Sarah blinked in surprise, her eyes wide as she slowly began to adjust to her surroundings.

"What's... What's going on?" She stammered, her tongue feeling oddly thick in her mouth, like she was parched and hungover. It didn't quite follow, since the last she remembered; she'd only had a single drink at the bar. Either she'd had one hell of a hangover, or this was something else entirely.

Sure enough, she seemed to be trapped in some sort of glass tube, immediately causing a wave of claustrophobia despite the large size of her container. Trying to distract herself, Sarah looked out to find the wall across from her plainly read: 'Testing Zone T-6'.

"Um..." She tapped on the tube, tilting her head up to get a better view of her surroundings.

It was worth the look: there were moving shapes above her, through the translucent glass that divided them rendered the figures as nothing more than outlines. However; at least it meant that she wasn't alone. If there were people here, then they could help!

"Hey! Down here! I don't think you guys realize this, but I'm not some test subject! I'm a normal person and I'd like to get out!" She called loudly, trying to get any of the silhouettes' attention.

She might as well have been calling to the wind. The figures kept working above her, none of them so much as pausing to look at the trapped girl. It all left Sarah feeling more than a little uneasy, and she fidgeted in place.

Then a loud 'thonk' ran through the tube that imprisoned her, accompanied by a vibration that she could feel through her feet. A low hissing followed this, almost like the gurgling of water, and she shivered in apprehension.

This shiver was soon followed by a shudder of surprise as a distinctly wet feeling in Sarah's feet startled her. It felt just like she'd stepped her bare feet into a very warm and shallow puddle; but she had shoes on. At least, she thought she did...

Sarah looked down to find herself fully clothed; just as she'd thought. Moreover, her shoes remained on her feet-though the bottom of her containment tube was now a light green, glimmering like liquid.

The girl tilted her head in surprise, shifting her body and watching as small ripples of motion coruscated out from her foot. "Um... I think there's a leak?" She called out jokingly, looking back up to that same tinted glass.

That feeling of wet immersion swept up to her ankles in the second that she'd distracted herself. Something lashed around her ankles, binding them together and upsetting her balance completely. Before she knew what was going on, Sarah fell onto her hands and her knees in what was now a shallow pool.

She sent an accusing glare to whatever had tripped her up only to scream in shock at the sight of her feet and ankles. Not only had her shoes somehow dissolved; her skin looked misshapen and rubbery; covered in something strange and brown.

It was like someone had replaced the creamy, supple skin of her feet with some sort of dull and grey rubber. This rubber seemed to have spread to cover her toes like some sort of forming flipper, obscuring her view of her digits-and worse, it was snaring her ankles together.

Sarah hurriedly turned to sit on her backside in the growing pool, realizing two things. First: this green substance was being pumped into the tube. Second: the green goo could somehow dissolve clothing, an observation she made as her jeans began to dissolve, revealing the smooth skin of her legs.

That same feeling of warm immersion greeted her newly bared limbs; and Sarah shuddered with distaste. Then her skin began to darken, and she found she had a greater concern than simple discomfort.

Her legs were rapidly becoming a similar shade of brown to the color that cloaked her feet; no, the color that was her feet! Sarah squeaked in terror as she tried to wiggle her toes only to watch those strange flippers move in turn.

"Oh my God! What's happening to me?" The girl screamed with primal terror, watching her misshapen feet turn to hang at an angle more befitting of an aquatic tail than human feet. They lengthened more and more as she watched in fear, beginning to hyperventilate as she grew some sort of animal's tail.

Her legs snapped together as she watched, a helpless observer to this transformation that was gripping her body; and the girl found herself screaming again as her skin began to fuse together, molding her legs into a single tail.

"This can't be real; this can't be happening!" She screamed, tears of panic beginning to drip from her eyes. She looked up to the testing chamber with shock, raising a hand pleadingly. "Please, someone-"

A loud splash in the water beside her distracted her, and the girl looked down to find a human hand dissolving away in the goo. Something in her brain didn't quite register why it looked so familiar until she felt a strange and cool sensation along her wrist; and Sarah's breath hitched in horror as she realized it was her own.

This time, no words came to express her fear. Only a loud scream burst from her throat as she looked to the nub that was now her right wrist. A glance to her left confirmed that the goo had eaten away her other hand, and she screaming continued until her throat felt positively hoarse.

All the while, the container had continued to fill and fill with that goo; the ooze that was so hungrily eating her clothes; that had so hungrily eaten her hands; that was somehow changing her body.

Her fused legs began to ripple and swell, inflating as though they were being pumped with fat; and Sarah finally recognized her forming tail for what it was: the tail of a pinniped. And not only was she becoming some sort of sea animal; she was becoming a fat one at that.

The liquid slipped up past her hips to her belly, making her huff with horror as her body began to bloat and distend more and more, growing thick blubber that creased and bunched up in inhuman ways.

Words finally found their way into her throat again as the liquid passed up to her breasts, making them recede into the thick fat that was her barrel of a trunk. "N-NO! SOMEONE!" Her voice was hoarse from screaming; yet it held no less volume. "YOU CAN'T DO THIS TO ME!"

Her cries only had the effect of sending her voice to echo around the chamber; reflections of her voice mocking her. Sarah began to scream simply to drown out the echoes; only to begin to sob as she realized that futility of her situation.

Already the sloshing liquid had passed up to her neck, making her throat clench and ache like she was sick. "Please... Urrmmmnaarrrrrr. Aaarnt? Ornt Uurrn?" Her words degenerated into grunts, which was somehow more terrifying than the changes that had gripped her body thus far.

She beat her arms at the water with horror, feeling them slide to a new position on her body as they grew new bones; becoming more fit for an animal than a person. Much to her surprise, this was enough to push her up a little bit in the liquid, almost like she was swimming.

Unwilling for her face to change like the rest of her body, Sarah began to desperately flap her new arm-flippers, lifting herself in the water and giving her tail room to tread water as well. "Urrhh!" She hollered out another animalistic cry as she managed to keep her face afloat, not knowing how horrifying her pretty face looked on her new animal body.

All that mattered to her was keeping her head above water; was-

Her thoughts came to a screeching halt as her nose bumped against cool metal, and her eyes widened as she realized she'd reached the top of her tank. She'd finally run out of room, and the changing ooze was still advancing, slipping up past her ears and making them little more than holes at the sides of her head.

Tears slipped past her cheeks as her cheeks began to swell out; her face becoming just as fat and blubbery as the rest of her body. She opened her mouth to sob, receiving a mouthful of ooze that she quickly spat out, horrified by the prospect of more changes.

But even though her reaction was almost immediate, it was still too slow. Her jaw ached as it stretched out into a large and blocky muzzle; her canine teeth beginning to lengthen into tusks that hung well past her chin.

Finally, her brain caught up with what her body was becoming: she was being made into a walrus.

"Urrnohhnn!" Sarah hiccuped with delirious fear, feeling her skull twist and reshape; her eyes darken and dim to those of an animal; her nose flatten out into her snout. And then, just like that, her changes came to an end.

Sarah floated in despair for a few seconds, unwilling to accept what happened to her body; unwilling to accept the fact that she was now an animal. Then she realized she was still submerged in the fluid; and that she very, very much needed to begin to breathe.

Panic filled her mind as she beat her flippers against the water desperately, praying for some sort of escape. Her efforts only made her walrus lungs burn more; and her tusked maw opened wide as she instinctively sucked in a lungful of the ooze.

She choked on the thick liquid as it started to fill her throat; passing her whiskered lips with ease. The need to breathe became simply a want as her lungs filled once more; like drinking the liquid could somehow substitute for breathing air. Hurriedly, Sarah swallowed another mouthful, feeling the green goo run down her throat.

This time, it made her head feel funny, though Sarah paid it no heed. She only wanted to breathe; to live! The girl-turned-walrus swallowed more and more of the fluid, not realizing that her brain was simplifying. Thoughts of her old life began to get harder and harder to recall; and in just another two gulps of the fluid Sarah had completely forgotten what it was like to stand on two legs.

Her eyes widened as she realized this, and she paused her desperate quaffing of the ooze. Wait; that wasn't right! She was a human, right? And yet she could no more picture what it felt like to walk than she could imagine what it felt like to fly!

This thought sent a primal surge of terror into her heart and she gulped a little more goo with unease, having forgotten that it was the source of her changes. And with that, she forgot that she'd ever been changed; dimming her fear as she forgot why she was even afraid in the first place.

It was like her human mind was a sand castle, and the ooze the tide. With every passing wave of it into her body, more and more of it washed away until all that was left was a blank dimness; the mind of a cow walrus.

For a moment, her jaw hung slack as she tried to think why she'd been so afraid a minute ago. Then it became too troublesome to think; and she swam around in her strange confines, wondering when she'd be returned to her home. She didn't remember what it looked like; but she was sure she'd recognize it...

New memories and thoughts filled her mind; thoughts of being a tame animal who did great displays for humans. She was kept in a nice paddock and given food whenever she clapped or did tricks. And she... She was hungry; she wanted food.

No sooner did the thought pass through her mind than a door across from her slid open.The walrus looked to it with interest, wondering what would come through the new opening in the wall. A human walked into the room and the walrus let out a bark muffled by the water. She actually recognized this one! It was the one who saw her the most often; her trainer!

Better yet, it had a metal pail in its hand; which meant she'd get fed! The green liquid around the walrus began to drain as she drooled into it, bumping her flat nose against the glass in an attempt to free herself and get to the trainer

Her head broke the surface and she loudly called out to it. "Uhhn! Aahhrrnt!"

It smiled as she barked, the water draining completely and letting her shake her blubber off. Finally, the glass rose around her, and the walrus flopped out to greet her trainer with affectionate nuzzles.

Another human entered the room, but the walrus didn't care about that. It made the funny noises that humans used to talk to one another and her trainer responded in kind; then her trainer looked down to her with a grin.

It said some words that the walrus didn't understand, and she tilted her head in confusion. Then it pointed up with one of its arms, calling out something that sounded like "Up, Sayruh!"

The last sound struck a chord in the walrus, and she barked excitedly, leaning up on her tailfin and clapping excitedly. That was right! That 'Sayruh' sound meant she was supposed to do a trick and get fed!

Sure enough, her trainer clapped and reached into the pail, tossing out a fish to her that she chomped down on with undisguised relish. Then she looked up again, wanting more!

"Are you satisfied, Mister Karnell?" Doctor Carnes spoke softly, the Asian's tones subdued as she adjusted her glasses. She watched as the animal trainer called out a complex trick, studying the man's reaction carefully.

As expected, Karnell nodded with an undisguised grin, watching the dumb walrus roll onto her back and pat at her belly. He tossed her a fish and smirked wider as she caught it expertly. "A pre-trained performer, and a sharp one at that. You're going to save me quite a bit of time, and time means money." The trainer looked up to her with a grin on his face.

"And of course, money means that my experiments get to continue." Doctor Carnes bowed deeply, smiling. "On which note... Will you be ordering any more units?"

He nodded once again. "What use would a zoo be without its star attractions?" The man's grin fell as he turned to stand, facing the doctor with a dubious look. "But I'm guessing there's another reason for you to ask, since I know you knew that."

"Indeed." The raven-haired woman replied coolly. "I would like to have the initial subjects supplied from another source this time. It's becoming increasingly difficult to find fitting subjects."

"Hm?" Karnell looked over his shoulder, a wry grin on his face. "Well, I suppose I could get in touch with some of my more... Unsavory associates. People in my old line of work always needed other people to vanish, and I can't imagine that's changed."

The doctor only smiled. "Then we have a deal."