It was a hot summer morning as a young dragoness named Ninja arrived at the local pool. She was a Black dragon with a neon green belly and wings. She was average height for a dragon of her age. She was working at the pool as an attendant, responsible for getting the pool ready in the morning. She went about her duties with the usual bored attitude she always did. Skimming the pool, adding chemicals, Setting out the chairs for the guests, Ect. She then ran into a fellow co-worker, a young kobold named Mike, coming in for the day.
“Hey Nin,” He said, waving to her. “Always starting early Huh,” He giggled.
“Well someone has to do it,” She said, starting to pull more toys out. “Besides, you know your little butt can’t get it done.”
The kobold rolled his eyes and chuckled. “Yeah, Have to have the big strong dragon to help the little kobold,” He said, heading into the snack bar. “Just make sure all those toys get put out in the right areas!”
“Yeah yeah, I got it,” The dragoness shouted back. She then set about finishing up just as the pool opened and Dozens of customers poured in. The day continued on as the two of them continued to work, keeping the customers happy, and making sure the pool was kept clear and clean.
Around mid afternoon there was a loud pop that came from the back of the pool. Ninja looked out and sighed as she knew that sound, one of the toys had been popped. It was a common thing around the pool. As the pool was a service of the town, they rarely got extra funds to buy new toys. The employees would either buy new ones or patch up the old one’s themselves. Ninja sighed as she headed over to the other side of the pool to retrieve the broken toy.
“Damn, another broken toy. Sorry kids, this one is out of service until tomorrow,” She said looking down at the kids that were playing with it. She then walked away with it in hand. She headed back to the storage shed and began to look over the toy. It was a large dragon ring floaty that almost looked a little like the dragoness herself. She chuckled a little and set the broken pool toy on the table inside the shed.
“You stay here big boy. I’ll be back this evening to pick you up,” She said giggling and winking. She then headed back to the main area and continued to work her day. The rest of the day continued on without a major incident. A minor dispute here and there, telling kids to stop running there, typical lifeguard issues. Around 6pm the pool closed and the pair started to close up. Around that time there was a knock at the outer office door. Ninja answered the door and accepted a small box from a small Amazon driver.
“What’s that,” The kobold asked looking in.
“Vinyl repair kit. We didn’t have any on hand, so I ordered one. Just glad it got here before we left. You go ahead and head on out. I have to repair that toy before I put all the stuff back in,” Ninja said, smiling at him.
“Alright. Have fun with that, and don’t stay here too long,” He said, throwing his backpack over his shoulder. He gave a little wave and headed out the door. Ninja waved as he left and closed the door behind him. She then turned and headed back to the shed with her box.
“Alright, let’s see what we got,” She said, using a claw to open the box. Inside was a slightly smaller white box with the words Vinyl repair printed on it. She smirked and took it out looking over it carefully. There was not much else on the box, just something written in Chinese on the back. She shrugged and opened that book and took out its contents. A single tube, a few black vinyl patches, and a small paper fell out on the table. She knew what the tube contained as she had used kits like this before. The paper she figured it was warnings and instructions, but couldn’t tell as it was also in Chinese. She ignored it and began to get to work. She grabbed the old toy and made sure it was dry before spreading it out over the table.
“Man, I really wish we could just get new toys,” She said, running a towel over the hole in the toy. She then reached over and grabbed the tube and one of the patches. She flattened and straightened the hole carefully before opening the tube. The strong smell of glue filled the air as she broke the seal. She fanned her nose and exhaled to clear the air before she spread a bead of glue around the hole. She then pressed the patch to the toy and spread the glue carefully. After a few minutes, the toy was fixed.
Ninja nodded and started to stand back up and wiped her forehead. As she went to move her other hand away from the toy, she saw that it was now stuck to the toy, it looked like some of the glue had leaked around the edge of the patch and stuck to her as well. She sighed and grabbed the toy and tried to pull it away, but it wouldn’t budge. She frowned and pulled at it again.
“What the hell,” She said, pulling again and again. She then noticed something off about her hand. It was shiny, like the vinyl it was stuck to. Then she saw that the shininess was starting to spread slowly up her arm. She panicked and pulled at the old toy again and began shaking it, but still it wouldn’t budge. She panicked and looked around for the warning paper that came with the kit. After a few seconds she found it and pulled out her phone. She fumbled with the phone and quickly pulled up google text translator. After taking a picture of the warning, the app gave back this translation.
“WARNING! Product is for use only with rubber and vinyl products. Contact with skin may result in product merging with skin. Do not use product on pool toys or anything in contact with Chlorine and other pool chemicals.”
Ninja panicked at this and let go of her phone to start pulling on the toy again, By now it had changed her up to her shoulder, and she was starting to lose feeling. She began to pull and thrash her arm around, desperate to get it loose. In her haste however, she knocked the tube to the floor, and a minute later tripped on an old pool noodle, landing on the tube and popping it, getting its contents all over her back. She panicked even more and rolled off, making the pool toy fully stick to her as well.
She grunted and struggled as her body slowly merged with the pool toy, turning her into a new pool toy as well. She watched her torso began to stretch, a hole forming in the center and slowly widening, becoming the same size as the old toy’s ring. She screamed out and looked around for help. She saw her phone sitting on the table and started to pull herself toward it.
“Just…have to….call for help…,” She said as she pulled herself closer and closer. Her legs were starting to shrink by now and turn into the rear flippers on the floaty. The good thing was, she was getting lighter, but she had to work fast. She managed to reach her phone and get hold of it just as her other hand began to turn to vinyl. She fell to the floor again and poked at the screen again and again, but with her vinyl fingers, nothing happened. She panicked again and leaned down to try and use her nose next.
“Come on, just gotta open it phone and….YES,” She said managing to get her pass code in. The screen turned to her home screen just as her arms began to shrink and turn into the flippers front flippers. She leaned over and used her nose to try and get the phone working. Slowly she managed to dial 911.
“Come on, come on,” She said as the phone rang. Finally there was a click and another voice came on the line.
“911, what’s your emergency,” The female voice said.
“Yes! I need help! I got this stupid Chinese vinyl repair kit and it got spilled on me and now I’m turning into a pool toy,” She said, rambling the words out.There was a pause on the other end of the line before they spoke again.
“Ma’am, is this some kind of pranks?”
“NO! I’m serious! Please you have to believe me,” She said, as her tail shrank as the tip widened and turned into a fish tail.
“Ma’am, 911 is for emergencies only. Please don’t call us with prank calls,” The voice said. The call then ended as the call time flashed on screen.
“NO! Please I….Damn it,” She said groaning as the changes began to progress up her neck next. She groaned and tried to call out as her neck stretched to a few feet, matching the old toy. She panted silently as her head was next.
“Ok, one more chance, gotta call Mike,” She said, scrambling with her phone again. She scrolled through her contacts as quickly as she could just barely managing to hit the button call as the vinyl spread slowly up over her nose. The phone rang and rang as the changes continued. She whined softly as she felt her horns turn and flop down on her head. Just then the phone answered, only to get the voicemail. His message played as she mumbled softly, her mouth slowly shifted into a permanent toothy smile as a valve formed in the front. She looked at the phone as it beeped to record the message but it was too late. Finally, with one last soft whine, the vinyl covered her completely as the valve popped open and she began to deflate, leaving her there until morning.
In the morning, her kobold co-worker came in at his usual time, having no idea of what happened. He looked around, everything seemed to be like it should be. Chairs out, toys out. Pool had some leaves in them, but that wasn't uncommon. The only thing he didn’t see was the old floaty toy Ninja had to fix. He headed to the shed to find it sitting on the floor, deflated. He shrugged, figuring Ninja had something important to go to last night and left the toy where it was.
As he walked in though, Ninja was able to see him and tried to call to him, but was completely silent. She watched as he picked her up and carried her back to the small air compressor in the back. He flipped a switch at the top and it kicked on with a loud rumble. He then picked up the hose and slipped the nozzle into her valve. As he squeezed the handle, air rushed into her body, slowly inflating her. She mentally moaned as she tried to wiggle and move her body as he got into shape. Soon though, the air was too much and her skin began to puff and stretch. She groaned as she felt her new seams stretch and strain as he slowly got her to proper pressure. Her vinyl body creaked and groaned under the strain before he stopped the air. He then capped off her valve and carried her out to the pool.
“I wonder where Ninja is? All the stuff is out. Maybe she had to run out to get something,” He said, carrying her in his arms. He tossed her out into the pool and watched as she floated out farther.
Ninja screamed in her head, desperately trying to get free and get his attention. But it was no good. She couldn’t make a noise with her perma smile muzzle. She was a pool toy now, destined to float around and be squeaky for the rest of time.
