Casper didn't know what the future held, but he did know this much. He wasn't going to crown himself king of the world, or emperor of his tri-county area for that matter. That wasn't his goal. And the more he thought about it, the more he felt like it wasn't his PURPOSE, and not just because the Powers That Be, from Heaven to Nirvana according to the The Wizard, wouldn't tolerate him using the ring to turn people into blindly obedient minions.
"Someone ELSE provides THOSE types of artifacts, and while people may make mistakes with what I sell them, I never give people something that could destroy their ability to make their own choices. No matter how much someone is changed by one of my products, some agency will ALWAYS remain with them."
The wizard explained that there had been in one world a wheel chair bound man who had asked for the power to write contracts that would turn people into cat girl maids. The wizard gave it. And the man used it to save the life of a dying child, give several unemployed jobs, and were now his trusted heirs. "But it never turned them into soulless, identityless robots, remember that."
And another world where a little girl had changed herself and a group of terminal ill children into fairies, and in their world where now unofficially the residents and groundskeppers of a nature preserve that was loved nationally.
"The ring doesn't take, it only adds." Casper said with realization. Even the mugger who had been changed into a little turtle girl, he had been given a second chance at life, and their future was still completely their own to make.
"Casper?" Ashley whispered.
"I just realized, the ring never TAKES anything, it can only ADD to the world. That's the point of the wizard's shop . . . to add SUBSTANCE to the world."
" . . . Makes sense. But seriously dear, you need to lay back on the 'contemplate our nozzles' crude, don't get so boggled down on this stuff that you forget to live!"
Casper hugged her, her bodies squeaking together.
By chance, Casper saw outside through the window the two 'male' dogs outside who had been among his first changes. Though neither of them was truly 'male' anymore since the bulge between their legs was just for show to make humans less uncomfortable around them. The way one of them moved. There was nothing visible at all yet. But-
'Ring, is one of them pregnant?'
'Yes.'
Thought so . . . Casper couldn't call what he was doing was a bad thing if he had helped bring life into the world.