Without warning, the door to Jon's bedroom swung open and there was Jon, holding two cups of orange juice. "I've got OJ oh crap..." he said, seeing Sarah holding the stone.
"Look what I've got here Jon."
"Do you know what it is?"
"Of course I know what it is. This is the real reason I'm here."
"Sarah. You really don't want to do what you're thinking of doing. Please, don't."
"Oh I think I do."
"Well you're not going to do it. Trust me, it's not going to go the way you expect, you're in for a disaster if you do."
"Hmpf. That sounds like loser talk. You know I've got your magic rock and you're just trying to say anything you can to stop me."
"Something bad will happen to you."
"Oh scary threat. Don't come any closer!" she said quickly, changing tone as he took a step forward. "Do you really think I can't make a wish before you get to me?"
"Sarah, you WILL fail and it will backfire horribly and you're going to be hurt in the process, kind of I wish I was lying."
"Ha! And how's that going to happen? Who's going to stop me? You just squandered this thing's potential. Well let me tell you what I'm going to do. I'm not going to stop until I take over the world, and I wish I was a lion. I mean..."
There was a glint in their eyes as they had to look away. Sarah dropped the stone from her new forepaw, and then fell forward and landed in her natural four-footed stance. "Awwwooooughh rooouuwwwoooooo" she moaned.
"Keep it down, would you? We don't want my mom coming in here!"
And then she did a surprising thing. She started crying. In a half human, half lion sort of way. "Awwwwwwwwwwwwwrrrrrr...." she cried mournfully, but obviously quietly, by intent. She knew Jon had won. Despite his stupid warning about a seemingly unlikely possibility, that was what had happened. Why did she say that?! Why would she even have said I wish I was lying successfully while holding the rock?! She certainly didn't want to be lying about taking over the world. But she said it wrong, in such a stupid way!
"Sarah, I wished earlier, that if anyone tried to take the stone from me without my approval, that they would fail and it would backfire horribly. That was what I was trying to warn you about."
Sarah tried to stand up to her back legs, and succeeded, but was wobbly, her tail lashing behind her.
Jon set the cups of orange juice down on his dresser and rushed over to her side, not really afraid she would attack him. She knew she was beat, and wasn't acting like a dumb animal.
"What am I going to do!" she tried to say. It came out as more quiet lion warblings. She looked at him with pleading eyes, and hugged around him, still crying.
"Don't be sad, Sarah, it's not the end of the world," Jon said.
Not the end of the world?! It was certainly the end of her world! She cried some more. And he could just fix it for her. But would he? Or would he torment her?
"Ok Sarah, the first thing you should know, is wishes can't be undone. I'm afraid you are permanently a lion."
Sarah looked at him and blinked audibly. Her mouth hung open. She was imagining he could be coaxed to change her back before.
"That's part of what I was trying to warn you about! You didn't understand what you were dealing with!"
She held her head low. Why did it have to go like this! She had wagered it all and lost it all horribly, and it wasn't even against an opponent who wanted to crush her, what Jon had said hadn't been a desperate empty threat, Jon actually had been trying to help her after all.
"But there is a lot of things I can do for you. Even if you're a lion, that doesn't mean you have to be handicapped. What I'm going to do is wish you can talk, maybe this doesn't even have to be so bad! You're just a lion now. If you can talk, we'll get you some clothes for a lion, we'll wish no one will find it strange you're a lion, and you can mostly live your life like you did before, you may even come to like being this way, and I can also wish for your lifespan to be extended, so you don't need to die of old age at 25 like a regular lion. There are a lot of animals it would be worse to be. Lions are intelligent and attractive, and in many ways very capable. But first I'm going to wish that you can never again touch the stone, ok? I can't have you turning around and..."
"Raarrrrrrr!!" Sarah snarled quietly, still honoring his request to not make too much noise, holding him down under her 350 pound weight on his bed.
"Sarah, what's your plan here, without my help? What do you think will happen if you kill me? They will find my body with a lion and euthanize the lion. Is that what you want?"
Sarah whimpered some more. She knew he was right. But it was a bluff anyway, she wasn't actually going to kill him, she was only trying to scare him. She really just was hurt that she had ruined things for herself so much, and couldn't even ever be given status as a friend, who could be allowed to use it, ever. Oh how she wished she could be given that choice now. Maybe if he only wished she couldn't use it for the next year? She had to communicate that to him somehow. She knew his safety measure was deserved, but just needed to give him the idea that maybe she could prove herself to him eventually and to not make the inability to use the stone permanent. And for that, she needed to distract him for a while, while she figured out how. So she did what came to her naturally. She licked his face.
"Oh, my god, your tongue, is so harsh..." Jon said, squinting his eyes from the pain.
She looked down at him and rubbed her face against his cheek.
"You know, you actually are very cute, like this, like, damn, I didn't even know a lion could be that cute." Jon didn't know why he had said it. But he thought about regretting it when a moment later he found himself forcibly being french kissed by a lioness. She held him down with such force, he couldn't move, and she hugged around him, and damn but if the kiss wasn't kind of thrilling. She actually had decent breath. Strangely, it was fresh, but with just the tiniest smell and taste like chicken. And he couldn't help it. The way she was manhandling him. He was embarrassed by it, and didn't want to be in a position to be ridiculed over it. But he rose to the occasion.
Sarah's eyes sparkled, as she noticed. She backed a little bit off of him. He started to sit up, when she put a paw on his chest and growled playfully at him, "owwww..."
"Um, Sarah, what, exactly, are you, planning on..." Jon started, trying to pretend he didn't have any idea, as Sarah had successfully unbuttoned his shorts with her other paw, and then pulled them down. He suspected before but now knew exactly what she was planning on.
"Oh, Sarah, we, can't.... things, probably wouldn't even be the right size, right? And, my family will hear us..."
She pulled down his underwear. There was no hiding that he was intrigued by what Sarah had in mind, or at least his body was. I mean, it wasn't, wrong, was it? She still had a human mind, after all, right? If it was consensual, would it really, be, you know...
