As long as there had been humans there have been humans who want to be reshaped into another,more powerful animal or spirit.
Back in the days of living in the cave that meant humans
drawing images of Siberian wolves,glacial bears and other hard
hitting animals with fang and claw
and performing rites to be transformed into
Siberian wolves,bears and giant megaladon reptiles
right up to the modern era when folk would perform rituals
to be transformed into werewolves,weresharks,werebears and
other monstrous beings.
And Ty's brother Dustin was part of a Transformation Club that
once a month gathered in rempte spots around the City and using
GPS Radios to keep track of each another,would draw the
Pentagrams,toss the herbs into the smoking pot and recite the
incantation that was supposed to turn Dustin and the other
members of the Transformation Club who participated in the
'Monster of the Month",generally a werewolf but occasionally
Dustin and the others had chanted a plea to the
Great Grey Shark Goddess to turn them into weresharks.
Since the members generally did not perform the wereshark
ritual near a body of salt or fresh water they hadn't worked
out all the kinks,just in case they DID get transformed
into flopping weresharks stuck on dry land.
They of course chatted on the GPS radios between themselves during the ritual,checking on if any member suddenly felt aching
in their gums due to sharpening lengthening teeth
and although they had the imagination
up to this night the Transformation Club had batted a
big fat ZERO when it actually came to a transformation.