You know what happened in the last story but what if events played out a little differently?
The cheetah felt like she could run all day after she had that speed juice but knew that it wouldn’t last that long. With some (okay, a lot of) reluctance, she made her way back to the juice bar. By the time she arrived, she was beaming.
Hypr noticed this and was happy for her. He noticed something else too. Was her belly even bigger now? “Hello,” he greeted, “Had a good run?”
“Oh, Hypr, it was great!” gushed the cheetah, “Nothing like a good run to get you pumped up. Woo! I needed that.”
“Hey, that’s great,” replied Hypr. He paused awkwardly then asked, “Um, your belly didn’t get bigger, did it?”
The cheetah looked down and saw that it had. She shrugged it off. “Huh. it must’ve happened when I tripped. Don’t worry, I’m fine, thanks to that protection juice. It needs some tweaking but I think that drink of yours could make a good addition to the menu.” Hypr was flattered. “So could that healing juice idea you had. Of course, we’ll have to come up with a different animal potion to use for it.”
Hypr thought for a moment. “What about a deer potion?” he suggested, “You know, because of the way they shed and regrow their antlers?”
The cheetah’s eyes lit up. “Yes! We can even use it to supplement the supplies for the agility juice! Hypr, you’re brilliant!” Without thinking, she picked the cat up and hugged him, squeezing him tight.
“Ack! Strong,” he wheezed.
“It shouldn’t take more than a week for it to get here. If all goes according to plan, there might be a surprise in store for you.”
“That sounds exciting,” said Hypr.
“Of course, you’ll still have to work for me at the juice bar until then.”
“I don’t mind but I can’t really do that when you’re trying to break me in half.”
“Oops!” The cheetah released her hug/death grip on Hypr. “Sorry.”
So things carried on pretty much how they were with Hypr working at the juice bar. The big difference now was that the cheetah really enjoyed her runs again. Despite this, she still wasn’t slimming down. Both found it strange but as far as the cheetah was concerned, so long as she could still go running, she didn’t care how big she was and if she didn’t care about it, Hypr didn’t see a reason why it should bother him.
But Hypr was still a cat and despite the saying, he couldn’t help but be curious about it. He kept a close eye on the cheetah whenever he could. There was something going on, he just couldn’t put his claw on it.
That was until a few days later. The cheetah was just coming in from her walk, as usual when, just before she went inside, she tripped and fell forward. She thought nothing of it. She just stood up, brushed herself off and walked through the door. It was a bit of a squeeze but she made it through. Hypr had seen everything and it all clicked.
“Hello Hypr,” greeted the cheetah.
“Hello,” Hypr greeted back.
“The store is still standing,” she joked, “I suppose that means everything is running ship-shape?”
“Oh, it is,” replied Hypr then he changed the subject, “I saw you trip just now. Are you alright?”
“Yeah, just fine,” said the cheetah, “It didn’t hurt at all.”
“And that’s good. I couldn’t help but notice that you could fit through the door just fine before your run but just now, you barely fit through it.”
The cheetah paused for a moment as she mulled it over. “Huh. I suppose you’re right.”
“How often do you actually trip?” ventured Hypr.
The cheetah blushed. “Well, not much, really. Only about… once per run. At least. Hey, I’m not used to running with all this fat!” she added defensively.
“Hey, it’s okay. I’m not judging you. But…” Hypr sucked air through his teeth awkwardly. “I think that’s it. That protection juice must be adding more ‘protection’ everytime you fall like that.”
The cheetah facepalmed. “Of course. We’ll have to add an inhibitor to the recipe so it doesn’t go overboard.”
“Uh, heheheh, right…” Hypr smiled awkwardly.
“Anyway,” said the cheetah. “I’m gonna go change into something that fits me better. I’ll be right back.”
Hypr raised an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t think you had plus-sized clothing.”
“They’re new,” grumbled the cheetah, “I bought them for obvious reasons.” She climbed the stairs. She wasn’t used to climbing stairs with how big she was now either. However, she was able to make it to the top without mishap.
She came back to the top of the stairs wearing bigger clothing. Hypr was surprised that the clothes still had some slack to them. “At least I’m not that big,” the cheetah thought to herself.
She started quickly down the staircase. Too quickly. Her momentum carried her down faster than she was expecting. She stomped down on each stair much harder than she would’ve liked, with each stair she hit, the effects of the protection juice kicked in and she grew bigger and rounder.
Thankfully, the cheetah made it to the bottom of the staircase without falling. She wasn’t hurt but she was at least six times as big as she was just a moment ago. Possibly even bigger. The whole thing left her out of sorts for a moment.
Hypr had seen everything. He tugged at his shirt collar awkwardly. Wisely, he kept his mouth shut.
When the cheetah came to her senses, she wasn’t happy. She sighed heavily. “Hypr, I’m going to need you to help out around here longer than expected. I can’t fit behind the bar right now.”
“Yes, of course,” said Hypr. “I don’t mind.”
That put the cheetah somewhat at ease. “Good. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m gonna go for a run to calm my nerves.” She grabbed some speed juice, went to go outside and got wedged in the door frame. She sighed again. “Hypr, a little help here?”
“I’m on it,” said Hypr and went to push her out. He grabbed some strength juice too, just in case.
Over the next week or so, Hypr became the powerhouse of the juice bar. He worked hard preparing drinks and handling customers. While the cheetah could still handle the business side of the business, a lot of her time was spent trying to slim down. At least enough to fit behind the counter again and not get stuck every time she tried to fit through a door. She did so mostly by running, taking great care not to trip again. She did feel guilty that Hypr was handling the “frontline” work on his own but there wasn’t much she could do.
Hypr understood that she couldn’t really help him with customers and drinks and that she was trying to get to a point where she could help. Until she could, he took his responsibility seriously and worked hard to make sure the customers were happy. The cheetah noticed this and was very impressed.
At last, some time later, the cheetah had slimmed down. Still big but slim enough to fit behind the bar again.
Hypr chuckled. “So, how does it feel to be ‘skinny’ again?” he teased.
The cheetah rolled her eyes playfully. “It’ll be good to get back to this sort of work again,” she said, “Hypr, I can’t thank you enough for filling in for me. You’ve really stepped up here.”
“Well,” said Hypr modestly, “I just had a job to do, that's all.”
“You did a very good job indeed!” praised the cheetah, “In fact, between all your good work, your clever ideas and helping me find joy in running again, don’t think I’ve forgotten about that, I think it’s finally time.”
Hypr had a good feeling about where this was going. “You mean?”
“Yes! I think it’s time I gave you the blueberry juice recipe.”
Hypr was excited. “YAAAY!” he exclaimed.
“I’ll text it to you. I need to order some supplies anyway. My phone’s upstairs, I’ll handle the store when I come back down.”
“Sounds like a plan,” said Hypr. The cheetah disappeared upstairs and Hypr eagerly awaited the text.
It was only a few minutes before the text came through but to Hypr, it felt like ages. As soon as he got it, he disappeared into the back to prepare the drink. He read through the recipe carefully. Strangely, the recipe didn’t call for blueberries. Hypr did notice this but was too excited to care.
What neither of them realized at the time was that the cheetah wasn’t used to texting with her big clumsy fingers (yes, even her fingers grew bigger). The rest of the recipe was accurate but when she tried to text “blueberries”, her phone autocorrected it to “gooberries.” Neither she nor Hypr clocked the mistake.
Hypr searched the kitchen for the supposed “gooberries”. At last he found a small carton of them in the back of the fridge. There was only just enough for one drink and they looked like they hadn’t been touched in a long time. Still, there was no expiration date on them so Hypr eagerly took them and prepared his drink.
By the time it was ready and he came out of the back, the cheetah was already at the register and looking slightly slimmer.
She noticed the huge grin on Hypr’s face. “Is that the drink?” she asked.
Hypr nodded. “Yeah! I’m going to go out to the field at the end of the day and have it there.”
“Oh, that’s very noble of you.”
“Uh huh.”
The cheetah knew Hypr couldn’t stand to wait that long. “Ah, get out of here!” she said encouragingly, “I can handle this store by myself for a while.”
“Really?! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” exclaimed Hypr as he ran out of the store. He raced down to the field as fast as he dared. He didn’t want to spill the drink.
When he reached the field he wasted no time settling into place. “It’s been too long,” he thought as he gulped it down. He waited for the blueberrification to begin.
His belly certainly grew rounder, like it always did at the start. But then it stopped. It was round, true but it was only his belly, not his body as a whole. He felt disappointed.
“Maybe I didn’t make it right,” he thought sadly. Then something strange happened. Usually, his tail, arms and legs went unaffected during blueberrification, with the exception of turning blue. Now, however, his tail seemed to be growing bigger and longer. Big and wide enough to go along with his big and wide belly. It didn’t grow too long. Long enough for it to still stick out and curl up at the end.
His arms and legs grew too to better accommodate his bigger form. The toes on his feet fused together to make two bulbous toes on each foot. The same thing happened with his fingers to make two bulbous fingers on each of his hands.
His torso didn’t change too much, though it did grow bigger in every way to match the rest of his transformation. The most disorienting part was when his neck grew bigger and longer. It wasn’t by much but the sudden height difference was enough to make his head spin.
Speaking of his head, his muzzle shifted to become longer and more bulbous. He even lost his cat nose. Finally, his ears became rounder, longer and, you guessed it, more bulbous. They now more resembled pony tails draped behind him than they did ears.
At the end of it all, Hypr had been transformed into a goodra. He took a moment to take it all in and looked and felt himself all over. “Yeah, I definitely made that wrong.” He tried to stay calm. Freaking out was not going to help. He decided to cut the visit to the field short and go back to the juice bar to talk to the cheetah.
The cheetah didn’t recognize the goodra at once as he (just barely) squeezed through the door. “Hello, sir,” she greeted, “Welcome to-” She cut herself off as she got a better look at the goodra. He certainly looked familiar. When she looked into his eyes, it all clicked. “Wait a minute. Hypr?!”
“Uh, heh, heh. Hi.” Hypr waved meekly.
“I thought you were making a blueberry potion.”
“I was,” said Hypr defensively, “I even hunted down the gooberies to make it.”
The cheetah stared. “Gooberries? You don’t need gooberries to make blueberry juice.”
“That’s what it said in the recipe.”
The cheetah was indignant. “What?! No it doesn’t!” She pulled out her phone and searched through her messages. “I would never mix up ingredients like tha-” She stopped asshe read the recipe she sent. It said, plain as day, to use gooberries. “What but I could’ve sworn I typed ‘blueberries.’” She tried typing it again. Once again, she fumbled with her big fingers and it changed to “gooberries.” “Oh, so that’s what happened!” she exclaimed and explained it to Hypr. “Darn it! The sooner I lose all this weight, the better.”
“Well, I think you’re on your way,” said Hypr, “You do look smaller than the last time I saw you.” Indeed, even in the brief time Hypr had been away from the store, the cheetah had slimmed down just a little bit more.
The cheetah allowed herself a small chuckle. “Thanks, Hypr. I’m really sorry this happened to you. I didn’t even think we still had gooberries.”
“It’s okay. At least this won’t last forever. Oh and there weren’t many gooberries left. I used the last of them.”
“Well, at least that means something like this won’t happen again,” said the cheetah with a cheeky grin. “However, I think you need a change of clothes.”
Hypr agreed. He had been big before but there was something about being a goodra that made him feel chubbier than in the past. His clothes were certainly more snug on him now. “I’ve been meaning to get some bigger clothes for when I grow like this. It’s weird how often that’s been happening, lately.”
“Believe me, I know how inconvenient it can be. Don’t worry. I can lend you some of my plus sized clothes.”
“Oh really? Thank you!”
“No problem.” The cheetah led Hypr up to her apartment with a cheeky grin still plastered on her face.
In no time at all, the cheetah had Hypr dressed up in a maid’s top and dress to match. She showed him what he looked like in a mirror.
“Now, we’re even!” she snickered.
Hypr stared at his reflection. “But I don’t want to wear this!” he protested.
“Sorry, Hypr but that’s the only thing I have that fits you. Don’t worry, you can always go out and buy new clothes.”
Hypr perked up. “Yeah, that’s true.”
“Once your shift is done, of course,” the cheetah smirked.
And Hypr was bummed again. “Right… My shift… Do you think you could-?”
“Sorry,” said the cheetah sweetly, “It’s time for a run.” With that, the cheetah swiftly left and Hypr followed to take his position at the bar. He really hoped that no one he knew would come in and see him like this.
Shortly after, Oliver, a shiba inu with nice hair, walked into the juice bar. He was a friend of Hypr’s. “Hello Hypr,” he called, “I heard you were working here so I thought I’d-”
He trailed off when he realized that Hypr was a goodra wearing a maid outfit. He couldn’t help but chuckle. “Heheheh! What happened to you?” he asked, “Did you tick off the wrong person again?”
Hypr sighed. This was going to be a long shift.
