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Chapter 7: The Shifting Shops

It wasn't a long walk down Main Street to reach the shops, and for a change, there was no danger of being molested by the Transformed. None of them remained near the entrance of the park, according to Adam's scanner, so they were able to move more freely, and the feeling of worry that had dominated them since the first chase started to fade away a little bit.

Perhaps a little too much, David thought as they rounded the corner from the Game Gallery back onto the shop section. Just because there were no Transformed around didn't mean that there wasn't a danger for them in this area. Rannoi seemed to be able to pop out of nowhere at any time, and if he was able to do that, then he could get them. Besides, David didn't know how far Rule One stretched in regards to park property; would just entering the shops cause a transformation? Taking something from it? Using, looking, touching, or checking the price? What was the limit? Where did things stop?

It was almost enough to make him consider doing nothing, but he couldn't do that; it was the one unacceptable choice, to just give up. If the others were still willing to keep trying, he'd do the same.

They'd just have to be careful about it.

"Adam, got any idea how much further the clover is from here?" David asked, turning to look back at the naked coyote.

He groaned to himself as he saw that Adam jerked his hand away from his groin again; that was the third time that he had caught the coyote pulling away like that, trying to hide what he was doing. It was like Adam's new cock - which had yet to go down since they left the Looper - was just too fascinating for him not to touch anymore. Not that he could really blame Adam, considering how the transformation was effecting all of them, but he couldn't afford to let the guy with the scanner get too distracted.

The coyote was bright red as he looked at the scanner again, turning it this way and that as they walked down the paved streets. David waited for him to get some sort of answer, wiggling his toes lightly as he shifted from one foot to the other.

It was weird, being barefoot. He hadn't noticed it all that much when they were running from the Transformed, and on the Looper, there had been...other things...to focus on instead of his new feet. But now, it was almost impossible to ignore. The feeling of the hard ground beneath his feet pressed up against the padded parts of his feet, and it felt so different than when he had human shaped feet. Not only was the warmth comforting rather than painful, but the ground felt...smooth, rather than abrasive. That didn't make any sense with rougher pavement, but maybe there was something else going on.

Mirari might very well be behind it, he thought to himself. After all, the park was probably behind most of the changes going on, and it had caused him to nearly forget the impossibility of this park after entering it. As dangerous as Rannoi was, with that cane of his and the way he could ignore reality at a whim, he couldn't forget about the park itself.

Adam continued moving the scanner back and forth, and a familiar confused look - familiar from cartoons, not from real life - gradually grew across his face. He turned around, pointing the scanner back the way that they came, and then turned around again, the confusion worse.

"What's the matter?" David asked.

He caught the sign that appeared in one hand, holding the scanner in the other. "It's blocked. Interference or something."

"You mean you can't find the specific shop that this thing is in?"

The sign fell to the ground with a clatter, giving the coyote just enough time to grab another. "Bingo."

"Damn..." He looked down the street. They were only just getting into the shopping part of Main Street, but there were so many to be seen ahead of them, so many different shops that could have the clover in them. There were too many to quickly search before the Transformed would come and find them. Unless...

"Don't say it. Don't you say it!" Cari said as he opened his mouth. "You know it's a stupid idea, you know how that sort of stuff always ends up going bad for people in our position."

"Well, what else can we do?" David looked at him, at how he was holding Jeremiah the pocket-watch in one hand, and sighed. "I know there's a chance that we can be transformed now -"

"More than a chance..."

"Yeah, but there's an even bigger chance that we could get found and transformed if we don't find that clover quickly," David said as he took Cari's hand. Squeezing it, and Jeremiah as well, he looked up to his eyes. "If we don't find a way out, there's no way that any of us are going to change back. Even if it's a risk of being caught apart, at least this way, someone has a chance to get away instead of all of us being caught together.

"And if we don't split up, there's no way we'll be able to check even half of these before the Transformed get here, and if they get here..." He let that hang in the air, and slowly Cari lowered his head. "Look, you think I don't know it's a bad idea to split up? Every horror movie ever has driven that sort of idea into my head. But right now, we just have no choice. It's what we have to do if we want to survive right now."

"I get it, I get it," Cari whispered, shaking his head lightly. "Alright...alright. We split up. Who goes with who?"

"I already thought about that." David looked over Cari's shoulder, nodding at the rest of the group. "Alright...Adam, Ashley, you two head down the street. Get as close to the entrance as you can and start working your way back up from there. Me and Cari will walk down to the middle, and start working our way towards you. Bailey, you mind staying up here and checking the shops closest to the square?"

"Why do I have to be alone?" Bailey complained.

"Because you're the only one of us that could handle a dozen or so of these things at a time; the rest of us would be lucky to handle one or two," he pointed out. "I mean, seriously, you're huge; anything less than thirty of those things would have to be crazy to try jumping you."

Looking ridiculously flattered, Bailey nodded his head and opened the door to a nearby shop, a store selling costumes of Nintendo characters of all things. "What are the chances of that?" David muttered under his breath as he shook his head.

Adam and Ashley were already walking off, arm in arm, and though David couldn't see for sure, he would have guessed that Ashley was stroking Adam's cock as they walked.

Putting aside that thought before it could develop too far and give him another...reaction...David turned his attention back to Cari, offering him his arm. "Come on...we got a lot to look through and not a lot of time to do it."

"I know," he said, blushing as his own new cock throbbed visibly. "Mmmmph...how do you get used to this thing?"

"Half a decade of puberty to start, and then more time after that," David said.

"This...is going...to suck," Cari muttered.

The two of them walked down the street, arm in arm, both looking away from each other to avoid looking at the obvious tent on David's part and the pulsing cock out in the open on Cari's. David wasn't sure what his partner was thinking about, but he was sure that it wasn't the most clean of thoughts.

They passed by multiple stores, some of which looked promising but were still close enough to the Game Gallery that Bailey would be able to cover them on his own. They need to go in further to find the ones that were too far for Bailey to reach.

Eventually, after passing by various shops - and completely avoiding the sex shop, to David's relief - they reached something that was both far enough away and interesting enough to be the one to start with. "Mysterious Magics" was the emblem on the window, and various books and candles and other things could be seen on the other side through the glass.

After looking at the different curiosities, he turned to Cari. "Think there's any actual magic in this shop?" David asked.

"If you asked me before I came here, I'd say that you'd have to be insane to believe that, but now..." Cari shook his head. "Maybe, I'd say."

"Guess it's as good a place to start as any then," David said. He walked over to the front door and pushed it open gently, a little surprised at the complete lack of resistance. "Huh...I guess Mirari doesn't like the doors to the shops to squeak or something," he said.

"Let's not talk about the park, please? I just want to get out of here before we completely lose whatever we have left."

"Sure." David stepped inside of the shop, and then stopped, frozen in place as he looked around the place. "Wow...someone sure wanted to make it look real," he muttered.

"Who's to say that it isn't?" Cari said.

"Good point, but still...wow."

Though the entrance of the shop was no different to the other glass window and wooden doors that lined Main Street for at least half a mile, Mysterious Magics had embraced its theme and run with it. The walls were covered from floor to ceiling with different books, each one marked with glowing runes and symbols along their spines. Behind the abandoned desk, bottles of moving miniature creatures were illuminated with floating balls of light. There were probably wires to the lights, the cynic in David thought, but it was squashed by the simple thought of what had happened to them already, and how much magic that they had already experienced.

The floor of the shop was far from open; tables that ranged from knee to waist height covered it in a haphazard arrangement, with no pattern to them, and little organization of what was on them. From books to wands, from silver knives to strange herbs, everything that one could connect to the arcane arts was spread out on the various tables.

Some of the herbs must have been rather pungent, because they filled the room with their scent. Just a few breaths in had David rubbing his nose, shaking his head at the door invading his nostrils. "Ugh..." he muttered under his breath, covering his nose with his shirt sleeve. "What is that smell?"

"I have no idea, but I don't think it's that bad," Cari said with a shrug.

"Maybe it's the raccoon in you or something," he muttered, shaking his head as he coughed. "Let's get looking for that clover; maybe it's in here, maybe not, but I want to check this place and get out."

"Agreed."

The two of them split up across the main floor, keeping their hands at their sides as they wandered between the tables. David trusted Cari to be careful, and instead kept his eyes peeled for any sign of a clover mark. The sooner they found the second part of the puzzle, the sooner they could get the hell out of here.

Despite his resolve, however, he couldn't help but be fascinated with the different books and ingredients for spells that he saw. There were more than a few occasions when he had to pull his hand back at the last minute to avoid touching the books, or picking up something that might have gotten him in trouble, and each time that he had to stop himself in that way, he couldn't stop a blush from crawling across his face.

The worst temptations were the open books, because they offered some tease of what might be inside them. The closed ones, marked only with runes and light, told him nothing and were easily enough ignored. Seeing an open book with an illustration of a man changing into a wolf, on the other hand, was something that grabbed and held his attention in an iron fist. Those books demanded him to pick them up, to read through them, and it was only through pinching himself or slapping the back of his head that he was able to get by without touching them or doing something stupid.

After the third time that he almost picked up a book, he coughed, clearing his throat. "Uh, so, Cari...what do you know about magic?" he asked.

"What do you mean?" Cari's voice was coming from the other side of the room, sounding like she was facing the wall and looking at stuff herself.

"Well, I mean, you can do magic; what do you know about it? Why can this Rannoi do so much, while you can't? How do you learn this sort of stuff?"

"Do you really want to know that?"

"Well, we don't have much else to do while we're looking for that symbol, and we're in a magic shop, after all," David said. "But if you're uncomfortable-"

"No, no, it's not that. Just...kind of the first time that someone's been interested enough in magic to actually ask, and not just to find stuff to make fun of me for." Cari chuckled slightly, the first sound of joy that he had heard from her since...well, since before they entered the park. "Do you really want me to tell you my ideas?"

"Yeah, if you don't mind." He ducked under one of the tables, looking at the underside for any sign of a clover. Nothing, sadly, but that did give him the idea of checking the other tables.

As he crawled on his hands and knees, looking at the undersides of the tables, Cari started to explain her limited knowledge of magic. "Now, keep in mind I don't know all about magic - I don't think that there's anyone that does - but there are some basics that I've figured out. I think of them as the Three Rules, and so far, I haven't anything wrong with them."

"Alright, what are they?"

"First, magic comes from inside," Cari said. "There's a lot of books out there about finding magic and using energy from outside the body, but that's a pretty sure sign that someone doesn't know what they're talking about. It's part of the reasons that people that use magic can get tired so easily; when they use their magic, they're using the same energy that they'd normally be using walking, doing chores, stuff like that, you know?"

"Yeah, that makes sense." David brushed a little dust off of the underside of a table, thinking he saw something. Sadly, it was just a maple leaf etched into the underside. "So what's the second rule?"

"The second rule is that magic needs a conduit to be able to leave the body. That can really be anything, as far as I can tell, from a finger to a wand or anything else, but it needs to be something that you're comfortable using. And I've found out that using your finger or other parts of the body really don't work very well. It means you have to use extra energy to really push it out, instead of it leaving more on its own."

A sudden clatter made him jump, and David pulled out from under the table to see what it was. "You okay?" he called out.

"Yeah, yeah," Cari said, holding a hand over his chest on the other side of the room. "Just...bumped some books. They almost fell on me. See?" he said, pointing to the pile of books that came almost all the way up to his waist.

"Yeah...that would have hurt." He shook his head, getting back down to his hands and knees. "So, is that why Rannoi keeps that cane around, you think?"

"Must be; the longer you use something, the better a conduit becomes, and the less energy it takes for you to do something. Something about getting acclimated to it, I think; it starts to bond and get shaped by your energy, and things get smoother as it goes along." Cari groaned loudly. "Why do they make it so hard to get between these tables without touching anything?"

"Do you really need me to answer that?" David asked as he squirmed out from under a knee length table.

"No, but I can still complain." Shaking his head, Cari leaped over one table, walking around behind the counter. "Anyway, another thing about the conduits I figured out. Someone that's not so good at magic can get better if they get a stronger conduit from someone else, at least, if the conduit itself is stronger."

"Wait. I thought you said that it shapes itself to the user's magic?"

"It does, but that doesn't meant that it's not getting smoothed out inside," Cari said. "If it's an old enough one, and has gotten enough use, even someone else can use it to get better. Not as good as the original user, of course, but better than they already are."

He shook his head, getting back to his feet as he checked a twelfth table for the clover mark. "So...if that's the case, why don't you have a conduit?"

"I did, but they didn't let me bring it into the park. Something about not wanting me to bring in a little wooden stick. They said that they didn't allow 'weapons' into the park." Shaking his head, Cari leaned against the counter, looking up at the jars above. "Should have guessed something then; not allowing a little wand that looked no different from a toy doesn't make any sense."

He had to agree there, but there was no point in regretting that now. It wouldn't do any good. "Alright. So, the first one is that magic comes from inside, and the second is that the magic has to leave your body through a conduit. What's the third rule?" David asked.

"The third rule is that a magic user can't get stronger than they start. They can only get better at magic as they work with it," Cari explained. "At least, I thought that was the rule until today. Everything that Rannoi has done, even for a Wonder, should have laid him out flat, no matter how much time he's had to make his conduit better. I can't figure out how he's managing to keep on his feet after doing this. I mean, just that dancing around...that would have put any magic user I've heard of into bed for at least a couple of days."

David nodded his head a few times as he joined the half-human, half-raccoon. It was something to think about. Admittedly, Cari seemed a little less sure of the third rule, but if the other two were as solid as he seemed to think they were, then maybe...

"What would happen if we took Rannoi's conduit away from him?" David asked.

"Heh, I don't...I really don't think that's possible," Cari said with a shake of his head.

"Just suppose."

"Well..." Looking away from the jars, Cari thought about it for a second. "Well, right off the bat, he'd have a harder time using his magic. Whatever he did would take longer to come out, and he'd get exhausted faster than he has been. He'd probably have to leave faster, too." Pausing in the middle of his answer, he turned to look at David. "You're not thinking -"

"I'm starting to," David admitted.

Rounding on him, Cari grabbed him by the shirt, holding him against the wall. "You can't be serious! This guy is too strong for you to get that away from him. You saw how he dealt with Bailey at the start! You saw what he did to Jeremiah! What if he does something worse to you?"

David shook his head. "I don't know how much worse he can do. We're already on the way to turning into half-animal, half human things anyway; we have to try something, or we're not going to get out of here."

"What do you mean? We just need to get the -"

"Do you really think we can just get the clovers?" He sighed, reaching up and pulling Cari's hands off of his shirt, pulling himself away from the wall. "The goblet, we got that, and we lost Jeremiah. Right now, Bailey's more than half transformed, I got just a little below my waist that's not changed into something else, and I think that Adam's right on the line. I don't even know what's going on Ashley; she wasn't this flirty before, and as much as she talks about helping us, I don't know how much she'll be able to resist if any of the Transformed show up. We're all too close to changing to have any chance of getting all of the clovers before we all lose ourselves."

"Then why are we even trying?! You sounded...you sounded like you still had hope out there," Cari said.

"Because I didn't think we had another option, but now it looks like we do." He slumped against the bookshelf, sighing to himself. "No matter how har- OW!"

A book bounced off of his head, falling to the ground a second later as David slumped against the shelf, rubbing his hands against the top of his head. "Owwww, that hurt," he grumbled under his breath. Looking up, he could just make out where it had fallen from, a shelf that was just below the ceiling.

The book itself was very large, thicker than all of his fingers pushed together, and he imagined it would be rather heavy to lift up, too.

He was about to stand up and keep explaining, but he stopped in mid-motion. Looking at the book again, his jaw dropped, and his eyes went wide. "You have got to be kidding me," David muttered under his breath, shaking his head.

Right there, sticking out from the middle of the book, was a small piece of paper. And on that piece of paper was a clover mark.

"Look at that," David whispered. "Well...even with the new plan, wouldn't hurt to get it just in case, and then we can get out of here."

Chuckling, he reached down and grabbed hold of the piece of paper, and gave it a gentle tug to slide it out from between the book's pages.

At least, that's what he tried to do. When he tugged, not only did the paper not move, but there was a slight ripping sound that made him freeze in place. He slowly looked down at the paper, and spotted an ever so slight rip on the side of the page. "Ooooh that's not good," David muttered.

"Looks like the book's a little too big for the paper to slide out. It's too heavy."

"No kidding, Cari," he said with a shake of his head. "Man...Rannoi really knows how to trap these things, doesn't he?"

"You think that he put it in there himself?"

"I'm not ruling it out," David said.

He looked at the book from every angle, squatting around it on each side and even looking at it from underneath, seeing if there was any way that he could maybe flip the book up and open to allow him to pull the page out. Even a little crack under the book, something that held it propped up on a diagonal would have been workable, in some way.

But there was no such luck. The book was flat on the floor, and to get the weight off of the page-

"I'll open it."

David whipped his head around to look up at Cari. He started to open his mouth to ask if she was crazy, then stopped himself. "Are you sure about that?" he asked instead.

"I'm the least transformed of all of us," Cari said with a shrug. "If anyone should open it and risk a punishment, it should be me. At least that way you can keep your upper body human for a little while longer."

"You don't have t-"

The half-raccoon shook his head, holding up his hand. "I don't have to...but I will anyway. And if Rannoi comes around...well, maybe we can get that cane away from him."

David felt a little smile creep across his face, nodding his head. "Alright. But do it quick; maybe we can keep it small and he won't notice."

"I doubt it, but alright."

They squatted on opposite sides of the book, David doing his best not to look down at Cari's new genitalia. It was getting harder and harder to ignore, and in this cramped store, the smell wasn't getting the chance to ventilate the way that it did outside. The musk was tempting, and he shivered as he fought his developing instincts. "Alright...on three?" he asked.

"That works for me," Cari said. Hands - the only human ones left besides his own - hovered over the book, fingers poised. "One..."

"Two..." David joined in.

"Three!" They moved at the same time. Cari grabbed hold of the book's cover and a chunk of pages, pulling them open, at the same time that David grabbed hold of the clover mark page. They were lucky enough for Cari to have guessed a sufficient number of pages for him to get it out quickly, and he stepped back from the book quickly.

Cari didn't even bother trying to shut the book, just letting go as he stepped back. "Okay...now we just wait to see if he arrives."

"No point in really running, is there?" David asked.

"With Rannoi?"

"Yeah..." David shook his head. "No way that he wouldn't find us. Might as well save our energy for running afterwards." Considering that Rannoi always seemed to be followed by a swarm of the Transformed, it wouldn't surprise him if running was all that they did for a while after he turned up.

They got comfortable, or at least as comfortable as they could by leaning against the bookshelves, taking a little weight off of their feet while still being ready to move. Neither of them felt like talking, even in the deafening silence that settled in the shop while they waited. Several times, David started to open his mouth to say something, but each time stopped before he could say anything.

The silence stretched on for first one minute, and then two before there was any sign of someone else in the shop. A soft tap, tap, tap of footsteps coming from behind the counter, near where all the jars were laid out. They turned their heads to look.

A black top hat emerged from behind the desk, followed by...nothing. They blinked, looking at each other, then turned back as the shoulders of a black suit appeared under the hat. It was filled out, as though there was a person wearing it, but anywhere that skin should have been visible, there was nothing, as though it were completely empty.

It walked out from behind the desk, leaning on an invisible hand on the top of it. An impeccable white shirt covered the invisible man beneath the black suit jacket, and he wore a bow tie around his neck. A wand flicked back and forth in invisible fingers as the transparent figure seemed to look at them.

Whatever confusion over what he might have been disappeared as soon as he started talking. "My my my, rule one seems so very hard for you to follow. What's so complicated about it? Just don't touch anything. Is that so hard? Just don't. Touch. ANYTHING!" The shout traveled like a shockwave down the bookshelves, throwing dozens of them right off the shelves and sending them flying across the room. Tables were jostled and many of their contents dropped to the floor, the fragile shattering and the rest falling in a mess.

David and Cari couldn't help but take a step back as the invisible Rannoi started towards them, the wand sparking like a firework as he got closer and closer. "Of course, you might simply want it...want the changes." His voice almost dripped with glee, getting worse as he got closer. "Everyone wants a different life...everyone wants something different than what they start with. And I'm the only one that can give it to them. Why don't you just submit to it...just give in and let me change you...You know you want the changes...you want a different life."

"Not like this..." Cari muttered softly, shaking his head. "Not like this."

"No other choice, little bandit." The wand flashed, and only a quick duck on Cari's part prevented the bolt of light from hitting him in the face.

David shuddered as Rannoi paused, his wand still outstretched. "You...dare..." The room shook, trembled, everything rocking as though the room was filled with a self-contained earthquake. The vibrations were enough to shake him right off of his feet, falling on his ass, and Cari fell almost right afterwards, landing across his stomach.

They looked up as Rannoi lifted off of the ground, two brilliantly blue points of light suddenly bursting into existence under the hat, two literally fiery eyes looking down at the two of them. "VIOLATION! VIOLATION! VIOLATION! No arguing my judgment! No avoiding your punishments! Are you trying to make me angry? Are you?! Well you're succeeding!"

The wand flashed again, a rain of red light shooting through the air. They only just managed to roll out of the way in time to avoid getting hit by it, but the effects were still felt on the things on the ground; books began to fly, flapping around, and herbal ingredients started to grow into full plants. Dust on the ground formed into little miniatures that started to run around the already crowded space, and the pieces of glass along the ground reformed into small statuettes, exact replicas of the two of them.

They kept rolling, crawling under the tables as Rannoi floated over them. The red blasts continued to lance through the air around them, enchanting and changing everything that they touched. Books, knives, jars, even tables changed under the magic of the madman, starting to fly and dance and move on their own, and robbing the two of them of what little cover that they had.

As the bolts of magic rained over them, David grabbed Cari by the shoulder, giving him a shake. "Can you stop that wand?"

"What do you mean?"

"Can you make it point in another direction, so he's not pointing it at us for a few seconds?" David asked, ducking as another red bolt came all too close to zapping him in the head. "If you can keep him from pointing at me, I can try and grab it out of his hand."

"Are you nuts?" the half-raccoon asked. "He could get you easy if you time it wrong."

The table started moving before he could answer, and they had to quickly crawl to another one. Shaking his head in annoyance, he nodded up to the invisible man above. "It's not the cane, but that has to be a conduit, like you were saying; if we can get it away from him, better than nothing, isn't it? Not like he's not already pissed at us."

Looking back at Rannoi as he floated just out of reach, almost out of sight, Cari nodded. "Alright...I'll try."

"Better hope you get it right," David muttered. He waited for another series of light bursts, then crawled to another table, never taking his eyes off of the magician. This had to be timed perfectly, because if it wasn't, they were both screwed.

Rannoi continued blasting the room with magic at random, his power changing whatever it touched into...well, something else. There was no rhyme or reason for why they changed the way that they did, just that they did when they were affected by his power. The fire that formed his eyes showed nothing but rage, and the magic streaming from the wand had no focus, no direction for it.

He almost wondered if Rannoi had forgotten about them and was only taking his rage out on the shop at this point. The magician wasn't aiming for them anymore, it seemed, and was only changing the stuff around them rather than chasing him down, or trying to force Cari out of his spot under the table. David started to relax -

• only to stiffen up again as the wand flicked in his direction. "NOW YOU!" Rannoi shouted, the red light forming on the end of the wand again.

David started to roll, and the wand tracked him, the light building, and building, getting brighter and brighter. He winced, rolling even as he prepared to be blasted into kingdom come, or into some new body.

Suddenly, the wand stopped moving. Rannoi grunted, jerking his arm back and forth, but the wand remained immobile. No matter how he tugged on it, it continued to point to David's left, pointing at the ground instead of at him.

"GO!" Cari shouted. His hand poked out from under the table, his fingers lit up with a soft glow. Beads of sweat ran down his muzzle. "I can't hold it for long!"

"You...little...You do this...to me?!" Rannoi roared. The whole shop shook again, nearly throwing David off of his feet as soon as he got to them. "You..." His voice slowly quieted, and another rumble filled the shop, a different rumble that sent a worrying tingle through David's body as he started running across the room to the park owner, arm outstretched.

The rumble got louder and louder, deeper and deeper as David got closer to Rannoi. Just as he leaped on top of a table, fingers reaching, grasping for the wand, he realized what the rumble was.

Laughter.

He barely touched the wand before Rannoi yanked it free of Cari's spell, pointing it down at the half-raccoon. David managed to keep his grip, but he couldn't change the direction before the red light shot out of the tip, blasting Cari right in the face with the powerful magic, and filling the room with another sound, that of his friend screaming as the magic began to work.

David forced the wand to point upwards, and thankfully Rannoi didn't seem to be able to point it back down. They wrestled over it, floating in mid-air over the tables, David hanging from the wand while Rannoi floated himself around. The park owner swung him around, slamming him into the bookshelves hard enough to make him cry out, hard enough to make him wince and shake.

But he didn't let go of the wand.

"You are...a persistent one, aren't you?" Rannoi muttered. "Why do you fight? It's fun, you know...so very fun to change. You know this already."

"But...I don't want to -"

"Don't lie to me!" Rannoi flew them across the room, slamming David hard against the bookshelves again, pinning him against it. His free hand grabbed David around the neck, invisible fingers squeezing hard enough to make him gasp, fingers weakening around the wand.

Those fiery eyes looked up at him, burning with a heat that he could feel against his cheeks, his lips, his forehead, and he broke out in a sweat immediately at the unnatural warmth.

Still fighting his grip on the wand, Rannoi whispered. "You want the change...you can't deny it anymore. You need it more than ever. All of you do." The hand squeezed, and David almost lost his grip on the wand, just managing to hold onto it. "The others are going to fall...there's no doubt of that...already one of them had turned...a good one, that. Very helpful. Will be rewarded. But you...

"You're fighting it...even though you wanted it most from the start." The eyes seemed surprised, though it was hard to tell while looking at fire. "Oh...oh ho ho ho...ha ha ha...hahahahahahahaha!"

A sudden spin finally broke his grip on the wand, sending him flying back across the room. David crashed straight through a table, cracking it into splinters from hitting it so hard, and then hit the ground with a near shattering impact. His entire body hurt from the hit, and he could only groan as Rannoi floated over to him, arms crossed and wand crackling.

Looking down at him, Rannoi almost seemed to smirk, the eyes of fire slowly disappearing until they went out. "You. You were the one thing I didn't expect out here in the ass end of nowhere. You will be fun...you will be VERY fun to turn..." He laughed again, turning his head to look at Cari. "Oh, and look at that; another of your friends are turning. That's two in one section; tsk tsk tsk, not good for you, not good for you at all."

"Two..." David managed to gasp.

"Yep. This one, and someone else; oh, the someone else is going to be rewarded so well for embracing their change. Hee hee, hee hee, haw haw, haw haw." Rannoi continued laughing, spinning in place, surrounding himself with the sparks of light from his wand. "Oh, I will see you soon, I imagine. I will see you very soon, oh David." His laugh echoed in the room as the spin suddenly condensed, Rannoi and his light winking out of existence and leaving David alone in the store with Cari.

Groaning as he started breathing normally, David turned his head. "Cari...Cari, are you okay?" he managed to grunt out.

"No....I'm not."

Cari was still curled up under the desk, but it was clear that he was changing rapidly, and wasn't going to stop. That blast of magic must have been a full power transformation rather than the milder ones that Rannoi had leveled before, and it was spreading fast across Cari's body. The clothes that he'd been wearing - what was left of them - had disintegrated, so David had perfect view of everything happening to his friend.

Gray and black fur spread along his body, moving like the waves coming in at high tide, each wave of fur growth spreading a little further than the last. It started from the head, spreading down from the neck and covering more and more of Cari's body, carrying other changes in its wake. Fur swallowed skin, and placed little bits of muscle, of thickness to his body. It spread across the chest, across the stomach, thickening Cari up, making him less skinny, more chunky.

Cari's tail twitched behind him as the changes continued, and he held his hands to the sides of his head, the lips along his muzzle turned up as he clenched his teeth. "Changing...I can feel...my mind changing..." Cari grunted through clenched teeth.

The mind...David had seen the bodies of everybody change, but he had not seen the mind changing. But it would have to, wouldn't it? It had to change to let Rannoi keep everyone under control. If the Transformed still thought like normal people, no way that they would have been chasing others down and spreading the change. Not without something making them do it, not without thinking differently in the first place.

He slowly crawled towards his transforming friend. "What...can I do? Can I stop it? Change it?"

"No...no....you can't..." Cari whimpered softly, fingers digging into his head as fur spread down his arms, slowly warping them. They shrunk slightly, and the fingers began to narrow. Even from here, he could see the pads growing on Cari's fingers, on the palms, and see the nails darkening and lengthening into claws. "You can't...stop it. Once started...once started, can't be stopped."

"Then what -"

"You have...have to leave." Shaking his head as the fur continued growing, spreading further and further along his body, Cari seemed to have to force himself to look David in the eye. "Soon...will be one of...one of them...A Transformed...Will try to...try to change you."

David shook his head, but Cari nodded towards the door. "Go...you need to...get the others..." A yelp escaped Cari's mouth as several cracks split the air, and David looked down to see that the magic user's feet were changing, re-arranging. "Ugh...not long...not long now...Get the rest...go to the Tower...only chance...take him there..."

He couldn't help but be fascinated by the changes, even as he watched Cari shake and shudder from them. The fur had covered just about all of his friend's body, from the newly lengthened toes - almost like fingers, he noticed - to the fuzzy, black masked face. Even his friend's genitals had been warped, the balls grown to larger size, and the shaft losing its humanity, becoming narrower, and sinking slightly into a sheath.

Despite seeing it, despite seeing the changes and the obvious discomfort that it was bringing Cari, David felt a part of himself aroused by it. He hated it, but it was getting harder and harder to suppress that desire that being transformed brought; every time that he saw something sexual, it tempted him, even though he knew that it would bring danger, and possibly further transformation. The thought of danger and transformation only seemed to spark more desire, rather than diminish it, and he had to bite his tongue, hard, to snap himself out of those thoughts.

Was it true, what Rannoi had said? Had he wanted this from the beginning? He didn't want to think that it was, but maybe he had; nobody else had been so tempted so early.

As he thought about it, Cari grabbed him by the arm, yanking his attention back to real life. He looked down at his friend, watching as Cari's eyes pulsed, slowly taking on the light of the Transformed, the look of hunger, of need. They flickered, like Cari was fighting it, but it was clear it was getting close.

"Get...out...." Cari whispered.

He slowly nodded his head, patting Cari's hand before pulling himself to his feet. Walking to the door, David slowed, and then paused at the doorframe to look back.

A soft moan as white filled the air announced the end of Cari as he knew him, and David walked out with a small tear dripping down his cheek.