FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

The Sweetest Ingredient

By Zatarra L. Vulpe

Carter stared at the dog as he trotted by. He frowned a little as he considered the golden fur, his pot belly, the barking laughter as he spoke to the rabbit next to him with a slight lisp. The club's neon lights drifted long, pink lines over him as he started to wiggle his hips back and forth. Carter wasn't sure if the beat had picked up or if it was just his pulse. His mouth watered and he licked his lips. He tried to follow, but he felt attached to the bar.

"Carter?"

His head snapped to the right. A bright set of amber eyes met his, green fur with an orange tint around his nose, ears, extremities and tail tip seemed almost in place in the shifting lights and sounds. He grinned, sharp fangs and long, curving tongue clashing on a vulpine muzzle. The human's frown turned into a smile.

"Talas! I didn't know you were in town!"

The vulpine winked and hugged him, giving him a lick on the cheek with his extended tongue. Carter shivered. "I just got back, got my culinary degree and now I'm a certified cook."

"Aww nice! I'm glad that worked out for you, I knew you could do it."

"Thanks, you should really try my cooking sometime, especially my specialty."

"What's that?"

"Chocolate, in all shapes and sizes, we could even make a date out of it."

"Aww, I'm not into guys though."

Talas leaned in, muzzle nearly brushing his ear. "No, but Katrina is, isn't she?"

Carter swallowed hard.

"You thought I forgot, didn't you?"

"M-maybe."

"You haven't had any trouble with that, have you girl?"

Carter blushed and looked down.

"Mmmnnn, you know I can help you with that now."

"Really? You can?"

"Let's talk about it somewhere a little more private, okay?"

"O-okay, sure."

Talas nodded and held out his paw. Carter's stared for a moment before taking it. The fox lead the human out as quickly as they could get lost in the crowd.

Talas didn't say much, but he did hold on to Carter's hand the entire way. He even drove Carter, down toward Fortieth and Cane. Talas stopped in front of a set of double windows with milky-brown bunnies and eggs lit up like an Oscar.

"Go on inside, Yindri is behind the counter, she might talk your ear off but she's okay."

"She won't mind?"

"Of course not, you'd probably mind her."

Carter giggled. "Okay, okay, I'll wait for you here."

"And don't eat anything she offers you."

"Oh? Why?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you, just don't, for me."

Carter nodded.

Talas squeezed his hand softly. "Good, I'll be two minutes at most."

Carter smiled at him and then stepped out of the car. Passing into the store, a rich, hard chocolate scent wafted into his nose. The shelves spanned the store, coated in long, thin boxes with the words 'Vert Reynard' printed on the side. The front counter had rows of confectionary that looked so unique Carter wondered if half of it was actually chocolate: Fudge assemblies of carefully sculpted flour bouquets, green and blue tentacles that gave the illusion of actually writhing, a lovingly detailed and life-like head of a lizard that smiled out at any who passed by.

Carter nearly jumped himself a skunk with magenta hair and fur dotted with brown spots sprang out from behind the counter.

"Hi there! Can I help you out? I'm sure I can help you out, let me help you out, huh, please please please let me help you out?"

"Uh, actually, I'm just-"

"Just looking?! Yeah I do that too sometimes, I like to look at things, what do you like to look at? Do you like to look at chocolates? Why do that when you can eat some?! Here's a truffle-caramel-medallion that will make you just soar! Or a here's a snake full of fondue that will make you drool chocolate for a week! Or maybe both at once!"

"Uh, no, no thank you, I'm just waiting for a friend."

"Uuuuhhhggg! That's the worst excuse ever, I mean how do you come to a chocolate shop and not want to eat chocolate?"

"Well...umm... Talas told me not to-"

"Ooooh, Talas got to you first huh... Oh... Oh wait, that means you're the one he was visiting today! Ohmigod hello! I'm Yindri and I think you and I are gonna be BEST FRIENDS!"

She grasped his hand and shook it hard enough to lift him off of the floor.

"Whoops, uh, sorry, just a little hyper, I've been snacking on these eggs all day and I think I'm gonna lay one any second and it's gonna be great."

"Wow, wouldn't that be-"

"Painful? No way, I've done it before, it feels a little weird at first but then you get to try one and see what your flavor is! Mine is milk chocolate with crème filling like those eggs from the UK, whatever they're called, but instead of being yellow in the middle they're pink, it's simply the best!"

"Wait, you're serious?"

"Oh yeah, totally! If I could I would make those babies all the time! It's a little weird eating something made out of me, kind of, but you get over it about your fourth or fifth one, I mean you worked for it you might as well enjoy it right? Speaking of, what's he got planned for you?"

"Uh, planned?"

"Yeah! Talas doesn't just bring people here to show off, he probably wants to help you with something. I mean a lot of his chocolates are just happy things and they make people happy when they eat them even if they don't even like chocolate, but that kind of stuff is just for the regular customers, a lot of his good stuff does things for people, or to people."

"Oh, so like laying a chocolate egg?"

"Uh huh! Though I'm the one that enjoys those the most, really, but his biggest thing is helping people. For starts, me!"

"He helped you?"

"Yeah! I used to be a really dour skunk, you have no idea, I was boring and quiet and nervous all the time and trying to get thinner and thinner until I wouldn't eat for days and then I'd pass out and I could _barely_talk to boys or girls or anyone that isn't one of those without blushing and shivering and curling up in a ball, it was awful!"

"You?"

"Yep, me, hard to imagine right? I was pretty bad, but then I meet this nice green fox and he gives me a little chocolate that makes me perk right up and all the sudden all I can think about is how nice everything is! I just hugged myself and bawled for joy at how much better I felt. After he took me on for an apprenticeship and I haven't looked back."

"Wow, that actually sounds really nice."

"It is! I love this job, I wouldn't trade it for a single other thing ever never ever! But that's too much out of me, what about you, Carter right?"

"Yeah, I'm... Umm... I..."

The door opened again and Talas was in the door.

"Oh hey 'lassy baby!"

"Lassy baby?"

The green fox threw up his hands.

"You know you love me, so what's with your friend here? This is the one you were talking about right?"

"Yes, the special rabbit is done?"

"Yep!"

"Good, Kat... Uh..."

The fox glanced to the skunk and then back to Carter. Carter felt his face grow hot, but then he grabbed Yindri's hands in his own and looked at her.

"You... You opened up to me, so I..."

"You don't have to, don't even worry about-"

"Yes, yes I do: Carter is the name I was given, the one I... I go by in private is Katrina. It's just something I feel, you know? I can't get it out of me no matter how hard I try. Maybe it's wrong or maybe I'm just crazy but I feel like I'm not the person I'm supposed to be, you know?"

Yindri nodded.

"I've been trying to get into programs for this kind of stuff but, well, I'm making minimum wage for a while and I'm just getting by with that. I... I dunno that I ever will get to be who I feel I am, but... If Talas thinks he can help me, I'm willing to try."

Yindri broke into a grin and hugged him. "Then I am too! I'm sure if anyone can help you it's us!"

Talas smiled at them. "That is exactly what I brought you here for, though with a bit of a twist."

"Twist?"

Talas strode past them and opened a door into a back room. "Stay here, no eating anything yet."

Carter watched the door closed and then stared at Yindri. "What does he mean?"

"Oh I don't want to spoil anything, so you get to see one of the rare points in the day where my lips are seeeeEEIIIII!"

Yindri jumped. She turned around, seemed to be adjusting herself, but rather pulled an a gleaming, dark-brown egg out of her pants. She stared at it for a moment and then took a nibble out of it.

"Oooh, thish one's dark shochlate."

"You were serious!"

She swallowed the nibbled piece. "The flavor changes sometimes too, it's pretty neat!"

"You just laid a chocolate egg!"

"Well of course I did! I wouldn't lay a chocolate bar silly!"

Talas strolled back in, a box with a small chocolate rabbit resting in the center. He stared at Yindri.

"Did you just-"

"Yep!"

"And are you-"

"Yep!"

"That's disturbing."

"I know, it was milk chocolate last time, and now the inside is straight purple."

Talas shook his head with a smile as he handed the box to Carter.

"This is... A choice."

"A choice?"

"This rabbit will change you. When you finish it you'll be a female rabbit."

Carter stared at him, mouth falling open. "R-really?"

"Yes, really."

"How? Why? This can't possibly..."

Talas and Carter glanced to Yindri, muzzle half full of her own chocolate egg. "Whuh?"

"Or... Maybe it can. Well in that case I'll take it, I'll more than take it!"

"But."

Carter froze.

"There's a small... Problem with the formula."

"Okay, well, what is it?"

"For the chocolate to sustain such a massive physical change... Uh... Well... I don't know how to put this.."

"What, I'll have to lay chocolate bunnies for the rest of my life? Fine, no problem with me, I think any problems I might have I can get over."

Before Talas could stop his friend, Carter popped the rabbit into his mouth.

"You'll turn into chocolate!"

"What?!"

"You've eaten it now, there's no turning back."

"Wait am I going to die or-"

Carter bent double, his hands wrapped around his stomach. When his hands came away, they were brown and sticky.

"Wha-what?!"

He stared down, lifting his shirt, his belly button had sealed into a slowly expanding light brown circle. It flowed over his stomach in a wave, his waist sliding in as though gently kneaded by hand. His hips swelled, rear and thighs bubbled out and he gasped as his pants burst open at the seams in long, brown rents. A sound like his spine cracking heralded a sharp drop in height, almost eye level with Talas. The outline of his ribcage caved in along with a further shrinking in his sides, his internal organs felt harder, heavier. Brown smears were showing through the cotton of his shirt. His shoulders slimmed, arms growing thinner in a wave of sweet smelling candy. He held his own wrist up to his face as he watched the coating progress over it, thinning, hand itself growing smaller, his fingers twitching a little as they tingled with fresh cocoa. He licked it just in time for the changes to sweep above his breasts and hit his throat, a little high pitched 'ummmnnn!' leaving his throat as he sucked his finger.

"Carter?"

His cheeks smoothed out, the slick smear on his lips making them plump and glossy. His nose pushed forward at a gentle slope, wiggling as it darkened and took on the same shade as the rest of his skin. His eyes blinked, for a moment their own orbs and in the next seemingly etched in fine detail onto his surface. He groaned as he felt his ears, stretching, molding higher above his head until they twitched, slightly lopsided, his fingers traveling their lengthened surfaces.

"Carter are you okay?"

The bunny sighed. "N-no, not Carter, I'm K-k-Katrina!"

She stretched her legs as they lengthened slightly, feet stretching far beyond the limits of her shoes. She rose up on four toed, digitigrade paws. They left a long, liquid trail of slick paw prints without slipping somehow. She had no nails, her teeth seemed soft and were backed by a flexible, gooey tongue dancing behind them. The only thing sharp about her seemed to be her figure, and the look she was giving Talas at that moment, long waves of thin, delicious strands taking up her hair, the rest of her 'fur' merely suggested by light impressions of curves on her surface. She grinned, leaning in, her lips meeting Talas' in a long, gentle kiss. When she pulled away his muzzle was coated, her own melting slightly.

"Are you alright Katrina?"

"Yes, oh god, you don't know what this is like, oh god it's so good."

Her hands ran along her clothes as they were saturated and stained by her flesh, barely fitting her anyway.

"Ohmigod she's like a living chocolate bunny! That's so cool! I didn't know we could do that Lassy! Holy cow how did you find out how to mmmph!"

Katrina's fingers were lodged straight into Yindri's muzzle. The skunk's eyes rolled back into her head as she bit down and took most of them with her.

"Oh god no! Katrina your-"

She held her other hand to his muzzle, over the lips. Yindri swallowed and licked her lips.

"Oh wow that's really good, it's so warm and s-strong and AH I can feel them moving!"

The skunk grasped at her stomach and giggled, laughing and falling over as she held her stomach, feeling it move and shift around and her whole body seeming to tingle and tickle. The bunny smirked. The space where her fingers used to be were twitching, stretching back out, forming back into her whole hand.

"Mmmmhnn, that actually feels really good."

"Will she be okay?"

"Sure, it'll only last a minute or so longer."

"Oh, well that's good, so you're... you're okay?"

"I am, I'm more than okay, I'm perfect."

"Wow, I'm glad then, I guess this worked out in a way."

"Mmhmm, but now I want to help you."

Talas looked up at her as her hand pushed up against his muzzle again.

"Eat me."

"What?"

"I want you to eat me, it feels sooo good, I _need_you to eat me."

Talas opened his muzzle and took a bite out of her pinky. He'd lived around chocolate for some time now, had grown accustomed to its tastes and the euphoria that normally accompanied good chocolate, but _her_chocolate was unlike anything he'd ever tasted. It was like holding her hand, talking to her and feeling her warm personality seeping into him, the sappy sweetness running through his taste buds and overpowering his other thoughts.

"Oh my god."

"I know, isn't it?"

"It is, in fact I think a new chocolate line could come out of this."

"Mmm, made of me?"

"Certainly, along with any volunteers..."

Vert Reynard opened a little later than usual the next day. Lucky's tail wagged when he saw the sign, his slight paunch contained in a black hoodie, black tips to his hair a stark contrast to his golden fur. He opened the door glanced around, noting the boxes and the front counter, no one at the front register.

"Talas? Is everything okay?"

A pair of long, dark ears popped up from behind a display for easter striped eggs. A slim, shapely form draped itself in front of the register, wearing only a bikini made entirely out of what looked like French-vanilla crème.

"Everything is fine, Talas isn't in at the moment, but I would love to help you."

The Lab stared at the bunny girl for a moment, her etched on eyes sliding over his chubby shape.

"A-are you real?"

"As real as you doggy, here, want to try some?"

Lucky watched her tip one ear toward his muzzle. It smelled real, overpowering the rest of the store with a sugary cocoa scent. His mouth was already watering when he opened his muzzle and took a bite of her ear tip. His eyes flashed open as he felt her power, the confidence pouring through her, the delicious enjoyment of her form, the feeling of rightness, one-ness saturating the living chocolate. It squirmed slightly as it went down, he shuddered.

"You like?"

He nodded, muzzle open, panting, tail wagging. She grinned and chuckled at him.

"Want some more?"

"Katrina? Yindri how are the sales going?"

Talas came out of the back, wearing an apron and a set of gloves matted brown, poking his head out of the back room.

Yindri was next to the register, trying to shove wads of cash into it as quickly as she could while more people kept shoving them onto the counter. Further down that same counter, Katrina was splayed out, moaning, most of the upper half of her head missing and her hands nibbled off. From the neck down she was pocked with bite marks and missing chunks.

"Talas! We're gonna be out of chocolates in the front room at this rate!"

He just kept staring. An older couple had Katrina's right arm and was gnawing off the fingers one at a time. Another pair had her left foot and were licking it off from the heel. A human was nibbling at her thigh while a rat helped herself to her right oblique and made the half eaten bunny squirm.

He turned around and shut the door behind him.

"She was enjoying it at the time."

"Really, how do you think she's enjoying it now?"

The apartment above the shop was a little sparse, but it was quiet, had everything one needed, and it was just cool enough for someone who'd been working all day near ovens and warm liquids. Yindri was resting the island in the center of the kitchen, sitting on it as usual, still smiling a bit as her head tilted to the side.

"Well, from what I can tell she's enjoying it."

"Well, I guess we'll see. In either case we got enough money in that one go to buy the rest of the block if we felt like it."

"Sounds fun, what do you want to do with it?"

"Marketing."

"Marketing?"

"Well, she was that successful in one day, imagine how much ten people with similar traits would attract."

"You hear that Katrina?"

Yindri hopped down from the island and wandered over to a chair. Sitting in it was Katrina, or most of her anyway. Her body was missing from the hips up. She was licked smooth everywhere else, her toes had just barely grown back, her upper body was just starting to show signs of bulging out of her hips. Whatever seemed to sustain her was taking it's sweet time for some reason. Yindri leaned down and rubbed the right thigh. Katrina's legs squirmed and splayed a little.

"It actually does look like she's enjoying this."

"Well yeah, imagine if you were chocolate all the time, how much you'd smell like it and how easily you'd melt and how much people would wanna eat you and-"

"Okay that's enough, I think I'm going to go get some rest, you should probably do the same."

"Oh I will, in a minute, first I think I'm gonna keep Katrina company."

"Okay, don't have too much fun, I will need you tomorrow, at least."

He wandered out. As soon as he did Yindri leaned closer, her paws gently grasping Katrina's hips.

"Mmmhmm, we're just having fun right? You'd be all done right now if you weren't."

The hips wiggled a little up and down, like a nod.

"So what do you think we should do while he's out?"

The lower half of the chocolate rabbit crossed her legs so that the right was on top. She tilted the large foot up toward Yindri's muzzle until the toes found purchase.

"Oooohh, good idea."

Yindri grasped the ankle gently and started lapping from 'heel' to toe, slowly carefully. The sounds of moaning and dripping chocolate continued until morning. The chair was soaked through with syrupy liquid. Katrina was so hot and bothered by the experience that she kept leaving big bunny paw prints wherever she walked and was dripping gently at the edges, but Talas didn't mind. He chalked it up to an acceptable occupational hazard.