Slowly, Alexis's head turns in Jon's direction, and looks at him through the wooden slats in the stalls. She stares at him deeply, straining for recognition.
"Hello, Jon," she lows, her voice much deeper than it was before, but not as deep as his is now.
"Alexis... so... so sooorrrry," he says, dipping his head in shame. She was a cow, he was a bull - well, both were well on their ways, but still - there was no denying what was at the end of this figurative road they both were on - and they were on it because he had brought them to it. "All my faauult, so sorry..."
She thought for a moment, turning his apology over and over in her mind.
"Don't be," she answered. "Turning into cow feels gooooooooood."
He was surprised at that, as he was sure she would be upset with him. She had lost her humanity, and was strapped into a contraption sucking the magically produced milk out of her teats. He couldn't conceive that she was enjoying it.
"But..." he stammered, big dark eyes blinking in shock.
"Feels goooooood. We'll be okay," she reiterated, and this time he began to believe her. They'd be okay. It'd all be okay.
Before too much longer, the cowgirl waitresses came into the room, each taking a stall of their own before the head waitress came over to where Jon and Alexis were.
"Okay, guess I better explain what's gonna happen here," she said to them, pulling out a stool and sitting down. "Most of the time, we're just regular cows. Smart like people, but in body, just regular cows. That's what we are when the Island is closed, which is for months at a time. During those months, we'll do the majority of our production, go out to pasture daily - do regular cow things. Jon, we'll need you to do all of us during that time. It won't impregnate us, or else we'd never need to transform humans into us, but it will allow us to produce our milk. When we reopen, if the magic's deemed you two worthy, you'll be given humanoid forms for the duration. So... do your best, okay, you two? Just do your best and everything will be fine. I promise."
She stood up, and gave each a pat on their heads.
"Now, if you two have anything else to say to each other, now's the time, 'cause once the rest of us change back to cows, we'll pretty much only be able to do the moo thing, okay?"
She then walked back to her own stall, and undressed like the others had, and placed her uniform in the laundry chute each stall had.
If Jon and Alexis had anything else to say, they had better say it fast.