Draygone and Erika lie inside the kennel within the exotic pet shop. Dray's head rests on the floor, seemingly disinterested in Erika, who was idly playing with the rattle on their tail.

Earlier that day, they had visited as a pair of raccoon-dragon twins, brother and sister, but now they shared a two-headed canine body with a rattlesnake's tail. The shop owner had called them "Orthrus", referencing the mythical beast that they had now become. However, there was one big difference between them and the Orthrus of legend: they were female. Draygone whimpers again at the thought. She supposed that being one gender was better than being both, but a part of her wished that her former gender had been the dominant one.

Indeed, the two had retained some awareness of their former selves. A rare situation, given the shop's knack for including mental changes with its transformations. Perhaps the energy required to merge two beings into one was too much for a complete mental change. Or, maybe the magic knew the conjoined twins would enjoy themselves more, if they retained enough awareness to admire their change.

Whichever the case, there WAS some mental change involved. Draygone and Erika could no longer speak, only able to communicate in basic canine language (that language could not tell them if the other canines with them had been transformed, as well). Their behavior was also distinctly more canine -- their tug of war with that bone earlier was evident of that. And, on the bright side, sharing control of the same body came pretty naturally to them, though it was certainly a surreal experience.

Of course, the transformation had also left them "in the fur", with only a pair of collars hanging around each neck. Draygone didn't mind this, as she often liked to go around pantsless, anyway. After all, why wear pants when you got fur? Often she would try to convince Erika to go pants-free, as well. And secretly, she took pride in knowing that Erika was finally just as pantsless as herself, even if it meant sharing that pantsless body. That pride most likely would've been spoiled if Draygone knew that Erika felt completely natural wearing only a collar, thanks once more to the mental changes.

As Draygone and Erika lie in the kennel, there suddenly came a sharp, high-pitched sound. Dray and Erika whined at the painful noise. Then the sound came, again. Dray and Erika tried their best to cover their ears, but with only two paws for their four ears, they could do nothing to silence the painful noise. So with the third time, they howled together in an attempt to drown out the noise. That must've worked, because the noise had stopped.

A few minutes later, the blue cobra anthro that owned the shop came in. Following the cobra was a large female black bear anthro, wearing clothing that seemed too small for her. As the bear looked over the other canines, Draygone and Erika felt this strange excitement come over them, and stood up on all fours. When the bear came to their kennel, they lept onto the gate door together, happily licking and sniffing the black bear. The bear smiled warmly, pointing at them and speaking to the cobra in a familiar, but hard-to-understand language.

The cobra opened the gate, attaching a leash to the collars on their necks. They were then led to the front room of the pet shop, and watched as the black bear happily signed some papers. Although they cannot understand what the bear and cobra are saying, a small part of Dray and Erika's minds recognize what is going on, and they happily wag their shared tail, the rattle at the end accentuating their happiness.

With the papers signed, they are led out of the pet shop by their new owner. No, not "they". Although Draygone and Erika still have separate heads and minds, "she" is now one beast -- beneath each of her collars is a tag that proudly displayed her new, shared name: Snoots. A fitting name, for a pet with two snoots to boop.

Little did she know that the ursine now holding her leash was also a raccoon transformed by the shop. In fact, the ursine had once drawn a picture of Erika, before any of them were transformed. Of course, even if Snoots did know, she had no way of being able to tell the black bear.

But that's okay. The twins had always been close, even when she was two separate people. And now she shared a permanent bond that many twins could only dream of. Indeed, it would be a strange and wonderful new life as a pet, sharing the same four-legged body, owning the minds of animals, and yet having an awareness of how special her transformation was.

Though, it'll probably be a while before Dray gets used to being female.