Freddie didn't know Italian, but he did his best to read the words inscribed onto the interior of the metal ring band.
"L'uomo al cane,
leggi l'iscrizione,
camminare su quattro zampe!"
Michael listened with dismay as Freddie plowed through the recitation.
Freddie scratched his head. "Huh? What's that mean, you think?"
"Don't ever do that!" Michael scolded. "You never simply read a spell unless you know what it's meant to do!"
"That was a spell?" Freddie sounded surprised.
"Of course it's a spell," he sounded incredulous. "It's a magic ring."
Freddie felt a slight shiver, but blamed the early evening October breeze. "Did you recognize any of the words?"
"Just one," Michael admitted. "Cane...it's Italian for dog."
"I thought canis was the word for dog."
"It is... in Latin," he emphasized. "You were reading Italian. The Medici were Italians."
They had walked fairly quickly after leaving the shop. When he looked up, Michael realized they had already reached the block where his family's home was located. "Let's go up to my room and we can Google the rest of the inscription."
"I've got a lot of homework in trigonometry," he said, but he sounded indecisive. "Listen, don't mess with the ring any more until I can help. I can come over tomorrow after school."
"But why?"
Michael sighed. "Look, leave the magic to me," he said. "I know what I'm doing."
"Fine," Freddie relented.
Michael didn't like the reluctance he heard. "Maybe I better keep the ring 'til then."
"Why? Don't trust me with it?"
"Michael, please..."
"That old man said it was meant for me..."
"You don't even care about magic!"
Not wanting to irritate his boyfriend, Freddie relented first, as was usual for him. He handed off the ring to Michael. "OK. You win." Within view of his house and all the neighbors, he handed over the ring and then leaned closer for a public kiss.
When Michael lingered over the kiss, Freddie asked, "You sure you won't change your mind?"
He shook his head. "Tomorrow we will spend the entire evening together," he promised, his hand enclosed around the ring.
So, they parted, and Michael walked between his house and the neighbor's home to enter through the back door. As he did so, the neighbor's dog came bounding to the fence dividing the properties.
"Hello, Ellie," Freddie greeted the female Australian shepherd. A bundle of affectionate energy, she panted a bit. Her long brown and white fur coat, even with the chill of an autumn evening, tended to keep her a bit overheated.
The dog sniffed furiously through the chain link barrier. Sometimes, Freddie slipped her a treat. "Sorry, girl," he said. "Nothing today."
He continued inside his house, leaving the dog pawing at the ground at the base of the fence and continuing to sniff furiously.
"Anyone home?" Freddie called.
Getting no response, he proceeded to his room. He pulled off his pants and T-shirt, dropping onto his bed in just his socks and boxer shorts.
He had really been in the mood for some fun with Michael, damn his trigonometry homework.
Rather than get involved in something that would conclude with a sticky mess, he rested his head on his pillow and began to scroll through his phone, checking social media and any recent text messages.
As he scrolled, he came across a shirtless photo of Michael from a recent visit. Freddie had snapped the photo while they were in his room. "Well damn," he said as his cock twitched at the sight of his handsome boyfriend.
He moved on past the photo, but the image lingered. He felt stirrings down there, even as he tried to ignore them. Then came a fateful text from his mom, telling him that she and his father were running late.
"Will be home in hour or so. Will bring dinner."
Sixty minutes would provide more than enough time. He smiled and tugged down the boxer shorts only to get a shock. His good, ol' very familiar dick looked quite different. His sparse pubes had thickened and a brownish tube seemed to have formed along his belly with the now reddish-pink tip of a narrower dick peeking from its furry interior.
"Oh fuck!"
He stared as the dick continued to emerge from the sheath. He'd seen enough dogs to recognize the equipment.
"How the hell?" Freddie gasped aloud.
Then, he heard the echo of Michael's voice. "Cane means dog."
Michael had also said the words on the ring were a spell.
Thinking he should contact Michael and alert him to this rather shocking development, Freddie got his second surprise.
"What the hell's happened to my hand?" He stared at a paw... a dog's paw... at the end of his arm, which was acquiring a coating of brown and black hairs. From each of the dog's toe pads extended a dark, dull claw.
He looked at his other hand. It had vanished, too, replaced by a paw. The growth of brown and black fur continued at a rapid pace.
He produced a strangled "No!" It sounded more like a howl.