"Or I could just send you to the pound," Kayla pouted sulkily. James wasn't sure how serious she was, but he didn't want to find out. Hoping wildly for rescue, James looked around, but no help appeared to be coming. However, something did catch his eye: a thin polished stick placed carefully atop a stand...a wand!
With a sudden lunge, James managed to gather his paws under him and leap for the wand, which he grabbed carefully in his teeth. Skidding to an awkward landing, James turned with the wand in his teeth and gave a slight growl towards Kayla. The implication was obvious: turn him back or the wand would be kindling.
"Wait! Don't do that!" Kayla waved her hands frantically. "Dad'll kill me if that wand gets broken!" James glared at her and adjusted his grip on the wand. "Fine! I'll change you back," Kayla grumbled, but reached out a hand. "But you have to give me that back first; I need it to focus the magic for the spell, otherwise I might not have enough power to do the spell so soon." James gave her a suspicious look and another slight growl. "Look, I swear, all right?" Kayla pleaded. "No tricks this time." Since he didn't appear to have a choice, James padded over carefully and dropped the wand into her hand. However, he failed to notice the tooth marks which had been imprinted on the wand's rich wood, marring its surface.
"Let's see..." Kayla closed her eyes to focus, then began chanting, this time pointing the wand in James' direction. The world distorted just as it had before, and suddenly James was on his hands and knees, fully clothed.
"Thank goodness," James exhaled, relieved. "I'm back to nor-" At that moment, James felt a strange tug at the back of his pants, followed by a rip. Almost too scared to look, James slowly turned his head. Sticking out of a hole in his pants was a proud tail covered in brown fur: a lab's tail.
"Well, almost normal," Kayla chuckled uncomfortably, but James noticed her gaze wasn't on his rear, but rather on his head. He felt his ears twitch in nervousness. Wait, twitch? James got to his knees and reached up with his hands, only to feel two floppy, furry ears laying against his hair.
"What did you do to me?!" James yelped. "You didn't change me back! You rier ro awroooo!!" James' yelling turned into barking as he suddenly fell back onto all fours, his face reshaping itself into a muzzle. In a second, where once sat a man with a dog tail and ears crouched a brown labrador wearing a man's shirt and pants.
Rather than horror or surprise, James was astounded to see a look of interest, even excitement on Kayla's face.
"Ooh, I've heard of this but I thought it was a myth! The magic must have been altered due to the damage to the wand!" Kayla grinned as she studied James, who didn't appreciate her enthusiasm. Growling once more, James let loose with a series of loud barks and howls. "Okay, okay! Quiet down before someone comes and we both get in trouble!" Kayla sputtered. "Do you want to end up dissected or something?" Warily, James glared at Kayla. "Look," Kayla said, taking James' head in her hands and looking into his eyes. "I think the magic loosened up your form but couldn't reconstitute it completely because the wand got messed up - thanks to you, by the way! - so your form is not as stable as it should be after a transformation. Since you got upset, it changed back into a dog, but I think you should be able to control it to some point. Just concentrate on being a human and your body should shift back." James gave her a distrustful look, but closed his eyes in desperation and thought of himself as a human, envisioning his hands, his feet...
"There you go, told ya you could do it!" Kayla chortled as James opened his eyes to see his hands on the floor below him. However, before he could sigh in relief, he felt something behind him...he stll had a tail...and dog ears too!
"Hey, I thought you said...!" James began angrily, but Kayla put a finger on his lips.
"Now don't get upset, or you might end up as a dog again," Kayla grinned. "Granted, it's not perfect, but it's nothing you can't hide, and just think! Now you can become a dog whenever you like!" James struggled to maintain concentration on his human form as his anger rose.