The attic

Every summer Oliver and his parents would spend a month at their summer cottage. It was a big and beautiful house with a large natural lake behind it. He was allowed to go anywhere in the house, but the attic. This was their 10th visit with him, and ever since they first started taking him they always told him to stay out of the attic. Oliver was eating breakfast with his parents when he decided to ask them why he wasn't allowed in the attic.

"Why can't I go into the attic? What's up there?", Oliver persisted this time when asking his parents. He couldn't understand why they didn't want him to go up there.

"Are there ghosts up there? Is there pirate treasure up there?" he asked, trying to get them to tell him why he couldn't go up there.

"Please Oliver, just don’t go up there", his father responded. Seeing how upset he seemed at the questions, Oliver decided to let the issue go, for now at least. He continued to eat and decided to change the subject,

"So what are we going to do today?".

"Were going to go for a walk and then for a swim in the lake". It sounded like fun, so he decided to forget about the attic and just enjoy the day.

The walk lasted for a few hours, and when they got back they all sat down and had lunch. After watching TV for a couple of hours, they decided to go swimming. Oliver had a plan to get into the attic, as his parents went outside, he said that he would go get his bathing suit. They agreed and he set his plan into motion.

His parents were outside by the lake waiting for him to get his bathing suit on. He slowly walked towards the entrance to the attic. He jumped up and pulled on the cord, which pulled the stairs to the attic down, he was surprised that it wasn't locked. Slowly walking into the attic, he was surprised by how empty it was. Somehow he was expecting skeletons or bats or something 'spooky', but all he saw was a small chest in the corner of the attic. The floor creaked as he walked towards the chest. He had to walk slowly as he didn't want to get caught. When he reached the chest, he saw how dusty it was and how it's paint and metal had dulled. He saw that the chest wasn't locked, another oddity. Whatever was in the chest, his parents didn't want him finding out. He thought of simply walking away, but curiosity got the better of him and he opened it. A huge cloud of dust filled the area, which made him sneeze several times. The dust cleared and he looked in the chest. At first it seemed empty, but then he saw something at the bottom of it, a bathing suit! Reaching into the chest, he picked the suit up. It felt soft. He had an idea, he wanted to try the suit on. After first taking his clothes off, he reached into the chest and picked up the bathing suit. Slowly slipping it in, he was surprised by how well it fit and how strangely warm it felt.

He decided that he was going to wear this bathing suit instead of his normal one, he would use it to show his parents that the attic was harmless and that they were worried over nothing. As he walked towards the stairs that went down from the attic, the warmth in the bathing suit seemed to spread. He felt a bit itchy around and under the suit, and something seemed to be pushing on it at the back. He looked closely at his belly and at the tops of his legs, which were both itching, and he saw what looked like a fine coating of fur them! He reached down to feel it, mystified about where it originated from. The bulge in the back of the bathing suit seemed to be getting bigger and he could feel something pushing on it. He looked at himself in a mirror that was on the wall, (finding it being there a bit convenient) The bathing suit was being strained badly by the bulge and he could see that something was definitely pushing at the back if it, it was starting to look like a 'peg' under a tent. The fabric of the trunks finally strained to it's maximum and it spit, with a large, furry, streamlined tail pushing it's way though. Holding the tail in his hands, it's felt warm to the touch. It send shivers down his spine when he realized that he could feel the tail, not only with his hands, but as a part of his body, he could actually feel his hands touching it.

"Um, okay this isn't right", he said to himself as he examined the tail. He hopped that he could stop whatever was happening by taking the trunks off. Quickly loosening them and sliding them down his legs, he stood there naked, looked at what the trunks had done to his body. He had a long, thick furry tail, the bottom of his belly and 'small' of his back was covered in beige fur which seemed to be thickening. His buttocks were completely covered in fur. Touching the fur on it he commented to himself

"geeze, I've heard of having a harry ass, but this is crazy!". Looking around, he gulped as he saw his private's, they didn't look human, and in fact looked much more animal, but seemed to fit in with his tail and fur that was growing in that area.

"Oh man, of all things to change, why that? I mean that’s hitting below the belt!", he said to himself, annoyed by what he saw. The fur growth expanded to the top of his legs and inner thighs. It was dark brown on the top of his legs and beige on his inner thighs. Curious, he reached down and touched the fur. It, like the fur on his belly, seemed to be lengthening, it felt soft and pleasant not only to the though, but to be touched. Ah he was touching the fur, it seemed to expand even more, in both directions! The fur started to spread up his belly, enveloping his belly button, it was a beige color on his belly, and brown on his back and sides. On his legs, the fur continued to spread down, reaching he knee-caps. As it reached his knees, his legs started to shrink, getting shorter. His knees seemed to disappear, as the bottom half of his legs were absorbed into the top half. It was a very strange feeling, and it felt uncomfortable to stand, so he laid down, with his legs in the air watching them shrink. As his legs shrank to the point where his feet were now where his knees used to be, he watched as his feet were absorbed into his body. His legs started to quiver, and he heard the sound on bones cracking, hearing a loud snap (but oddly feeling little pain), he saw his knees re-appear, now half way up what was formally the top half of his legs. He was able to bend his "new" legs normally, but he still didn’t have feet.

"how am I supposed to walk without feet?" he asked out loud. As if his legs heard him ask, he saw new feet start to grow from the bottom of them. New feet looked different, they were webbed and much rounder then his human feet, and each foot had 5 toes, each with a small claw on the end. He petted his legs and his 'new' feet, they felt very strange. The fur felt incredibly soft, and warm. His legs were starting to feel warm. From the waist below, nothing looked human. He could see that it was spreading upwards. The fur on his belly was much thicker now and started to spread, growing up his chest and back. It felt very warm. He sat there, watching the fur spread up his body. His insides started to feel warm and tingly, he could feel and hear them changing shape, and size and rearranging themselves. He noticed that his body was getting rounder and more streamlined. The fur growth reached his arms and started to grow down them. Like with his legs, his arms started to shrink, but not by much. They ended up at about the same length as his legs. His hands started to change shape, becoming webbed and round, with 5 fingers, but no thumb. Small claws grew on the end of each finger. He was starting to feel, very uncomfortable sitting, and felt the urge to stand on all fours. Now that his legs were the same length as his arms, he felt that this would be easier. Turning around onto his stomach he stood on all fours, his hips had since changed shape, making standing on all fours easy, and seem like normal. As the fur growth started to spread up his neck and onto his head he looked at himself in the mirror. He looked very much like a large otter, the fur color and the shape of his tail was about right for one. As the fur growth reached his face, it began reshaping itself, becoming a muzzle, with whiskers. All of his human teeth fell out in rapid succession, to be replaced by now smaller and sharper teeth. His ears absorbed into his head and his ears 'holes' disappeared, leaving him temporarily deaf, that is until new holes grew on to of his head, his news ears grew around them, but they were much rounder and smaller then his human ears. His face seemed to be finished. The changes appeared to have completed. He looked at himself in the mirror, he was a giant otter. He tried to speak, but the only sounds he made were similar to the sounds he had heard otters make.

Making his way down stairs he approached the front door of the house. He wasn't sure exactly how he was going to face his parents. They had been right about the attic. He managed to get the door open and walked outside. The sun felt great against his fur. He made his way to the lake , expecting to see his parents there. Instead, he something that was a surprise. He saw two other giant otters standing on piles of clothes by the lake. They walked over to him and started to chitter. He was surprised that he could understand them.

"You went into the attic didn't you" the otter that he could tell was his mother said to him.

"We told you not to go there, now you see why, although the results aren’t so bad" his father said.

"I didn't mean for this to happen, I was just curious", Oliver said.

"Well, don't be sorry this is exactly what you were supposed to do, you see this is our true form, well were not normally this big" his father said. "Wait a second, true form? So you were really born otters and took human form so you could raise a child, me?".

"More or less, yes. We wanted to experience humanity. So we talked to a witch that offered us the opportunity, she gave us the proper documents so we'd be able to pass off as humans, we had you a year before we took human form. In human form we didn't age, so we could experience humanity but without the cost of shorter lives as otters" his mother said. "But I don't remember being a baby otter".

"You were so young, most humans don’t remember being infants, at most they remember only fragments. The swimming trunks you tried on were meant to draw you, but give you the opportunity to not put them on, if you weren't meant to discover the truth, you wouldn't have put them on. You can change back if you want, just put the trunks back on". His father said. Oliver thought about for a second, he felt great in his 'new' body, and the thought of just swimming and playing all day was certainly more appealing then the thought of homework and getting a job.

"actually I think I'll stay.".

"That’s great, now the final part of the spell." His parents responded. The three of them started to shrink rapidly, until they were the size of normal otters. Happily Chittering, the three of them ran into the river, and played for the rest of the day, enjoying their newfound freedom