Terry snapped out of staring down the driveway. The night had come and twilight made everything dim and grey but the sky, which was quite brilliant. She feels the pen in her hand and walks inside.
Stacey is packing up. "Who was that?"
Terry keeps walking, but stammers, "uh," trying to find a suitable lie. No way she's sharing this crack-pot story. "A guy just wanted some info."
"OK!" Stacey accepted, cheerfully. She sat down to finish closing up the work programs and shutting down the workstation computer.
Sitting down, Terry takes out the pen. Biting her lip and glancing at Stacey, who has her back turned, Terry decides she can't wait to try the pen. Thinking about how she knows it turned a man into a horse, she decides to try something similar. Grabbing the scrap sheet of paper, she writes out very carefully "My left hand is a horse hoof."
As soon as she finished, the sheet fell out of her left hand as it rapidly grew thick and the fingers melded together, wrist lengthening. Her forearm grew auburn fur and her fingernails darkened and quickly made themselves a hoof! "Oh!" She cried.
Stacey turned in her chair and Terry crammed the crazily different appendage under her desk. Meeting Stacey's concern with her own very surprised face Terry tried to explain. "p- p- Papercut." She made the most convincing pain face she could.
"kssssss - ooooh! Sounds like it hurts. Remember where we work and be sure to wash it out, dear." Stacey turned back to her desk.
Terry took the chance to stare at her hoof. She put the pen down on the desk and felt it. Smooth hoof with little feeling, but some through the mass. Fur was weird, and stroking it backwards was mildly unpleasant. But what else could the pen do? Taking it up again, she wrote: "My left hand is a raccoon paw."
Her hand quickly transformed again. It was a strange pushing, pulling, stretching feeling. She could feel her bones sliding around in her hand as it changed. Soon, a raccoon paw the size of her normal hand was there, little pads and short fur, in all. She felt her thigh with it, and the nails traced a ticklish line to her knee. This was kinda fun... She thought of four VERY fun things which she now wanted to test, but best to do them soon while she had a friend. She tried to distill the ideas in her mind, settling on awareness, gender, delay, and time limit.
Getting out another pen, she writes out the plan.
1. Can I control Stacey's awareness?
2. Can I change Stacey's gender?
3. Can I place a delay on her change?
4. Can I place a time limit on her transformed state?
Stacey was almost done, Terry felt the pressure as she tried to write out a cogent wish for the pen...