Despite being well into the afternoon, the airport Emma found herself in was bustling, as busy as she’d ever seen it. After a grueling hour of customs and bag checking, she managed to get through to the terminals, shifting her way between luggage carts and business men just to find a place to stand. Eventually she pushed her way to the one of the sides of the hall, standing there for a moment as she ran her hand through the back of her dirty blonde hair, but after everything she found herself standing there with no idea what to do next. Leaning against one of the larger bay windows overlooking the tarmac, Emma stood still amongst the sea of fast moving travelers. She sighed gently, barely audible over the roar of the crowd and the distant sound of airplanes taking off. ‘Where the heck are those two?’ she thought to herself, scanning the crowd as she did. Weeks ago, her friend Haley had invited her to go away with her for a week on vacation. Not just anywhere though, to the Bahamas of all places. Having never even been out of the country before, Emma didn’t even believe what she’d heard. She’d known Haley for years and was one of her closer friends, but she never expected such an offer from her. The costs alone seemed impossible for the girls, still in college with barely enough money for books, but Haley assured her that it was all set up and that she’d just need to trust her. Trust her and just show up to the airport, but to her, that part was enough to make her nervous.

Emma, despite their closeness amongst other things, didn’t completely agree with a lot of how Haley did things. In the past she proved to be unpredictable; sporadic at times, and she always had her own unique way to handle problems. This was, in part, because Haley was a witch. Not metaphorically, if anything Haley was typically a sweet girl, but underneath that sweet exterior was a girl with magic that she wasn’t afraid to use when she felt like it. Emma had known this for years, since early on when the two first got to know each other. She didn’t believe it a first, but after seeing some of what Haley could to, it was hard to argue. She wasn’t the only one that knew either. Their friend, Priya, had known each of them for just as long and knew just as much about Haley’s “talents.” She was coming on the trip as well, further perplexing Emma on how Haley could even afford all this, but at this point Em found herself confused about a lot of things, more than anything being where the hell those two were.

Leaning her forehead against the glass of the window, Emma closed her eyes for a moment, feeling the sun on her face. For a second, she felt relaxed; the stress of not knowing what was even going on didn’t matter, but she came out of it as she heard a voice from the crowd. “Emma!” a light feminine voice called out. Standing up and turning to the crowd, she could see Priya and Haley making their way towards her as they dodged their way past people. Priya ran right up, almost knocking Em back with her hug. Haley was soon after, giving the girl a much less aggressive hug before the two stepped back. “Well it’s about time guys, was starting to think you were going to show up!” Emma said in a relieved tone. Haley just smiled back. “It’s fine, honestly just had to talk over some last minute plans with this one,” she said motioning her head to Priya. Priya, a shorter girl with dark skin and darker hair, laughed to herself a little bit at Haley’s words. “Yeah, we just had to make some last minute adjustments,” she said with a smirk. Emma arched an eyebrow at the two, looking between them. They knew something and weren’t telling her. “So…what kind of adjustments?” Emma asked nervously. Haley just glanced back to her friend and turned to the crowd. “Come on, I’ll show ya,” she said over her shoulder as she began to walk back into the stream of people. Priya was quick to follow, taking Emma by the hand as she led her into the crowd as well. “Well this should be interesting,” Emma muttered, now being pulled forward by the short girl in front of her.

Following Haley, the two kept pace behind her as she made her way through the crowd. Eventually, they reached a small door a short way away their terminal. On the side of the door, there was a small panel with clear white text: Employee Bathroom; Airport Personal Only. With a confused look on her face, Emma turned to Priya. “The hell are we doing at a bathroom?” she asked, but the dark skinned girl only looked back with her with a knowing smile and a shrug. Looking back to Haley, her gaze shot downwards to see her quickly pull something from her sleeve: a wand. Shocked, Emma grabbed her arm. “Haley? What are you doing with a wand? How did you even get that past security!?” With a confident smile, on her face, she replied “With magic, duh.” At that, she turned back to the door, tapping the locked handle with the wand before returning it to her sleeve. A second later, the door unlocked, opening slightly as it did. Haley then pushed the door open and stridded in, with the two girls following her in. Emma glanced over her shoulder nervously, but the door closed behind her as she did, relocking itself with a gentle clicking noise.

In the bathroom, the quiet was a sharp juxtaposition to the rumbling of planes and people on the other side of the door. The bathroom was a single, with a sink on one end and toilet on the other, but little else. Stepping across the brightly lit tile floor, Emma moved to the middle of the room where Haley and Priya stood. With a worried look on her face, she crossed her arms, looking to Haley as she did. “Sooo…Why are we here?” Haley chuckled, looking to Priya. “You didn’t tell her?” Priya laughed a little back, “Where’s the fun in that?” Emma continued standing there, wide-eyed as she darted her gaze between the two. “What? Tell me what?!” Haley stepped up to her, putting her hands on her shoulders. “Relax Em, there’s nothing wrong! There is one thing though…I kind of only bought one plane ticket.” Emma just looked back at her friend, anger slowly rising out of her confusion. “Why the hell would you do that!” Haley still stood confident, not seeming worried at all. “Em, its fine! Like I said, I’ve got it all figured out.” She said as she drew the wand from her sleeve once again. “Just need to make some slight, well, adjustments and we’ll get you on the plane no problem.” Emma looked down at the wand with a bewildered expression returning to her face. Priya seemed unphased as Haley leveled her wand to the two of them, mumbling some words under her breath as she did. “Haley, what are you-“ Emma stopped short as she felt a wave of energy hit her all at once. Haley had used magic around her before, but never like this, never on her. She felt her heart rate speed up rapidly as a tingling buzz spread out from her chest where the wand was aimed, and in the mirror across from her she could see the effects of the magic happen immediately. On her face, her nose took on a notably dark tint to it, while through her dirty-blonde hair two orange furred fox ears popped out, sticking straight up. With a series of small whiskers springing from her cheeks one by one, she felt the tingling feeling move down her back, making her hairs stand on end as it did. Slowly it dissipated, but the feeling of ease was sharply interrupted as a long bushy fox tail arose from just above her butt. Turning to look at the tail for a moment, she saw it was sticking out just above her waist band. Upon seeing all this, Emma turned to Priya beside her. The girl in front of her looked just as ridiculous as she did; With two floppy dog ears immerging from her black curly hair, her friend also now had her nose as an almost black color, with a short tail coming from her lower back as well and her tongue hanging slightly from the side of her mouth. While Pri laughed to herself over her new form, Emma looked back to Haley with shock. “How dare you use magic on me!” Haley didn’t seem to mind the yelling, and simply spoke back to the fox girl in a calm tone. “I just made a few changes to get you on the plane is all, I’ll turn you back later! Plus, you look cute! “ Emma was still fuming, yelling back. “How the hell is this supposed to get us on the plane! You going to crate us up and ship us as your pets? Because spoiler alert,” she said motioning to Priya, who was too busy playing with her new ears, “Your spell didn’t work all the way!” Haley only laughed, resonating slightly through the empty room. “Pets? Of course not! Do you know how much the baggage fees would be to fly a dog and a fox to the islands? I’ve got a much more light weight idea in mind.”

Just then, Emma felt the magic kick back in again, this time much stronger than before. All at once, she felt herself changing once again, this time all over. Her already light skin began shifting to a light colored cloth, starting over hear heart and quickly spreading to her arms and legs. There, her hands began to shift into plush, orange-furred paws, her fingers disappearing as if underneath a mitten. Seams began to make their way down her now cloth legs, reaching her feet as they took on the appearance of a fox’s paws as well. Her tail, once pointing upwards on a curve behind her, fell limp behind her, swaying as it slowly began to change to cloth and cotton as well. Now, the feeling began to shift upwards as well. Her chest began to feel light, filling with stuffing where her heart should be. All at once her panicked heart rate became silent as she felt even her chest have stitching roll over it and fill with cotton. On her back, she felt something odd, well, more odd than what she was already feeling. From the middle of her shoulder blades, she could feel a small plastic hole forming, with a pullstring and a large plastic loop now forming on her back. Reaching inside her, she felt the string connect to a small voicebox in her breast. She could hardly notice it though as now the wave reached her head: her lips became full and red as well as the same cloth that now spanned across the rest of her body. Her nose, already gaining the darkened texture of a fox’s, now turned into a small snout as her head began to fill with stuffing as well. Pushing past her eyes, her already big auburn eyes became exaggerated, gaining a cartoonish expressive look of shock in her irises. Finally reaching her hair, her blonde hair began to darken, taking on a slightly ginger tint as it turned from hair to a thin nylon. Even her ears, her fox ears that is, shifted to small pieces of cloth as the transformation came to a close. Standing in the middle of the bathroom was now a lifesized stuffed toy.

Somehow still able to stand, Emma looked over herself in shock. She’d seen Haley use her magic before, but never to this extent. She felt wobbly, balancing herself on her new stuffed legs, but she was completely knocked off balance as she a force push her from her side. It was Priya, hugging Em whole-heartedly around her waist. “Haley! She’s so cute! Can we keep her like this??” The Indian girl exclaimed as she picked up the stuffed doll in a hug. Meanwhile, Priya wasn’t much better off. Emma had barely noticed her effects until just now; similar to herself, the girl looked more like a stuffed toy than the girl she knew. Her face and frame were the same, but now her tan skin was made of the same soft material as Emma’s, only naturally darker. With the same seams running down her arms and legs, the plush dog-girl had thin yarn curls where her hair was, with two cloth ears hanging limply from her head as well. Her face took on a similar toyish-exaggeration as Em’s. Her lips appeared to have a darker lipstick over them despite them now being cloth, with her brown eyes now popping brightly as well. Her hands and feet were the cloth paws of a dog as well. Em could even see a pullstring dangling from her back as she continued to hug her. She was in every way just as much as a toy as Emma was; the only big difference was Priya had a massive grin on her face while Emma looked as frustrated as ever.

Breaking from the hug, Emma unstably walked up to Haley, who was giggling at the whole spectacle in front of her. “Change me back right now Hale!” Emma demanded, but that only seemed to make Haley laugh harder. “Or what, you’re going to cuddle me?” she jested in response, to which Emma’s cloth nostrils just flared. Before she could speak again, Haley grabbed her and pulled her into a hug. Oddly enough, Emma could feel herself calming down despite what she wanted to feel. Gently, Haley spoke out. “Relax, just relax. It’s all part of the plan. And it’s only temporary. Just enjoy it! I mean look at Pri, she’s having a good time.” Glancing her head back from the hug, she could see her friend excitingly looking over new form, playing with her new tail and pullstring. Walking over, with Emma still lifted in her embrace, Haley threw another arm around Priya as well. All at once as the two were pulled strongly into the hug, Emma felt her form lock up, her head falling limply on Haley’s shoulder as her collapsed as well, pressed between her and Haley. Next to her, Priya had fallen into a similar heap, her back and head arched backwards as Haley held up her frame with her arm. She had a bright smile on her face, which even though it was stitched on Emma could tell she was smiling just as much on the inside. Likewise, Emma now donned an equally big smile despite her inner turmoil. Over her cloth skin, Emma felt a tingling once again. This time, she felt her form begin to shrink, her body becoming smaller and smaller compared to Haley’s body which she was still pressed to. After a minute, the shrinking was complete, with the two girls standing barely over a foot tall. Feeling Haley’s hand wrapped around her waist, her gaze looked up at her now giant friend. Haley, now holding a doll in each hand, smiled down at her two new toys as they as she looked over their new forms, running a finger across Priya’s plush form as she did. Shifting Priya from one hand to the other, the two dolls were now pressed face to face as Haley tightly held them together as she picked up her bag. Placing the two toys on the outer pocket of the bag, Haley positioned the two securely before throwing the bag on her back and opening the bathroom door once again. “Come on girls, we’ve got a flight to catch,” she said in a cheery tone, and at that she made her way back into the crowd with two freshly made toys bobbing slightly behind her as she walked.