Maggie hugged her friends as they wrapped up dinner at the hotel restaurant and set off for the airport, cheerily waving them goodbye before letting her smile drop to a scowl once they were out of the magpie’s sight.
Why’d they have to pick Las Vegas for a vacation? She hadn’t seem them in awhile and was happy to go anywhere to meet up, but really? Vegas? Suffice it to say, she wasn’t a fan of the city’s vibe. And then, once they had arrived, they’d discovered there was a crypto conference going on at one of the other hotels. Wonderful.
They’d made the most of the weekend and had a good time, but then Maggie’s flight home got canceled. The rest of them were headed out and she’d have to stay here, alone, one more night. Gonna need another drink to get through tonight, she thought, gesturing to the bartender to pour her another.
She checked her phone again to see if any seats had opened up on any other flights back to her hometown. No dice. The corners of Maggie’s beak twitched upward. No dice… in Vegas.
The bartender slid the magpie her drink. “Thanks,” she said. No sooner had she taken a sip than a Shiba Inu slid in beside her. Maggie sized him up in a flash: Cheap suit, fur slicked back with way too much product, some gaudy jewelry to give the impression of wealth and the smell of roughly three drinks too many on his breath. Exactly the sort of person she’d been hoping to avoid.
“What’s a pretty birrr like you doin here all – hic – by yourself?” the dog slurred. “Can I buy you a drink?” He looked at the still-full glass in the magpie’s hand. “Can I buy you another drink? Dinner?”
Maggie placed her hand over her glass and moved it away from the Shiba Inu. “Not interested. Move on.”
“You sure?” the dog persisted. “You don’t know what you’re missing out on. I just made a few racks today trading in MoneyCoin. You probably don’t know what that is, do you? It’s a crypto…”
Maggie’s brain began to drown him out with a quick-developing headache and incessant buzzing. Did he somehow manage to slip something into my drink?, she wondered, closing her eyes and rubbing the space between them. No, no chance; I only just got it.
A surge of energy rushed through the magpie, and just as suddenly as the headache began, it ended. Maggie opened her eyes and was stunned to find herself towering over the rest of the room, having to bend down even despite the particularly high ceilings in the hotel bar. Her clothes were in tatters beneath her, having stood little chance of surviving such explosive growth.
The Shiba Inu gulped and looked up at her with fear. She had to be at least six times his size now, and the cruel smirk curled across her beak was more than enough indication that he was in deep trouble.
He tried to back away, but in his drunkenness, all he succeeded in doing was slipping and falling on his butt. Before he could get up, Maggie pinned him to the ground with a single foot.
Chaos reigned all around her as tourists screamed and fled, but for now, the magpie had a singular focus. The boy had wanted her attention, and now he was going to get it. “What’s the matter?” Maggie teased, wiggling her talons on either side of the dog’s head while the middle one tapped on his exposed throat. “I thought you wanted to see me out of my clothes.”
Maggie shifted more of her weight to her foot, making it difficult for the Shiba Inu to breathe, much less reply.
“As it turns out, I’m suddenly feeling quite peckish,” she continued, wrapping her strong toes around the struggling canine, “so I think I’ll take you up on that dinner offer.” In one smooth motion, she transferred her prey from her foot to her hand, and then from her hand to her beak. She gave him a good view of where he was going before swallowing him up, turning the Shiba Inu into nothing more than a bulge sliding down a magpie’s throat.
Truth be told, his taste left much to be desired. But his panicked squirms as he slipped deeper and deeper down the magpie’s gullet felt absolutely divine.
As Maggie felt the Shiba Inu fall into her stomach, the buzzing sound returned. This time, she embraced it, letting herself savor every sensation of growth as she grew much, much larger, bursting out of the resort hotel to the horror of those who had just managed to escape outside.
The magpie surveyed her surroundings as she towered over every structure in the city. Rows of shiny buildings up and down the Strip caught her eyes — so many to toy with! Down below, though, something else grabbed her immediate attention: a fast-moving stretch limousine quickly trying to escape the carnage.
But Maggie was quicker. In a flash, she brought her foot down on the doomed vehicle, flattening it and its occupants into a pancake of twisted metal and fur. “Aww, your fancy car couldn’t stand up to something as ‘weak’ as a bird foot,” she taunted, taking obvious pleasure in grinding it into the pavement.
Maggie’s snickers boomed throughout the city, sending chills down the spines of all the furs who could hear. “You know, for the first time,” she teased, raising her immense paw again, “I think I might have fun in Las Vegas.”
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