Party Animals
Party Animals
A blur of orange and black streaked across the night-fallen field with heavy, steady breathing coming from the uniquely furred creature as he ran. His pace slowed gradually to a jog and his eyes darted from left to right, eying the high fence a great number of feat in front of him, and past it to the large one story building looming under spotted, poorly kept lighting. His ears twitched at the soft sound of rustling a few feet in front of him, rising suspicion in his slightly paranoid state of mind. His eyes darting quickly to to a rather large bush, which seemed to be the source of the sound before he dropped his body flat to the ground and became silent, trying his best to become as scarce as possible despite the complete disadvantage of his vibrant colors. His large, soft skunk tail swished and landed like a leaf onto the ground behind him. His small, dainty nose sniffed the air for any trace of what caused the noise. His mind sifted through the variety of scents until catching the slight scent of blueberry. The orange and black skunk gave out a big sigh and raised himself, shaking the dirt off his tail.
"Damnit, Alkora, you scared the crap out of me. I never would expect a fatass like you to be able to hide so well." He grumbled, hefting his surprisingly light tail in front of him, beginning to pick and brush the dirt off his perfectly brushed tail. His eyes finally caught the glimpse of a familiar blue-hued tail poking out from the side of the bush. Despite his also vibrantly colored features, the blue, white, and black dragon and husky mix blended in more to the background much more than his bright orange fur and the multi-colored spikes of his mohawk (which he, at this point, had let go into somewhat normal styled hair draping off to one side, having no reason to keep it fixed up).
Alkora chuckled lowly before he padded slowly over to where the skunk was, his heart still pounding beneath his slender form.
"Relax, princess..." mumbled the much deeper voice with a continued chuckle, resulting in a rather disgruntled grumble from the feminine bodied skunk. "It's been half an hour, Axel, I was getting bored. If anything you deserve the scare for being late." The fat drasky boomed with a jokingly threatening tone, his scaled nose letting out a slight huff while he tried to exaggerate his draconic features, as if he was trying to seem more threatening.
"You're about as threatening as an ear of corn, you blueberry bastard." Axel retorted, laughing at Alkora's amusing display of masculinity, poking his padded finger into the drasky's soft stomach, grinning purposefully down at the drasky despite the darkness taking away any effect their facial expressions might have. Axel's finger sank into the soft, velvety flesh which added to his continuing verbal teasing, "Besides, you know better than any of us how much more effective MY revenge scare would be."
This made the drasky grumble, shooing away the intruding finger from his softly padded flab. "Point taken..." he surrendered. While true that the drasky had very draconic features, nothing about him looked overtly threatening, and anyone close to Alkora knew that his natural defenses made him even less of a threat, as even the slightest surprise or scare would cause his entire body to blow up like a blowfish from his own blueberry dragon-breath. The breath itself was threatening, however, having the uncanny attribute of most everyone being allergic, which caused anyone in contact with it to have the same outcome as scaring the poor hybrid.
Alkora turning his gaze from the skunk and his jokes over to the looming building, changing the subject away from his embarrassment,"So, you ready to do this?".
The drasky stood up, his height considerably shorter than the above average skunk, coming up to around his chest (However Alkora made up for this in width). He reached up with a clawed finger, tapping on his earpiece to turn it on. Axel followed suite, tapping his on as well with his deviant grin turning to a more serious one, letting his mind fall once more to the task at hand. He walked a short distance and grabbed the small links of the fence and began to scale it, hefting himself over the top to drop down.
This earned another grumble from the drasky, who flapped a wing on his back before folding closer to his body. The skunk smirked at the overweight hybrid's rather useless wings. He then turned to the gate, funbling around in the pocket of his bell-bottomed jeans for the key to unlock it ,pushing it open in offering to Alkora
"Sorry, I almost forgot you can't fly.. normally anyway." Axel snickered, enjoying his onslaught of fun-making. Alkora growled playfully and breathed in for a few moments before the skunk noticed the drasky's chest and stomach bulging out with the blue, blueberry scented gas. This prompted Axel to panic a little and wave his hands to stop Alkora.
"Ok! Ok, no more jokes! I promise!" Axel yelled out urgently. Alkora, rather proud of himself, relaxed and gave out a solid belch, some of the gas escaping from his snout, causing Axel to jump back to avoid it.
"I though so..." Alkora grinned and laughed, his voice trailing as he turned and waddled forward toward the building in the distance. Axel grumbled and shortly followed.
"Are you guys finished?" A voice squeaked out from their earpieces. Both Axel and Alkora looked up, having completely forgotten of their friend.
"Err, sorry about that, Bungle. We forgot about you for a second." Axel stammered, feeling rather guilty. Alkora rolled his eyes and looked back at Axel.
"He doesn't mean THAT, he means the job." He corrected, stopping to catch his breath. Axel grinned at this but said nothing, not wanting to tempt the hybrid any more.
"A little bit of both actually. Come on, lets do this, we don't have all day." Bungle added from his position in front of the building. Alkora panted as he tried to catch up with Axel, groaning rather loudly in protest to all the walking.
"ugh, why did I have to come? Bungle is a lot more fit for this..." Alkora complained, waddling as fast as he could with a few breaks. After the first few times, Axel figured it best not to be TOO mean, and stopped to wait for him.
"Bungle already has his task, lets just do this as quickly as possible and get out of here." Axel replied. The rest of the short trip was fairly silent aside from the wheezes and breaks for Alkora and the occasional teasing that came with, until they eventually they came up to the side entrance to the large school. Axel fumbled in the pocket for the keys once more, taking them out to unlock the door.
"How did you get those anyway?" Alkora questioned as Axel circled the frame of the door to the keypad on the wall. Axel held up his hand in sign to postpone Alkora's question before turning his attention to their unseen friend.
"Alright Bungle, we're here. What is the code?"
"three, two, eight, eight, nine..." Bungle answered steadily. Axel followed up each number with a button-push to the keypad. After pressing all the buttons, he heard a solid buzz and opened the second door in front of them, turning to Alkora to answer his delayed question.
"You know, people really underestimate what our bearskunk can get away with.. He's like a little spy." He chuckled. Bungle's softer toned voice crackled into existence over their earpieces moments after the comment.
"Yeah, hardly, could you imagine me sneaking around with my tail?" the voice chuckled out, forcing a grin from Alkora at the imagery now in his mind. They both made their way past the second door, their eyes adjusting to the low light of the inside offices. Alkora fished through the rather large pockets of his UFO pants and pulled out the hastily copied blueprints they had mapped out days earlier. Alkora studied it for a moment before he pointed his chubby finger in the direction of a short hallway lined with a few closed-door offices.
"Hey, I'm doing the sneaking here, and my tail is bigger than yours! I think it's your gut that would get in the way, bearsquirrel." Axel teased in whisper with a grin to match Alkora's. This commented caused a grumbling murmur over both their headsets.
"I am not..! Oh forget it. Just hurry up, I'm getting bored out here." Bungle grumbled, with a few long moments silent before he decided to get the last laugh in. "...Besides, Alkora is much bigger than me, so what's he doing there anyway?".
Axel tried to hold his laughter, only a muffled snirk coming through. Alkora, however, was less amused, the big hybrid stopping, as if Bungle were present, and grumbled.
"Hey!" he said rather loudly, resulting in Axel hitting him on the shoulder softly and shushing him amongst his laughter, resulting in Alkora rolling his eyes. While it seemed unorthodox and mean to anyone overhearing it, It well known to them that none of the insults were actually threatening, but compliments hid under jokes and puns. Most of the time they would only act insulted to further their game.
They continued on, rounding the corner and weaving among cubicles to the biggest office. Alkora pressed his fat nose to the glass, squinting to see inside as Axel fished for the keys yet again, unlocking both the door handle's lock and the deadbolt above before swinging the door open.
"Quickly, guys, someone just pulled in." Their headsets crackled, Axel flicking on the lights quickly, eyes darting to the many huge boxes that lined the walls. They both scurried and sifted through the boxes as if their lives depended on it, racing against time as other warnings by Bungle of the situation outside updated them on how much time they had.
"Here.." Alkora explained with a deviant grin spreading across his face. Axel turned to what he held in his hands and fished through his pockets to pull out a small vial of blue liquid, an equally large grin forming on his own face.
"Oh yeah." Axel marveled at his work as he poured the vial over the object in the drasky's paws, careful not to get any of the liquid on him.
"This is going to be great..." Alkora chuckled before tossing it back in the box, both of them rushing out of the building in a hurry.
The mid-day sun blared upon the campus, which bustled with all sorts of activity. Families chatting and hugging their kids, sentimental for their big day. Most of the graduates, however, were much less enthusiastic about the archaic, outdated traditions of the up and coming ceremonies, chatting amongst themselves naturally, and with their families in a more forced manor, as if reading from a script.
Secluded just outside the center of the activities, say a tall, thin wolf, adorned in the same cap and gown that painted the campus. He took a moment to look around at specifically the trees, the skies, and anything not man-made. He was stressed, and it showed but a good sort of stressed. The ceremony was happening in just short of an hour, and he had finally escaped the iron grip of his family to relax with his friends.
The problem remained though, that his friends were not present where they asked him to be. This changed moments after the thought presented itself, however, as the soft, squishy, yet firm grip of the much shorter and fatter drasky enveloped him.
"Hey!" The wolf explained, almost knocked over by the weight of Alkora, who simply laughed and continued his assaulting hug. The other two followed moments after, a smirk washing over Axel at the sight in front of him, while a more casual, warm one adorned Bungle, who's unmistakably odd placed skunk tail swayed behind happily, looking like someone simply hot glued a skunk tail on a chubby bear.
"We're sorry, BW, He doesn't know his own size..." Bungle half teasingly said, followed by the drasky sticking his tongue out at Bungle. BW laughed at this and wrapped an arm around the fat hybrid attached to him, stumbling and struggling to keep his balance.
"I can see that!" He exclaimed, softly pushing Alkora off of him, who was satisfied with the damage he had done anyway. Bungle jumped up to the opportunity and gripped the wolf tightly, practically squealing in delight.
"oooh I can hardly believe it! You're BIG day!" he exclaimed, softly exaggerating the word 'big', resulting in a solid chuckle from Axel and Alkora. Their inside joke had mostly gone over BW's head however, passing it off as another of their plentiful pun jokes.
"Oh, really, it's just the ceremony, I have to sit there for eons listening to them babble on, walk across a stage, and take a piece of paper." He rolled his eyes, the three embarrassing him with their, in his opinion, dramatic treatment.
"Still, dear, this doesn't happen every day. If not the ceremony, enjoy the treatment. This is your day." Axel said, giving the wolf a hug over Bungles unrelenting grasp.
"Oh, don't be so emotional, Princess, I'll save you some cake. There's no need to be cryptic about it." BW smirked and giggled, the words lighting up Axel's cheeks into a rosy pink hue, Both Bungle and Alkora adding to the deepening blush with their own laughter.
They continued on for a while, enjoying the perfect day around them and the company of each other, passing jokes back and forth at one another countless times. The previously tense wolf became less so, and it was apparent to his friends, who were glad to ease their friends' tension. Finally, a silence washed over them, letting their minds and eyes wander to various things.
The wolf looked to the sky, watching the clouds above float on carelessly through the midday sky. The longer the silence continued, the more his mind reverted back to all the stress of the current events in his life. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't seem to fight back the stress that wore at him, though he smiled and continued his relaxed demeanor.
This didn't fool the rest of them, but they silently and unanimously decided it best not to pry, as his stress would flee sooner or later. It did help, however, that they knew something the wolf did not, and their careful glances and devious grins to one another only made this fact stronger in their minds. They could barely contain themselves, but knew they had to in order to uphold the true surprise factor. They couldn't let BW be the least bit suspicious, lest he catch on. He was, after all, a very clever wolf.
"Well..." The wolf finally started, breaking through the silence, the rest glancing over to the robed canine to see him looking at his watch. "It's about time for me to be bored to death."
BW sighed and sat up, the rest following suit as they began to walk across the park. Axel and Bungle exchanged yet more devious grins, stopping suddenly to Alkora's warning glares, as if saying 'enough is enough'. Bungle, instead of listening, jogged a bit to the front of their small pack, turning around to face them while walking backwards.
"Well, it can't be all that bad you know. Someone, at least, will probably pull some huge prank. That ought to liven things up." The bearskunk tried to reassure the wolf, with Alkora taking on a slightly worried look as they pressed closer to divulging their plans.
"Yes... Its very possible. Still, all the boring speeches just to get to that point. Ugh." The wolf continued in his annoyance, too lost in his thoughts to think past their thin curtain that Bungle seemed to be making even more transparent. "I think the pranks are kind of careless anyway, and in poor taste."
Alkora glared at Bungle from behind BW's view, causing him to casually slink back into line with the rest. As if adding gasoline to the drasky's fire, Axel chimed in.
"You said yourself you don't like the ceremonies. Besides, it's not like they can just take their diploma away" He chuckled, the group arriving at an intersection. Their conversation halted for a moment as they examined both ways down the road before continuing on.
"I suppose you're right." the wolf admitted, seeing the skunk's side of the argument, though completely missing the real reason behind his inquiry. Axel himself didn't want to continue the treacherous conversation, but found himself legitimately worried as to what reaction the wolf might have to the prank-making that they had planned. Satisfied with BW's changed view on the matter, he looked to Alkora, who was focusing his glare on him. Axel lightly shrugged his shoulders and gave a questioning 'What?' with his eyes. The fat drasky rolled his eyes, and their secret conversation was finished.
The rest of the walk was somewhat silent as they passed other robed figures, occasionally giving a mutual, silent, greeting nod, and stopping to cross streets. When they finally arrived at the auditorium, They all turned to one another, gave their departing words, and watched as the wolf faded into the flock of robed creatures.
Axel smirked and, without looking at the two, gave a laugh. Alkora gave a snicker, while Bungle a slightly quieter one as the three of them watched their friend fade slowly from view.
"He has no idea, does he?" Alkora asked the two only somewhat rhetorically, more-so adding to their mutual excitement. They smiled casually as BW turned around to look if his three friends were still looking on. Axel gave a wave while chiming in.
"No idea..." his voice trailed with a snicker, before the three headed off, rounding the building to join the families and friends all gathered to watch the event.
"I almost feel bad for what's going to happen..." Bungle said, his voice also trailing, but in a more concerned tone of voice. The other two looked at Bungle at the same time with surprising , judgmental looks. Bungle became worried and looked frantically between the two.
"What? I said ALMOST!"
The three arrived and got seated much earlier than the rest of the crowd, making sure to get seats towards the front of the auditorium. The wait was agonizing as they waited and joked to pass the time until the ceremony began. The ceremony went as suspected by them and the students alike. Speeches after speeches droned on, awards given followed by compliments and more speeches. A few hours past, and the audience had been divided into people who were drifting to sleep, and families still getting sentimental over the events that unfolded.
The three of them, however, were still antsy and eager, the minutes seeming like hours until finally they announced what they were all waiting for... the handing out of diplomas. The students lined came out alphabetically, took the piece of paper, shook the hand of someone they may or may not have ever met, and walked off.
Each person felt like an eternity before their friend's name was called. The wolf walked across the stage, the three of his friends' eyes glued on him with a devious grin, each moment dragging on an eternity, the tension forcing the three on the edge of their seat as the wolf took the diploma. The moment he did so felt like a bursting point for the tension built up in them, their eyes glued to him in anticipation.
Moments after, the wolf felt his stomach stirring, forcing a burp up his gullet. He muffled it and passed it off as a sigh, Smiling warmly to the form in front of him while shaking his hand. A drop of sweat rolled down the wolf's brow as he tried his best to act normal. The three of them could see the figure who handed BW the diploma saying a few things, followed by an obviously worried look and stuttered responses of the wolf. They saw the man clearly in the light of the stage mouthing the words "Are you ok?", with BW hastily replying that he was fine, while the look on his face said otherwise.
BW was aware of everything the moment the first bit of air escaped his maw. Axel, Alkora, and Bungle's puns and odd behavior flooding back into his mind with a silent expletive. He knew the only way out of it at this point was to get off stage as quickly as possible, but the ceremony itself held this just out of grasp. By this time, the wolf had forced up another burp, the gas being produced far quicker than he could release.
The three of BW's devious friends noticed the changes first from the front row, only because they were expecting it. They saw the wolf's stomach bulge out just enough for only those expecting the growth to notice.
"Hot damn, Alkora, that stuff works quick!" Bungle finally broke their silence, though their eyes continued to follow their unfortunate friend's every move.
"Yeah, man, you should bottle that and sell it..." Axel added, trailing his voice. Alkora blushed deeply at this and the three went back to the show.
BW turned abruptly from the man talking to him, who turned questioningly to the rest of the staff and audience, shrugging it off to call the next person's name. The wolf had deemed the conversation too risky to continue, despite formalities, and tried his hardest to flee having felt his stomach begin to press out to a more noticeable size. He tried his hardest to scurry off the stage, getting halfway, however, before stopping in his tracks. The air had already built up in him so much that his stomach filled out quite visibly even under the loose gown. He panicked as his body started becoming lighter, the audience now murmuring amongst themselves as one by one they started to notice the wolf's troubles as well.
He growled lowly and blushed a deep hue, his scurrying brought down to light scuffles and waddles. The wolf began to bounce with each step as the light air pressed his stomach out larger and tighter in front of him. His slight, air induced paunch turned into pregnant looking state, which ballooned rapidly up from there, the wolf looking as though he had a beach ball glued to his front side. Deep in BW's mind, he knew walking, at this point, wasn't an option, as the wolf found himself troubled with the very prospect of keeping himself on the ground as the light gas pushed forcably against the walls of his huge stomach.
The audience gasped, laughed, and pointed as the wolf ballooned up before their eyes, the three of the wolf's friends having much more fun than the rest of the audience, watching their handiwork unfold before their eyes. Alkora turned to Axel and Bungle respectively, and they back toward each other.
"Shall we?" Bungle asked.
"Well, yeah, before he floats away." Alkora chuckled. They nodded to each other and jumped up from their chairs, taking advantage of everyone's amazement to walk right up on stage amidst the rolling laughter in the auditorium.
"You'll have to excuse him ladies and gentlemen! This wolf is a little... light on his feet!" Axel shouted with a grin, bumping a hip into the highly bloated wolf, who only glared back at the skunk as he lost hopped on one paw to keep his balance and stop himself from tumbling right over.
BW grumbled lowly and opened his maw to retort, which only caused a booming belch to burst from it, the pressurized gas fleeing for its' life. The wolf closed his muzzle with a start, eyes wide in surprise as the audience roared even louder with laughter. Alkora fished through his pockets, to take out an elastic strap.
"Very sorry, folks! Always remember to tie your balloons! Not doing so, of course, defeats the purpose of them." Alkora boomed out, leaning over to the wolf to apply the strap to his muzzle, prohibiting him from opening it again. The drasky took in his friend's cold glare with a laugh, patting his huge stomach with a resounding drum sound.
"Aww, look at him all helpless!" Bungle giggled, hugging the wolf's increasingly spherical frame.
The wolf's stomach started to overtake his own chest, the curves smoothing out his frame into a gradually increasing spherical one, his hip following suit as the air had no choice but to fill what space it had. Axel gave another push to the wolf's form and made him roll, his very light weight causing him to bounce like a slightly heavy balloon, limbs flailing to try to keep his balance, his glares staring into Axel like ice, only making the skunk grin further.
"But really folks, my dear friend, BW, has very HIGH expectations..." Axel said, his voice trailing as he took out a long piece of rope. His terrible pun prompted a few groans from the audience amist the laughter, while Axel started to tie the rope to the wolf's ankle before the pressure of his spherical form forced most of his limbs inside. The light helium flowed throughout BW's cheeks, puffing them out largely, his vision becoming more and more obstructed by his enormous, rapidly growing form. BW's hope of getting out of this situation had mostly faded as he found his options limited, if not non-existent.
"We can really see him soaring to lofty heights in his lifetime!" Axel continued on, smiling to BW through the wolf's cold glares. He leaned down to pat the wolf's drum tight stomach, chuckling as it boomed across the auditorium. The wolf's body was only covered partially by his gown now, which pulled up all the way past his chest, and threatening to rip apart with every centimeter gained to his width. Axel leaned down to the wolf and grinned wildly at his puffy cheeks and cold glare.
"Payback, wolf, for all the... wonderful attention that you've given us!" He whispered, the wolf showing a bit of a blush as the skunk wrapped his arms around the wolf, tossing him up in the air softly. Finally reaching his limit, the wolf's ball-shaped frame stopped swelling out, but he found himself surprised as he did not fall back down from the lofty toss in the air. He floated upward til he reached the limits of the rope he was tied to.
"We hope you enjoyed the show, Ladies and Gentlemen! Now, if you'll excuse us..." Axel boomed over the laughter, tugging on the string to make his balloon friend bounce before continuing "...We have a graduation party to go to!"
BW's eyes darting about and finally squinting in the light while his taught form bounced in the air from the tug. His body turned slowly in the air while his puffed up cheeks blushed helplessly. He finally caught glimpses of the audience, some of who had fled in disgust, but most of who were disabled with a near constant barrage of laughter at the sight. In his mind, the wolf sighed, partially in response to his oddly comfortable state, and at, in his opinion, his foolish inability to see this coming. As the three of his friends' walked off stage, dragging his own parade-float sized body, he couldn't help but to plan his revenge.
For the moment, however, they enjoyed the success of their prank.