New Short Story! · 3:05pm May 28th, 2022
A short TF-focused story is up on FurAffinity!
Lost And Found is an E rated fic (by Fimfic's rules) with a first-person narrative of a person getting caught up in magic, a storm, and then a strange beast's machinations. Minor body horror (really minor, like barely even worth mentioning compared to my usual standards) is included, but this is mostly just a short (2500 word) fic that some art inspired me to write.
Human to Snowbeasts/ele'ins/elemental TF. For the history and art of these curious beasties, please see adalore!
Have fun, everyone, and I hope you have a great day!
Fridays were my favorite day. My college classes ended at midday, so when the last one let-out I grabbed a sandwich, my hiking bag, and spent the rest of the day walking through the foothills around town.
It took a short walk to get from the college to the edge of the state forest. The previous night there'd been a good bit of snow and it was cold enough that it crunched underfoot.
Some people might hate walking in snow and the extra effort it took, but I loved it. The chill in the air was kept at bay partly by my activity and partly by the warm coat and pants I had on. Just the crisp air and good exercise filled a part of my life that no amount of school or friends could.
Stopping when I saw a big tree stump on a low hill, I walked toward it and brushed the powder off to sit down. The moment my rear touched the wood there was a flash of light and I felt my head spinning. The last thing I saw was sunrise before unconsciousness stole away the light.
I was cold and my head was sore. The sun was hanging in the middle of the sky, giving off barely any warmth, and a quick glance around told me there were snow clouds heading in.
The cold was because I was laying in nearly two feet of snow. It was all around me and far deeper than what I'd walked out through. "How is it midday? I left college at two o'clock." My voice sounded fragile and steamed with the warmth leaving me. Not only was the time messed up, the temperature was far colder than the late winter weather should have been capable of.
"Something really weird is going on," I said, getting up and looking around. There hadn't been any snowfall—since I didn't have any snow on me, but there were no tracks leading up to where I'd fallen.
The distant sound of thunder, though, caught me by surprise. Turning again to look at the clouds rolling in, I could see flashes in them and they'd turned darker and angrier. Now, I like to think I'm pretty on-point with weather, and those clouds looked like they were at most an hour away from dumping a ton of snow and killing the temp.
I knew for a fact I was two hours walk out of town.
There was a reason I packed like I did. This wouldn't be the first time I'd gotten caught out by the weather—and I carried enough gear to make sure it wouldn't be the last. Looking around, I ignored that the place didn't look familiar because snow tended to do that. It covered things, it broke branches, and changed contours so that you could walk past the same place ten times during snowfall and not recognize it as the same place each time.
When I saw the gully, I knew I'd hit the jackpot. I needed somewhere out of the wind and snow, and there was no better way to make somewhere like that than to burrow down into said snow.
The gully was, when I reached it, plainly obvious at one end. The snow had subsided there. The further along the bottom of the low hill it went, the more it was obscured by heavy packed snow. Pulling out my pack, I grabbed out the small emergency shovel I kept in my emergency supplies. The small pile of chocolate tempted me for a second, but I might still need that if things stayed bad for more than just one night.
The shovel wasn't the best tool to use. It was short, the hinge pinched your fingers if you got them anywhere near it, and the blade felt a little flimsy—but despite that, it was better than using my hands. I burrowed as fast as I could and, with the hole expanded reasonably well, the thunder grew louder and louder.
What I wasn't prepared for was the howling wind. It sounded horrid and made me wish I was home in my warm bed with a peanut butter cookie (even if it might add some crumbs to the bed, this was a fantasy so screw it).
Grabbing my torch, I turned on the wide-area light so my little home was well-lit. The next thing I pulled from my bag was a plastic sheet. It was threaded with rope, so could be used as a tent in warmer weather, but right now I wanted something to spread on the floor of my little cave and could also press against the entrance to keep the chilling wind out. A little snow packed around it and the howling was down to a far more tolerable level.
Checking my phone, I had no signal and it was nearly 5PM. No satellite location either. Turning off data and location, I put my phone in the inside pocket of my parka. I knew that if the battery got cold, it'd never turn on again.
So, with the storm raging outside, I curled up as best I could, grabbed a chocolate survival bar from my bag, munched on it, and curled up in a ball. I didn't have a fire, but what I was wearing should be warm enough to get me through so long as that howling wind didn't get in. I turned my torch off and embraced the darkness.
Even gloved, my hands were feeling cool. Stuffing them between my legs, I closed my eyes and let the sounds of the storm pull me into a dream.
Waking up, I wasn't sure what had startled me. There was no light and the storm was still raging. Then I heard it.
click
click-click
click
Each click sounded closer until I could swear they were right outside the entrance to my hole—which was stupid since I should be under a foot of snow by now.
The amount of things that clicked usually amounted to insects and manmade things. Insects would die very fast in this storm. Reaching a hand toward the entrance, I heard the sound of digging and a lot more clicking.
It was weird, but I figured it was some search and rescue people who'd found me or something. But just as I was wondering who would be out searching for someone in a blizzard, a white head poked its way through the entrance—shoving the plastic aside.
While I reached for where I hoped my torch still was, the big dog leaned in and licked my face.
It wasn't a dog.
Dogs don't have a tongue that can reach from your chin to the top of your head before starting to stroke. Dogs also don't have ice-cold tongues and their tongues don't make your whole head start to ache like you had the worst kind of ice-cream headache.
Dogs also don't click.
The creature, whatever it was, clicked like crazy and licked my face again. I shouted at it, screamed, and it retreated from the hole with its ears tucked back.
The ache settling into my head was unbearable. I found my torch and turned it on—which didn't help. Pulling out my phone, I hit the camera mode and front-facing camera. My face looked like I'd been splashed with water and it had frozen. Running a gloved hand over my features only made the pain in my head worse, though.
Disorientated, struggling to think past the pain, I shoved my way forward and out the tunnel the creature had dug to get down to me.
It was a white-out. Snow was falling still and I couldn't think what to do.
click
Well, I knew what I didn't want to do. Aiming myself away from the clicking sound, I started to run.
Just run. Run as fast as you can and whenever you hear a click, aim as far away from it as possible. That worked—or seemed to. The forest was dark, though my torch lit about 2 feet in front of me thanks to the storm.
Running, at least, was getting my blood flowing. Something odd was happening with the head-freeze I had. It had spread, my neck having grown sore and… stiff. The worst bit was I could feel it spreading. My shoulders got sore and stiff, then my arms.
A rapid series of clicks sounded off right behind me and then stopped. I thought I was safe—until a heavy weight landed on my back and shoved me forward into the snow. I shouted, but it didn't seem to scare the thing away this time.
It leaned on my back hard and, as I felt the soreness in my head spread down my arms, I realized I couldn't move them. Panic set in and I tried to thrash and get away, then I felt the thing licking at the back of my parka.
Ha! My hood was up, there was—
rrrrrripppppe
It had clamped down on my hood and just pulled back hard. I felt exposed for some reason and then something clamped around my head.
Icy cold, whatever it was gripped in four places. It grabbed twice over each side at the top of my head, then opposing grips on each side of the base of my skull—clamping down hard.
The coldest, most sharp and stabbing pain ever erupted into the back of my neck—then immediately faded to nothing. No pain, no agony, but I could feel it pushing into my neck. Whatever it was seemed thick and firm—though not hard. Staring down into the snow under me, I felt tears well in my eyes and then freeze.
Down the chill and pushing thing went. It shoved into my neck and down my body, spreading its icy numbness with it. Passing down by my lungs, kidneys, and all the way to my bowels—I hated the sensation of it.
A dull crack that echoed through my body and the grip on my head loosened. Then the weight lifted from my back. I was free, or kinda free. My arms didn't work and the chill feeling in my back seemed to have made my legs slow to respond too. Crawling as best I could through the snow, not knowing what the thing had done to me precisely, I could feel a thick and icy shape moving inside, squirming and wiggling—spreading the numbness.
Then, in a rush, the chill thing pushed up my neck and I felt—I felt all the pain and soreness just fade to a numb chill. I stared into the snow as the thing wiggled into my head.
There was no longer anything I could do. I couldn't move, couldn't think, but feeling was slowly coming back. Everything was too warm. I shifted a little—here and there—and managed to cool off the heat threatening to burn me up.
Panting like a dog, I heard a new clicking sound that was closer, and with it came something astounding. It was dark, thanks to the loss of my torch… somewhere. But, a moment after that click, I saw everything around me as clear as day.
There was no color, but it was like I could feel the shapes and even what they were made of. Wood, snow, ice, a big and goofy dog-thing with its tongue lolling was standing right beside me.
Lifting my head a little, I could make out the thing just standing there. Clicking, more clicking, and I could see snapshots of it wagging its whole rump and tail—looking excited. What shocked me was how it felt, though. It was hard-packed snow with something firmer inside it.
The tongue! I could see that odd blue-gray tongue hanging out its mouth and I clicked again, seeing it spreading throughout the creature's body. My eyes picked out something more terrifying, though—it had no eyes.
Wait. I clicked! I clicked again and the image became clearer, though now the beast had its head tilted to the side.
Something felt wrong—on my face somewhere. I couldn't move my arms or legs still, so I lashed out with my tongue and licked at my face. The last thing I saw was a blue-gray tongue lick over my eyes before everything was black and dark. No. It wasn't just dark. When it was dark, you could still see hints of light.
I don't think I have eyes anymore.
Then it clicked—not the sound, the mental kind. I realized what was happening. I was turning into one of them.
It should have felt more terrifying. I should have been screaming in my head for this to stop, but the truth was I could feel the heat leaving my body—the horrible heat—and slowly managed to lift my head enough that I could lick at my arms.
My jacket was in the way, though, and I had to lick at it until it turned into snow and just fell apart.
I gave a few actual clicks, watching the flow of packed snow grow down my arm—and even inside that new snow limb as the muscle, bone, and flesh just faded away.
Each lick I gave washed away more of my humanity. I turned my head and clicked, saw how much of myself was done and how much needed changing still. There was nothing else for it than to get to work. Licking my back leg remade them completely. Where my front legs (they weren't arms anymore, that was obvious by the paws they were adorned with) seemed like those of a big cat, my rear ones had hooves!
Mounting excitement shoved aside all my worries. Bending easier and further than I had in my life—well, duh, because I'm just a big ol' wormy wrapped in snow—I licked my own butt until the pesky warmth and flesh was gone—then I licked a big long tail into existence.
Slowly, I got to my wobbly legs and stretched my new body out. It felt a little weird at first, but as I took a few steps—clicking to keep an eye on the world around me—I felt joy and excitement wash away the panic.
The blizzard might still be raging around me, but I had something important to do before anything else.
I spun, moving fast, to turn to "look" at the creature that'd attacked me. Wagging my tail so much my rump swayed, I jumped at them and let out a series of chirping-clicks of pure joy.
Their answering chirps and clicks made me giddy with happiness. We licked at each other and for a fraction of a second I felt all my old, human feelings and thoughts surface. I was mad, obviously, and happier than I'd ever been in my life.
Pushing the human side of me down and into a ball, I made sure it was lodged far from the happy-me I preferred to be now.
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I find myself disappointed that I can't upvote blog posts. Great story!
5660526 Thanks! I care not for internet penis measuring (well, little). I just want to make people happy.