While Ricky was flipping through the animal pages, he impulsively flipped back to see the marsupials section again. He took another look at the illuminated drawing of a kangaroo mid-hop and smiled to think about how much fun kangaroos must have. It looked like such a lazy lifestyle, munching on grass and shrubs all day, but it also had to be fun every now and then to take off hopping as far and fast as a kangaroo can!
"Well, if I can make anybody into anything, I might as well make myself into a roo for a while," thought Ricky out loud. After all, who hadn't wondered what it would be like? He rubbed his hands together at the thought of finding out.
"That's if this silly book is what it's cracked up to be, that is," he commented slyly. He didn't want to get his hopes up to much, having just dug up this supposed spell book out of the dirt on his dad's property, after all. He had no idea how it might have indeed up where it did, but it was exciting to try it out and take the chance that it might be the real deal.
The incantation was long and written in complicated, very old-fashioned cursive lettering, but Ricky thought he understood it. He had to be naked for the ritual, partly to channel the energies of the wilderness in their purest form through his exposed body, supposedly--and also, one supposes, because clothing symbolizes the human world and leaving it behind could help the practitioner release his inhibitions and enter the realm of the beasts. That, and it would be physically awkward to be turning into a roo with pants and shoes on. Of course, there was also the possibility that the book was some kind of practical joke, made with the thought of tricking the gullible into embarrassing situations. Ricky would be willing to indulge the fantasy long enough to try the spell even in such a case.
So with some difficulty this close to a well-known local apartment complex, Ricky managed to locate a mildly secluded patch of suburban wilderness concealed with vegetation. It was close enough to the streets and houses that he wasn't lost, but far enough away that he didn't think anyone would come a long too quickly without him noticing. He got into a nook between a couple of acacia trees and stripped himself down to start the spell. A light breeze picked up a bit as he sounded out the words from the challenging phonetic script. Before it was over, he had dazed off into a trance for a bit, and after an uncertain number of minutes he returned to lucid but relaxed state of awareness, taking in deep breaths of the soft air and vivid summer scents around him. It was exhilarating to let himself let go like this, and it was fun to think that maybe superstition and magic, which his Dad said was fake, was actually real. Ricky stood naked in the bushes for another few moments, tingling with suspense, waiting expectantly to find out what, if anything was going to happen to him.