FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

As the school bell rang for a final time, Finn stepped outside, breathing a sigh of relief. School had just let out for winter break, and he was happy that he would finally be able to spend some time relaxing for the next couple of weeks. Things had been particularly brutal for him this year, mostly because he was taking a bunch of required classes that touched upon things he wasn't good at. But for now, all he needed to worry about was dealing with Christmas and-

"FIIIIIINN!" Startled, Finn turned around to see a dark skinned girl with long brown hair running right at him. Before he could react, she immediately ran right into him, throwing her arms around his waist. "I'm so glad school is over!" she cried. "Ready to spend Christmas together?"

Finn chuckled. "I sure am, Lana!" he replied, putting his own arm around his girlfriend's shoulder. She could be a bit of a handful to be around at times, but it wasn't anything Finn couldn't handle. He came from a pretty large family, so dealing with that kind of thing was something that he was used to. "Yeah... I'm just glad to get away from all of this for the next couple of weeks..."

"Still having trouble with magic, huh?" said Lana. "Yeah, I understand that. Spellcasting can be pretty complicated if you don't understand all the details behind what you're trying to do. And those details can be a bit frustrating to figure out sometimes, too."

Finn sighed. Magic was a significant part of many of the required classes at their school, so being able to cast spells was kind of important in order to get good grades. Unfortunately for Finn, spellcasting simply wasn't something that he was good at. The amount of focus and concentration it took to pull off a single spell simply wasn't something that he was good at, and putting so much effort into learning the details of even simple spells just didn't catch his interest. "It's just... so frustrating," he said. "Why should I have to put so much effort into learning something I'm not even interested in!"

Lana chuckled. "Well, just be glad you're not training to become a mage like I am," she said. Unlike Finn, Lana actually enjoyed both studying and practicing magic. It wasn't uncommon for her to stay up all night practicing different spells, even if there was school the next morning. She recognized that it was difficult, but if she found an interesting enough spell, she was willing to do whatever it took to pull it off. Unlike Finn, who simply didn't see something as complicated as spellcasting to be worth it in the end.

"Yeah... I still don't know how you have the patience to learn that kind of stuff," said Finn, shaking his head. "Anyway, we should probably get going. Do you want to come back to my place, or..."

"Actually..." said Lana, chuckling to herself. "I kinda had someplace else that I really wanted to go first." She was grinning, which made Finn feel slightly uneasy. "You can come with me, if you want. I know you've been really stressed lately, so I thought that this would be a really good way for both of us to relax a little bit."

"Um... what kind of place?" asked Finn, still feeling uneasy. He'd known Lana to be a bit eccentric in the past, so he had no clue what he would be getting himself into. But knowing her, it would most likely be something involving magic, which made him feel even more nervous.

"Oh, it's this new cafe that opened up downtown recently," said Lana, still grinning. "I thought that I'd be a great place for us to spend some time together. You know, relaxing, having fun, that kind of thing. You interested?"

A cafe? That seemed harmless enough... yet something in Lana's eyes still made him feel uncertain. He didn't really want to disappoint her, though... after all, it couldn't be that bad, could it? "Okay," he finally said. "Lead the way, then."

"Yes!" cried Lana, her face filling with excitement. "This is going to be so good! Come on!" With that, she ran off, leaving Finn even more worried than he was before. What could possibly be at this cafe that was getting her so excited? With a sigh, he shook his head and began walking after her. There was only one way to find out, he supposed.

"And here we are! What do you think?"

"Um..." As Finn looked at the building in front of him, he couldn't help but feel just a little off-put. The front of it looked a bit like a large cat head, with two windows acting as eyes and a door where the mouth was supposed to be. Between the cat head's ears was a large sign that had the place's name on it: Café le Chat. "The Cat Cafe...?" muttered Finn. Frowning, he looked in one of the windows next to the cat head. Sure enough, the inside of the cafe was lined with cat trees and scratching posts, and the floor was littered with cat toys. There were even a few cats lying on both the floor and the scratching posts, looking rather disinterested with their surroundings. Why had Lana brought him here, though? He'd never been particularly interested in cats, and as far as he knew, neither had she. Was there something else going on here?

"Come on, let's go!" cried Lana, excitedly tugging on Finn's arm. "I want to get this done as soon as possible!"

"Hold on," said Finn, pulling his arm away. "What is this place, anyway? Why did you bring me here?" As he looked around, he noticed a sign in front of the door. "Hmmm... Café le Chat...." he said. "An experience for anyone looking to slip away from their normal lives for a bit. Drink, relax, and mingle with the cats however you want... even as a cat yourself! Come inside for an experience you'll never forget!" As he looked over the sign again, a sudden realization came over him. "Wait... as a cat yourself?" Slowly, he turned his head to look up at Lana. "...You want to turn us into cats?"

"Just for a couple of hours!" cried Lana. "It'll be fun! We'll get to hang out together, experience things from a new perspective, hang out with other cats... come on, you'll enjoy it! I know you will!"

Finn groaned. Everything made sense now. Of all the types of magic that Lana studied, transformative magic had to be one of her favorites. The concept of taking something and making it into something completely different had fascinated her for as long as Finn could remember, and it seemed to be the focus of many of the spells she tried to learn in her spare time. Even though she wasn't nearly advanced enough to try and transform a human into anything, Finn could tell that learning how was one of her biggest magical goals. Naturally, the fact that she'd be drawn to a place that specializes in it came as no surprise to Finn. But did she have to drag him along for the ride?

"Come on, please?" Lana was practically begging him now. "This is my first time transforming, and I want it to be special! I want to do it with someone I'm really close to, and I know you've been looking to relax for awhile now, so I really think it would benefit both of us! Don't you?"

Finn thought for a moment, then sighed. Lana was always talking about how she wanted to experience transformation firsthand, but she'd never been able to because none of the nearby mages specialized in it. She must have been so excited to finally get the opportunity when she heard about this place, and if him doing it with her would make her first time that much more enjoyable... well, he really couldn't bring himself to turn her down. "Alright, I'll do it," he said. "But just for you, okay?"

"Okay!" said Lana, turning around and running through the front door to the cafe. Finn followed her inside, opening the door and finding himself in a rather large open space. To his left was the area he'd seen through the window, where all of the cat trees and most of the toys were strewn about. To his right was what looked like a more standard cafe setup, with tables and chairs for people to sit at. Most of the cats were in the cat tree area, but there were a few that were wandering around the empty tables in the cafe setup, perhaps wondering if anyone was going to show up today.

In the back near the center was a counter, and standing behind it was a woman who looked like she was in her late 20s. She was dressed in a black and white uniform and had short black hair that barely covered her forehead. "Welcome to Café le Chat," she said as Lana approached her. "My name is Grace, and I'm the owner here. How may I help you?"

"Hi!" said Lana, barely able to contain her excitement. "My name's Lana, and this is my boyfriend Finn. We were hoping to get the... transformation treatment, I think it's called?"

The owner seemed slightly surprised at this request. "Oh... really?" she said. "Wow, you're actually the first people to ask for that!" She shook her head, chuckling slightly. "I guess it's just not as popular a thing around here, huh?"

"Hold on," said Finn, approaching the counter. "Did you just say that you're the owner here? Like, you don't have any employees or anything like that?

Grace shook her head. "Nope, just me!" she said. "I've always been a pretty independent person, to be honest. After all, if I hired someone who didn't understand transformation magic well enough, they might accidentally interfere with one of my spells and mess up a customer's transformation! And then I'd have to deal with lawsuits and trying to figure out how to change them back quickly..." She sighed. "So yeah, it's just me. I don't know if I'd be able to get anyone to work here anyway, since it doesn't really seem like many people here are interested in transformation magic. Besides you two, of course."

"Well, I definitely am!" replied Lana with a grin. "This is actually going to be my first time ever transforming, too! I'm super excited!"

"Well, I certainly hope so," said Grace, nodding. "I'll try to make it as enjoyable for you as possible, then." She pointed to one of the tables in the sitting area. "If you could just wait over there for a few moments, I'll have the treatment ready in no time!"

As she walked away, Finn found a nearby table and sat down at it. Lana sat down next to him, though he noticed that her grin had faded somewhat. "So... you still excited about this?" he asked.

Lana sighed. "I guess so..." she said. "It's just... when she was talking about people around here not liking transformation magic that much, I... I guess that just kinda hit a little too close to home for me."

Finn frowned. "What do you mean?" he asked.

Lana shrugged. "I guess that... I just kinda feel alone in this interest," she said. "I know I talk about it with you a lot, but that's only because I know you won't judge me or anything like that. I want to specialize in transformation magic, but it seems like nobody else around me even cares about it. Heck, even my own parents don't support me going into it, because it isn't 'practical' enough."

"Wow... that sucks." said Finn. "Is that why you've never transformed before? Like, why you've never tried to find a transformation mage or anything like that?"

"Sort of," replied Lana. "I mean, when your parents are always telling you that your interests are dumb because they aren't practical... well, you can't really help but start to believe it yourself." Sighing, she slowly lowered her head. "I think that's partially why I wanted you to come with me, too. I was honestly really nervous about doing this by myself, and... I guess I just wanted to experience it with someone I knew would be okay with it. I mean... you're okay with this, right?"

Before Finn could answer, he suddenly noticed Grace walking over to their table carrying two steaming mugs. "Okay, here's the treatment," she said, placing the two mugs in front of them. "Once you drink those, the changes will begin. If you need anything, I'll be over at the counter." With that, she turned to walk away, leaving Finn and Lana alone with their cups.

Lana looked down at her cup, then back up at Finn. "...Well?" she asked. "You ready?"

Looking across the table at his girlfriend, Finn smiled. She really did trust him, didn't she? Even though he wasn't particularly interested in transformation, she still had faith that he cared about her enough to want to experience it with her. He picked up his mug, still smiling at her. "As ready as I'll ever be," he said. "Cheers to us!"

"To us!" Lana repeated. They clinked their glasses together before raising them to their lips, drinking from them in unison. The drink had a rather... interesting taste, thought Finn. It was bitter, like coffee, but seemed to have a hint of sweetness in it from... something? He couldn't really tell what it was, but it did add a bit of an odd flavor to the drink, thought that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. As soon as the mug was empty, he lowered it to the table, watching Lana do the same.

"...Well?" he said, looking down at himself. Nothing seemed to have changed in any way, though it did feel a bit like the warmth of the drink was starting to spread across the rest of his body. It wasn't uncomfortable though; it felt rather pleasant, in fact. "You feeling any different?"

"Kinda," replied Lana. "It kinda feels like there's some kind of warmth spreading to my back... almost like it's focusing on my spi-" Before she could finish, Lana suddenly lurched forward, grabbing the table in shock. "Oh... oh god!" she cried. "I... I think I'm about to grow a t-"

RRRRIP! The moment he heard the sound, Finn jumped up in shock. Extending from Lana's behind was a large brown-furred tail, one that was about half as long as her body. It was still for a second, but soon began swishing back and forth rapidly, as if it was mimicking the panicked reaction of its owner. For a moment, Lana just stared. Then, her mouth quickly stretched into the biggest grin Finn had ever seen her make... and that was saying something. "I... I actually have a tail!" she cried, reaching forward to run her hands across it. "This feels so amazing..."

As fascinated as he was by Lana's new tail, Finn's attention was quickly diverted when he felt the warmth inside of him seem to settle just beneath his skin. As soon as it did, though, it quickly dissolved into a pins-and-needles type of feeling, almost as if it was trying to push right through the surface. Noticing that the feeling was strongest in his chest and stomach, he quickly lifted his shirt to see what was happening, only to be greeted with the sight of thick, white fur growing from the front of his torso. He gasped in shock, before slowly moving his hand to his torso and running it through the fur. It felt... soft. Soft and light, almost more like fluff than anything else. He began chuckling to himself, running both hands through the fur as he watched it spread across the rest of his torso. He couldn't believe that he was enjoying it this much!

"Aww, you look so fluffy, Finn!" cried Lana, still running her hands across her tail. "I wonder what my fur will look li- ow!" She quickly yanked her hand back, bringing it up to her face. Sharp, white claws were growing out from her fingertips, and her hands were already sprouting brown fur, similar to the fur on her tail. "Whoa... this is so cool!" she cried, admiring her claws and watching as her fingers shrank and thickened, becoming less and less mobile. She turned her hand over, watching as paw pads began sprouting from her palms, completing the change to her hands. "This is weird..." she said, looking over her new paws. "But it's really cool, too!"

Before Finn could respond, a strange jolt quickly ran through his body, making him gasp in shock. It felt like he was... compressing? No, shrinking! More jolts began following the first one, making him feel shorter and shorter as they went. Sure enough, when he looked up, he could see the the table he had been sitting at appeared significantly taller than it had been, with his eyes just barely reaching the top. The next thing he knew, he felt his pants fall from his waist and drop to the ground, now too big to stay on his body. When he looked down at his legs, though, he noticed that they were covered with soft black fur, a bit like the fur that had sprouted on his sides and back. Lucky, the fur had also spread to cover up any private bits, or he would have been rather embarrassed at that moment.

"Oh! Oh, this feels so weird!" Looking back up, Finn noticed that Lana was going through the exact same thing: she was growing shorter, those same jolts no doubt running through her body as she shrank. With some difficulty, she tried to use her new paws to maneuver herself out of her shirt, and eventually had to bend over to let it slip off through her head. When she did, though, Finn could see that her torso was covered in light brown fur, with dark brown tabby stripes through it. "Oh, I love this!" she cried, running her paws through the fur. "It's so soft and fluffy!"

"Yeah, it's ni- gah!" Finn suddenly felt himself thrust forward, landing hard on his still human hands. It seemed that his legs had just shifted to prevent him from standing upright on them, forcing onto his now-shrinking arms and hands. His feet were also shrinking, enough for him to simply lift them out of his socks and shoes, but that wasn't the only thing about them that was changing. He could feel his toes merging together, shrinking and thickening as black fur spread across them. Paw pads also grew underneath as he touched his feet to the floor of the cafe, feeling far more balanced now that he was on all fours. His hands also began to change similarly to how Lana's had, shrinking and growing claws until he was walking on a set of four paws. Looking down at himself, he noted that he now appeared to be more cat than human. All that needed to change was the tail and head.

"Oh! I think mmmmmmrrrroooowwwww...." The sound of Lana's voice changing startled Finn into looking back up at her. When he did though, he immediately gasped in shock upon seeing what had happened to Lana's head. Brown fur was already spreading across it, and her ears were growing larger and pointier to match. As he watched, her face slowly began stretching out, her nose seeming to shrink into it as it grew into a feline muzzle. While this was happening, though, Finn suddenly happened to glance down at her legs, noticing that they were starting to change in both size and structure, just like his own legs had. Before he could warn her, Lana suddenly fell forward, letting out a surprised meow and landing on her forepaws. As she did, she quickly slipped her feet out from her socks and shoes, and Finn could see that they had changed to become paws just like his, complete with claws and pads.

Finn chuckled. "You okay, Lanaooooorrrrrr?" Already, he could feel his vocal chords adjusting, his ability to speak slipping away as the fur spread up his neck and to his face. He felt his face push out, nose shrinking and ears growing... everything that had happened to Lana's face was now happening to his own. A pulling on his spine signaled the final change: namely, the tail that was currently sprouting from his bottom. The feeling of it growing was something that he couldn't accurately describe, but... it felt right, like he wouldn't be complete without it. Which made sense to him, of course, since it was a natural part of a cat's body.

Turning his attention away from his tail, he suddenly noticed Lana, now fully a cat, walking up to him. She looked at him for a moment, before suddenly leaning her face towards his, to the point that their muzzles were almost touching each other. He was slightly off put for a second, but then remembered that cats often greeted each other by sniffing and rubbing their faces together. In fact, he was starting to feel an overwhelming urge to do the same. Before he knew it, he was sniffing her muzzle as well, rubbing his face alongside hers as if he had been doing it all his life. The smells coming off of her fur were interesting too, not to mention much more detectable thanks to his enhanced sense of smell.

"Well, it seems like you two are getting along rather well." Both Finn and Lana quickly turned their attention to the human standing above them. "Okay, you both have two hours to do whatever you want," said Grace, smiling down at them. "I'll let you know when your time is up, then make sure you get changed back."

Giving a nod, Lana immediately turned and ran over to the cat area, pouncing on one of the nearby toys. Tentatively, Finn followed her over, a bit nervous about maneuvering his body for the first time. To his surprise, though, he found it very easy to move across the floor... in fact, it was even easier than walking as a human. His body felt sleek and powerful, and each step he took felt energized and purposeful. For the first time in his life, he felt like he was in full control of his body... like no matter what happened to him, he could immediately get back to his paws and strike back at whatever had caused it.

He glanced over at Lana as he walked past her, noticing that she was still surrounded by cat toys. She looked like she was having fun and all, but there was something else that he was interested in trying out before he got into that. He walked over to a nearby scratching post, unsheathing his claws before lifting himself up and grasping the post with his paws. He immediately began scratching into it, feeling his claws dig into the material with a rather satisfying sound. Again, it felt natural and right; after all, he needed to keep his claws clean and sharp in case he needed them for something. As he scratched, he glanced over at Lana, who had stopped playing and was now grooming herself. As her rough tongue ran through her fur, Finn noticed other cats beginning to approach her sniffing her and presumably trying to figure out who she was. Again, not surprising: Grace had said that the two of them were the first to be transformed, so this was likely the first time these cats were seeing newcomers.

Looking around some more, Finn suddenly noticed a window perched a few feet above where he was standing. The sun was shining through it, its light shining onto the windowsill and illuminating it with a yellow-ish glow. Internally grinning to himself, Finn tensed, then lept all the way up to the window sill, landing on it easily. If he had been human, he would have laughed at how easy it was; he was so much smaller than the windowsill, and yet he'd still been able to leap up to it with almost no effort! But now that he was up here, he could feel the warmth of the sun upon his fur, which felt so... relaxing. Yawning, he tucked his legs underneath his body and laid down, letting the sun's warmth spread across him. A nap would do him good; after all, he was feeling particularly comfortable in this spot. There'd be plenty of time to play with the others later...

"Alright, you two, time's up! Time to change back!"

Grace's loud voice jolted Finn from his sleep. He looked up, seeing Lana rush over to Grace's feet. Had it really been two hours already? Had he somehow managed to sleep through the entire time? Sure enough, he could see Lana slowing growing larger, fur disappearing from her body and ears shrinking to their normal size. As her face returned to human, Finn noticed that she was still grinning that same grin she had worn two hours ago. "That... that was so cool!" she cried, standing up on her hind legs as her hands and feet returned to normal. "Getting to interact with the other cats as one of them, experiencing what they experienced..." She laughed, turning to face me. "And of course, Finn had to sleep through the whole thing. Typical of him."

Finn leapt from the windowsill, already feeling the changes passing through his body. "Hey, I still enjoyed it!" he said as his mouth returned to human, his changing legs allowing him to stand back up as well. "It was really comfortable on that windowsill!" Even as he said it, though, a part of him still felt that Lana was right. He did kind of wish he had spent a little more time exploring this form, no matter how comfortable that sleep had been.

"Well, you can always come back some other time," said Grace, as Lana walked over to her clothes to put them on. Realizing that his fur was quickly disappearing, Finn ran over to do the same. "Like I said, you're the only customers who have ever wanted this, so I'd appreciate it if you could stop by for this often."

"Oh yeah! That reminds me!" Still putting her shirt back on, Lana turned to face Grace. "I'm actually studying transformation magic right now, so this is something that I'm really interested in! I want to help people experience the world in ways they haven't before, just like you are! So..." She swallowed. "I was wondering if... you could maybe teach me some of the spells you've used? I know they must be really complicated, but..."

Grace chuckled. "Nothing that can't be learned with a little bit of practice!" she said. "Actually, that gives me an idea. As you've noticed, I do run this place by myself, and while that is practical, it can be a little tiring at times. I could always use some extra help around, and seeing as you're the first person I've met who's expressed any kind of interest in transformation... well, I thought you might like to help out a bit around here. For a salary, of course."

"You're... offering me a job here?" Somehow, Lana's grin grew even wider. "Are you kidding me? I would absolutely love to work here!" Excitement filling her face, she turned to look at Finn. "And I'm sure he'd love to help out, too! Wouldn't you, Finn?"

"Me?" Finn took a step back. "Oh... no no, I couldn't! I... I'm not even good at magic!"

Grace simply chuckled again. "Again, I'd be happy to teach you all that you need to know," she said. "If you struggle with magic, this would be the perfect place to get some practice in! I wouldn't have you doing anything complicated, of course, but I'd be happy to teach you some basic spells until you feel like you've gotten the hang of it! What do you say?"

Finn looked at the two of them. He looked at Lana's eager eyes, followed by Grace's welcoming ones. Did he really want to do it? Did he really want to start working at a store he'd only seen once, in a job involving something he wasn't even good at to begin with? But the more he looked at them, the less doubtful he became. This was the perfect opportunity to learn more about magic, to practice and become better at it. And after everything Lana had told him about her interest in transformation... well, he just couldn't bring himself to disappoint her. He had always stood by her, and he wasn't about to stop now. "Alright," he said, holding out his hand to Grace. "I'm in."

Grace grinned. "Then welcome aboard!" she said, shaking Finn's hand. "You're going to love it here, trust me!"