Meanwhile at Jeff's house, a large gargoyle-like creature is in the bathroom staring into what has recently become an enchanted mirror.
"Hahaha! I knew he would want this! What a fun test of my powers."
The creature's deep, growly, mischievous laugh echoed through the small room as it watched the scene it had conjured up from a nearby farm. A young cattle minder was in the middle of a pasture, gnawing away at his own vomit without a care in the world.
"Humans are even more hilarious now than they were in my time," laughed the demon.
He didn't have to trick this one into triggering some ancient curse to become an animal. He didn't have to pretend to grant a wish for the human and seemingly misinterpret what he wanted. He didn't even have to forcibly strip him of his human form and listen to his screams and desperate pleas for his humanity. Any of those would be enjoyable, to be sure. But no, this was even more fascinating. All he had to do was give the human what he wanted--what he really wanted, but wouldn't admit he wanted. Cast an easily resistible spell and watch the boy slide headfirst into animality.
"He doesn't even notice what he's lost! His father barely considers him human anymore, and all he can think about is how the grass tastes, and how good it feels to chew his cud!"
Loki had bent whole kingdoms to his will by giving animal parts to a prince and demanding favors in exchange for taking them away. But this boy had woken up with a cows tail and then proudly marched out to the fields with the long thing squirming around in his pants like it was a lost coin he was happy to find and scared to lose. Most humans would have needed some serious mind control to start grazing like beasts, but this one had already tried it long before he'd had the proper insides to digest it!
The gargoyle didn't realize that Mike was the first human he'd ever transformed into anything, and that all of his powers and memories had been given to him by Jeff's app. What he did know was that he's plaything was changing even faster than expected, and enjoying every minute of it. The creature laughed again, remembering Mike's feeble insistence that he didn't actually want to be an animal.
"Ah, silly humans, always in denial, something that hasn't changed in a thousand years, it seems."
Suddenly, the monster heard a yawn and saw the shadow of someone stretching next in the next room. Quickly, he reshaped himself into his 10-year-old human disguise and listened as a set of footsteps approached the bathroom.
"Good morning, Luke, you up already?" said Jeff. "I didn't think a thousand-year-old living statue would even need a bathroom, much less before I did."
The ten-year-old waved his hand subtly to erase the pasture scene from the bathroom mirror, instantly replacing it with his own reflection.
"Well, you know, if I'm going to pretend to be your little brother, I've gotta look the part and act the part, too. Speaking of which, what do you humans actually do in here? The only thing that's interested me so far is the looking glass. Much nicer than even what a queen would have had in my time."
Jeff quickly explained to "Luke" what the running water was for and left his "little brother" to "get ready" as the humans called it. "Luke" took the extra moments of privacy as an opportunity to take another look at how his hexes were coming along.