From Cackles to Canines

Written by playfingers

Danny was heading home late at night, he had a hard day at work, and the fact that his girlfriend just left him wasn’t the greatest experience ever. The moon was way above him now, and the stars were plentiful in the sky, and the night seemed so relaxing. He just couldn’t find it in his terrible day to enjoy it.

As he strolled down the sidewalk, he heard someone laughing, but he had no idea where, so he kept moving along. However, the sound of laughter seemed to be getting louder, and that peaked his interest. He wanted to find out where it was coming from, but he also wanted to just get home for the night.

Eventually the laughter was too much for him to bear, and he needed to find out where it was coming from, so he changed his direction, and looked into anywhere a person could be. He peered into the several small stores along the road, but most were closed, but in the last shop, at the end of the block, there was a lady sitting in a rocking chair watching a cat.

The lady seemed to notice him, so she motioned him inside with her finger. He lacked anything else to do, so he took a peak in; the shop seemed interesting enough anyway. He opened the door, and a bell chimed. Danny walked over to the lady, wondering what she wanted.

“Hello, I saw you in the window. I don't get many visitors to my little shop, and I get a little lonely. I hope you find something that captures your interest.”

Danny left the woman with a smile, and looked into the cupboards. They were cluttered with curious items, and Danny couldn’t really identify any of them. Towards the back of the cabinet, there was a small stone carving of a dog. Danny picked it up, and got a closer look at it.

“Excuse me, how much is this dog carving” asked Danny.

“Oh, that thing, bring it over here. Its very special.” said the woman.

“Well what is it then, its actually pretty cool.” said Danny.

The woman tapped on the head of the carving, and it barked. It also began to move; wag its tail, run around, and jump up, all in Danny’s hand. He was mesmerized by the dog, and didn’t even realize that the woman pulled out a wand.

The dog melted into Danny’s hand, and soon nothing was left of it. He became very confused, but his confusion soon turned to surprise as pads began to form on his hand, The black pads were also surrounded by a barrage of gray fur, all at the same time. His hands were rapidly becoming paws, though he did not know why. The fur spread up his arm, and covered his torso, clothes ripping off in the process. His entire upper body was in a different form.

His legs were now taking on the gray fur. As it spread, Danny’s legs also began to remold themselves. The knees bent the opposite way, and the ankles of his new paws rose off the ground. Danny readjusted his balance, just in time for a long bushy tail to sprout in between his legs.

Danny’s vision went gray as similar colored fur overtook any recognizable facial features. His face began to push forward, and his nose sink into a muzzle. HIs human ears shrank into his head, only to reappear at the top, and pointed before quickly flopping over. His jaw filled with larger, sharper teeth, before he let out a bark himself.

“I would like to invite you to stay here Danny, this is a place where humans can becomes animals.”

Danny looked at himself, and smiled.