Suddenly Dan heard footsteps and whirled to see Kat entering the room again, staring at her phone in obvious disappointment. Dan fell to his knees.
"KAAAT! Please, I'm begging you, don't turn me into an animal!"
Kat groaned, putting away the phone.
"Oh, quit your whining, your fine. Mom and Dad are gonna be home in an hour, the party setup took way less time than I thought it would, so I don't get to torment you as much as I was hoping."
Dan felt a surge of hope.
"You mean you're not gonna turn me into an animal?"
Kat snorted.
"Oh, no, you're still gonna turn, but now I have to tell you the real reason I'm doing it, and that, unfortunately for me, it's not permanent."
Dan was confused, and slowly started to rise back up, when his clothes began to feel tight. He looked down with dread to see his body expanding...with muscle?
'...I could get used to this part...' Dan thought in amazement as he watched his biceps bulge and pecs inflate, his thighs thicken and his back striate. His gut also expanded, but it was hard to the touch, not fat. The growth stopped just before seams on his clothes gave out.
Kat made a fascinated noise.
"Hm...since you're turning into such a big beast, your body must be shifting in stages...putting on muscle now to support the structure as you develop, sort of thing. Amazing..."
Dan shook from his reverie.
"Kat! I don't want to be a bull! What was that you said about this not being permanent? I know I'm not the best brother, but surely you don't want me to be a burger!"
Kat sighed, exasperated.
"No, of course not, but letting you be afraid for a few minutes that you WERE gonna be livestock is payback for how much of an ass you've been to me the last few months."
"You aren't exactly a cakewalk, you know!" Dan retorted unthinkingly, before the fear of his situation hit him and he regretted it. He was halfway to the floor to beg for mercy again when Kat put her hand out to stop him.
"Ok, ok, jeez. The groveling is a bit much. Look, this isn't actually a curse, except in the most technical sense of the word; it's a family tradition. We come from a magical family, ok? The women in the line become witches, because our power is naturally overt. The men only have latent magic; some can learn, some can't, but all will have daughters that are witches and sons with latent magic of their own. If you've got latent magic, it's easier to learn magic if magic is cast on you. Family tradition has it that the first spell a woman of our line casts should be the Inner Animal spell on a male relative, to help him both learn more about himself and also to increase his odds of being able to learn magic."
Dan blinked, looking down at his sister - had she gotten shorter? No, he must have grown taller with the last change.
"You...did this to help me?"
Kat raised an eyebrow.
"You know you don't have to sound THAT shocked. Anyway, like I said, I *was* going to let you think it was permanent for, like, another couple of hours. You're my brother, but you're still a dick."
Dan looked at Kat and felt another surge of anger and a desire to lash out, but he blinked, and stopped himself. He stared down at his muscles again, thinking. In truth, Dan and Kat were both very bright and intelligent young people, and fortunately or unfortunately for Dan, that was currently paying off in the form of self reflection.
"Inner animal...Kat, what do you mean when you say I've been a dick lately?"
Kat blinked, her turn to be confused.
"Um. I dunno? Just really pissy, snapping at me over the smallest jokes and shouting and pushing...my..."
Realization dawned on her face as Dan nodded, looking down shamedly at his muscles.
"I...think I may have anger issues...you know...like a bull..."