This is a short work of erotic fiction containing furry, or anthropomorphic, characters, which are animals that either demonstrate human intelligence or walk on two legs, for the purposes of these tales. It is a thriving and growing fandom in which creators are prevalent in art and writing especially.
All work is fiction intended for fantasy only, regardless of content, and consent must always be acquired when engaging in any sex act with another adult.
Please note that all characters are clearly over eighteen and written as such in all stories.
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The shrine maiden bowed before the guardian statue, the leonine-like creature towering where she knew they would stand, forever in protection of the shrine. Aika murmured a prayer, her head respectfully lowered, though her duties for the day still lay ahead. The body of her dress was red, falling all the way down to her ankles, with long, flowing white sleeves that draped and swished with the motion of her body.
It was just the way she wanted to be, content in her existence. Aika knew what her purpose was in life, her long, brown hair kept loose but tucked back from her face, her bodice modestly covered at all times, and was happy with that.
Until everything changed.
Aika didn't expect to come across a demon fox on the way into town, the path narrow, trapping her between the cliffs where she could not even scramble up the bank to the overarching tree line up there to escape. And he knew who she was and where she had come from, his fur blistering between black and white, representing the two halves of his nature. Nine tails flickered back and forth behind him, though the edges of his form seemed to have no discernible, solid shape or substance, leaving her eye darting back and forth, not quite knowing where to fix her attention.
Cursed fox...
Not a youkai of the usual calibre that she was used to dealing with, but it was her mission and duty to protect those around her, the warmth and power of her shrine. Her staff was in hand, her basket cast aside, a battle-cry bursting from her lips, lunging for him with all the might and power in her body.
He whipped past and the battle was on, fast and furious, fur flying. He sliced free a lock of Aika's hair as a shriek tore from her, though her eyes were as hard as ever, passionate in her defence of her shrine. Infusing the staff with power, she whirled it in a circle, blocking his attacks, only bearing through and striking the butt into his shoulder when he dropped the offence. Putting him on the back foot in such a narrow, enclosed space was all she could do, battling as if her life depended on it. For all Aika knew, it very well could.
There was only one outcome that she could accept as a shrine maiden, the carer of the shrine, and she howled as she struck the fox, beating him back and back. Maybe he did not have the space to fight properly there but it had been him that had attacked her and the demon that would have to pay the ultimate price. In a flash of her staff, lancing out with her power, he howled out his broken gasp, faded, essence shuddering, a wound so grievous in his abdomen that there was no coming back from it as he slumped to the ground.
In a breath, the deed was done, the demon fox slain and splayed out across the ground. She did not look at the wound that had ended his reign but placed her hand flat on his fur, blessing him, helping him pass on.
"I grant thee passage to a lighter afterlife," she intoned softly, head bowed, a stray flicker of air fluttering out against her face. "Be more than a demon, be free your soul."
The fox closed his eyes, appearing like an ordinary, white fox with multiple tails in that moment, but what Aika did not realise that as his last breath rattled forth that it contained something more in that breath of expelled air. It wrapped around her, something that was a blessing and a curse, and she shivered, not knowing what was happening. Yet his essence slipped into her like it had always been meant to be a part of her, Aika settling back on her heels, eyes wide.
"What was that?"
She did not know, but neither did she make it into town that day, retreating to care for the shrine and reinforce its defences.
The next morning came with a strangeness to it, her hair a little longer than it had been and lighter too. She shook it off and managed to get into the town that day, fetching supplies for herself and the shrine, though her stride did not feel as it had before, her step less sure. Yet everything was fine... Or was it?
She couldn't deny the following day, however, that her hair was whiter than it had ever been, nearly a pure white, her chest not looking quite right either when she bathed. She scrutinised her body, twisting back and forth, though she did not have a mirror in the bathing chamber of her quarters to see, not that that would have helped much when looking at her stomach. Yet there was a discolouration there in a series of spots that lined up perfectly, two pairs, going down the length of her body.
Aika said a prayer, took her evening meal and lay down to rest once more with stirring unease in her stomach.
Over the days that followed, her skin itched, something pushing from her belly, though she was horrified to find a row of nipples lining her belly. The flesh there was softer and spongier too as if it bulged out, though she tried not to think too much about it, sending a messenger to neighbouring shrines to enquire after the condition. By the time they'd returned, she'd already grown the points of fox-like ears, white like her hair, a thin coat of white fur growing evenly all over her body, the start of the rest of her life.
Their news had not been what she wanted to hear and there was no turning back the clock on her change. Cursed... Or blessed. For the demon had not been merely a demon fox but a celestial messenger in times before his darkening. In his dying breath, he'd passed on his need to replace his position in the celestial realm, bringing the shrine maiden into a scope of gifts that she had no choice but to accept.
She breathed slowly and evenly, kneeling beneath the shrine, the transformation quickening as she knelt there in her shrine garb, the dress flowing softly over where multiple pairs of breasts tipped with perfect, pink-fleshed nipples. Her skin grew pinker and less human-like under her coat of fur and Aika could not help but whimper as her ears flicked back and forth, the muscles that controlled their movement something that she would have to learn for herself.
She felt more fox-like that night on lying down on her sleeping mat than she had before, but it was hard to resist the softening, weighty sense of peace in the pit of her stomach. Maybe that was part of it but, if it was, it was not a part of the changes that she wanted to resist, leaning heavily into it, and opening her heart to comfort, if that was there for her to take.
Her body was entirely covered in fur the next morning, though that did not manage to hide that her hands were changing, still dextrous but more claw-like. Aika's command over them, however, would come in time, flexing and learning how to work them better over breakfast. Her dress hid her breasts but she knew they were there, swollen and too sensitive as if they were lactating, something that needed to be used as a life-giving part of her body.
Aika trembled. Oh, that thought brought more to her than she had ever thought possible, pressing her thighs together against a tickle of something that she did not want to acknowledge. Her body was no longer hers but lent to a divine purpose, more and more fox-like, shifting, changing, all without her consent. Some changes came quicker than others, so much so that she could have watched them happening in a looking glass or a pool of water, others slipping in so slowly that they seemed to happen in the blink of an eye overnight, though were always at work in the background.
A family... Foxes. She sucked in a breath, her chest tight. Yes... Yes, she needed a family, to raise a family, and there was only one way that a lone shrine maiden without a life partner would be able to do that.