At thirty, Peter was too old to seriously believe in shooting stars granting wishes. But it was Christmas, and he'd always been a little whimsical. At the same time, even if he didn't have much, he felt satisfied with what he had, for the most part. Outside of say, a furry fantasy or two.
"Hmm... If I ever really got a wish granted, I'd want to spread around the joy. Eh, go big or go home, might as well throw in a little something for myself. I wish to be an alluring genie naga, able to bring happiness to others by granting their wishes."
Not thinking much more on it, he drifted off to sleep.
In his dreams, an ornate purple bottle appeared in front of his plain, average form, smoke slowly drifting out of it. He approached it curiously, and coughed as the smoke drifted toward him, surrounding him completely. His body tingled with an unfamiliar warmth, and he coughed harder, feeling as if the smoke was slipping into him from every pore.
He stumbled blindly in the haze, feeling disoriented, but at the same time, felt... strength? Heat? He wasn't sure what it was, but in spite of his confusion, it felt good.
He lost feeling in his feet, and for a moment, he could swear he felt lighter, too. His legs felt odd, like they were going numb, becoming stiff and impossible to separate, and far more flexible than he could ever remember, all at once. His skin felt smoother, something firm growing over its surface, starting on his face, and working its way down his body.
With a shiver, it felt like his waist was put in a vice, the extra mass going to his chest and hips. And for some reason, the man was starting to think of herself as female. "Peter" no longer fit her. No, "Persis," that would better fit what she was becoming.
Her hair grew out to her shoulders, before merging into a cobra's hood, while her ears shrank into little holes in the side of her head, her pupils shrank to slits, and her nose and mouth stretched into a snake's snout, complete with fangs and forked tongue.
Then, like a hurricane, Persis found herself drawn into the purple bottle, her body dissolving into smoke to fit through the tiny entrance.
When she woke up the next morning, she felt unusually energetic, like she was back in her prime. She got up and stretched, and saw she was in a purple room, surrounded by luxurious pillows and warm, floating balls of flame. Then she looked down at herself, and nearly screamed.
"IT WAS REAL!?" She stammered. She turned herself this way and that, examining the purple, scaly, hourglass form she now possessed. "How did this... The wish! It came true! I-!"
She looked at herself in the reflective glass walls. Her old, male, furry-fan self would have found this form gorgeous... And she had to admit, once the shock wore off, she still thought she wore it well. With a grin, she experimented with her power, levitating pillows, dancing with flames and lightening, poofing objects into and out of existence. She loved it!
Her snake tail danced this way and that as she practiced her new magic, the gold bands and loose silk clothing she wore swaying with her movements. The elements bent to her command, one shape could change to another, age could give way to youth... It seemed her only limits were the fabric of history, the inability to raise the dead, to force someone to fall in love, or, tying to the intent of her original wish, to grant a wish made to harm others.
After she'd felt satisfied with her test of power, she looked up at the roof of her bottle, and saw, to her surprise, there was no lid. Curious, she willed herself up and out, her body dissipating into smoke and reforming once it had passed through the other side.
She looked around outside her bottle. It seemed she was allowed to "step" outside, but couldn't move too far from her bottle. Still, she felt oddly comfortable with the idea of staying with her new "prison," and the idea of a master coming to request wishes from her made her giddy, despite herself.
Taking in her surroundings, her bottle was wrapped in a ribbon, and placed under a Christmas tree, in a house that wasn't her own. "Well, I hope my new master or mistress will enjoy the extra gift!" And with that, she slipped back into her bottle.