"WOOF! WOOF!" Rosco barked.
Troy shifted on the couch. "Oh fuck..." he groaned. "What happened." Rosco continued barking in the other room, scratching at the back door. "Shut up!" Troy shouted. A bit of a headache seemed to still be throbbing in the back of his head. However, the barking suddenly brought back what he'd done. He looked over to see the German Shepard. "OH SHIT!" he jumped up and headed back there to let him outside. Rosco instantly runs out and relieves himself against a tree. "So weird..." He muttered to himself as he watched the dog explore the yard.
"Dustin," Troy called out. But the dog didn't listen. "Dustin!" he added a bit more authority, but still the dog seemed interested in anything other than him. "Rosco?" Troy said. Instantly his pointed ears shot up and he looked over at Troy. "Holy shit..." he uttered. The dog trotted over, tail wagging and looked up at him. "Sit?" The dog sat. "Down." Rosco laid down. "Speak." He barked.
"Holy shit Dustin!" Troy grabbed a chair and pulled it over. He leaned forward in looking down at the dog. "Do you really see yourself as a dog?" Rosco tilted his head. "Oh... Ummm... One bark yes. Two barks no. Do you understand?"
Rosco barked once.
Troy felt his heart rate speed up. Somehow, Dustin could understand everything he was saying, but only responded to the fake name he'd given him. He paused, wondering if he'd accidently screwed up his friend. "Is your name Rosco?" One bark. "Ok... Is your name Dustin?" Two barks. "Was your name Dustin?" One bark. "Are you a dog?" One bark. "Are you a human?" Two barks. "Were you a human?" One bark.
"This is so weird..." Troy pet the dog on the head and gave him a scratch beneath the chin. Rosco's head leaned into it more as his eyes closed and ears went back as he clearly was enjoying it. "Do you remember being human?" One bark. "Do you want to be human again?" Rosco paused. It almost seemed like he didn't want to answer. He rolled over onto his back, showing off his belly. Troy leaned in, giving the belly a rub. He looked down at the book next to him. "Is it because of the control spell? Or do you just like being a dog?"
"Howdy neighbor!" Clint from next door came over to the fence. He was a man in his middling forties. A fairly well built man from years and years of hard labor, but his belly was getting the better of him. Though Troy knew not to piss him off. Clint's arms were still just as thick and strong as ever. And his massive hands could easily do a ton of damage if given the opportunity. It was just nice that he wasn't too hard to piss off. "You got yourself a pup?"
"Uhhh... Yeah," Troy answered. "Hopefully he's not making too much noise. He's a good boy. Just needs a bit of training."
"Oh? I bet he is. German Shepards are great. At least once you get them trained. Real good workin' dogs. But most people don't realize just how strong headed they can be. Or how much trainin they need," Clint said. He leaned against the fence. "But it looks like you've got him pretty well trained already. Can I say hi?"
Troy jumped awkwardly up. "Uhh! YEAH!" he said with a bit too much emphasis. "Go meet your new neighbor Rosco."
Rosco trotted over to the chain link fence and put his front paws on it. "Woah! He's a big boy!" Clint said. Rosco's body nearly stretched to his 5'8" stature. "You'll make sure to keep the neighborhood safe. Won't you?" Clint's attention turned to dog as he pet him. "Who's a good boy? Who's a good boy?" Rosco's tail wagged a bit faster at the attention his neighbor was giving him.
"Yeah. So far, he's being a good boy," Troy said. He still felt a bit awkward that his friend was getting this much attention. Even more so that Rosco seemed to like it so much.
"Mmhhmmm... Whatcha got there?" Clint nodded down towards the book in Troy's hand.
"Oh this!?" Troy suddenly felt incredibly self-conscious about it. He quickly calmed himself down. 'No one knows what this is,' he told himself. However, a devious thought ran through his mind. "Just a book that I'm reading. I started it a couple days ago and I'm about half done with it." Once he said the word 'half' Troy instantly started thinking about Clint's hands turning into tiger paws. As he did so, Clint's nails turn pitch black. They grew slender and sharp pulling back into his fingers.
"What the hell!?" Clint jumped back looking at his hands. Orange fur started growing around his fingers as the bones shifted more like paws. He shook them several times like something had gotten stuck on them, but they were his fingers.
"What's got you bent out of shape?" he asked, though the confidence in his voice wavered. He didn't know what he expected but seeing his tough as nails neighbor look so terrified made him feel a bit less confident about the spell. As he said it, Clint's hands turned back into their human shape.
"I..." Clint looked over his hands. "I-- I don't know," he finally said. Confusion and fear swarmed around his expression as he tried to figure out how his fingers nails could have changed so much. Or where that orange fur had come from. "You didn't see that?"
"See what?" Troy continued to try to gaslight his neighbor. He felt a bit bad, but if this really was a magic book, he needed to keep it secret.
"N-nothing," Clint stuttered. Troy had never heard his voice so high or panicked. "Never mind. Don't worry about it."
"Sure..." Troy tries his best to look skeptical. "Hey. I've got to check something inside real quick. Would you mind making sure Rosco doesn't do anything he's not supposed to for just a few minutes? I don't want him digging in the yard or something."
"Uhh..." Clint still seemed a bit focused on his hands. "Yeah," he snapped out of it. "Sure, that'll be fine. I need to do some yard work anyways. besides, you're a good pup aint'cha?" he hesitated before he started to pet Rosco again, but once the dogs fur hit his hand and nothing happened, he went back to petting him normally.
Troy headed inside. He wanted to make one more test. So far he'd only ever done it in earshot of the person, however a book this powerful had to have a few more rules attached to it. And he wanted to test it out one more time. With Clint outside, it was a perfect opportunity.