Well, THAT was definitely an unexpected experience. You look at the bottle in your hand. As strange as it seemed, there was no denying the obvious supernatural phenomena that happened when you picked it up. Either you had completely lost it, or you were a genie now, and apparently one that ran by a different set of rules than usual. However, you still looked human, and you had no idea how to use your power to grant people's wishes. But, you did know a place where you might be able to give these powers a test.
Leaving the mysterious park, but keeping your bottle close at hand, you walk down to the mayor's office. The building had a large fountain with a distinct flower motif. As the office had been built across the street from an elementary school way back in the day when the town was a lot smaller, it was pretty common to see kids tossing coins into the fountain to make wishes after school was over. You sit down on a bench by the fountain, and wait for the bell across the street to ring.
As you wait, you think about what the face that had appeared in the smoke told you. As long as your bottle was undamaged, you had the power to grant the wish of any person you chose, (excluding yourself, you had to assume,) in any way you chose, and were apparently now immortal. The only other restriction he mentioned was that "nobody must know that you are a genie" and that if you told anyone you were one, you would lose your powers and be punished severely. Knowing how often genies played with semantics in stories, you had to wonder if that last rule was actually two separate rules. Would you ONLY be punished if you told someone? Would you be fine if people figured out you were a genie on their own? If others figuring out on their own WAS a punishable offense, was the punishment the same as if you had told someone yourself, or would it be more lax?
You decide it's probably better to play it safe with those rules, for now. You hear the bells ringing across the street, and see kids pouring out not long after. A few kids of varying ages cross the street and step up to the fountain.
The first one to throw a penny in is a brown-haired boy, looking around seven. You listen carefully as he flips the coin in. "I wish I had a Hyper-Soaker 3500," he said, before starting to walk away.
'Seems like an okay wish to try and grant,' you thought to yourself. Suddenly, time seemed to stand still for you. You looked around a the kids, standing motionless. You figure this must be related to your wish-granting abilities, somehow. But still... How would you actually use them?
Short on ideas, you decide to simply concentrate on the wish being granted, and see if that does anything. You has seen the Hyper-Soaker in a toy store window while you were out shopping, so you already knew what it looked like. You imagined the oversized squirt-gun appearing in the kid's hands.
To your surprise, you could immediately see dozens of plastic particles materializing in front of the boy, forming the toy in his hands. Huh! It really was that easy! That said, you felt it might look a little weird for the water gun to just appear in the kid's hands like that. Better to keep it subtle. You pick the gun out of his frozen hands, and place it on the edge of a nearby garbage can. You then get back into your seat, and time suddenly moves again.
You call to the boy as he starts to walk off. "Hey kid? You said you wished you had a Hyper-Soaker? I think I saw someone throwing out a perfectly good one a little earlier. Take a look over there." You point to the trash can.
The kid glances over in the direction you're pointing, then gasps, rushing over and picking the water gun. "Woah! It looks like it still works!" the boy shoved the large gun in his backpack as best as best as he could, and rushed off.
You smile. So, you really can grant wishes. Your life is about to get a lot more interesting, you think to yourself. You turn back to look at the fountain, as a little boy, you'd guess around five, comes up to the fountain next.
You listen closely as he tosses a coin in, then says “I wish I could be a dinosaur.”
Now that one catches your attention! You had been fascinated with the concept of transformations for a long time, and now you could make one happen in real life, right before your eyes! Before you even really thought about it, time slowed to a crawl.
You’re almost eager to change him immediately, but you stop yourself. He’s just a little kid, and you don’t want to potentially ruin his life because he made a wish he didn’t understand the implications of. Still… While time is frozen, there’s no harm in trying it out. You picture the boy changing in your mind.
The boy begins to grow blue scales all over his body, spreading rapidly down his arms, which become thinner. His fingernails disappear, short, dulled claws appearing in their place. His legs grow a bit thicker, while his feet thin down, his toes growing longer, big, curved claws ripping through his shoes. Well, he’s probably not gonna need those anyway. You imagine the shoes being fixed, and teleported off to a kid that could make better use of them. Then you imagine the scales on the boy’s soles becoming thicker, and resistant to heat and cold. Wouldn’t want him hurting himself.
Next, the boy’s spine begins to extend, more vertebrae forming behind him, one by one, to form a scaly blue tail behind him, bursting through the back of his pants. You focus on the pants, and they begin to sew themselves together again, a short sleeve being added to fit the tail. The boy’s neck grew a few inches longer, while his head began to change drastically. His hair vanished, and his ears shrank down to little holes in his head. His pupils stretched vertically, becoming narrow slits. Finally, his jaw and nose stretched out in front of his face. His nose flattened into his growing jaw, forming a pair of nostrils on the end of his snout. His teeth, meanwhile grew longer and sharper, while his tongue grew to match the new size of his mouth. The boy was now an anthro raptor.
Well, this was awesome! Still, as much as you loved making a real transformation happen, you almost felt like you shouldn’t grant this wish. After all, you wouldn’t want him to become a pariah, would you? And you can’t guarantee he would think to wish everything back to normal while he was in earshot.
You pause. You can choose HOW to grant a wish. You had heard plenty of stories about genies twisting wishes to make the worst possible outcomes by taking advantage of any wordplay or lack of specificity. Wishes for millions of dollars granted by dropping it in gold bars on the wisher’s head, wishes to be made attractive granted by making the wisher magnetic, and so on. Perhaps you could fill in a few details of the boy’s wish to make it easier on him, instead.
You imagine the boys appearance being seen as perfectly normal by anyone he meets, except for you, and the little boy himself. That him being a talking, anthro dinosaur would be seen as no different from someone having blue eyes. And that any clothes he tried on would magic change to fit him while he was wearing them, just like what he was currently wearing
You don’t see anything happen after focusing this time. You guess the only way to know if this one worked is to restart time, and see what happens. You sit back on the bench, and time resumes.
The little boy looks at his reflection in the fountain and gasps. “Woah! My wish! It came true! I really turned into a dinosaur!” The boy looks down at his claws and gives them a wiggle, then turned around and swishes his tail. “This is so cool!” You smiled to yourself as the boy tries his best to make some menacing roaring or growling noises, none of the other kids walking past paying him any mind.
After a minute, a man approaches the little dino boy. “Hey there Jeremy! How was School?”
“It’s great! I’m a dinosaur now! Grr!”
The man shook his head with a smile. “Yes you are! It’s one of the things that make you Jeremy. So, are you ready to go home? Mom fixed some chicken nuggets.”
“Yeah! Let’s go!” The boy grabbed his father’s hand, and the two walked off.
This was incredible! Not only could you make or change things, but it seemed you could even alter people’s perceptions, too. Now, the question is, what did you plan to do next with this power?