As the pain in his hip faded, Dan felt rational thought return. But what scared him was he could still feel his dog instincts just below the surface. When this started, he would get canine urges sometimes when something triggered them. Now though, he felt the doggy mindset all the time. The human might be in control right now, but the dog was still “awake”, just beneath his thoughts. And the more the dog took over, the harder it was to regain control. He was losing his humanity at a terrifying rate.
Kat glanced at him through the rearview mirror.
“Aww… puppy Danny is sad? Well maybe I have been a little hard on you. I’ll give you a little break how about that?”
Dan heard the whir of the automatic window begin to roll down. The wind coming through felt amazing through the fur on his face, and blowing around his large ears. But most amazing were the smells, so many all at once!
“Kat please no!” He shouted at his sister, “Put… put the window up! Don’t… don’t…”
Dan’s black nose sniffed the rush of air. Before he knew what was happening, Dan’s head was out the window of the car. His tongue dangled from his open snout as he panted into the breeze, and his tail swung back and forth.
He felt a familiar tingle in his throat, the kind that meant he was changing. Every time before now, that tingle had been enough to scare Dan out of whatever doggy behavior had caused it. This time, after so many losses of control in a row, Dan’s human half was too far into the dog’s instincts to break free.
'This was so cool!' Dan thought. 'It's awesome, just so great!'
Dan opened his maw to cry out in excitement, and let out a few very canine barks. Dan tilted his head in confusion. Something was wrong, but this was just too much fun to figure out what! Dan let out a few more barks.
As he did, Dan felt the tingling start again. Instead of in his body though, this one he felt deep within his mind. THAT finally scared the human part of Dan’s mind back into control.
'Wrrrrrut the fruck!' Dan thought. He hadn’t felt 2 changes at once before, and as far gone as he was, he was terrified. He growled at his sister.
“Grrrr Yrou britch! Wry ARF are yrou drroing tris tro mre? ARF!” Dan’s eyes widened. He tried clearing his throat, and let out a whine. “Whimpper… droo yrou hrate mre thrat mruch?”
He couldn’t stop. Even with his changed mouth and tongue, he hadn’t had trouble speaking. Now though, he couldn’t keep the growl out of his voice, and random barks and dog noises slipped out like hiccups.
Dan tried to calm down, tried again to think of a way out. 'I rhave tro frrigiure rout… ARF!... Wrut? Wry… wry ARF can I strill hear barking? ARF!'
A terrible feeling crept over Dan as he realized. The first change had started to take his ability to talk like a human, even to his sister. The second change had started taking his ability to sound human even to himself. He had a tough enough time remembering how to be human before! But now...
Dan’s ears folded back and his tail tucked between his legs. He tried to shout at Kat some more, and instead began to howl and bark in fear and loss.
'Nrooo!! Awroooo!! I dron’t rwanna bre a dog!'
Kat smiled as she listened to her brother bark. She could only understand every other word or so that Dan said now. The magic she cast was so strong, even she would eventually forget her brother was anything other than the family dog. It wouldn’t be much longer now...