Jess decided insects were the way to go if she wanted to stay small. She picked out the ant vial, as it would lend her strength to manipulate the larger objects of her new world. Mary browsed the bird section, settling on canary.
"I might as well stay with the theme of contradicting animals," she said. "I just hope I don't want to eat myself."
Both girls took about half their vials and braced for the changes.
Jess was the first to notice the sensation. She felt something break out of her skin on either side of her body, and watched as two long hard arms emerged from just above her waist. They grew longer than her other arms, and ended in very small clawed nubs. Small hairy feelers grew from their exoskeletons.
Mary had begun to change now. Her blond hair clumped together and started sticking out. Eventually it had formed into a head of yellow feathers. More feathers grew right above her mousy tail, making a small fan. Her clawed toes lengthened and curled into talons.
Jess felt more changes as two claw-like objects formed on either side of her mouth. They were long, movable and jagged. She guessed they were what ants used to manipulate their food. Two long, thin strands grew from the top of her head, and she realized these must be her feelers. She also felt the shrinking sensation return as she experienced a bit more vertigo.
By now, yellow feathers were growing from Mary's cat-furred arms. Thankfully, her hands didn't disappear. She simply had large feathery wings attached to her arms. She felt a lightness come over her body as her bones became hollow inside, and her body became a bit more lean. "This is perfect," she said. "I'm heading off to the kitchen." She turned to Jess to ask if she was coming along, but paused for a second to look over her new body. Not only did she now have pincers, feelers, and two extra arms like an ant's, she had larger eyes as well. Mary didn't want to tell her friend that they kind of creeped her out. She saw that Jess had shrunk quite a bit more, and was once again shorter than she was. "You shrank a lot," she said.
"Yeah," Jess examined her new five-inch body. "I guess it has to do with ants being so much smaller than humans and squirrels."
"So, are you coming for some grub or not?" the cat/mouse/canary/girl chirped.