Apparently unaware of the aura of light around him, John continued, "I am going to report this to the Better Business..B.. B.." he stuttered. It was as if his voice was stuck. He tried again to speak but was shocked to hear himself...
make a barking sound. What the heck?
He tried to speak again, but only gurgled a little.
He reached up to his throat and scratched himself accidentally. His finger nails had become black and were thinning into longer versions of themselves. He then noticed that his hands were growing black fur. Then, his fingers began to shorten. His thumbs drew back almost to the base of his wrists, but that wasn't all.
John began to feel queasy all of a sudden. He reached down toward his gut, but ended up falling over onto the floor. Luckily his hands, if he could call them that anymore, caught his fall. A dull pain came from the top of his rear end. He felt his pants being pushed outward from his lower back. He tried to look at what was going on, but was shocked to see his arms were about one third as thick as they had been before.
He looked up at Katie who appeared to be even more stunned then he was, if that were at all possible. He tried to call for help, but all that came out was a whimpering noise. His field of vision fell closer to the floor as he found his size shrinking a bit. This gave him the ability to kick his way out of his pants, but confirmed his other fear. He now possessed a tail.
He also saw that his hind area was covered with the same fur that had grown upon his hands and eventually his arms. Was it black? He was having a hard time distinguishing colors all of a sudden. His nose seemed to be more visable than it had been before. He attempted to feel it, but couldn't raise one of his arms without risking losing balance and falling on his face. He tried his tongue instead. It seemed almost too easy to touch his nose with his tongue. The tongue. It seemed to be three times as long as it was before.
"I see that you are becoming familiar with your new body," the old man said in a matter of fact tone. "I guess that the wand works well after all. But what does our good friend Mr.Labrador think about this?" he said, staring at John.
John's first thought was to charge the man and attack, but he then caught his reflection in the stainless steel flashing around the base of a nearby rack.
What stared back at him was a honest-to-goodness black labrador retriever. No signs of humanity were apparent. John moved his head and the dog moved its. John opened his mouth and saw in the reflection the long wet tongue he had felt touch his nose earlier.
His anger reappeared, but what about Katie? He looked and saw her speechless, staring at his new form. He moved toward her a little, and she backed away slightly. This made his more angry with the old man. But what was to be done?