HORNS (BoyXBoy)

Chapter 78

Chapter Seventy Eight

Yuma was in shock. 

I was in shock. 

I wouldn't have been surprised if the whole world was in shock. Why, you might be wondering? Simple: after he took the time to explain how to cast the glamour spell and laid out what I needed to do, think, and feel... I succeeded on my first try. Don't get me wrong, I still didn't understand magic or the whole genesis of it all, and heck, I hadn't even been expecting anything to happen... I really hadn't, but it did, and when it did, it scared the fuck out of me.

It all began when Yuma instructed me to think of what normal human legs looked like and taught me the steps to use glamour and make mine into what I wanted them to appear to be. As a result, I'd immediately thought of my dad's powerful thighs, his muscled calves, and his big, clawed, very hobbit-like feet. Of course, I'd tried to picture them with my own skin tone, and I'd then let myself sink into the pain, bringing it to the surface and letting my glamour loose.

The whole world had gone crazy again, creaking and groaning and leaning towards me, but before anything creepy could happen I'd cast the incantation Yuma taught me. Just like that, boom, an icy sensation had swept throughout my whole body like an electric zap and, with a brilliant flash, I went completely blind, flopping limply on my back, unable to see anything. I'd screamed and tried to cover my eyes when the primal, wild sensation I always got when playing my pipes mixed with the overwhelming depression and doubt and anguish weighing me down.

The tempest of chaotic emotion sent tingles through me, pulsing like phantom hearts inside my whole body, but I'd lost my ability to move, to even speak, in fact. It was like I'd been frozen and all the energy had been sapped out of my body.  As my vision cleared, I saw Yuma sitting with his mouth open and his eyes bugging, looking like he couldn't believe what he'd just seen. There was something in his gaze, something that almost looked a little like jealousy or envy.

It cleared up after a second, though.

"For someone who claims to not understand the basics of glamour," he dryly allowed, looking down at my legs and then at my head, "you have a shocking knack for using it. Not even the oldest and most talented casters in our tribes were able to use that spell on their first try."

I somehow managed to unstick my leaden tongue just enough to rasp, "thanks, but I feel like I just spent the whole day running and jumping at top speed. I thought I was paralyzed for a few seconds, but its more like I'm just super, super tired now."

"Ah, the fatigue is normal," he said, crawling over and helping me up into a sitting position; my head flopped forward and I fought to raise it, but he did it for me and cradled my neck. I swiveled to look at him, and to my amazement he was grinning from ear to ear. "You succeeded, Horst."

Confusion prickled through me. "I did?"

I glanced down at my legs to see that they still looked disjointed under my jeans, but Yuma just smirked and reached down to my left shoe, carefully unlacing it and tugging it off. I guess I was subconsciously expecting my cloven hoof to be there like it always was, so I think you can guess how shocked I was when I saw brown toes and feet with claws like my dad's.

"AH!" I screeched, pointing at my toes with a jerk, eyes going wide. "MY HOOF IS A FOOT!"

Yuma did a double take, then threw his head back and let out a booming belly laugh. He shook against me while I turned my leg left and right, because I couldn't feel my new limb, I still felt my normal legs and my hoof underneath it. I swallowed a wave of bile and reached up to touch my horns, feeling them nervously, and then I touched my long, furry ears, unable to look away.