Christine couldn't help but stare at the zipper that was stuck to the other leopard's back, the only thing that outwardly distinguished Bronwyn from any other animal. "So this little scrap of metal did this to me?" she thought. As she watched its brilliant golden hue glinting in the late afternoon sun, she realized she was looking at an artifact of actual, real-life magic, which apparently existed. And considering that she had gone her entire life without running into something like this, it was fair to assume that she very well might never see one again. If she was going to get out of this predicament, this might be her first, last, and only chance.
Steeling her resolve and trying to control her clumsy paw as best she could, Christine swiped at Bronwyn's back and pulled at the side of the zipper. To her surprise, it easily peeled away from her fur and fluttered to the ground, looking as if it had never been attached to anything.
"Hey!" Bronwyn shouted when she realized what had just happened. "What the hell are you doing? I need that to get out of here!"
"You need to get out of here?" Christine responded, batting the zipper around underneath a paw as she tried to guess at how to properly use it. "I'm the innocent victim here! Let me get out of here first and I promise I'll figure out a way to help you."
"But you don't even know how to use it!" Bronwyn retorted.
Christine rolled her eyes at that - there was one human gesture she could still successfully do. "Like you know what you're doing with this thing? Weren't you just saying how everything you did to me was a total accident? You better have been telling the truth about that, or I swear to God I'm going to leave you here..."
"No, but - I mean - you're not actually wearing a suit right now," Bronwyn replied. "At least, I don't think you are. I am. If you unzipped it on me right now, I'd be human again. If we did it on you... I don't know what would happen. Maybe your human form would still be under there, but maybe it would just turn you into a leopard costume again."
That stopped Christine in her tracks. She was already starting to realize, as she fidgeted with it on the ground, that putting the zipper on herself - or anyone or anything else - with her paws was going to be a difficult, if not impossible, task. She couldn't even pick it up, just push it back and forth against the rocky surface below. "Wait... then what's your plan, exactly? How were you going to get me out of this if you don't think the zipper will fix anything?"
Bronwyn sighed. "I don't have a plan. At least not right now. I just wanted to let you know what was going on, why this was happening to you, and then I was going to go back to the magic shop and try to find something that could help."
Christine felt a pang of guilt when she heard that. She had acted too hastily - Bronwyn really was trying to make things right after what she had done. Now it seemed as if they might both be stuck here for a while - unless they could figure out how to apply the zipper and open it without the benefit of opposable thumbs?