"I'm so glad we're out of that crappy jungle," Alexis sighed. Almost immediately after the dirt trail beyond the gate turned into cobblestone, the air had begun to thin out and feel soothingly cool. The murky heat of the jungle only made the experience of growing body hair worse. She wiped her brow with a forearm and her fur swept off most of the beads of sweat that lingered there. The rest evaporated quickly, cooling her face in an almost refreshing way.
She couldn't help but close her eyes and take a deep breath in, almost drinking up the crisp twilight air of the island. An instant later, she felt dizzy. Instinctively, she twitched her butt to try and keep her balance. It didn't do anything to help... why did she even try that in the first place?
She opened her eyes and saw the ground was tilting and rapidly coming closer. Suddenly, Jon's arms swept into view and stopped her from falling over.
She braced her hands on his shoulders. "Whuhh... Thanks."
"You okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine. Just got dizzy for a sec." She righted herself. Jon relaxed his hold on her, but kept one arm around her for support. "It's good, you can let me go."
"These stones are uneven and we've been walking a long time. I'll help you until we get to the main square."
Alexis tilted her head and peered at him. There was an uneven tone to his voice. She'd known enough guys to have an idea what it was. "Jon, let go of me."
"No no, seriously, I'd like to help you."
Alexis stepped to one side while yanking his arm off her waist. Jon stumbled, flailing his other arm, then collapsed onto all fours.
"Oo-oo-ack!" he whooped in surprise. The he grunted, scowling down at the walkway, head dangling between his arms.
Alexis put her hands on her hips. "You're having trouble walking too."
"Yes! Okay?" he spat. "We're both tired and weird shit's been happening to us. We can support each other."
"I'm fine with that," Alexis smirked. "As long as we're both honest about it." She walked back over to him, carefully, as she still hadn't regained full control of her balance yet, and reached out a hand. Jon took it and she helped him to his feet.
They moved on, leaning against each other, arms draped around each other's waists and shoulders pressed together. It was slow progress, but it was progress. They passed a row of benches beneath a dirty, dim street lamp. A scraggly young man with a whiskey bottle was sprawled out on one. He smiled as they passed and raised his bottle to them in salute.
"We look like a couple'a drunk bums," Jon scoffed with a bemused smile on his scruffy face.
"We might as well be if we can't walk in a straight line," Alexis said, her voice trailing off at the end as a memory flashed into her mind. "Didn't... that guy from the ride say something about being able to balance?"
"No," Jon said instinctively. Then he shook his head. "I dunno."
"He asked us how we were walking without--"
Alexis' train of thought derailed as Jon grunted and toppled forward again. She wasn't able to catch him from falling onto his hands and knees. "J-Jon! Are you o-oo-oo--?" Her voice locked up in surprise--at least, that's what she told herself it was.
"Yeah, I'm jus--unff!" His butt shot upward. "My damn pants! They--"
Another interruption, this time by something even more shocking, as something dark and hairy tore its way out of the seat of his denim jeans and snaked through the air. Jon let out another warbling whoop and then grew quieter as the thing reached what seemed to be its full length and slowly curled up a little.
"What the fuck is that?" Alexis shouted.
"What's WHAT? What did..." Jon reached behind him and froze when his fingers reached the base of his new tail. "The shit?"
Alexis opened her mouth to verbalize what she'd just seen, but a painful tug in the seat of her own pants flared up. She felt the front of her pants dig into her abdomen and she doubled over. A pressure built in her lower back, straining inside the seat of her pants. Then with a heavy tear, the pressure released, and she felt the cool, breezy air flowing over her... her...
She dragged her hand along the appendage she couldn't see, and felt her own fingertips pressing into the fur on it--not just from her fingers, but from the thing itself at the same time. Her tail.
"Did we just... fucking groo-ooo...," she growled. Her tail twitched itself away from her hand, silently swatting the air. "What fucking island did you bring us to?!"
Jon was slowly pulling himself back up to his bare feet. "I-I-I don't know. Let's... c'mon, let's just get some help and get off this island."
He offered her a hand and she took it, reluctantly. She expected to feel disoriented upon standing, but to her surprise, she felt completely fine. She also felt new muscles swaying her tail about. It was very strange to have a new body part, one that she was just discovering she had a little control over the more she focused on it.
Jon placed a hand on her back. "C'mon," he repeated patiently.
Alexis nodded and they set off again. The last of the daylight was fading, but they could easily see some bustling crowds and brighter lights among small buildings up ahead.