Heading the found of footsteps approaching, Lef has no time to try and carefully pour this potion - he'd have to hide and drink it in a moment. Lef very carefully laid the potion atop his rucksack as he dragged the two gnoll guards and his rucksack into a dark corner of the ruins. Lef was surprised at how easily he was moving these two gnolls, who were easily over seven feet tall and over 400 pounds. As he strained his muscles pulling the gnolls, his tunic fully tore apart, exposing his new coat of bristly gnoll fur that had spread across his entire chest. The small and sweat coming off of Lef was almost overwhelming, making him dizzy as he began to unconsciously drool. His mouth had begun to reshape into a more canine muzzle as his teeth had grown enough to poke out from his new gnollish lips. Lef was making animalistic grunts as he continued to work hiding the bodies.
From behind, Lef almost looked identical to the gnolls he was infiltrating - he had grown to about 6 and a half feet tall, with enormously broad shoulders and powerful arm and leg muscles. Lef's new paws on both his hands and feet were larger than his head and permanently slick with a sheen of sweat. Lef didn't realize gnolls were capable of sweating until now, realizing his smells now blended in with the smells of the surrounding gnolls - this could work in this favor. Whatever had affected Lef had turned him into a slightly stunted-sized gnoll, but he retained all his memories, thoughts, and goals. Despite being a grotesque beast, Lef could still accomplish his request and focus on curing this condition later. Lef looked behind himself and saw a series of wet pawprint marks on the stone floor, blushing with shame when he realized all those sweatprints were from his own paws, and he was still continuing the sweat and leave footprints.
Deciding to use this unfortunate transformation as a disguise, Lef removed what remained of his clothes - averting his gaze from his crotch, and put on one of the colored loincloths from the guards he took out. The loincloth was disturbingly snug on Lef's new hips and crotch, and left very little to the imagination. As he finished hiding the corpses and his belongings, three gnoll approached the side and noticed Lef. The three gnolls approached Lef casually, but were sniffing the air curiously.
Two of the gnolls were clearly guards like the ones Lef fought earlier, however the third one was wearing finer garments - actual clothing. This gnoll who was garbed in pristine white robes normally seen on royalty, standing quite a bit shorter than the other gnolls but he was grey with wisdom and knowledge. This gnoll might be their leader, or a shaman or more important member of the tribe. Not wanting to blow his new cover, Lef decided to stay his blade (not that he could really use them with his paws anyway).
As Lef tried to step toward the shaman, the two guards barked and started growling at Lef. Even without words, Lef froze in place, knowing the two guards were telling him to stand down. The shaman then approached Lef with the guards in tow. He smelled Lef, making Lef worried that this old gnoll could smell his fear or something. Then, the older gnoll reached into a pouch on his sash and pulled out a small waterskin. He held this waterskin up to Lef's gnollish muzzle, perhaps a blessing from the shaman? The waterskin looked clean, but the smell coming from it was almost a concentrated musk smell akin to the smell coming from the pool of water that changed Lef earlier. At this point, Lef really doesn't have a choice, and surely this concoction couldn't damage him any further...