beaten him home. He hefted himself out and sauntered up to his apartment, glancing at the forlorn For Sale sign in front of his former neighbor’s apartment. Buck shook his head. If only Clint hadn’t been so nosy, he might still be human. He’d been kinda hot.
He opened the door and walked inside, wiping off his boots on the mat and closed the door behind him. Then he looked up and froze. Sitting on the couch, one leg raised over his head, muzzle nursing his big red bone, was an anthro German Shepherd.
“Dustin?” Buck asked.
The anthro dog tried moving it’s muzzle but all it could do was whine, slightly. Buck smiled and walked over to his roommate, noticing the Book of Beast next to him. So that’s how it was, huh? Dustin missed being a dog.
He gently pat the dog’s head and cupped his roommate’s heavy balls, rolling them in his hands. The anthro looked up at him, whining around the knot.
“Good boy, Dustin.” Buck grinned and pressed the dog’s head down.
Dustin’s hips bucked and his eyes rolled up into the back of his head as his cock throbbed and white jism oozed between his lips. Buck waited, the anthro dog swallowing and lapping the errant semen. Soon, the knot softened and then he picked up the Book.
“Half” Dustin murmured.
Buck watched as Dustin slowly resumed his human form. The fur receded from his red face and Dustin slowly popped his cock out of his mouth, body uncontorting as his spine no longer bent the right way. His roommate stared at the floor when it was finished.
“So...” Buck smiled. “Got anything you want to tell me?”
“Ahem…no, not really.” Dustin shrugged, looking away. “I was just…uh…experimenting! Wow, anthro dogs are cool!”
“Uh-huh.” Buck crossed his arms.
“Fun and interesting!” Dustin swallowed and looked at Buck closely. “Erm, when did you get so fat and hairy?”
“I really don’t know how to respond to that.” Buck snorted and shook his head. “Yeah, I’ve been gaining a little. Hopefully more than a little! I wanna stay on topic, though. Why dog? Didn’t you just get back to having two legs?!”
“You know…yeah, I wanted to try the ‘best of both worlds’ thing. I liked having good hearing and a strong sense of smell. Being human is so dull in comparison.” Dustin said, eyeing Buck more closely. “Are you sure you’re okay, though? I’m pretty sure something about you is…different. Hard to put my finger on what, though.”
“Oh! You mean my hat?” Buck lifted his cap off, revealing his horseshoe fringe of buzzed hair and bald head. “I got into the Trucker’s Club, bro!”
“How long have you been in the Trucker’s Club, Buck, erm, Troy?” Dustin said, eyes on his best friend’s bald head, something about it wrong. And why was he calling Troy ‘Buck’?
“I got in today after meeting with Bubba. He and Sam are going to take care of our little car issue. They said they’ll be gone by tomorrow morning.”
“Troy…” Dustin shook his head. “I dunno what it is, but something’s wrong. You’re not how I remember you. I think something might have happened.”
"Look, man. I get it. You didn't think I could sweet talk them into taking care of our problems. But look." Buck pointed out the window. "I just bought a brand new truck. And since I’m in the Trucker Club, I can get sweet hauling jobs from Bubba which pay well. But if you don't believe me, you go talk to them."
Dustin stood and went to the window, staring out at the truck outside. It was a pretty red vintage Ford, though he wasn’t sure what model. And then the air next to it, where Clint’s two parking spots were, began to shimmer. A huge Semi cab slowly assembled itself out of nothing. The For Sale sign outside Clint’s condo disappeared at some point, because Dustin only noticed it was missing when it was gone.
As Dustin watched, he saw their fence vanish out of existence. Then Clint’s old condo shimmered before it too disappeared, leaving only a large grassy field surrounded by a large wooden fence. A fence that was connected to their old side fence. A fence that now enclosed their new, much larger backyard.
Dustin swallowed thickly, his heart pounding. Something was happening. Troy was weird and fat and now a semi was materializing out of thin air. He fought to remain calm. Dustin remembered Troy had said something about a man named ‘Clint’.
"Hey...uh, when you turned people into animals, did reality ever shift?" Dustin asked quietly.
"...Mmmm....only one time, when Clint needed to go. He was our neighbor." Buck replied.
Clint had been the neighbor! That’s right, he’d turned him into the police horse. Somehow reality had shifted and Dustin had completely forgotten about it! So, in theory, changes caused by the Book COULD change reality. But by what method?
"So reality altered. What did you do differently then?" Dustin asked.
"I pointed at him out the window and cast the spell, why?"
"So…you said the spell out loud, but the only difference was that he couldn't hear you, correct?"
"Yeah."
"....When you spoke with Bubba, did he have something like a Book on him?"
"Nah, just a clipboard. Why?"
“DeathNote!” Dustin shouted.
“What?”
“He just took a few pages from the Book and attached them to the clipboard, duh!” Dustin spoke excitedly.
“Is DeathNote that weird animu shit you watch?”
“Yeah. It doesn’t matter.” Dustin waved Buck’s question away. “Look, maybe he was changing you quietly, whispering, holding up the clipboard so you couldn’t hear him. So, because you couldn’t hear him…BANG! Reality shift!”
“Dude, seriously, I’m fine.” Buck said, scratching his hairy gut. “Just lay off the fat jokes, okay?”
“Hold this.” Dustin said, shoving the Book into Buck’s grasp.
Buck blinked and his head jerked as his hands touched the tome. “Whoa!”
He looked down at himself, expression shifting from shock to horror. Troy lifted a moob and let it flop back onto his wobbly gut. He grabbed his belly and shook it, breathing hard.
“Dude! I’m fucking fat!” Troy exclaimed, and bolted to the bathroom. “What the fuck?! I must have gained a hundred pounds!”
“I told you!” Dustin grinned. “And you’re hairy!”
“I’m…actually not upset about that, I’ve always wanted to…grow…a…beard…” Troy’s voice slowed.
Dustin waited, realizing what was coming next.
“Aaaaaaaaaaah! I’m fucking bald! That fucker!” Troy stomped out of the bathroom, footfalls heavier than normal, and shoved his boots back on. “I am going back to that shop and going fucking SCORCHED EARTH on those motherfuckers!”
“Calm down!” Dustin said.
“Calm down?! How the fuck am I supposed to calm down Dustin? He turned me into a fat…bald trucker!”
“What was that?” Dustin asked.
“What was what?”
“That pause between fat and bald. What else did he do?” Dustin was curious.
“Nothing. Uh, hairy! Yeah, that fucker!” Troy raged, opening the door.
“I said wait!” Dustin ran over and shut the door. “You’re going to fuck it up!”
“What do you mean? We can reality shift their asses now!” Troy fumed.
“And who the fuck is going to chop the fucking cars, Troy?” Dustin asked, exasperated. “We need to finesse the shit out of this situation. Think. Calm down, and fucking think, okay?”
“Fine!”
“Good!”
“OKAY!” Troy roared and sat on the couch, scratching his beard. “Why is this thing so goddamn itchy?”
“I dunno, never grew a beard before. How could you not know the Book could reality shift people?”
“I kinda did, but there was never a good reason to until Clint, man. Think about it.” Troy licked his lips. “If I reality shifted the victims, sure, there would be no evidence. But they also would never have had a bank account either. Also…I dunno what would happen to me if I reality shifted someone into something that I couldn’t realistically own.”
“Right. You said you kinda knew about it. What do you mean?”
“Well, the rules refer to reality shifts, but it doesn’t really….” Troy stared as Dustin’s face grew redder. He set the Book down in front of him. “…What?”
“It has rules!?” Dustin flung his hands into the air and stomped angrily around the room. “Buck, you idiot! Why didn’t you freakin’ tell me it has rules?!”
“You didn’t ask?” Buck replied.
“I shouldn’t have to! Is there a page?”
“Yeah, first page.” Troy quickly flipped back to the INTRODUCTION. “Rule 1: You must point at the target and say the spell. Not pointing at the target, or pointing at an invalid target, results in the spell targeting the user.”
“So you better have fingers and the ability to speak, go on.” Dustin nodded.
“Rule 2: All spells cost energy. Energy is provided in some small part by your Book. The rest is on you. This life energy can be worked out, like your muscles, by casting spells. If you do not have enough energy or (Prana) as it is known, the spell will fail.”
“Okay…so maybe using the Book a lot is a good thing.” Dustin frowned. “It also basically encourages the Owner of the Book to continue using the Book as often as they physically can.”
“Yeah. It’s easier to use Control than it was a few weeks ago. I used to pass out afterwards.” Troy shrugged. “Now I chug an energy drink and I’m ready to go.”
“Okay.” Dustin nodded. “Continue.”
“Rule 3: The Book offers protection against spells and reality shifts as long as it is in contact with your body. Any shifts that have set in while the Owner was not touching the Book will not be noticed. Reality shifts not directly targeting the Owner will shift him or her last.”
“Okay…so what are reality shifts?” Dustin asked.
Troy shrugged. “Dunno. It’s missing information. Look, that’s the last rule. The words at the bottom say ‘In order to obtain advanced Rules, please obtain another Book’.”
“Intentional, I’m sure.” Dustin nodded, licking his lips. “So it’s Death Game rules.”
“Death Game Rules?” Troy asked.
“Ignore that for now. Tell me about the other Books.”
“There’s 12 altogether. Time, Space, Divination, Beast, Transmutation, Death, Nature, Body, Myth, Arcane, Mind, and Dream.” Troy replied, then laid out the general details of their spells lists. “But, uh, that’s if they only have just the one Book, right?”
“Exactly. Life isn’t static, like a video game or something. We won’t have to fight all 11, hopefully.” Dustin said.
“I don’t really wanna fight them at all, but I do want to see what happens if I collect them all.” Troy leaned in. “Just think, man. You combine them all and you’re basically a god.”
“Right.” Dustin bit his lip. “So we already have a problem.”
“What?”
“It’s a nuke fight. Every user has spells that can absolutely destroy us.” Dustin said. “Our biggest issues will be Body, Transmutation, and especially Myth. That guy basically gets all the tools.”
“Tools?”
“Are you just going to repeat the last word I say?” Dustin raised a brow.
“Sorry, I just don’t understand.” Troy replied. “I’m not into nerdy stuff.”
“Right, sorry. Myth can summon creatures and turn people into minions. He can also change himself. He’s like Book of Beast but better in every single way.”
“How so?”
“Imagination. Myth can turn into a dragon, fly at supersonic speeds while carrying his Book in his talons, and target someone miles away with a spell. You wouldn’t even be able to see him.” Dustin explained.
“Whoa! That’s completely unfair.”
“I think that’s the point. It’s a Death Game”
“So what do we do?” Troy asked.
“First of all, we figure out why your friends at the Trucker’s club haven’t picked up those cars. You said Sam had told you they’d be dealt with by the time you woke up?”
Troy scratched his beard and nodded. “And they need to hurry up cause I gotta do a haul tomorrow.”
Dustin stared at him.
Troy cringed. “Sorry, these memories are really persistent, man. The longer I’m in this body, I FEEL less like Troy and more like…Buck. If I went to bed and woke up, I’m not sure I’d remember who I was anymore, Book or not.”
“Scary. Okay, so how long is your haul?” Dustin asked.
“3 days on the road.” Troy smiled. “I love the road.”
“Right. So today, we’ll go back up to Bubba’s Body Shop and I’ll do the talking. You go ahead and stay out of sight. We’ll take my car and you take the Book, too, just in case we need to…make them more compliant.”
“Smart.” Troy nodded, though uneasy with the thought of transforming any of the guys at the shop. “Uh, so I just…wait in the car?”
“Exactly. I’ll text you if I need backup.”
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Dustin parked his old beater in the customer area of Bubba’s Body Shop. There was one other customer, though he appeared to be a ‘regular’ based solely on appearance. Or he could have always been a fat, middle-aged trucker, who could tell anymore?
Bubba was outside, glancing over at their car as he washed a truck out front. Troy knew he couldn’t see him through the dirty windows, but he’d likely know there were two people in the vehicle. Dustin was in the passenger side, clearly psyching himself up.
“You okay, man?” Troy asked.
“Yeah, but go over the plan with me, so we’re both on the same page.”
“Okay, we’re following the same path that I did. Sam has to be in front right now, and we know he’s safe. Go inside and ask about cars, try to get Sam to leave. Then get into Bubba’s office and steal the clipboard.”
“Right.” Dustin swallowed.
“We’re lucky, bro. Bubba isn’t even manning the counter.”
“What if Sam has the clipboard?”
“Ooo, didn’t think of that.” Troy licked his lips. “Okay. If he has the clipboard, turn around and walk straight to me. You’ll want to do it quickly and briskly, don’t give him time to point.”
“Then?”
“Then I’ll take out Bubba first, then Sam when he follows after you to find out why you’re acting so strangely. I’ll shout shape each time so they hear me. Then I’ll control them and go from there. We need them to cooperate.”
“Good. No reality shifts!”
“I got it man, go, this car is warm and I’m tired.” Troy said.
“You better not fall asleep on me.” Dustin warned.
“Just go. You’re always such a worrywart. They won’t know what hit them and as long as you don’t threaten them, they won’t attack. Worse thing they can do is change you into a fat trucker, seems to be their..thing.” Troy said.
“Well, sorry if I’m not interested in getting fat, Troy.” Dustin said hotly.
“I’m just saying…” Troy said very pointedly. “Oh no, I’m fat and have a good paying job, how terrible! Or, alternatively, you could get turned into a fucking horse and never have existed.”
“That…” Dustin swallowed “That does put things into perspective, when you put it like that.”
“They don’t know your intentions, so don’t broadcast it to them.” Troy said. “Smile, act innocent, etc, even if they seem to be aware of you. Keep them guessing.”
“Got it, Troy, I know how to talk to people, unlike you!” Dustin snorted and got out of the car.”
Troy watched him leave and sighed, rolling down the window and letting the breeze in. It was really warm in the car. His body felt very comfortable, like it had been made for this. Long nights on the road, pulling over and sleeping…Troy blinked and realized he was nodding off. Shit.
He checked his watch. Five minutes had passed. No Dustin. But also no commotion, and Bubba was still washing cars. Troy could see Dustin’s reflection in the shop window and he looked normal. No new memories either.
He was really tired after all the excitement of the day. And Dustin looked like he would have things handled. Troy doubted he would run into any problems. If he did, he’d scream or something. Troy leaned over, popped the glove compartment, and shut the book in, for safe keeping.
Then he yawned and the fat trucker cub took a nap.