Mary clucked her tongue, and made an oddly inhuman lowing sound.
"Jessie, dear, you're Angora wool coat is so nice. I just couldn't let
you change back to a human, and if I turned you completely into a
goat, well that wouldn't be any fun either. So, I used one of the
bonus vials I found in the brown padded envelope in the bottom of the
box. Now you'll be part goat, and part something else: a chimera. It's
something that can't leave my house."
"I figured that part out already," grunted Jessie as she lay on the
floor. Her hind legs had given out, and seemed to be shrinking. The
heavy angora wool was diminishing on her lower body also, and she felt
something swelling under her butt. Was it her tail?
"Oh, c'mon, hon', you've surely guessed by now? I mean you are a
Capricorn aren't you?"
"What! You're turning me into a fish goat?"
"I think mergoat might be more accurate aegikampus - you know like
hippocampus means seahorse - seagoat!"
"No, Maa-ry, you camaa, maa, maa, maa!"
"Oh, come along, dearie, I'll drag you down the hall to the tub.
You'll be needing water soon enough. Then I'll sheer you, and get you
all washed up and ready for your date," Mary said putting her meaty
hands under Jessie's arms and pulling her out of the kitchen, and down
the hallway.
"Maa! Maa!"
"What date?" Mary chuckled, "That' sweet Mr. Timms always stops by
around four for a cocktail. You know I've been trying to fix you two
up for years, and now this will be the perfect chance. I'll give him a
cocktail made with what's left in your two vials, and well, let's face
it. A boy aegicampus, and a girl aegicampus sharing a bath tub, well,
I'll let nature take its course."
Splash. She hefted Jessie into the tub, and ambled out of the
bathroom.
She muttered to herself to Jessie's horror, "I wonder if goat fish
produce hundreds of eggs or have the gestation cycle of a goat. If
it's eggs, I could make a fortune using the brackish estuary to raise
aegicampus for their wool - I wonder how they taste? Fish that tastes
like goat? Or goat that tastes like fish? What am I saying I'm a
herbivore!"