When asked to describe Fiona Piper, most people would immediately use 'musical'. Fiona was rarely seen without her iPod, CD player, or pretty much any other kind of MP3 player and humming along to a catchy tune. She had a rather substantial music collection, featuring pop music from as far back as the early 90's.
Her love of music also extended to her pet. While most people would have preferred parakeets, Fiona wanted an actual songbird she could listen to it sing. Nightingales were a bit hard to acquire, but she was fine with a canary. Sera was more colorful than a nightingale anyways and she made the sweetest little chirps. She appeared to like it when Fiona was playing her music. She couldn't have asked for a better pet in her opinion.
But that changed the day that Fiona filled Sera's water dish from the sink, not knowing the Animalia Virus had gotten into the water system. It was a pleasant day so Fiona had opened Sera's cage to let her fly around her room. It would soon turn out to be a good thing she did as there was not much room to grow inside the cage.
The first sign that something was wrong was when Sera flopped onto the bed, twittering with distress. Fiona had been listening to some music and didn't respond immediately until Sera's chirping reached a certain pitch. She turned to see her shivering canary on the bed and she was already two times larger than her normal size. She rushed over to the bed and reached down to pick up Sera only to hesitate when she saw the growing bird spasm.
As Sera grew, Fiona could hear a popping sound that was growing louder. The source of it became clear when Sera's wings dislocated. The canary cried with pain and Fiona barely kept herself from picking her up. But the wings didn't remain in wrong positions for long. They moved backwards onto Sera's back, pushing her up. By this point, Sera was the size of a two-year old and Fiona noticed the stumpy growths that were appearing where her wings had been. They grew longer, looking like unfeathered wings. But when feathers appeared on them, they were far too small, only covering up the skin. The ends of the growths hardened before branching out and forming into birdlike claws built in a human shape.
As Sera approached Fiona's preteen size, Fiona noticed she was looking more and more humanoid. There were several clicks as the canary's growing legs adjusted to be able to walk like a biped normally does, even the knees were still backwards. Sera's face was also showing more emotion as intelligence was entering her eyes. Then Sera gave a gasp as her body started molding itself into a new way. As Sera grew past Fiona's height, her body was quickly losing its tubular shape as a defined waist form and hips widened. Sera let out a soft moan as her chest surged out. Nipples came into existence before mammary glands that were alien to her avian body started expanding. Her rear was also plumping out into an appealing human shape. Fiona watched in amazement as Sera completed her transformation into a canary woman.
Sera looked down at her new body with surprise before turning to Fiona and asking, "Fiona, why am I big?"
"I'm not sure, but I think we need to see my parents," said Fiona.
Sera nodded and tried to stand up. Fiona helped her stand on her feet and walked with her to the door. Her parents were definitely going to be surprised about this.
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Sera wasn't the only pet to be changed by the Outbreak, or even the only bird. As Animalia grew, she began to feel more comfortable with her new self. She had found she had a similar taste in music that Fiona had. She spent quite a bit of time singing it to herself. Fiona told her that she ought to perform concerts with that melodious voice of hers. Sera shyly turned her down at first, but over the months, she grew bolder. The idea of being a pop star did have a lot of appeal. But she'll need songs to sing, a glamorous outfit, and an original stage name.
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"When Mother Nature cries a tear, I'll breath again"
"Her tears are falling, but they still don't understand"
"We should take another look at her history"
"These are healing times"
Sera paused a little from practicing her encore song, "Mother Nature" by Little Trees, to contemplate the next few verses. "I wish I had some back up singers for this song," she said to herself.
"You'll be fine," said Fiona. Sera gave her former owner a warm smile. Fiona had been very supportive of her since she was uplifted. Eventually, Fiona asked her parents if she could become a canary too. While they agreed to a single dose, they didn't let her have a second dose yet, though there were hints she might get one for her birthday. But that was fine with Fiona. Being a canary was awesome, especially since she could fly. And Sera was practically like the cool older sister she never had.
"I just hope singing at Arbor Day will help make me famous," said Sera.
"I'm sure you'll be noticed soon," said Fiona, "You did pick out a stage name, right?"
Sera nodded and looked down at the sparkly, sequined dress she was wearing. She could have worn yellow, but that would have blended with her feathers too much. Instead, her dress was a pale sea foam color that almost looked like a prom dress. Well, actually, it was Fiona's mother's prom dress, but it fitted Sera so well. Ok, the chest had to be let out a bit to make room for Sera's larger bust, but it still looked very good on her. "I was thinking Canary Diamond," said Sera, "That's pretty original, right?"
"I don't think you'll find anyone else with a name like that," said Fiona.
"Good. Of course, I'll need a lot more sparkly clothes to go with that name," said Sera.
"Trust me, when the talent agencies start promoting you, you'll have more sparkly clothes than you'll know what to do with," said Fiona.
"I suppose I could give some of them to you when you're older," said Sera teasingly. It was sometimes easy to forget that Sera was Fiona's pet instead of her older sister. The two of them shared a very close bond that was strengthened by their love of music.