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The Experiment Written by Amethyst Mare for Cetas

It was never a quiet day in the rubber fur house.

Rubber furries were a curious phenomenom, though it would be incorrect to suggest that all of the inhabitants of the shared house were rubber furs and not all of the rubber furs were natural rubber furs. Ceyla and Celeste boasted rubber skin from birth and no explanation for their condition had been found, so the equine-dragon shapeshifter (another commodity) and dragon had learnd to live with it. Cora, the anthropomorphic dolphin, had been thankful to find Celeste and Ceyla when an unfortunate experiment had transformed her skin into rubber but sometimes wished that life generally was somewhat more normal. The cetacean endured a penchant for her experiments and commandeered exclusive use of the well built basement upon her arrival in the house. Not every home had a laboratory and Cora dedicated a portion of her time to discovering more about the affliction and luxury of rubber hides.

Down in the lab, the dolphin clicked, eyes focused on an aquamarine liquid bubbling in a test tube, which was suspended over a Bunsen burner; the blue flame barely flickered, setting the liquid to boil nicely. Cora rubbed her domed skull, the blowhole on the back of her head opening gently as she breathed. Her breath, alas, was forever audible to those in close proximity, though she took comfort in the fact that she could never be branded as a mouth-breather. She blinked several times in rapid succession, her eyes unfocused as if suffering weariness after some hours within the confines of the lab. Sighing, Cora traced her finger across the page of a hardback book, dog-eared and yellowing - she had a knack for acquiring unusual texts. The dolphin absentmindedly adjusted the lab coat that protected her everyday clothes - slim jeans and a cherry red t-shirt - and held her paw politely over her beak as she coughed. It was more of a reflex as something convulsed in her chest but one acquired unforgiving looks if she forgot her manners.

Cora consulted her notes, the overhead light glancing off her shiny, grey skin, blow hole opening and closing slowly as she breathed. It was very peaceful down in the lab, she thought, half-closing her eyes. Her head jerked forward in a vicious sneeze and the 'phin rubbed her head, soothing away the spark of pain on the top of her head. Sneezing was a vile act for a dolphin - hard on the blowhole. Were real dolphins even supposed to sneeze?

"I can't be getting sick," she muttered, taking a note down on a piece of scrap paper, torn across the top edge. The colour of her current vial had changed from peppermint blue to watermelon pink instead of the explosion she had expected: she was almost disappointed. "Too much to do, really. Too much to blinking do... Ah, ah...achoo!"

Caught by a second sneeze, Cora shrieked as the room suddenly grew far smaller, walls tightening against her sides. She desperately arched her stomach away from the metal table, apparatus clinking as it was displaced. Her skull was pressed to the unyielding ceiling and she could not move an inch for fear of causing more damage. But it was not the room that had shrunk at all - it was Cora herself! Squeaking, the dolphin gasped within the confines of her lab coat, burst at the seams. Sure, she was able to increase and decrease her size upon occasion and already y been tall at seven and a half feet, though nothing of this nature! Her tail thumped the basement door, reminding her of how small the basement was, too small to grow within. She'd break her equipment, corrupt the experiments, cause trouble...

Or had she already?

Placing her paws flat on two walls, Cora surveyed the mildly bubbling test tube. Now that she thought about it, a strange aroma wafted forth, the liquid a pale, baby pink. Fumes frosted around the opening and Cora growled under her breath, rumbling floorboards throughout the building in her frustration. Upstairs, the other occupants of the house and groaned as one.

"What's going on down there?" Ceyla called, frowning distrustfully at the basement door, situated opposite the living room. The black mare stretched out on the sofa with her hooves hanging off the arm - it refused to support her full height of eight feet - mane and tail flickering crimson and burnt umber. "You better not have an animal down there, Cora, you know what we've said about pets. They just wouldn't fit."

It's not pets that I'm worried about 'fitting', Cora sighed, fighting down the urge to sneeze. How the hell did this... Whoa!

Hacking, Cora doubled over coughing and her skin 'pinched' as if she had stretched too far while trying to reach a jar from the topmost shelf. With a disconcerting sense of smallness, she found herself back at her normal height with her lab coat ruined beyond repair. Cursing the fact under her breath - it was so difficult to find clothes in her size! - she drew the remains of the coat tightly around her body. Ceyla was going to kill her... Celeste probably wouldn't mind; she never minded or said that she minded things. But, if one of her experiments was causing her to grow and shrink whenever she sneezed or coughed...what would happen if its effects reached Ceyla and Celeste? The dolphin paled. What about Cetas? With due haste, she lunged for the vial and shoved a stopper into the neck, darting to the wall panel from which she would be able to ventilate the room, dispersing the dangerous fumes. Time was of the essence.

"Cora..." Ceyla grumbled, heaving herself up and striding to the basement door. "Guys?" She called the iron grey stallion and dragoness, who had been preparing something or the other in the kitchen, beyond Ceyla's culinary education. "Something's going on. Get down here, would you? Like, now!"

Cora sneezed violently and squealed as her body swelled to a proportion that the room could not bear to contain; her arms squashed against her sides and she was forced to hunch over with her knees almost touching the floor, skull in an upper corner of the room. How was she going to do anything with her size constantly changing? Would allergy medication help? She could not think straight. The dolphin muttered an obscenity and shuddered, shattering a beaker into a thousand glittering fragments. A thump above her head was all the forewarning she received of her friends approaching, freezing her in blatant panic. As she made to shout, she was taken by a coughing fit and her skin became too tight for her flesh. She shot down to a mere two inches, swamped on table in swathes of ripped fabric.

"Don't come down here!" Cora yelled as loudly as possible - her voice was too quiet, her lungs too small! She took a deep breath and tried again but, if anything, her second attempt was increasingly breathless and even quieter than the first.

The mare rested her dark paw on the door handle and paused, listening intently. Was there something other than Cora down there? No, she decided in a customary split second: whatever it was, she had to investigate. Who knew what Cora had concocted? Celeste hovered nervously behind Ceyla's shoulder. The violet scaled dragon with Eastern-draconian 'whiskers', brushed her blue hair away from her neck, a nervous tick, while etas stood at a safe distance, arms folded across his chest. Never a dull moment.

"Guys," he said, catching their attention. "I think we should-"

Ceyla screamed and hurled herself backwards as something shotup from the basement and slapped against the opposite wall like a wet fish. The two equines, braver than most, approached the strange, grey mass gingerly, probing it with their eyes as the dragoness hung back warily.

"It's a tail!" Celeste burst out as if she was answering the winning question on a quiz show. "It's Cora's tail! Cora! What have you done? Are you okay?"

"Do I look okay?" Cora snapped.

Knowing that the gig was up, the femfur sighed wearily and coughed, surprised when she returned to her everyday height, tail shrinking down the staircase. It was a relief to be back in her normal body again, even if the lab was well on its way to being destroyed and littered with broken glass. Carefully, she retrieved the thankfully intact test tube and set it gently back in the wooden rack, as far back against the wall as possible to hopefully forego further accident.

"Can we come down?" Cetas narrowed his eyes. "Just what have you done this time?"

"No," Cora said firmly, casting a critical eye over the damage. "I'll come up."

"Fair enough," Celeste answered her in a quiet tone, wishing that she could curl into herself to escape the drama. "As long as you are...achoo!"

"Was that a sneeze?"

"Yeah," Celeste sniffled.

Cora tore up the stairs and landed at Celeste's paws in a fluster, blowhole expelling air in a hasty 'puff'.

"Please tell me you didn't sneeze," she begged Celeste. "Please, please tell me you didn't do it. I misheard you, didn't I? Please? Come now, hon, it was not a sneeze."

"Um...sorry?" Celeste looked down and fiddled with her thumbs. "It could have been...dust? I'm sorry."

Cetas averted his eyes from Cora's torn attire, barely enough to maintain her modesty; lightly coughing into her palm (a deliberate cough), the dolphin glanced down in silent apology. Celeste rubbed her yellow horn, which rose from the centre of her forehead, conspicuously and bone-shattering exhaustion washed over Cora, weighing her down with its very presence. She had gone and done it again: messed up.

"I didn't mean it like that, Celeste," Cora said more gently. "I'm sorry. I've done something stupid and, well, I have to fix it. Putting it bluntly."

"Something stupid, dearie?" Ceyla slung an arm around Cora who shrugged her off. "Come on, it can't be that bad. I'm sure there's been worse.

"Sorry, Ceyla... It's something like...a virus," Cora said slowly, casting about for the correct term. "I doubt it affects Cetas. Seems to only be us right now. Do you feel okay?" She directed her question towards the stallion who nodded and rolled his shoulders in a helpless shrug.

The mare scratched her shoulder, flinching as a sneeze caught her off-guard and the shocked rubber fur, so fiery in her demeanour, shrunk to less than a foot in height, clothes tumbling uselessly about her. Despite the situation, Cetas and Celeste exploded into laughter, holding on to each other to stay upright, while Cora hid a smile behind her paw, thinking it prudent to laugh at what she had caused. Celeste's whiskers shook with mirth.

"Well..." she began awkwardly. "I guess we can see now that it definitely affects the rubber furs."

"Shut up, you lot!" Ceyla whinnied indignantly, her new, high-pitched voice startling them into further peals of laughter. "This isn't funny! Cut it out right now! I'll get you all for this later!"

Ceyla snorted and coughed twice, swelling back to what could be considered a normal size, although her clothes did not rearrange themselves as they bad been; her top strained tightly across her chest and one arm stuck out of the neck, forgoing the sleeve. Jeans were another issue entirely. Muttering expletives, the equine stalked from the room, paws covering what her twisted clothes would not. Though Celeste giggled lightly, Cora pulled herself together and cleared her throat.

"Okay... Ceyla and Celeste have are showing symptoms," Cora said to Cetas. "You seem okay so far, but you have to look after them now."

Unable to hold back a sneeze, Cora bounced up two feet in height, snapping her beak in frustration. Turn half her body towards the basement, she shook her head and gestured in the general direction of the lab, knocking over a lamp with a stray swipe of her tail.

"Look, you get yourselves to somewhere more open, somewhere where you won't hurt yourselves," Cora waved vaguely. "You know. I'm going back down to sort out a cure for this thing, whatever it is."

"You sure you're going to be okay down there?" Celeste asked timidly, forced to tilt her head back to meet Cora's eyes. The dolphin nodded and jogged back to work, coat flapping around her toned legs.

"Yeah, just fine!" She shouted. "Try not to sneeze, cough or break anything if you change! And calm Ceyla down for god's sake!"

Cetas ran his fingers through his black mane as Cora disappeared and a crash emitted from the upper floor, swiftly followed by a low curse; Ceyla's re-dressing was not going as planned. If she was wise, she would retrieve a dressing gown for herself, he thought with a faint smile. A large dressing gown. It was difficult to ignore the amusement in the situation even if he worried for them. What if Cora could not find a cure? No, he could not think like that. She would do just fine and things would be as normal as their lives could be before long.

The purple dragoness swayed, snapping Cetas back to reality. Blearily, she made her way into the living room, aiming for the sofa as a coughing fit interrupted her mid-stride. Popping up three feet in height, Celeste's tail spurted backwards and thwacked Cetas in the chest. The stallion grunted in pain. Shaking her head very slowly as if battling confusion, Celeste flicked her tail tip, pondering the change in her attire. Shirt and loose trousers tightened around her skin, tearing as Cetas' jaw dropped.

"Careful, Cel," Cetas murmured at last. He pushed her tail to one side and guided her to the sofa, ensuring that her shirt was in place and trousers...they would have to do.

"I'm sorry," she said, though there was a distant look in her eyes. "Cetas, what do you think of Jared?"

"Jared?" Cetas was uncomprehending. "Who's that?"

"Some douche-bag that I work with," the dragoness sighed and allowed her head to loll far back, rolling lethargically from left to right.

"Why are you bringing him up now?" Cetas shook his head. "Haven't we got more pressing things to worry about? Can't you cough or something to shrink back to normal size? You guys are big enough as you are - to me anyway."

Celeste scowled uncharacteristically and slumped, flicking her tail tip to and fro as if chasing away an annoyance. Perching on the edge of the sofa, Cetas rested his muzzle in his paws, only casually listening to the thumps and growls emanating from upstairs. Should he check on Ceyla? It was touch and go as to how well that encounter would progress, if he dared brave her hot temper.

"He scored a promotion over me, you know," Celeste snarled abruptly, tail thrashing.

"Oh...I'm sorry to hear that," Cetas murmured awkwardly, patting her shoulder. "Why didn't you mention it before?"

She refused to answer, staring at her lap sullenly and twisting her fingers together over and over again. Sneezing yet again, her height increased by another foot and her trousers gave up entirely. Holding out a paw in the hope that she would take it, Cetas inched closer. Uncharacteristically, the dragoness ignored him.

"He's working today too," she went on, clicking her jaws - lined with sharp, draconian teeth - together threateningly. "I should go down and pay him a little visit. It's my hours that he's taking away. They are mine. He snuck in the manager's back pocket to get that promotion over me!"

"Cel, calm down, please," Cetas begged, scrambling to stand in front of Celeste, eye to eye. "This isn't you. Sure, some scumbag received something that you deserved... That's no reason to be so angry and stressing yourself out right now. This can be sorted when things are calmer, please, Celeste. Be calm."

She snorted in disgust and sprang upright, bending slightly in order to not scrape her horn across the ceiling.

"You're right," she said firmly. "I should not rant about that idiot here. I should go talk to him myself."

No!

"Celeste, hang on!" Cetas yelled, duly panicked. "You can't go out there! Remember what Cora said?" Celeste shrugged, a puff of acrid smoke curling from her nostrils.

"Outside is the safest place for me if I grow any larger," she said coolly, her argument not to be reckoned with. "Haven't you got another one to look after? Forgot Ceyla already, did you?"

Leaving Cetas struck dumb, Celeste jogged from the house, slamming the outer door shut with an unnecessary bang. She showed her teeth to a passing German shepherd who yelped and jumped out of her way as she stormed forward, coughing so hard that her lungs ached and her height expanded to an intimidating fifteen feet. Her office was situated in the centre of town, an accountancy firm, and passing furs shouted at her as she stomped onwards, the hard pads of her hind paws protecting her from the rough, hot tarmac. She didn't care for the cars that she pushed out of her path, though none slid far. A cacophony of horns and curse words heralded her progress as the last shreds of ruined cloth fell from her body.

The large square where her office was situated was a common gathering place for furs, though it emptied as Celeste approached, the dragon coolly ignoring their dispersal. Those little ones were of no concern to her. She was after another little one. Edged with shaped, carefully maintained foliage and gleaming, wooden benches, the square sat as a silent observer to the enraged, nude dragoness as she crashed through the double doors of Major Accounts.

"Um...miss? Miss?"

The understandably startled vixen on reception could not choke out more as Celeste laughed and flapped her wings just once, the resulting gust sending the frail vulpine head over heels in a flurry of paperwork. Huffing at the inconvenience, the dragoness found that she was too large for the elevator so to the stairs it was.

On the fourth floor, she discovered her target in one of the spacious conference rooms that she had lost the opportunity to enter. All on that dog's worthless head. Anger welled up within her at the dog's smug expression, his blonde hair (for he was a handsome Golden Retriever) perfectly groomed, as always for the meticulous canine. He was in a meeting with other furs of varying ages, sat around an oblong table in the centre of the room while they all listened with the utmost attention to the speaker. Celeste smirked.

"Well, well, well, what do we have here?" Celeste said, sliding open the clear glass door. The room fell into an awkward silence and her 'enemy', Jared, dropped his lower jaw in comic shock. Some of the more respectful furs averted their eyes.

"C-Celeste," he stuttered. "W-what are you doing? Here? Like that!"

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said, her tone heavy with sarcasm as she crouched and sprangon to the table, scattering papers and coffee mugs. Almost accustomed to the coughs and sniffles, she swelled and the gathered furs scrambled clear a second before the expensive mahogany table split beneath her weight.

"Thought furs should, you know, understand what actually went down concerning the most recent promotion," she continued, uncaring of the destruction. "You do so love honesty, don't you, Jared?"

The retriever stammered and shook his head, mumbling retorts that no fur could decipher over Celeste's mocking laughter. She growled deep in the back of her throat and the room vibrated with the force of her fury, glasses tinkling musically.

"He never stopped to think that shy, little Celeste would have the balls to tell all of you," she informed the room. "You never thought I had the guts to say it. Never thought I had the guts to say that you were only given that promotion, Jared Daniels, because you spread false rumours about me."

The room gasped and, despite the growing, hacking dragoness crouched amongst the splinters, all muzzles turned to Jared. He shook his head and held up his paws, attempting to appear dignified even as he cowered against the freshly painted white wall.

"You see, ladies and gents," Celeste continued, her eyes narrowing. "I may be a little different to you, but darling Jared here thought that didn't deserve a promotion. So he told everyone in this office and beyond that I was not a real fur, that I was an experiment gone wrong. I shouldn't have to justify myself. Perhaps he forgot that slander is illegal."

Holding a paw to her muzzle, Celeste's body shook with a sneeze and her hunched back pressed against the ceiling, sending cracks through the pristine plaster. She closed her eyes and swayed, blinking and thumping the windows with her restless tail. Slowly but surely, they started to show spider web cracks spiralling out to the edges. Jared groaned, jaws comically agape as he vocalised pup-like grunts and whines. Celeste laughed and pointed at him.

"You! Shut up! I'm a damn side better fur than you'll ever be!" Celeste roared, bursting into a cough and reaching out with one enormous paw, which was as large as a chest of drawers. "And I'm not in the manager's pants like that filthy dog! Now they all know, don't they, Jared?"

The remaining furs scrambled from the room as she coughed violently and her tail shattered the glass, the dragoness bursting from the building like a pea from the pod. With a tremendous effort, she kicked off from the groaning, protesting floor and into open space beyond the building. Falling for a brief moment, she landed with an earth-moving tremor and blinked, suddenly aware that the ground was far further away than it should have been. Uncertainly, she stroked her mane and glanced at the buildings as her eye level went up and up - still growing. The side of the office yawned obscenely, like the disfigured maw of an elderly fur, and black figures fled in all directions. She frowned. She wanted to see them.

Hissing between her teeth, she lunged, digging her heels into the broken paving stones. The building crumbled under her paws, glass cracking and collapsing as little shards worked their way into her paws, fuelling her rage. Behind several layers of glass and concrete, she sensed Jared disappearing into the depths of the warren, recalling every second of rage and pain he had caused her, simply because she was 'different' to him. He would pay.

*

Oblivious to the ensuing rampage, Cora swore in the laboratory, fighting with her body's natural instincts to maintain some degree of control. The dolphin had never been so claustrophobic, except that she was struggling to trap bodily reactions within her rubber skin. She ground her beak and whistled through her blowhole as the tickle grew into an itch and her makeshift table (a collapsible wooden desk) wobbled dangerously. She only had to hold out until she had designed and implemented a cure, she had to. It was so difficult to resist...

Her eyes widened fearfully and she gave an almighty sneeze, her battered coat splitting a seam over her shoulder as her body once again tested the boundaries of the basement. Cora leaned heavily upon the far wall, skull brushing the bare light bulb - the shade had broken in an earlier growth spurt - and delicately lifted the corrupt test tube in her oversized palm. It was neatly sealed with an impermeable cork, too petite to be manipulated by oversized sausage fingers.­­ Cora's facial muzzles twitched and another sneeze threatened to overcome her.

Directing her blow hole into a corner of the room, Cora sneezed and scrunched up her eyes, skin pinching as she went down and down and down. Her eyes snapped open and she shrieked loudly, falling on the table as a one inch tall dolphin with another beaker of liquid in her path! The test tube fell harmlessly to the table but Cora squealed for help as she landed on the rim of the beaker, teetering precariously on the edge. The aquamarine liquid below rippled invitingly, all too close to Cora's slipping hind paws. Taking a deep breath to steady her nerves, she flung herself backwards, away from danger, through the influence of another cough.

She reached for the desk as soon as her feet found solid ground and dived for the test tube in the process of rolling off the desk, one huge paw catching it in the nick of time. But the dolphin cursed and fumbled, clumsy in her hold of the fragile tube and caught by explicable terror of dropping it despite her best intentions. Her forehead furrowed in concentration and her anxiously swinging tail rattling a bookcase of textbooks. She hoped that she would have a chance to peruse them again one day, sooner rather than later.

"What's going on down there?" Cetas shouted, thumping on the basement door with a clenched fist. "Haven't you got it yet? Celeste's raging around the city! We can hear her roaring from here - god knows how large she's gone by this point! What are you doing?"

"I'm working on it!" Cora thundered, sending a tremor through the house, though Cetas gritted his blunt, equine teeth, refusing to flinch.

"You better hurry up then," he sighed. "It may have hit her worse than we thought. Ceyla's all right...talking to herself, but all right. We need this done, Cora, or furs are going to die with Celeste out there."

No pressure then, Cora thought, shivering and sneezing very quietly so that her body returned to its normal size, or close enough. Placing the test tube gently back in the steady, wooden rack (what would she do without it?), she rolled her sleeves and puffed a breath, eyes showing a flash of characteristic determination.

Hang in there, Cel...

*

Upstairs in her bedroom, the largest in the house, Ceyla shook her head at Cetas' 'encouragement'. Could he not see that it was not going to make the femfur work any quickly? It took time to develop a cure for a new virus and, to the shaken equine, Cora seemed to be doing a pretty good job. That was what she chose to believe.

Stretching out on the bed, Ceyla snorted a sneeze into the palm of her paw and sighed heavily, her fiery mane and tail flickering like an old film reel showing two images at once. She mumbled incomprehensible words that did not even make sense to her and clawed at the bed sheets, watching as if from above her body as a line of sharp claws shot from the tips of her fingers and then retracted as if they had never been there. A tear in the duvet said otherwise. Her body was too long for the bed.

"Are you sure you won't come outside?" Cetas appeared in the doorway, his black tail swishing like the pendulum of a clock, back and forth, back and forth. Ceyla's eyes followed the hypnotic motion.

"Ceyla!"

She blinked. She had not been paying attention as he spoke in a low, soothing tone. The grey horse tossed his mane - was it from frustration? - and groaned, pinning his ears back. Ceyla watched without moving, coughing into the pillow and shrinking a little, though her heavy hooves hung over the wooden footboard.

"Go away," she said without any tone or inflection. "I don't want to see you now."

They both flinched as a roar shook the house and Cetas chanced a glance out the window, taking a step back from what he saw there. Noting his concern, Ceyla shook her head vigorously as if she was trying to dislodge water from her ears, a long, blue-tinged draconian tail appearing for a split second and then disappearing, so quickly that one might have thought that they had imagined seeing it at all.

"Go help her," Ceyla murmured, wrapping her arms around a pillow and pushing her muzzle into the duvet. "She needs it more."

"Yeah, Ceyla," Cetas said, perching on the edge of the bed. "I know Celeste isn't doing so well. But we're worried about you now."

"You shouldn't."

"Shouldn't what?"

"Worry."

Ceyla rolled over stared up at the ceiling, dressing gown falling open at the front, although she made no move to close it. She blinked lethargically and coughed, simultaneously inflating her size and shifting to her dragon form, blue toned like the sky at twilight, somewhere between true dark and light, with a lighter hued mane of tumbling hair. Her long tail, so like Celeste's, curled and uncurled, a restless serpent. As though she was unsatisfied, Ceyla shifted again, returning to her horse form with a sneeze that reduced her size to a mere two feet, the little 'pony' swamped by her gown. The black mare smiled and drew the swathes of fleece around her body, features rapidly changing back into the draconian, sharper angles of her other form. She wheezed out a cough, shooting up to twelve feet in an instant. The bed creaked.

"Why are you doing that?" Cetas murmured. "You're stretching your...uh...robe..."

She ignored him, choosing instead to curl up on her side, blinking listlessly out the window as the bed protested. Her dressing gown fell back, exposing more than she would have normally allowed, and she mumbled, reaching into the thin air before her muzzle. She struck out blindly for something that only she could see, letting out a small cry as her target slipped through her fingers. Cetas scooted closer and rubbed her shoulder.

"Don't worry, it will all be over soon," he said soothingly. "Cora will work out a cure and you guys will be back to normal. But, please, Ceyla," he added as she coughed and suffered another growth spurt that shoved him back. "Please come outside with me? It will be safer."

"Can't," she muttered. "I'll split. Can't."

Cetas puzzled over her words. Split? Split what? Ceyla rubbed her side slowly and rhythmically, tracing her paw below her rib cage. She hacked and deflated to a more manageable size, leaving Cetas able to breathe easier.

"You've got a cramp?" Cetas concluded, relief flooding through him. "Just lie still and it'll go away, I promise. Come outside with me."

Too large to fit comfortably in the room, Ceyla nodded blindly and stumbled to her paws and knees, pushing her shoulders against the doorframe, which she was, of course, too large to squeeze through. She did not realise why she could not pass. Shouting, Cetas tried to push her back but the larger fur's strength was too much and he was tossed sideways against the bedside table with the crooked lamp. Air blasted his muzzle as Ceyla coughed furiously, her whole body shaking, and then it was too late for doors. Her tail and rear end pressed to the large, bay windows that Ceyla had been so fond of and broke through in a shower of cracked panes, legs protruding beyond in a fashion that would have been comical in another situation. The stallion sighed and hid in the doorframe while Ceyla peered blearily over her shoulder to take note of the destruction.

"Just slide yourself backwards," Cetas told her. "You'll land on your feet. The robe's a goner though."

Nude from ears to tail tip, Ceyla pushed backwards through the ruined remains of the window, taking a fair section of wall with her. Cetas peered after her, glad that her rubber skin seemed unaffected by the rough brickwork or shards of glass, though he didn't know whether that was from natural resilience or due to her condition. He had never had to encourage a rubber fur to work her way through rubble before.

Landing with a ground shaking 'thud' in the small garden, Ceyla shuffled her hind paws and made some room for herself on the lawn, doing her best in a moment of sense to avoid the flowerbeds that Celeste tended so diligently. She sat down and curled her legs to the side in a ladylike manner, crossing one arm over her chest to preserve a little of her dignity. The houses around theirs to busy families that were out during weekdays so she vaguely hoped that she would go unnoticed until all was well. Twitching her tail, she coughed into her paw and shrunk so that her head was level with the crumbles of her first floor room, mostly concealed from the road while seated.

"I've got it!" Celeste screeched, tumbling out of the basement in a flurry of paws, tail and a slightly worse for wear grey coat, smoking at the corner. "Where is everyone? Hey!"

"Garden," Cetas called back by way of answer.

Cora rushed out the backdoor and veered to avoid Ceyla's hooves as she coughed and shifted to a horse. The dolphin waved a syringe and caught sight of Cetas leaning out of the remains of Ceyla's bedroom, holding on to the broken brickwork for balance.

"So...yeah, I've worked out a cure, no need to congratulate me or anything," Cora said awkwardly, tilting her beak backwards. "As I can see, renovation work is going to be our next issue."

Ceyla blinked and could not summon any sense of relief at the comedic lapse, distant from her surroundings. In the physical distance, Celeste roared and the ground trembled as if victim to an earthquake.

"You should give it to Celeste before she kills someone," Ceyla said quietly, rubbing her shoulder. "I'll be fine. You guys go."

Cora shook her head and motioned to Cetas to join her. Ceyla looked well to her, if larger than usual. Tripping over his hooves in his haste, Cetas clip-clopped through the house and into the garden; his hooves were loud on the stone path. Cora tightened her grip on the syringe, the pale gold liquid splashing against the interior of the plastic container.

"Right, so we tackle Celeste first," Cora said firmly. "Come on!"

Cora hurled herself out the garden gate and on to the street; the tell tale sound of hooves on tarmac following close upon her bare heels. The terrifying roars and earth tremors, all too close for comfort, told them exactly which direction to run.

"So just how are we going to jab Celeste with this needle," Cetas panted, galloping flat out, "if she's running around like a lunatic?"

"I didn't take the cure yet," Cora answered breathlessly, her tail slapping against her legs. "I have a plan, trust me."

"Wait! So you might shoot up again? Are you crazy?" Cetas yelled, latching on to her arm to make her face him mid-stride.

"I damn well hope to!"

Celeste's range of fury had not extended beyond the square of office buildings but there was little left of the shrubbery and elegant paving stones, carved to commemorate their creation, after her brutal hind paws had had their way. Sparks fluttered within the office building, one or more floors demolished beyond recognition in Celeste's search for her adversary, and the dragoness growled like a wild animal. Thrusting a long arm into the building's belly, she groped blindly and sniffled, squeezing her eyes tightly shut and inflating a barely noticeable, in consideration for her current size, six feet. Cetas gulped and stared, struggling between averting his eyes and keeping tabs on the looming rubber fur.

"You better have a good plan," he muttered, ducking behind a decorative pot that had somehow survived her destructive spree.

Cora levelled her gaze and nodded once, inhaling deeply so that her chest expanded and, as her lungs reached that certain point of expansion, the 'virus' in her chest triggered and she exploded into a coughing fit. Her skin stretched massively and when she stood up to her full height, she found that she was level with the thirty foot high windows. It wasn't a patch on Celeste's height, but she only had to be tall enough to dodge and not be in danger of imminent crushing. Or so she told herself. The dolphin looked down at the syringe, cradled in a line of her palm, and reached to the ground to slide it awkwardly into Cetas' grasp.

"You've got to inject it," she instructed in a low tone, though her voice boomed. "I'll be the distraction. Get to it."

As quickly as possible then, Cetas thought, readying his thumb on the syringe. Inject a crazy rubber fur who happens to be a giant now with a cure. Easy.

Taking advantage of Celeste's distraction - Cora could not believe that her distraction had been so immense - the dolphin charged with a series of clicks and cetacean squeaks, drawing the dragon's immediate attention. Celeste was on at her once, whipping around with a ferocious snarl, pupils large and frenzied. Cora had no doubt that the dragoness was not aware of her actions, so felt no shame in body slamming her into the side of the building, splintering the glass in one, solid blow.

Cetas shivered at Cora's daring and darted after her, avoiding the thunderous hind paws of both furs so that he could slip lithely behind Celeste. The dragoness' tail swung above his head like the arm of an out of control crane and he ducked, barely avoiding the limb that would have otherwise sent him flying sideways, perhaps with broken bones. He crawled closer and Cora latched on to Celeste, wrapping her arms around her waist and trapping her arms against her sides, though she roared indignantly and stomped her hind paws. Narrowly avoiding a stomp, Cetas rolled to the side and jabbed the needle into her huge, boulder of a heel, depressing the plunger half way to administer the required dose. And the dragoness shrunk.

Sniffling, Cora grappled with the shrinking Celeste as she grew smaller and smaller and the dust from their terse fight wafted into her blowhole, inducing her to sneeze and join Celeste in her shrinkage. Returned to her normal size, Celeste panted heavily, moaning and rubbing a paw across her eyes as if to wake herself up in the morning; Cetas hovered anxiously nearby, passing the syringe between his paws, half-full.

"What...what happened?" Celeste mumbled, sprawled out on her back like a rag doll. Cetas chuckled wearily and offered the half-spent syringe to Cora who gratefully took it and injected herself with the cure, barely flinching.

"Things got a little out of paw," Cetas said by way of explanation, his eyes on a group of uniformed furs to Celeste's back. "But it seems that the police think that you have some explaining to do. Best get it over with."

*

"I can't believe I did all of that," Celeste groaned, wrapped up in the oversized spare clothes that the police had been kind enough to supply her with. The three furs were walking back to their home on weary paws several hours later. It was twilight and the first stars were dotting the sky. "And now I have to go through tests and a hearing to prove that I was not in my sane mind and under the influence of a medical virus? Cora!"

"I know, I know, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," Cora repeated like a mantra, also clad in large, nondescript clothes that did not belong to her. "It will all come right, I promise, I'm sorry."

Cetas sighed, choosing to not enter into the argument - it was just like them to moan at one another and there was no true harm in it. He sleepily half-closed his eyes and slid the key into the lock on the front door, pausing halfway through the motion. Was he forgetting something? A muffled shriek noted him to the affirmative.

He raced away from the femfurs and vaulted the fence into the garden, wheeling around the side of the house and almost running face first into Ceyla's stretched out legs. She had no shape that his eyes could decipher, changing between horse and dragon so quickly that his eyes could not make out one from the other. The horse-dragon drew one knee up to her chest and kicked out suddenly, thrashing a tail like a cat-of-nine-tails, both equine and draconian simultaneously. Cora rounded the corner and gulped, disappearing into the heart of the house, presumably in search of another syringe of the cure that she had concocted. Cetas approached Ceyla as if trying not to frighten a young animal.

"Ceyla?" He said cautiously. "Are you okay? Why are you shifting?" She turned on him, eyes blazing darkly.

"Get away from me!" Ceyla screamed, hurting the other furs sensitive ears. "Get out of here! All of you! I don't want any of you here! Leave me alone!"

She struck out at Cetas who leaped aside, shocked at her demeanour, and Celeste uttered a curse behind him, paws flying up to cover her muzzle. Ceyla groaned and rolled over on to her paws and knees, half-rising to her changing feet-hooves before the effort proved too much for her and she crashed down to the ground, coughing and shrinking another ten feet - it was difficult to discern with her shape changing so rapidly. It was as if she could not keep her focus or her mind fixed enough to maintain one shape... Cetas went cold all over as if he had been doused in icy water as he realised what reaction the virus had drawn from her.

"Grab her, Cel!" Cetas shouted over the wailing horse-dragon. "Her two forms are trying to split apart!"

Celeste paled and trotted forward, avoiding Ceyla's flailing arms the best she could. But when Ceyla spotted her, the horse-dragon's eyes sharpened and she screeched more vehemently. An arm shot out from Ceyla's side and disappeared - an arm that should not have been there, an arm from the 'other' form in that moment. Celeste took a blow to the jaw and dived on to Ceyla's pale blue stomach, pinning her down with her weight and curling her tail around a wrist in a partial restraint. Cetas, considerably smaller than the two rubber furs, latched on to her ankles, wrinkling his muzzle at the ever-changing rubbery skin beneath his fingers; it was a most disconcerting sensation and he could not imagine what it must have been like for Ceyla. Where the hell was Cora?

"Get AWAY!" Ceyla screamed, landing a solid kick to Cetas' ribs and knocking him over backwards. "All of you! I've had enough of this! Leave me be!"

The stallion rolled aside, clutching his ribcage, and Celeste growled, grappling with Ceyla's wrists. The rubber fur's breath was uneven and harsh, scraping against her lungs with every breath, and her struggles were becoming increasingly violent with every passing second. She raked her claws down Celeste's arm, drawing a ribbon of blood, though the dragoness gritted her teeth, bearing the pain without relaxing her grip in the slightest.

Ceyla abruptly stiffened and fell utterly limp, her form changes slowing and finally settling on her black equine shape. Her height reduced to her normal eight feet and her arm slid off her stomach, thumping heavily into a flowerbed, which had at some point been demolished by the horse's thrashing. As she settled back against the grass, grass stains on her rubber skin, Cora stepped forward from the equine's shoulder, an empty syringe held in her paws.

"Two doses," she said shakily. "That was a bad case."

"Better get inside before we draw any more attention," Cetas observed, nursing his bruised side. "We've seen enough of sirens today. Is that all now? No more surprises? All cured?" Cora nodded. "Good."

Helping Ceyla gingerly back into the house and into the comfortable window chair, plumped up with cushions, Cora finally breathed a sigh of relief. Cetas rubbed the back of his head and averted his eyes from the still nude femfur; as the danger had passed, it suddenly seemed to be the most pressing concern. He muttered something about retrieving clothes - Ceyla appeared reluctant or even unable to move a muscle - and fled the room.

"You know, I could really go for a coffee..." Ceyla hinted weakly, half-smiling and winking at Celeste, who rolled her eyes and smoothed her mane back into some semblance of refinement; her lightly bleeding arm had clotted, though the pain caused her to twitch faintly.

"Yeah, she's returned to us all right," Celeste said dryly. "And I happen to be the best coffee maker in the house, so cool your heels and I'll be back in a tick."

"Thanks, hon."

The mare stretched out her legs and crossed one ankle over the other while Celeste made herself busy in the kitchen, the dragoness humming quietly to herself as she worked. Cora perched on the edge of a straight-backed dining chair and scuffed a hind paw over the carpet, self-consciously drawing her pale, dirtied around her otherwise naked form. None of the femfurs felt themselves adequately clothed that day. The dolphin fur fidgeted anxiously, unable to draw her mind from what was bothering her the most - the obvious - though she feared Ceyla and Celeste were too kind to breach the topic. If she had not been so hasty in the lab, had not been mixing dangerous substances, well...things would have gone down a mite better, any fur could have seen that.

"Ceyla," Cora began quietly, rubbing her knuckles over her sore eyes. "I'm so, so sorry. I never meant for any of this to happen. But furs in trouble always say that, don't they?" She added bitterly.

With some effort, Ceyla propped herself up with one arm, trembling badly, and shook her head slowly and deliberately. She wetted her lips with the tip of her tongue, shaking her head once more as if it was so required to make her point.

"Cora, no, it's not your fault," she murmured softly, wishing that she had the strength to move, to get up and comfort the distressed cetacean. "I mean...yes, it came from your lab, but it could just as easily have come from any other lab, been carried to us on the air and infected us on the street. It could have been from a power plant - any chemical reaction anywhere at all. This was just bad luck. You didn't mean to hurt us, no?"

Cora shook her head, widening her eyes at the very thought of doing something so deliberate and malicious.

"There you go then," Ceyla tried to smile. "It was not meant to happen, as you said. You were just doing an experiment in the privacy of your lab. If we had not been so close when your tail slammed open the door, you would likely have only had to cure yourself. And look at me!" Ceyla gestured shakily at her body. "I'm fine, really, I'm fine. Celeste is fine, you're fine. I'm fine."

"You gave us a right scare though, even if you are fine," Celeste added quietly, setting a steaming cup of milky coffee upon the circular side table beside Ceyla, within arm's reach. "There you go."

"Thanks," Ceyla replied automatically, though she did not reach out to take the coffee.

To their relief, Cetas arrived with an armful of hastily gathered clothes for Ceyla who pulled them on with the assistance of the ladies, though she complained good-naturedly about being dressed as if she was a cub again.

"We only have one request, Cora," Cetas said seriously. Cora clicked nervously and arched her tail as if slapping it down on invisible water.

"What's that?" She asked anxiously?

"I think you will have to cut down on the experiments, more so the dangerous ones," Cetas continued with a smile perking up the corner of his lips, though he consciously fought to appear as stern as a school teacher. "We can't have rubber furs shooting up and shrinking all over the place, you know!"

Celeste tittered and clapped a paw over her muzzle.

"Or rampaging giants terrorising the city," Cetas added, half rolling his eyes as if he was barely restraining himself from a more direct comment; Celeste blushed and ducked her head shyly, scratching a claw across the table top. "We'll have to explain that to someone," the stallion added to Celeste who nodded mutely.

"It's okay, guys," Cora held up her paws, palms up. "I promise. No more dangerous stuff."

"How do you know if it's dangerous or not though?" Cetas probed cynically. Cora clicked and glanced from left to right, sweeping her gaze over her friends with what she hoped was a self-assured expression. She hoped.

"I'll know," she said confidently. "I can still do fun things. Besides, you wouldn't like to have to buy commercial fireworks for New Year's now, would you?"

Cora's fireworks were legendary and some of the best explosions she produced, the furs remembered fondly. Though the neighbours did not think so kindly of them as the sound waves were difficult to ignore if someone was, rather strangely, having an early night on New Year's Eve. Grinning and observing their more cheerful expressions, Cora knew that she had won them over. But she surely would not be experimenting with anything that could possibly cause sickness or disease ever, ever again, that much was sure. She valued her friends too much for that.

Although...other things... She mused and looked out the window, noting a red fire engine roaring past, sirens making her flinch momentarily. There is more to be learned here. Just what caused us to grow and shrink uncontrollably? Why did we all experience different reactions? Why did Ceyla's two sides attempt to separate?

She sighed lightly and cupped her cheek in the curve of her paw, watching furs striding past their house, oblivious to recent events. Or perhaps not so oblivious if they had happened to catch a glimpse of the afternoon news report. Overcome with curiosity about the world, Cora smiled secretively to herself, designing her next experiment in her mind's eye. Oh yes, she would make good and sure that nothing bad happened to her friends ever again and would prevent future reactions. That was a worthy, sensible, reasonable goal, she thought with a hint of smugness. Besides...if she quarantined the lab, how could they make any objection to her plans?

Of course they would not mind!