Shorts: The Furry Years

Shorts: The Furry Years

Published by John Van Stry

Copyright 2013 John Van Stry

Copyright John Van Stry 2013

No part of this eBook may be reproduced in any form without expressed, written consent from the author.

The material in this story may contain adult themes and/or items of a sexual nature and is intended for a mature audience only. Any resemblance between characters in this story and people living or dead is purely coincidental.

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Cover Credits:

Moontouched, by Heather Bruton

Foreword

I’ve always enjoyed writing, and quite a few years ago I was offered the opportunity to write for a Fanzine by the name of
Yarf
. I wrote several short stories of varying length, and even one Novella (which I published separately as
Dialene
). Some were fantasy, but most were science fiction of one stripe or another. Yes they are all anthropomorphic or furry stories, but then that was the genre of the ‘zine and I enjoyed reading and writing for it.

So assembled here are several of the stories I wrote for Yarf at the time, with the exception of ‘Easy Money’, which was written for a different fanzine that went out of business before it could be published. Otherwise all of these have seen print in
Yarf
years ago.

Changes
: A story written in response to a challenge by another writer, wherein the hero of the story wakes up in the morning to find his world has changed, rather drastically for him, hardly at all for others.

Old Business
: This is from my ‘Children of Steel’ universe, a story I wrote actually long before I even knew there was a fandom for it. This story is about the beginning of it all, the very first of the sentient animen (or animorph) ever to be created.

New Beginnings
: Jack is the new bartender at a small pub, a nice quiet pub in the business district. The patrons tend to find his opinions humorous, as what does a bartender know after all? (More of a slice of life type story).

Fox Hunt
: A joke that I just could not resist.

Easy Money
: What happens to spies who come in from the cold? Especially ones who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks? Nothing good I’m sure...

Changes

by John Van Stry

I couldn't feel the pain. That was my biggest clue that I was in real trouble. Just a dull ache where each of the slugs had entered my body.

Rasha knelt over me, eyes closed, chanting. Her and that damn magic! She was going to get herself shot if she didn't get some better cover.

"Get
down
, dammit!" I growled weakly, and then coughed from the effort. I tasted blood. My vision fogged for a second as I wavered on the edge of consciousness, but I saw a blur move by the window and I forced my eyes to focus on it. Another one of our ambushers trying to finish the job. I raised the .50 Grizzly and he ducked back behind the window sill. I squeezed the trigger three times until the slide locked open, my ears folding flat automatically from the loud echo in the room. The wall wasn't enough to stop the bullets and I saw him fall, minus the back of his head.

"Rasha, I'm dead! Save yourself! Open your eyes dammit, I'm out of ammo!"

"You're not dead yet, and I'm not letting go!" She tossed her gun at me and went back to chanting, never even opening her eyes.

I grabbed her automag and tried to keep my eyes open. I didn't know how many of our attackers were left. I know I'd killed four. Rasha had gotten at least two; her right hand was still covered in blood from the one she had eviscerated with her claws. But neither of us knew how many there were. I just hoped help would arrive in time to save her.

I looked over at the window again. It was the only way left in. The barricade at the door should hold long enough -- I hoped. I tried crawling on my side to the window to get a better view.

"No, stay still!" she growled deeply, baring her fangs.

"Dammit, I gotta see wha's going on out there!" I gurgled.

"No John, Stay Still!" She growled again.

I gave up. Not because I wanted too, I had to protect her! But mostly because I was choking too hard on my own blood to move. I fired a shot at the window just for the hell of it, and lost my grip on the gun dropping it between us.

"Damn" I burbled, "I can't see anymore."

"Just hang on, I can hear sirens! Just hang on I'll save you, I promise!" she rumbled determinedly.

The sound of her chanting changed then, it became like a wave that picked me up and pulled me in. I couldn't help but listen to it. I think I heard her automag bark once before I slipped into unconsciousness.

At least she was shooting back....

#          #          #          #          #

People always thought I was a little strange. Not at first mind you; I could blend in with the crowd. At least I used too. But then somewhere along the line the subject of my cat would come up. I had several actually, but Rasha was the only one who lived inside with me.

All three hundred and forty five pounds of her.

You see Rasha was a
Bengal
tiger, and my crowning achievement. I got her three years back at the tender age of four weeks. She wasn't my first, I had raised and trained others. But none had trained as well and learned as much as she had, or behaved as nicely.

That is to say she didn't destroy my house,
much
. Didn't claw the bed, more than once. She rarely threw snit fits, and most importantly, she didn't ambush me in my sleep at three in the morning on a work night.

Of course what bothered people the most was that I usually let her sleep on my bed. Especially girlfriends, they rarely stayed over.

It was late on a Monday morning and I wasn't due in work till later that day, so I was sleeping in.

I woke up slowly, feeling strangely exhausted and a rather strong hunger was making itself known in my stomach. I lay there with my eyes closed, remembering an extremely strange and vivid dream. It was about Rasha.

And me.

I'd never really had a dream like this one before. In it Rasha was a beautiful tiger-woman 'morph. I was a fairly good sized tiger-man. It was pretty hot, to say the least, and I guess a little kinky too. But I would have been lying to myself if I even tried to pretend I hadn't liked it. Big cats had been a driving passion all my life, and secretly at times I still desired to be one.

Rasha rolled over onto me then and I snapped fully awake. When a three hundred plus pound cat rolls onto you, the first thing that comes to mind is - breathing. That's a lot of weight!

That's when I realized something was wrong, or at least different. She didn't feel heavy, and she was smaller than me!

"Wake up lover boy!" A voice rasped quietly in my ear, and then a tongue rasped in it as well. "I can hear your stomach growling and I'm starving too!"

That was the next thing I realized was wrong, a throaty female voice where there shouldn't be one, and I opened my eyes.

"Rasha?" I wuffed out in surprise. My voice didn't sound anything like I remembered it. Come to think of it, all I could see of my body was lots and lots of orange and white fur striped with black.

"Who else, silly?" She grinned at me. Really grinned, too! I studied her face carefully. After three years I knew her stripe pattern by heart and it was her all right. But her face was more expressive than it was before, maybe a little smaller too.

I looked over her body as it lay on top of mine. It hadn't been a dream. I brought my hand up to my face and examined it closely. I had pads on the underside of the fingers and in the palm. The rest was covered in short fur and when I flexed my hand claws came out of the tips; rather nasty sharp looking ones at that.

"What happened?" was all I could think of to say.

"How should I know?" she purred at me. "Last night I was a tiger, now I'm something more. I'm not complaining!"

"Me neither!" I grinned and my stomach rumbled again.

"Food!" She growled getting up and heading for the kitchen. She made it about two steps then fell to her hands and knees.

"Damn! This is harder then it looks!" she said grumbling.

I got up quickly and tried to reach her, but I was pretty dizzy myself and ended up crawling too.

"I feel real weak, how about you?" I asked crawling after her.

"I'm not sure..." she thought a moment, "I'm hungry; thirsty too." Her stomach growled pretty loudly then.

"Kitchen!" I rumbled quietly and I followed her tail as we both crawled out to the fridge.

One hundred fifty pounds of turkey, beef and assorted organ meats later we curled up on the floor together and fell fast asleep.

When I awoke it was dark. My eyes adjusted quickly. I could see quite clearly, but in a sort of black and white, all of the color was washed out of everything. Rasha was curled up against me, rumbling contentedly in her sleep. I knew that sound well. I stuck my nose by her face and took a deep sniff.

It was unbelievable! The things I could smell in her scent, nice things too! I carefully got up, so as not to disturb her and started to prowl the house, going through the dining room into the living room. I didn't feel tired or dizzy anymore, although my stomach was empty again. I sniffed around to see what I could find. Sheena's and Raj's scents were all over, even though neither had been in the house in a week. I could smell another scent too, and it puzzled me.

Until I found my car keys and they were covered with it. I grinned rather sheepishly; so that was what I smelled like? I sniffed myself, curiously. Rather that was what I
used
to smell like. I smelled somewhat different now, but it was obviously still me.

Then I started to listen. Really listen. I could hear things I had never heard before, like the mouse in the wall behind the TV.

But I didn't hear Rasha sneaking up on me. Though she did make a little "wuff" just before she hit.

And we both went flying across the room rolling and tumbling. We wrestled for quite a while. She was pretty tough, but for the first time in my life I won the match.

Then we made love, rather wildly the first time. Much slower and more enjoyably the second time.

"I've always wanted to do that with you, John," she sighed.

"Make love with me?" I asked surprised, "Really?"

"Noooo," she laughed. "I didn't know about that till this morning. I meant the ambush! I was always afraid I'd hurt you!"

"Really? I was never sure if you knew that." I said, surprised.

"Oh, I knew who was stronger." I could see her fangs as she smiled in the dark. "And who was faster, tougher, cuter."

I laughed. "Well you're still the cutest!" I gave her a lick and a nuzzle.

I untangled myself then and headed for the bathroom. "Any idea what happened?"

"Hey, you're the one with the college education, how should I know?" she said, grumbling. "I'm the tiger remember?"

I stopped and thought about that a minute as she passed me. Then I grabbed her tail and pulled her back.

"Hey! Leggo!" She flicked her tail up in annoyance and batted me in the face with it.

"Ow!" I looked at my own tail, lashing behind me in annoyance. I was going to have to learn how to do that!

"Wait a second," I said, looking back up at her. "How do you know I went to college?"

"What? I just do, that's all. Two years at Polytechnic, three more at Tech, then the service followed by...” She stopped and looked at me. "How the hell do I know that?" she gasped, astonished.

I asked her a few questions and quickly got an idea of what she knew. "Hmmm, it seems you got a lot of my education, but nothing personal; just academics."

"What do you think you got from me?" she asked, curious.

"This wonderful body?" I asked, grinning. "Which I'm dying to get a good look at by the way!" I walked by her, down the hall and ducked into the bathroom, flipping on the lights as I entered.

"Shit!" I hissed closing my eyes. "That smarts!"

"Now you know how I used to feel." She chuckled. "I always hated that until I learned what those switches did, and when to close my eyes!"

I waited until my vision adjusted and then carefully opened my eyes again.

I stood in absolute amazement. I was taller than I used to be, over seven feet now. I had a tiger's head, an absolutely beautiful one! Which was staring back at me with very wide eyes and an open mouth. A mouth with three inch fangs and a very, very long tongue which was hanging out in amazement. And shock.

"Boy do you look dumb!" She snickered.

"I'm, I'm ... "

"Gorgeous?" She supplied, sliding up against me with a happy chuff.

I looked at myself in the mirror, my mind still trying to catch up with the reality. "Yeah.... Gorgeous."

"Yeah, tigers are like that, aren't they?" She purred.

"We're both pretty conceited aren't we?" I purred happily myself. This was like a dream come true, the biggest Christmas in the world, and winning the lottery -- all in one!

I stepped on the scale. It broke.

"Damn! I must weigh a ton!"

"Not hardly," she said, poking me in the ribs, "you could use a little, actually." She examined her own ribs which were showing slightly. "Me too come to think about it."

"Well, there's more food in the barn, and a heavier scale. Poor old Sheena and Raj are probably starving by now."

"I wonder if anything happened to them?" She mused.

It was quickly apparent that nothing had. They were both still the same, though Raj, my leopard, was nervous at first and Sheena (my cougar) was downright terrified. But they recognized Rasha's scent and came up to her. After about twenty minutes of coaxing they sniffed suspiciously at me through the chainlink. They looked confused a minute, then started to loudly remind me just how hungry they were. And where was I all day? Typical for them.

We got the food out of the freezer and I fed what was thawed to them. Next we weighed ourselves on the scale in the barn. I was three hundred and eighty pounds! Rasha was down to two ninety.