Mark feared greatly who the owner of the hand would be. Of curse he fist thought t would be a woman's hand. He was in the baby section of a store, after all, so logically a mother would be the one to to select him. Mark thought he'd prefer to maybe remain not picked at all. He'd then for sure be offered to a baby or a young kid and frankly that was not appealing at all. A baby would drool on him and a little kid would just bang him around or throw everywhere, until it developed the joy of breaking toys, if THAT was not achieved by an older brother. Then again, staying immobile in a store, day after day, night after night, watching it close and open again and again, until he was placed on discount and then ended up where all the other unsold products went, was not much better either. Mark cursed himself even more. What a stupid wish! Yet it was the idol who must have misunderstood his words on purpose. What a jerk! Mark felt even more angry at being incapable of moving as he wanted desperately to strangle the god that had put him in this situation.
Indeed, Mark was so engrossed in his thoughts that he took more time than he should have because he saw that the person that had grabbed him was...a man. A man in his thirties or forties. Maybe older. The sort of man that appears without age, actually. He paid in cash at the counter but quite unusually, he bought Mark only. Weird. After all, any father would have bought more baby things, in all likelihood, and not a soft toy. Or maybe he was an uncle purchasing a present? If he could, Mark would have scowled. A kid's birthday party... Ugh... Screams and cries and a sappy atmosphere... Stupid and boring and noisy at best... Mark was placed in a paper bag but when the man returned home, he did something really strange. He placed Mark on a table, in an apartment that showed no trace of there being children, and the man uttered a few words. Suddenly, Mark felt he could move! How...? How had the man done that?
"I am a warlock," said the man. "I felt the aura of a transformed person and followed its trail. And I found you. So what happened? I am curious to know how you found yourself in such a predicament?"
Mark told his story.
"I see," the warlock said. "Well, you surely know by now that it's always a bad idea to deal with idols. They are the same as genies. You can't trust them."
"Can you help me?" Mark said.
The warlock just smiled.