FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Kayla sighed, walking down the paved path that ran through the local zoo. She'd been here before, of course; she had always enjoyed coming to this zoo as a child, mostly because she'd always felt connected to the animals around her. She was aware of how stupidly cliche that sounded, but she really did feel more connected to them than she did to most of the people in her life. She hadn't exactly been popular growing up, after all. She was bullied constantly, and due to social politics within her school, nothing was ever done about it... at least, not by the teachers or principal.

The only person in her life who ever really seemed to care about her was her father. He was a kind, supportive man who was always willing to help his daughter with whatever problems she was going though. Even if it meant using some... unorthodox methods. She still remembered when he first told her about her family's unusual past... how her ancestors were apparently powerful warlocks, and how their magic had been passed down throughout generations. She could still clearly remember the first time her father had ever shown her a spellbook... she hadn't believed it at first, of course, but that all changed when she actually attempted a spell and ended up merging her bed and her desk together.

From that point on, she was hooked. This was a whole new world for her, one of seemingly endless possibilities that she quickly found herself invested into. She could still remember staying up for the entire night, pouring through that book and even testing a few spells out. And, of course, there was what happened the next day: namely, her fusing two of the biggest bullies in the school into a giant, friendly dragon. Actually, a lot of the spells in the book seemed to focus on the concept of transformation, which was another subject that had always interested Kayla. Perhaps that was why she had always felt so connected to the animals... her ancestors had probably used their magic to take animal forms countless times.

She smiled, walking past the animals that had occupied so much of her childhood. The zoo was almost exactly like she remembered it... all of the animals were in the same places, doing the same things. She found the familiarity of it all comforting, and a sense of nostalgia washed over her, making her feel at peace. As she watched, she wondered what it was like to be in one of those exhibits... to be confined yet safe, to not have to worry about anything except looking good for the numerous guests that walked by. Every so often, she would be tempted to discreetly shift forms, to join one of the animals in their enclosure just to see what it was like. But even though she was capable of changing forms, she knew better than to do so here. She couldn't risk transforming in public, nor could she risk being seen outside an enclosure in animal form. Besides, the zookeepers probably kept tabs on all of the animals in the enclosures, so they would probably become suspicious if an extra one suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Turning the corner into a new exhibit, Kayla's eyes suddenly lit up. Big Cat Mountain... one of her personal favorite areas in the zoo. She'd always had a thing for cats... they always seemed so graceful and beautiful, yet they were still powerful enough to be deadly to any prey they came across. Well... most of the time, at least. The ones in the zoo were just sort of lounging around not doing much, a bit like a typical housecat. Not that she blamed them, of course. It wasn't like there was much for them to do, with them being confined to such a small area like that. But that was just what life in the zoo was like for them, Kayla supposed. There wasn't much for them to do, but there wasn't much they really HAD to do, either. They could just spend the entire day lying around, and still be provided with enough food and water to sustain themselves. Not the most interesting life ever, but hey, it wasn't like they knew any better. Or seemed to care, really.

Although... as Kayla made her way through the tiger exhibits, one particular tiger seemed to catch her eye. Something about it just struck her as... different then all of the other tigers in the exhibit. For one thing, it wasn't just lying on the ground like most of the cats she'd seen; instead, it was was wandering around the perimeter of the exhibit, almost seeming to scope it out. As it wandered over to where Kayla was standing, she noticed something in its eyes... like some kind of intelligent spark. And that's when it clicked: this tiger wasn't happy. It wasn't content with its life in captivity. It didn't care that it never had to do anything: all it wanted was to do SOMEthing. It couldn't take being trapped like this. It wanted to be free.

Immediately, Kayla's mind began racing, trying to think of ways that she could help this tiger. She could probably find a way to release it from it's exhibit, but then she'd have a tiger running loose on the streets, and that wouldn't be good for anyone involved. Or she could- wait, what was she thinking? Did she not specialize in transformative magic? The solution was obvious! She immediately facepalmed, cursing her own stupidity.

She smiled to herself, looking down at the tiger. "Don't worry," she said. "You'll be out of here soon enough." With that, she turned and walked away, ready to enjoy the rest of her time at the zoo... and of course, make plans to come back later.

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Night had fallen. The zoo had closed, and most of the animals in it were asleep. But not the tiger that Kayla had taken interest in. He remained awake, continuing to examine the walls of the exhibit. It was dark out, which meant that the creatures that often gathered outside of the exhibit - the tall ones, the ones who only ever walked on their hind legs - were no longer watching him. What was life like for those creatures, he wondered. Where did they go when they left? Where was there to go, even? It was a question that had plagued his mind for as long as he could remember.

He continued looking around, examining the pen that he was kept in. He thought of the creatures that would enter the pen sometimes, leaving behind food and water for him whenever they did. They provided him with everything he needed... yet he still wasn't satisfied. Spending his life cooped up in this pen just wasn't something he wanted to do. He wanted to be free! He wanted to see what was out there, to explore, to-

Wait. Hold on. As he examined the fence surrounding his exhibit, he noticed something strange: namely, that part of it was gone. It had completely disappeared, leaving only an empty space behind. An empty space leading outside of the pen... and into the world beyond it. This was it! The opportunity he had been waiting for! Slowly, the tiger walked towards the space, passing through it and exiting the exhibit with enthusiasm. Now he could finally see what the world was like outside his enclosure!

As he walked, however, he felt something strange suddenly wash over him. His body began to feel strange, like... like it didn't quite fit him anymore. He took a few more steps, only to stop again. His legs didn't feel right at all. In fact, nothing about him felt right. Why did he feel like this?

Underneath him, his hind legs were starting to wobble slightly. Bones began rearranging themselves as the legs grew longer, new strength flowing into them. Slowly, the tiger felt himself lifting up onto his back legs, the new strength allowing him to support himself. The bones continued rearranging as his hind paws began shifting, shrinking and bringing his heels towards the ground. Within seconds, he was standing solely on his hind legs... just like those creatures who were always watching him.

But that wasn't all, as more changes began spreading across his body. Quickly, the tiger's body began to shrink, becoming shorter and slightly leaner. It continued compressing itself until it became a rather muscular torso, the proportions began changing to better suit a two-legged creature. Still confused, the tiger looked down at his former front legs, seeing that those were starting to change as well. They were starting to grow longer, the bones quickly rearranging themselves just as they had with his hind legs. New joints formed, allowing him to move his rapidly forming arms with increased flexibility... which, of course, only added to his confusion. But the largest change was the one to his front paws. Slowly, the various digits began to separate, becoming thinner, longer, and more flexible. A fifth digit was starting to form on the insides of each of his paws as well, growing out until it looked almost exactly like the other four. The tiger could do nothing but slowly flex his new fingers, in a state of total bewilderment.

A few cracks from the tiger's neck signaled the final changes. The bones were beginning to adjust themselves, shifting and moving the tiger's head to rest upon his newly upright body. From this new perspective, the tiger could finally look down to get a good look at his new body. In terms of ascetics, his body looked about the same as it always had: the fur, tail, and back paws still looked the same as they always had. The only real ascetic change was his front paws, which now barely even looked like paws at all, other than the fur, pads, and claws that remained. His proportions, on the other hand, had changed drastically. Instead of being on all fours, he was now standing upright... much like the creatures who always gathered outside his exhibit. Still incredibly confused, the tiger hesitantly took a step forward. Then another. Then another. He continued walking with those two legs, getting a feel for it until it felt natural to him. It was a little odd at first, since it was difficult to keep his balance on only two legs instead of four, but he was able to get the hang of it fairly quickly.

A few steps later, he had arrived at the edge of the woods on the outside of the zoo. From here, the texture of the very ground he was walking on seemed to change. It had always felt soft before, but now it felt hard, rough, and uncomfortable. It felt like- hold on. Something was moving in the distance. He stayed still, watching as whatever it was - one of the creatures from earlier, he guessed - began making its way over to him. His mind began racing, trying to figure out what to do. Was it going to attack him? Should he fight back? Should he run? He watched intently as it raised one of its front limbs into the air, and-

BAM! Immediately, the tiger stepped back, an intense light flickering in his eyes. New thoughts began pouring into his mind, and the sheer magnitude was enough to knock him to the ground. It was as if he had been living with a sort of haze in his mind for all his life, but never noticed... and all of a sudden, that haze had been removed. Suddenly, he understood everything around him with much greater clarity than he had before, and concepts that had once been foreign to him were becoming more and more clear. Words began forming in his brain... words, those things that he had never understood or needed before, but now wondered how he had ever lived without. "I..." His first attempt at actually speaking these words was rough at first, and his mind raced to figure out how to formulate them correctly. "What... happened..."

"Are you okay?" The human - for that was what he now know those creatures were called - rushed over to him, bending down in front of him. "You might need a bit of time to adjust. I'm sure sentience can be a bit of a shock if you're not used to it... not that I would know, of course."

"You... did this?" Still struggling to form his words, the tiger looked up at the girl in front of him "Who... are you?"

"My name's Kayla," said the girl, smiling. "And yes, I did this to you." She stood up, the smile on her face wider than ever. "I saw you in that exhibit at the zoo earlier today, and I noticed that you were a bit... different from all the other tigers I was seeing. I could tell that you weren't happy, that you wanted to see more of the world, and I thought to myself 'I should give him what he wants!' So I worked a little magic and opened up a hole in your enclosure, allowing you to escape. But I also didn't want there to be a wild tiger running around loose - no offense, by the way - so I made a few changes to your body as well. Gave you some sentience, too. I'm a witch, so I know how to do that sort of thing."

"Well..." The tiger wasn't sure what to say. Even if he was used to being sentient he wasn't sure that he would be able to find the words. Only one phrase came to his mind: a fairly common phrase, one used by humans quite often. He looked up at Kayla, grinning. "...Thank you."

"Don't mention it," said Kayla, grinning back. "Well, now we just need to figure out what to do with you from here. I was thinking... maybe you could come to my place for a little bit. From there, we can try to figure out exactly what to do with you... you know, plan out what you want to do with your new life. Make you into a fully-fledged member of our society!" She frowned. "I should warn you, though: this kind of life isn't always everything it's cracked up to be. If you decided that you don't want it anymore... well, that tiger exhibit is always open..."

But the tiger immediately shook his head. "No thanks!" he said. This experience had opened up his eyes so much... he couldn't imagine going back to his old life after this. He could see the potential in this new form... and he wanted to take full advantage of it. "I want to do this. I'm ready for it."

"Okay, if you say so!" said Kayla. With that, she took the tiger's hand-paw, and the two of them walked off towards Kayla's house, ready to see what the future held in store for the new anthro tiger.