Annetta let go of Andrea's tail and put one arm around the girl's shoulder in a comforting motion. It worried her to see her friend already closer to being a donkey than she was. It was sad to see her friend so worried and scary to know she might not be far behind.
"Don't worry, Andrea, I know what the dormouse said, but that doesn't mean it's certain. We'll figure out something, I just--"
Annetta's voice trailed off as an unexpected realization came to her. There was something new she could do--something easy, that she couldn't do before. It was a newfound freedom down at the end of her spine, like a new key on keyboard that she'd never pressed before. All she had to do was try it, and she felt something long and hairy flopping around in the back of her pajamas! She'd never turned her head around so fast in her life!
Looking down back there, Annetta found that there was indeed a bulge back there that tented the pajamas when she tried to move it. Pulling them down in the back, a tasseled gray tail just like Andrea's flopped out where she could see it.
"What's the matter, Annetta?" asked Andrea, looking back to join her gaze. "Oh no, it's happening to you, too!"
Panicked, she desperately wanted to get it off of her, so she immediately wanted to rip it off. As soon as she got both hands around it, though, she stopped and just held it for a second, instantly stunned that she could feel her hands touching her very own skin through the fur. Her ears flattened above her. The thing she was holding wasn't just hanging off of her, and it wasn't just something she could wave around behind her. It WAS her, or at least it was part of her anyway. And it looked like part of a donkey.
An surging anger welled up inside Annetta as she mentally drew a line in the sand. She was NOT gonna be a donkey, and she was NOT gonna wimp out like Andrea did. This tail did not belong on her, it was coming off, and she was going to get her ears back down to size. And the dormouse could shove it!
She tightened her grip, pulled as hard as she could, felt her vertebrae tighten and brayed. She immediately took away her hands, more desperate to stop the pain in that moment than stay human. It was no use! She couldn't have pulled harder and if she could, that one attempt was too painful to try again. With her tail still throbbing behind her, Annetta leaned forward with her head in her hands, reflecting on her loudest and most equine bray yet. Such a horrible sound! Such a perfect sound for the proper owner of her new appendage...
She was interrupted in her sulking by a light giggling from beside her. Her left ear perked up at the sound. She slowly turned her head toward her friend, who was smiling a bit with tears in her eyes.
"It kinda hurts, doesn't it?" Andrea nervously chuckled. Annetta chuckled a little bit, too.
"Yeah, I'm sorry I did that to you, Andrea. I guess we're just going to have to learn to live with these tails, and these long ears too. Unless..."