Growing more confused and frightened by the minute I hurried to Lucas' room to see what he was talking about.
I found him kneeling on the floor, surrounded by paper and half finished drawings. The big box of crayons he'd gotten for Christmas was next to him.
Rather than try to ask him what was going on, which I'd realized was useless with my hyena muzzle, I motioned for him to show me.
And sure enough he did.
"See!" He held up the picture he'd shown me earlier, the stick figure labeled with my name. Except it was different now, instead of showing a person with messy brown hair, it showed a person with the head of a hyena.
My mouth lolled open in a disbelieving grin, did he really expect me to believe that just because he drew something it had happened? The morel likely explanation was that he'd seen my changes and immediately changed the picture to reflect them. Hyenas were his favorite animals after all so, little kid that he is, he probably though my state was neat. Of course that did nothing to explain why this had happened to me in the first place.
Little kid or not, he must have realized how unbelievable the whole thing was because his smile widened, "Look! I can show you!"
Reaching into the box he pulled out a dull, brownish gray crayon, a color too drab to belong in a box of crayons, even one with that many colors.
"Isn't this cool!" Lucas laughed, holding the crayon out for me to look at, "It's the perfect color for hyena fur and I didn't even need to look for it. These crayons are magic so that there's always the right color, and that's not all."
I nodded, humoring him, glad that he wasn't freaking out and making things worse. The last thing I wanted was him panicking, since like this I couldn't talk and certainly couldn't call mom and dad for help or got to anyone else for help unless I wanted them to see what a freak I'd become.
"Watch," he immediately started to work on the picture he'd drawn of me, giving it a dark, brushy looking tail. He drew hyenas often enough that I knew exactly what kind of tail it was too.
Jumping back up he ran around to look behind be, immediately letting out a disappointed 'aww' when he saw that I didn't have a tail like in the drawing.
On the other hand I was relieved, ridiculous as it was, there had been a moment when I'd worried that his drawing me with a tail would have done something, but that was nonsense of course.
My relief didn't last long though. A strange pulling feeling started at the base of my spine, right at my tailbone.
I let out a nervous laugh that quickly ended in a yip when the pulling became uncomfortable, like I'd stubbed my toe, except with my tailbone.
Reaching back I felt a lump in the back of my pants, something moving and growing longer.
Not stopping to think, I unzipped my pants and instantly the pain abated as my new tail was freed.
Turning my head I was able to see it, short hairs, the same color as the ones on my head at the base, and longer, darker ones farther down.
The tail continued to grow until it was nearly a foot long, its position and size making it impossible for me to pull my pants back up.
I stared at my newly grown tail and then at Lucas, another nervous laugh escaping my muzzle. Reflecting my nervousness, my tail tried to curl between my legs.
"It really does work!" Lucas danced happily around me as I stood there, too shocked to do anything.
His crayons really were magic and he'd used them to make me into a tailed, hyena headed freak!