Denise hating her brother, hating the memories that were trying to force themselves into her head, hating that everyone this so called new reality, hung the Amulet of Zulo around her neck as she boarded a bus for the downtown area.
Arriving, she thought, "I will teach you," as she made her way toward the mall, thinking dark thoughts about Declan.
Moving through the mall, looking for one store in particular, she stopped in front of Animal World, thought about the store she was heading for and grinning, Denise thought, "This will be even better," as she entered
A bell announced her presence, but no attendant came forward to assist her, which Denise thought was even better. Looking about, she finally started the aisle for dogs and wandering up it, she wondered if she could use the amulet to change her former brother into one of the many different species of canines.
After a bit, she made her way to the section with cats, but quickly left when she remembered that her mother had an allergy to the god-awful animals.
Standing in front of the many aisles, Denise scanned the store, noting that it wasn't very busy, that there were no animals being sold and that she could not see a store attendant anywhere in sight. Sighing, she touched the amulet around her neck, careful not to touch her clothes, unsure what would happen, and after a moment, she went back to wandering.
Moving down the aisle filled with bedding, leashes and leads and litter pans all for ferrets, she stopped.
Leaning down, Denise picked up a mess of leashes that were all tangled together, thinking that maybe turning Declan into a ferret might be more fitting, reasoning, "He did weasel out of his punishment and weasels and ferrets are part of the same family."
Leaning down to collect a lead and see how it attached to harness-like leash, she gasped as suddenly the amulet slipped out of her shirt and touched all of the leashes in her hand.
A bright blue flash and Denise felt a static electric shock move through her hand.
Gasping out, "No," she dropped the leashes and began to stumble down the aisle, brown, black and white fur sprouting over her body as her body started to shrink.
A loud crack and a sharp throughout her body and Denise's bones in her shoulders, arms, legs, pelvis, spine and several areas starts to readjust themselves as her nose and mouth merge together and push outward in the subtle muzzle of a ferret.
Unable to stand any longer, Denise dropped to all fours as her arms shifted to forelegs and her hands and feet turn themselves into paws.
Around her, Denise's clothes balloon outward, no longer able to fit the young woman turned animal.
Terrified, Denise thought about making a run for it, but instead curled up into a ball as she started violently shifting age and sex, turning from a Hob kit to an elder Hob to an elder Jill and back to a Jill kit.
How long this transformation continued, Denise was unsure. The one thing she was aware of was the amount of pain she was in as she was forced to age and shift gender back and forth.
And then the pain passed and slowly Denise crawled out of her clothes, terror at the area she was in, the fact that she was now a Hob and that for some reason, she thought she might be immortal, unable to die or age, forever trapped at the current age her ferret body was.
Chittering out, she was about to turn about to search her clothes for the amulet, when a voice boomed out, "What the hell."
Looking about, still trying to adjust to the fact that she moves on all fours and she is clearly male, Denise the ferret watches as a store employee moves down the aisle, muttering, "Damn weirdos! Always leaving a mess."
Animal instincts kick in and Denise takes off across the store.
Watching the ferret take off, wondering how much weirder his day could be, the store attendant picks up the clothes, wondering why somebody has done the full monty and left their pet to run about.
Sighing, unable to come up with an answer, the clerk takes the clothes into the back and dropping them onto his desk, unaware of the amulet that fell out of the clothes and dropped to the floor, he began to look about for something to catch the animal loose in the store.
After a moment, he comes up with a net for scooping fish out of a large Aquarium and turning, he left the back room, prepared to catch the ferret loose in the store.