Not many," said Derek cheerfully. His tongue began exploring the downy fur of Andrea's left breast before he stopped himself. "Is this also weird? You two are my gauge since I'm just as affected as Tricia."

"I don't think so Derek," Emma said as she took her next turn.

"Agreed," said Andrea.

A pair of grunts escaped Logan, as well as a small whinny. Thick white fluid dribbled out of the corner of Tricia's mouth. She used the towel to clean herself. As she did, the fatty rolls of her throat made rhythmic swallowing motions. She used the towel to clean Logan's penis after withdrawing it from her snout. In seconds, it was hanging flaccidly almost to the carpet. Its size was certainly not affected by previously being human.

She slumped down by the board. Various items on the shelves clinked and clanked from the shock. "Too bad I didn't get turned into a monkey girl," she said. "Then I woulda been flexible enough to take his dick properly."

"Still fully possible," said Emma with a hands-open gesture to her skunk body. "I liked my old stripes better."

"Oh!" Andrea said, throwing up a finger to point at Logan. "He's turning back!"

Logan had already almost fully returned to his anthropomorphic form. His forelegs shortened so quickly that he bumped his nose against the carpet. He withdrew sharply and fell backward onto his rump. When he raised his new three-fingered hands to examine them, the whites of his eyes had returned. He looked around at the others.

"That...wasn't just some crazy dream, was it?"

"Nope," said Derek as he tossed the dice to land by Logan. "Now take your turn, bud. The game wasn't letting me take my turn so it must be welcoming you back into play."

Logan seemed to take his turn in a daze. He gave a little start when he looked at Tricia. One of his brows quirked upward, becoming lost in the mane curtaining his forehead.

"Yeah." Tricia patted her huge belly. "We did. And fuck did you have a lot of semen in those balls. You were like one of my rats."

Logan's big hands jumped to cover his naked loins. "The rest of you were okay with this?!"

Andrea sighed as she rolled the dice. "Yes, yes, and we're bound to find it absolutely ordinary in a few minutes anyway. Especially since I just landed on this wonderful space yet again."

The most common space on the board: the black pawprint with the red outline. Andrea looked as if she were concentrating on something for a few seconds, her eyelids fluttered, and then it was over. She blinked and looked around.

"Don't feel any different. I wonder what I've lost this time, hm?"

"You've caught up to Derek and Tricia in terms of how much you've 'transformed'," said Emma as she took her own turn. "Oh, I can't believe this."

The dice took her piece to one of the spaces with the many red-outlined pawprints. "This is the exact same space I landed on before!"

"Brace yourselves," said Logan. He made a show of feeling around his skull with his hard-tipped fingers. "Nope, everything's still in place. We're good, everyone. Anyone feel weird?"

Shrugs or shakes of the head all around. "We still changed," Derek said.

Tricia's claws scraped against the board as she bent her upper body forward across the board to catch the dice between her digits. She rolled and moved to stop at the enclosure of the monkeys. Logan gestured, and she swept a huge paw forward to send the dice in Logan's direction for his turn. One of the dice knocked Derek's piece over.

He snarled, fixing Tricia with an irritated but not openly angry look. His tail whipped behind him as he reset his piece in a fluid motion. Tricia met his gaze with a bland look devoid of concern. She shrugged and let out an ursine sound that may or may not have had an intended meaning. Derek returned his attention to the fox in his lap. His tongue had reached her crotch. He lapped slowly but decisively as the base of her tail filled his nose. Every now and again he would snort softly and withdraw his head when her long tail hairs went too far up a nostril.

Andrea's slender snout explored Derek's genitals in turn. Her almost invisible whiskers made tiny impressions in his muscled thighs each time she moved her neck and head. Derek's feline penis was beginning to emerge from its sheath as Andrea's moist tongue played along his sensitive organs.

"Your turn," said Logan. Derek picked up the dice and rolled. His attention was split between the game and the much smaller creature with whom he was engaged in foreplay. Apparently neither was more important than the other.

"I'm getting close to winning, you all know," said Andrea on her turn. The dice clattered. She moved. After a quick lick of the line of thick mane traveling down Derek's belly, she said, "And we haven't even landed on some of these hazard spaces."

"I bet if we played again, we'd have a waaaaay different experience," said Logan. "Think we'd be turned into the same animals?"

Emma made a chuffing sound that might have been a giggle. "I'd hope not. Make me a cute puppy or a unicorn next time, not a skunk!"

Tricia let out a grumble denoting disagreement. Emma turned to her, silently requesting some elaboration.

"Not like you smell bad," she said. "And your fur's nice. Light makes it gleam."

"Why, Tricia, that's the nicest thing you've said all night!" said Andrea. Emma beamed and nodded agreement. Tricia shifted and allowed her body to fall onto her side in such a way that shielded her face from view of the others.

Andrea chuckled even while her snout was around Derek's member. He growled slowly from the stimulation. He leaned back, placing his paw-hands on the carpet behind him, eyes closed. Andrea's eyes turned to find the dice on the board. She stretched out to snatch them up with her black-furred hands. When she rolled, snake eyes came up.

"This is the space that did nothing when this big boy here landed on it." She tapped the furry tuft of Derek's tail. It danced away and he cracked one eye.

"That was ages ago," said Logan. "Bet the space is just raring to go now!"

"Let's find out," said Andrea. She pushed her piece two spaces forward. The space had the silhouettes of the dog on two legs and the dog on four legs, along with the arrow pointing from the first to the second figure. All was green-outlined.

When the fox-woman withdrew her hand, her fingers were quickly contorting into a true fox's paw. Her shoulders hunched and rotated inward. Both breasts were lost amid the narrowing of her chest. Like every canine, her trunk became more tubular, losing all traces of humanity's upright, shoulders-back posture. Andrea stepped away from the protection of Derek's imposing form. As her legs finished changing shape, she crouched on her haunches with the lower part of her snowy belly flush with the carpet. She looked around at the others with orange eyes sparkling with inquisitiveness.

"Oh, damn," Logan breathed.

"You hear us in there?" Tricia said, padding over with heavy steps to sniff at Andrea's neck and face.

The fox looked down at her forepaws. One lifted up, went back down, then the other. She looked up and gave a very human nod. Her long mouth opened. An animalistic YIP came out.

Emma let out a little sigh of relief as she reached for the dice. "That space must turn you fully into an animal--"

"--but you keep your mind," Derek finished. "Unlike what happened to Logan."

Logan's horse mouth became a thin line. He let out a soft snort.

As Andrea walked around the room, exploring her new body, Tricia took her turn. Then Logan.

After Derek took his, he stalked over to Andrea and crouched behind her. When she looked back at him, her eyes suddenly opened wide. Her tail shot bolt upright, like a startled cat's. Slowly, she laid down. Logan scooted closer on his wide leonine paws. His body was rhythmically pressing against her and pulling back. He purred his satisfaction. Both of his hands crept up his much smaller prey's sides. The claws were peeking out, catching some of her lustrous coat. His tail twitched behind him.

"Andrea, it's your turn," said Emma. She turned to Logan. "We're the two least affected by the transformation. I can't remember: is it normal to have sex among friends like this?"

Andrea slowly crawled back to the board and Derek waddled after her. All the while he fucked her 100% vulpine vagina.

"I have no idea," said Logan, clenching a two-fingered hand closed. "Scratch that - y'know, I bet it's acceptable if you're a mated pair like Andrea and Derek."

Andrea's twisted her head to try to catch the pips of some of the dice between her sharp teeth. The constant motion caused by Derek slamming into her rump was apparently too much. She turned her head and yapped sharply at her lover. He stopped, watching her expectantly.

"Hurry up, babe," he growled.

Andrea finally grasped the dice and jerked her neck to roll them. Eight. She began to smoothly push her piece to the next space, which was an ordinary one. Then Derek resumed. Her snout jerked, launching her intrepid teenager forward. Somehow, it came to rest in the right place.

Satisfied, Andrea closed her eyes and used her forepaws to push into his member each time he thrust into her. She raised her rump into the air, forcing Derek to rise slightly to meet her.

Emma tilted her head at Logan as she took her turn. "Hey, Logan, would you be interested in having sex with me right now? I guess the smell they're making is getting me in the mood."

Logan reached out to take the dice. They clacked against his hard nails. "Something about that request rubs my brain the wrong way. Dunno what it is. Who cares though, right?" He rolled and moved. "Sure, let's bang. Whether it's fucked up or not."

Emma rolled away from the board onto her silky-furred back. She spread her short legs in the air. Her fluffy black and white tail rolled down toward Logan like a carpet inviting him toward her. Logan rose to his eight-foot-something height to take one huge stride toward her. He looked down at her with his brow furrowed.

"I don't think I'm gonna fit, Emma. Horse schlongs are monstrous." Even so, he lowered himself to his knees.

"Hmm. Want to try anyway? We can go slow to see how it works," said Emma with a curious tone of voice.

"Alrighty," Logan replied. His voice was booming in comparison to hers.

As he leaned forward to inhale her vagina's scent into his wide nostrils, Derek and Andrea took their turns. Andrea's fox tail batted against his broad, furry pects. A snarl of concentration was on the lion-man's face. He suddenly rotated his partner's body around with his penis still plunged into her small slit. She yipped and yapped at the motion, clearly enjoying everything that was happening to her.

Now on her back, she opened her eyes to flash a gleeful look at Derek. He brought his muzzle close to hers and raised his lips into a snarl. There was no threat implicit in the sound, and Andrea seemed to understand that. Her tongue darted out to lick his pink nose. He returned the lick. His sandpaper tongue caught her chin fur, pulling it out of line. Quickly, he groomed her back to perfection with a few more licks while rhythmically humping her rear.

Meanwhile, Logan and Emma had taken the position that Derek and Andrea had previously been in. Logan was working his member into his own partner's vagina. It wasn't long before his impressive, splotchy, multi-toned length was fully hard. The broad, flared tip didn't want to slip past her lips very easily. Slowly but surely, they wiggled their hips to get it deeper. Emma used her clawed fingers to pull at her entrance to make room.

Tricia scratched her fat belly. She watched the proceedings with her usual flat expression, taking her turn as needed. She made no move to assist the others by moving the die any closer to them.

On Andrea's next turn, her transformation reversed. Though she didn't change size, her proportions all changed from feral to humanoid. She used her fingers to take hold of Derek's wrists once they regained their dexterity.

"Oh, that's so much more comfortable," she remarked after her back had broadened. "C'mon, fuck me like you mean it, pussycat!"

Derek rose into a feral crouch on his broad paws. The thick golden mane he wore like a mantle rose and fall with his breaths. He seemed to take her request to heart, pushing and pulling the much smaller fox-woman along his barbed shaft. His tufted tail swished to and fro behind him. Somehow he avoided knocking over any of the pieces.

Only a few seconds later, he pulled Andrea all the way onto his length. His chin lifted as his leonine jaw opened wide. A glorious roar issued forth, resounding off every wall. Semen dripped from the bottom of Andrea's vagina, sinking into the base of her fluffy tail.

"Derek!" exclaimed Emma as Logan worked himself deeper. "Don't you have neighbors?"

The lion didn't respond at first. His face was contorted into furred wrinkles, his eyes squeezed shut. Finally he relaxed, withdrawing from Andrea. He lay himself down on the ground and his tongue set to grooming the fur of his upper thighs into place.

"Yeah," he said, reaching for the dice that Logan had just rolled. "But fuck 'em."

Emma smiled on her back as her eyes drifted closed. "Oh, Logan. That's nice."

The horse-man leaned forward and used his long neck to bring his lips close to her snout. There, he licked her small nose once. Emma's eyes opened in surprise. She returned the lick tentatively, then again more firmly. Then they were taking turns licking all over each other's faces. Emma's tiny tongue worked down his long, sparsely haired jawline. Logan's tongue smeared the fur of half her face and one ear.

"This...is how you kiss, right?" he murmured, as if embarrassed. His thrusts were slow, delicate.

Emma looked to Tricia, who shrugged two massive shoulders. "I think so," said Emma.

It was Logan's turn. He scooped up the dice.

"Sorry I can't get--" He grunted. "--much farther than this," he said with a hand sweep to indicate their crotches. Then he tossed the dice and moved his piece.

The space he landed on was the same space that Emma had landed on early on in the game, when she'd transformed from a tiger to a skunk. It showed the black silhouettes of a dog and cat head, with arrows pointing between them. All was outlined in blue.

Every head in the room turned to watch. Logan himself didn't seem to notice where he'd landed. He closed his eyes, focusing on his sex with Emma. She looked up at him with trepidation.

The most obvious change was his size. Immediately, he shrank away from the ceiling. His pointed ears widened out while white fur filled them in. In contrast, his horse's muzzle thinned and grew more pointed. His nostrils transformed into a canine's black nose. Each end of his lips stretched backward toward his ears, and white fangs became apparent between them. Fur grew in shades of brown different than the cinnamon coloration that had previously covered him almost uniformly. It was thin on his face, but quickly grew in length from his neck and below.

A thick fur coat grew all over his body. All of Logan's frank musculature diminished before becoming hidden by the fur. The fur was multi-hued: ocher, bronze, tawny brown, as well as some white, gray, and black. His three-fingered hands morphed into clawed paw-hands very similar to Andrea's. His whole size and stature was becoming more similar to hers, albeit he was moderately larger. His hooves cracked and split before a canine's toes stretched forth.

At this point, Logan's eyes opened wide. He glanced over his arms and chest before turning his head to watch his tail transform. The horse hairs were lost amid a bloom of puffy fur. He spun to watch his groin change, the last part of his body. The huge horse penis looked ridiculous on his current body. At least, the part of it that could be seen outside of Emma's vagina. It changed to a pure, deep red as it shrank. His sheath and testicles grew furry, and pulled toward is body to become an appropriate size.

"Hngh, I could feel it tapering toward the tip. Weird." His new not-so-booming voice had lost all traces of its equine quality. Now it sounded like it could settle into a growl at the turn of a dime.

He refocused on Emma. Now he was positioned above her rear, instead of looking down from over her face.

"I think you look cute, for a coyote," she said. Her silky tail whipped up at his groin playfully.

Logan smiled at her, resuming more vigorous thrusts. The expression fit his new face perfectly.

"Hey, I can get the whole way in ya now!" His large ears rotated backward as his expression grew more concentrated. On his new paws, he sped up his thrusts until he was like a jackhammer pounding away at her rear. His smaller, lither body was quick.

"Typical canine," laughed Andrea, though her lingering gaze suggested more than mockery.

Derek took his turn just before the timer reached the top. After moving, which put his piece very close to the next zoo enclosure, his eyes alighted on Andrea once more. A purr rumbled in his throat. His flaccid penis stirred in its sheath as he prowled toward her thighs. The fox's attention turned to him when he pulled her knees to the side with casual strength.

"Didn't we just fuck?" she asked. "Or is this game muddling my brain again?" That said, she didn't resist him.

"We did," said Logan, all but enveloping her much smaller form in his. "Guess I haven't had enough."

"Lions can breed a shitload of times on the same day," Tricia pointed out.

Andrea chewed on that for a moment. "I don't suppose I'm in a position to complain." Her voice was muffled through the mane draping her snout. Her claws skittered across the board's surface as she groped for the dice.

"That's it," Tricia announced. "I want in." She rose to her full, impressive height. Both heavy breasts jiggled with the movement.

Derek flat-out ignored her. The bear turned to him expectantly. Before he could answer, she was already stepping over the board toward him. With a rumble that clattered the plates in the kitchen, she all but flopped onto her hands and knees with her rear pointed at Logan.

Derek's balls were bumping against Andrea's furry thighs when Logan responded. "Tricia, I, urgh, one second..."

His voice became a wet growl as his lips lifted to reveal clenched fangs. His tail curled. He pushed deep into Emma. Until Tricia's huge paw was rammed into the space between Logan's belly and Emma's thighs. It forced their crotches apart, so they couldn't be flush against each other.

"You're not knotting her tonight, sweetie," Tricia rumbled.

Logan's growl became a faint whine as he pumped into his skunk. He seemed to notice neither Tricia's words nor her paw. Emma's eyes were closed, enjoying the sensation.

As the game continued, Logan caught his breath. "Alright, I can fuck you too, no prob. Just gimme a second. Whew, that was intense!"

"Well done," said Emma as she scooted into a sitting position.

"Wait," said Logan, his eyes following her legs. "You've got some spunk leaking out. Let me clean you up."

Tricia let out a warning grumble and shoved her rear pointedly at Logan's face. The coyote's ears and expression fell. "Never mind."

"It's not a big deal," Emma said. "I appreciate the thought. It's normal to make a mess after intercourse. At least, I think it is. Where else would the excess semen go?"

Andrea's muffled voice spoke out again. No one could see her muzzle moving from within the curls of Derek's mane while he mated with her. "I have no idea if cleaning yourself afterward would be the typical thing to do or not, but at this rate, there's bound to be a more than a little mess on this side of the board."

Logan rose onto the tips of his hind paws. The size differential between the coyote and the bear was large enough to force Logan to scramble up Tricia's tall rear. His rigid red canine penis smeared some of her thick fur as he climbed. As it began its retreat into his furred sheath, Logan gained his position. Most of his weight was thrown over Tricia's nub-tail, and he supported his lower body with his splayed hind legs on either side of Tricia's vagina. His paws dug into the fur.

The flappy lips of Tricia's ursine muzzle shook as she growled her pleasure at Logan's entrance. In seconds, he was humping her for all he was worth. He set his furry jaw down on her amply padded spine, screwing his eyes shut.

"Definitely not big enough," she rumbled. "Still nice."

Derek roared once again. Everyone froze in their activities for a split second from the suddenness, as if caught by a spell. Andrea might have been screaming her pleasure simultaneously, but the roar drowned out any competition.

When the dice came to Tricia, she almost missed her turn. She was distracted by sex. It wasn't just her that had been distracted in the last couple of rounds. No one immediately reminded her that it was her turn, each being largely wrapped up either in intercourse or the laxity that follows. A similar situation happened a few turns later, on Logan's turn. Andrea had to get up and hand the dice to him, as Tricia showed her anger any time her coyote partner tried to dismount.

"Grabbing food," said Derek following his turn. "I'll see what I have for snacks."

What he returned with was seven pounds of raw, uncooked chicken breasts. "This was gonna be part of my dinner tomorrow, until this epic game happened."

Everyone's expressions were like children on Christmas morning. Derek's claws easily sliced the translucent plastic. He tossed a breast to Logan, who caught it in his panting jaws. One by one, the players began to tear into the juicy, raw chicken.

"Mm," crooned Andrea. "I think I bit into one of those blood vessels. Delicious."

Derek swallowed a piece that was the size of Emma's head. "If I'd gotten turned into a smaller animal, this would be more than a two bite snack."

Tricia sent the two dice spinning with a flick of one of her long claws, then started moving her piece. "Chicken's good, but I could go for some...shit." Her piece had landed on the special space that had transformed Logan from a horse into a coyote.

Said coyote continued pounding her even as she began to change shape. "This form's...got good...stamina..." he panted, eyes still shut.

The most obvious change was size. Tricia quickly shrank toward a size much closer to her present lover's. Her bulbous belly seemed to deflate. Each pillar-like limb narrowed as the fur on each shortened dramatically. Her legs became narrow enough to see some of the tendons, and certainly the muscles. Her monstrous hand-paws shrank into something that might actually fit into a human's glove.

"Your ears are looking more triangular, like Logan's," Emma pointed out, before returning her attention to her chunk of shredded meat. Bits of chicken breast were stuck between her fangs. Juice stained her black chin.

As if thrust into a film noir, shades of gray replaced Tricia's uniformly brown fur from the roots to the tips. She was all silvery grays on her back and the upper half of her head, but pristine snowy white everywhere else. The shape of her face changed subtly toward something akin to Logan's face. Her snout was slightly broader, though, and her ears not quite as pointed.

"Stop moving Tricia," Logan whined as her size change completed. His hind paws scrabbled for purchase at a backside that was now not even half as large. They slipped and landed on the carpet behind Tricia's. Both pairs of paws were identical in shape, but Tricia's were larger, and a pure white color.

"Huh?" he said, just as Tricia's tail lengthened up along Logan's chest and into his face. Again, it looked very similar to his own canine tail.

With a wet shlurk, Tricia pulled herself off of the coyote's penis. She stood up to look down at Logan over her new wolf snout. By a scant few inches, she was taller.

"Oh, damn," Logan said. The others chuckled.

"Gorgeous," put in Andrea. "Not quite as vivacious and lovely as me, but gorgeous nonetheless."

Derek nodded his approval. "Classic werewolf look. Not quite as vicious-looking though. Hollywood's always so overblown."

Tricia's clawed hands scooped up her much-reduced breasts. She hefted their weight. "Not awful," she remarked. Her softer voice had a savage growl as an undertone.

She reached out an arm and pulled Logan toward her. Hurriedly, he glanced down and lined up his penis with her new vagina. Her tail wagged gently as she bared her teeth in a smile.

"It's your turn," she whispered into one of his spacious ears.

Logan yelped in surprise. He pulled himself off the wolf and fell to a crouch to find the dice. His roll brought him to the alligator enclosure. The second-to-last one he needed to win, despite being in last place. Tricia's hand grasped his wrist and hauled him to his feet. He yelped again when her claw-tips teased his cock for a breathless second, before she grabbed it and guided it into her fur-lined vagina.

"Mind if I take a turn on the coyote, sweetie?" said Andrea, now standing just behind Tricia. She had sneaked over soundlessly.

The corners of Tricia's gray muzzle turned downward in a sour frown.

"Come now, we canines need to stick together," said Andrea, a grin on her vulpine snout. "Just one turn. Promise."

"Fine."

Logan pulled out, stepping away from the other two canines. "Hold on. Andrea, you and Derek are a mated pair."

The lion had been licking the last of the chicken scraps and juice from the packaging. Hearing his name, he stood and joined the conversation. He was much taller than everyone else at this point. A giant in the room. He put a heavy paw-hand between Andrea's large ears, growling possessively as he looked down on the others.

The fox stepped away, looking up at him fearlessly. "Cool off Derek. This is a one-of-a-kind night, remember? You yourself said to relax and let the game work its magic. Everything will be as it was once we're done playing, but for now, I want some coyote dick."

Without waiting for a response, she took one swift step right up to Logan's face. They were almost the same height and build. Snout-to-snout, Andrea wrapped her arms around the small of Logan's back and guided him to the floor next to the game board. She brought her vulpine feet to either side of Logan's hips. After raising herself an inch upward, she let herself down onto Logan's penis.

Shhllk.

She continued lifting herself up and down to her liking, heedless of Logan's helpless whines of pleasure. The pert breasts on her downy-furred chest bobbed with her energetic cadence.

Derek stalked away from the pair, tail lashing. On his turn, he was distracted until the final seconds. Not an uncommon occurrence by that point. He scooped up the dice to all but throw them down at the board. When they finally came to rest, they showed a seven. He moved his piece to land on a space that they'd all skipped over a few times. A new hazard.

The image was simple. Two black arrows chasing each other's tails in a circle. They were outlined in purple.

"Wonder what this'll do," he growled softly.

His answer arrived immediately. The tuft of his tail lightened to white. The wave of change spread up his tail, lending a reddish hue to the tawny fur. The fur lengthened too, until it was almost as puffy as a squirrel's tail. At the base of his tail, Derek's genitals changed color too, though what happened within his sheath could not be seen. The bright red-orange color spread to his hips, his thighs, his back - it was taking over most of his body.

He glanced down at where Andrea was riding Logan, and his jaw fell open. He flung out a clawed finger at her rear. The tail of a lioness had replaced her fox tail.

"You're changing too!"

Derek's legs were slimming down, some black being mixed in with the red-orange sweeping toward his feet. When the change reached them, they changed into similar, but daintier paws. A contrasting white overtook his belly, then his chest, all the way up to his chin and lower cheeks. The hunky frame of his upper body became lithe, narrow. His posture, shorter and smaller. His regal mane seemed to wither as it thinned out. Now his narrower neck looked naked, despite the colored and white fur lining it. As his hands and arms underwent a similar change to his legs and feet, Derek felt around on his face.

Meanwhile, Andrea's height was rising upward. All of her visible fur was the color of sun-baked sand. There was stockiness and a sense of power to the muscles of her back that were in plain view of Tricia, Emma, and Derek. The paws anchoring her to the floor at Logan's hips had been transformed into the broad paws of a big cat. When she grunted and moaned her pleasure, her voice betrayed her very different species. It was dramatically lower: a sultry, powerful voice.

Derek's fingers pressed against his triangular pink nose as it pushed outward, trying to hold it in. The unyielding, capable jaws of the lion became the pointed snout of the fox. His circular ears grew upward into points. The last of his fur shifted in color until the stunning colors of the fox had replaced his golden face.

Andrea paused in her lovemaking to turn. Her eyes lowered from where she expected to see Derek's head. The fearsome face of a fully-grown lion met his new vulpine face.

"Oh," she purred. "So that's what happened. Neat."

She turned back to Logan, bent forward, and licked his face with her sandpapery tongue. Thanks to her new size, her lick caught half his face. Then she resumed her slow bouncing motion.

"Oh dear," said Emma, watching. "Don't let your full weight drop onto Logan, Andrea. There's a good chance he could suffocate!"

Derek kicked the dice in Andrea's direction before walking up to Emma and setting himself down in a crouch.

"Hey, Emma. I wanna...I gotta test this body out. D'you wanna fuck?"

Emma's tilted her striped head. "You sound embarrassed. Are you alright?"

"D'you want to or not?" He growled. It wasn't half as intimidating as the roars he'd produced.

Her tail, facing away from Derek and the others, lifted into what might have been a threatening posture. A split second later, it slowly relaxed. She tilted her snout down and away.

"I don't think so Derek. I feel satisfied, I suppose. Thanks for the offer though. Besides," she added as his expression fell, "foxes eat skunks in the wild. It'd be a little bit weird."

"And all the more funny to watch," Tricia put in. Her tail rasped along the carpet as it curled to her amusement.

Emma took the dice that were rolled in her direction by Andrea. The new lioness had landed on a mundane space. When Emma rolled and moved, she held her piece above the space she was meant to land on.

"A new space," she warned the others. "I think it's the only one we haven't landed on. By the looks of it, this will affect all of us."

The space was filled with black heart shapes. Each was outlined in pink. There was no corresponding space with only one heart, unlike the spaces with either one or many polka-dotted paw-prints. Emma gently placed her piece on the surface, and the timer jumped to the top to signal the beginning of the next player's turn.

"Anyone feel different?" she asked, glancing around.

As she spoke, Logan seemed to orgasm. His back arched, struggling to push Andrea into the air. She continued riding him. A lusty growl escaped her lips as semen, bright white against Logan's gray fur, dribbled downward. Derek the fox and Tricia the wolf were watching. They shook their heads at Emma.

"I don't feel different either," she said. "Wait. No. Something's happening in my belly. Or, actually, my bottom. Oh. Oh! I'm beginning to feel so...so warm!"

Simultaneously, Derek's and Tricia's eyes widened. Derek's manhood was rapidly emerging from its sheath. He glanced down at it in surprise.

Tricia's eyes followed Derek's. "I...think I need it," she said, haltingly. She blinked. Her tongue darted out to lick her chops. "I definitely need it!"

She all but pounced on the surprised fox, easily bearing him to the soft carpet with her superior size and strength. Instead of resisting, his fluffy neck flexed to bring his snout closer to hers, even as he was laid on his back. Almost ferociously, he licked and nuzzled her face, taking in her scent, slobbering her with his tongue, yipping and yapping his need.

Tricia readily returned the amorous sentiments. Her clawed hands wrapped the bases of Derek's sensitive ears. Her claw-tips teased him with soft scratches, while the lusty growls from deep in her throat and chest encouraged him to slip inside of her.

Before he could, Emma was butting up against Tricia's leg. She was a skunk trying to push over a wolf. It wasn't working. One of her hands was rubbing around her clitoris vigorously.

"Please," she gasped. "Move so he can fuck me!" Her mouth spilled open, letting free her breaths that were suddenly labored. Tricia easily fended her off with a warning snarl.

In a flash, Emma bounded up to Derek's face. She hopped onto the fluff of his upper chest and planted her rear paws on either side of his neck. Facing backward, she held her tail up above Derek's head, exposing her vagina and anus to his chin.

"Please, lick me!" she whined to him.

He broke free from his 'kissing' with Tricia, his ears perked. As if noticing the skunk on his chest for the first time, his eyes roved the genitalia in his face. Only for a moment though. His snout jerked forward into the soft flesh between anus and vagina. His pink tongue shot out to lap at her short-furred external lips.

Emma cried out as if her foot had been caught in a trap. She scratched his furry chest with her little finger claws, writhing and squealing, her tail dancing like a kite in a storm. The pert nipples of her modest breasts were dragged along his narrow chest over and over. She was mad like a caged animal. Yet all the while she kept her rear perfectly in position. She shuddered with the strain of keeping still as he lapped more eagerly, his tongue getting deeper into her small skunk tunnel.

Derek's hips were moving as if possessed. Again and again he thrust blindly upward, hilting to his sheath against Tricia. His tail twitched every now and then where it lay on the ground intermingled with Tricia's. His hands explored the fur of Tricia's hips, or her fit lupine belly. They jumped to Emma, squeezing her breasts, back, shoulders - anything they could find. Gentleness was a necessity for a beast as small as her, but no gentleness could be found in Derek's bestial groping. Everything he did was dictated by the lust coursing through him.

With the energy put forth by Derek, Tricia had no need to play an active part. Still she rode him with passion. Her breasts slapped and bobbed atop Emma's head thanks to the size differences and their odd positioning. Neither seemed to mind in the slightest. The sounds from the fur-on-fur contact was like blankets whispering against each other.

Even though Logan had ejaculated around the same time that Emma had landed on the special space, he was at it again with Andrea. She didn't look like she minded. Both were immersed in the sex even more fully than the first time. Logan was standing up with one of her legs clutched against his chest. Perhaps more accurately, Andrea the lioness was holding her leg up against his chest. Her meaty, muscled thigh was about half the size of his body. He humped her slit while her tail danced and his tail shook. Like a house cat, Andrea curled her upper body toward her legs. Her tongue played with Logan's balls like catch-and-release with a mouse. One of her hand-paws squeezed and rubbed at her full breasts resting on the floor.

His crimson penis stood out against the desert-colored fur of her groin as it slid in and out of her slit. The thick tail that emerged from her spine just behind her anus was as lively as a snake. Just once, Logan reached out with his coyote hand-paw to snatch her tail and bring it close to the leg he was holding. He underestimated the strength of her fifth limb. She pulled it free of his grip instantly. As if satisfied, Logan clutched her powerful thigh all the closer to his furry chest. He pressed his short muzzle alongside her knee. His moist pink tongue licked his nose and jowls before he continued panting like a dog on a walk.

The room sounded like a zoo when the orgasms arrived. Growls, snarls, yelps, barks, and a lioness' roar from Andrea. More semen, along with other excretions, stained fur and carpet alike. A minute or so of recuperation ensued. Many of the players licked themselves or others to clean up.

"Lust," said Andrea. "That was most definitely what that space did."

"I regret nothing," Derek said. The change in his voice from lion to fox still caught a couple of them by surprise.

"Me neither," echoed Tricia and Emma. They shared a quick smile.

"Ya know," said Logan, raising his snout from the mess between his legs. "My belly's full, I'm not tired, and my coyote balls aren't empty yet. Anyone wanna go again?"

Both Tricia and Emma stood up to approach his side of the game board.

Andrea purred. "He's quite energetic. Five stars from me. I recommend you fight over him."

"Hold on," Derek practically barked. "I'll take a partner. Or two."

Andrea eyed him with consideration while Tricia opened her muzzle to speak.

The negotiations continued for another three minutes before everyone was partnered up. They were each with different people, and in different positions. Their lovemaking was not as mindless as the previous session, but it had the same kind of feral abandon.

The dice of The Cursed Zoo lay unheeded by the center of the board. The timer's hand pointed to the top of the clock. Immobile. Lifeless. The pieces stood where their masters had left them.

Andrea, Derek, and Logan were all tied for first place. They each needed to pass only one more animal enclosure of the zoo in order to end the game with a victory.

The rulebook was still open to the first page where it had last been referenced. The goal of the game was printed in stark bold text, like a warning.

"The goal of The Cursed Zoo is to see all the animals without becoming one yourself."