Dan's mother shook her head. "Kat, what you have done to your brother -- it's -- how could you do this?"
"Come on Mom, you know as well as I do that I've just made Dan what he always was," Kat said.
“And who are you to judge that?” Harold said.
"This isn't a joke Kat," her mother said. "Do you have any idea what this will mean for our brother? Do you understand what you've taken from him?"
“That’s putting it mildly Susan,” Harold said.
“Harold, not now,” Susan said.
Dan brayed as he fought back not only the urge to buck but the desire to be outside where he could graze and be in the sun. Something in Dan's mind wanted him to forget his human lessons and to let instinct tell him what to do without question. Dan knew this was wrong, that he was still human on the inside.
Unfortunately, Dan was finding it harder to think of himself as human by the second. The idea of giving into his emerging donkey instinct seemed easy and perhaps even appealing.
"Damn it, he always was a donkey on the inside! Don't you get it Dan, you can be yourself! I did you a favor," Kat said.
Dan brayed. Right now, all he wanted was some hay and a jenny. He shook his head, no, that was what the instinct was telling him.
"Dan, just try and stay calm," Susan said. "We can beat this but the more you give into it, the harder it will be."
"So, what do we do?" Harold asked.
"This is where things get tricky," Susan asked.
Dan brayed. He didn't like the sound of that. Maybe it would be better to just be a donkey. It’d certainly be a lot easier.
"Come on, you're not going to change him back are you?" Kat asked. She stamped her foot. "I'm doing Dan a favor!"
Susan sighed. "No, you're not doing him a favor. Kat, I know I've said this before and I know you don't like to hear it but, you'll understand better when you're older. Yes, Dan may be happy or at least think he's happy but it will only be because he'll be so shallow and ignorant that the life of a donkey will be more then enough to make him happy. "
Dan brayed loudly. His mother petted him to comfort him.
"But, he doesn’t have to go to school anymore or get a job or do work or..."
"That's enough Kat. Yes, he will have a life with less responsibility and expectations but it would a life of little privilege or dignity," Susan said.
"Of course he'd have no dignity," Kat said. "He never did, just like a real donkey."
Kat petted Dan and looked between his legs with an evil grin on her face.
"Come on Dan, you can be the ass I know you always were on the inside. That's all donkeys are, now it can be all *you* are," Kat said.
Dan brayed again. This couldn’t be happening. It had to be a nightmare. Yet, he couldn’t deny the appeal being a donkey had. Indeed, Dan never liked school and didn't like the idea of getting a job. People would leave him alone and let him be himself. Heck, he could stand around naked without shame. He wasn’t sure how big he was back there, but he had a feeling that he was as much donkey there as anywhere else. Maybe this would be fun.
He tried to concentrate; He couldn’t give into that desire; He didn't want to end up spending the rest of his life on a farm! Dan saw donkeys and other farm animals as smelly perverts. Standing as a donkey gave Dan pause to realize why. There just wasn’t much of anything else to do as a donkey and it wasn’t like they could shower when they wanted to.
"How could you do this to your brother Kat?" Henry asked. "You used to get along so well! You two always played together and everything."
Dan tried to picture happier times that now seemed in the distant past. Indeed, he and Kat had been the best of friends as kids. Things had changed once Kat hit puberty. Or more, in Dan's mind *Kat* had changed. It was more then just the physical changes, something about her had changed. She'd developed a superiority complex and wanted to spend all of her time with friends that Dan didn't understand why Kat liked. In a matter of a couple of years, Kat had gone from Dan's best friend to someone wanting little to do with him or their parents.
Kat always seemed to be the preferred child, something Dan could never live up to. He always hated how his parents would compare him to her.
Dan had feared that his parents would be fine with his being a donkey. For a moment, he wondered if he deserved it.
Sure, Dan had his issues. Jealousy over Kat coupled with his feelings toward Kat's friends had him saying things to her that he wished he could take back.
Dan knew he was far from being a saint. In a sad sense, he realized that some (perhaps even Dan himself) would say he deserved this.
"It's not my fault Dan became a jerk when he hit puberty," Kat said. "He was always jealous of me. Why did he have to say mean things to me?"
Dan brayed and hung his head as guilt from the things he'd said overwhelmed him. It all seemed so long ago now. Dan had hoped Kat had forgotten about it. Knowing that she hadn’t made Dan almost want to remain a donkey not for what little joy he could take in, but as a penance.
"Those were just words Kat," Harold said. "He was wrong to say those things but that doesn’t justify taking his humanity."
Kat stamped her foot. "He was being an ass!" Tears formed in her eyes. "Why couldn’t he let me have friends or a life away from him?"
Dan brayed again. The urge to hold into his humanity (indeed, he wondered if any truly existed within him) decreased. In his mind, he truly was an ass and that was why Kat's spell had such an easy time making him one for real.
"Look Kat, Dan has made mistakes. We've *all* made mistakes. Dan, do you regret the things you said to Kat?" Susan asked.
Dan nodded his head.
"You see Kat, what you've done to Dan is not the same as saying some nasty things," Harold said. "Maybe he did act like an ass but he's changed."
"Has he? I cast a spell that would turn him into what he is in the inside," Kat said. "If he's changed then why did that spell turn him into a donkey?"
Dan brayed. So, it was true. He tried to think of how he'd changed, of how he was a better person now. Dan thought he was noble, that fate meant more for him. But, he realized how easy it was for him to be noble in his mind or in videogames. Time and time again in the real world, he'd been too lazy or stubborn to replicate those noble traits.
"I did this to him because I thought that maybe he'd changed on the inside," Kat said. "I wanted to think he'd grown beyond how he was a few years ago and is a better person now. Maybe he had good qualities and those jackass qualities were screwing with his mind. Looks like I was wrong and he really is just an ass."
Dan shook his head, tears flowed and his mind grew hazy as the jackass grew stronger. Kat was right; he really was just an ass in the body of a man.
"Kat, please," Susan said.
"No Mom, it's true," Kat said. "Maybe I can forgive him now because I know that the way he acted -- it wasn’t completely his fault. I shouldn’t judge him for being what he is." Kat sighed as she looked at Dan before petting him on the head. "Donkeys are close to horses and I love horses. There are things they do that are gross or nasty but they're just being horses, I can't hate them for being what they are when they can't really change and don't know any better. I guess I shouldn’t hate Dan for just being what he was."
Kat walked away from Dan. Dan, who was having serious trouble concentrating, hung his head.
"And what of the future," Susan said. "People can change."
"He wasn’t going to change," Kat said.
Susan folded her arms. "And if we leave him like this, we'll never know."
Dan brayed. The words made little sense to him now. In fact, he didn't want to be in the house any more. He wanted to be outside.
"It's all right Dan, I'll send you somewhere safe," Susan said.
Their mother cast a simple spell that sent Dan to a nearby farm.
"So, that's it, our son is a donkey from now on?" Harold asked.
Kat started laughing. "I wonder how you're gonna explain that to the school?"
Their mother glared at Kat and unknown to Kat, cast a spell.