"Aha! Here we are." The woman picked up a small silver necklace from one of the shelves. "Let's go to the changing room."
Emily followed the woman into the back of the store, where she was led into a private room with mirrors, chairs and side tables. On the tables were various grooming implements, and there were large cupboards that no doubt held other beauty tools and products. A few bookshelves were stuffed full of worn but well-made hardcover tomes like something out of an antique book store. A large hand-written sign read "Spellbooks to be handled only by proprietor."
"Excuse me for asking," Emily said, "But what are we doing?"
"Put this necklace on," the woman said gently. "This is what you'll use to change back and forth."
Emily took the thin silver chain and admired the beautifully cut crystal-clear jewel in its center. "But...do I have to change right now?"
"Putting on the necklace won't change you yet, because we haven't told it what it's supposed to change you into. We're going to customize your goat form to your complete satisfaction before you leave here tonight. That way there aren't any surprises on the farm, you see?"
"Oh. All right..."
"There's nothing to worry you, dear," the woman coaxed easily. "Besides, you don't want to be lonely on your first change. You don't know how it'll feel. I'll be right here, guiding you through the whole thing. Any time you want to stop, just say the word and you'll be human again."
"Okay," Emily said, mustering up her courage. "I'm sorry, it's just now that we're actually going to do this, I'm so nervous!"
"Perfectly rational, my child," the woman said. "Please step over here."
Emily strung the necklace around her neck and stepped into a circle marked in the wooden floor by a black ring, possibly burned into the floor by fire.
"Don't step outside this circle until the spell is complete," the woman instructed. "You're free to move your head and limbs and such, but don't put so much as a finger outside the circle."
Emily nodded.
"Let's begin! Emily, imagine the goats you want to be like. Think of their features, their colors, their movements. Concentrate on the elements you wish to attain for yourself."
Emily closed her eyes and thought of the nanny goats she had worked with on the farm in past years. She remembered their soft woolly coats, their deep brown eyes, their little hooves and horns.
A strange feeling overcame her as she continued to concentrate. After a few seconds, she realized her skin was crawling. She opened her eyes and looked down, gasping. White fur was growing all over her skin. She trembled.
"You're okay, Emily, it's going exactly as it should," the woman said in a calm voice. "Keep thinking about the wool. How thick should it be? Is it soft or coarse?"
Emily, starting to realize how this was working, concentrated again. She liked the goats with softer wool. With one hand she stroked the other arm, and she could feel the white hairs thickening and getting softer with each caress. It felt like she was wearing a shaggy sweater.
"Oh, I think I see some horns poking out." The woman's voice was bouncy now. "Take a look over here," she gestured toward the nearby wall, upon which was a mirror more than large enough for Emily to see her entire body.
From head to toe, Emily was covered in the white wool. It covered her face in a thin coat, but around her torso and upper arms it was thicker. Although she was wearing a skirt, she could tell it was thicker around her midsection and thighs as well.
Then she saw the horns that were slowly growing from her head. "What kind of shape do you want them to take?" the woman asked.
"Not too long," Emily said. "A little curvy. Yeah, right there." On her cue, the horns stopped growing around six inches long. They were yellow-grayish and smooth, with a bit of a curve.
Emily then looked at her hair, which stood out blatantly from all the white fur. She no sooner thought about it blending in better than it began to lighten to be as white as the rest of her wool. It grew thicker until it was very fleecy.
"Very good," the woman said. "You're definitely getting the hang of it."
"It's a little long for work, though," Emily said. "But I like how loose and fluffy it looks." Her hair then began to shorten into a shoulder-length thicket of snow-white fleece.
"Oh that's lovely," the woman said. "The curls frame your cheeks wonderfully."
They continued onward with the changes. Emily's ears grew long and floppy. Her nose flattened and her eyes gained the familiar rectangular pupil of a goat's. She was forced to remove her shoes and stockings as she changed her legs to better resemble the hind legs of a goat, complete with rock-hard cloven hooves.
"They'll get me by better than boots anyway," Emily remarked.
Next, she decided to grow a cute, perky tail.
"Do you know what you want to do with your hands?" the woman asked.
Emily looked at her hands, which were still human in shape but dusted with a faint coat of fur. She thought about how goats walk on all fours, and immediately saw her fingers clump together and harden into cloven hooves.
"Ugh, no way," she said. "I couldn't do any work with these." She wiggled her hand-hooves around uselessly. She brought them together and they made a hollow clopping sound.
"Most customers who choose a hoofed creature compromise by having only three fingers on each hand," the woman suggested.
"Three fingers?"
"That is to say, two fingers and a thumb." The woman paired up her index fingers with her middle fingers, and her rings with her pinkies.
"Hmm," Emily mused. Her hooves shifted into furry humanoid hands with just two fingers and a thumb. All of the digits were slightly thicker than regular fingers so they would fit properly attached to her palms. Their wide nails were the same dark shade as her hooves. She flexed these new digits.
"Yeah, I could go with this. It's weird but in a fun kind of way. And now I can get the work done."
The woman smiled. "So, what haven't we covered? Is there anything else you'd like to change?"