Jamal and Vince carried on walking the path after the lake.
The path was very muddy, so they ended up leaving footprints.
By the time they stopped near a bench for a rest, Jamal and Vince saw that their monster feet were caked in mud.
Jamal game his monstrous mud stained feet a sniff. "Ahhhhhhh," he said in pleasure. " I'm smelling a whole lot more new smells in this form, Vincent."
"Sure, Uncle." Vince said. He smelt a strong musk from his uncle's mud-stained monster feet. He felt them, too. They had a rather clammy feeling to them.
Then, they carried on walking.
But.
Ash they did, Jamal was also beginning to smell a few new smells. and hear a load of things from a mile away. AND once in a while, he scratched his pointy ear with his foot.
Vince didn't know it, but something strange was beginning to happen to his uncle.
---------
As they were sprinting along the forest floor, Vince was quick to see that Jamal had stopped.
"Uncle?" he said, puzzled. "What's up?"
His eyes widened when he saw Jamal scratching at a tree, like a cat on a scratching post. "Uncle, what are you doing?!" he said, bewildered.
Jamal turned to VInce. "Oh, uh nothing," he said. "Just scratching me monster claws. Gotta keep them sharp, you... know.," he said, coughing a little around near the end, as his voice had suddenly started to deepen, and catch in his throat, becoming a bit raspy, as if he was getting a cold or something.
Vince was worried. Something strange was happening to Jamal. Like he was changing.
His uncle's eyes were beginning to twitch, and not in a good way.