Jon saw the stone sitting on the desk, and picked it up. Tossing it in the air, he caught it again and then stareded carefully at it. 'Odd', he thought. 'Did it always look like this?' He couldn't put his finger on just what seemed different, but something was just a little off.
After inspecting the thing very carefully, he shook his head and decided he must be imagining it. Grabbing the flat wooden box the stone had come in, he was about to put it back in when he saw his clock. "Shit, I'm going to be late!" he muttered to himself. Looking back at the stone, he suddenly grinned. "I wish I had a high quality brand new mountain bike just outside the front door." The usual odd visual effect happened, and he put the stone back in the box and dropped it into his coat pocket. Picking up his backpack, he swung it over one shoulder and turned to leave the room.
As he walked to the door, he glanced at the mirror on the wall over his dresser, and stopped dead with a feeling of shock going through him. 'What the FUCK?' he thought to himself, staring at his reflection in disbelief. After a moment, he raised his free hand and felt his ear with shaking fingers. It was still his ear as he could feel his fingers on it, but it, and the matching one on the other side, had never been furry. Or sticking above his head. Or anything like that size or shape!
Dropping his pack, he frantically felt both ears, grabbing them and yanking, then yelping in pain. They were real. What the hell had happened? Looking at the foreign ears more closely, he realised they were animals ears, and looked somewhat familiar. After a while he realised they looked like a kangaroo's ears.
He found he could move them, and flicked them back and forth. "What the hell happened?" he said out loud this time. "Where did these things come from?" He pulled the box with the stone in it out of his pocket and opened it, looking at the stone suspiciously. It was the only possible explanation why he now had kangaroo's ears, but it didn't make any sense. He certainly hadn't made a wish for them.
After a moment's reflection, he picked the stone out of the box and carefully said, "I wish my ears would go back to the way they were before becoming the ears of a kangaroo." The visual twist was accompanied by a slight tickle as his normal human ears reappeared. There was also a similar feeling across his lower abdomen, which he wasn't expecting. Dropping the stone back into the box and placing the box on the desk again, he pulled his t-shirt up and looked down.
"Oh my god" he squeaked, reaching down and feeling the soft fur that now covered his lower torso from groin to just above his stomach. It was reddish in colour, and went around his sides about halfway to the back, tapering out smoothly to his normal skin at the edges. Running his hand down his front, he jumped when his fingers caught on a flap of furry skin a few inches above his navel area. Probing carefully, he found the entrance to what he realised was a female kangaroo's pouch!
Stunned, he stood there in shock, one hand feeling the pouch entrance, while alternately looking down at his body and up at his reflection. What on earth was going on? First the ears, now a POUCH for god's sake. Why did bits of him keep turning into bits of a kangaroo? He slowly slipped a hand into the pouch, curiousity warring with squeamishness and winning. Jon watched in the mirror as the bulge his hand made in the furry skin of his abdomen moved around. The pouch extended down nearly a foot, covering his navel, and went across his front by as much. It was quite stretchy, and he put his other hand inside as well. The feeling was bizarre, but not uncomfortable at all. He pulled both hands out, then carefully grabbed the edges of the pouch entrance and tugged it wider, seeing how far it would stretch.
Quite a long way, as it turned out. He thought he could probably just about get a basketball in there if he tried, although he couldn't think why he'd want to. And anyway, even having the thing wasn't something he wanted. Reaching for the stone again, he was about to wish the pouch away when he suddenly stopped as a thought struck him.
It had to be something to do with the stone. The wish for the bicycle had resulted in kangaroo ears, and removing the ears had left him with a pouch. It must be an effect of the stone, but why? It hadn't done this yesterday. Changing his mind, he decided he needed to talk to Karyn before he made any more wishes. Wishing the pouch away was easy enough, but what would happen? Another part of him might turn into a part of an animal, if what he suspected was the case, and it might be more inconvenient than a pouch and some fur, which was at least easily hidden under his t-shirt.
He placed the stone back in the box and closed it. About to put it back in his pocket, he paused then put it into his new pouch. Might as well get some use out of the thing, and this way he was sure he wouldn't lose it. Running his hand over his furry skin he felt the outline of the box under it, then pulled his t-shirt down. Putting his pack on as he wen't down the stairs, he opened the front door and looked around.
Sure enough, there was a metallic blue bicycle leaning against the side of the porch, brand new and an expensive make. Smiling, he got on it and cycled off to meet Karyn before school. Hopefully she'd have some ideas.
