Water Balloon in a Water Bottle

A short story By Fern

It was a scorching, summer day the park, the kind of day where everyone goes to the park to experiment a variety of ways to cool down. The large, government-sponsored, and overlooked area is the place to be during the summer. The biggest attraction to those with a desert-dry mouth is the large river that shows no signs of non-anthromorphic, aquatic life other than a bunch of microorganisms that survived through the filter. The filter consists of a giant metallic box that churns the water and keeps it clean enough for the visitors to safely play in and stay healthy when they come out. Some of the less pleasant visitors do take a whiz in the water sometimes. The park rangers manage the booth at the entrance as cars filled with families or groups of young adults already in their swimwear come by and pay at the gate. The kids in the minivans hop for joy out of their seatbelts as they shout that they are here. Finally receiving the answer to the dreaded question they repeating asked that plagues parents with rowdy kids on road trips short or long. 

The playground is already quite full of children, pretending to be at the beach. No one is goofing off on the equipment; it burns anyone's skin just by hovering with their hand over it. As proof, one sniveling jackal youngster has his hands in a bucket of ice cold water as his mother comforts him. The woman glares to the booth in parental anger as they wonder why they are not buying a roof to shade the equipment from that mean, old sun that hurt her poor baby.

Speaking of water, the river nearby is quite popular with the tourists both new and the regulars. The calmer serine parts of the river are enjoyed by all as they swim in above the filtered, yet murky-at-the-bottom waters. Luckily no amount of filtering takes away the natural feeling of having fresh riverbed mud between one's toes. Some of the guests float lazily in the inner tubes as they try to forget the more important priorities of their lives for a while, giving their minds and bodies much needed relaxation from the stressful life of everyday living.

Soon whooping is heard as a teen in an inner tube rushes to a slow stop from the more raging waters of the river. Many teenagers and adults have fun riding the inner tubes and small rafts from the highest part of the river they are allowed to start at before reaching the boundaries of the park. It's not one of the wildest rides in the world, but it’s a nice change of pace from the gentle scene of relaxing in the waters or playing an exhausting game of volleyball down at the sandpits.

The tale begins somewhere near the border as a ring-tailed lemur takes a hike down the park's path for a bit of exercise that's not regularly done here. The lemur is mostly white with barely noticeable grays. Where his natural black markings would be, a beautiful and simplistic red color takes its place as red rings travel down his lengthy, tube-like tail. He seems quite athletic in his red swimming shorts and white undershirt jersey. He has the makings of a lean runner's body as he has well-toned arms and legs. His forelegs and ankles are the most noticeable muscles as they are almost chiseled as well as a bodybuilder's. He dashes down the path, trying to keep his heart rate above his wanted goal. His moss green eyes concentrate on the dirt road before him as he ignores the feelings of small rocks poking his bare feet with every step.

"Yo, Immy," a far-away figure calls out. The lemur turns his head to see a slightly-out of shape, male collie with a small pot belly and a well-toned female horse. The canine seems to be wearing some sandals, blue swimming shorts, and an over-sized white tee to obviously cover up his slightly belly. The horse is just wearing some short jean cut-offs and a white jersey like the lemur's. She has a light-brown complexion with white markings. These are his friends; they've meet in high school and reunited after college.

"Theodore," he calls out, coming closer to give a friendly hug, handshake, and part on the back all in that order. "My main man, what's up?"

"We're just going to start a little water balloon fight to beat the heat. A little childish, I know. However, my aunt sent me a bunch of these deflated balloons and I might as well use them!"

"You're a bad shot though," the lemur whispers.

"Don't worry," the dog responds back also in a whisper. "I've been practicing. I know that I'll at least get a single point this time..."

"Best the luck with ya finally beating her and impressing her, I suppose. Anyway, I'm in."

"Be sure to look bad so I look better."

"What'cha boys whispering about," the only female asks.

"Just about the game," he responds in a normal tone. "He's joining."

"Great, he'll be a better challenge than you," she jokes.

"Good one," he smiles back, trying to show her that he has a "great" sense of humor.

"I'll go storage something to drink," Immy informs his companions.

"Okay, we'll discuss the rules,' responds Theodore as he walks off with the horse to discuss the rules and maybe try to hit on her again.

The lemur walks causally to a tree to lean against it as he smacks his mouth absentmindedly. He jogged quite a long way and he's getting mighty thirsty. The air in his mouth feels pretty dry and it's starting to bug him quite a bit. He should have found a clever way to carry water and he's certainly not drinking out of the river or the old, rusty tap. Scanning around the area around him, he tries to find the closest water fountain until he bumps his foot into something: a water bottle. It's probably Theodore's as it has a picture of a classy Californian vixen babe on lounging on the hood of her red sports car. Sex appeal is so easy to sell, especially if it's vixens or tigers.

There's duct tape on the bottle with a message on it written in red sharpie saying, "DO NOT DRINK!!!"

"Hmph, he'd bring a water bottle to any sport," he thought. "He'd bring one to a poker game! I don't think he'd mind if I take a drink since he wouldn't be too exhausted anyway. He can drink from the tap. He wouldn't mind."

Taking a few takes to see if Theodore is around, Immy picks up the bottle. He drinks down the refreshing concoction and notices that it tastes quite peculiar. It's quite fizzy for something that's been sitting out for so long as the bubbles tickle his throat. It tastes like some sort of fruity mix with a touch of meat. 'It must be one of those protein shakes,' Immy thought. After finishing drinking, he wipes the nozzle with his jersey and puts it back where he left it.

Soon though, an odd feeling starts to overcome Immy as he starts to feel lightheaded. "Oooo," he moaned. "What was in that drink...?"

Leaning against the tree over the bag of balloons, Immy tries to relax as the odd feeling in his stomach can't seem to go away. As Immy closes his eyes to concentrate on ignoring the feeling, he doesn't seem to notice that his clothes are becoming much looser to him by the minute, or that his eye level seems to be shifting lower.

Immy's skin starts to feel irritated as he shudders. He pulls off his jersey and throws it aside, but it doesn't seem to help. "Am I allergic to something in the drink," he exclaims worryingly. Suddenly the feeling starts to increase its intensity rapidly as a strong force seems to pull him down. It felt like being on one of those rides at the amusement park that pull you all the way to the top just to drop you all of the sudden. A soft, squeaky thump is heard as all the sensations seem to fade as Immy gets dizzy from the after effects. He faints on something oddly squishy as he drifts to unconscious. 

"...guess he left for a dip because we took so long," said a thunderous voice nearby. "You really should quit while you're ahead. It's becoming very obvious you're trying to impress me."

"Impressed," a different, yet louder voice asks.

"Hardly."

A sound of running water also enters his ears. Just before he can recover fully though, a shadow looms over him. It looks like... a giant hand! He's suddenly snatched with a bunch of other rubber balloons. Suddenly being shot awake by an adrenaline boost, he looks around to find out the can only look up through a small hole of light. He tries to wiggle, but whatever is holding him has a really tight grip! Suddenly the blue sky is eclipsed by... some sort of cave?  Unfortunately, Immy made the mistake of opening his mouth while looking at it as he tries to comprehend what is in his sight. "What the f-"

Immy mouth gets stuck around the hole as light suddenly brightens his eyes as he squints at them. He scans around and sees the love Rachael the horse over there stretching. He tries to wiggle, but why can't he go to her? Why is his perspective wonky? Suddenly a loud, rusty squeaking noise diverts his attention as he suddenly feels a cold blast of water splash through his mouth! Immy viciously gurgles as his eyes widen to see that Theodore is just above him! Somehow he shrank to about the size of the deflated balloons and his friend has mistaken him for one! He probably wasn't looking since he was talking to Rachael.

Immy mumbles and wiggles to try to get Theodore's attention, but he doesn't seem to notice due to tap being much louder. There's also another loud sound: a stretching sound. Immy starts to feel bloated, but not hurt. He wiggles a bit to feel something sloshing in him. He realizes that something is the water, and it is actually making him inflate somehow! "This can't be possible," he thought in panic. "How am I not rupturing!?"

Immy can only wiggle in panic as he tries to yell over the running water and stretching as his naked bod bloats out that of a water balloon. His legs quickly had and disappear as all the weight settles at the bottom, giving him a distinct pear shape.  The bottom of his gut and his but slowly fuse together as the water rests. His arms start to slowly sink in his shoulders as his neck starts to disappear, starting to be part of the big curve his body is taking. He can feel his arms becoming heavy with water as they become unbendable due to his elbows "disappearing." Now they're more like tiny sausages with creepy nub hands with tinier, plump fingers rather than arms with paw-like hands. His friend rubs his rear as he feels hears for signs of tension. It was pretty awkward for Immy considering that his friend is technically feeling his ass as he heads a loud squeak from the rub. It's almost like his skin is thin and has an odd rubbery texture. He nor Theodore can feel one bit of stubble as he doesn’t seem to have any fur anymore! His tail has been comically bloated up and it just hangs there, not getting Theodore's attention. Apparently there were some novelty balloons in his cooler, so he simply passed off the cylinder-like shape and odd color scheme as another novelty balloon. Feeling satisfied it's full enough, the canine ties a rubber band around the mouth as he pulls Immy from the running tap. He spins it several time as he ties it into a knot absent-mindedly, seeming to have already done it several times before. He would tie his mouth a more traditional way, but the colorful shards of ruptured balloons on the ground indicate that he's had many failed attempts with that method. Luckily, he foresaw this and bought quite a lot of rubber bands for such an occasion. In any case, Immy is now left to only mumble out of his bloated cheeks; too soft for anyone to recognize that is nothing more than an annoying, anonymous sound. "Is something ringing in my ear," wondered Theodore as he turns off the tap, recognizing another sound that he can't quite pick up too well.

Theodore shrugs it off and gently throws the protesting, yet unheard Immy into a cooler filled with water balloons as he goes to work on the next one absent-mindedly. He seems very bored with the tedious task as his mouth curves into a thoughtful smirk; he's probably thinking of a way to speed things up. Meanwhile, Immy seems to be land where his head can see just above the horizon of the cooler, squished between two balloons. He tries to recover from the throw as he felt his body warp from the momentum as he tries to collect his thoughts. "Wait," he started to realize in his head. "I'm in the cooler with the balloons...? Oh shit, the fight! No! Theodore! Rachael! Help me!"

He tries to move or make some sort of noise to indicate that he's not some piece of ammo to be used in what could be the last game he'll ever play. It's no use though; the water is just too heavy for his thinly-stretched muscles to make a noticeable wiggle. His cheeks are stuffed to the brim with water with his mouth tied by a small rubber band to make any noise loud enough to not be shrugged off or heard over the tap. He can only look around with his frightened, beady eyes at Rachael doing warm-up stretches and Immy filling up the rest of his stash.

The wait was aggravating as Immy continues to protest and try to make him known. The opportunity was long lost when balloons started to surround him from all over, only leaving a small hole for his eyes to see through. With Rachael filling up her balloons, there's no way Immy can be seen now. He can only wait in panic, making his last amends with his Gods and praying that there could be a way out of this.

Rachael throws a balloon at a nearby tree to check her aim. *SPLASH*!

Immy mumblingly screams and his eyes widen!

"You sure you want to still try and 'impress me,'" she says cockily. "I bet you couldn't get even one hit on me!"

"Please say no. Please say no," thought Immy several times.

"Hell yeah," Theodore responded enthusiastically. "Let's make that a real bet!"

"Alright," she scoffs in return. "If you *do* get a shot in, then I'll go dinner with you. However, if you miss, then you'll have to watch me go out on a date with a much more impressive guy to watch what you didn't get."

"You're on. Don't forget the breath mints, babe~"

"Stay classy, Theodore. How about you throw the first shot?"

Theodore gets near his cooler, looking cocky. He idly observes his balloons as he whistles. He tries to look for the right one to throw at her. He made a variety of sizes in the cooler from the puniest of sizes to the most gargantuan of water balloons. Nodding, he grabs his biggest water balloon. The bottom edges overflow over his paw as he gets ready for the throw. "There's no way she can avoid the blast of this monster," he assured himself in thought.

As Theodore grunts to take a throw, the balloon warps and squeaks to such irregular shapes. It doesn't look like it can hold its weight in water and sure enough.... *SPLASH*!
Rachael just snickers at the pathetic sight, slightly turning her head away as she peeks at the scene with one eye. He couldn't even throw that monster before it exploded in his hand. "Wow," she started to say between her laughs. "I have to say I'm impressed... though not in the way that you wanted!" She starts to get louder, but she still has the makings of an athlete. She never takes her happily squinting eyes off Theodore.

Immy watches in horror as Theodore flicks the water off most of his fur with his arms as he starts to shake the rest off. "Oh god," Immy dreadfully thought. "I hope he didn't fill me with too much water! Just calm down, Immy. You saw how he animalized the cooler! He'll spot you for sure and this mess will be all over..."

Theodore goes back and obverses the cooler again, plotting his next move. He grabs his smallest one. "It'll be the fast enough to get her for sure," he thought, nodding his head as he starts at it. Immy cruses Theodore for not grabbing the one that's on his head.

Theodore prepares my holding the balloon as if it was a baseball. He winds it up and pitches!

Rachael only causally stands as the balloon totally flies over her shoulder. She then throws her own balloon back, having a direct hit on Theodore’s face. "Give up," she asks with a smirk.

Theodore shakes off the water from his head and responds, "hardly. I got plenty of balloons left. You can't avoid all of them."

"I think you should worry more about your aim than my agility my dear, flabby friend. By the time I start *moving* away from your shots, then you're making progress." She gives a quick wink and blows an air kiss to tease him.

The fight rages on as Rachael doesn't even get a drop of water on her. She continues to bombard the frustrated Theodore as he gets more and more wet. His jersey is practically hanging under his shorts from the moisture. Theodore just got more and more frustrated as he's determined to get that date. He doesn't even bother to look in the cooler anymore as he tries to keep up a quick throwing pace to make her skip a beat. It's all for naught though as she was quite a whiz in dodgeball in middle school. Water balloons aren’t that different compared to dodgeballs.

Immy can only shiver in terror as he sees balloon after balloon splash. He tries to wiggle again to get somewhere at the bottom of the cooler to have a better chance of being sighted. He notices that Theodore is no longer observing the cooler, which only heightens his fears of being a bunch of rubbery pieces on the floor. It's no use though as he's just too heavy with water to even make a single jiggle. He can only strain, which really just hurts his taut and sensitive skin.

Finally, the moment dawns on Immy as Theodore reaches towards Immy. He tries to force himself every which way, but he can't even shift a single bit from his place. He's snatched as he feels Theodore's paw on his sensitive rubber body as he gives out a soft, muffled shudder. His thin skin 

Rachael jumps around to keep up her defensive stance when she started to pause. She notices there's something peculiar about the red and white balloon Theodore is holding. There's that tail, that head, and those stubby hands. He threw novelty balloons before but the collar scheme and long tail seem familiar. "Why does that balloon look so... similar to something," she thought, observing the balloon as she leans a bit forward.

"Rachael," Immy thought and mumblingly yelled. "You recognize me!? Quick! Stop him before he..."

It was too late though. Theodore saw that Rachael suddenly stopped. He decided to take his chance as he throws Immy straight at her!

For Immy, time seemed to slow down as he suddenly finds himself in mid-air. Everything else around Rachael seems to be blurred as Immy gets closer. Her face shines with an unknown luster, highlighting the details on her face as he approaches it. Rachael still has that confused look on her face as her reaction skips a beat; she never bothered to dodge. Immy smacks against her face as his rubbery skin overflows all over her face. It almost felt like he was caressing her fur. Immy can feel his skin warping and stretching beyond its tension. The water vibrates across his skin in short waves as he stretches more around her face. He starts to clench his face as he tries to force his skin to hold, but soon his face bloats out comically as he can feel himself rip apart...

*SPLASH!* Rachael is soaked in water as she suddenly snaps back into reality.

"I got her," Theodore questioned, looking disbelief as he still holds the same stance he has when he threw the winning balloon. "I got her! Yes! You owe me a date! Yahooooo~!"

Rachael was ignoring Theodore’s victory chant as he danced around. She knew that balloon looked familiar. She reached up to scratch her head. "Wait," she began to think. "What's that in my hair...?"

She pulled it out to find it was an eyeball with a stem, an oddly-rubbery, yet realistic eyeball!

Rachael shrieks as she drops the eyeball, screaming from the sheer shock of it. She was right! That little nub she saw was a head! That lengthy tube was a tail! That white and red color scheme was Immy's!

"Scared of a little water," said Theodore as he approaches Rachael. "I thought you'd be braver than... that...?" He sees the eyeball she dropped on the ground as his heart leapt up to his throat. He noticed the red and white pieces on the ground and in the trembling Rachael’s hair. He started to put two and two together.

"No... he didn't," he mumbled to himself. He ran back to the cooler next to snatch his water bottle. He haltingly unscrewed the cap to check that a huge amount of the drink is gone. He realized that Immy has indeed drunk from the bottle.

What was in that bottle was a potion, a potion that shrinks others depending on how much they drink. Mixed with it is an elastic potion that changes one's molecular structure to that of rubber. It's a safeguard to prevent the shrunken person from being squashed and grinded into the dirt like a cockroach. Theodore was planning to use it to sneak into Rachael's house by hiding in her sports bag in her truck. He would scatter around the room to learn more about her in order to get her a favorite gift.

"Shit, he did," he shouted. "He drank my potion! What part of 'DO NOT DRINK' does he not get!?"

Rachael snaps out of her fright and turns to Theodore. "What potion," she asked.

Suddenly being aware of his big mouth blabbing, he turns towards Rachael. "Okay," he responded. "There's no time to explain now, but there's a chance Immy can still be alive. However, we have to take him a little shop I know *right now*. Gather him up! Don't leave a piece behind!"

Theodore and Rachael gather Immy's pieces up. They feel strangely like rubber, but they don't pay attention to that as they are urgently trying to save what's left of their dear friend. Theodore puts it all in a bag as Rachael leaves. She returns as she drives her truck down the path.

"Hurry," she screamed as Theodore throws all their stuff at the back of the truck as he dashes into the other seat. Rachael both drive over the ancient, yet sturdy bridge while Theodore prays that Immy is still somehow alive. What is left of Immy bounces around in the bag at the back as the truck drives over the rough terrain back on the road back to civilization.

2009 © Fern (Pen name.)