In his headlong dash back downstairs, Jared collided with his 10-year-old brother.
"Where are you going in such a hur —" Kevin started to ask only to have his words freeze in his throat as his eyes fixated on the long, hairy ears atop his older brother's head.
"I...I have to go," Jared said in a hoarse voice.
"Wait! Why do you look like Bottom?"
"Bottom?" Jared repeated without comprehension.
Kevin exaggerated his sigh. "You know...Shakespeare...Midsummer Night's Dream." Jared only stared at him blankly. "Don't you ever read, bro?"
"I don't have time to read," Jared said, suddenly feeling his throat constrict. "I..I...Eee-Haw!"
He lifted a hand to clasp over his mouth. "Why do I keep making that sound?"
Kevin, in the meantime, stared at his brother's hand. The fingers looked halfway toward changing into dark hooves.
Kevin stepped closer, his expression rapt. "How are you doing this?"
"I don't know," Jared wailed. His stomach lurched as changes to his insides kept pace with the unwelcome modifications on his exterior. "I'm turning into a horse!"
Kevin laughed. "It's not funny," Jared protested.
"Sorry, but you're not turning into a horse," Kevin explained. "Those ears belong to a donkey. And didn't you hear yourself? That was a bray."
"I don't want to become either one!" Jared pushed past his brother. He had to get back to the pawn shop.
Kevin followed him out the front door and onto the porch. "Jared, where are you going?"
"I've got...Eee-haw! Eeehaw!"
Jared's face finished pushing out into a snout while his body began to grow much, much larger than his current 170 pounds. His clothing shredded and a painful pressure along his spine forced him into a quadrupedal stance.
"Oh boy!" Kevin exclaimed as Jared's shredded clothes fell away. A dense pelt of gray and white fur covered his transformed body, but a shocked Kevin was reacting more to what he saw rising along Jared's belly from beneath his back legs. Needless to say, Jared wouldn't have to worry about size in a certain department in his new form.
The visceral feelings associated with the transformation had made themselves most manifest in Jared's new donkey cock, which swung like a section of black hose under his white furred belly. Kevin stared at the huge cock, which almost touched the ground. Jared could feel its heavy weight swing with his every movement. A pair of large, pendulous balls in a smooth, dark velvety sack completed the radical transformation of his privates. A flick of his tail would reveal the heavy balls to any and all.
Tail! He felt it flick, independently of his thoughts. He had a tail. In some fashion, that knowledge fully brought home the fact he had gone from human to animal.
He looked toward his brother, who looked blurred and vague even at close range. "Kevin, you've got to help me!" Instead of words, however, his plea came out as a long, deep-throated bray. "Heeh-Haw! EEhh-Haw!"
Jared inhaled, expanding his barrel-like sides and pulling air into his lungs. He tried again. "The pawn shop!" Eee-Haw!
He couldn't speak. His panic caused him to let loose with a stream of incessant braying until Kevin had to raise his voice over the din. "Jared, calm down!"
Jared stepped onto the sidewalk and heard a strange clicking clomp. He tapped a foreleg on the pavement. He heard the sound of a metal horseshoe, or donkey-shoe, striking the pavement. The magic from the amulet had also given him metal shoes for his hooves like the one he had found by the side of the street. The discovery set off more braying.