"How About A Test For A Few Minutes? Just to see if it works, and whether I want to go for something longer," Ken asked the old man.
"Free samples? Well, I can see you're a skeptic. Tell you what, these formulae won't work for less than a week, but I have some powders that while less effective for long term can achieve transformations which last several hours. You won't find any true transformation spells which work for less time. Though there are some illusory spells, but that's hardly the same."
"Well, I've got a few hours to kill, let's see the powders."
"You're in luck, sort of. A woman with a couple of uncontrollable brats was in here the other day, and they managed to knock over the display. Broken glass everywhere all the powders mixed. Fortunately, the brats and their mother ended up as rats, which I promptly fed to Clitis my cat. If you die while transformed, you won't transform back. And here I am stuck with hundreds of dollars of magic powder, which is practically worthless because it's all mixed up. You could end up a rat, a pig, a dog, a snake, or a hybrid chimera of a dozen different creatures. Feel lucky, try a pinch?" The old man offered Ken a bucket full of glittery multicolored dust.
"Magic dust, huh?" Ken reached in and grabbed a pinch of dust rubbing it between his fingers, "Now what?"
"Inhale it. If you're brave enough," challenged the shopkeeper.
It looks like the colored sugar in Pixie Stix thought Ken, probably the old guys little joke. Well, I'll humor him, and he took a deep whiff.