There was a knock at the door of The Archive and Lucy, a quadrupedal wolf, answered. She opened the door to find Jake standing there. He was an anthropomorphic Labrador with a mullet haircut and wearing a bandana. He was good friends with Oliver and Lucy.
``Ah! Hello Jake!'' Lucy greeted, ``Right on time.''
``Hello, Lucy,'' Jake greeted back. He went inside, shutting the door behind him. Lucy led him to one of her workbenches.
``I have a lot of things for you to try today,'' she said. Lucy is always tinkering with the transformation artifacts and conducting experiments. Usually, Oliver helps her test them. When he's away on a research expedition, or if a second tester is needed or if he just wants to, Jake is asked to help test the experiments.
``Like what?'' Before Lucy could answer, Jake thought he could smell something. He hurried over to the workbench where a plate of freshly baked cookies was waiting. Instinctually, Jake took one.
``Jake, wait!'' Lucy called but it was too late. Jake had already eaten it. Almost immediately, his belly grew, and it kept getting bigger and bigger until finally and sporadically, it slimmed down to a deer belly and torso.
Lucy came up to him. ``Well, to answer your question,'' she said, ``those cookies, for a start. I baked them using a special pan.''
``And you into a deer when you eat what's baked on it?'' asked Jake.
``Pretty much. Each individual cookie is supposed to transform a different part of you.'' Lucy grew slightly concerned. ``You can change back yourself, right?''
``Of course, I can,'' said Jake, waving his bandana.
``That's good.'' Lucy eyed the cookies. ``I guess we've already started. I need you to eat another cookie, just to confirm that they do change one body part at a time.''
``Heh! I'm not going to turn down a cookie!'' laughed Jake and eagerly ate another one. Oddly enough, his fingers started to feel numb as they fused together. His claws grew longer and duller and fused together too. His arms grew longer and skinnier until finally, Jake had two deer arms, complete with hooves.
``Well, that confirms it,'' said Lucy as she wrote on her notepad, ``Thank you, Jake!''
``Yeah, of course...'' said Jake, half-heartedly. He was paying more attention to his hooves. ``Could you do something about these?'' he asked.
``As a matter of fact, I have something for you to test that should do just that.'' Lucy presented him with two gold wrist bands. ``Uh... I'll put those on for you.'' And she put one on each of Jake's wrists.
His hooves separated into five digits and shrank back into claws. His hands and arms bulked-up somewhat and filled out. Jake now had dexterous lion hands.
``Ah, that's better!'' he said, stretching his fingers.
``It'll be easier for you to handle this next test, now.'' Lucy chuckled to herself. ``You did it backwards, you know. Dessert's supposed to be the last thing you eat!'' Before Jake could ask what she was talking about, the wolf showed him a Golden Delicious apple she wanted him to eat.
Jake, feeling slightly bewildered, shrugged it off and took a bight. No sooner did he feel a jolt energy come from the apple and travel through his body down to his feet. The energy built up until clouds of smoke burst from his ankles, causing him to fall over backwards.
``Oh no!'' Lucy exclaimed, ``Jake, are you okay?! I must've put too much `oomph' in that apple!''
``It's okay, Lucy, I'm fine,'' said Jake, reassuringly. He tried to get up again but was having trouble with his balance. It became all too clear why, when the smoke cleared. He had two horse hooves for feet and legs to match. Lucy helped him stand back up right again.
``Do you want to stop?'' she asked, ``We don't have to continue.''
It only took Jake a minute to adjust to his new legs and hooves. ``Eh, I've delt with worse,''
Lucy smiled slightly. ``You're a good sport, Jake.'' With that, she presented a top hat to him.
Jake smirked and rolled his eyes. ``I know this game,'' he said, ``This'll give me bunny ears, possibly a whole bunny head.''
``You're sharp, you know that?'' Lucy asked, her smile growing wider. Jake braced himself for his head to start transforming. It came as a shock when he felt his tail growing. It grew longer and bigger until it finally became a kangaroo tail. ``But not sharp enough.''
Jake's quickly got over his surprise and playfully balanced on his new tail. ``I could've used this earlier,'' he laughed, ``So this is a hat that transforms your tail?''
``Never heard of anything like that before, have you?'' Jake had to admit that he never had. ``Okay one last test,'' said Lucy and she brought out a honey wand.
``But you already know what that does,'' Jake protested, ``It turns you into a bear.''
``True,'' Lucy replied, ``but that's not what I'm testing.'' She drizzled a clear, sparkling, honey-like substance over the end of the wand. ``I'm curious what happens when you combine it with this potion.''
``And what does that potion do?''
``That's the second part of this test.''
Lucy zapped Jake's head with the honey wand. As expected, his head and neck grew to a bear's size. His bandana came undone as a result. His muzzle grew bigger too and his ears became a more circular shape. The potion took effect and the fur on Jake's head turned silver and shiny. It sparkled in the light.
``Ah, excellent!'' Lucy exclaimed and began to write down the results of the tests.
Jake bent down and picked up his bandana. ``So are there any more tests you need me to do?''
``Nope, that was the last one. You can change back anytime you want.''
Jake nodded. He tried to tie his bandana back on but his neck had grown too big. There wasn't enough slack to tie a knot. ``Uh, actually, I can't,'' he said.
Lucy looked up and sized-up the situation. ``Oh, uh... I'll go get the sandalwood candle.''
Jake paused for a moment. ``You know what? That's okay,'' he said at last, ``This isn't the first time this happened. I can just tie extra string on the ends to make more slack. Until then... I guess I'm a chimera,'' he finished cheerfully.
Lucy smiled. ``You make a good chimera too!''
``Thank you! Now, do you have any non-TF cookies?''
