FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Gabriel had been feeling this itch all day. Like there was some part of his body he needed to scratch, only he didn't know where.

At first, he thought it was meant to go away as soon as he ignored it. The pooch focused on working on some of the commissions that remained in his queue and spent most of the morning drawing. Work helped, but unfortunately it didn't seem to be enough to take the weird feeling away. In fact, the more he tried to focus on something else, the stronger it got.

In the end, it was one of Gabriel's most productive mornings, but it didn't help erase the itch. He shook his head and stepped into the shower, hoping some cold water would clear his ideas. The pooch had lunch and chatted with some friends, but the odd sensation that there was something he'd forgotten, something he was supposed to be doing, remained there.

He ended up deciding to take a walk.

It wasn't like Gabriel liked the city he was living in much - there were just a few parks sprinkled over the heavily industrialized layout - but he knew sometimes all that was needed to think more clearly was wandering around. He put on his headphones and began walking, hoping he'd think of some place to go to after a while.

As he walked, the itch became even more intense. Tired of ignoring it, the pooch allowed himself to dwell on it, just in case that'd help him know more about it. Like static, it grew inside his head and muffled everything else until he felt like he was walking on autopilot. He stopped listening to the music that was supposed to be coming out of his headphones, until he realized he had taken them off at some point.

Then he also realized he'd been, indeed, walking on autopilot.

He kept on doing so. Even now, as he was completely aware of the fact that his feet were moving on his own, he couldn't stop it from happening. He kept on walking, one foot in front of the other, unable to stop himself. He had no idea where his steps were taking him. Panic flooded his mind for a few minutes until he tried to reassure himself by telling him there was nothing he could do.

So he could as well enjoy the ride and find out what was going on.

He ended up walking towards the outskirts, getting closer to a building that looked pretty much abandoned. By now, Gabriel was mostly feeling calm, although he still had no clue what was happening. He stepped into the derelict building and arrived in a large room full of some other people. He walked towards the center of the room mechanically, feeling like a robot, and then stood motionless next to a wolf that looked a bit more nervous than him.

Only then did he notice there were a few other canines in the room. He counted eight, from chihuahuas to German shepherds, including some wolves. Those were the people whose faces he could see, of course - there were some other heavily-robed individuals at the back of the room, their identities shrouded in dark hoods.

The only non-canine, non-hooded individual in the room was a tall ram that stood on a rickety-looking stage close to where all the canines were. He was grinning from ear to ear and had a deranged, malicious look in his eyes. Then again, rams usually gave that feeling, didn't them?

At least, that was what Gabriel told himself in order to remain calm. The situation looked pretty grim, but he knew things would make sense in the end. He wanted to think his body wouldn't have walked right into that place had it been dangerous for it. Self-preservation and all that.

"Brethren!" the ram shouted then, causing the wolf next to Gabriel to gasp. "Our legion is complete at last! The nine hellhounds whose lives we scattered across this mundane reality have been reunited again. We shall begin conversion!"

Some hooded cultists cheered upon hearing those words. Gabriel would have raised an eyebrow, had he been in control of his body. Hellhounds?, he thought. What the fuck. I'm just an artist!

The ram took a shiny gem out of his sleeve and raised it over his head. Gabriel's gaze became completely stuck to it - something he could tell, out of the corner of his eye, had also happened to the other canines in the room. Looking at the gem directly made him dizzy. He began to feel weird.

The hooded cultists were chanting something now. Gabriel tried his best to make out the words, but they were slurring in his mind. He couldn't understand a single sound they were making. And the gem was so pretty that he couldn't give those chants any more attention than he inadvertently was giving them. His attention was somewhat split between both things, so he didn't even notice the point at which his body began to change.

He felt himself getting taller, his muscles growing bigger. Suddenly, his clothes felt tight and restraining. His fur was growing as well, getting rougher and longer. As he focused on the weird feeling of his touch-changing fur, he also noticed that the whole bone structure of his head was shifting. Becoming sharper.

Becoming fiercer.

His jaw became more prominent, his ears pointier. As his muscles bulged and his bones cracked, his tongue felt his new fangs inside his mouth. Ready to subdue. Ready to bite. His clothes creaked and snapped, suddenly ripping.

An artist. The whole concept felt distant and alien now as his past life flashed and vanished in his pupils, filled with the light of the gem.

He'd always been the beast he was now. Those people in that room were his family - the other canines that were now shifting alongside with him, his brothers and sisters. His back arched and he let out a powerful howl that was replicated eight times, filling his chest with wild enthusiasm.

The itch was gone. Now the only thing left inside him was the joy of conversion.

And the readiness to attack.