Bryan's bellowed loudly as Cal burned Peace's brand into his hide. Hair and hide sizzled as the white-hot metal torched a small circle on the bull's rump. Bristly hairs bordering the new symbol sparked and curled in tendrils of smoke as the intense heat scorched them.
"You boys ride on to the back pasture and bring in any strays," Mr. Peace said. "I'll see to our new bull."
Bryan, still smarting from the branding, stomped his hooves in the narrow stall.
After Zeke and Cal departed, Mr. Peace took out his new phone. "Dad-blamed gadget," he said, looking at the screen. "What in tarnation is a Chroney-Vac?"
Bryan latched onto the older man's comments and bellowed for attention. He suddenly began to feel very strange. He wasn't the only one surprised when Peace threw open the door to the barn stall. Bryan, naked as the day of his birth except for the thick rope coiled around his neck, stood in his bare feet in the hay and muck of the stall.
"I'm me again," Bryan exclaimed and twisted his neck for a look at the brand burned onto his right buttock. "Oww, dammit. That still hurts!"
"Who in the hell are you?" Peace said.
Bryan saw the phone in the man's hand. He was torn between trying to cover his private parts with his hands or holding up his arms in a gesture for Mr. Peace to stay calm. "I can explain," he said.
"You better start doing it, stranger," Peace said and reached to a holster at his waist and drew his gun.
"Wait!" Bryan cried. "Don't shoot!"
"Start talking," Peace ordered.
Bryan let the story tumble out of his mouth, while Peace, very much on his guard, kept the gun trained on him. "You've got to believe me," he said in conclusion. "I'd still be trapped as that bull if you hadn't opened that app!"
"Is that so?" Peace said.
"So, do you have something I could wear?" Bryan asked hopefully.
Peace kept his gun aimed at the youth, but he turned, spit on the ground, and laughed coldly. "That's an incredible story, I do admit," the man said. "And you say that nobody knows what happened to you?"
"That's right," Bryan said, shivering a bit in the shade of the stall.
"Well, in that case, I don't reckon you'll be missed," Peace said and activated the Chronivac app. "And I am still in need of a bull."
"What?" Bryan screamed. "Don't ...mooo... dare..."
He bellowed as his features twisted and shaped themselves back into bovine form. His body bloated into that of a heavy Charolais bull and his spine changed, forcing him back onto all fours as the fingers on his hands and toes on his feet fused into hooves.
In less time than it took for his previous transformation, Bryan returned to his bullish form. He gave a low, angry bellow, switched his tail irritably, and shook his head.
"You settle down, boy," Peace warned him as he returned the gun to its holster. "I've been looking over this contraption, and if you cross me, I'll use it to turn you into a bluebottle fly or something even worse."
Bryan stopped his attempt at defiance immediately and drooped his head. "That's better," Peace said. He gave a loud guffaw. "You young kids and your video-games!"
Bryan wanted to scream at him that the Chronivac wasn't a videogame, but worried that, even if it was a bluff, Peace might accidentally turn him into a fly or something simply by bumbling around with the app.
"Besides, it's not like I'm planning to make hamburger out of you," Peace said. "I just need a stud for the herd. You scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."
To punctuate the offer, Peace lowered the phone and used his free hand to scratch the fur behind Bryan's new bovine ears. He laughed again and made a remark that it might be tough work, but someone had to do it.