Dan sighed as he waited for the next change. It felt like waiting to get a medical diagnoses. Unfortunately, in this case, even a good one would have a profound effect on Dan's life.
He considered the famous lesson in life from Spider-Man about how with great power, there comes great responsibility. Kat was being far less then responsible. Dan was the one that was going to pay the price.
Dan felt his ears and sighed. The powerless sensation he felt was the worst part of it. Like a rabbit that a fox was after, Dan felt that he'd have no recourse. He wonder if there was a legal system to deal with witches and what, if anything Dan could do.
Even if they imprisoned Kat, Dad knew it wouldn't change the fact that he'd be animal. It seemed so unfair that this was to be his fate.
A tingle above his rear end signaled the next part of his change. Dan hoped against hope that what he assumed was a tail growing in would be fluffy. Unfortunately, the tail that sprouted from Dan was long, covered in gray fur and had a tassel at the end of it.
It was a donkey's tail.
"No, please not a donkey," Dan cried.
So, it was true, he was going to be a donkey. Him, a donkey; a braying jackass. He'd have laughed if he wasn't so angry and scared.
Dan considered what life was going to be like for him from this point on. He wouldn't have to go to school or get a job. People wouldn't expect much of anything from him. But, he also could never live at home anymore. He'd have to live on a farm.
All of these years at school, all of the work, all felt as though they were for nothing.
Dan heard possible salvation when the front door opened. His parents were home!
Dan ran downstairs. He managed to get to the front door before he felt a tingle in his feet and legs.
Kat's magic did more of its work on Dan. It violated Dan's body, changing his legs and feet into the hindquarters of a donkey. His socks ripped as his feet elongated and his toes became hooves. Dan's mother caught Dan as he fell forward.
"Dan, what's going on here?" his mother asked.
"It's Kat, she put a spell on me and..."
Dan cringed as pain shot through his jaw and throat. His face felt warm and he felt confused. He felt his face only to encounter soft, warm fur.
He wanted to say something to his mother, but he couldn't seem to think of the right words. Phrases would pop into his mind only to vanish as though they were files someone was deleting or restricting his access to.
It didn't take him long before he realized that he couldn't think of any words. Dan looked at his mother with horror and desperation. The only sound he could think of was the sound that would mark him as what he was becoming.
Dan brayed a bray that anyone not in the know about his situation would swear came from a natural born donkey.
He knew what he'd just 'said' but it was all he could think of. Kat's spell made sure that words that Dan knew he should have known were lost to him.
"Dan, are you all right? My God, what has she *done* do you?" Dan's mother asked.
Dan looked at his mother and shook his head as a tears rolled down his cheeks.
"Kat, get down here now!" Dan's mother asked.
Dan's father walked in moments later carrying a few bags of groceries. He gasped and dropped the bags when he saw Dan.
"What's happening to -- Kat where is Kat?" Dan's father asked.
Dan's face started aching and his fingers felt numb. He brayed out in pain and sadness as his face started stretching out like it was nothing more then puddy, his form as easy to manipulate to the magic as play dough was to a child, indeed, the magic seeing Dan's entire existence as nothing more then something to toy with before moving onto the next victim.
His hair shifted until it was nothing but a wiry mane. Perhaps as one small dignity, the color remained.
He wanted to beg for his mother to stop this. Whether Dan saw a life as a donkey as carefree or not, it was not the life he wanted. He had to close his eyes after the pain became too much to bear.
"Damn it, we're losing him!" his father said.
"Harold, please relax. Dan, listen to me, if you can still understand me -- God willing, if Kat's made this spell make you a donkey in mind..."
Dan brayed out in distress when he realized he couldn't feel his hands. He opened his eyes to see his hooves at the end of his arms, if he could call them arms any more. Gray fur was sprouting on arms which were taking on an appearance much like the forelegs they were soon to become.
"It's all right Dan, just hang on," His mother said. "Dan, you are a human being, not a donkey. Focus on my voice."
Dan brayed out that he wanted his mother to allow him to fall onto all fours. From the way his hips felt, he had a feeling he'd soon be a quadruped.
He tried to focus on what his mother was saying, but something was wrong. Something was trying to tell him otherwise. It was as though something were repeating the phrase, you're not human, you're a donkey directly into his mind over and over. It was trying to alter his very will to force him into thinking himself to be something nature didn't intend him to be.
As hard as it was to admit for Dan, it was working.
Dan took several steps back before his center of gravity changed. He brayed out in protest but it was too late. With a clomp of his fore hooves, he landed on what was now all fours. He felt his neck altering to accommodate his head for being a quadruped. He tried to scream out that he wasn't a donkey, he didn't deserve this. That force trying to alter his thoughts however, had other ideas.
Dan had become a little donkey wearing clothes designed for something Dan feared he could never again be.
"Damn it, where is that girl?" Dan's father asked.
"I trusted her to be responsible," Dan's mother said. "How wrong I was."
Dan brayed out. His mother walked up to him and petted his head. "Just focus Dan. You're not a donkey, the magic might be trying to tell you that you are, but you're not. We'll find a way to fix this. If we don't -- you're still Dan, you're still my son no matter what form your body takes."
As if turning into a little donkey wasn't bad enough, Dan cringed. It felt like something was pressing against his body from the inside! The feeling lasted until Dan felt and heard his clothes rip as the room seemed to shrink. Within seconds, Dan stood as a fully grown Donkey with the tattered remains of his clothes on his back and hind legs.
He brayed out with feelings of violation and vulnerability unlike anything he'd ever felt in his life. It wasn't just that his parents were now seeing him naked (even if it was as a donkey rather then as a human). He was completely at the mercy of Kat's magic, his parents mercy and of his new form. Dan desperately wanted to hang on to that human spark, the ability to have a will beyond instinct and to his intelligence. If he could just stay human enough on the inside, this might not be so horrible.
Dan's mother sighed. "If that girl isn't going to come out on her own, it seems I'll have to force her to."
Dan, now looking at the world through the eyes of, hearing through the ears of, feeling through the fur and hide of and breathing through the large nostrils of a donkey could only watch and hope, even pray that there was a way to reverse this.
Maybe if he was in control of it, it might be all right. Right now, as forces beyond his control seemed determined to not only take the human from Dan but to take everything that made Dan the person he was away, this was everything but what he wanted.
Dan watched his mother wave her hands and heard her chant words he didn't understand. He hoped they were of a language he didn't know instead of him losing more knowledge. Kat appeared moments later appearing surprised.
"Kat, how could you do this to your brother?" Their mother demanded.
Kat laughed. "I just turned him into what he always was on the inside."
Dan brayed.
"We didn't give you these abilities so you could do this to your brother," their mother said.
"Oh come on Mom, you know as well as I do that he always was a donkey. You should be happy Dan, now you can be yourself," Kat said. "Come on Dan, admit it, you don't want to go to school or get a job. You'd rather just live in a farm under the nice warm sun, all the hay and water a donkey could want. A Jenny or two if you're good. Maybe even a mare if you're really good."
Dan considered Kat's words and realized that such a life was appealing.
"Kat, stop it!" their mother said. "Dan, listen to me, she's just trying to manipulate you. Even if those things appeal to you, it's not worth losing your humanity to get them. Don't listen to the donkey, listen to me. I'm your mother, I know what's best for you."
"Come on Mom, he's always been a donkey, he never wanted to listen to you," Kat said. "All he ever wanted to listen to was the donkey."
"Kay, I suggest you quiet down or you'll be the one braying," their mother said.
"But I have power now, I have the right to use it," Kat said.
Their mother shook her head. "It doesn't work that way."
Dan was starting to have trouble concentrating. He was a donkey, a donkey shouldn't be inside or have ripped clothes on him. He closed his eyes and shook his head, no, he wasn't a donkey, he was a human, he couldn't give in.
"But I just wanted to make what him what he already was," Kat said. "Come on Mom, you know as well as I do that Dan's really a donkey on the inside!"
Dan started to bray as the desire to be outside and in a field hit him. He wanted to focus but it was growing harder by the second.
"You'll change your brother back this instant young lady," their father said.
Kat shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know how. I was planning on this being Dan from now on. Anyway, he makes a pretty cute donkey. It's not like I turned him into a female donkey!"
Dan brayed. Did this mean he was stuck like this? He couldn't be doomed to live out his life like this; he just couldn't! He had a life, he had friends, hopes and dreams. He looked at his mother, willing her to say that she knew of a cure for this.