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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Transforming for the Tanuki
A trip to Japan was just what Ashley needed, though she could have done without the sixth-form school uniform that she was forced into. She grimaced. She'd thought that she was done with that, considering that school was finished with, though the sixth-form courses had looked more appealing in the interim to university, thus that was what she'd gone into instead. The shirt and blouse - and tie to match! - were so very far from what she would have chosen to wear normally that she constantly found herself tugging at her shirt, making sure it was tucked in, although it did accentuate her waist nicely too, which was a small bonus on that count. The tie was something, however, that Ashley loosened as soon as she was out of sight of the sixth-form lecturer that was supervising their group, though only loosely.
That was why she'd taken the chance to go off on her own, the quiet of the bamboo forest more soothing to her soul than she could have perhaps imagined. It was a far cry from England and a trip that she had scrimped and saved and worked hard for, though many others had simply gotten the money from their parents. Ashley shook her head, her shoulder-length hair flipping back and forth. It wasn't right that everyone else was just able to get everything they wanted at the drop of a hat but, well, it was the way of things. Now that she was an adult, she had to understand that, though the spot of nail polish she'd used to hide a mark on her glasses was wearing through, bearing testament to the fact that her life had not been the easiest up to that point.
But that was no matter, not when she was on her own. They were supposed to be out learning the history of the forest for some course or presentation but Ashley had already read up on it and wanted to take her own photos. The writing side could come when she was back in England and she wasn't going to worry too much about jotting down so many notes that had already, most likely, been acquired. The Japanese History and Culture course was new to her sixth-form school but something that had interested her, opening up the doors to world travel when so much had been closed to her before.
Still... It would have been nice to have some company. Ashley chewed the strap of her camera, snapping photo after photo, playing with the settings, though little did she know that she was not truly alone out there. For in one of her photos, a dark shape showed up through the soft, bamboo towers, stretching for miles where they had been cared for and preserved into such great forests.
It was that darkness, however, that tempted her on and sealed her fate, her step into a new kind of future that Ashley could never have imagined before. It opened up into a cave as she explored curiously, although stepping into it was the best mistake that she could have ever made. It was not too deep, opening up into the brightness of a hidden bamboo grove on the other side with a rocky waterfall plunging into a crystal-clear pool where koi swum, lazily arcing back and forth as if the wiles of time and the world had no bearing on the path that they took through life.
There was more though and she gasped in awe at what she could only describe as a mansion, yet not one that she would have been familiar with. The Japanese-style dwelling was compiled of delicate walls so that it could easily be rebuilt in the case of a quake, tremors being quite common over there, though the detail and beautiful imagery across them led her to believe that a renowned artist had taken his brush to them. Wolves and butterflies and foxes danced across the walls as if the whole building had played as a canvas, the artistry locked there until the end of time.
"My lady."
A figure draped in a long, floor-length, rich green robe trimmed with gold inclined his head kindly to her and she gaped, for he was not human. A tanuki with bands of brown layering what she could see of his body, he smiled pleasantly, though the respect was in her hands as she bowed hastily in turn. It had to be his home, after all, and she did not want to be rude.
"Ohayo gozaimasu," she said, using the most formal greeting she had in her learned lexicon. "But you... You said hello like an English person?"
It was enough to throw her off and the tanuki laughed, swinging his arms open to invite her inside.
"I thought it would make you more comfortable. Your Japanese is excellent! Please, do come inside..."
She didn't know what else to do and it would have appeared rude to her to deny him, which was just how she found herself sitting cross-legged on a cushion with a low table, the tanuki lord pouring a cup of matcha tea for her. It was perfect, not boiling but still hot, and she sipped it softly as he told her his name in Japanese, though shortening it to "Botan" was easier on her tongue.
He said he wanted to make things easier for her. She believed him.
Things could have gone terribly wrong but there was a sweetness in the tanuki that drew her in and Ashley had nothing that she didn't mind leaving behind. They talked and talked and she wrote down all she could about his culture and life, thinking vaguely of the report, even though she already knew that she'd never get to write it. Things had changed, but he plied her with sashimi, good food, the very best food that she had had in her life. Why, the food was so good that she ate all day with him, laughing and smiling more than she ever had before in her life, the rest of the world dropping away as she even, shyly, hugged him at the close of the day.
"Goodnight, Ashley."
She was fast asleep in a simple sleeping chamber with a sleeping mat and lamp before she knew it, though no one would find her in the soft crook of Botan's home. The tanuki had made sure that it was only those that he could deem worthy to come to him, to step into the time of older magic, that could ever find his dwelling. And Ashley was the first in a decade to set foot inside his home: a blessing indeed for the two of them.
Dimly, she thought that she should have been more cautious with the tanuki than she was, especially as she rose the next day with her body feeling thicker than before. She turned one way and then the other, moving her hands down her torso, though there was nothing she could put her finger on. She couldn't put it down to anything obvious, however, and shrugged it off, feasting with him all day and walking in his grove, the secluded home that he'd designed tucked away with rock walls on four sides. The only entrance was through the tunnel, both as a protective and privacy feature that she appreciated too. There had been little privacy when she'd grown up in care homes and a foster home even at her age, helping her get her feet under her for university, had not been the most stable life either.
The days passed and the distance between them closed more and more as she let him touch her shoulder, her hip, her thigh. She shivered as he brushed the hair away from her face, a blush heating his cheeks too, though Ashley wanted it as much as he did. She was not forcing herself on but merely experiencing some of the things in life that had, perhaps, been tilted off-course due to the troublesome turns her early life had made, fate paying her back, eventually, as was the right of the world.