Jared didn't spend much time waiting. She started inching her way closer to the clearing, using as much stealth as she could muster to get closer without tipping the kid off.
When he made a move to put the amulet in his pocket, she leapt out from cover and ran straight at him!
The kid looked stunned at the sight of the charging doe, and flung his hands out in front of him to protect himself. Jared kept her eyes focused on the amulet, opened her mouth wide, and grabbed for it...
The world spun around in a stomach-churning circle, and Jared fell to the forest floor. Head spinning, he put a hand up to his face...
Hand?
He looked at the soft, pink hand in bewilderment, flexing the fingers slightly. "My God, I'm me again!" he whispered, almost afraid to hear his own voice. He jumped to his feet and looked himself over.
Quickly, he realized that he wasn't himself, exactly. He was the kid, even wearing the same clothes he'd seen him wear. That thought made him turn around slowly, to see the doe he'd been standing there looking very confused. Apparently, the amulet had switched them around.
Jared looked around and found the amulet sitting on the ground. He remembered there was some kind of time limit on it, he couldn't just use it now to turn this kid back. He felt really bad about this, so he walked over. "It's okay, don't run. I know that every part of you wants to run away from here, but do yourself a favor, don't!" He stopped a few feet from her and held out a hand, "You understand?"
The doe slowly nodded, but looked no less confused.
Holding out the amulet, he started to explain, "I don't know what happened, but I know this caused it. A couple of years ago, I screwed up and it turned me first into a dog, then into a doe. I've been living in the forest since then." He skipped the part about getting pregnant for the moment, "I came back here to try and find it and found you holding it. I just wanted to take it away from you, use it to turn myself back, but I didn't know that it would swap up."
The doe slowly nodded, though Jared wasn't sure why. She reached a hoof out and started to slowly draw in the dirt, "Turn me back".
Jared nodded emphatically. "I will, I will. From what happened to me, the amulet works by turning you into whatever last wore what you touch it to. In my case, a dog collar and a deer pelt. I guess it we both touch it at the same time, we swap places. But there's a time limit of some kind. It won't work again for about ten or twelve hours..."
The doe started jumping in place and shaking her head no emphatically. It was clear she wanted to turn back now.
"Look, I didn't just make this up! I want to turn back into myself, too!" He started looking through his pockets and finally came up with a tattered velcro wallet. He opened it and found a school ID. "Kyle Fisher?" he asked the doe. She nodded.
"Okay, Kyle, this is what we're going to do..."