“…we get off this Island before it’s too late!” Annetta made clear her stance, already preparing to flee before Andrea stopped her.
“Wait! You’re forgetting something!”
“Like what!?” Annetta demanded, desperate to be away from this place before things could get any worse.
“Adelina, Noemi, Angelica, Irene, Carina, Mariella and Francesca for starters!” Andrea sought to appeal on their behalf, “We can’t just leave them!”
“And where could they beEE-Haw!?” Annetta clamped her mouth shut in horror following her uncommented bray. “We don’t have time.” She added fearfully.
“We have to try.” Andrea pleaded again. “I for one, can’t leave until we at least look for them.”
“You, serious?”
“Yes.” Andrea replied, a little more confident than moments before. “Now this island isn’t that big, so they can’t be too far.”
“A-aright…” Annetta finally ceded to her point, “…but if things get worse, we’re leaving. No ifs, no buts.” though not without adding her condition.
“Fine then.” Andrea turned to leave, pausing at the door to see that Annetta wasn’t following.
“I’m getting changed, I’m not heading outside in Pyjamas.” She explained, searching out something that could hide her ears and tail.
“Good idea.” Andrea realised.
[+]
A couple of minutes after realising none of their friends were in their rooms, Annetta and Andrea were outside, searching the island for them. Annetta in a pair of dark denim overalls, boots and hat that hid her ears, though the tail was slightly noticeable if someone looked at her back hard enough. Andrea had been forced to take a few belts to hold her tail in place on her back, a looser fitting long dress and hat enough to hide her donkey features for the time being.
“Is it me?” Andrea began, “or does it look, emptier? Than before?”
Actually, Annetta had to admit that Andrea had a very good point right there. Looking around far more carefully, it dawned quick on her that compared to even just two days before, it was far quieter. Maybe, only every tenth girl from the beginning she could see, if even that.
And upon further inspection, most of them weren’t looking nearly as festive as before, heavily dressed, trying to avoid drawing attention to themselves. The sight of a tail from one who ducked into a nearby building a giveaway.
“It’s not just us.” Andrea concluded, seeing the same sight. “C’mon, we Haawwve, to find the others.” Trying to act as though she were searching for the source of the bray to keep unwanted eyes away from herself.
“Where could they be?” Annetta asked, jittery with an itch spreading from her torso.
“We’ll have to search the buildings, one at a time.”
“But what if…?” Annetta added, afraid to finish the question, either because she couldn’t bring herself to consider the possibility, or just to keep a building bray bottle down.
“Let’s be sure.” Leading them into a building, which kept them from seeing three other girls scanning the area - in varying states of transformation - before slipping through the street to the next set of alleys.
[+]
While that was happening, in the only other docks on the island, the one the girls who’d arrived did not know of, shadowed beings were at work, hauling loaded crates onto a waiting cargo ship. A chorus of despairing brays adding to the creaking of wood and rope that bounced off the cold walls.
“Of the three-hundred, eighty-four that were brought in, we have three-hundred, forty-three so far. That leaves forty-one unaccounted for at this time.” A male voice spoke another, who in turn faced the shadowed individual. “Best estimate is the rest will be beyond hope before the night is done, and the first of the two ships can set sail at nightfall.”
“Good.” This other voice was clearly feminine, though to the uninformed, something would be amiss with it’s tone. “This latest batch will more than pay for all the investment put into this place.”
Now emerging from the shadows, the long red coat, black gloves, round hat and whip clearly marked her as being the coachwoman who’d brought in the literal hundreds of victims for her own profit. The clopping she made as she strode to the pens, the white-tasselled tail swaying under the coat - groaning under the stress of containing her grey-and-white furred body - and the long muzzled face however, revealed beyond doubt her own inhumanity.
“Let’s have another one now!” She commanded in perfect English to her henchmen, already prepared to send the next one over, a small jenny with a dirty dress, somehow keeping it’s dainty shoes on its hooves.
“And what’s your name?”
[+]
“We haAAWWWVve to go now!” Annetta pleaded, desperation evident in her tone.
Almost an hour had passed, and now the sun was beginning to set. Not only had Andrea and Annetta failed to find any of their friends in that time, but they have transformed more. Dark brown fur coating Andrea who now had to balance herself on her two hooves, while Annetta sported a full - if reduced to scale - donkey head.
“I knawwww!” Andrea brayed back. “Just this, one more, then we leave.” SHe finished slowly to keep herself legible, heading into the Saloon Bar, Annetta a shaking step behind.
And at last, one other. A wide body seated on the bar stool, light brown fur with a black tassel-tail and long mane, almost hair-like, clothes a shredded heap around said stool, three-fingered hands clutching something as she made choked, braying sobs, tears on her face.
“I-rene?” Andrea recognised the voice as being hers, tapping her to get her attention, and only just avoiding a hoof to the gut. “Irene it’s meeeEEE-HAAW!”
Perhaps it was the bray that - for once - proved useful, in that it stopped Irene long enough for her to notice that the others were also suffering her fate, if not as bad. At least they could still wear something.
“C’mon, wEEHhH’re getting off this Island!” Annetta cut in, no longer willing to spend another moment in this Cursed Place. “Before thIIIEEHHNNnngs get any worse.” Her breathing beginning to suffer now, as her too-tight denim overalls slowly dug into her chest and legs.