"Magics above and magics below, turn me into a very strong man!"
Well, that's what Edwin meant to say. He had always been displeased with his muscular inadequacy, but he was also too lazy to exercise. He knew enough Greek to fill in the blank, so he went ahead and wished to bulk up. Unfortunately, the middle aged skeptic had very nearly failed his one semester of Greek in college because he was always using the wrong words for things, and the years had not been kind to what little he'd managed to learn. Therefore, what Edwin actually said was something quite different:
"Magics above and magics below, turn me into a very strong MULE!"
Edwin giggled, neither realizing what he said nor believing in what could happen, and contemplated whether he should go ahead and buy this book just for laughs. He could pass it around before the game on poker night and let his friends take turns mocking it. He didn't yet notice that he was, in fact, already starting to become a bit more muscular, but not because he was changing into any sort of man.
He did, however, notice very shortly when something started feeling wrong in his behind. It got worse, and worse, until it was actually quite painful. Something was scrunched up in his pants, and he could feel all sorts of long... hair?
"What's going on?" he asked himself in English, and then he groan out loud as it got tighter. He couldn't take this anymore. He put the book back on the shelf and hurried over into the shop's little restroom so he could take down his pants and underwear and get to the bottom of this. He gasped when he did, because there over his butt, freshly released from his garments, was a dark brown tail with a very long tassel.
"WHAT the ... ?!" Edwin grabbed onto it pretty quickly and held it up in shock. Feeling this new part of himself get jerked around by his own hands made his eyes widened. Eventually he just held it still and stood there trying to figure out what was happening. When his balls started throbbing, then he let go of the tail and focused fully on them with his heart pounding.
Bigger, bigger, darker, darker... what was going on? He couldn't even see most of his penis anymore because it was tunneled up inside the skin of his crotch, which was starting to grow... fur?!
That's when his ears started twitching. They felt strange and misshapen, but he couldn't tell what they looked like. He desperately tried to pull up his pants around him enough to leave the stall, but his tail didn't fit and the pants barely reached halfway up his sheath. He was actually a bit taller now, too, which didn't help matters. Finally looking in the mirror, he saw very long, pointed-looking ears sticking up over his hair. And not only that, they were also covered in very dark brown fur. They soon flopped over and flattened back against his head. The tail again surprised him with muscular twitch.
Edwin didn't mentally connect any of what was going on with the book. He certainly hadn't asked for any of this (or so he thought) and he wasn't even thinking about a magical cause at first. Now, though, he did at least take time to remember where he was.
"Is magic real? Did another shopper curse me or something?" he wondered.
"Maybe someone out their can help me!"
He scuttled out of the restroom, with very little success at remaining dressed, and made his way to the counter. The shop keeper saw him and vaguely understood what was going on. It was usually several times a week that someone tried out one of the artifacts before paying and turned themselves into something right inside the store. It was sometimes hard to figure out exactly which magic it was (and therefore how to change them back) if they changed into something that couldn't talk. Edwin tried to ask for help, but it came out as a bray. The shopkeeper sighed.
"Come with me to the back of the store, mister ... customer. You're going to be too big to finish changing in here among my shelves and fragile items. We'll get you out of those tight clothes and figure out just what you got into."