Mary made it home without encountering anyone else, and she was very glad as that meant no one witnessed the momentary difficulty she had trying to open her apartment doorknob. Her fingers had shortened to a point where she'd lost a lot of her human dexterity, and small rough patches, the start of paw pads, had begun to appear on her palms and fingers. She'd had to grip the knob between both her palms before she was able to make it twist enough to open. Thank goodness she hadn't locked it behind her, she couldn't imagine trying to manage keys with her stubby fingers!
Closing the door behind her, Mary dropped her shoes on the mat, having been forced to cradle them against her torso when she'd realized her thumbs had stopped functioning properly, shrunk down to half their normal size. She hurried down the hall to the large mirror in her bedroom, anxious to see how she'd progressed since taking the larger dose. Upon viewing her reflection, Mary was stunned by her appearance.
"I can't believe Jane didn't seem to notice anything strange!" she murmured to herself as she reached up to touch her face. Her nose had broadened and lifted a bit, pulling her upper lip and jaws out into what appeared to be a very short muzzle! "Maybe this only happened on the way from the park." Skimming her paw-like hands over her nose, she could feel the change in texture as well as smelling Max on her shortened fingers from when she'd been petting him.
Removing her sunhat, Mary could see that her ears had grown a lot since she'd left the house, but as they'd flopped over and were covered in fur matching her hair color, they'd blended in rather well. The hair on her head did seem quite a bit shorter now - where before it had reached just past her shoulders, now it swung in a short bob mid-neck, the just a few inches longer than the tips of her new ears.
Mary was amazed at the power of the vials, and a part of her wanted to down the rest of the dog vial and finish the changes. A slight fear niggled at the back of her brain though, telling her to be wary. What if she became a dog in both body AND mind? Would she be trapped that way forever? Who would know to look in her apartment and why in the world would they ever think the dog they found was formerly Mary?
As she pondered this, a slight aching sprang up in her feet, and she clenched her stubby toes against the carpet. A twanging and stretching sound caused her floppy ears to perk up, and the arches of her feet began to alter. Unsteady on her morphing feet, she stumbled backwards, tripping and falling atop her bed. Lifting her legs, she got a good look at her feet. They stretched longer again by two inches, her tendons pulling tight.
She let out a very canine whine at this, whimpering and trying to flex her toes to ease the tension. The toes paradoxically grew and shrank at the same time, shortening in length while puffing up and becoming rounder. Angling one slightly, Mary could see paw pads beginning to press out like they had on her hands. Her big toes pulsed and cracked, pulling up her feet and shrinking more than the others. The tendons in her arches pulled once more, the strain reaching to her ankles as she felt bones and ligaments shifting. With a final round of popping, her feet and ankles relaxed and were silent.
"Whew", Mary said to herself, "that was intense". She sat up and pulled a leg closer to herself. While retaining some semblance of humanity, her feet now looked incredibly doglike. Her toes were short and puffy, with black pads and claws, and she clenched and unclenched them, feeling their lessened range of motion. Her big toe didn't deserve the title, vastly diminished and sitting higher on her arches, offering little more than a feeble wiggle when she tried moving her toes. Her arches themselves were much longer and slimmer than her tiny feet had been yesterday. Mary guessed she would be several shoe sizes up from before.
If any could fit these. She thought, marveling at the altered shape of her arches and ankles. No matter how she twisted and angled them, they returned to rest pointed away from her. Frowning slightly, she sat up and swung her legs over the side of her bed. The balls of her feet hit the carpet first, her soft pads brushing against the fibers. She strained slightly, but her ankles didn't want to lower her heels to the floor.
"Okay" she murmured, biting her lip with a long canine tooth, "here goes nothing." Her stubby fingers pressed into the mattress as she pushed herself up onto her new feet. Just as she suspected, her heels sat defiantly off the floor, her feet stretched and arched as though she were wearing invisible high heels. For the moment, this meant that she now stood a good few inches taller than before. Tentatively, Mary took a few steps around her room. She expected to feel strain in her legs similar to when she wore heels, but apart from a little adjustment, her new stance felt completely natural.
Smiled at her new feet, not realizing that she was panting with excitement, her long tongue hanging below her chin. Belatedly, she realized what she was doing and slurped it back into her mouth. She stared at the mirror again, looking at her dogifying form.
That settles it. She thought to herself. This may be fun but it's definitely moving quickly, definitely smarter to have backup. She decided that the best course would be to let someone else in on this crazy, magical experience, and who better than...