"Maybe Horizon ought to convert more Humans to Animalians," one teen at WSA said slowly as they sat in a small group in the cafeteria at lunch, "given how healthy Animalians are and what Horizon has advertised with what the Animalia Virus can heal..."
The subject of the discussion was fairly obvious, as the spread of the Corona Virus continued to create near panic. Which then given the nature of things like Project Phoenix that Horizon had trumpeted as a "cure all," made becoming an Animalian sound like the solution to the problem. And since things in Lyre and Animalia hadn't been as bad as in other states, many things that were closing in other states were still open in Animalia and Lyre. Some of this was also be guessed as being the result of Lyre and Animalia having such a high proportion of Animalians to Humans living there.
"That would have to assume that they want to be Animalians or would be able to deal with the following consequences of the conversion," another commented, "I mean... look at what all they went through for this building to make sure that larger Animalians weren't cramped in Human sized desks and that Human sized Animalians and Humans wouldn't be incapable of getting into chairs for larger Animalians... Doing that on a nation wide scale... and potentially global scale... that would take a lot of effort and cost a LOT of money. Much of which isn't available."
"And most people DON'T want to be Animalians," a third commented, "most of those that have converted over years have either been converted by accident... like Abby Brown or were closet furries for most of their lives. That's a distinct minority..."
"Some have wanted their youth back and to cure them of various diseases and injuries," the first corrected, "and this whole virus scare might just push the needle towards converting..."
"But that would only kill the disease in the Human as part of the conversion process," said a fourth, who was actually a Dog Animalian, "once they are an Animalian... that doesn't mean they can't catch the disease again. And while the Animalia Virus might serve as an extra shield... that will only function so long as the Animalia Virus isn't countered by the vaccine... meaning that Animalian would have to be infectious, thus risking accidents..."
"And the law says that any Animalian must be vaccinated to prevent that sort of thing," the first said slowly and with a semi-defeated tone.
"Not to mention that there are some apparent limits to everything the Animalia Virus can heal..." came a new voice making the group over to see the other Animalian that was seated with them at the lunch table.
It was a male Albert's Lyrebird Animalian who was dressed rather warmly. The male, named Albert, had arrived in February looking rather naked at the time. By now, his feathers were growing back and looked relatively well, but that didn't relate to his condition when he was first uplifted.
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Bush fires were something that were always a risk for animals in Australia at certain times of the year, but the "season" for them in Australia had seemed unusually worse for them in 2019 to 2020. The greater warmth and dryer weather than normal made it worse than was normal, and for a ground dwelling and non-migratory bird like an Albert's Lyrebird, getting away from the fire could be bad. And for the bird that would be Albert, this became worse when a bolt of lightning from a storm had struck near him. He'd already been on the run from these fires and was finding it hard to breathe through the smoke that surrounded the burning flames.
The lightning strike didn't strike Albert directly, but it was close enough to shower him with burning dry grass. There, because of the dry weather and struggling to run and fly from the fires that had already driven him from his home territory his feathers were very dry and that practically set him alight as well. Albert could feel the heat burning through his feathers and he gave pained squawk and ran as hard he could, trying to brush the fire off of anything that he was near and that served to spread the fire further. The only thing that gave Albert some hope was that he could hear more mechanical sounds, and while normally the sounds of man frightened him, they were less of a threat than the fire behind him and burning his feathers and skin. And something in his mind even said Humans fought these brush fires, and thus there was some instinctive hope.
Thus Albert ran and flapped as hard as he could, trying to get the fire off him. But as his wing feathers burned, any attempt of flying became less and less likely as the burning paid of the fire radiated through his limbs. He eventually came out of the grass onto a random dirt road, and he thought he saw some trucks that were there. A pair of Humans were tossing buckets of water and trying to avoid animals running out of the grass. Most ignored them, but Albert was in no space to do so. The burning pain was too much and Albert jumped into one metal bucket that was full of water. It finally put the fires out, but Albert also found that he couldn't get out of it.
"Oh man... this guy's been burned," one man came up and looked down at Albert.
"What do you think it is?" another man asked.
"I think it's a Lyrebird of some kind... but the exact species... that I don't know," the first answered.
"You're a firefighter, not a naturalist," the second answered, "I think we've got this area as wet as we can. Hopefully that'll give everyone down at the firebreak the time to finish it. Let's get this guy down to Brisbane and the zoo there. They might be able to care for him."
The water that had been in the bucket was dumped to let Albert sit in the bottom of the bucket, but the Humans wouldn't let him try to flee, and he soon found himself seated in the bottom of the bucket and in the cab of a truck as it drove back down the dirt road. When it came to a stop, Albert was taken into what looked like a medical facility of some kind. He though he saw the word "zoo" at some points, but at the time he didn't know or care what "zoo" meant. Inside the building, he overheard the people talking about him and there was a long list of discussions on the burns and that how his feathers were completely gone and that there were serious burns on his back, the back of his wings, and the top of his head. Albert also though he heard "likely inhaled a lot of smoke" as well.
"So... will he live?" one of the firemen asked.
"To be honest with the severity of his burns... while he could well live and recover from them, it won't be enough to fly," one of the vets said, "the skin and soft tissue around the wings are too badly burnt and given some of his skittishness... it's unlikely he'll accept real treatment. In this, it might be better to euthanize him."
"But the fires have already killed a large number of animals... I've even heard that humans have been burned alive too," the second fireman argued, "surely there is something..."
"Not with what we have that would make his life better," the vet answer, "he might recover from the burns a bit... but between not being able to fly and how extensively he's been burned... he might not even get his feathers back. He'd be dead for sure if released back into the wild and even here... he wouldn't be easily comfortable. About the only other thing we can do give a call up to Northland and the Animalian clinic up there... Maybe uplifting him to being an Animalian will heal things..."
"Then do that," the first fireman paid, "these fires have killed enough... more than enough. We'll even find a way to pay. This guy seemed so afraid running from the fire... we can't let him die."
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Albert spent the rest of the day sitting in a small cage in the zoo's medical center. The staff had given him some reasonably soft things to rest on, but he was still a bit uncomfortable and sore. The initial creams that had been put on him to heal his burns didn't necessarily make them hurt any less. With that, Albert was content to sit calmly and was grateful for the heater that the staff had brought to blow warm air into the metal holding cage he was in. Food was offered, but for the most part, he just felt too tired to do that much. It was only late in the day that his area was disturbed.
He looked out through a barred door to see the Human legs of one of the vets, but he also saw longer and more furred legs. He thought they looked like a dog's, but they were bigger. He also noted that the owner of the furred legs also didn't seem to have forelegs, and most mammals that Albert remembered seeing all walked on four legs. But the owner of the furred legs also seemed to converse with the Human vet, which puzzled him even more. But he hurt too much and was too tired to do that much. Thus he sat still. That was until the vet opened the door and reached in with a large soft cloth.
Albert squawked and panicked a bit, finding a fare amount of strength to resist, but didn't stop the approaching blanket. He was cradled in the vet's hands with the blanket covering his head and easing the contact so that as he was lifted out the burned areas weren't irritated or strained. He was eventually placed on the same examining table he'd been on when he first came in and that gave him a chance to see who had the furred legs. What he saw, Albert found to be strange as it appeared to be built like a Human and was wearing Human clothes, not too different from the vet's cloths, but had a dog-like head and short claws on its finger tips. It gave a whistle and then assured Albert that he would be fine and would in fact be better.
Albert didn't quite understand that and continued to squawk his protests and tried to move away, even as the vet held him tight. This then let the dog like being take a small syringe and give him an injection in an area that wasn't burned. It didn't really hurt, but it wasn't something he was used to. He wanted to protest, but suddenly he began to feel a bit weird. It was like things were getting smaller and that he couldn't stay standing on the examination table. It was at this point that the vet finally let him go and he landed on the floor with some grace, in fact far more grace than Albert expected. At the same time, the burned areas of his body actually began to feel better and far better they had before.
"His burns are healing!" the vet said from behind him as Albert looked to see that he was starting to stretch up toward the waist of the dog-like being.
"That's a big part of the uplifting process," the dog-like being spoke, "the Animalia Virus has found that it can practically heal anything. There are records with Project Phoenix that people who'd lost limbs regrew them as part of the conversion process... Though his feathers should be coming back by now."
By this point, Albert's hips and spine seemed to realign to better let him stand and as pressure built along his sides as his wings moved further to his back. He could feel the muscles and ligaments in his wings reattach and he could move them again... and he tentatively flapped them as two new limbs grew from where two very Human-like shoulders had developed. The limbs grew out into arms tipped with clawed fingers that Albert thought looked like his feet and his feet were unchanged. It all left him puzzled.
"This is weird," Albert said slowly as he looked at himself and then gasped, "I talked..."
"Yes... because we uplifted you," the dog like being said to him, "You are now an Animalian... and Animalians can talk just like Humans. It isn't mimicry."
"Why uplift me...?" Albert wondered, sounding a bet curious and running his tongue along his beak, which didn't seem to have changed.
"Your condition was rather dire when a pair of firemen brought you in yesterday," the vet spoke, "it would appear that you got badly burned as part of the bush fires in the area... they said you jumped into a water bucket they were using to wet the grass while other teams were trying to set fire-brakes elsewhere. I believe their hope was that wetting the grass in places would slow the fire's spread... at least a little. Neither firemen wanted you to die."
"And since the Animalia Virus can heal injuries," the dog-like being commented, "they made a call up to the zoo that my mate Tyree and I run... and its connections with the Northland Animalia colony to bring down a dose of the Animalia Virus to heal your injuries... uplifting you in the process. And while it appears to have healed all your burns... it looks as though your feathers didn't come back... or at least not all the way."
"Well the fire was hot... and maybe there was some other injury there..." Albert offered, "maybe it overpowered things in the Animalia Virus..."
"We might need to do some blood work to figure that out..." the vet answered.
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"I forgot about all that..." the first teen commented as he looked over to Albert, "that while the Animalia Virus can heal almost anything... there seems to be a limit to how much it can heal in one go."
Albert nodded, "Yes. And the zoo's blood tests came back to reveal that there were a few things that I'd eaten that perhaps I shouldn't have. The uplifting killed the parasites and healed the burns, but between the intensity of both... it wasn't enough to allow me to rapidly get my feathers back. Though they have been coming in now, which is good..."
"I'd still think Horizon ought to market things for massed conversion," the first teen than sighed, "even if that healing ability has limits... what's going on has everyone worried. My parents heard that a cousin in Reno has the virus... I don't want to loose him."
"No one wants to lose anyone," the Dog Animalian said, "but given the limits on how many maladies the Animalia Virus can heal at once and the fact once vaccinated, an Animalian could still potentially catch the disease... or at least spread it... In that it wouldn't surprise me if even WSA shuts down over all the fears of the virus and its spread. Given what the news people are all saying about the states calling emergencies."
The whole group sighed at that.