FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Joshua went to his bathroom and opened the medicine cabinet to try and find something to bring relief to his throbbing headache. As the mirrored cabinet door opened an annoyed huff escaped his lips as he saw he had no medicine. He dropped his head and closed the door knowing he would now have to go into town for the relief that he sought.

He made his way back into his bedroom and stepped into his closet grabbing a pair of his blue jeans and a t-shirt. He dawned his clothing and grabbed his keys and wallet and made his way for the living room door. As he opened the door and stepped outside the wonderful world of smells and sounds that he had never been able to experience as a normal human flooded his senses. He could hear the wind bristling through the trees, the birds singing in the distance, the smell of spring in the air; it was all so wonderful, except for the painful headache which snapped him back to why he was stepping outside in the first place.

He made his way over to his truck and slipped inside. He cranked his truck and drove to the local pharmacy. As he stepped into the store that wonderful smelling ability he was enjoying on his front porch suddenly became a horrible thing. The smell of medicine had always been bad, but this was much worse! He felt as though he had opened the top to the worst smelling medicine ever and crammed his nose into it. He quickly turned around and stepped back outside to keep from vomiting right there in the store. The air outside was a blessed reprieve. He took several deep breaths, trying to get his mouth to stop watering from almost vomiting. He took one more deep breath and decided to try and make it in and out without having to breathe. He rushed through the store, found his meds, and almost threw them on the counter with his money. The elderly antelope lady looked at him rather confused, obviously noting Joshua's rushed behavior. She rang him up and he almost ran for the door.

Joshua burst out the door taking in a deep breath that he felt like had escaped his grasp for what felt like ten minutes or longer.

"Ok... so maybe having extraordinary smelling capabilities isn't always a good thing." he thought to himself.

Joshua made his way home and made for some water so he could get the medicine started working on this still growing headache. By this point he felt like someone was hitting his head with a sledgehammer from every direction. He went to his bathroom and popped the top on his meds and downed a couple, chased closely by a cup of water.

"So glad I don't have work tonight." he thought.

Joshua then decided to go outside to his little nook in the woods. He often went there when he wanted to get away from everything for whatever the reason. No phone, no tv, no distractions, just him and his thoughts. As he walked out of his front door he debated on taking his cell phone just in case of emergency but then decided against it.

"No, I need some quality time away from everything."

As he walked through the woods to his little corner of the world he was able to notice more changes in his perceptions of the world around him. He smelled all sorts of outdoor smells that normally he would have had to strain to smell, he felt as each branch and twig slid across his fur, his tail helped keep him balanced in a few of the more uneven places, it was... nice to just walk in the woods.

He reached his little hut he had built of smaller trees and twigs from the general area and sat down inside. The back wall of his little hole in wall was a large oak tree that he leaned up against. He had made sure to find the roots under the tree where it would make a comfortable place to sit and had found the perfect spot. One of the roots was flush with the ground and curved around back to the tree making an almost natural seat. As Josh sat down he realized how accustomed he had become to having a tail as he instinctively curled it around beside his leg as he sat down. It was then that Joshua's head finally began to feel a little better. He sat down and leaned back against the tree closing his eyes as his head began feeling better and better.

"What am I going to do? Is it really my choice? Is this really an alternate reality or is just an elaborate dream?"

As he sat thinking about the decision that he should make his thoughts began to blur, his body began to become more relaxed, and his eyes grew heavier and heavier. Before he realized it he had fallen asleep.

Joshua opened his eyes and he was back in the small room where he had met his human self the night before. He looked around and noticed the room was a little different this time. The table was gone, there were now two doors one red and one black, and the other chair was missing. Slowly Joshua saw his human self appear like a ghost in a horror movie standing between the two doors. Joshua looked at him and saw a rather distressed look on his face.

"What is going on?" Josh inquired.

"I was underestimating how long you had to make your decision. This world his taking over your mind more and more by the second. I know you haven't had very long to think about your choice but I'm afraid if you don't choose now... you may not have a choice to make later."

"How do I make my choice?"

"The red door will take you back to the old life you knew, it will make you and everyone human again. The black door will return you to the tree in the woods where you fell asleep and you and everyone else will continue on being animals. Choose wisely for this is a decision that cannot be undone."

The words of his human form hit Joshua like a ton of bricks. The time had come to make his decision that would affect the rest of his life. As Joshua slowly stood to his feet the human form vanished just as it had appeared, leaving Joshua alone in the room with only the chair and the two doors. Joshua slowly made his way across the room, feeling as though each of his feet had been encased in cement blocks. He then found himself standing between the two doors, the black door on his left and the red one on his right.

"So I have to make a choice that will not only affect the rest of my life but everyone else's as well? I don't know if I can do it... but I have to... If I don't then the decision will be made for me, and I think that would be worse than making a decision I would regret. At least this way I have a say."

With his mind finally determined on what he felt like was right and what he truly thought he could live with, Joshua closed his eyes and reached for the doors handle, giving it a twist as he stepped through to the rest of his life.

The end.