"...we're going to hide out here until tomorrow morning, then we'll figure this out. Since your clothes are still here, changing you back won't be a problem. It's me that's the problem," he muttered.
The does ears perked up.
"You need to use something that you've worn to change. I can't find any of my old clothes around here, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do. And even if I could, I've been missing for almost two years. I'm not sure there's a life to go back to."
Jared and the doe went back into the shack, out of sight. It wouldn't be unheard of for a poacher to take a deer in these woods even as close to town as they were, and Kyle had totally torn up his clothes in his transformation, so Jared was naked as well.
He also relented and told Kyle exactly why he'd been stuck for so long. "It was an experience," he admitted. "There are two bucks out there that came out of me. If that interests you, I'll be happy to take over your life."
After the doe snorted at that and laid her head down to sleep, Jared stayed awake and thought. He might never be Jared again, but he could be Kyle. All he'd have to do would be to walk away with the amulet and toss it into the deepest hole he could find. Then he could take over this life.
And that would leave Kyle in the life he'd escaped.
Jared had to admit that being a deer was intersting. A part of him kinda missed it. There wasn't a lot of responsibility as an animal, though he could have died from any of a thousand causes. The fact that he wasn't served up on someones holiday plate with a side of mashed potatoes was more about luck than anything else.
Maybe if Jared is gone, he thought, I could be an animal again? Or perhaps a new person? His eyes fell on a sharp bit of steel laying nearby, and he pondered if he could live with himself if he killed the doe now and took over his life.
After all, she was just an animal...