FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

It was a beautiful day. The skies were a clear blue with little white wisps of clouds that tended to just add that right amount of white to the sky to make it seem like some sort of fruit smoothie if you stirred it just right. Oh, and threw some whip cream in there. You got to have whip cream. It makes every smoothie 100% better. Birds chirped. Bees buzzed. Children laughed. And Esmeralda danced. It was that kind of a day. She bounced her hips along to the beat, occasionally taking a step back in time with the upbeat music pumping her mood up to the heavens.

As she danced her way home from school, she didn't just exist in her own little bubble of a MP3 player. Oh no, not Esmeralda. As her long black boots tapped out the beat, she made sure she kept an eye out, even occasionally holding an imaginary mic in her hands and mouthing the words. She waved to each of the neighbors. They didn't live on her street or near her home, but in this town, they were all neighbors. It was that kind of town.

Her fiery hair thrashed this way and that as she want, waving to one of the kids who ran by. Some might ask, well, how did this little Plusle gal get to be in such a wonderful mood? Some might say it was because of her type, Cheerleader and all, though you wouldn't believe it by the way she dressed in dark and 'goth' type outfits. Yet that wasn't way Esmeralda bebopped her way home. She had just taken her last final for school. What's more, she hadn't just studied her little bum off for it. She had given up two whole weekends hanging out with friends for it. That was some serious 'biz' right there. And she felt like she had passed that test with flying colors.

The world was brighter. Colors seemed sharper. Water seemed wetter. Wait, wet? She paused, realizing she had just walked through Mr. G's sprinklers. While not soaked, her clothing did stick a little bit tighter to her fur. On a normal day, she might have even gotten a little bit upset. Today? She shrugged her shoulders, took a few steps onto Mr. G's lawn, and began dancing around the sprinklers. It was THAT kind of a day. Everything was going her way. And summer was almost here.

It was a good year to be a junior in high school. And next year, her senior year, was going to be even better. She couldn't wait. So she danced. She planned to go out with her two friends on the weekend and head down to the mall, maybe hit up Paw Topic and Goodfur, see if they could find some cute new outfits, then maybe go to the movies.

When she opened the door to her house, she didn't notice anything wrong. The music was still blaring in her ears. It was only when she arrived in the dining room that she saw her parents were both sitting down, waiting for her. They both wore serious expressions. That never boded well for things, since they were both such upbeat people. She pulled her earbuds out and turned off her music. "Hey mom, hey dad, what's going on?"

Her father sighed, adjusting his glasses and patted the seat next to him. "Sit down, Shorty." He said it with a slight smile. Shorty was her nickname, which was ironic. She had been shorter than all the girls and even some of the boys when she was younger. Then boom, puberty had hit her late and she shot up. But the nickname of "Shorty" had stuck. Esmeralda sat down quietly. Her mood still felt buoyed up, but she felt an anchor sinking into the waters and worried it might drag her down. "Esme, sweetie, I got promoted," her father began.

Esme grinned, expecting them both to crack up laughing and shout with joy, but there was none of that. "Isn't...isn't that good? I mean, c'mon, dad! That's what you've been working so hard on for the past few months. That promotion!"

He nodded, "I didn't get the position here. I got a different one. A better one in terms of pay and compensation and chances for growth in the future. The only issue, sweetie...is that we have to move for the new job."

The anchor suddenly grabbed her and pulled her into the deep cold waters. She suddenly felt the chill of the wet clothing on her body, "Wh...what do you mean? Like, next year? We're gonna move after I graduate from High School?"

Her mom shook her head, "I'm sorry, we have to move at the start of the summer. Your father needs to be there before August. This is...a great opportunity." She winced as she said. She didn't want to move either.

Esmeralda sat quietly, "Can you refuse it, dad?" She knew it wasn't fair to ask, but she felt her entire life spiraling out of control.

He nodded, "I could, but the position wouldn't ever be offered to me again. I'd be stuck where I am."

"So you're taking it? Of course you are, which means we're moving." Esme stood up, all six foot something of her, "I...I need to go to my room."

Her father watched her, "We were gonna go out to dinner, Shorty. Your favorite..."

"I'm not hungry," she interrupted, running upstairs to her room. She slammed the door behind her. She threw herself onto the bed and began to weep. She closed her red eyes and let the tears flow free. She had no idea how her spirit had come crashing down so quickly, but her mood went from the best day in the world to the absolute worst. She quickly pulled her boots off and stripped her outfit off, keeping her sports bra and biking shorts on. She didn't actually ride the bike for anything, but she loved to wear short skirts, so she wanted to keep her modesty. Along with height, puberty had been kind to her body.

Had. The tears kept flowing. She closed her eyes, wrapped her blankets around her, and pulled her stuffed animal close to her body. She just wanted darkness to envelop her. She had been at the top, but her victory had been yanked out from under her and she had crashed to the bottom. Suddenly, she understood what it felt like to be Humpty Dumpty. And she wasn't sure if anyone could put her back together again.

She lay there for a few hours. Sleep didn't seem to be coming. Finally, Esme threw her covers off and walked downstairs. The house was dark, so obviously her parents had either gone to bed or gone out for food. She wasn't sure she really cared either way at the moment. It wasn't fair to her parents, but there it was. She didn't care.

"That's a terrible viewpoint," a voice called from the kitchen. Esme jumped. The refrigerator light was on. And that wasn't a voice she knew. She carefully crept around the hallway to peer into the kitchen.

"I...I have a gun," she called out, realizing she was still only in her sports bra and biker shorts. She silently cursed herself, groping around for anything. Her fingers found a broom and closed around its handle.

"Really, Esmeralda, lies do not become you. You don't have a gun, you have a broom." The voice was calm and seemed...warm. It had a slight raspy texture to it too. Esme slid around the corner and held the broom up high.

A figure stood peering into the fridge. Its face was longer than either of her parents, and it had claws instead of hands. "Really...what family does not keep ice cream sandwiches on hand? Sheesh, what is the world coming to?" The head turned to peer at her and gold eyes glinted in the light filtering out from the fridge.

"I warn you, this broom...is no ordinary broom! It's...It's a SHOTBROOM!" She pretended to cock it, like she saw people do in the movies.

The lizard started to laugh. Not in that immediate all-out laughter kind of way. It began small, like a surprised chuckle. Then it began to grow into a full-blown roar. He slapped his knee, bending over at his waist and holding up a hand, in a 'stop' motion. "A-hem," he coughed, gasped, then stood up fully. "You could just hit that light switch next to you and we can talk? Or if you prefer, I can keep doing the shadowy figure thing? It's your call, Ms. Army of Darkness..."

She felt rather foolish, but she reached over and flipped the kitchen lights on. The fluorescent bulbs flickered, then came on. The figure was definitely lizard-y. His hide looked like it was grey or maybe blue? She gasped when she saw that his hide was shifting, like a storm cloud billowing across his body constantly.

"Are...you real," she asked, hands still clenching the broom.

"That depends on how you perceive real, I suppose." He shifted his shoulders and two wings began to stretch out. It would've been a majestic reveal if they had been outside. Indoors, one wing hit the shelves over the sink while the other only could unfurl half-way due to a lack of space. A bowl fell to the floor and the lizard-guy dove to catch it, his wings retracting again. He stood up and placed the bowl back, "Can we pretend that didn't happen and you just believe I'm a dragon? Then I can go on with this discussion of whether or not I'm real?"

"Yeah, sure, why not," Esme shrugged, just thankful he hadn't done more damage. She set the broom down, "As long as you promise to not tell anyone about my shotbroom comment?"

"Deal," the dragon quickly agreed. "So here's the deal, Shorty. I'm here to make you an offer. You're not in control of your fate right now. Your parents are moving and you have to go with them. I can make it so you can control your own destiny, to a certain extent. Interested?"

Esmeralda walked up to the kitchen counter, "I am. What's the catch?" She leaned against the counter, pretending like she was acting cool, but really, even in her dream, she didn't need some storm-dragon guy with golden eyes seeing her body near nude.

The dragon put a claw to his chin, retracting his claws so he had regular fingers to tap instead of sharp instruments of death. "Catch? Hm. Well, yes, there is a catch, I suppose. Once you start down this path, you can't end it until it's over. That's it."

Esme tapped her chin too, "That seems...like a really good deal. So why are you offering this to me?"

"I can't tell you that until it's over. Want the deal or not? One-time, special offer. And if you call now, I'll even throw in a free souvenir of your experience. What do ya say?"

He extended his hand out. Esme stared at it, biting her lower lip. She hated not being in control. Here was a chance, an opportunity, to take back control. She reached out and took his hand. "Deal."

"Then wake-up, Shorty...It begins." He winked, one gold eye glowing brightly. She stared back...and then blinked. She wasn't staring at an eye, it was the sun coming in through her window. It was morning. She had fallen asleep and...

She sighed and rolled out of her blanket burrito. She had dreamed a way out. That sucked. It was Saturday morning and she was going to move in a month or so. Her fate was still sealed. "Stupid dreams," she cursed under her breath as she walked into the bathroom. A hot shower that had probably lasted ten minutes longer than it should have (which meant about 30 minutes in total) and she was ready to face her friends. She decided it would be better to tell them right away, get it over and done with, share some tears, and then still have some fun.

She wrapped a towel around her body and her hair and picked out her outfit. She had this cute mini-skirt and black top that would look great with those arm sleeves she had bought last week. She pulled her outfit quickly, squeezing her 'plus'-shaped tail through the mini-skirt. "Odd," she whispered, looking down at the skirt. It seemed shorter than she had remembered it. "Oh well, some black leggings can remedy that, no problem."

Outfit ready, she threw on her black boots and walked out the door. She had promised to meet her friends at 11:00 and it was already 10:30. There was no music playing or bouncing to a beat as she walked towards the town's shopping district. She still waved politely to the folks outdoors, even to those driving by. It was polite and friendly, especially when you pretty much recognized every car driving by and knew every family. Mrs. Burnes made a great apple pie that you could smell for miles when she was baking, so she made extras for any of the kids who happened by.

That was Mr. G's house, who loved to make sure his yard was always green and growing flowers and plants and stuff. He was good at keeping his garden growing strong, even with all the kids that ran through his yard. He played the grumpy man, but he was a good guy and never gave chase with anything more than playful energy.

Over there was Mr. Hetzer's place. He was a bit of a weapons nut, and loved to talk of the great War that he was in. While he tended to tell the same three stories over and over again, he had the best sweet tea in the whole town, so it was worth it to hear the same story for the hundredth time just to sit and drink with him.

This was -her- town. She had grown-up here. She had played in the woods behind Mr. and Mrs. Band's house with their three boys and all the other kids. They had played tag and capture the flag and others. And now, it all seemed to be ending.

She slowed her walk as she passed a tree that she used to climb in when she was younger. It had seemed so much...bigger back then. An insurmountable challenge. Except... She blinked. It really didn't seem all that big. In fact, it seemed rather small. She shook her head and took two steps back. The tree hadn't shrunk. She reached up and touched the branch about two down from the top. When had that happened? She glanced around, realizing that people were staring at her. She quickly took off running. "This can't be happening," she whispered.

It wasn't just the tree. She was now taller than most of the fences around the town, when only the day before, she could've sworn her head had only come to just below their tops. She bumped into one of the guys from school, a fox who was nice to her. "Hey Shorty, what's...whoah!" He stared up at her, "Man, did you hit puberty part two, you got even taller!" Esme stared down at her classmate. Normally, his head came to her shouldres. Now it came to her waist.

"Sorry, gotta run, wearing boots that have heels in them, yep. See you on Monday!" She sprinted to the shopping district and ran into one of the store alleys. There, she caught her breath, gasping and leaning against the building. She could easily reach up and grab the roof. "What...What's going on," she wondered aloud. Her thoughts went back to the dream from the night before and the handshake with the dragon. "Control my own destiny? I don't have to move...heh! They can't make me move now!" She giggled, giddy with excitement at suddenly have the control back in her corner.

As she laughed, she felt her mini-skirt ride up a little bit more. "Meep!" She glanced down. The mini-skirt had gone from covering to just being more like a lei around her hip like the ones they gave away at those Hawaiian beach-themed parties. Underneath, her biker shorts still seemed to fit her just fine. "Phew," she said. She quickly tore it off and then removed her boots. They had been getting tight, but not too bad. And while she thought she looked cute in them, she also thought that they were $80 and she wasn't going to ruin that. She quickly removed everything that was tight...which left her in her sports bra and tight body-fitting shorts. "Great," she huffed. "Thanks, Mr. Dragon. Here's the stupid catch. Get big, keep what you were wearing last night and nothing else? Please, like THAT's gonna stop me from being awesome!" With that, she gave a yelp of delight and ran bare-foot out of the alley.

For the rest of the town, it was a nice Saturday. The sun was shining, the skies were clear, and a 10 ft. girl came sprinting out of a store alley whooping and hollering and mostly bare. At first, the initial instinct was to cover up young'uns eyes or to stare. Mostly the teenage boys and adult men stared as the sports bra bounced around a very decent rack. Then the second instinct kicked in. Some might have hoped for screaming and running. That wasn't what took place. Instead, people took out their smart phones and began snapping pictures and taking video as a Plusle girl began to jog down the main street of the shopping district.

It was when Esme hit her stride that she began to grow more, shooting up from ten foot to fifteen. Then from fifteen to twenty. It was actually rather exhilarating and fun to suddenly loom over buildings. As she was running, she spotted one of the guys she had a crush on, but had never had the courage to tell him that she liked him. He was talking to two of his buddies about something, motioning their hands in pantomime of some kind of sport. She quickly skidded to a stop behind them, "Hey fellas, sorry to break things up, but..." Her crush, Sean, glanced upwards and froze. He was staring at a face looming high overhead. The other two screamed like little girls and fell over themselves.

"Sorry, cutie...but I need a teddy bear to cuddle with," she said playfully, reaching down to pick him up in her arms.

"Esme," he managed to stutter out as she began to walk off with him held to her chest.

Involuntarily, one hand held him against her body while the other started to pet him, "Shhhh...we'll get him next time, Mr. Bigglesworth."

"What...how...Shorty, what're you doing? How did you get so big?!"

"I dunno, drank my milk, ate my spinach, did Pilates? One of those. Did you know I've had a crush on you since Freshman year, but never told you?" She looked down at the diminutive crush in her arms, his eyes wide, but still looking back at her.

"You did? I never knew! I sorta thought you were cute too..." His voice trailed off as she started to grow again. The ground began to get further and further away. Esmeralda just laughed in exhilaration as she hit the thirty foot marker. Esme saw her two friends, who were waiting for her by the fountain, both sitting on benches and looking at each other's phones. She called out to them and her voice boomed down the street. They looked up at her, surprised.

Then the fun ended abruptly. Suddenly her two friends, whom she had known for years, were screaming and running. "Hey, wait," she began weakly as she hit forty feet. It still felt amazing, but... Her friends were still screaming and fleeing as fast as they could. In fact, Esme noticed other voices were screaming too. She slowly spun around, looking in every which direction. As she did so, her foot stepped on a parked car, crushing it under paw. "Oh, crap...!" She took a step back and stepped on another car. Her father worked with that guy. He had a family and two kids. She had just destroyed their Dodge. "No...no wait, I didn't mean to...!"

She looked at Sean, still in her arms. "I didn't mean to," she tried to explain to him, but he was no longer her 'teddy' bear. He now fit against her chest and almost in her hand as she reached the sixty foot range. He might've been speaking to her, but it sounded so quiet that she could barely hear it. She quickly leaned down and set Sean down on the ground. She had to get out of here. She was destroying things. She didn't want that.

She stood absolutely still as Sean ran off. A stone had settled into her gut and was quickly sinking. Now, she could see over every building in the town. She towered over all of them. And she could barely step without crushing something underfoot. "Please get out of the way," she called as she walked towards the woods. "Oops, sorry! I'll pay for that! I swear..." By the time she got away from the buildings, she stood at eighty feet. She had left a series of massive footprint craters on the way. "Nooo...this isn't...no..."

A voice spoke at her shoulder, very clearly, "What's the matter, Shorty?"

Her head swiveled and she found the dragon sitting on her left shoulder, "You! What did you do to me? This isn't what I wanted!"

"What did I do? Hmmm... Gave you the power to control your own destiny. You're large enough now that no one can make you do anything you don't want to. You started down this path, and you can't stop once you start. Remember?"

Esme sat down abruptly, probably destroying an acre of woodland in the process. She yelped in pain and had to leapt back up. The trees had left quite a few pricks in her backside. The tears began to spill unbidden, "This isn't what I wanted, I swear! I just don't want to move, Mr. Dragon!"

The lizard patted her shoulder, "I know. But that's the thing, Esme, there are some things that are outside of our control. You can't change those things. Yet, there are SOME things you can control, those are the things you should focus on."

"Was that what this was? Some kind of object lesson? I don't care, I just want this to end, please!" She was bawling, tears spilling down her face and forming new rivers in the woods below.

"Done." He winked at her, and a golden eye glowed in her face. She blinked and found the light streaming in from her window. She was in her bed, normal-sized. She threw her covers off and stood up, feeling her body. She was normal. No growing, nothing. She quickly sprinted out of her room downstairs to find her parents in the dining room, sharing breakfast and watching the news.

She quickly threw her arms around both of them, "I love you guys. And I know you have to take this job, dad. I understand."

Her father, startled, glanced back, "That's great and all, Shorty, but could you put some clothing on? I don't need the neighbors seeing my little girl in her undergarments."

Esmeralda blushed and nodded, "Sorry!" She ran back upstairs and started her day for the second time. She showered, only taking twenty minutes this time. She wore something a little more conservative, but still somewhat 'goth'. She ran to the shopping district, waving to folks as she went. Then she slowed. There was Sean with his buddies. "Some things...I can change, huh?" She walked up to them and tapped Sean on the shoulder, "Um...excuse me?"

He turned, "Huh? Oh, hey, Shorty, what's up?"

"Would you go out with me," she asked as bluntly as possible. "If you're dating someone else, then I'm sorry. I just have had a crush on you for years and never said anything."

While his two buddies elbowed each other and chuckled, Sean scratched his head, "Huh...Deja-vu, I could've sworn I remembered having a dream last night about you saying something like that. Except you were...um...big. Never mind, sure. I'd love to go on a date with you, Esme. I'll text you."

She blushed, nodded, then ran off to meet with her friends for their day of shopping. She would tell them she was leaving, but tell them that they had a month of fun left before she had to go.

Back in her room, her stuffed animal sat on her bedroom floor, where she had flung it when she had woken up. A single dragon without any scales, colored like a storm. Two gold eye buttons gleamed, then one winked.

The End.