Brendan felt a funny feeling in his ears; it didn't hurt, but he didn't know what it was. He did notice he could hear a lot better all of a sudden, which surprised him somewhat. He aimed his face at the door and felt a hard muscular jerk on both sides of his head, and he stood still for a moment listening to the rest of the house: Jenny talking to her dolls, Dad's old video games beeping, Mom walking down the carpeted stairs in her slippers, the tap dripping in the kitchen. Not sure what to think of this, Brendon stood up straight and tried to listen more carefully. He couldn't see his new ears, but he could see Triksi cocking her head to the side to look at him.
Feeling oddly bare when he stood up, he looked down and freaked.
"Agh! What happened to my clothes?" Brendon just couldn't understand why he was naked, and why there wasn't a scrap of clothing in his whole bedroom from what he could see of his open closet. Before he could figure this out, his large ears perked up at the sound of a can opening downstairs, and so did Triksi's. Mom must be getting the dog's dinner ready downstairs, like she usually does because Brendon is typically too stumped on his homework lately and Dad is too lazy to do much of anything. Triksi usually yaps and bolts down the stairs at that sound, but instead she whines and looks back and forth, torn between going after that glorious sound and watching her master's nose darken strangely.
Brendon notices a moistness in his nostrils and is very surprised that he can smell the dog food even all the way up here in his room. He can also smell Mom, Dan, Jenny, Triksi, and his own scent surrounding him. There are all sorts of other smells, including many more food smells downstairs, but what confuses him the most is that even the dog food smell seems so darn inviting! He feels a rhythmic muscle spasm picking up in his lower spine that feels good but makes him curious, so he quickly looks behind him.
Back in the lamp, on the other side of the magical viewscreen, Beldazar chuckles watching the boy get his first look at the long, wagging appendage that's grown from his behind. Brendon gasps and waves it around a little more, trying to figure it out. Then he catches it with both hands and leans in tight to see it.
"I, I have a tail now?" he ponders aloud, staring at it, wondering where it came from. He runs his fingers through the bushy, pepper-gray fur he recognized the instant he saw it. "And it looks just like your, Trix!" he says with wonder in his voice. Triksi barks.
Brendon is in for another bewildering surprise when his hands cramp up, and he holds them up in front of him, watching his fingers blung with sharpening nails and his thumbs shrink into dew claws. More of the same peppery cattle-dog hair spreads up his torso, with shorter brown and black fur sprouting from his arms, his lengthening feet, and part of his face. Brendon finally understands what is starting to happen when a leather collar spontaneously appears around his neck and makes it undeniable.
"No, I can't be, I can't be turning into a... MOM! Help, someth- MOM! MAAWWM! AWF! AROOOOOOO!" Brendon's voice changes and his words lose cohesion as his wet-nosed face pushing out into a pointy, sharp-toothed muzzle. Triksi, curious the whole time, comes over to sniff at the new dog that her former master is becoming. Brendon is still howling when his upright stance fails him and he catches his weight on his reddish-brown fore-paws. He jumps and flattens his ears when he feels Triksi's nose snuffling around under his tail. He looks back at her, perplexed, and stifles an urge to return the favor. Looking around some more, he notices his bed is gone, and in fact nothing he owns exists in this whole room, but that weird lamp he bought for Jenny is still there. The smell of fresh dog food from downstairs is still here like a cloud over everything. What am I gonna do? I'm a dog!--he thinks--How did this even happen?