A boy loses his best friend, but not for long. Commission for  wotokay.

=================================================

The blaring of an alarm wakes up Jacinto early in the morning. It’s still dark out as he stumbles out of bed and gets dressed. He checks his watch. March 5th. “Just another day…” He sighs to himself as he grabs his backpack and goes downstairs. His parents are unsurprisingly still asleep. He takes some frozen waffles and puts them in the toaster, then heads out for the bus stop, eating them on the way. He boards the bus as it comes, and immediately starts working on his homework, struggling to concentrate given the noise around him from other kids talking or playing music on their speakers. Once he arrives at school, he heads for his first class, even though it’s not due to start for another 30 minutes, and sits alone in the classroom, continuing his homework. His day goes by just like any other day until lunch, when he is given a brownie with an electric candle stuck in it (the school wouldn’t allow open flames indoors) and a card congratulating him on his 10th birthday, signed by the principal and the counselor. He smiles faintly, at least someone seemed to care, or at least, pretended to care.

He gets home, his backpack full of new homework to do and his parents watching TV and they barely give him a wave as he returns home. Though, as he enters, there’s a bit of a commotion as the sound of running can be heard and a dog comes bursting into the living room and practically tackles Jacinto. “Bruno!” Jacinto’s face lights up as the German/Australian Shepherd mix comes for him and he sets his bag down and starts petting the dog’s head as Bruno starts licking Jacinto’s face. Jacinto heads upstairs and Bruno follows close behind and he begins working on homework, occasionally stopping to give pats or scratches to Bruno. Upon finishing his homework, he digs into a drawer and takes out a very worn, chewed-up tennis ball and holds it up. Bruno’s eyes lock onto it immediately and he seems to smile. “Wanna go play now, boy?” Bruno barks and spins around excitedly, then speeds downstairs with a happy Jacinto following suit.

“Don’t stay out too late, dinner will be ready soon!” Jacinto’s mom calls out as Jacinto runs outside, following Bruno.

“Okay, mom!” Once outside, Jacinto starts tossing the ball around their yard, being careful not to throw it into the street, with Bruno brining it back every time, his tail wagging away. Though, the more he throws the ball, the more careless Jacinto gets. He throws the ball, but it goes a lot further than he intended, and lands right in the middle of the street. Bruno instinctively goes after it, not thinking twice, and before Jacinto can say anything, the dog darts right in front of a car that is speeding down the residential street. There’s a loud thump followed by the squealing of tires as the car stops quickly. The driver peeks out the window, looking back and then speeds off, leaving Bruno in the middle of the street.

Jacinto runs into the street yelling after Bruno and he kneels next to the limp dog, shaking him, trying desperately to get Bruno to wake up. “Bruno! Bruno, please wake up!” Jacinto’s voice cracks as he grows more desperate. Tears roll down his face and land on Bruno, but no matter how hard Jacinto tries, there is no response from the dog. His dad comes out, hearing the noise, and quickly runs to the street seeing Jacinto and Bruno. Jacinto’s dad kneels next to him and puts a hand on his back.

“Sorry…I think Bruno’s gone now…”

“But…he’s not gone, he’s right here! He’s just asleep!”

“Jacinto…I’m sorry, but he’s not asleep…he’s passed on…”

“But…but…” Jacinto can’t even come up with anything else to say as he’s overwhelmed with emotions, and he begins bawling on the street next to Bruno. His dad picks him up and carries him inside. He lays him in bed and tucks him in.

“I’ll be back in a bit, okay?”

Jacinto simply nods and he rolls over to his side and hugs one of the dog plushies he has on his bed, while his dad heads outside and takes care of Bruno’s body. Dinner is quiet, like most days, but more tense than normal. Jacinto can hardly eat, no matter how much his mom tries to encourage him to. He doesn’t even finish half of his plate before he excuses himself and heads back upstairs and hugs his dog plushie tight. Bruno was a Christmas gift to Jacinto three years ago, and since then they have become best friends. Nobody else seemed to really care about Jacinto except Bruno. They even slept together every night and Bruno was always there to comfort Jacinto when he was sad. Tonight was a night that Jacinto could really use Bruno’s presence, but he was not there. He continued crying late into the night, quietly calling out for Bruno but there was no answer.

Just before he falls asleep, the sound of wind blowing can be heard and the curtains on Jacinto’s window blow around as if a draft is coming in. Jacinto sits up, hearing the noise and looks at the window confused, as it’s closed but it looks like wind is blowing through it. Shortly after that, a figure appears in his room, and it looks exactly like Bruno, but it’s floating in the air! “Bruno!” Jacinto shouts excitedly, and he gets up and tries to give the figure a hug, but he finds that he passes right through him. “Bruno?” Jacinto looks up at the figure puzzled, and the figure looks sad, remorseful, as if it’s remorseful for something. The figure then seems to float around Jacinto in a circle, and then head straight for him. The figure then disappears as he passes into Jacinto. “Bruno? Where’d you go? Jacinto then feels an odd warmth, and something, though he isn’t sure what, tells him that even though he can’t be seen, Bruno is with him. Jacinto goes back to bed happy, hugging his plushie, and falls asleep.

During his sleep, Jacinto feels warmer than usual, and he tosses his blanket aside to try to cool down. Black hairs begin growing on his back, interspersed with white and brown hairs. They grow in thicker and longer until he has a nice layer of multicolored fur on his back, which is spreading around. It turns white as it covers his chest and belly, then turns a light brown as it starts crawling down his arms. The fur on his arms becomes speckled with black and white fur, then turns completely white as it covers his hands. Jacinto tosses around in bed uncomfortably, and eventually pulls his shirt off and tosses it aside. The fur turns black as it covers his hips and then brown again, speckled with black and white as it covers his lower legs and white on his feet. His hands and feet begin to swell, and a dark, rough growth comes out of his palms, fingertips, toe tips and the bottom of his feet. It keeps swelling until rough, plump paw pads appear on his hands and feet. His fingernails and toenails grow sharper and longer, curling down and turning black. They sink back into the nailbeds to form claws.

Jacinto continues tossing around as he dreams of playing with Bruno. He continues sleeping through any uncomfortable feeling, as Bruno’s spirit keeps him calm and asleep, occupying his mind with the wonderful dream. Jacinto’s tailbone begins growing longer and sprouts brown fur. A tail grows in, pushing his pants down a little, growing long and fluffy. It begins wagging on its own, showing how happy Jacinto is with the dream. His heels shift upward, popping gently into place and giving him a digitigrade stance. Brown fur crawls up Jacinto’s neck and his hair shortens and merges with the brown fur. Black fur grows in around his ears and soon covers them as they grow longer and wider, sliding up to the top of his head. They keep growing until they flop over, forming large, floppy triangles. His jaw stretches forward, and the bridge of his nose widens, while the rest of his nose flattens and rounds out against the end of his new muzzle. His teeth grow sharper, and tongue grows longer and flatter to fill his larger, more canine mouth. Finally, his eyes sting gently as one of them turns a deep chestnut brown, while the other turns a brilliant, shiny blue.

The rest of the night passes with Jacinto having happy dream after dream of playing with and being around Bruno. He wakes up the following morning, and lays in bed a little while longer, knowing it’s a Saturday. The furry feeling all over his body slowly gets to him, though, and he sits up, then heads for his bathroom. He grabs the small stepstool and stands on it to reach the sink and look in the mirror and nearly falls backwards when he sees himself. The person he sees in the mirror looks exactly like Bruno! Jacinto looks around, then looks over himself, seeing the fur all over his body and the muzzle prominently in his vision. He reaches up to feel it and then looks at his hands to see the claws and paw pads. “I’m…I’m Bruno now?” He stands back up on the stepstool again and looks in the mirror, examining himself closely. He feels his sharper teeth and looks at his longer tongue and giggles. “I guess Bruno is here after all!”

Jacinto runs down the hall and rapidly knocks on his parents’ bedroom door. His dad, half asleep, answers the door and nearly jumps out of his skin when he sees Jacinto. “J-Jacinto?”

“Yeah! Look, I’m a dog just like Bruno now!”

“But…” If it weren’t for hearing Jacinto’s voice, his dad might have thought it was something else. Was he seeing things? He reaches down and gently rubs Jacinto’s head, which causes his tail to start wagging again, and pulls his hand back in surprise. “That’s really you!”

“Of course, it’s me, dad! Who else would it be!”

“I…don’t know! But how did this happen?”

“Bruno came and visited me last night, but I couldn’t touch him…and then he just flew into me, and I woke up like this!”

“Bruno…how?” Jacinto’s dad begins questioning everything right now. If it weren’t for the evidence standing right in front of him, he’d never believe it. “We need to take you to the doctor…or maybe the vet…oh I don’t know…honey!” Jacinto’s dad calls for his mom and explains everything, and she’s just as shocked as Jacinto’s dad is. They quickly get dressed and tell Jacinto to get dressed, which he manages to do though his pants fit funny due to the tail, and he has a hard time with his shoes. His dad tells him to just forget the shoes for now and get in the car.

An hour later and they’re at the same vet that they took Bruno to regularly. After waiting another hour, they’re called back, and Jacinto sits up on the cold exam table while the vet begins examining him.

“Well…he’s healthy at least. He can still speak, and his mental faculties seem intact?”

“Yes, we were able to speak to him this morning, and he seemed fine!”

“Alright, well, we’d need to do extensive testing to see how far this goes…we want to make sure that we address any new dietary needs and the like.”

“Whatever you need done, go ahead and do it!”

The vet nods and begins a series of tests, making sure his mind remained intact, testing his dietary needs, and seeing if any new allergies or anything else came up. It is determined that he has the same diet as he had before as a human, and he’s perfectly healthy so he’s sent home.

Jacinto quickly accepts his new body, though his parents still worry. At school, he becomes subject to a lot of attention, both good and bad. Some tease him about being weird while others admire his new, fluffy body and offer him plenty of pats, which he gladly accepts. He grows accustomed to both the good and the bad of his new body and learns to live with it, his parents get him custom-tailored clothing to account for his tails and ears, and occasionally have to replace clothing that gets torn from his claws. Eventually, though, their lives return to normal, and Jacinto grows up to be a mostly well-adjusted member of society, given how his parents still didn’t give him the attention he needed despite his new body. Jacinto grows to like his new body, and to enjoy the company of Bruno’s spirit, and despite any hate he got, he goes on to live a normal life.