FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

I wake up with the sounds of birds chirping in the distance. Everything seems so peaceful here, though it is certainly starting to seem like a habit I'm developing of falling asleep and not knowing where I am when I wake up. What is certainly very different is that I'm on something rather soft, what I can only guess is a bed of some sort. I'm also extremely warm. It was similar when I was being held captive. A cold induced heat makes me extremely uncomfortable. In that place where I was the human's hostage there wasn't really anything I could do about it so I did my best to ignore it. I suppose this body will make being in such a heat a fairly regular occurrence if I cannot manage to regain my human body. But this covering doesn't seem to be held tightly to me and it is making the fire in my body burn all the brighter. Feeling it would not be very healthy to have it continue to push me closer to a feverish condition I move to try and push it off me, only to find myself being held back.

"Easy now," a man states in a rather calm and kind voice, making my ears twitch as I could swear that it sounds familiar. "You've been through a lot. You need your rest, even one such as yourself."

I'm shocked out of my sort of sleepy stupor from those words and try to sit up very quickly, only to have a hand placed on my head which causes any emotion to drain out of me and I slip back down into the bed.

"Careful, you don't want to reopen your wounds," the second voice states, this one I recognize as the one that tried to sooth me when I was fighting against the song. I notice his touch quiets the song down again. Once I'm back in the bed the hand lifts and the song comes back into my head, a quiet, concerned melody. Even still the blankets make me uncomfortable so I continue to try and resist enough to get some sense of relief.

"Is something wrong, my child?" the first voice speak, I turning to look at it and notice that it's the pastor from the church I would hide out at.

"My guess is the blankets are too warm," the first voice answers for me. "I did tell you that something that's gotten used to being out in this cold all day would overheat if you put such thick blankets on it."

"Well excuse me for trying to be hospitable to someone that's been through far more than anyone ever should," the pastor complains but removes the blankets gently from my body, folding them up in his arms as he does so.

Realizing all of what happened I look down at my body, to see how much damage was done to it. Oddly I look actually more human than I had prior to that situation with those other five. In fact I look as human as I did a month ago. I also am rather pleased to see that not only am I wearing clothes but I'm wearing my clothes. Where my cloak and bindings are I haven't the slightest idea, but it is nice to have a sense of modesty again.

"What hattened?" I ask, trying to put meaning to what I've been through.

"The Were gang has targeted you, unfortunately," the second individual states, helping me to sit up and propping up a few pillows behind me to make it more comfortable, the pastor having grabbed a chair and is sitting on it backwards, watching me.

"A horrid lot, that," the pastor adds.

"The were gang?"

The second man sighs, moving one hand to his head as he leans back against the wall after moving more into my field of vision. "How do I put this easily."

"There's a lot more about your condition that you are not aware of, my child," the pastor adds.

"So you know what I an?"

"Of course. I've always known. You were not the first one in your condition that I've run into and you'll not be the last. And I do mean your particular condition too. I have encountered quite a few individuals like yourself that had started heading towards their final change. I have always done my best to try and help ease them in any way that I could, even if it meant just making their transition smoother. I did say I look after all my flock, not just the normal ones."

"Final change?"

The second man sighs again, closing his eyes.

"It's something you've probably already guessed at. Transform too much and you start becoming more and more like your animal when you turn back. What do you think would happen when your form ends up looking completely like the animal it turns into? That is what we mean by final transformation. At that point there is no longer any humanity and the form becomes locked. You would spend the rest of your days in that body. Well maybe not you, per se."

"Shh, don't frighten the child."

"And what would you suggest I say instead, that those that reach their final change retain their human mentality? We both know that that isn't true," he gestures with his arms, spreading them wide before letting them drop and look at me again.

"What does that hath to do with the gang?" I ask.

"Well," the pastor answers this time, struggling after the word to find what best to say. "There is a release when the final change has happened. As the last of that person's humanity is removed there is a release of energy given to everyone nearby. For ordinary humans or animals this has almost no impact. It'll boost their immune system or heal some of their wounds faster for a short while but it won't have a significant effect. But for others that have the ability to transform, being there for that last moment makes their own bodies stronger. They hunt other theriothropes like yourself, in particular ones that have started towards their final change."

"You see," the other picks up when the pastor stops, making me wonder if perhaps they've either practiced this interchange or have dealt with telling people about it a lot. Then again I was out for who knows how long. "The Were Gang has come across a sort of chemical that when injected forces someone to undergo the final change. They find and apprehend a theriothrope and then harvest their final change with the injection. They've done this with a few dozen individuals by now. Now normally when one goes through the final change all that's left is a perfectly healthy animal. But this chemical is so pervasive and aggressive that it forces the body to change too far too fast and thus the heart almost always would give out once the final change has been completed."

"If it wasn't for him you would have been lost to us. Our friend is special just as you are. Just in a different way."

"I wouldn't put it that way. But my kind has the ability, among other things, to calm anything we want through touch. When I found you, you were in pretty bad shape. Bleeding all over the place and minutes from finishing the transformation. I got you away from there and then used my ability to cancel out the drive to transform as well as restore your form a bit. And then I brought you here so that we could both recover from the exertion."

"Restore ny thorn? You nean you can nake ne hunan again?"

"Alas no. I won't have the energy to restore you even the slightest bit for another week or two and then only to the state where I first made contact."

I think about that a moment and let it sink in and then I remember how I suddenly had had a lot more money in the coat that I had bought.

"You were that cashier?"

"There we go. I saw you and figured you'd be a likely target since they were still in the area and so marked you just in case."

"So then did you gith ne these dreans as well?" I ask, wondering if his contact is also responsible for me getting to see that thing that always wants song since I first saw it the same night he touched me.

"Dreams?" the pastor asks.

"Yeah, about sone eye thing," I comment casually, fully expecting this to be explained as something normal, perhaps a byproduct of the interaction. Instead the pastor remains completely confused but the other man shifts about uncomfortably before speaking quickly, gesturing quickly but dismissively.

"Don't worry about those. It's nothing you need to concern yourself over."

"So what do I do about the gang?"

"Unfortunately that isn't an easy question. You see, their physical abilities far outstrip your own. They have sought out and killed the entity within them and have absorbed the abilities of dozens of other theriothropes. They will not be distracted by the presence the slightest bit and each and every one of them are faster, stronger, tougher than you could ever hope to be and are far more experienced than you are now. Even the largest two can move faster than you can. The only advantage you have is that your animal form is smaller than theirs meaning in animal form you can hide where they cannot immediately reach, but I'm sure that you won't like that answer."

"And what's worse is that since he's interfered on your behalf and they know you are aware of their existence they're going to try even harder to catch you before you can tell others as well as carry out their grudge against our friend. So simply running away won't make enough of a difference."

"In any event you are not going to be doing anything for the time being. You're just going to stay right where you are. Given the blood loss and strain that the chemical put on your body I don't want you to leave this building for a week at the least. Give your body time to heal."

I nod, and let it sink in. To be fair I don't really have anywhere pressing that I need to be. Odds are being laying low and out of sight are the best thing for me to do anyway. Not even for the fact of being chased by that group of people who apparently want to harvest my last change as if it were some trivial matter and I mean nothing to them. But since I was apprehended the police and military have my exact description, they even claimed to have a file on me so they'll be watching everything to see if someone of my description shows up again.

"So you hath the adility to quiet the song, right? Could you do that ternanently? To nake it so that I nether hath to change again?"

"I could," the man gestures, "but it's not something I will do. The fox within you is a living organism. Having control of the form is like being under water. When one form is in control they are the one able to breathe. When they are not the one in control they are holding their breath. Now to quiet it down for a short period of time is perfectly fine. To the one I'm suppressing it's little more than dunking their heads under water for not even a second. But to do it for longer creates problems. When I let go it'll flail about, trying to force you to change the moment it can. And that'll just create more problems for you and it'll probably start trying to force the change whenever I'm around to keep it from drowning again. And if I keep it subdued for too long it will die. Just as if you kept from ever transforming for an extremely long period of time. And if the fox within you dies from such a manner you'll become very sick and your regenerative abilities will turn against itself."

"So then is that how they killed their aninal?" I ask.

"No. And the way they did it is completely different from what you want to ever do. It's a barbaric act where they manage to confront and then typically kill then eat their other side. By doing so they have gained full control of their form and can take on any state in their spectrum regarding that animal but they have lost so much more in exchange. And they shall no longer have any place with god," the pastor comments.

"How can sonething like this be anything but ethil?" I demand, gesturing wildly at my body, making my sides hurt again and causing me to cradle them.

"You are not evil," the pastor comments. "If what you were was evil do you think you would have remained so pure for as long as you did? You were simply given a trial by god to try and find a unity between your human and animal like natures."

"Why nust I hath deen githen such a condition? Why do I hath to go through this trial?" I continue, complaining at my state.

"If I remember correctly you did tell that human woman that you chose to have this fate, even if you did not understand what all it actually meant at the time."

I slouch down, somewhat disappointed at not having an easy cure for this. My abominable appendage wraps around my body, curling up as if to comfort me. On top of that the song also seems to be still trying to cheer me up.

"So what do I do now? Stend the rest oth ny lithe running fron not only sone gothern nent agency but a grout of teotle who are detter than ne in ethery way who want nothing nore than to kill ne so they can get a tower high? All the while trying to keet the song within me fron taking ne other contletely and lithing my lithe without ne in the dody of sone aninal?" I demand.

"Well that I cannot answer. For now though just focus on getting your rest and pray that god gives you the answers you seek."