Running her hands through her hair, Naomi sat down to assess what had just happened. Her ex-boyfriend had just turned into a cat right in front of her. She closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. 'There's no way any of that happened,' she thought. 'I probably fell asleep answering a client's email and I'm dreaming. Yes, that's it. I'll just open my eyes and...' and with that, she opened her eyes and was dismayed to still see Steve's clothes lying on the floor, the empty stone flask on the ground, and a definite feline yowling coming from the closed bathroom door.
"How and why did this happen?" She wondered aloud. She let Steve continue to meow in the bathroom. After he had attacked her like that, she was in no hurry to find a way to change him back. She picked up the stone flask, which was somewhat lighter without the strange liquid, and turned it over in her hands. Nothing out of the ordinary could be seen. However, as soon as she lifted it upright, a weight was put on it. Looking down, Naomi could see that the flask had miraculously filled up with the liquid again. "What..." She breathed, setting it down and backing away.
Wait... hadn't Tessie been dipping her paw in it earlier? Peering inside, she saw one or two stray black and white hairs, matching the tuxedo pattern of Tessie's fur...and Steve's fur, now that she thought about it. If Tessie's fur had gotten in the flask, and Steve had been doused with the liquid, did that mean...?
She decided a test was in order. Marching into her room, she saw Tessie curled up on her bed, purring. She walked past her and to the fish tank where her goldfish, Polly, swam lazily. "Sorry about this, buddy." She said apologetically as she scooped the fish out of the tank with the net. Polly flopped and wriggled, gasping for water. But if the hypothesis turned out to be true, she didn't need to worry about that much longer...
Placing the flopping Polly on the counter, Naomi grabbed the flask and sighed. "Here goes nothing..." She mumbled as she poured the cat-laced liquid onto her fish.
Polly flopped for a bit more before something strange began to happen. She began increasing in size, doubling, then tripling, then quadrupling all in a matter of seconds. Fine black and white hairs began poking out from between her golden scales until they swept down her form in a wave, covering her in a pattern of white and black fur. Five appendages, two near her neck, two near her rear, and one on her rear, grew out rapidly. Paws with claws formed on the end of the first four while the fifth simply lengthened and thickened into a fluffy tail. Polly's head grew, pushing out into a muzzle and a triangular nose. Pointed, furry ears grew out of the sides of her head as she finished growing larger.
A few feline additions later, and a tuxedo cat, almost identical to Tessie, cowered in confusion on the counter where Polly the goldfish had laid only minutes before. "Amazing..." Naomi said in awe, eyeing the flask that had already been refilled. Polly began making bizzare yowls and meows, tottering on her paws and looking scared. Naomi quickly ran back into the bedroom, plucked a few scales from the net, ran back, and dumped them in the flask.
The liquid shimmered for a moment before settling. Naomi dumped the contents on Polly. She signed with relief as the cat shrunk, it's fur being replaced with golden scales and the fishy attributes returning until Polly was a flopping goldfish on the counter again. She put her back in her tank and walked back into the living room.
So it appeared that if some part of an animal was in the flask when dumped on another animal, it transformed into the same animal. But something troubled her. Could this be done with people? If she took one of Steve's hairs from his clothes and dumped the liquid on his now feline form, would he turn back into a human?
Steve yowled and scratched at the bathroom door. Eyeing the flask, Naomi realized she had no idea what to do next.