Awakening

Story by WolfenTales on SoFurry

, , , , , , , , ,

#2 of Tales of the Kin

A gift piece I wrote for Mehlahphuse on FurAffinity (http://www.furaffinity.net/user/mehlahphuse/)

I was inspired to write this piece after seeing that their partner in the Transformation Gift Exchange had not held up their end of the bargain.

It isn't holiday-themed, for which I apologize, but it might serve as an interesting backstory for her character. I hope they enjoy it.


Stephen groaned, shoving his way through the busy street. A pack of chattering Parisians came to a sudden stop, blocking nearly the whole sidewalk as they pulled out their cell phones. They laughed at each other's jokes enthusiastically, heedless somehow of the fact that they were in the damn way!

"Excuse me," he said, seeing that there was a steady stream of people passing the other way to the left of the group. When they ignored him, "EXCUSE ME!" he said, pushing his way through.

"Ho-ley shits!" the girls gasped in a French accent so thick that it made it hard to take their cursing seriously. One of the men, bedecked in a black jacket, black pants, and a woven plaid scarf said, "Watch ou, you fucken queer!" Ouch. That hurt.

Stephen grumbled, adjusting his side-bag, which had spun around to his back when he had forced his way through. As he reached up to adjust the strap, he felt a crunch underfoot. He stopped in his tracks, and lifted up his foot. Shit... His earring.

Stephen reached up, and felt the hole where his piercing had been. He reached down to the pavement, glancing back to the gaggle of giggling foreigners, and picked it up. Two of the prongs were bent inwards. The other had snapped off completely. Stephen stuffed it into his pocket and continued on. He looked down at himself, his sweatshirt tied around his waist, his floral skirt draped over a pair of torn denim jeans, and pursed his lips with a sigh.

He heard loud voices behind him. Afraid that the tourists had decided to take action, Stephen quickened his pace, weaving in and out of the crowd. He glanced behidn him. Two thuggish brutes in oversized suits had appeared, and were walking forward intently, like cartoonish behemoths in some video game.

He heard one of the parisians shout something. He couldn't tell what, be it English or French, but the two gigantic men locked eyes with him. Their reflective shades shimmered in shades of green and magenta, like the back of a beetle as they quickened their pace.

Stephen let out a shout as he darted between businessmen, hipsters, and all the rest of the morning traffic. Faster and faster he ran, his canvas shoes striking the pavement with every step. He tried to ignore the pain in his feet, his ragged breath, and most of all the nagging fear. He only had to get away. Life was too short to mess with parisian death squads.

As he quickened his pace, it soon seemed that he had lost his pursuers. He panted, hitching his pants up as he came to a stop, but not before a blur of colour and striped rushed before him. Before he could stop himself, him and the other person tumbled to the pavement, next to the open door of a shop. The world around him twitsed and spun, but as he fell, he saw that the eccentric shop was just as full of colours and patterns and stripes as the individual which now lay benetah him.

Stephen coughed, rising to his knees. He put his hands out apologetically, "Oh my god, ma'am. I am so, so sorry. I didn't see..."

The woman laughed, and dusted herself off as she sat up, her long tail twitching behind her as she licked her snout. Stephen gasped, and inched backwards in shock. What the hell? Am I hallucinating?

She rose to her- feet, if you could call them that. She wore no shoes, her magenta and gold fur glistening in the morning sun. Stephen looked around, searching for any sign from onlookers that they too might be seeing what he saw. But much to his distress, no one was alarmed by the cat-woman, standing on her hind legs, festooned in sweaters and scarves. She extended a paw.

Stephen blinked, looking at it in disbelief. It took him several moments to grasp that she was trying to help him up. He had already begun to rise on his own by the time it clieked. Despite the strangeness of what he saw, he tried to not seem rude.**(awk)

"S'the matter, dearie? That was quite the tumble you took there," she purred.

Stephen nodded, brushing himself off, "Yeah. Sorry, some weirdos and their thugs..."

She twitched suddenly, he ears perking forward. Her nostrils flared, and her eyes became intensely focused as she looked back the way he had come. Her cat-lips drew back with a smile, her sharp teeth poking out from beneath as she said, "Ah, yes. All seems well now, though, yes? Those traitors wouldn't dare follow you here. Here, here, come inside," she said, motioning into the shop, putting a paw gently on Stephen's back.

He shook his head from side to side in disbelief, but nodded, "Thank you. No, really. I can't thank you enough. I thought they were going to kill me. I just wish I knew why. All I did was try and get through."

She let out a hiss. Stephen drew back as she said, "Those bastards. They don't need a reason. I bet my luck on the fact that they were coming here."

Stephen blinked, flinching, "Coming.... coming here? Then, I need to-" he said, craning his neck as he looked out through the window.

"Hush, child," the creature said, "Yes, I suspect that might have been the case, but your arrival likely scared them off. They will no doubt know that I am aware of their arrival. They'll be back, sure, but not for a while perhaps."

Stephen looked at her nervously, peeking out the window again. The creature purred loudly, rubbing her face with her paws as she yawned.

"No, really," he said, scratching at his goatee, "I think I should go. I... I really don't know what s going on, and I..." his eyes slowly panned to his right.

The cat-woman smiled, taking a seat in an antique-looking desk chair. Her tail twitched and twirled behind her as she crossed her legs, "You feel it, don't you?"

"Feel what?" Stephen said, swallowing audibly.

"The pull, of this place. The stones of this whole quarter were brought as ballast for ships, when this city was still young. It still is, by many marks, but nonetheless, these foundations hold much power. The cat-woman stood up, rubbing her foott in a long arc on the hardwood floor. Her claws rattled loudly on the slats as she strolled between two circular shirt-racks. She purred, and leaned against a bare stretch of the wall that wasn't covered in posters, shelves, and ephemera.

"And these walls," she said, slinking down slightly, her paw rubbing against the rosewood panels, "These walls are older still."

Stephen turned, looking at her sharply, "But... How? How are the walls older than...?"

She stood up suddenly, breathing in as if rousing from a deep sleep, "Hmmm?! Oh, you needn't worry dear. All will be revealed, in time. But for now, I think it's best if you stayed for a few moments more - long enough, at least for me to give you something."

"Give... me something?" Stephen said, scratching the side of his face.

She nodded, running her claws along the wall as she rounded a corner, "Follow me, dearie. I have something for you. Here," she said, rolling the R into a purr, "are the dressing rooms."

The cat-woman spun around, and pushed her hand against the door to one of the rooms, each painted with numbers, and decorated with small eyelets to make them look liek hotel rooms. Stephen peered through one of them eyelets, which was blacked out. He heard her laugh softly as he stepped inside.

His eyes widened as he saw an outfit hung on the wall. It looked like something out of a movie, a set of matching dress and brassiere. The dress was constructed of a fine girdle of gold and emerald, with an iridescent sheer of fabric forming the rest of the dress beneath. A strange sort of undergarment hung inside of it along the hook which held them to the wall. It looked like a wide sort of thong, but with a strange loop in the back, as if it was designed to go around something... a leg perhaps? But that didn't make sense. The bra meanwhile was made of the same sort of opaque fabric as the thong, but was covered in fine sequins. Faux gemstones lined the staps of the bra, glittering in the dim light of the dressing room.

Stephen turned around, looking at the woman sharply, "What... what is THAT?"

"A gift, dearie. Try it on, and if you don't feel comfortable in it, well, you can always keep it in case you ever feel like taking it for a test drive on your own time," she said with a smirk, a glint in her eyes.

"Oh... kay," he said.

She purred softly, and closed the door. Stephen looked down at himself, his skinny arms, his pale skin, his billowing skirt. He sighed, looking at the dress. Something about it seemed familiar, not the look of it precisely, but... There was a pull to it that he had felt somewhere before.

Stephen sighed at the strangeness of the whole ordeal, but after sitting for a few minutes on the bench, he began undressing. He unzipped his heavy boots, shimmied out of his skirt, and rolled down his jeans. He looked behind him to the dress, peering at the thong. As he felt his bottom on the cold seat through his briefs, he shuddered. He had never felt brave enough to wear a thong before. Heck, it had taken him months to wear that dress out in public, and he still wore jeans underneath. Although... he did favor the combination. It was unique. It was him.

Confused by the thong, Stephen put the bra on first, smirking at the paradox of it. He felt his flat chest through the fabic, his nipples pressing against it gently. He ran his fingers along the gemstone-laden straps. He turned around, looking down at them. In this light, it almsot seemed like they emitted a glow of their own.

When he felt brave enough, Stephen slid his briefs down, and set them on the floor with the rest of his clothes. He stood up, and pulled the dress and thong from the wall. The golden-iridescent fabric shimmered as he looked at it. He let out another sigh, before stepping into them. He hoped that by putting them both on at once, somehow the strange loop would make sense. Stephen heard a dull hum, and his bra felt warm against his skin. As he pulled them up to his waist, the garments fell into place on their own, the odd ring coming flush to his skin of its own accord.

Stephen felt warmth in his chest as his skin began to tingle. The gemstones brightened in their glow - it was no mere illusion. They were actually glowing. And that wasn't all.

"This..." his voice echoed in the small room, "Is very revealing, don't you think?"

He heard her laugh from the other side of the door, "You have no idea, dearie."

Suddenly, Stephen felt pressure in his chest, as his pectorals swelled outwards beneath his grip. He removed his hand, letting out a scream as his chest grew outwards, roubnding out into a firm set of breasts. His eyes widened. What was happening to him?

He banged on the wall loudly, but words failed him. He heard her laugh again, and heard her claws tapping on the floor as she walked away, and returned a few moments later.

He knocked again, rapping on the thin walls with his enermous claws. Stephen let out a scream as he looked at his hand, which had now become a reptilian claw. Where before he had had five fingers, he now had four, each one thick, and ending in a rough, bone-white claw. His flesh turned yellow as fine scales grew from his skin in various sizes. They were circular and yellow, like the scales along a chameleon's eye. He flexed his fingers, feeling his strange new claws with his other, unchanged hand. His new claws were thick, but felt warm, and the surface was lined in fine ridges which rippled in rows from the base of his claws to their sharp tip.

His fingers brushed along the bumpy smoothness of his scales, but when he drew his hand away, it began the same transformation. His pulse quickened as he watched his change unfold. Rationally, he knew he should be alarmed by this, but something about it just felt... right. His new breasts also began dotted with the same, pale-yellow scales which covered his hands, now his wrists... now his arms. More and more, they began to spread, inching their way up his shoulder to meet with the scaled of his chest and neck.

"What...." he said in a deeper voice, "Is happening...?"

He heard a soft, indeterminable sound outside, but recieved no answer, not even a giggle. Broader scales grew on his sides, broder and ticker than the dot-like ones which had first appeared. They packed in, crowded in like layered plates.

Holy shit, he thought, am I turning into a dragon?

The thong, which had pressed tightly against his manhood suddenly felt much roomier, as his nethers began to shrink. He felt tingling as his pubic hairs shrunk back into his skin, and something down there began to part.

At the same time, he felt pressure in his rear as the band of elastic which had somehow adhered itself to his skin began to grow warm. The pressure increased, and when Stpehen turned to look, he saw something thick and fleshy snaking its way downward as a repitlian tail grew from his rear. As it grew longer, he felt the broader scales file in along the underside of his tail, while the top became crowded with the finer sort. Similarly, they grew from below his breasts downward to his groin, where they again transitioned.

Stephen heard gay humming from the other side of the door. Stephen put a talon against it, and listened fior a moment, before saying, "Hello? Is this.... Is this supposed to happen? I.... I don't know why this is happening to me," he said.

His ears stretched outwards, the top and bottom bones of each ear fanning out, forming a thin membrane between them as his ears became unearthly fins. They swivelled and fanned about, listening for a reply. He let out a groan, which came out as a deep, reverberating bellow. He went to say somethign else, and felt his tongue lengthen, its tip becoming pointed as his mouth too grew in length. It stretched outward, the strange, inexplicable feeling much like the growth of his tail.

The bones of his face stretched outwards, and the flesh followed after. As he looked down, he saw his nose becoming a reptilian muzzle. His nostrils flared out, setting wide into his quickly changing face. His long tongue slithered around his mouth, feeling his teeth as they sharpened, became longer. His tongue poked out of his mouth for a moment, tasting the air. He could sense energy, all around him of variable but blinding intensity.

They snorted, and a small ivory horn popped up from their snout. As Stephen looked down, the dragon saw a bony ridge rising from the top of their tail, fkeshy spines rising, thin membranes like those of the dragon's ears spanning between in a long line, starting from the tip of their tail and rising upwards along their spine, up their neck, and bisecting their head, where it stopped just before the dragon's temples. Before they even noticed it, the former human's hair had shrunk away, giving rise two two ivory horns, much in the manner and shape of its claws, though longer, and with a backward flare that curved inwards towards the tip.

The dragon reached up, feeling them with its paw, as its face finished its transformation. As they did so, they saw how the palms of each hand, as well as in small circles on each digit, there rounded regions where the scales were yet finer, and more darker besides, mirroring the image of the paw of some animal like a great cat, or wolf.

As the dragon explored its face, Stephen felt that those darker patches seemed more sensitive than the rest, especially when they rna their hands down their bare sides, along the broad scales which carried duller sensation through to the skin beneath, except from the base from which they grew. Stephen was tempted to use his claws to pry one of the scales upwards to see what it looked like beneath, though they imagined that might be painful.

In their reflection, the dragon had forgotten their continued change, until suddenly, the scales which had since been growing along their neck and back spread yet farther down, spreading also from the massive spine-fin, until a pair of bat-like wings burst forth from the dragoness's back. Her breasts bobbed as she lurched in surprise. Meanwhile, her legs popped and cracked as her bones reshaped.

Lucky I took off my clothes, she thought as her feet began to turn into draconic talons, toes joining together, nails turning into thick claws, her posture changing to match the balance of her new legs.

Her heel, which had rested on the ground as a human now rose up, like that of a dog's leg. By this point, the progression of scales came at a hurried pace, and in a few brief moments, her transformation was complete. Shge shuddered as he body grew slightly, thought it seemed that the girdle, thong, and brassiere all had grown to match her new form.

She flapped her wings, spinning around in a circle as she inspected her new body.

The door clicked as the lock was undone. The cat-woman drew it upen, and smiled.

"Oh, child," she said, "You're beautiful."

The dragoness couldn't help but smile at that. She smoothed out her dress, her tail swishing behind her. "Thank you," she said, her ears fluttering bashfully, "But I still don't understand. Why.... why did you do this to me?"

She tilted her head to the side gently, before motioning for them to sit together on one of the 80's-style sofas that separated the clothing section from the vintage memorabilia. The dragoness sat down, shuffling about slightly as she tried to find a comfortable position, considering her enermous tail, and the strange feeling of her scaled flesh against the leather.

"Don't worry, darling. You'll get used to it, I'm sure you'll find. Just relax for a moment."

The dragoness sighed, her tail wrapping around her, settling in between her thicks and the arm of the couch. It moved constantly, like the tail of a cat, in a constant rhythm. The cat woman looked at the dragoness and smiled.

"From the first I saw you, regardless of the foolishness that brought you hence, I could nevertheless tell outright - you are one of us.."

"On of 'us'? Us who?"

"You are one of the Kin. That is to say, yout outer self, and your inner truth are misaligned. You dress crossly because you are free of spirit. You seek that truth, as best you can. You call yourself gay, or queer, or succumb to the notions of others that you are just confused, but deep down, you know... All I've done is simply helped what has always inside you. Now, child - Forgive me if I've asked this before, but what did you call yourself?"

"St- St- Stephen," she said bashly, her ears flicking as she heard her new voice, deeper in register than even it had been as a man, and yet, there was a feminine quality to it. It felt right, somehow, as if it mirrored the tone that his inner narrative always took, but which was never reflected when he had spoken aloud.

Her winges fluttered, "But... Even if I felt that my soul was a woman, did, did you have to change me into a dragon?"

The cat woman giggled, , drawing her tail into her lap, stroking it gently, "To be one is to be the other, in your case. They are both inescapable parts of the same truth," she smiled cheekily, "Why, dear? Is it strange? The best things in life always are. I'll be here for you if you need any advice on, certain issues. Woman to woman."

The dragoness touched her neck, feeling the broad scaled there, feeling down to the top of her breasts as she said, "But I can't go out like this, surely. People won't know what to make of me. They'll think I'm a monster, won't they?"

She shook her head, "Not to worry, dear. As long as you are wearing that dress, no one will care. Men will be too enamoured of you to even notice that you are of a different sort than they, and other women will cast away their eyes, knowing that they have no chance of competing with your beauty. Such things are subjective, of course, but human hearts are fickle, and the magic with which is is imbued works well against them."

"And if I'm not wearing it? It's not necessarily uh- appropriate for all situations."

"OH, of course, of course," she said, sitting up straighter, uncrossing her legs, "Do what you must meanwhile, call out of work, work as you are, but in three days time, return to me here. By then, I ought to have a glamour ready that you might use. When necessary, you will be able to mask your true self beneath an image of a human. But not to worry, it won't be that old look you were frced to bear*. I'll have something suitable for you. Stephen, you say?"

The dragoness nodded slowly, ere the cat-woman replied, "Well, that won't do. Let's see... You are dragonkin. If I recall correctly, all your sort have truenames given to them from creation. Ah, but you have no focusing gem."

The dragoness looked down at her bra as the woman reached down, and plucked one of the radiant stones from the straps, and held it up to the light of the window. The red gemstone was of a diamond-shaped cut, while its face was rounded. It sparkled in the light streaming in through the blinds, sending red rays against the walls and furniture.

The cat woman extended a paw, and motioned with her fingers as she said, "Lean in closer, dearie."

The dragoness brought her head closer to the woman, the membrane of her ears humming as she felt the power of the gemstone. Her tongue flicked in and out of her mouth as she tasted its energy, unseen to the normal eye, but still there - powerful, inescapable. Its back was flat, set into a base of some glittering metal, which shone as if it was made of the stars themselves. The cat woman grabbed it by the edges, and pressed the stone against the dragoness's forehead

The dragoness gasped, as its energy poured into her. Her mind raced with the murmur of a hundred distant voices, like memories long forgotten, and a land hidden long ago. She could feel the impressions of them, though she could not see them in her mind.

The warmth of her chest rose up through her throat. Suddenly, the air was fileld with a thick odor as tendrils of smoke floated out of her maw. She turned her head sharply, watching the smoke drift into the sunlight. The cat-woman smiled.

"And with that, my dear, the work in complete. Do you yet sense it?"

"Sense what?" she said, as the voices in her mind murmured softly. One voice echoed more loudly than the others as it repeated something, over and over, though she could not make out precisely what.

"Your true name, my dear," she purred.

The dragoness tilted her head to the side, like a curious dog, as she listened more clsoely to the murmuring voice. Her tongue worke din her mouth as she tried to mirror the sound, "M... Me.... Melah.... Wait," her scaled brows scrunched down as she listened harder, "Mehlahphuse?" she said questioningly.

The cat-woman clasped her paws together, and threw back her head, "Ah! Oh, my. How _beautuful!_Oh, but how fitting, yes. That suits you well. Or rather, you suit it, for just as with all true names, it is the truest representation of your true self."

The dragoness smirked, "It's truly, truly, true."

The cat-woman looked at her for a moment, her lips pressing tight together as her head tilted to the side in a puzzled expression. After a few moments, she smiled, and batted the air with a paw, "Aww, hush child. You catch my meaning. But enough chatter.

The cat woman rose to her feet, the light catching the red and gold stripes of her feline tail. Her whiskers glowed as the sun caught them. She extended her paw again, palm up as she stepped towards the door, "Come, my dear Mehlahphuse. It is time to make your debut."

The dragoness looked down bashfully, but rose. Her tail wrapped around her legs, feeling them through the sensitive scales there. She walked over to the woman, wobbling slightly on her new legs as she took her hand.

They walked onto the street together, and the eyes of passersby followed after.