You pulled out the various parts. Oddly, it was not a onesie-type costume, with everything attached and a zipper up the back or something. Instead, various pieces came separately: ears, mane, tail, front paws, rear paws, body, and face mask. This time you definitely looked for the release spell first, and spotted it on a tag attached to the main body: "Your lion eyes." You couldn't help but groan.
You found a short list of instructions, too. Apparently you could put on all the parts together or just pick and choose, although the main body would not activate without also wearing all four paws. However, there's also a catch. The costume part has to connect with skin. In other words, to wear the entire costume...you would have to get into it buck naked. You really couldn't believe you're still considering this. Curiosity really must have killed the...
Suddenly, a thought occurred to you. If you turned into a lion, how would you say the release spell? Of course, there must be some way to do it, Uncle Jack was so adamant about his costumes not being defective products. But what if there's something you're missing? You could go ask Uncle Jack, but you were already kinda embarrassed about being caught by him once tonight, so you didn't really want to go wake him up just to ask him how to become a circus animal. Wait, did circuses even use lions anymore? You were getting off track.
Finally, you decided there's only one way to find out for sure. Taking a deep breath, you picked up the lion mask. It was only the face of a lion, the ears and mane being separate. In other words, it should only affect the front of your head, and nothing else. On the off chance you couldn't get it off, at least you would still have hands to open doors and write with, not to mention to wake Uncle Jack with. If it scared him to be woken up by a lion's face...well, at this point you were beginning to feel he would deserve it.
Standing in front of the mirror, you lifted the mask to your face. Like with the cat ears, there was a short instant of disconnection, almost like your senses were resetting themselves. As you blinked, you saw golden eyes staring back at you from a tawny, furred face. A large black-lipped mouth opened to reveal long, sharp teeth and a rough pink tongue. You were horrified and enthralled at the same time.
You ran your tongue over your teeth, in awe of how big and sharp they seemed. Your breaths also seemed deeper, as though you could let out a roar at any moment. You reached up and felt your face, astounded at how there seemed to be no edge to the mask, it just melded into your skin. Realizing that fact, you remembered the reason you started with the mask.
"Your lion eyes," A deep, gravelly, and somewhat distorted voice came out, one which you couldn't believe to be your own. However, just at that moment, the mask popped off your face like a suction cup that had lost its vacuum seal and dropped to the ground, leaving behind your original face staring slack-jawed at the mirror.
Well, it definitely worked. Even though a real lion would probably not be capable of speaking clearly due to the differences in their vocal boxes, you could definitely speak and communicate while in costume, which meant even if for some hare-brained reason you decided to go out in costume, you wouldn't be some mute lion getting carted off to the zoo.
You stared at the pieces of the costume, then finally started taking off your pajamas. To hell with it, you were actually going to do it. The first piece you decided to attach, oddly enough, was the long tail. You couldn't help but shudder when you felt it seal itself to the end of your backbone, then felt it move about. Next the ears, which operated the same as the ones you tried earlier, then the mane, which covered your hair, as well as around your neck. You wore the mask again, which looked much more lion-esque now that you had the ears and mane on. Finally, you guided your tail through the hole in the body costume, then pulled on the paws on your feet, then hands.
It felt almost like the costume inflated, gaining mass but keeping contact with your skin, them something shifted. You fell from a two-legged position to one on all four paws, suddenly much bigger. Staring back at you in the mirror was a full-fledged lion. A full-fledged male lion, but you were trying to ignore those parts for the moment.
"Wow..." you breathed out, which sounded more like a soft guttural roar. You sat on your haunches, your tail flicking uncomfortably back and forth. For a moment, a wave of fear went through you. Were you really you in there when your body looked like that?
Trying to ignore your unease, you tore yourself away from the mirror and walked over to the bed (on all four paws). You realized you suddenly had much more body mass, and considered sleeping on the floor, but you were finally feeling tired, and somewhat over it all, so you rolled onto the bed, which creaked in protest. Exhausted, you fell into a deep sleep.
The next thing you realized...