Once Ty finished shuffling the cards magically in midair, Dustin thought of something.
"Hey, since you can change stuff now, how do I know you're not cheating?" he asked.
"Heh, heh, you don't!" laughed Ty. "But seriously man, have you ever known me to cheat at cards in the whole time I've lived here?"
"Well, there was that one time--"
"Dude, that was the FIRST TIME we played a card game, and I've been telling you for FOUR YEARS that it was just a manufacturing fluke! It just HAPPENED to be a deck with four extra jokers instead of four jacks. Besides, I can seriously just change anything anytime for any reason, anyway. I don't need to cheat at cards to do whatever I want. This really is a random card game, just for fun, as a cute way to test my powers, because gambling is one of the few things we have in common. So are you in?"
Dustin squinted and groaned questioningly before saying, "Sure, let's do it. I think the human card is ... HERE!" He picked out a card from the deck, turned it around, saw the word DOG in red capital letters across the top, and took a good look at the beautiful black Xolo pictured in the middle.
"Aw, man!" Dustin said, irritated. "I'm going be your PET for 24 hours?!"
"Or more, depending on what the cards have in store for you tomorrow," grinned Ty.
"There had better not 'just happen' to be an extra pet card in that deck, Ty!" insisted Dustin. "Am I really gonna have to eat dog food?" he whined, like a rich girl being asked to shovel poop.
"What else would you eat, buddy?" asked Ty rhetorically. "Of course, if you're a good boy, I might give you some scraps under the table."
Dustin rolled his eyes. He felt his ears perk up, and that's when he noticed they were getting bigger. He ran his hands over the tall, wide, triangular cups of skin that towered over his increasingly bald head. Feeling that his hair had just disappeared--leaving a chilly, bare scalp--without even a strand falling out around him like normal hair loss, was freaky. His nose, cheeks, and jaw started to ache, making him wince and watch the slow growth of his bare-skinned muzzle through barely open eyes. The feel of actual dog whiskers sprouting from the sides took some adjusting, because they could sense the air in ways his old hair couldn't.
Dustin felt a tingling feeling wash over his body, and his skin became both darker and glossier, or at least that's how it looked. As strange as turning into a dog felt, turning into one without growing any noticeable fur seemed to feel even weirder, but that's what happens when your newly empowered foster brother has always been obsessed with Mexican hairless. Feeling a sudden bareness on much of his body but an itchy tightness around his neck, Dustin looked down and felt around under his chin to discover that he was still "clothed", but in a DOG COLLAR instead of pants or a shirt. He grumbled something under his breath while Ty snickered. He wanted to go over and sniff some strange smells over in the corner but he decided that would be too undignified.
Feeling a sudden urge to stretch and move something new to him, as though it were an arm or a leg that had fallen a sleep, Dustin turned around to watch his TAIL jerk up and and swing for the first time. Shoot! He was gonna be stuck with one of THESE for 24 hours. He wanted to utter some choice words to Ty over this but found he could only yelp. Instead, he just picked it up and held it for a moment, feeling the wiry brush of black hair on it that a careful observer would notice. At least he wouldn't be totally hairless everywhere. The fingers clutching his tail got shorter, and Dustin watched their nails stretch out into pointed claws that darkened just as his skin had. He watched his thumbs shrink almost to nothing until they were just little clawed nubs beside his new paws, and he groaned at the realization that he wouldn't be gripping or holding anything the human way until Ty changed him back. The change surged into Dustin's feet and legs, and soon he was left on all fours looking up at Ty, who petted his bald head like he just was a normal dog.
"This rocks! I've always wanted one of these!" exclaimed Ty, "... and yes, I did win one fair and square, if you're wondering." Dustin wished the scratch behind the ears didn't feel too good for him to protest. It was going to be a RUFF twenty-four hours, to say the least!