Toad to Prince spell, that one’s bound to be asked reasoned Justin as he opened the book and started to read.
‘The first that must be understood about Man and Animal is that both are one and the same. “Man” is a title given by itself to somehow falsely elevate itself. This elevation is intended to grant some form of superiority over the beasts of the land, sea, and sky. That somehow this elevation, or ascension, will grant power over all things. It is true that many beasts obey the will of Man when they speak, but only because the Beasts can understand Man and Man cannot understand the Beasts. This is interesting; the one species that claims to know all things does not even know how to say “hello” in cat or pig.
However, as any self respecting primate would know, Man is hiding from the truth…’
‘Primate?’ enquired Justin ‘Who wrote this?’
Flicking to the front of the book, Justin noted the author as ‘Abbey Boon’. He thought about this for a while and realised just how bad that pun was and started to think that the book was a piece of propaganda for some primate extremist that had been in the news quite recently. He would certainly ask his lecturer the next time he meet him.
Justin continued to read…
‘However, as any self-respecting primate would know, Man is simply hiding from the Truth. Unable to admit the mistakes they made…’
‘This is too boring, where’s the interesting stuff?’ Justin thought, flicking on a couple of chapters or so.
‘Is what must be read to cancel the next step of alteration, which is activated simply be saying “Una tem semadan unce”…
‘Una tem semadan unce. How the hell am I going to remember things like that’ said Justin with the sound of rejection. ‘Hang on, did I just say those word or think the…Heeeeeaaaaaw’
Justin froze in mid sentence, that definitely wasn’t what he meant to say.
‘Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaawwwwwww’
And neither was that! Right at this point Justin began to get quite curious as to what was on the page before the current one. Curiosity easily thirsted by a simple flick of the page; however, these things are unfortunately easier said then done. Justin realised that it wasn’t just his voice which had changed. Before his eyes his fingers had started to stiffen and the tips, especially the fingernails, were becoming darker and harder.
If he wasn’t so worried about the unexpected change, Justin would easily have had enough time to turn the page, but panic had set in. Instead, he watched as both his hands slowly reshaped into hooves; the fingers fusing together to form the bulk, whilst his actual hand and wrist elongating slightly as well as gaining a coating of soft short brown hair.
‘Fantastic’ He thought. ‘This revision session is going so well. But hold on, I shouldn’t worry too much. They don’t let us try the good, powerful stuff at this stage yet. It should wear off in a while.’ Justin pondered for a moment. ‘Pretty stupid spell though; the voice and hands, hooves, of a Donkey. That’s just soooo frightening.
Sarcasm may have been in order, if it wasn’t for the fact that the spell hadn’t ended. Soon enough, Justin too had realised this, when the pain in his shoes started to increase and they eventually ripped off exposing the new hooves on his now hind legs.
‘Heeeeeaaaaaaaaw!’ came from Justin, whilst he thought ‘Oh crap’
The features of his face were also becoming wider and somehow merged together. Seconds later he realised that his nose was indeed becoming flatter and wider as it joined with his extending jaw to form a slight, albeit wide, muzzle. Although it didn’t nearly have the length of a full Donkey muzzle, the short brown hair growing was a sure sign of the creature to which it belonged.
‘Heeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw! Heeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw!’ brayed Justin quite involuntarily
‘Heeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw.’ Justin couldn’t help it, although this time it did feel like he was sitting of something.
Tentatively, Justin raised himself onto his hoof feet and almost immediately a slight ripping sound could be heard coming from behind him. Justin though for a moment and realised that that was likely to be his new jeans and probably a tail. Sure enough, a long, rope like Donkey tail emerged from just above his butt, which too seemed to be gaining some bulk.
Within moments Justin found himself forced to all fours as his hips and waist changed. Expecting to grow in size and acquire a coat of hair all over instead the magic seemed to end there. Left with hooves for hands and feet, Justin was stuck on all fours with a slightly furred Donkey like muzzle, a tail that he could not control swishing form side to side, and a slightly expanded rear end.
‘I must look bloody ridiculous. Still I suppose I should make the most of it, there may be a practical test in the art of animal walking on the test.’ Reasoned Justin, whilst still trying to work out exactly how to get out of this.
He spent the next hour practicing his walk, only falling a few times mainly down to the increased mass and weight of his buttocks and hips. Eventually, and slowly, the spell started to wear off. His muzzle flattened back down into his normal face, the tail disappeared and his hands and feet regained their former shape.
Justin stood and made his way to the wardrobe that had a full-length mirror on the inside door. He checked himself over a few times, especially round his butt, which he was convinced hadn’t regained its former slenderness. He shrugged this off though and decided what to do next.