FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Ch 3: Under my Skin

Ever feel like you're not getting the whole story?

RE and I followed Seph and the piano through the same door everyone but me had already come out of at some point. The hallway it led to wasn't very long, ending only a few yards away in the top of a spiral staircase that was well carpeted and railed enough to look more like it belonged in a nice house rather then the back room of a café. On the left was a door actually labeled 'closet,' and on the right was a very elegant looking elevator door. It must have been motion activated or something, because Seph simply pushed the piano towards it, and it opened by itself, allowing her to enter. RE must have seen me looking.

"Don't worry Tarot, she'll be joining us momentarily, just after you're little test." He said, suspiciously and carefully NOT emphasizing the word test.

"Good luck." Seph said, looking even a little concerned for me. I couldn't help but wonder what was going on. The door closed and RE motioned me to follow him.

I just had to try and ask.

"What kind of a..." I started, but was interrupted almost immediately.

"Did you wonder," RE asked in a tone loud enough to get me to stop, "how it was that we sent you an electronic mail to recruit you without even having actually received your resume?"

It may not have been my actual question, in fact it hadn't even been on my mind since about five seconds after it occurred to me, but it WAS a good question.

"Actually, that IS something I'd been wondering about." I said curiously, "I mean, it's not like I was any kind of famous outside my own school district, and I lived a few states away back then. I'm surprised you had even heard of me, forget wanting to hire me."

RE smiled a little to himself in a way that looked very satisfied. He started to explain as we started to go down the steps.

"Well you see, my dear boy." He said, "You may not think you're all that famous, but a small demographic of our... particular clientele are quite fond of young musicians, especially young prodigies such as you where."

That didn't sound pedophilic at all... not.

"You aren't really famous in terms of the whole world," he continued, "But talking to a few people that visit our establishment brought up a list of people who where young enough and talented enough to be interested in working with us. All that was left was to have my assistant use 'the Google' to find out a little more about you and your background, and then find your electronic mail address." He finished, sounding quite pleased with himself about that last part of using 'the Google.' RE had to be a LOT older then I thought, they way he was talking about everyday Internet things. Heck, my grandma didn't even call it 'the Google,' and she was so old she still had a radio in her house the size of a small fridge... that she'd bought for her KIDS.

"So a lot of your customers are music talent scouts?" I asked, trying to make sense of it all. A little brain-cell in the back of my skull registered the fact that we'd been walking down stairs for al little longer then we should have been, and that there was a slight... sensation of some sort moving up my arms, but it was faint, and I barely even noticed while talking to RE.

"Hmm?" RE asked, looking confused at my question. Then he got it. "Oh yes, music talent scouts." He said, almost more to himself. "I guess you could call them that." He added.

This was just getting weirder and weirder. I noticed, a little more consciously now, that my skin was starting to feel slightly uncomfortable. Not quite itchy, but getting there, like a melody that you just can't quite hear, but you know by heart. The stairway was opening to a large room with a higher ceiling, but I couldn't make out many details in the dim lighting.

I turned my attention to the conversation and figured I'd just be direct. So many questions, and none of them were really answered.

"Alright," I said finally as we were just about to reach the bottom of the stairs, "I'll bite. What kind of 'clientele' do you..."

My foot left the last stair and hit the floor. Suddenly, that almost-itchy sensation turned up to something so powerful that it made me hunch forward sharply, tensing up like I'd just stuck my thumb in an electrical socket. Suddenly, It felt like my skin wasn't mine, but some sort of cage that needed to be ripped as violently as possible. Suddenly my head was filled with a pulsing, angry, jagged growl that didn't let up, and I didn't care what RE was about to say. I just panicked.

I stumbled backwards until I hit a wall, eyes darting around the room looking for a way out, a way to escape what was happening, why it was happening. I couldn't think, I couldn't move right, I couldn't even get myself to stand up strait.

"Help..." I gasped between panicked breaths, writhing around, not quite in pain, but absolutely consumed with the sensation of wrongness and pressure in my own flesh. "Please!"

Relius wasn't even fazed.

"Stay calm," he said, exuding that same emotion himself. "It's always hardest the first time."

I would have asked what he meant by 'the first time,' if I was even up to the task of speaking coherent words at all. I let out a strained, long grunt and grabbed my hair, just above my ears where there was a particularly powerful sensation of being trapped. I dragged my hands down my head, and then stopped, horrified. I looked down in my hands to see parts of my own scalp and all the hair that had been attached. It was weird, but the only thing I really made a mental note of was that there was no blood, almost like my skin was just part of a latex suit. One side even had part of my ear.

I got half-way through a deep moan of despair and then felt it. The spots where I'd ripped away my skin no longer felt like they where being attacked, and the growling in my head let off some. I really wasn't thinking clearly, but all I knew was that if removing my skin was what would stop it, I was all for being skinned alive.

I reached over my head to my neck, and felt something brush my wrists that went higher then the top of my head did but didn't care as I ripped my whole scalp off. I pulled at my shoulders and tore both the shirt and my skin off my upper chest. I tore at each of my for-arms and my stomach. I reached around my back and I was somehow flexible enough to grab parts that had been far beyond anything I could have touched before. I tore the jeans and skin of my calves, and then finally palmed my face and tore off the skin there like a mask with a single, violent jerk.

There where still places left, mostly around my groin and thighs, that felt terribly distracting, and the growl was still there a little, but it had let off enough to notice things again. Everywhere I'd pulled away skin was a thick layer of silky fur the color of shadows at midnight. My fingers each ended with a claw that, even as I flexed them, extended and contracted into each digit. I rubbed the top of my head and face to find that I still had just as much hair as before, but my ears sat much higher on my head and were pointed, shaped like triangles. My nose no longer jutted out from my face, but actually ran smoothly into a slight muzzle instead. I had whiskers. I think that freaked me out.

I heard RE move behind me and to the right, and the sound was deafening. It was like I had a hearing aid that was put up WAY to loud, pounding my ear with each footstep. Suddenly, I could even hear his heartbeat as he walked up behind me. Then I felt his robe fall on my shoulders and suddenly, it was fine. It was all fine. The warmth of it calmed me down, and suddenly things weren't so loud.

"Here," he said, his face still calm but tinged with just a hint of sadness and regret, "let's get you to a mirror and clean you up." He gently led me. I let him.

I was looking at my face in a full wall mirror in the public bathroom, with RM standing calmly off to the side to 'answer the plethora of questions I was going to have,' as he said it. But for a moment I was too much amazed to ask anything.

As I had slowly started to suspect, I now looked like an anthropomorphic cat. Before I had been violently turned inside out, my face had been fairly triangular, and maybe a little taller then average, but now it was much wider and WAY more angular. The fur on my face was short enough to move really well as I changed expressions in the mirror to test it out, and I had a bit more of a ridge over my eyes that moved like eyebrows. The hair (or was it fur now?) on my head was still exactly the same, shaggy, curly, thick black ringlets that I cut enough just to get out of my face, but now they spilled over and around two ears that now made my head almost a literal triangle instead of just triangular.

The first thing about the rest of me I noticed (after the fur, which was still really, really weird) was that I had a lot more muscle then before. I was still built really narrow, but now it was lean instead of gangly. The fur for my body also hugged the edges like on my face, except on my chest and the center of my abs basically where I had hair growing. It was weird that I didn't look at all like me and yet I did. Not that I had really consciously thought about all that before. The things you notice when you change species.

I pulled a stray bit of skin from under the robe over my shoulders, which was kind of disturbing in itself, and finally managed to get a question out.

"What... the hell... was that." I breathed out. I was still a little shaken so that was about all I got out.

"Magic." RE said simply.

For a second I thought he was going to elaborate, but he didn't volunteer.

"Magic?" I prompted. RE sighed and started again.

"It's a spell. It's magic. I'm a wizard." He said. "There's not any other explanation that's going to be any use to you."

It wasn't a lot of words to process, but it was a concept that could split the heavens.

"So Harry Potter syndrome, a magic world hidden just below the surface?" I said, coming out of it a little bit.

"The residents are a little more Lord of The Rings, but essentially yes." He said, his face getting lighter now that I was looking up. I wasn't sure what he meant by that 'Lord of The Rings' comment.

"And I've been thrust into the middle of it to go on an epic adventure?" I asked, not sure if I was joking or not.

"Oh, nothing like that." He assured me. "Although you will get a chance to experience a lot of it, but I'm not planning on you slaying any dragons or vanquishing any wizards."

The way he said it didn't sound like that didn't happen, just that it wouldn't be asked of me. He was being serious about me not having to do it. I wasn't sure how to deal with that either. It only distracted me for a second before I started scratching at my backside (there was still skin under the jeans, but it was rubbing off) and I felt fur.

"Wait, but what about THIS!?" I asked, gesturing from my head to my toes a few times.

"What about it?" RE asked, oblivious.

"I mean what the heck, man! Why did you do this, is it permanent, why the panther look, how am I ever wearing headphones again, will I have to take flea medication now...?" I started, not even able to handle the questions that pounded sharply into my head like the rapping of a snare drum.

"Well, it will probably calm most of your concerns," he interrupted as he started to explain. "No, it's not permanent, it's a spell that only works while you're on the premises, under a certain point in the floor I set with a few mystic ingredients, like toads and hair jell. As soon as you leave, you'll simply change back." He smiled at me reassuringly. "And much more comfortably, I'll assure you that. Changing will come easily to you from now on, now that your body knows what's going on. So long as you initiate it that is."

I didn't really have the patience to ask the questions THAT little revelation set off, I was only interested now in really one question.

"But WHY?" I asked, exasperated. It was just too much to really deal with right now.

"Oh," RE said, seeming even a little bashful that he'd missed the main point. "Well that would require a little more... explanation on our clientele, and I think that it would benefit to have Ms. Seraphim with us for that," He explained.

"Oh... ok." I said, slightly put out by the whole thing. At this point, I didn't think that he could say much that would phase me. 'I've changed you into an animal, I'm a wizard and can do magic, the sky is falling because Atlas has the sniffles,' I'd probably nod my head at the same speed for all of it.

"Just finish cleaning things off," he said pleasantly, "and you can stay in my robe for raiment." He got up to leave me in peace, and I looked down to my waist. The jeans were basically shredded to the knees, and I didn't really care that much for them. Besides, there was an annoying, itchy pressure still there at the base of my spine, just below the ridge of my pants.

"I guess I'm going commando." I said to myself. I dug my clawed fingers under the lip of my waistband, careful not to scratch myself with my newly found claws, and pulled.

The pants ripped off all at once, and immediately I felt a section of skin rip open right where that pressure had been, and felt something shoot out from my body. There was a sudden awareness of something I didn't have before that came slowly, like when you loose feeling in a limb and it starts coming back, and I felt fur brush against fur on the back of my thighs and calves. I reached for the small of my back and ran my hand over the spot. There was some sort of growth at the base of my spine that kept going and going. Finally, I turned around and craned my neck to see the mirror behind me.

I had a tail. An honest to goodness, two-feet-and-change long tail, all in jet-black. It was just one more straw for the proverbial camel's back that already had enough emotional luggage piled on there to make a shrink rich. I had thought I was unfazable at this point, but it kinda got me.

I had a feeling that it wasn't the last bit of straw for this camel either. Heck, I figured some of the heavier stuff could be just around the corner.

The way I figured it, RE was moving on to bricks.

Ch. 4 Fairy Tales

Bathrobes are kinda awkward, especially when you're not wearing anything underneath them. Especially where I was right then, sitting in a comfy chair across from a self-proclaimed wizard. ESPECIALLY because I was covered with fur for the first time in my life, and I didn't mean a fur coat.

We sat in a large, open room that looked like the front room of an old-world inn that had been re-furbished to match a rich mans library, and I'd know, it looked like my dads. We sat next to an expansively big fireplace at one of the many round wooden tables that were interspaced around the room.There was a bar on one side, a stage in the far corner complete with microphone, and the wall the bathroom had been in was completely full of doors, each with its own label. I recognized the stairway on the other side as the one we'd come down. I wondered to myself if walking up that stairway would change me back. It was suddenly very tempting to run up the steps and try it.

I heard RE shift in his seat, his wizardly-self making just as much noise as anyone else trying to get comfortable. Apparently being magic doesn't change being mortal and being a little uncomfortable from time to time. The noise made me pause and think about escaping for a second. Did I want to leave, and maybe never find out what this was really all about? And did I really want to sacrifice the prospect of getting a real job that I actually wanted?

"Ah," RE said, breaking my train of thought, "Here's Ms. Seraphim."

He stood up, and I stood out of reflex and looked the direction he was facing. Then my jaw hit the floor.

She wasn't technically any different, as far as I could tell. She had let her hair down, which hung a lot lower then I though it would have when I saw her hair up. It seemed to glow with some sort of inner luminescence that made me think of gold or even the sun. Her skin still had the same complexion, but something about it now made it more defined, more REAL in a way that brought to mind paintings and movie stars that represented the epitome of human beauty. She was no longer wearing a business suit and skirt, but a white dress-robe thing that looked like something that might have been in fashion two thousand years ago, or even longer, but she made it look like it would fit in a modern model photo shoot. Suddenly in my head, the vocals were backed by a whole orchestra playing as gloriously as they could. In a word she was stunning, even more so then before.

My jaw might not have ACTUALLY hit the floor, but it was just about there.

"It seems like you passed, Mr. Tarot" Seph said.

Ok, so it's even MORE awkward to in a bathrobe that's not yours, in the same room as Seph.

"Wha..." was all I got out. I figured I could be proud with at least half of an intelligible word.

"Oh this?" She said. She didn't sound like she'd forgotten what she looked like, I sure didn't think I was going to be able to, but more like she forgot the effect that she had on people. "This is how you'll see me whenever you are here." She explained.

"So..." I said, trying to regain composure, "Walking down the stairs..." I asked.

"No, it's not really me that's changed," she explained, "but the way you see me."

I raised my eyebrow doubtfully. I was pretty sure that a blind man standing down the block could tell she was beautiful looking like this.

"It's part of the spell that's changed you." RE added in. "You can now see magical beings for what they really are." He seemed really pleased with himself. It was probably some difficult thing that he'd done to me, which I was still confused about.

I looked back over to Seph and couldn't immediately think of something to say. I couldn't quite understand why it was so difficult to talk to her. She was beautiful, no doubt, but not the kind of beautiful that inspired dirty or romantic thoughts. It was more the kind of beauty you'd expect out of a queen from a fairy tale, or maybe even from a goddess. As I thought about it, I realized that her beauty was... intimidating. Like her beauty represented something more then just her physical appearance, but also some sort of authority.

"So then what..." I started, choking on the words, "...what are you?" I finally asked.

She sighed.

"That will take a little bit of explaining," She said. RE stood beside her and offered her his arm, which she took in a lady like fashion. She motioned with her free hand. "Follow us if you would, Mr. Tarot."

I couldn't have refused if I wanted too. We began walking, each shoulder to shoulder as Seph talked.

"This establishment started in the earliest days of the settlement of the West Coast of America as a hotel for any of our clientele that might be stranded here, as well as to help integrate the local population with our own." Seph started explaining the building as soon as we started walking, in a business like voice that could have been at home with any sort of tour guide.

We moved past the bathroom I'd already been and past a doorway marked 'hotel' that must have been the original building Seph was talking about as she continued.

"This room was originally the main reception hall, and still continues to function as a bar, club and general meeting hall." She paused and looked to me. Her presence was still incredibly intimidating, but I had managed to meekly raise a hand. It made Seph smile lightly, which managed to put off the pressure a little bit.

"You have a question?" She asked, bemused at the childlike gesture.

"Yeah... who are your clientele?" I asked, meekly.

"Why, the magical community, at the time in question those from Europe and Asia," She said, slightly confused. "Didn't RE make that clear?"

"Just checking," I said quietly. "And then the locals would be..."

"Oh, the local magical denizens at that time would have been things like Sasquatch, Skin Walkers, Shamans, beings of that nature," Seph Explained. "There was actually quite a bit of tension between those magical people of the old world and new world back then. And it took us a certain amount of time to pacify both sides toward each other."

We reached a door marked "Grand Hall" which RE opened for Seph and motioned us each inside. The room was huge, tall enough that it felt like it should have been poking up through the street above, with high vaulted ceilings lined with grand chandeliers. It was a mostly open floor space, with a few tables and chairs at the end farthest from where we entered. Closest too us was another stage, this one built with a curved back that any musician could tell you would help project sound well. The whole thing was decorated in a much more formal way, more lavish and ornate then the rest of the rooms. While I still sat by a smoky bar feel for the rest of the place, this was more of a three-four-waltz-with-a-small-orchestra kind of feel. The finishing touch was the painting of sky and angels that filled the ceiling wherever there wasn't a chandelier or column, a painting to rival the Cistern Chapel.

"This is the Dance hall," Seph said, stating the obvious. "Added in the late 1800's, it is what changed this establishment from a simple inn to a fine hotel and meeting place for the communities we serve."

The way she kept saying we pricked my interest. She could have meant RE and herself, or the people that worked here, but something about it made me think otherwise.

"So when you say we...?" I asked, trailing off and not finishing the question, but Seph got the gist of it. She sighed heavily before answering.

"The magical community has had many of it's own... disputes at times, " She started, "And many of these early disputes turned sour with the lack of a neutral mediator to talk between parties." She started to move away from both RE and I, toward the center of the dancing floor. Her gaze lifted to the ceiling as she continued.

"The wise men of every race came together and begged the Sky Elves, the most detached of all the races to become this neutral party. Their powerful mages would grant them their own world, a magically created realm to isolate them, and the rulers of each race pledged to protect this realm from all comers to reward them."

Seph wrapped her arms around herself as if to ward off a chill that wasn't there. There was the subtle sound of sadness to her voice as she spoke, contained almost completely except in the sound.

"And thus they became the cold beings of judgment your race has called angels, and they were forever held to being detached from the world, and forever occupied with knowing and enforcing the laws of justice on it's denizens." She suddenly came back from her reverie, looking back at me with the faintest of smile that was tainted by sadness in a way that made me almost cry. It was gone almost as soon as it was there, replaced by a pleasant, professional demeanor, but the emotions it left hung heavy in the air.

"It is rare to have one of us live here in your realm, but not unheard of for a place meant to be a neutral meeting ground, and especially not for a place with such an ambitious plan will be started here." She finished, and then walked back to RE, taking his arm once again.

"If you could follow us, Mr. Tarot." Seph said, motioning towards the door to the main room, "We have one last place to show you."

I looked around the grand room one more time. Funny how it could suddenly seem so cold.

I felt like I was finally getting over Seph's overpowering beauty as we entered the main room again, and tried for the bigger questions that were bothering me.

"So..." I started, "before we finish, I have to ask a few things. First off, what's the big plan, secondly, why did you guys hire me, thirdly what's with the cat-tastic overhaul and lastly..." I saw that same expression of amusement on Seph's face and finished with, "... you're about to answer all of that at once, aren't you?"

She just smiled again and went on with the explanation as she walked.

"It all starts with RE's plan," She started. "It's been my people's job to protect humans from the magical world for over two thousand years, and in that time, the knowledge of magic has become so lost that there is now a great maw between your people and the rest of the intelligent races. RE, as the current proprietor of this establishment has a plan to bridge this gap."

RE positively beamed as Seph talked, obviously proud of his own plan in an almost childish way.

"The plan at its simplest is to slowly introduce selections of the human populous with the rest of the intelligent races in this place. Eventually, as this method proves more successful, more places such as this will be built around the country, and then the continent, and then the world."

"The reason for the physical change," She continued, cutting off my question just as I opened my mouth to ask, "is to ease the transition between the two races. RE believes that changing the humans will help them come to terms with magic at the same time changing the humans appearance will help other races relate to them more."

It all made sense to me as far as plans go, but there was one bump I had to point out.

"Ok, but why hire me?" I asked. "Aren't there angelic choruses or a giant musical spider that plays four or five instruments at once that you could higher instead?"

Seph was about to answer when RE raised a hand to silence her.

"My dear boy," he said, "Angels are too expensive and Spiders have terrible rhythm. Besides, we need YOU."

We had moved onto the stage while we'd been talking, There was not much of a backstage behind where the curtain would fall if it weren't drawn, and a set of double doors. He pulled on the door to reveal a medium sized room that might have instantly become my favorite.

The whole room was padded with what looked like professional sound breaks, padding to help sound quality in a small room and sound proof it to boot. There was a little office like space in the back, chairs stacked along one side, and a podium in front of a white board. But best of all, one wall was filled to the brim with instruments of every kind in racks and cubbies and hangers. The piano was off to one side complete with empty sheet music, a harp sat next to it, fully stringed and gleaming, and there was even a djimbe hanging up against the wall. It was like someone had taken every instrument anyone could have asked for and then found a room they would like. I don't think I'd seen anything more inviting the whole tour.

"We need someone who can play every one of these instruments, and do it as a Human Being. We need someone that can get our clients to love them with music to show them the best of what humans can be." RE said to me. I turned to him and he looked me right in the eye, every ounce of his powerful gaze bearing down on me.

"And we picked you," He stated as firmly as possible. "Do you think we picked wrong, or do you want the job?"

It took me a second to answer...

Much later I opened the door to my apartment and only just made it to the couch before collapsing in a heap.

Seph and RE had taken the time to find an old pair of pants and a shirt that were about the right size for me to bike home in. Walking back up the stairs in the club was nerve wracking to say the least. Any moment I was expecting the same kind of sensory attack, but instead the fur simply... fell of by the time I managed to get to the top. I hadn't even barely noticed until I reached a mirror at the final step and saw myself in it, completely human and normal again. It was a MASSIVE relief to actually see all the Promises RE had given come true.

I laid on the couch, thinking about my decision, hoping I'd been right in my judgment, when the door to Tito's room opened up as he walked into the living room/kitchen area. I craned my head backwards, looking at him upside down and not bothering to get up.

"Heeeeey, Tarot," he said apprehensively. He probably noticed the whole 'not wearing the same clothes as when you left' thing, and to be honest that was still weirding ME out. "You were gone for a long time," he observed. "Did the interview go well?"

I stared up at the ceiling again, wondering if 'well' was really the proper word at this point.

"I got the job," was all I could really say about it. "I said yes."