Lincoln chose to start lifting some weights. "This should get me in shape." he thought to himself "Afterall, if I fall behind in my excercise, I'll start packing on the pounds, I won't be as attractive to Zoe, and worst of all, I won't be able to make as many toys . . . wait . . . what?! Where did THAT thought come from?!"
He slapped himself and shook his head.
"Get a grip on yourself, Lincoln!" he told himself as he walked over to the barbells "All this Chistmas junk is starting to mess with your head! Well, the sooner I get done with this, the sooner I can go back to Zoe."
As he lay down on the support bench that held the barbells over the head, he tried to lift it with all his might, but he just couldn't budge them from their place.
"What gives?" he thought to himself "There are only three weights on each side, and I usually have no trouble lifting . . . ugh! Fine. Maybe if I take one off of each end, then it'll be easier for me."
Lincoln then got up to remove one weight from each side. Having done so, he sat back underneath the barbells, but still couldn't lift them up.
He tried again with only one on each side, and even then, couldn't lift them very high. Finally, he removed the last of the weights. Sitting under the barbell once again, he found he was barely able to lift it even once, but at least he was getting somewhere. As he did his reps with the barbell, he counted until he'd had enough at ten. Once done, he lifted them back onto it's resting place, and sat up on the bench, exhasted.
"This is ridiculous!" he thought to himself "I haven't had this much trouble since I was only sixteen! Something doesn't seem quite right. I'd better look at myself in the mirror."
His muscules still aching, he walked over to a full-length mirror, expecting his usual twenty-four-year-old self to be staring back at him, but to his shock, he looked like he was only fifteen years old! As if that oddity wasn't enough, he saw that his cheeks were a bit rosey, his nose seemed a bit pointed, and so were his ears!
Lincoln rubbed his eyes, and looked again, expecting the ilussion to dissapate, but instead he looked even younger at about thirteen! To make matters worse, in addition to his already smooth, hairless face, he found he had no body hair at all, and the hair on his eyebrows and head were all that remained.
"I've gotta get out of here!" he said in a panic, but knew that if he tried driving, he might get pulled over for driving underage.
Thinking fast, he then grabbed his smart phone out of his bag, and dialed Zoe's number.
"Hi, Lincoln." she replied from the other end "Done with your workout?"
"Yes," he replied "but I ran into a bit of a problem. Could you please come over?"
"What's wrong with your voice?" she asked "You sound like a kid!"
"Please Zoe!" he begged "I'm scared!"
"Ok." she told him "I'll be right over."
"Thanks!" he told her with a weak smile, and hung up the phone.
Looking at his reflection again, he looked only ten. His pointy nose was now three inches long, and his pointy ears were about three inches long each. Wiggling them, he couldn't help but laugh, even though he knew this was all very wrong, . . . wasn't it?
"Aren't you a little young to be in here, little man?" an older body-builder asked him.
"Don't worry." Lincoln told him with a smile "I'm waiting for my ride."
"If you say so," the man replied "and by the way, nice prosthetics. Almost thought they were real for a sec." This caused Lincoln to laugh nervously as he walked away to his bag of belongings.
It seemed that his clothes had shrunk with him, so at least he wouldn't have to worry about going naked, but how was he going to explain this to Zoe?
After sitting on a bench near the window for about five minutes, he saw his love come through the doors of the gym. Gettng up, he waved his arms at her. He was no older than eight at this point, and while his nose hadn't grown any longer, his pointy ears were now six inces long.
"Can I help you?" she asked, looking down at him.
"Zoe!" he told her "It's me! Lincoln! I can prove it: you remember that one night we were at the carnival, and you threw up on the rollercoaster? You had to spend the next hour recovering from it, and-" she covered his mouth at this point to keep him from embarassing her any further.
"Ok." she told him "I believe you. Now let's go."
As she drove back to their place, she noticed that the boy next to her seemed like he was only seven years old now, and was smiling from ear to ear.
"Why are you smiling?" she asked, a bit creeped out.
"I don't know." he said as he felt his face "I...I can't help it! Zoe, I...hee-hee...I'm scared."
"Don't worry, Lincoln." she told him "As soon as we get home, we'll call a doctor . . . or a wizzard. I mean, I've heard about magical things like this happening to other people in the world, so this isn't entirely unusual as you might think."
This made Lincoln feel a bit better about his situation. He hoped they could find a wizard to reverse this, but a small part of his brain asked "Do I even want to go back to how I was? I mean, this feels pretty cool, being a little kid with long, pointy ears, but . . . I can't let Zoe know that . . . a growing part of me . . . wants to stay like this, . . . and share my 'gift' with her . . . ugh! Why did I think that? I think I'm getting . . . worse? . . . Better?"
By the time they reached their place, he was only four years old. Taking the smiling elf boy by the hand, she raced inside, and locked the door behind them.
Lincoln sat down on the couch, happily swinging his feet, and humming "Jinglebells" to himself.
"Stay right there." Zoe told him "I'm going to look through the yellow pages for a wizard who can help us out."
"Okie-dokie!" the little elf boy happily chirped "Take your time! Hee-hee-hee!"
As he sat there waiting, he gleefully thought of how cute Zoe would look if she were a little elf girl about the same age he was now.