After a two hours drive Jeff, Max, Jane and Patty finally arrive on Patty’s farm, and after Patty had parked the car they all waste no time and hurry inside.
“Good thing my husband and kids aren’t here right now,” Patty says as they enter the living room, “but we better hurry, because they could turn up any minute”.
“Okay,” Jeff says, “so, I’m going to stick with my first pick, which is a Horse. What about you two,” he asks, turning to his younger siblings.
“I think I’ll like to be a dog,” Max says, “as we pulled up, I couldn’t help but notice some pups running around,” he adds.
“Oh, right,” Patty says, “I forgot to mention that Mizi has become a mommy two weeks ago”.
“Cool,” they all say, “so, how many pups did she get,” Jeff asks.
“Ten,” Patty says, beaming, “and all of the pups are healthy”.
“Whoa, that is one hell of a litter,” Jane says.
“Must be stressful,” Max adds.
“It is, but it’s manageable,” Patty says, “so, Max, I assume you’d like to be a pup?”
Max nods and grins, “yeah! I would really enjoy playing with the other pups,” he says.
Patty smiles, “they’d love that,” she says, “I have to mention though, you need to be careful, the pups are up for sell except one, now two, since you, Max, will be joining them”.
Max nods, “I get it,” he says, “I shouldn’t be near the pups when the buyers arrive, right?”
Patty nods, “we don’t want you to accidentally end up at some strangers house,” she says, “there are two options how we could prevent that from happening. One: you choose to become a different breed of dog, for example a Labrador Retriever, since the pups are German Shepherds. Or two: if you decide to be the same breed as the pups, we’d put you and the pup we’ll be keeping on the farm in a room here in the house, and let you back out when the buyers have all gone”.
Max thinks for a while, “I think I’ll like to be the same breed as the pups,” he says, “so, just make sure that I’m in the house when the buyers arrive,” Patty nods.
“Okay, what about you, Jane,” Jeff asks, turning to his sister.
“I’d like to be a cat,” she says.
“So, everyone seems to want to stick with their original choice,” Patty says, “so, Jeff, how is this supposed to work?”
They all turn to Jeff and wait for him to explain, “well, first we need to be scanned,” he says, “I shall then set up the transformations”.
“Okay, but I really would not want us to see each other naked,” Max says, Jane nods in agreement.
Jeff chuckles, “neither do I,” he says, “I’ll set a timer, let’s say for Max and Jane for ten minutes, that’ll give you two enough time to find a room each to transform in private”.
“Sounds good,” Jane says.
“How can we tell that the transformation is starting,” Max asks.
“You’ll feel a pins-and-needles sensation all over your body,” Jeff explains, “according to the manual, that sensation indicates that the change has started”.
“Okay,” the two kids say.
“What about you,” Max asks.
“My timer will be set to an hour, since I have to head to the stables, the stables are half an hour on foot from here,” Jeff says, “and I’d need to find an unused stall and strip, so I think an hour should work fine and give me time to get prepared”.
“Sounds like a good plan,” Patty says.
Jeff turns to patty, “once I’ve set our transformations up,” he says, “I’ll leave the Tablet here, so that you can keep it safe. We don’t want anyone to mess with it while we are animals”.
Patty nods, “I’ll keep it safe, promise,” she says, “I don’t want anything to happen to you three, like you end up stuck as animals”.
“Yeah… I love being a human,” Jeff says, “it’s just that I’m curious and just want to experience being an animal for a little while”.
“Same with me,” Max and Jane say.
Patty again nods, “I promise,” she says, “I won’t let anyone touch the Tablet. I’ll just lock it away in our safe and keep the key on me”.
“Sounds good,” Jeff says, “I’ll set the duration of the transformations to last 20 days so that we will be back to normal on the 21st day”.
“Sounds good,” they all say.
“Now, hurry up Jeff,” Max says, excitement in his voice, “I wanna go play already!”
The others laugh, “then hold still,” Jeff says as he activates the scanner.
Soon all three are scanned, Jeff first opens Jane’s file, “okay Jane, would you like to be a cat with short fur?”
“Yes”.
“Okay, got it. How would you like your coloring to be?”
“Like a tiger,” Jane says, “the main color of my fur should be white and the stripes orange”.
Jeff nods and types into the program, “I’m going to leave your mind the same, I’ll just add the instincts of a cat, but you’ll still be yourself. The same goes for you and me, Max,” he says, turning to his brother.
“Okay, so I will have the instincts oof a dog,” he asks and Jeff nods, “will I also have the knowledge of basic dog commands?”
“Well, a two week old pup at least should know the “sit”, “stay”, “down”, “come” and “heel” commands,” Patty says.
“Okay, I’ll set that up when it’s Max’s turn,” Jeff says, he then finishes Jane’s transformation, then moves to Max’s file. Jeff selects “German Shepherd” as the breed and sets the age to two weeks, he then adds the instincts and basic command knowledge and set the timer to ten minutes, like he did with Jane.
“Okay, my go,” he says, opening his file, “I think I’ll like to be a Percheron Stallion, I want my fur to be all black, like my hair, long tail also black and my mane black too. Adding Horseshoes, instincts and setting the time to an hour… and… done”.
They all look over at Patty, who’s smiling, “nice choice for a horse, Jeff,” she says, “not only is it a great breed for work stuff, but it’s also a really great horse to ride”.
Jeff smiles, “okay, I suggest I’ll start heading to the stables,” he says, “and you two should find each an empty room”.
Max and Jane look at their aunt, “Max, you can have the guest bedroom and Jane, you take the master bedroom,” Patty says.
“Okay,” the two say.
“Okay,” Jeff says, “starting timer… now!”
After Jeff started the timer Max and Jane hurry to the rooms, Patty looks at Jeff, “I’ll check on you in an hour,” she says, smiling, “looking forward to see what you’ll look like. There is an empty and unused stall right at the back of the stables”.
“Okay, aunt Patty,” Jeff says, starting to head to the door, “see you in an hour,” with that Jeff is out the door, leaving his aunt alone with the Tablet and program.
Patty watches Jeff out the window as the teen heads towards the stables, she then turns to the Tablet, the wheels in her head turning.