James and Becky continued to search the strange room for a while longer before concluding there was no way of leaving and giving up. They were sat down together and James had begun to explain what little he knew of Kayla when a refined looking late middle aged man materialised in front of them. Instinctively, both James and Becky knew who this was and rose to their feet, covering their modesty as well as they could manage as they did so.
"Allow me to introduce myself, I am Kayla's father. You may call me Alcuin. I apologise for my daughters behaviour towards you which was unacceptable. Becky, I removed your curse some time ago. James, yours seems to have worn off naturally."
James quickly felt the affected areas of his body to confirm that his tail and dog ears had happily now vanished, though he was somewhat disappointed to discover that it had not been him who had restored Becky to human form. That had felt kind of cool.
"Can we go back home please?" Becky asked politely.
"I'm afraid not. You know too much about my daughter and I. Until I can trust you both you will need to stay here. However, I believe you will find my home to be larger and more luxurious than what you are used to so I hope it won't be too unpleasant a stay for you. I will prepare a room for you to share and you will eat and drink as well as myself and Kayla"
"And what about clothes?" Becky asked.
"They won't be necessary for either of you, for now at least" Alcuin replied to his new guests "I'm sorry if that disappoints you, but they may get in the way of my experiments"
"Experiments?" James asked nervously.
"I may as well make the most of having you both here, it's so rare I have access to any kind of test subject" the wizard replied bluntly "But unlike my daughter, I am experienced enough to know that any spells I happen to place on either of you will be fully safe and completely reversible"
"What kind of experiments are you talking about?" Becky asked. The wizard smiled at her before answering.
"Well, to start with I wondered what it would be like to grant limited magical powers to someone who wouldn't normally expect to possess them"
"Seriously?" Becky's eyes lit up. That actually sounded pretty good.
"Of course. But they will be restricted. One of you will gain the ability to alter the others form at will for as long as I decide to keep this experiment going. Your powers will be useless on anyone else, but one of you will be able to turn the other into any living creature, real or imagined, that you wish. The transformations can be full or partial and you can transform your partner back to human form whenever you want."
"And what do you hope to learn from this?" James asked.
"That's for me to know" Alcuin replied.
"And which one of us gets the power?" Becky was keen to find out.
"It depends on which of you volunteers for it now" the old man offered "So who is it going to be?"
James and Becky looked at each other and tried to read what the other was thinking. Obviously neither wanted to be the one getting transformed. The same thoughts were playing on both of their minds. Maybe if neither volunteered nobody would need to be turned into anything. Or maybe one could take the power and not use it. Or perhaps it might actually be quite fun to test out a few harmless spells on someone? For a while nobody spoke. Then..