One summer evening, as the sun slowly dropped below the horizon, Sadie wasn't surprised to see the farmers teenage son come into the barn and up to her stall. The kid, who had to be about 17, obviously loved horses.
The real surprise is when he walked up to the stall door and causally said, "Evening, Ian."
Sadie felt her ears perk up. Had he said...?
The kid smiled broadly, "I knew it!" he said as he withdrew the cheap costume medallion that Ian had been wearing that day. Sadie didn't react, since she had no idea what it had to do with anything.
"This is the source of all your pain, Sadie," said the boy. "I found it on the porch after the ambulance took, well, you, away. I didn't realize what it was for a long time, not until just a few months ago. I found it by accident again in my closet and brushed it against the cats collar. Spent the next day and half as a carbon copy of Felix before I figured it out."
He pocketed the amulet, "I've been doing some experimenting and research since then. This thing has two properties. It will either turn you into the last person or thing to wear what you touch it to, or it will swap you with whoever touches it at the same time." He smiled, "I'm guessing that you and Sadie touched this at the same moment."
Sadie nodded, her mind reeling. This was wonderful! She might be able to be human again!
The kids expression turned somber, "I don't want to get your hopes too high. We found out that your human body died not long after it was taken from here. We don't know how or why, only that it happened."
Sadie felt crushed again all at once. She had more-or-less given up hope of ever being human again, but to have it ripped away...!
"I have a deal I want to make you."
Her ears perked up again.
"I want to spend time as a horse, but I don't want to have happen to me what happened to you." He shrugged, "I could turn into any horse around, but if I transform myself, then my human body goes missing and that creates problems for a return. I could do what you did, swap with a horse, but then the horse is in my body. It didn't work out too well for you."
"I don't know if I can trust you with this, but I'm willing to take the risk." He sighed, "Sadie is due to be mated in two days. It's not a prospect I'm looking forward to, but I'm willing to go through it. The medallion won't work on pregnant females, that much I've been able to learn. Assuming that I'm with foal, then you'd have a very long time as me. In the meantime, you find someone, or something, you want to be when this is all over. Once I'm human again, you just transform and go about your life."
The kid kept talking, "I know there are risks. You might just decide to leave me like that, or one of us might die or get hurt." He smiled, "I might even get to enjoy being a mare so much I just want to stay that way."
He took the medallion out of his pocket and held it out, "So, what do you say? Deal?"