[You must choose now.] The fae were not a patient race, and Angus had to try thinking things through even as he tried to wrap his head around the fact he had been an animal for a year! There was no way to save the two boys - he was being offered the chance to return to a human life, if not his own. But how could he pass himself off as a different boy? Would anyone believe him if he told them who he really was? A male fairy flared purple and commanded [Choose now or I will choose for you!] Angus reacted instinctively to the command and took a step towards the Asian boy simply because he was closest.
Angus really had no expectations, but he was surprised when he started to change. Somehow he had thought it might be some sort of mental exchange, but both boys and he started to alter form. There had to be calming magic involved, like they had used on him, for the two boys looked fascinated and even happy as their arms stretched out into forelegs and their bodies altered. The Asian boy sprouted antlers, and Angus retained his sense of smell long enough to recognize what had been his own scent starting to come from the forming buck. The blonde boy got a bit smaller a thinner as he became a fawn with another familiar scent. Twisting around awkwardly, Angus saw another human taking shape where one of his fawns had stood. Two boys were exchanging forms with two deer.
There was a sound of tearing as the large buck shook off the remnants of a scout uniform and sniffed the air. The fae were clustered on his head and antlers, and Angus saw confusion nd the first glimmer of fear dull as his mind an memories became those of the beast he now was. Angus remembered that life and those thoughts clearly, even though they were more impressions. Likewise, the fawn's eyes softened under the caress of other fae, and she scampered over to her mother.
A blonde boy stood unsteadily, staring at his hands and arms as the deer surrounded and sniffed at him. Two of the does and a fawn came over to investigate Angus, showing no fear. They knew who he was, or what he had been. But who was he now?
The purple fae hovered in front of him. [Your fawn will now be given the mind of the human as the human was given the mind of the fawn. For now, you will have the mind of the human you chose and your old human mind, while that human now has only the stag mind. If you try to tell anyone of what has happened to you, who you were, the stag will start to return. If you succeed, you will become the stag forever wherever you are. Now go and rejoin your kind.]
Angus felt a sharp pain in his head that faded rapidly, and was startled to see the herd run off. "What the shit?" He looked over to see Max looking down at himself and then at Angus. "We're naked! And what was with those deer?" It took Angus a bit longer to realize that he knew the other boy was Max Lieter, that he had memories of growing up with him, and even longer before the idea of being naked seemed wrong. Flushing, he went over to where the Asian boy had turned into the buck and found the tattered uniform. The legs had split out at the top, but the seat was mostly intact. The opposite was true of his shirt, which had been ruptured by the barreling chest while the sleeves slid down unharmed over slender forelegs.
Max had fared much better - his clothes were pretty much intact and he got dressed quickly. The blonde boy looked puzzled as he buttoned up his shirt. "What happened, Ker? Why are your clothes all torn up?"
Words came to his mouth that did not come from his mind. "I fell down a hill and tore my clothes up." He frowned as he spoke, then saw the faint purple glow from over his head. Ker. Short for Keri Li Wang. An immigrant from China whose widowed father was a scientist hired by some big American company. He now 'remembered' moving to the United States six years ago, and growing up with Max as his next door neighbor and best friend. Yet he also remembered being Angus, and being the stag. He stared at Max. "Don't you remember? We were deer and …" A sudden pain in his crotch made him gasp and he looked down to see the prepubescent penis and foreskin alter shape into the furred sheath of a fawn.
Angry, he looked up towards the purple glow that Max seemed blind to. "Hey! Can't I even talk to him? He used to be..." Another pain doubled him over, and Max approached worriedly. "Ker! What's wrong? Did they hurt you?" The purple fae laughed musically. [When your testicles descend, they will be those of a buck. Keep talking, foolish mortal.]
"I'm OK." Keri grabbed his clothes and pulled them on quickly, then sat down to pull on socks and shoes. The uniform was ruined, but held together enough to preserve what modesty a 12 year-old boy needed. "Mom is going to be mad." In this case, he was really talking about Max's mom, who had 'adopted' the motherless Chinese boy soon after his father had moved next door. Angus felt a pang of sorrow over his original family - had there been an exchange then? No, he remembered becoming the stag, and there had been no human left behind. So Angus had simply vanished from the world.
Max nodded. "Yeah. We'd better get back. Maybe you can change before the Troop Leader sees you. Between the two of us we have enough extra clothes to get through the weekend."
Scrambling up, Ker looked around on the ground. "Where's my camera?" It was on the ground not far away, and he was relieved to see it was not damaged. The digital camera took much better pictures than a phone, and he had hoped to get some nature shots... Angus's identity resurfaced briefly, remembering the Asian boy taking pictures. Had he captured the Fae? Then he remembered the warning and what had already been changed. For now, he needed to try to forget what had happened and get used to being Ker. Even as Ker thought that, he blinked in confusion. Get used to being himself? What a weird thing to think. He headed back toward the scout camp just as oblivious to the glow and laughter of the fae around them as his best friend Max.