The Shrine Maiden Turned Komainu

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 characters are over eighteen and clearly written to be so, as in all of my stories.

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The Shrine Maiden Turned Komainu

Rin, the shrine maiden, knelt before the altar. It was the season for cherry blossoms and the pink petals sprinkled the breeze like snow, dancing and wavering back and forth as they played out their tune of life and death. They did not always last as long as she would have liked them to last but it was one of the best seasons, the red-painted wood of her altar moved by the simple storm of change, as gentle and light as such a storm could be. But Rin had never thought that a storm, after all, had to rage to be such -- especially on such a day.

Little did she know that something more was afoot than merely the changing of the seasons. As the maiden knelt there, her head respectfully bowed with a sliver of her green hair floating across her face, a cherry blossom petal landed on top of her head. That in itself was not all that much of an unusual occurrence but it did not slip off but merely rested there, as it was, fading and fading until one could have believed that they had never seen it there at all.

The land was peaceful. The land was quiet. And yet Rin had been blessed to protect her shrine on the most inconsequential of days. She shivered but there was no change in her right then and there that she could put her finger on and she stood up, brushing off her robes with her lips pressed together. There was much to be getting on with during the course of the day, the cooking and the cleaning, the soothing rasp of her sweeping brush whispering in the back of her mind.

Yet Rin's stance shifted even while taking care of her large shrine, a big task to take on all by herself but one that she did as admirably as ever. Her hair fell across her narrow face and defined cheekbones but those no longer seemed as sharp as they had been, leading her to frown and pause often, working her jaw and running her hands over her face. Something was wrong there but she didn't know what and she couldn't find out either, the rasp and hiss of the brush over the floor not even as soothing to her soul as it would usually have been.

Her days were simple, her routine set. Prayers were taken at religiously adhered to times and the last came on her sleeping mat in her simple quarters, her gohei set aside where it would be the first thing she touched the next morning. That was a sort of ritual in itself as she cast out her thanks to the gods for bringing her there, for letting her care for and protect the shrine, for giving her the honour of being a shrine maiden.

But things were not as they seemed as she woke the next day with her skin prickling, trying to go through her normal prayers. Rin's fingers no longer seemed as flexible as they once had been and she could not handle her usual tools with her usual dexterity. Over the course of the day too, she spent time scrubbing her hands and arms, her skin changing colour, becoming both paler and pinker than she had ever before remembered it being.

She frowned. Was that something that happened to shrine maidens? If anything, she would have said that she got too much sun, though the shift in her body did not sit right with her as she curled up to sleep, tucking her knees up towards her chest. That hadn't been comfortable to her before either but, suddenly, it just felt right. She imagined that she was small and curled her, her legs hinging in a different way so that she could practically lay her head on top of them, something long and slender (a tail?) sweeping around to tickle her paws...hands...

The words did not seem right in her mind but they did not need to be as she murmured and shifted all night long, trying to find a position in which to rest, her dreams restless. Komainu, the stone lions, danced through her dreams, leaping and cavorting, though the shrine maiden could make no sense of their growls and snarls. Like dragons, they demanded the respect of such, though one lifted her up again as she prostrated herself on the ground at their feet, trembling and professing her care of the shrine.

The dream slipped away, a lion-komainu's forehead pressed to hers -- and then she knew more of the dream, yawning and stretching, true sleep overcoming her. More restful, it allowed her body to heal and change, bringing her, bit by bit, into the form that she'd always been meant to take.

Her hair, however, was darker the next day, a richer, more forest-like green. Longer too and she combed her fingers through it curiously, though the looking glass would reveal more than simply her hair becoming more luscious. She would not have recognised her face if she had not realised that it was, in fact, her, with her skin white and prickling with a snow-white dusting of hair that crept down her body in odd patches. It was as if it was growing through and out from the skin of a shaved animal and didn't seem right, though it was not bothering her all that much, more of an annoyance than anything else. Her nose was darker and flatter, pulling back against her face, her jaws wider, eyes more intently focused forward. Tilting her head back and forth, she ran her fingers over her face too as if to get a lay of the land, feeling out just how the middle of her face seemed to be pushing and swelling, though not even she could have said quite why that was happening. If she'd been stung, it was not a pain that registered in her mind at all and she could still breathe quite easily.

No matter. Well, there was some matter but there also didn't seem to be anything she could do about it while things were in progress. Maybe there was someone, another shrine maiden, she could visit later who would be able to assist her? Strange things were said to happen to shrine maidens but nothing could have been stranger to Rin than waking on the third day to find her face fully developed into what she could only liken to the muzzle of a komainu, the powerful lions that were often carved into a stone visage, protectors and defenders.

Was she... No. No. Rin would not spare the time to think about that, not even as her attire grew tight over her chest. Nothing seemed to support her breasts anymore and something pushed from the very base of her spine that she hardly dared look at, her skin covered in a consistent coat of fur too while she adjusted to using her hands in a different way. It seemed better to call them paws but it was mainly her nails reshaping themselves into claws that was the problem with holding tools, cooking and preparing food for the poorest of the village, those souls that were under her jurisdiction to protect. Although Rin did not feel that she could any longer meet them face to face. They wouldn't know what to think of her as the shape of her body changed, so much so that it was difficult to wear clothes and her stomach no longer looked smooth and even, filled with small swellings in two lines running down her body that was, again, something that she could not explain.

By day four, the changes were more obvious, something that Rin could no longer hide, not even to herself. Her chest had obviously changed and swollen and there was a growing line of nipples running down her stomach to her lower abdomen, more animal than human. Yet the fact that she was clearly growing more multiple pairs of breasts was not something that she could use to get out of her work and the diligent Rin had no desire to either. Thus, she covered herself up the best she could, bandaging her new breasts to support them, setting out on a youkai hunt as one had been said to be plaguing the nearest village. It was her obligation as a shrine maiden to ensure they were also taken care of, her duties never allowing her to truly rest as she set out on her quest.

It was hard to move where she had before walked fluidly, lightly, her head respectfully bowed and her senses alert. Yet, even then, her senses were even more fine-tuned and her nose twitching damply, sifting through the scents as she parted her lightly black lips to better take it all in. The forest was moist and soft with moss but it was her light tread that covered her path, tail hanging softly behind her, not making a shred more noise than she needed to. If there was anything that Rin particularly liked about becoming something else, it was that, even though she was not even sure that she was supposed to like it. Sometimes, however, one had to take their liberties with such blessings from the gods.

The youkai in question turned out to be a small, mischievous kind of demon that was no trouble to her under normal circumstances but her staff no longer fit comfortably in her paw-like hands. Growling under her breath as it hopped around, a mutated yet mostly harmless form that was no more than four hairy spider-like legs sprouting from a fat, round body and a masked face, she lunged for it, new claws pricking. Without thinking, her jaws parted, showing off her changing, pointed fangs, and she nipped at it, snarling and curling her body down into a warped sort of run that was on all fours.

Yet her body was not suited for such a motion, as much as it thought, in that moment, that it would suit her better, and she tumbled, the youkai whipping around in a squealing lunge that would have struck fear into the heart of a lesser soul. But Rin was a shrine maiden and a shrine maiden's job was to defend at all times, nothing failing to meet her attention. In a lick of a moment, she was up on her feet -- paws? -- and meeting it halfway, claws slicing as the demon howled.

And then it was gone, shattering, bursting into the darkness from which it have emerged from, a beast vanquished while she was left with a nick in the white fur of her shoulder. It looked more serious than it should have but Rin paid it little mind, shrugging off all the tension she could as she stretched out her body in a decidedly leonine, feline fashion. Her tail flipped up over her back and, right then, she couldn't find it in herself to care just how much of her body that she was accidentally showing off, more komainu than human. Yet she was neither one nor the other, not a four-legged, powerful beast of a komainu and not a human either: Rin was the next generation of what the komainu defenders would become.

She had to keep going though, finding her routine again, how she could work better with her new body, a full tail forming and curling back and forth idly as she worked. Rin's muscles rounded out as if she really was a komainu and she learned how to fight off youkai in her new body, fangs elongating so that they were, finally, as fierce as those of a real komainu, although Rin had never been blessed to meet them in person. In a way, she accepted the changes in her body as a rite of passage, something that would better allow her to defend and protect her shrine, though it no longer felt like she needed to wear clothing, eventually shedding it altogether.

Having multiple pairs of breasts was a new thing altogether for her, however, and she sat on her sleeping mat after fighting off five youkai at once of the serpent type, their faces twisted to look like the visages of human beings, disconcertingly too, wondering at her body. It had been difficult to see her ears forming with the long, green hair flowing over them but they were there nonetheless in black points, pricked and with a little muscle control that, even for her, grew day by day. Unbinding her breasts felt good but leaving them free, oddly, supported them better, no longer covering up day in and day out, for there was no shame in what path the gods had set her on was.

The youkai were no longer any match for her and she growled under her breath as she raced through her chores, relishing in the fine dexterity of her hands, how the fur covering them protected her leonine form, still standing on two feet, thankfully. She no longer got blisters and that was, indeed, something to be thankful for, the light sway of her breasts something that she had to lean from and know when to brace against, for the weightiness of them was something indeed. The top pair was the largest but they were no longer the size of her natural breasts, each one larger than her head, though knowing that no longer made her blush. It was her body, the body of a komainu that would on two legs: just what could Rin possibly have to be ashamed of there?

Cooking was easier and harder for her, spices assaulting her more sensitive nose though she found that her taste buds, tongue raspier than before, was more durable when it came to harsher food. She was able to explore more in that area and her tail flicked back and forth as she ate, rarely idle. If Rin was still, that was a warning sign, every muscle in her body tensing on the precipice of pouncing, the youkai in her sights dead as soon as her increasingly powerful body connected with it.

She was even able to fight off more and more powerful youkai, towering demons that dwarfed her. Her breasts were something to be borne in mind but her new body helped her more than it hindered her as she snarled, tail lashing the air as she sank her teeth and claws into a twisted beast of a youkai. He was gnarly and he was monstrous but he was no match for her as he tumbled in the storm, lightning splitting the sky as she landed, blood dampening her maw.

The youkai fell, fluttering apart into shreds of darkness, although it was the rain that her attention shifted to, soaking her fur, plastering it flat to her body and even trickling over her nipples. Laughing softly, the shrine maiden turned komainu turned her face up to the heavens, thanking the gods over and over again for their blessing, catching rain in her mouth, her leonine tongue extended as if to draw in even more moisture between her lips.

The transformation was complete. Her new life lay ahead of her.

Yet there was one final note to her transformation into a komainu that came to light just when she'd thought that everything was clean and real again, a life that she now knew well enough how she could step forward into leading. Her stomach rose and rose and she thought that it was merely her shape changing -- yet Rin could not have been more wrong. Her appetite grew and she devoured all food she put in front of herself, even having to purchase more while her supplies did not last her strangely ravenous hunger. More and more she had to feed herself until she could not deny that she was merely plump due to what she was eating but something else, something wriggling and squirming and kicking in her belly. Her breasts leaked milk and it was only in the very late stages that, finally, Rin realised how heavily pregnant she was, waddling as she walked and heavily restricted in her ability to fight off youkai.

Yet the gestation of komainu pups was not to be drawn out and she gave birth to five, happily squirming, komainu that were so tightly curled up, eyes closed, that she could not tell as yet whether they would grow up to walk on two legs or four. But it was clear as a sense of calm over her that her impregnation had been borne from divine routes, the virgin shrine maiden bringing forth new komainu pups into the world as she flicked her tail back and forth gently, a purr building in the back of her throat.

It was quiet and it was peaceful, birds singing outside. There were no more cherry blossom petals but the trees still bore their leaves, summer flowing forth to bring the warmest season to the land. When the dark and the cold of winter came once more, the most biting of snows, the komainu would need to be taught how to fight, growing up swiftly, as big and as strong as juvenile komainu, at that time, needed to be. They latched onto her teats hungrily in the meantime, her multiple breasts finally being given meaning, for there was no way that she could have nursed all of them as she lay there on her side, relaxing, letting them feed as she pleased. Rin would have to take in even more sustenance in the meantime for herself to in order to keep feeding them, but that was not something for her to worry about as she watched dawn break in the glory of a golden sunrise across the fields.

The rays of dawn cast over the rice fields and she flicked her tail softly back and forth, content there as her pups nursed and fed, suckling at her teats. It was a good thing that there were so many of them, considering the number in her litter, and she caught herself purring softly as they suckled away, feeding them with what her body produced just for their little mouths. It was soothing and softening and such a far cry from Rin's earlier life that she was hard-pressed to imagine it even then, everything having changed so much that she could not have gone back even it was an option to her.

Rubbing her face on a paw, she groaned softly, the rumbling purrs tickling up through her throat. Everything was perfect. Even the lazy yawn that curled its way up from deep inside her, showing off a flash of teeth and fangs with which she could better defend her shrine too. Everything had come right and she only had to lie there and feed her pups, all as it should be and the warmth of the dawn glow casting its light over her soft, luxurious fur.

Rin curled around her pups, protecting them. They were the best thing to have ever have happened to the shrine and all would be better for having them there, with her.

Life was good. And the shrine maiden had finally stepped forward into the role that she'd always been meant to play.