The magic show lasted about thirty more minutes. Max called up several more men to the center of the dance floor, taunting each of them with the dumbbell, all of them unable to lift it, and all of them suffering some slightly humiliating change as a result, though in Ethan’s opinion, none of the men suffered as much indignity as he had. The last volunteer came up–an older, pudgy bear–Max encouraged him to lift with all his might, and sure enough, he was able to lift it–and packed on quite a bit of muscle in the process. Everyone laughed and cheered, the final volunteers eyes bright, and the Max called the show to an end, the music returned, and everyone went back to dancing.
Ethan tried to keep an eye on Max as he left, but as short as he was, it was nearly impossible to spot the magician in the crowd–so he spent the next hour scouring the entire bar looking for him, shoving his way past people with his big round gut, becoming a bit panicked. What if he didn’t find him? What if he was stuck like this? He couldn’t go back to his life looking like this–no one would even recognize him! Finally, he spotted Max chatting up some bear at the bar, and Ethan pushed his way over, accidentally jostling the man Max was talking to. The bear shook his head quickly, like he was coming out of some daydream, gave the magician a strange look, and then left without another word. Max scowled down at Ethan, “What the hell man? I was working on him. He was gonna be my bear slave for the night.”
Ethan just stared at him, and then shook his head, not even wanting to know. “No, look, I just want you to change me back, alright? I mean, this isn’t permanent, right? It can’t be.”
Max heaved a sigh, “It’s such a pain in the ass when they remember.”
“What?”
Max rolled his eyes and turned to walk off, but Ethan grabbed one of his hands and pulled him back, “I’m not done with you! Fucking change me back!”
The magician didn’t say anything, he just glowered at him, Ethan met his stare…and immediately realized he shouldn’t have, because he couldn’t look away. “Someone should learn to be less pigheaded–still, I think that’s going to be hard for you from now on, eh?”
His anger turned to fear, as he struggled to break the gaze. It felt like an eternity before Max finally blinked, and walked off, leaving him standing there, shaking. What in the hell had just happened to him? He thought about trying to catch up, but he’d already lost sight of the magician again in the crowd. He needed to get away from all these people for a second, he needed to figure out what had just happened to him.
Even before he reached the bathroom door, he could tell something was wrong. His face hurt, for some reason–almost like someone had punched him in the nose, and it was swelling. At first he thought it must just be his imagination, but even in the dim light of the bar, he could see something pushing out into his field of vision. He pushed his way into the bathroom, which was empty, as far as he could tell, but he was too short to be able to see himself in the mirror. There was a bucket of cleaning supplies behind the door–he emptied it out, overturned the bucket in front of the sink and climbed up on it. It wasn’t very steady, and he was a bit worried that he’d crush it with his new weight, but he managed to get a better view of himself–and toppled back off the bucket with a surprised squeal.
Pigheaded was right. What in the hell was wrong with his face? He got the bucket back in position and climbed back on it, using the counter as support, and saw that, indeed, his face wasn’t looking quite human at the moment–his nose was indeed swelling, almost right before his eyes. His upper lip had pushed out, his nose becoming flat and wide and pushed out further along with his mouth, giving him a very obvious pig snout–though he still managed to keep the handlebar mustache he’d grown, making the whole effect look rather comical, even though he was terrified. His ears looked different too–they were larger, thinner, and pointed. As he watched, the left one grew too tall for it’s weight and flopped over in half, his right side following suit after a second more.
This was a nightmare–but then two things happened so fast that he couldn’t be sure which one happened first. He heard, behind him in one of the stalls, a very loud groan. Apparently, he discovered, he wasn’t nearly as alone as he’d thought he was. Secondly, he became aware of the most amazing, delicious smell that he’d ever caught wind of before. It wasn’t particularly clean–if he had been forced to describe it, he would have said it was something between a stale locker room and a slightly rotten egg, but he wanted it. Drool welled up in his mouth, and he swung his nose around, and decided that the groan and the smell must be related, and he had to know what it was that had him so…hungry.
He crept around the corner so he could see into the stalls–the doors were both open, but it was in the handicap stall that he found them. Two bears, both of them in leather, were poised over the toilet. One had his cock buried in the other’s ass, but the delicious smell wasn’t coming from there. Now, it was coming from the other guy, who was leaking cum onto the toilet seat below him, and the sight of it–all Ethan could do was resist with all his might, and keep himself stationary, transfixed on the man’s precum.
No–No, what the fuck was wrong with him? He backed away, hurrying to the bathroom door, but as he did, the craving became even stronger, and new pains started ripping their way through him, his snout pushing out further, his teeth shifting and rearranging, short tusks pushing out from his bottom jaw. He reached up with his hands to feel what was happening–but they weren’t hands–not anymore. His fingers hand begun to fuse and turn black, quickly becoming trotters, his legs growing shorter, his boots no longer fitting his feet. He grabbed for the bathroom door, but ended up tripping. His legs and arms were now the same length, and he landed on all fours, staring up at the door handle so far away, his nose still pulling him back around, towards that filthy smell…
Bracken's Corner 