FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

A New Family Part 3

Dramatis Personae

Family of 5 from the Archives: (Descended from United Americas of Old Earth)

• Ataksak (Mother) 41

• Negafook (Father) 42

• Nanook (elder son) 22

• Pinga (daughter) 22

• Silla (younger son) 8

Other Cast

-Nathan (Historian, Colonist) 235

-Gregory (Architect, Colonist) 230

• Noctis (Geneticist, Colonist) 293

Some indeterminate time later however Nathan came over to nudge us awake, he looked so very weary with his neck and tail drooping. "You have changed too much in too short a time" he said. "We need you to each eat three of the cubes before you sleep the rest of the day away."

"What's in them?" Nan asked.

"Except for one difference everything is the same as the ones you had earlier. These have a sedative in them. You will not awake until sometime tomorrow. Alessandra feels it might be best. Not only for your bodies which will continue to turn in your slumber, but to allow time for Noctis to return. I'm sure it doesn't need said but things have gone horrifically awry. We are so deeply ashamed. This was meant to be a time of joyful transition and welcoming for a new family. Instead it has turned to dreary ash and tears for all involved."

"Is Alessandra okay?" Ata timidly asked. "Should I see her?"

"You had better not dare" the thus far easy going dragon snarled. This making her whimper and cower against me. Then, after breathing deeply like Noctis, he said more soothingly "Wait until tomorrow. Right now she's with our twins being comforted. I desperately want to return to her. But she begged me to remain and extend an olive branch after the unfortunate turn the day took. You don't know how much she blames herself for what happened today. The scratches you gave her have already healed. But the damage done to her pride as a healer, as one who does no harm. That, I'm afraid, will take long turns to recover from."

Ata returned to burying her head under my chin where I felt the slight trembles of her stifled cries. To help lead her through her grief I wrapped my arms around her while she held her legs against my chest. After providing us the cubes which he had carried over he left us, allowing all but me to fall into induced slumbers as I had yet to eat my own share. There was just too much that needed sorting out first. Carefully I disentangled myself from the heap that we had piled ourselves into and stood. Grimacing at the sharp feeling of discomfort I felt in my neck. I rolled my oversized head and with a pop my neck grew sizably making the ground retreat. Perfect.

Walking away a short distance still carrying my cubes I sat on a tree stump likely resulting from the earlier tumult (I wonder what Sylvia will think of the damage to her forest?). Silently I watched my family squirm closer to fill my vacancy, slithering together in a manner alien to what we once were.

"It makes one think, doesn't it?"

Startled my right eye slid to look for the speaker. Instead only seeing a red scaled paw before I remembered to look up. Where a new unfamiliar (and unnaturally quiet) dragon loomed not looking at me but instead my family. Looking back upon them as I agreed "It certainly does. Are you here to be our jailer?" I asked only half joking. I then introduced myself.

Returning the greeting he responded "Bonjour et bienvenue. Pessimistically you could say that, realistically though emotions are running high everywhere right now. And the Rocs are behaving aggressively as well. However, my name is Gregory or Greg. I am the Builder for Alpha den. Just don't let Sylvia hear you call me Greg, she can be a tad...possessive."

"Your...mate?" I guessed.

"Actually, of all the original colonists we were the only ones who came here already wedded to each other."

For a moment I just sat, thinking quietly, watching as Pinga absently scratched her flank with a hind paw where Nan's tail brushed against it. What happened to a week for the change I thought dejectedly. Look at the decidedly inhuman forms we had taken already mentally and physically.

"When Sylvia and I changed, our behavior altered much as you have already noticed in yourselves." The dragon said, interrupting my brooding.

"How can you tell what bothers me?"

"Your head and face have changed, eliminating some expressions. But as time goes by you will notice other more novel expressions developing. You will also begin to be able to read and interpret those new tics."

"Ha! Listen to me, the linguist, being tutored in communication. But, this is why I'm here, to learn. I'm all ears." My frills flared wide to demonstrate that fact helpfully.

"In time you will know more than I, certainly. But for now you should focus on the mental changes you and yours are already undergoing. Did you not think it odd that your mate charged a creature hundreds of times her size with her bare hands? Or that your son Silla did not mind unexpectedly losing her sex?"

"Well, now that you mention it..."

"Before we talk further I should warn you that Noctis is listening in. I did not want this to be a surprise to you later. But you should know she is quite beside herself in shame and embarrassment over today. She looks for any insight at all that she can find before you inevitably confront her tomorrow."

"Please" I said "Don't use such harsh terms as confront. The last thing we want is more violence, physical or verbal after today. We just don't want anything else to go wrong."

"Well said." He responded. "I'm sure you know that life is nothing more than adapting to or overcoming one set of challenges after another. Your family will live for thousands of turns. There is no poison strong enough to taint water for such a time."

"Too true, but will the long lived creatures who share that water remember?"

"The promise of tomorrow always brings with it the sweet nectar to remove the ills of yesterday."

"You know, I think I'd like to have these discussions with you from now on."

"As would I." the red dragon agreed.

"Well" I said standing back up. The crick in my neck had returned and as I cracked it the ground retreated again. Sighing, I felt my neck (two and a half paw spans long), then twisted my head around to look down my own back. "That's something new at least." I said in resignation. Munching on my cubes in thought for a moment I snorted then turned to shake Greg's hand. Quite forgetting a number of things.

"You have adapted enough to allow me to show you what we do instead of shaking hands. Just bow your head forward and close your eyes."

I did as he asked and then felt the contact of his scaled brow touching my own.

"It was good talking to you. I look forward to doing so again. Now, go lay down before you fall down"

Hissing laughter, I stumbled back to the sleeping pad and wormed back between my wife and daughter...s. I was asleep before my eyes had closed.

The next day I blearily opened my eyes as the harsh glare of one of the two suns made me seal my pupils against the evil intrusion. Then, unexpectedly, an opaque film slid sideways covering my ocular sensor. Well, I guess that answers the question of whether we changed while asleep or not. After a no doubt amusing series of facial contortions I hit upon the muscle to control these things. I suppose this body will have a learning curve for something other than flying.

I raised my head after retracting these shields. Then twisted said body part all around without stirring the rest of me in assessment. (What the fuck?) My head must be over half a meter above my body! Might as well just call me Geoffrey the Giraffe. I noticed not only the glaring sun light but the massive black body of who I don't know curled around us. Then I heard her voice, it was Noctis. Who was apparently speaking with Silla at this time. Glancing down I noticed no one else was awake. To rectify that sad state of affairs I butted my head against each of theirs in turn. Shaking myself loose of three tails... wait... three?

Glancing back, it was confirmed. Nan, Pinga, and Ata. They all now had tails long enough to touch their own heads. Thinking that, something crashed into the back of my own. Well, four tails, I amended letting it droop back down onto Nan's irritated head. I suppose the changes progressed along the line of the spine for now.

"Get up" I said "This has to happen, so we might as well get it over with." With thoughtful looks (or in Ata's case apprehensive) we agreed and rose to walk... Or trot in Pinga's case.

I asked her. "Do you even realize that you are on four legs now?"

She stopped "Well...no. It just felt as natural as every other morning I've ever swung my legs out of bed."

"Yeah, all four of them." Nan said, while trying to push her over. Pinga's tail crashed into his arm in response knocking him flat.

I looked for more changes. I didn't have to look long. Nan's forelimbs had begun to resemble something designed to be on the ground supporting weight. Ata had forsaken all her clothes ("Why bother?" she asked. "It's not like the others care. I saw two of them rutting in the open yesterday.") She had nothing to conceal anyway. Her breasts were gone as well as any other external sexual characteristics.

Lastly Pinga who as noted, was on all fours and had also eschewed garments. It was interesting to watch her movements. With no prior knowledge whatsoever she moved with the sinewy grace of an extinct panther. Tail moving to counterbalance the (as yet) nonexistent movement of a long neck. Her shoulder and hip blades moving back and forth in perfect rhythm. When she first rose from sleeping her forelegs propped her upper body up with her hind legs on either side of her torso. This coupled with her tail waving behind her idly she was not much different in core from the other colonists.

Before announcing our presence together to Noctis I asked her on the link where we could find latrines. She simply said; the forest, and there is a creek south of the med bay.

No longer having anything left to hide from each other we all sauntered off into the woods. All of us besides Pinga completing our toiletries as usual. She however merely picked a piece of suitable ground, and spread her rear legs apart while holding her tail aloft and perpendicular to her body. Look at how much instinctual behavior we've gained, I thought.

Pressing on we moved over to the creek and got our fill of water. My own unique behavior was to dunk my head with jaws gaping then swing my head vertically allowing the water to drain of its own accord down my throat. Not even Pinga did that at this point, although her lack of neck made her drop to her ventral surface in order to reach the water.

Finally, after all the delay I could reasonably contrive. We trudged over to stand before Noctis. Before a word was said however, she heaved herself up. Then, curling her forelegs, she again bowed to us. This time however she would not rise until each of us had walked forward. Touched the vulnerable base of her head with our talons, and forgiven her for what had initiated yesterday's events.

"Of all you, I feel I owe the deepest apologies to Silla here. Who I have been discussing with hi...her changed situation. The flaw in the programming of the nanobots was not one I would have ever thought to look for. But readily apparent now that it's work has been exposed. The danger to reprogram in the midst of a change is far, far too great. At the least she could die. At the most she may become the start of a grey goo termination event. However, and here is where all your inputs are valuable. At the end of the week I can manufacture a new system to restore his birth right. His choice as I've asked him at this time is ambivalent, and given that, I am inclined to leave her as she is now. There are a minimum of unknowns with that option. She will also be a valuable growth factor in the early population rise of the colony."

"But most importantly I must add. Which I have just finished explaining the gravity of for Silla. At eight turns old she may be sexually active at the end of her change. The completion of which may drive her to mate just as it will with you Pinga and Ataksak. However, another equally likely possibility is that she is just too young to feel driven into heated mating frenzy. Whether she does or not the fact remains that she is too young to fully appreciate what the future holds for her reproductively."

"But I do!" She declared. "I'll be making more dragons!"

"NO! ABSOLUTELY NOT!" Roared Ata and I (predictably).

"What are the dangers of back to back alterations like this?" I asked.

"Sterility, some halfway condition, neurological degeneracies, a complete failure of cellular structure, and neural dysfunctions" She said, like a grocery list and not the welfare of our son/daughter.

Ata looked over at Silla with an indecipherable expression.

"There's no way to do this safely?" Ata queried again.

"The safest path is to remain on the one we are on. I know this is bitter medicine to swallow. But you will have to ask yourselves this. What would you rather have: A second daughter instead of son? Or only two children? Your life spans will reach thousands of turns. At eight she may never remember being a male after a few centuries."

"Yes I will!" She piped up.

Ata and I looked doubtful about that. Especially after she starts having eggs. We both walked over and picked up Silla to ask her one last time. Her tail curled around my distended forearm. Together we asked "Silla, this will be for the rest of your life. Are you willing to be like your mother and bear children?"

"Uh huh. Soon I will lie down with another dragon and then later have eggs that will hatch into more dragons!"

"And do you know it means to lie down with?"

"Yep! The same thing you do with mommy! I'll make lots of noise like she does, mommy always sounds like she's having fun!"

Ata gaped like a dying fish and all I could do was drag one of my paws down the length of my snout. I turned to Noctis "Well her understanding is a bit simplistic, but she's not wrong in her assessment of the larger facts."

"Who would she even mate with?" Ata wondered.

"Well, most of the adults are bonded pairs, with one recent and unfortunate exception. However the males reach maturity at or about 50 turns. Some much sooner than others as there are variances. As you have seen with Sekhmet and Mazu their developments at any specific age are all over the place. I will make sure she gets to know all the males that understand what the importance of mating are. Both she and the dragon will likely be too young to create a lasting bond. Any congress will likely be very brief, however as in any living organism deviations are expected."

"The hatchlings?" I asked

"Nurturing is largely a communal effort. She will by no means have sole or even primary responsibility in rearing."

"Well..." the three of us turned to Nan (who had fallen to all fours while we were distracted) and Pinga.

Nan said "I'm sorry, are you about to ask me whether what was my little brother should remain in her new role as a broodmare for the colony?"

"We'll take that as an abstention" Noctis said.

Pinga padded over to Silla and prodded her with her lengthening snout. "Are you happy being like me and mother?"

"When we have the new dragons, there will be more reasons to be happy!"

Pinga nodded her approval. "Becoming a parent summed up in so few words. She may be wiser than us all."

"Then so shall she remain." Declared Noctis.

In celebration, Silla fell to all fours for the first time and began to fidget. She rubbed her hind legs together restlessly due to a discomfort that horrified me even if it was expected. Her genitals must be starting to change inside their new slit (mine and Nan's penises had also long since retreated into similar pockets). She panted with a rasp and hesitantly said "I think I'm become more like a dragoness now." Ata fell to her knees in front of Silla and held her head to her chest while silently crying. I laid my own paw on top of her head. Nan and Ping rubbed their snouts against the back of her neck in a soothing gesture.

Noctis spoke again "The aborted attempts to scan you must be done now. I cannot stress enough how important it is for Silla and the other two females to be checked. There is so much that could go wrong."

Pinga's snout advanced another drastic increment. Ata grew taller as her legs and torso lengthened. Nan's neck grew out. And finally my own neck grew yet again while two long bulges began to spread from my shoulder blades down my back. I wonder what those are, I thought sarcastically. What a sendoff for the sexual future of our eight turn old son/one day old daughter. At least we all had two nutri cubes for cake or would that be the kill that Surya landed with and presented to us.

"Eat up" Noctis said. "Over the next six days you will at least quadruple in size."

The smell of fresh flesh wafted into our flaring nostrils awakening new and savage instincts. We all crowded around the kill and began to bury our muzzles into the deceased whatever it was. It actually felt liberating becoming red in tooth and claw, and delicious. After the carcass was picked clean we backed away and looked at each other more than a little embarrassed by our blood stained scales.

"Now you will all know what it means to clean oneself as a dragon." Noctis helpfully commented. "Back to the creek you go."

Our three quadrupedal offspring trotted off back to the creek in the woods. Silla bouncing back and forth among the other two larger siblings.

I turned to Ata and chirped. She turned her blunt snake like muzzle towards me and cocked her head in curiosity. "Did you just chirp?"

"Sure did. And I also did this." I curled my neck forward burying my own snout under hers and then backing up a bit proceeded to clean her jaws. A humming vibration started deep at the base of her neck travelling right through me. Maintaining this thrum she licked my own jowls, her resonant serenade soon being joined by my own.

I glanced at Noctis and a meter tall eye winked at me. She heaved herself up and moved to lay down facing away and hiding us from our water splashing children.

Ata's thrumming increased as she slid her tongue along my snout seductively. As the end of her tail found my own and began to wind its way around it she began to push me back into the trees. She continued to move her head against my own rubbing it back and forth. Immediately upon reaching cover I was surprised by the use of her tail to trip, catch, and slowly lower me with the aid of her forelegs to a bed of moss. With all four of her paws straddling me she slowly lowered herself down upon my visibly excited self and...

Well... You know the rest.

But to tell you anyway, it was wonderful. She did indeed make every bit the noise Silla remembered and more. Gone were the sounds one would expect from a primate. Instead we traded back and forth in resonating arousal. These sounds were soon joined by yelps and trills. And at last, after twelve minutes of building desire. We both finally let go with a joyful bugling at the climactic finish to our interlude.

Ata looked at me with eyes half lidded lazily in satisfaction. "HA! I've ssstill got it." She trumpeted saucily.

"Yes, yes you do" I said, thoroughly winded. I shakily stood. "Before we head back though, just for the record. Isn't it odd that we found this a good time to consummate our new mated status?"

"You're right. Next time we should do it in plain view like everyone else. Why are you complaining? I felt the urge just asss you obviously did. Quit overthinking thisss before I take you again right now. My desire hasss not been fulfilled yet." She started to crawl on top of me making good on her word.

Scales ruffling in embarrassment I stood instead and offered her my paw to stand. She rolled her eyes but took the offered paw to stand on her rear claws. At our first step however her pupils widened and with a hiss of alarm she fell onto all four paws. "Help me up, I'm not quite ready to give up walking just yet." So I did, and after teetering for a bit with her head raised high and tail outstretched for balance she came down once again on her legs. For good this time. "Well honey, looksss like you're the last one ssstanding." She rasped to me.

"Likely not for long. Unless the focus is on the growth of something else. But let me ask you to say something else. Your voice just got really rough. Must have been all our fun"

"Do you think our children heard usss?" her coarse voice continued. Maybe that will be what we all sound like before long? Her teeth had grown a great deal since we had gorged on the squid thing earlier. Some of her upper fangs even extending past her lower jaw. Perhaps that was the source of her new speech impediment.

"Probably. You always were a passionate one."

"Eh, what the hell. Two are old enough to have done it themselvesss and one needsss to be educated much quicker than I will ever like."

I agreed as well, so what? With that perfectly fine flippant attitude we returned. Moving around Noctis to find all three of our brood staring back at us with amusement writ large on their snouts. Pinga shrilly whistled a cat call at us, the sound emanating deep from her much longer neck. Noctis, Nan, and Silla beat their tails and rumbled with the harsh noise of laughter.

I decided to use shock to silence them by licking the length of Ata's snout followed by the frill her ear had become and breathing hotly into the webbing that had once been flesh. This sent her scales bristling in a wave rustling down her neck.

I stopped however when a weird sensation began to manifest itself on my back. "Hey dear. Can you look at the back of my shoulders? I feel like something is pushing out there."

She looked at the same time Noctis craned her head over to observe as well. "I think your wings are coming in. There's the tip of two things poking out on both sides of your spine. The swelling has also spread and risen further down the length of your backbone to just short of your hips."

Noctis added "With the start of the wings your air sacs should grow in as well."

"Well if everyone is ready, let us finally get on to scanning." What followed was everyone having to stand upon a much enlarged platform and be microwaved. Cooking us in some bizarre act of culinary art. Noctis paid intense attention to the reproductive changes in Silla. "She's about seventy percent of the way there. Womb looks to be well shaped, and the ovaries have all six of them formed. But her canals haven't connected and her opening isn't formed."

However she also scrutinized Pinga and Ata's twisting bodies as well. "I can see the genetic material thoughtfully provided by Neg."

"It was my pleasure!" I cheered loudly.

The black dragoness continued. "It is working its way by capillary action to the ovaries. The eggs await fertilization."

"I think I like the idea of more children." She smiled broadly showing her serrated teeth. I grinned, exposing my own in response. Her flicked tongue tickled the end of my nose.

Noctis just snorted at mine and Nan's reads. "You'll be fine."

Thank you Noctis, always good for a laugh you are.

"If that is your decision then please, I want you to have four cubes right now Ata. The rest of you will get two each. After you eat those, I want you to try to sleep some more back in your own dome and clearing. You don't need to be here at the med bay for the aftermath of the den attack. Once you awaken I'll have Surya bring a pair of kills for you to consume."

Bobbing our heads in agreement we headed back preceded by Noctis' announcement for us to be left alone. Four of us cantered while I walked back to our clearing. A ten minute journey that I livened by leaping onto my wife's enlarging back causing her to squawk:

"I'm not your mount!" She then grinned toothily "You are mine!"

This caused Ping and Nan to look away muttering while Silla just watched in interest. She continued on however as I laid my head atop her own and hummed contentedly deep in my throat while our tails twined together and waved gently behind.

We reached our clearing to find the wash closet and cots gone. Instead five of the same pads as what we had seen at the med bay in their place. These were spread widely in a circle under the half dome. Clicking our disapproval after I was gracelessly bucked off my wife's shoulders we pushed them together. Then we set off for the stream to bathe and drink before our slumber. As before our three children moved together as my favorite serpent and I set ourselves a bit apart.

After licking each other clean I again mounted my wife who allowed a much more spirited ride this time. Lying half upon her back with our nethers pressed together she trilled in pleasure before rolling us over and nipping at my neck. We undulated in unison for several passionate minutes before she bit harder into my tender scales and growled in ecstasy. The hot breath of her heavy exultations and the bite of her fangs sent me on towards my own whimpering climax. Finished we luxuriated in the feeling of each other for several minutes. Flicking my tongue out for the first time in our intercourse I could smell her arousal (I'll have to remember that next time. What a delicious intoxicant! It made my loins stir anew).

Something else then grabbed my attention when I noticed another scent. Looking around I noticed a pair of bright inquisitive eyes underneath a low shrub watching eagerly. Dear, I sent. On our right twelve meters away Silla has just watched our whole session.

Closing her eyes, laying her head down and sighing, she called "Come out Sssilla, and you too Pinga." The latter of whom I had not noticed as she followed Silla with her eyes downcast and tail dragging. Ata started the questioning in a manner that immediately made me want to burrow into the ground.

"I can sssmell the excitement coming from the both of you. Sssilla how doesss what you just sssaw make you feel?"

"I used to think that it would be gross being with a girl. But now that I'm a dragoness the weird smell you have mother and father makes my insides twitch and feel warm. I don't think I'd mind being with a dragon now. I want to smell the way you two do with each other." She said, not looking us in the eyes and kicking at the ground.

"You said before you knew what it meant to lie with a dragon. Is this what you imagined you thought it would be like?" I asked.

"No. This seemed even better." She said (with a wistfulness that alarmed every single bit of me as a father). "You seemed to like it. I think I will too. The smell made me think of eggsss." Her last word came out hissed as two fangs slowly extended out past her lower jaw.

"And you Pinga, why have you come?"

"I did not know what the smell was. But I should have when Nan fled back to the clearing. By the time I heard you both it was too late."

Seeing the sorrow that was rapidly overcoming Ata. I flicked my nose at the two interlopers who immediately scrambled back to the nest. As the sound of their rustling passage faded. My dearest one broke and began sobbing into my scales convulsing as she clung to me. All I could do was hold her as realization set in. Long minutes later realization was followed by acceptance as we clung together in the face of what was to come. Then washing again briefly we returned to our piled mats.

Our three children were already there curled around each other. Ping and Silla seemed to be relieved that we had returned not cloaked in sadness while Nan shuffled in embarrassment. I walked next to my mate with a heavy claw upon her shoulder as she trotted over. Settling next to them with my head resting upon Ata's neck we sighed and closed our eyes not wanting to talk for the time being. The others shuffled over looping their growing bodies all over us in rest. Silla laying herself completely on top of us curled tightly into a ball. At peace, we let the hours drift away.

Author's Note: If you've left me comments or the like, I promise I'll respond. Sooooonish.

(Also, did I have to change the gender of one of the characters? No. No, I did not. But I wanted some kind of adversarial plot point for the family. And science going awry seemed like a good one. And it made a better story to have the nanobots just flip a chromosome instead of the more likely and infinitely more horrific scenario of poor tiny Silla liquefying into goo.)