FSE

Furry search engine

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'What...? Why is it so bright? Am I actually dead? No, I can feel my heartbeat. Feel warm too...so why is it so bright? Götter... what is that smell?'

It took some time before the intensity of the light faded. But that only added to his confusion.

'Where...where the hell am I?' He thought looking around with utter confusion.

There was a thick bed of straw all over the floor, and high wooden walls surrounding it.

'A stable? Would explain the smell, but how did I end up here?' He continued to look around taking in the surroundings before freezing and stopping.

Resting against the far corner was a weasel, dark brown and cream fur from nose to tail. But...IT! WAS! HUGE! It took up a big chunk of the space, but it seemed to be fast asleep. It was a female; two much smaller ones were busy nursing from it (her to be more accurate).

'That's... That's a huge weasel. How in the hell is it so big!?' He thought in a panic before backing up, or at least attempting to do so.

WHUMP

'Ow...why aren't my...legs...working...' His chain of thought was quickly and completely derailed.

When he looked down all he saw was a long form covered in thin dusty brown and yellow fur.

'Meine Güte...Is that me!?' He stared in shock, trying to piece together what he were seeing.

Testing that theory he wiggled a foot, as the thought formed in his mind the left paw wiggled some. He just stared and did it again, then again, then once more; all with the same result.

'Scheisse...' He groaned mentally and flopped back, 'Well... this is my life now. I'm a weasel. I guess this means I died and got reincarnated? When? How? Last thing I remember was opening the door to my apartment... Did someone kill me? Was I sick and didn't know?'

The now weasel thought back as best he could, but there was a blank spot. Opening the door to his apartment and then...here. That was an unknown amount of missing time. Would it fill in eventually? Or just remain lost? Regardless it was at the bottom of the priority list.

'Why a weasel of all things? If I died and got reincarnated why this of all things?' He just sighed letting out a small huff and a squeaky sound.

He liked weasels a good deal sure, but this still seemed rather ridiculous. Why was he in a stable with a giant weasel too? So many questions, too many questions! He covered his face, or more accurately snout with his paws. Life was fine if a bit dull, nothing horribly wrong, job was fine it paid well and everything! So, what brought all this on?

...grrrgle...

'...wow I'm starving!' The now weasel glanced down at his stomach, hearing it rumble quietly again, 'But what am I...right. Baby weasel.'

He flopped over onto his belly; it took a few minutes of effort to figure out walking on all fours. Well crawl at least, he was quick to realize his limbs were simply too weak to properly carry his weight. It felt really weird to be doing this, but at the same time he had no alternatives other than starve. His new body was still young; too young for solid food that was for sure. So, he crawled over to the giant sleeping weasel, getting in close with his 'siblings' and let instinct take over from there. He closed his eyes and latched onto an available nipple and started nursing.

Warm fatty milk was his reward; and he couldn't help but rumble at the taste. If it was from hunger, his new sense of taste, or something else entirely it was impossible to say; but it was delicious! Sweet, warm and creamy; he couldn't stop if he wanted to, greedily nursing from the weasel just like a little one should. It filled his belly with a soothing warmth, quelling the pangs of hunger. Before he knew it, he drifted off to sleep drinking all they could handle.

Three Days Later

Things quickly started to fall into place over the last few days, being a weasel wasn't so bad. So far there were no downsides, just eat and sleep. There wasn't much else to do other than think. Something he were doing plenty of now.

'Okay, so this is what I know for certain now.' He thought to himself, 'I'm not just a regular weasel but a Dire Weasel. Only explanation for how big I and these other ones are. So that means I was reincarnated into some sort of fantasy world or universe. It's just like those Isekai type shows back home! Easy enough to understand, though I don't seem to have a means of looking up my skills or stats like in those shows. Maybe because I'm still a too young? Time will tell on that one. Another important detail is I seem to be in a domesticated role. Why else would I be in a stable and not out in the wild. Am I gonna end up someone's pet? Mount? Protector? All of the above or something else entirely?'

He sighed and sat in the far corner watching the mother weasel tend to the other pups, she was technically his mother too. It was just weird to see a simple animal as his parent. But there was no point in fighting it either, she was taking care of her young after all. But she was leaving him alone for the moment.

'I hope I'm not gonna end up as someone's breeding stock.' He huffed and glanced underneath his tail again; just as a confirmation, 'Yep undoubtedly a female dire weasel.'

He or rather she was indeed a female of the species. That took the first couple of days to process, she had been male in her prior life. So, it was an unexpected discovery, but surprisingly not as shocking as the Dire Weasel situation was overall.

'Suppose the silver lining there is I can enjoy male company without homosexual hatred and prejudices.' She smirked a little, it was a nice plus; from a certain point of view, 'Fat chance of that though. I'm far too young technically speaking to even be thinking about 'boys' like that.'

She quickly put such thoughts aside, again watching her weasel mother, 'I know I can understand Mother, though her intelligence is rather simple. Aside from basic instincts and behavior she doesn't have much in the way of information. She does focus more on my siblings though. Maybe because she senses that I'm more mentally developed and independent? I don't look quite like them either, my fur is much lighter, and I seem to be growing faster. They're eating more than I am though. Maybe I'm a rare sub-species? That's how some creatures are in fantasy games, at least the ones I played when I was younger.'

It was a lot to speculate on, especially with so little information. Ever since she first woke up in this new life, she hadn't left the stable stall. Aside from a skylight way up high in the roof there was little to tell the passage of time, and she was still too small to peek over the stall walls. The only outside interaction was with 'Tim' the apparent owner of the stable and its residents.

He was an odd man; she couldn't understand a word of what he said. Whatever language it was she had no familiarity or frame of reference to it. She hoped over time she would just learn and understand it, perhaps even speak it with enough trial and error. She called him Tim because of how he dressed, he wore almost ragged looking fur and leather robes and a leather cap with ram horns on it. He even had a long beard and a gnarled wooden staff. So, he was Tim the Enchanter to her, and it made her giggle just thinking about it.

Tim was pretty attentive, bringing fresh food and water for Mother. He brought in fresh straw for bedding the other day, and cleaned out what passed for the dire weasel equivalent of a litter box. Something she was grateful for; she was still human on the inside after all!

But aside from his regular visits there wasn't much that broke up the rinse and repeat routine that she had fallen into. She was pretty much left to her own thoughts; and it was incredibly dull. So, she was bored, immensely bored! Unfortunately, there wasn't much she could do about it; her body was still too weak and small to really get around. She couldn't even climb the door to the stall she was housed in. Hopefully things would get more interesting as she got bigger.

One Month Later

It had to have been about a month now at least. It was still a bit tricky to figure out. Between getting lost in her thoughts and trying to find things to do, time had become a blur. But in the blink of an eye, she had grown. And grown a lot for that matter, she didn't have much frame of reference yet. But best guess was larger than a mountain dog.

Things had also become more active in her dull life now too! Some weeks ago, she had finally moved on to solid food, not that she had grown tired of Mother's milk, but it was a welcome change. Now she was eating some sort of meat, lightly seasoned and cooked enough to be deemed rare. She had no clue what sort of meat it was but she didn't much care. It was delicious! Whenever mealtime came up, she greedily scarfed down her portion, her siblings had also been greedy with their food, trying to take some of hers even! They'd grown a lot too, but not quite to her size, so it was easy to keep them away from her food.

After a week of light fighting with her siblings over food, she was separated from them. Placed in her own stall in the stable while she was asleep. It annoyed her she hadn't been able to look around, but she couldn't do much about it at that point. She was at least happy to have her own space, though it wasn't much different than before.

Shortly after her move to her own living space Tim would come by more often, checking in on her more than before. After some weeks of the additional attention, he finally let her out of her stall to look around and explore. The building wasn't too different from what she expected it to be. It was a huge barn-like building. Dozens of stalls, some actually had horses in them! The ceiling was indeed vaulted like she thought, it was a thatched roof from what she could see. Down the end was the doorway outside to a field.

She eagerly went for it, 'Finally! Outdoors! Feels like an eternity!'

The now weasel rushed outside and looked around, breathing in the fresh clean air. It was without a doubt a huge open field full of lush grass, she spotted thick forest beyond the fields, and not a fence in sight either. It was almost tempting to just run off.

'Probably not a good idea, there could be a magic barrier for all I know. Plus, right now I have next to zero survival skills. I wouldn't stand a chance in the wilds.' She thought to herself as she sniffed about the field.

Even now she was still trying to access some sort of magical skill sheet. But nothing she did or thought of worked, she was growing frustrated over it. If she had access to something, skills, stats, anything that would give her clues or hints. She'd have something to at least do! She plopped down on the grass and sighed. She was getting nowhere, she had no clue to any skills she might have, no way to communicate, she didn't even know what her level was! However low it might be at this point.

She was greatly disappointed, this was some Isekai scenario she was in. Sure, she'd read and watched some where the main characters started at the bottom of the ladder and had to work their way up. But this was on a different level, she had absolutely nothing. No divine or magical voice to clue her in, no apparent skills far as she could tell.

She just huffed and lay in the grass, the least she could do was enjoy the sun, make the best of what she was stuck with. Maybe simply living the domestic animal life wouldn't be so bad? Would be a lot easier, no need to worry about a job or money. Looking at things that way it did seem a lot better, no stress over fighting monsters and villains every day of the week, the constant travel and worries over survival.

'I wonder; am I going to stay here my whole life? Or will I be sold off to be a pet somewhere?' She thought to herself as she rested in the grass.

Tim called out to her, quickly drawing her attention. While she still couldn't quite understand what he was saying, she was able to parse out the intent behind it now. Seemed like it was mealtime already, something she was always eager for. So, she got up and bounded over to where Tim was.

It wasn't mealtime. Around the side of the barn was an array of structures, an obstacle course of sorts. Tim seemed to be using words of encouragement to entice her closer to the start of the course.

'Great...boot camp.' She huffed and did as he asked, 'Figured it wouldn't be that easy here. Probably some sort of obedience training. Would be a piece of cake if I could understand him. I'm already house broken.'

It wasn't terribly difficult to follow what Tim wanted her to do. Plus, she was rewarded with jerky for each task done correctly! She couldn't deny that it was a great incentive either, demeaning as it felt given her intelligence. She followed his directions, going through the course several times over several hours. By the time Tim was satisfied she was exhausted. But going by the look on his face she did well. She didn't put up a fight when she was urged back to her stall, rather she eagerly went inside and plopped down on the straw.

'So much for easy.' She thought before nodding off to sleep.

Several Weeks Later

Non-stop training, that was what the last few weeks were. The dire weasel was exhausted, but it seemed to be worth it. She was still growing, and all the work was toning and strengthening her muscles. She couldn't help but admire herself when she could.

'Well at least I'm looking good by dire weasel standards.' She thought to herself a bit smugly.

She was starting to get a better handle of the native language, not fully but enough to know that Tim was showering her with affection and compliments. At the same time, he also seemed to be training her harder than her somewhat smaller siblings. Likely because she was larger in comparison to them.

She was also noticing other people coming by, looking at her and many of the other animals that were housed by Tim. From what she could gather they seemed to be looking for mounts and beasts of burden. She observed a few horses being sold, and an older dire weasel. But she was passed up each time because of Tim.

'Guess I'm not old enough to be sold yet?' She shrugged to herself as she peeked over the door to her stall.

When people did visit, they were usually too far for her to hear the conversations properly. It was a shame they often weren't within earshot of her, by now she was able to follow the language fairly well. Tim was comprehensible now even, it made listening to his training a lot easier. And even the conversations of visitors weren't about her, getting to listen in was at least entertaining. Since most visitors stayed at the far end of the barn she elected to ignore them and focus on her thoughts and/or meals.

'So far, I've only seen humans, are there even other races around? Would they look how I expect? So far this has been less fantasy and more medieval, I haven't seen a lick of magic. No evidence of a skill system of any kind either, this has just been nothing but essentially living in pet boot camp. Obedience, obstacle, and strength training nearly every day.' She sighed, 'Starting to feel jealous of my siblings now.'

After several days more of her being passed up by prospective buyers, she was beginning to wonder if she was being groomed for something specific. The training seemed unusual to her, but then again she didn't know much about this new world she was now in either. Maybe it's just for a specific job? She was clearly different from her siblings and mother, by now she was already nearly her mother's size too, and she seemed to still be growing actually. She wasn't going to turn truly giant and stomp over towns, was she? She hoped not, that was just asking for people to try and put an end to her!

"Come over here little one."

Her thoughts were interrupted by Tim's voice, looking up to see the old man in front of her stall with two others. This certainly got her attention as Tim then spoke to the pair, no trio? There was another voice from out of her view, a woman by the sound of it; there was some bass to it though. So, she came closer to investigate on top of being asked to, hopping up to peek over the edge of the stall door. Getting a closer look at these new people.

'Huh, how bout that. Elves are a thing!' She looked at them surprised.

The first person was clearly an elf, tall, fair skinned, pointy eared, and with long light brown almost blonde hair. He was gorgeous with fine angular features and sharp golden eyes. She almost wanted to swoon he was just amazing to look at! Then she turned her gaze to the other person with him.

It was a human, about average in height, also fair skinned though of a slightly darker shade, short black hair, more rounded features than the Elf, a short beard, and alert brown eyes. He was pretty handsome himself in a rugged sort of way. She was a bit more enamored with him than the Elf, exotic as he was for her in this new world. That's when she noticed the third individual.

'Dwarves too!' Her eyes grew wide with surprise.

The Dwarf was short as expected, she probably was about eye level with him when standing on all fours. Shoulder length curly brown hair, a thick braided beard with some beads woven into it, rounded features, and excited beady eyes, deep green in color.

She was in for a shock when she heard the Dwarf speak however.

"She's adorable! Tellin' ya right now she's perfect!" The Dwarf spoke.

They were the source of that female voice; the Dwarf was female!

'Beeindruckend... I know there's been a joke that female Dwarves had beards too. But to see it for real?' She stared amazed at all this new information, 'If we got Dwarves and Elves, what else could be out there in this world?'

The three were talking with Tim rather quickly now, thankfully she was able to follow the conversation for the most part. They were haggling with Tim over her price. She wasn't sure if she should be offended or not by that. Nor did she know the exactly how much value to associate with the coin they were discussing.

Ultimately after what seemed like forever, though likely only a few minutes a deal was struck. And she was sold to the trio, for thirty-eight gold pieces. Was that a lot? A little? She wasn't sure, but this was it. She belonged to them now.

"Alright now little one, you're going with these nice folks understand?" Tim asked the weasel as opened her stall and knelt down in front of her.

'I don't think I have a whole lot of choice, but sure.' She thought as she looked at Tim, 'Not like any of you could understand me anyway.'

"Good, they'll take good care of you." Tim smiled and gave her a pat on the head before getting back up, "I'll prepare the rest of what you requested shortly."

"Thank you." The human of this new trio said with a nod.

After the exchange Tim walked off to the end of the barn to do...whatever it was he was going to do. She hadn't fully paid attention to the conversation even though she could follow it now. Too focused on the new people in her life.

'I just hope this doesn't go south for me.' She thought to herself as she properly gave the trio a look over.

They seemed to be adventurers by the gear they wore, the Dwarf in particular wearing some sturdy half plate armor. The Human had some lighter leather armor on, and a steel pauldron over one shoulder. The Elf wore light flowing robes himself. They seemed decent enough just looking at them, and she didn't really get a negative impression from them either. She hesitated for a moment before stepping out of the stall fully, sniffing a bit at the trio on instinct.

The Dwarf seemed amused and reached out to stroke her snout, she couldn't help but lean into the touch. Even with the heavy gloves the Dwarf was wearing it felt good, so good. She couldn't help but rumble with delight and lean even more into it, making the Dwarf laugh and smile.

'Perhaps this won't be so bad, a life of adventure with these guys could be fun. Better than living out my new life on a farm I guess.' She thought to herself when the Dwarf spoke up.

"You still need a name. I think I'll call you Dust. It matches with your fur, what do you think?" She said to the dire weasel.

'Dust? Hmmm...well it is sort of fitting. Sure, why not? I'm happy enough with that being my new name I hadn't even thought about it till now anyway! Dust it is!' The weasel leaned in close and gave the Dwarf a lick on the face.

"Hehe, I'll take that as a yes then." The Dwarf said with a cheerful laugh.

"Great it has a name; now can we get a move on?" The Elf said with a bit of a sneer, and emphasis on the word 'it'.

The dire weasel now called Dust shot him a glare at his tone, 'I'm a she you Arschloch!'

Oh, she was definitely annoyed by him now, if he was going to refer to her as a thing right out of the gate like that it really soured her impression of him.

'And I was gonna go all simp for you too.' Dust growled in his direction making him step back for a moment.

"Dumb beast." He remarked with a scoff before walking outside.

"I'll get the wagon ready for our new addition." The Human said as he gave Dust a light pat on the head before heading outside.

'He at least seems nice enough, bit distant though.' Dust thought to herself as she tried to lean in for more attention from the Human.

"Got it Rex, we'll be right out." The Dwarf said before glancing at Dust, "Pay Qildor no mind girl. He's just being an Elf; you get used to it."

'If he's gonna be an ass all day everyday I'd rather not get used to it. I'll bite his fingers off before that happens.' Dust growled to herself before rumbling as the Dwarf started scratching at her ears.

"Nirra come on, we're wasting daylight!" The Human called from the end of the barn.

"We're coming! Come on Dust, we got some traveling to do." The Dwarf evidently named Nirra said as she rushed to catch up.

And thus began her adventures, once living as a Human, now as a beast. Dust was now on the move!