Lina watched Amy buckle her collar. It hung loosely from her neck. "That's as far as it tightens. Guess there aren't any more notches."
Lina thought Amy looked good in it. It wasn't exactly the hottest trend, but not everything had to be. She shrugged and put her own collar around her neck, finding that even buckled at its innermost hole, the collar was too big to fit snugly.
The two continued walking. Lina tugged at her collar, trying to shift it so it didn't slip around on her shoulders.
"What a rip," she said. "We'll have to punch new holes in them when we get back to my place."
"I thought we were going to MY place," Amy said.
"I changed my mind," Lina said. "I'd feel better at my place."
"Can't we please go to mine?" Amy said. She was confused at Lina's suddenly cold demeanor. What was more, she was becoming somehow intimidated at the thought of being inside Lina's domain.
Then something else began to bother her. Some sort of tingling feeling. "Uh...I feel kinda funny."
Suddenly, the tingling erupted into a flurry of sensations from muscle-twisting pain to rabid ticklishness. Amy clutched herself and screamed.
At the sound, Lina turned to see what was wrong. Amy fell into her, and Lina clutched her so she wouldn't fall to the ground from the spasms she was having.
"Amy?!" she said in a panicked voice. Before she could think of what to do, she too was assaulted by the onslaught of intense feelings. She shrieked in agony, clutching Amy tighter.
It was like an intense fire raging inside of them, combined with the pulling and snapping of bones and musculature. Both girls had their eyes closed tightly in pain, and couldn't see the drastic changes quickly overtaking their bodies. Ill-defined muscles flexed and grew, shredding their clothing into rags. Their feet burst from their shoes and became heavy paws. Bright orange fur grew over Amy, and was soon joined by a pattern of black stripes. Meanwhile, Lina was becoming covered by dark gray fur with areas of white on her face and chest. Sharp claws grew on both girl's hands, and in their panic they flexed and dug into each others' bodies.
Lina's mind was barely able to sift through all of the sensations to form a sentence. "What the hell...is happening?!" she said, not realizing how loud she was shouting. Every syllable dripped with agony.
Amy heard her friend, but could barely understand her among the tumultuous feelings her mind was struggling to process. She huffed and panted, sputtering a response in a wavering voice that alternated between a girl's scream and an animal's growl. "Don't...don't know! Hurts! Oh god, it hurts!"
The girls dropped to their knees, still leaning against each other for support as they underwent their monstrous transformations. Their jaws began to stretch into muzzles, Lina's the longer of the two. Bestial features appeared on both of their faces. Amy's face gained a dense pattern of black stripes and a set of long whiskers. Her nose widened and her ears grew into large, furry discs. Lina's ears became even larger furry triangles and her nose turned black and wet. A long, striped tail burst from Amy's back as a thick gray and white tail emerged from Lina's.
Lina panted, her tongue long enough to droop from her distended muzzle by several inches. The pain was slowly, very slowly, dying down. She sputtered as she tried moving her new jaw and tongue. "Feel different. Verrrry differrrr...rrrr..."
Amy felt like she was being choked. When she brought a claw to her neck, it fell upon the collar. It no longer hung loosely at her shoulders. Her furry neck was so thick, the collar was fixed tightly around it. "It's thuh...these...," she panted. "Mmmrrr... Collars..."
Now feeling nothing but the after-effects of their transformations, the girls started to recover from their ordeal. They let go of each other and, shaking, sat apart on the sidewalk. With hazy, tear-filled eyes, they looked at each other in shock.
Lina had turned into a creature resembling a giant husky with the features of a human. Her dark gray fur was offset by white patches on her face, chest, hands and digitigrade feet. Her hair had turned gray as well. Her ferocious eyes shone bright blue.
Amy was of equally bestial appearance, but instead of canine features, she looked like a tiger. Her hair was blown out into a flurry of long, thick red locks and her eyes were a bold yellow.
For a minute, the girls sat and regained their strength. Their minds slowly churned through the chaotic events of the last few minutes, struggling to glean an ounce of understanding. Amy found her thoughts drifting toward getting out of the public area. Her ears and nose sensed for nearby bodies. Fortunately, her transformation didn't seem to be witnessed, as this small street was usually deserted.
Lina's thoughts concentrated on the cause of her changes. She was angered by the fading pain and eager to eliminate whatever it was that had caused it.
Eventually, Amy spoke in a deep, lumbering tone that carried only a tiny hint of her original voice. "We changed...mrrrrr...into animmrrals."
"Gragh," Lina spat. Her voice was sharp and gravely. "Into frrrreaks."