FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

As promised, here we go with another chapter. And yes, I did have a little fun playing with this. Its always satisfying when a prick gets his comeuppance.

If you enjoy it, please let me know, so I can keep giving you what you like, and if you see anywhere were I can improve, please let me know that too. In any case, on with the show, I hope you like it.

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“Teri?! What are you..?” Hephaestus gasped, shocked at what the human had just done. Reflexively, his scaled hand reached for the amulet that Teri had settled around his neck, but as his fingers neared the golden object, they stopped an inch from it as instantly as if they had met some sort of barrier and his eyes went wide, a faint, barely perceptible glow surrounding the amulet. “But… Why? Why do it?”

“I told you why.” Teri replied, the tingling feeling spreading over his skin like a wave, the sensation quickly becoming more like prickling than tingling. Sucking in a shuddering breath as the sensation shot like lightning across his torso, then down his limbs to the tips of his fingers and toes, raising painful goosebumps all over his skin. He braced for the pain that the dragon had described, biting his lip as he shivered. He was ready for it, almost eager for it, as the sensations grew more intense.

“But why?” The red and black dragon asked, obviously bewildered, the hand that wasn’t reaching for the amulet rubbing down Teri’s bare back, the sensation of hot scaly flesh so wonderfully comforting that Teri smiled, pressing himself into his hand on instinct. “You hardly know me. Even if we…” The dragon closed his eyes, shaking his head.

“I know.” Teri replied, clasping one of the dragon’s hands. The prickling sensation seemed to be leveling off, leaving him feeling like someone was dragging some sort of rough carpet over his skin. This wasn’t so bad. If this was all it was going to be, then maybe it wasn’t going to be so terrible. “I was going to refuse…”

“Why didn’t you?” Hephaestus asked, putting his hand flat on Teri’s chest, the amulet seeming to sense he wasn’t reaching for it anymore, letting him make contact. The touch was soft and gentle, but insistent.

“Its… I saw…” Teri started to say, trying to articulate the moment he had seen that had changed his mind, but before he could continue his explanation, he suddenly felt cold, like he had been dipped in icy water and he frowned, shivering. This wasn’t what he had expected.

“Teri?” Hephaestus looked close at him, apprehension on his face. Teri swallowed nervously, looking back, fear suddenly roiling through him. This wasn’t over, and he suddenly knew, deep down, that it was going to be everything that the dragon had promised it would be. Then, the human’s whole body convulsed, like all his muscles were cramping up in an instant. Letting out a low groan, Teri doubled over, his eyes squeezing shut against the sudden pain. “Teri!”

“Augh!!!” He cried in reply, the inarticulate exclamation all he could manage, his whole body stinging as if he was being filled with boiling water, ice turning to blazing heat in an instant. All he could see was blinding white behind his eyelids, so bright it was painful, stabbing into his brain. He was shaking now, tears welling from beneath his lids, but he couldn’t do anything about it. Searing hot agony spread rapidly out through his chest from his heart, obliterating any kind of rational or coherent thought. He had braced himself for it, thought he was ready for it. But there was no preparing for something like this. Desperately sucking in air, he convulsed again, the pain spreading out even further, flooding down his arms and legs like a liquid, then up his head and back down to where it had started, again and again, wave upon endless wave. He wanted to scream, to run from it, to beg for it to stop, but there was no talking; it was all he could do to hold onto his consciousness.

For a time longer than forever, all he could feel was pain, endless ever-changing and varying pain. It felt like every bone in his body had been replaced with white hot shards of glass, grinding and splintering against each other. Every muscle seemed to be made of fire, burning everything they touched. Every one of his organs felt like they had been spitted upon nails of blistering heat. Every movement his body made, even the very act of breathing itself made the pain worse, but he couldn’t seem to hold still. His muscles were so tight he was shaking, almost writhing in agony. And then, the pain began to change, getting even worse, his body seeming to stretch like his joints were being pulled way too far, but it wasn’t just his joints. It was all of him, every muscle, every ligament, even his skin itself, pulling away from one another, as if trying to rip him apart. Blind, burning and aching he finally managed to scream, or at least he thought he had, but to his ears, everything was distorted and strange, nothing sounding right. He should have been unconscious, the pain too much, putting him out. But he was long past the point of making sense of this. He didn’t want to be unconscious, he wanted it to end. He wanted to die, if it meant being free of the pain.

His whole existence was agony, terrible, unbelievable, unendurable agony. Then, though he still felt like he was stretching, he jerked like he had been kicked, feeling as if something hard and sharp had been driven into his lower back, then another and another at his shoulders, making his body convulse. His head was suddenly splitting, like it was being squeezed in a vice, worse than the worst migraine. And still the heat was increasing, if that was possible. The sharp pains in his back grew worse, making him feel like he was brutally impaled upon spears of white hot flame, spears that seemed to get longer by the moment, prolonging the long, slow slide down them, and he felt every inch. Worst, he was being denied the very ability to find peace in death. He was doomed to suffer for all time, and worse even than that, he knew he had doomed Hephaestus, the most wonderful person he had known, had ever loved. And then, for the briefest instant, the image of the wonderful dragon’s smiling face appeared in the midst of the pain and Teri fell. With a suddenness that was far more of a shock than anything he had ever experienced, everything was cut off. It was like he was a piece of steel in a forge, red hot and hammered, that the smith had suddenly quenched, dunked into blessedly cool darkness.

It was…pleasant… to float there in the dark, feeling a cool nothing all over. After the blinding, burning heat, the cool darkness felt almost frigid, like his whole body was sunburned raw. Then, not even that. He felt nothing, nothing at all. Not his body, not burning heat, just…nothing. Maybe this is it. Maybe I’m dead. But even that thought didn’t feel quite right. Gradually, as he floated in the void, trying to decide if he had failed and died, or if he had somehow succeeded against the odds, sensations began to return. It began with a sort of vague awareness that his body was actually there, the same odd, almost unnoticed sense that told you that you existed. It was certainly an improvement just to exist, and not to hurt. But even that sensation didn’t feel right. It was like his skin didn’t fit quite right anymore. He didn’t feel like he was him.

Then… like the first rays of dawn after a pitch dark night, there was a feeling so opposite burning pain and stretching agony that at first he couldn’t put a name to it. It was so intensely wonderful that pleasure wasn’t even a good enough word for it. It began on his back, moving slowly, a clear, comfortingly slow caress. It was warm, but a pleasant sort of warmth, not the burning heat that had tortured him. The touch was eminently familiar, so familiar that again, he couldn’t quite put a good name to it. Then, he became more aware, the sensations returning like he was sliding slowly into a pool. It took him a long time, longer than it should have, but at last, after a comfortable eternity, he understood he was being embraced, held close, cuddled against a warm, solid bulk that made him want to smile, a radiant sunrise deep inside. The arms that held him were slowly sliding up and down his back, the hands rubbing along the line of his spine comfortingly.

He could feel the outline of the fine scales that covered the palms that were upon him, the larger, but still pliant shapes that were on the arms and he wanted to smile, the feeling so wonderful, he knew he would never get tired of it. He knew, somehow, that he was more solid, more substantial than he had been when he woke up this morning, but the person holding him was more than strong enough to support him. And that was the moment, the first true moment, that he knew that he had done it, knew he had survived. He could only have succeeded. There couldn’t be any other explanation. Right about then, the caressing touch stopped short as it reached his shoulders. It was only when the feeling of the palm tentatively began to move up the brachia of his new wings that Teri felt up to moving. Feeling his muzzle form a smile, he opened his eyes slowly, every motion an effort, his view blurry and unclear, but he didn’t need more than vague shapes to know what he would see when the man holding him eased him backward in his embrace.

At first, all he could see was a red and black blur, vaguely shaped like a draconian visage. Then, the eyes of glittering gold opened, standing out in sharp relief in his vision, and he blinked, the view sharpening with every brief return to oblivion. But the steady sharpening of his view was immaterial, because those deep, warm eyes were all he needed to see, all he wanted to see. He saw all the endless memory in Hephaestus’ gaze ease, fade away, replaced by something else, something fresh and young as spring. Then, the eyes almost seemed to blaze like twin suns as hot emotion filled them instead.

“You…you did it.” The mighty dragon whispered, his voice full of awe. Gratitude, wonder and joy were so obvious in his eyes that he didn’t need to say anything, and Teri tried to speak, the words not coming at first.

“I guess I did.” He managed finally, the syllables feeling wrong in his mouth, his voice several tones deeper, but it wasn’t bad, just strange. Reaching up with his left hand, Teri felt around his face, outlining the muzzle, sharp fang-like teeth and finally up to his scale covered head and horns, marveling at the difference in sensation. Then, as his hand came back down, he caught sight of his arm and he held it out in front of him, turning it over to look. It didn’t look that different, if he was honest, if you set aside the claws on the fingertips. The most striking thing were the scales that now covered him. They were black on the top of his arm, becoming crimson and finally scarlet as they reached the under arm. They were of many different sizes, minute on his palm, large on his upper arm. Then, he noticed the musculature beneath, and his eyebrows raised. He actually noticed his muscles, every curve sharply defined, toned to a degree he had never managed as a human, try though he might. Finally, he managed to raise his head, his horns weighing down his head strangely, though the weight was already beginning to feel normal. Looking down the length of his new body, finding the same definition everywhere he looked, Hephaestus helped him rise a little from the position he had been lying in, slumped limply in the dragon’s arms.

His coloration was almost a mirror image to that of his lover, black where Hephaestus was red, red where Hephaestus was black, though the hues were virtually the same. It was only then that he realized they were no longer seated on the couch, but rather they were on the floor, the large, muscular dragon holding him so he was sprawled sideways across his lap, his tail and wings in awkward positions. And that thought, more than anything before, was like a light bulb going off in his brain. Sitting up fully, taking his own weight again, Teri flexed muscles he didn’t even realize his body possessed, moving his new limbs, stretching them experimentally. He could feel his muzzle forming the widest grin he had ever had, far wider than he had ever been able to manage before. This was everything he had ever imagined it would be. He felt so strong, so…right. It was like all his life, he had felt wrong, felt off, and never even recognized it. But now… Then, something suddenly occurred to him.

“Um… Hephaestus?” He asked and his lover cocked his head at him. “You have no idea how badly I have wanted to be like this. Its something I have wanted since I was a child, but…how… how do we...?”

“Become human again?” The dragon asked, releasing his hold as his lover nodded. “Well, that is the question, isn’t it?” The mighty red and black dragon reached up and touched the amulet that still hung around his neck, lifting it in his palm once more. “I suppose, if we take these off…”

“Do…do you think it will hurt?” Teri asked, dread suddenly making him apprehensive. After what he had been through just now, he wasn’t sure he could handle another bout of agony. Not this soon, at least.

“I hope not. That would be unnecessarily cruel.” Hephaestus stated, then took a deep breath and swallowed nervously. “Well, only one way to find out.”

Before Teri could say anything, he lifted his arm, the cord sliding up and over his head, the dragon negotiating it past his horns with care, seeming surprised that it actually came off, like he hadn’t actually expected it to be that easy. For a few moments, nothing happened, then the huge, muscular creature was shrinking, a shiver passing through him as he did. No, that wasn’t quite right; it was more that his proportions were changing, flesh almost flowing into a new shape. Then, he hunched, his brow furrowed in discomfort as the horns crowning his head sucked themselves back into his skull, his wings folding themselves flat to his back, then disappearing. His tail, too, was sucked back into his spine like a piece of spaghetti. Last of all were the scales, the shapes fading away, changing color and texture, hairs sprouting instead. Gone was the sexy tower of scaly muscle. In its place was a human man. Actually, as Teri looked him over, he realized Man, with a capital M, was a little more appropriate.

He was still quite large, tall and broad, with the muscular fitness of a pro athlete; it was only looking at him and remembering the massive dragon he had been that he looked in any way diminished. Other than that, he looked so…normal, was a good way to describe it. He had shoulder length, curly brown hair, a ruddy complexion, and blue-green eyes. He was, in fact, quite handsome in Teri’s considered opinion, not male model handsome, but definitely ‘hell yes, I will give you my number’, handsome. If he didn’t know his origin, Teri might have guessed he was of eastern European, maybe Balkan descent to look at him, which fit his story. Looking down at himself, the newly returned human looked surprised and somewhat unsettled.

“It has been so long.” He said, his voice every bit as rich as it had been when a dragon, touching his six-pack and cocking his head, his eyes widening. “I may not remember much from my time before all this, but I know for certain I didn’t have muscles like these.”

“I guess it carried over.” A detail niggled at the back of Teri’s mind and he frowned, “Didn’t you say you wished you had your brother’s strength?”

“I did.” The human confirmed, then met Teri’s eye in surprise. “You don’t think…”

“Maybe the sorcerer actually did give you what you asked for after all, Hephaestus.” Teri suggested, smiling slightly. “It just took a long time. Maybe he wanted you to earn it.”

“Viktor.” The human said, taking one of Teri’s hands in his, and Teri cocked his head, not understanding. “I… I remember now, I remember everything . My name is Viktor. Or, I guess… it was. Viktor was that skinny, unhappy prince who made a foolish bargain. I don’t think that is me, not anymore.” Frowning for a moment, the former dragon finally looked up at him, reaching out and tracing a hand along the scales of Teri’s cheek, making him lean into it in pleasure. “I think you are right, Teri. Maybe he really did give me what I was looking for, after all. Not what I was dumb enough to ask for, but what I really wanted.” In the wake of everything that had happened, it took a little while for the double meaning of that statement to sink in, but when it did, Teri’s heart sang loud, soaring within him. After a few moments of silence in which looks spoke volumes, Viktor cleared his throat and continued, looking at the amulet that lay in his palm. “Well, that wasn’t so bad. It just felt… weird.” After a moment, he peered closer at the necklace. “Wait… its… Its whole again. It has two sides.”

“Is it?” Teri looked and saw that it was true. The amulet the human before him held was whole, like it had been the first time he had seen it, around the neck of the statue. Had that only been yesterday? “I wonder what that means.” Reaching up to touch the amulet still hanging around his neck, Teri started to pull it off his chest, to get a good look, but his lover intercepted his hand, a sudden frown casting a shadow across his face.

“Wait.” He said, gently clasping Teri’s draconian hand in his human one. “I just had a terrible thought. What if he really was every bit as cruel as I have thought all this time?”

“How do you mean?” Teri asked, feeling unsettled by the suggestion, not trying to touch the amulet again.

“What if it’s a true curse, and it can only be ended by passing it to another person?” Fear filled the human’s face and he glared darkly at the amulet in his hand. “Did I doom you to the life I had, just by offering you a choice?”

“I…I…” Teri stammered, the possibly never having even occurred to him. Then, suddenly, he turned his head, glancing up in surprise at the wall of the living room, a usually white surface that was currently alternating between red and blue in a particular pattern that everyone in the modern world knew without needing to be asked. Instantly understanding what it entailed, he looked towards the window and spoke his thoughts aloud. “Shit. Shit Shit SHIT!! The bastard did call the police.”

“What do we do?” Viktor asked, the cogent question cutting off Teri’s rising panic in an instant.

“We don’t have a choice now.” Teri replied, seizing the amulet around his neck and lifting it off his scaled chest, and further, drawing it carefully up over his horns and off. That was the first check, he knew. He wasn’t forever doomed as Hephaestus had been, wearing the amulet like a shackle, but still, it would be an awfully cruel twist if this is where things fell apart. Then, as the cord cleared his head, he felt the strange shifting sensation of the transformation once more, but this time, lacking any of the pain that had so tormented him earlier. Like his lover had said, it was just…weird.

He couldn’t even describe the sensation of losing new limbs he had barely even gotten used to having, of scales becoming skin, and hair replacing horns. The only thing he could really put a name to was the chill sensation that came when it was over and he was human again. The house suddenly felt at least twenty degrees cooler than it had when he was a dragon and he shivered, hurrying to wrap his arms around himself, rubbing his limbs as goosebumps rose all over him. Even as a heavy knocking came to the door, Teri smiled when his lover handed him the robe again. Slipping gratefully into its warm folds, he rose shakily to his feet and walked towards the door, tucking the amulet he was still holding into a pocket of the plush robe. Steadying himself with a deep breath, Teri opened the door as the knocking came again, revealing a pair of police officers standing on the porch, an extremely soaked and angry Robert standing behind them, his ex’s neck showing signs of a developing bruise. The flashing lights of the police cruiser were reflecting from the windows and puddles of rain across the whole of the cul-de-sac, its residents probably staring out of their windows to find out what was going on.

“Can I help you, officers?” Teri asked, doing his best to seem confused and innocent.

“We are sorry to disturb you, sir,” The officer who had been in the process of knocking when Teri opened the door started to say, looking embarrassed more than anything at Teri’s clear state of undress. “But we received a call from this man, claiming he was assaulted and thrown out of his house by a…” Looking down for a moment, the officer sighed, then continued with a shake of his head, his tone of voice screaming that he didn’t like what he was going to say, but forging ahead anyway. “By a dragon, of all things. Naturally, we thought he might be on something, but clearly he has some sort of injury, so we need to check on his story, crazy though it is.”

“I see.” Teri said, giving a dark glare in the direction of Robert, who gave him a smug little grin that disappeared the second one of the officers looked back at him. “Did he tell you that this is MY house, not his, and that we broke up months ago? Did he mention that he forced his way inside my house, against my express desires? Did he tell you that he threatened me with calling you when he found me with my new boyfriend?”

“No, he left all of that out.” The officer replied, giving Teri a regretful look before rolling his eyes skyward, clearly deciding that they had been put in the middle of a gay lover’s tiff and not liking it. Then, he returned his gaze to Teri and continued, frowning slightly. “What about his story about a dragon? And how did he get hurt?”

“I don’t know what to tell you officer,” Teri stated, crossing his arms across his chest. “Viktor, that’s my boyfriend, and I, are the only ones here, and I think I can assure you that we are both human. All we did was push him back out of the door.” As he said that, he heard Viktor walk into view behind him and glanced towards him, smiling when he saw that the handsome man was wearing the discarded pair of pj pants and the t-shirt Teri had been wearing the night before, the clothes showing off his physique in a way that made his heart throb, and set his loins to stirring. Viktor put an arm around him casually, and looked politely interested in the direction of the officers. The two cops now looked embarrassed and rounded on Robert, giving him a dark glare.

“Well, we are sorry to have disturbed you gentlemen.” The lead cop said. For his part, Robert was looking at the pair of them with shock, his eyes wide. “Sir, are you aware that it is a crime to file a false police report?”

“What?!” Robert exclaimed, now looking angrily at the cop. “They are lying!! He has a dragon in there, I swear!! It was all red and black and huge and it threw me into the rain!!”

“Red and black and huge. Uh huh. What on earth have you been smoking, dude?” Viktor repeated, raising one eye brow incredulously as he effortlessly mimicked modern vernacular, then looking at the officers. “Are we done?”

“You lying sack of Shi…” Robert snarled, almost lunging at Viktor, but the other officer had been paying attention to the exchange and instantly restrained him. “Get off me!! He is the one! That is him, don’t you see?!”

“Yeah, I think we are done.” The officer said, giving a long suffering sigh as his partner handcuffed Robert, starting to haul him back towards the cruiser, then looking at Teri again. “Listen, I hate to have to ask, but I need to see your ID for the report, to check your side of the story.”

“Sure officer. Give me a minute.” Teri said, walking back down the hall to get his wallet from where he had left it. His heart was hammering in his ears again, but this time from the knowledge that they actually were getting away with it, and Robert was the one who was seriously in trouble. Walking back to the door and handing his driver’s license to the officer, he smiled at Viktor, who returned the grin. While the officer wrote down his information, muttering something that sounded like ‘why do I always get the weirdos?’, Teri put his arm around Viktor as well. When the officer handed the license back, Teri slid it into the wallet once again, and leaned against his lover gently.

“Again, sorry to have disturbed you two. I hope you have a good rest of your day.” The officer said.

“You too, sir.” Teri replied and the cop turned, walking back towards his cruiser. Waving at his back, Teri shut the door, looking at his lover. For a moment, the two were silent, then they both broke into broad grins and started laughing.

“Well, that was interesting.” Viktor commented, leading the way back into the living room. When they were both sitting on the couch again, the flashing lights of the cruiser having disappeared at last, he smiled at Teri and slipped the amulet he had been holding earlier out of the pocket of the pj pants, looking at it once more. For a moment, he was silent, brushing it with a thumb, then he looked up again. “You know, its weird, but… I…I miss being Hephaestus. I spent centuries pining to be human again, cursing being what I was. And now that I am human, I miss it and I want it back. It doesn’t make any sense.”

“Yeah it does.” Teri replied, smiling at his surprised look. “As for missing it, it was what you were for so long, a body that, whether you knew it or not, exemplified everything you wanted to be. Why wouldn’t you miss it?”

“But…its not human.” Viktor said, frowning at the amulet.

“And what is so great about being human?” Teri asked, reaching into his own pocket and drawing out his amulet as well while his companion looked at him in surprise. Shaking his head for a moment and looking down at the necklace in his palm, he continued. “Viktor, I have spent the majority of my life wishing I wasn’t human, wanting more than anything to be something else, almost anything else. You asked earlier if you had forced your curse on me just by offering a choice. Honestly, I am not even sure I would have minded if it would have. The only thing I would have minded was losing you. But, it wasn’t even a choice you offered me. You let me be everything, everything I had wanted, and so much more. I still want it so badly that I am itching to put this back on, and find out if I can be it again, even risking a curse.”

“Don’t do that, just now.” Viktor said, taking his hand to stop him as he lifted the cord towards his head again and smiling gently at his surprised expression. “Teri, when I was last human, everyone believed wholeheartedly in our mythology, despite the fact that no one had ever seen the creatures they talked about. But even then, even though I believed in magic enough to make that ridiculous bargain, it never even crossed my mind back then that we could actually be something else, something more than human. And then I became Hephaestus. I guess I always knew that there those out there like you, who wanted it, but I had never thought about it.” Then, the former dragon’s grin broadened. “You are right though. I was never happy being human. But I was…I am… happy now. Still, you risked yourself to give me a life again, to give me the chance. Let me do this for you.” With that, he took the cord of his amulet in his hands again and lifted it over his head, pausing with it posed over his head to take a deep, steadying breath. But, before he could drop the amulet into place around his neck, Teri caught the amulet in his free hand, stopping him from lowering it around his neck.

“What are you doing? What are WE doing?” He asked, his heart hammering in his chest. “What if this is the only chance we get, and if we put them back on, we take on the curse again? I won’t let you risk that, not again.” Taking a breath, he gave voice to the thing he had been thinking about since this started. “Not…not alone.”

“Not…alone?” Viktor asked, looking surprised at Teri’s thoughts.

“I loved you when you were Hephaestus,” Teri said, a small smile crossing his lips as he raised the amulet over his head as well. “And I still love you. I’m not going to take the chance to give that up. If this is it, and we curse ourselves, then I’m not going to just let it be one of us.”

“Are you sure?” His lover asked, blushing fiercely at the full meaning of what Teri had said.

“I’ve never been more sure.” Teri replied, letting go of his lover’s necklace and giving him a smile. “On three?”

“On three, then.” Viktor said. “One…”

“Two…” Teri continued.

“Three.” They said in unison, letting the amulets drop…