Secrets

Story by iplank on SoFurry

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Emma is worried about secrets her boss is withholding that she needs to know! But she just so happens to have an encounter with the infamous Rat King, lord of secrets. Without knowing any juicy secrets herself, Emma instead trades him a lie. Will she get away with it?


(F TF Rat)

Emma was a bit of a dull woman. She had a boring desk job in a bland place only business people will recognize the name of. She was fine with it, Emma did not usually ask for much. Of course, she wanted to be a bit more interesting, she wanted to be in on the action, but never got asked along. Emma never wanted to be in on a situation more than right now though. There was rumor of a merger between two wings of her business- which meant a lot of people could be losing their jobs, and still more forced to move to a different wing. There was no official word on it though, for legal reasons. If she was going to lose her job or have to move, Emma needed to know as soon as possible to prepare! But the bosses can't let anyone know! She even attempted to do some lip reading through the glass wall of a business meeting but she was pretty sure they were on to her. She wasn't reading their lips well anyway- unless the meeting really was about a pumpkin toss.

Emma was in her own head about it and driving herself nuts with worry, so to drown it out she went down to the piers. She wandered out on a break-wall so she could not hear her own thoughts over the crashing waves and wind. She faced into the wind and closed her eyes, letting her mind just be calm and empty for a bit. She hated not knowing what the future held. She hated that someone else did know, and refused to tell her. After a while Emma turned to leave and stumbled back a bit, nearly having stepped on a small rat! It scurried across the break-wall back toward the land like she was going. What on earth was a rat doing way out here? Rats are not stupid, they won't wander somewhere for no reason. It was then she noticed a large sewer drain- it collected runoff from the roads and dumped it back into the lake. Were they not normally barred off to prevent people from wandering inside? This one was not, it was entirely open.

Emma would never normally consider going in, but she found herself drawn to it today. She was curious. She could not get the answers to the questions she wanted, but she would at least satisfy this curiosity. She wandered into the huge round opening and walked along the raised concrete path on the side, following it in deeper. Light came down in pillars from the drains on the sides of roads. She froze a moment several times as another rat scurried across her field of vision. Emma eventually found herself in a bit of a clearing, the edges of several narrow paths converged here with many pipes. In the clearing though, a tiny gold crown sat on the concrete. There was several rats around and one standing near the crown.

Emma froze up, furrowing her brow at the situation. "Y-you aren't...?"

She took a step back as thousands of rats started to pore into the area, gathering to the rat in the middle who placed the crown on his head. The huge mass of rats all moved as one body, the mass moved forward bringing the crowned rat's head closer to Emma as they all spoke at once.

"We are the Rat King. Master of secrets."

Emma's mind quickly raced over all the old legends of this well known British cryptid. "A secret for a secret."

The Rat King leaned further forward. "Do you have a secret to tell?"

After a moment Emma nodded, more for herself than to the king. "I need to know, if my company really is merging branches. In exchange I will... uh, tell you a secret about me."

All of the rats lowered one brow and raised the other in a quizzical look. "It had better be good, or that will be quite the short changing."

Emma took a deep breath. "I am actually extremely scared of social situations. When I constantly ask to get in on those sort of situations I actually count on them turning me down. I just do it to seem normal and not call attention to it. So... yea. I have been skirting around a hidden fear all these years without alerting anyone." There was a long pause. "Uh... good enough?"

"I do not have the information you seek but I can get it easily. If I have not found you within a days time, return here and I will tell you what you seek."

Emma thanked him and retreated from the sewer. She was fine with rats, but that many rats moving in tandem was an eerie sight regardless.

The Rat King sighed to his other parts. "A liar. She must be punished."

"But... she was so straight faced when presenting her lie."

"And did not hesitate."

"Her thirst for secrets and aptitude for lying are so very useful. She keeps secrets well."

"A shame to waste. No. Not a punishment."

"An opportunity."

The king scattered into the shadows, leaving the shiny gold crown in his audience chamber. That night, Emma had a hard time going to sleep. Not only for the excitement of learning what she needed to finally, but also fear of the king watching her. She had no idea the Rat King was real, and it was a little bit unsettling knowing he is. Every little rattle or rustle of the wind or trees outside caught her attention, scanning her dark room, paranoid it might be one of the rats. When she did go to sleep the encounter influenced her dreams as well. She wandered a dark, quiet place in her dream- a much darker version of the sewer. But it was also strangely proportioned- she was walking on the pipes near the roof, even though everything seemed the same size. The pipes were only as thick as her arm in real life- there was no way she could walk on them. She kept feeling someone running past her and ran with them without thinking. When she stopped to wonder why she ran with them and who they were, she looked and found no one there.

She woke up refreshed enough the next day, drinking a portion of coffee equal to the amount of sleep she missed and hurried off to work. The day started off the same as usual. She transferred and compiled data from files to the computer, scanned signatures in to make digital copies, and tried to stay awake for an entire work day without dying of boredom. There was a few times where she had been sitting in her chair for so long without having an excuse to get up that her ass actually fell asleep and went numb. She heard the muffled voices of the higher ups in the boss' office, they looked like they were talking about something important. Again she turned her chair to get a better look and try to read their lips but could not. She heard a quiet squeak though and spun around so quick she almost fell out of the chair. On the floor was a rat looking right at her, and as soon as she seen it, it vanished under a short shelf.

Emma looked around to see if anyone was paying attention before getting up and walking over to the shelf to see what was up. Everyone was working in their cubicles but some people will drop what they are doing and jump at any opportunity to do something other than more paper work. Sure enough, a man she worked with pushed his wheeled chair out from his desk to look and see who was on the move over there, but before he seen anything a wheel came right off and his chair tumbled over. He did not see the rat scurry out from under his chair holding a screw in its mouth. Emma whispered to the rat but it did not reply or show itself again. She only caught it out of the corner of her eye in the nearby lunch room and slipped inside. Again the rat had vanished without a trace, so she only looked around in the direction it was running in, trying to figure out what it wanted. Then she seen the air vent- all of the screws missing from the panel. The panel was still on, but nothing was holding it in place. She could also hear the voices in her boss' room much more clearly here- the lunch room was adjacent to it. It was still like trying to make sense of the white noise of a library. When names were spoken it was often clear enough for her to hear, and she could identify words here and there but not enough to put together a coherent conversation. She scuttled close to the wall, cupping a hand over her ear to try and funnel the sound- not even realizing in the heat of the moment that her ears were larger than they should be.

Emma's ears enlarged in length and width, but reduced in thickness. Her brows furrowed as she concentrated hard, not wanting to waste the chance the king offered. Her nose twitched a bit in irritation of being so close yet so far. Her heart beat quickened as her chest tightened- literally. Her breast tissue tightened and started to regress, becoming firmer but also smaller. Her areola started to blush, changing color slowly from pale brown to hot pink. Her fast heart beat left her feeling a bit light headed, but also spring footed. She completely forgot the fact the door was open and someone could potentially see her as she turned her sight on the air vent. The king removed the screws for a reason. She needed to pop the panel right off, but it was high up at the roof- there was no way she could reach without standing on something. Just to make sure though, Emma attempted a few hops trying to grab it. As she bounced her clothing shifted more and more- becoming loose on her. She started to get lighter and smaller, putting her farther from the vent, but filling her with an energy to try harder to reach it.

Emma climbed onto the table, starting to swim in her clothing now because of her reduced size. She was so consumed with her need to know this secret that she did not register this fact. Of course she felt the difference, her brain just never grasped the thought as anything of importance. Her bra slipped off and fell to her hip not even remotely fitting her bust or even her body. Her breasts were almost entirely gone by now, and her areola were shrinking and continuing to change color, turning a pale powder pink. Her nipples themselves actually seemed a bit bigger however- having absorbed the areola's mass. There was six other pink dots down her body marking the sight of future additions. Her nails started to sharpen into claws as she stood up straight on the table and reached up to the vent. She pulled the panel off but immediately wanted to slip inside the vent to hear as good as possible, but was not close enough to reach. She was still shrinking slowly, so if anything she was getting even farther from it. She grabbed up a chair though and placed it on the table, climbing up onto the chair to boost herself up. Her tail bone squirmed in anticipation and extended out, taking on the same powder pink as her nipples as it grew out quite quickly.

Because Emma was still shrinking, by the time she set the chair up and climbed onto it she was once again in danger of not being able to reach, but managed to shove herself in. Or... part of herself anyway. It was an air vent- its not supposed to be big enough to fit anyone inside of it. She got her shoulders in and that was it, she was sort of stuck. Her growing tail lashed around nervously as she shrank enough that her feet no longer touched the chair, but she was too big to squirm into the vent. If she were to lay flat she could fit, but she was bent hanging out of it. She clawed at the vent with her increasingly claw-like nails trying to grip it and pull herself in better. She decided to tuck herself in and squirmed back and forth, writhing around deliberately brushing her clothing on the edges of the vent to squirm out of them. If she was naked she would be able to slip around easier- her clothes were holding her back. She grit her teeth in effort and they started to push together harder on their own- the two front teeth on both her top and bottom jaw started to grow longer and larger. Her nose twitched more as an odd prickly feeling assaulted her face as whiskers started to grow out. Her whiskers immediately picked up on nearby motion and she quickly crammed herself into the vent in one shove. Emma wanted to turn around and see who it was that entered the lunch room but could not turn around- there was not enough space. She could however look over her shoulder, and seen the glint of dozens of pairs of eyes in the cracks and shadows under the lunch room appliances. The human that entered the room said nothing of her clothes laying there, so Emma knew the king had covered for her. The rats grabbed her clothing and hid them before anyone seen.

Emma was squished up but continued to slide forward in the vent toward her boss' office anyway. She started to get used to her hunched position very quickly to her advantage- her skeletal structure was clicking and popping quietly under her skin to change her posture to be suited to being on all fours. Her toes now had claws and extended a bit, becoming longer and more like her fingers. The powder pink tone of her nipples and tail started to seethe into the rest of her, turning her all pink but at the same time most of it was covered almost immediately. Emma's body started to grow a white fuz over it, except for her tail, feet, and hands. The bumps down her body fattened into nipples that were quite large for her body size. The warmth from her growing fur and the disorienting feeling of still shrinking made her woozy, but still she pressed on, waddling a bit now that her sides no longer touched the edges of the vent. Her tail was incredibly long now, matching her entire body and still growing, and the skin on it became dense and hardened a bit, though remained hairless. Her teeth continued to grow longer and larger, especially the top two, and the force of them growing into one another started to force her jaws to push out from her face. Her whiskers grew to full length and she could almost FEEL the sound of the people's voices in them. Her ears got rounder and projected from her head more, making them look like pink dishes.

The growth of her teeth stretching her face out also caused her nose to become cold and damp and change shape. The bridge of her nose started to vanish into the rest of her face that was being pulled out farther to meet it. Rather than be worried her entire head seemed to be changing shape, Emma's only thought on the matter is that the shifting bone was making it hard to hear the voices over. The sound was inaudible to anyone else, but because it was happening inside of her head, the clicking of shifting and re-setting bones was loud as hell to her. She moaned a bit involuntarily and grunted in frustration, but both were freakishly high toned. Her voice was shrinking and raising in pitch- where the two changes met, only squeaks would be produced. Her tail was almost twice as long as her body now, finally stopping. She was also now aware she had full control of it- able to grasp or manipulate things with it. It also served as a powerful balancing tool when walking on precarious ledges. Emma continued to shrink- the vent started as an impossibly tight fit, to a cramped space, to a narrow hallway. Now it was like a normal hallway compared to her. Her iris grew and darkened, hiding more and more of the whites of her eyes, but taking in more and more light. The dark vent suddenly seemed well lit to her. The growth of her fur started to push out strands of human hair, falling away around her without notice.

Emma picked up her pace now, as walking on all fours was easy and quick now- even though she had the space to stand if she wanted. Her thighs became thick and round and her body started to soften and round out, losing human definition. Her face now a long narrow muzzle. Emma's neck lengthened ever so slightly, and thickened along with her torso. She continued to shrink till the vent seemed like a large cave to her, and Emma finally reached the vent panel leading to her boss' office when she no longer had any human traits left- she is a white rat with a single brown spot on the top of her head- where her hair used to be.

She listened to the conversation intently, watching the people through the slats of the vent cover. Emma sighed as she heard they were merging- but the other branch was being absorbed into theirs, not the other way around. Even though that was the only thing she cared about before, she continued to listen to the conversation now. She made note of all the other names mentioned and their fates, even though it had nothing to do with her. Even as the meeting ended she continued to watch. She was going to turn away, but seen her boss reach for the vault by his desk. She memorized the combination for the vault. Her boss left and she immediately squirmed her way through the vent cover, about to drop down and open the vault. She had no intention of stealing anything- she just could not stand not knowing what was inside. And she already knew how to open it so why not. The drop from the vent was tremendous for a small rat but she made it without problem. Most rodents have the ability to collapse their entire skeleton. This allows them to squirm through any space their skull can fit in- and also allows them to sustain impacts that would break most other creatures. Rather than buckle and snap, their bones just dislocate and bounce around, then just click back in place. She paused on the way to the vault though... there was so many documents on his desk. What did they all say? What was in their personal files? Her head started to spin with possibilities. Could she hack into other peoples computers at the office to see what they were doing? What did they do after work? What secrets were they keeping?!

Emma woke up in the clearing in the sewer, in her work clothes still. She staggered to her feet, confused and light headed. Again before her, the Rat King assembled, grabbing his crown off the ground and placing it on one of his thousands of heads. None of the rats in his body started as rats. Orphans, run aways, or people who just did not fit in, who found their way to the sewers. They are who created the king. All of the rats in his body were formerly humans.

"W-was that... a dream?"

"Perhaps. If the information you learned was real- does it matter the source? You may return home now, our... transaction is complete."

Emma nodded, still groggy as she started to walk away. She glanced at her watch and noticed the time and paused her walking. The time is before she met the Rat King originally. So if that had been a dream, she had the dream the following day... which means she missed work? Or it wasn't a dream at all. Her tail bone extended just a little, and her ears tingled lightly as they changed shape slightly.

"So... that was real though, right?"

The Rat King shrugged. "Was it? It doesn't matter."

"I know, but I want to know." Her teeth grew a little. "Come on, why would you be so shifty about it if it didn't matter?" Her nails started to turn into claws. "Don't keep secrets from me!"

Emma felt a wave of dizziness and wobbled in place a moment as her breasts shrank a bit and her entire body followed- losing at least and inch and a half. Her tailbone suddenly turned into a small tail, though it was hard to tell if it grew or it just stayed the same size while the rest of her shrank. Emma looked herself over, having a miniature heart attack.

"A-ah! What is happening to me?" The Rat King said nothing, and did not even react to her question. "Tell me!!"

Emma squeaked loudly as her teeth grew much larger and stretched her face out a bit. Whiskers just started to bud as her skin tone started to change, starting with the neon pink tip of her nose. Her bones groaned as her entire form started to compact and shrink. Nipples fattened out in rows down her torso and a light fuz of fur started on her upper back.

"Nooo. I am not a rat!"

"Of course not. You... are a curious type though, you must admit."

"Well... yea, I gue- AH!" Emma almost fell over as she wobbled in place again and shrank several more inches!

The fur grew and spread and her face stretched out more. Her thighs thickened tremendously, changing the proportion of her back legs. Her tail was already huge and lashing around nervously. Emma had to clutch her clothing to her form now- it was too large on her to hold itself up.

The king tilted his heads, leaning a bit closer. "And, you are good at keeping secrets." She moaned as her face stretched further and her teeth grew huge, but her voice was so small already it was more of a squeak. "And, you do like to learn secrets."

Emma wobbled again, letting go of her clothing as she fell onto her hands and feet, which were already looking like those of a rat. She could not even see anything other than her own clothing! It looked like there was a light shining on her outside though. She bucked her head around trying to toss fabric out of the way and finally popped her head out from between her clothes and seen the lighting had not changed- her eyes changed to see better in the dark.

"No, I *squeak*, I am a human! I can't b-b-*squeak* be a rat!"

"But... wouldn't it be fun if you were? You could go anywhere, through any small crack. No one could keep secrets from you ever again." Her torso started to lose definition as her fur fully enveloped her body. Her bones relocated so she could no longer walk on two legs. "Free of human rules." She shrank more. "Free to whisper whatever secrets you wish." And shrank still more. "Delicious..." Still more. "..secrets."

Emma's body seemed to throb with pleasure at the thought of learning more secrets, more hidden truths, more delicious details! Her entire body pulsed with orgasmic tremors and with each pulse she shrank, and squeaked, again and again. By the time it finished, Emma was once again fully a rat. Why was she standing alone in a sewer, though? It was drafty standing there alone. Without a word she scurried out of her former clothes and shoved herself into the mass of warm rat bodies, squirming her way inside and then turned to pop just her head out.

Emma chuckled along with the rest of himself. "We are the Rat King."