A friend of Kohaku helps out with a dog show, but it ends up being longer-term than he originally planned.

Kohaku is an OC of mine, might write more stories involving him!
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“A…dog show? How exactly do you want me to help you with a dog show?” Mark asked, confused. Not only was this the first time Kohaku has asked for his help with anything, but he was also actually being nice about it. Their relationship hasn’t exactly been the best since Mark ruined an expensive potion that Kohaku was working on. Mark had insisted on helping Kohaku with making a potion and after much arguing, Kohaku caved and allowed him to help by mixing in an ingredient. Mark grabbed the wrong ingredient and caused the potion to become instable beyond saving.

Mark tried to stress how much it was an accident, but Kohaku never forgave him, at least it seemed like he never did but with Kohaku asking for help, maybe he changed his mind? “Alright, well, sure, do you want me to meet you somewhere or—oh, alright then. See yo- “Before Mark can finish, Kohaku appears in Mark’s living room with a soft fwoomp and some dark smoke, which manages to trigger the smoke detectors. “Damnit, Kohaku, can you not?”

“Sorry, I forget about those things…anyways, about this dog show! Funny thing…” Kohaku digs into his pocket and takes out a collar, holding it up in front of him. “…there was a slight…complication. You see, I don’t quite have a dog ready yet for the show. And, well, that’s where you come in!” Kohaku then quickly reaches for Mark’s throat and clips the collar around his neck. Mark tries to struggle but he’s caught completely by surprise and before he can even try to remove it, he can feel tingling and itching all over his body, and his skin becomes much softer as hair grows in patches all over his body, and soon his arms, back and legs are covered in black fur, while his abdomen and the front of his neck become covered in white fur. Mark looks at his hands as they begin to swell, his palms and fingers becoming plumper to form rough paw pads.

“What the fuck? God damnit, Kohaku!” Mark screams as his thumbs shrivel away, nails sharpening. Soon, his thumbs have become dewclaws, not much use for hands anymore. His nails sink into the nailbeds and blacken, then grow longer to form claws. His feet undergo much of the same changes as they become larger, and yet smaller as they begin to widen and crick upwards to become digitigrade, but then his hips flatten and become thinner. Before Mark can object further, his back pops and he loses his balance, falling forward onto his belly and face.

“Ow! Son of a—” Mark is interrupted by his jaw stretching forward, teeth sharpening and tongue lengthening. He reaches up as best he can as his shoulders flatten and move inward, severely limiting his range of motion, and he can feel his nose become wetter, flatter, and rounder as it becomes more canine. Mark lets out some pathetic-sounding whimpers as his ears pull upward, growing longer and moving to the top of his head, and his body begins to shrink.

“Don’t worry! It’s only temporary…that is if you do well!” Kohaku flashes a devilish smile.

Mark has an intense look of worry on his face, which is quickly overtaken by pain as his tailbone grows longer, and grows out to a fluffy, black and white curled husky tail. Almost as quickly as it started, Mark is left as a husky swimming in his human clothes. He looks up at Kohaku with pleading eyes. The only thing he’s worried about is being stuck like this. How in the hell is he going to do well in a dog show when he’s spent all of five minutes as a dog so far?

Kohaku chuckles, “Don’t worry…I was just kidding about that. Of course, I’ll turn you back afterwards, unless of course you want to stay as a dog! Now then…” Kohaku digs into his other pocket and pulls out a cloth leash and clips it to a defeated Mark’s collar. “…ready to go?”

Mark stares up at Kohaku, wanting so desperately to try to fight back, but realizes that he’d just lose any fight that he tried to pick. After all, Kohaku’s a powerful mage, and if he can easily turn someone into a dog like this, who knows what else he’s capable of. He simply nods slowly, and reluctantly, then stands up shakily on his paws.

“Now then…take it easy, one paw at a time, till you get the hang of it!”

Mark listens, and takes one cautious step, then another. He’s rather wobbly and almost falls over a few times, but before long he’s walking like a natural.

“See? That isn’t so bad, is it? Now, let’s get on with this show!” Kohaku leads Mark out of his apartment and takes him down to his car. Kohaku opens the door, and Mark struggles to climb in the first few times, while Kohaku chuckles. After a few attempts, Mark makes it into the car and the two drive off. “Alright, so here’s the deal. There’s three rounds: obstacle course, talent, and showcase. Don’t worry too much about the obstacle course, it’s pretty straightforward. They’re pretty simple obstacles, it’s more of a test of the owners to train their dogs to follow commands. For the talent, you’re going to walk on your forepaws. This one may be a bit trickier, but we’ll have time to practice. The showcase is the easy part: all you gotta do there is sit and look pretty, make sure you look as cute as possible for extra points from the judges. Got all that?”

Mark simply nods, not as if he could actually say anything.

“Good! We’ll be there soon, so sit tight.” And soon enough, they do arrive at the arena where the dog show is being hosted. It’s a large, multipurpose arena that’s used for sports games, concerts, conventions, and anything else that needs a large space. After what felt like forever finding a parking spot, they finally part and head inside, getting checked in.

“Name, dog’s name and breed.” The check-in agent sternly says his tone flat from having checked in hundreds of dogs already.

“Kohaku, dog’s name is Mark and he’s a husky.”

“…Mark? Alright, one moment.” The clerk gives a weird look to Kohaku briefly, thinking the name was a bit odd. There’s a soft whirring noise as two badges are printed and placed on lanyards and handed to Kohaku. Both of them have both Kohaku and Mark’s names on them, but based on the labels, one of them is clearly meant for Mark to wear. Kohaku puts his badge on and puts the lanyard around Mark’s neck for the other badge, and soon they’re off to the practice area. They enter the stadium, and the place is bustling with people and their dogs, as well as vendors selling sundries for people’s dogs and general dog care. Kohaku leads Mark, who seems to have gotten a bit more compliant now. Soon enough, they arrive at the designated training area, and Kohaku opens the door and leads Mark inside. Inside are several people with their dogs doing practice runs on the obstacle course, practicing talents, or general grooming.

“Okay, first up you’re gonna do a run through the practice course, just so you can get the hang of it, alright? When you’re done, you’ll get a treat!”

“A treat? What kind?”

Kohaku takes out a bacon-flavored cylindrical treat and shows it to Mark.

“Dog treats, really? C’mon…” But soon the smell hits Mark’s nose and he starts licking his chops. “…Okay okay, let’s do this!” Mark, who seems much more eager now, waits patiently at the start line for the team in front of him to finish and, without any cue from Kohaku, starts running through the course. He nearly stumbles a couple of times and hits a couple of poles on the slalom but generally does well.

“Good boy!” Kohaku exclaims, beaming with pride now that Mark is actually cooperating, and he hands a treat to Mark, who devours it, almost biting Kohaku’s hand. “Hey, careful, don’t bite me or no more treats!”

“Sorry…” Another competitor looks at Mark and Kohaku and stares, he swears that he saw that husky talk…but thinks better of it and just chalks it up to someone else talking and the sound echoing around making it seem like it came from Mark. Mark looks back at the other competitor and lowers his ears, thinking to himself he needs to stop talking or else he might cause trouble, which would likely not bode well for his future.

Kohaku, without a word, leads Mark to the area where people are practicing talents with their dogs. Kohaku crouches down and speaks quietly to Mark, “Okay, all you gotta do here is walk around some on your forelegs, with your hindlegs up in the air. Can you do that for me?”

Without a word or a nod, Mark steps back and raises his hind legs in the air, and stands on his forepaws shakily, clearly struggling to keep balance. He lifts a paw and sets it down, making a few false starts and then takes one shaky step, nearly losing his balance. After another step, he almost smiles, then takes another, but on this step loses his balance and falls over. Mark gets up, shakes his head to get his bearings, and then tries again. Mark continues practicing his walking while Kohaku watches, encouraging him all the way. After a while, Mark seems to have it down and he’s walking on his forelegs almost as naturally as he does on four legs.

Kohaku smiles and tosses a treat to Mark, who catches it with his mouth. “Okay, ready for the real thing? We should be up soon.” And as he says that they’re called by the staff to be taken to a room where the contestants are taken just before going before the judges. Kohaku grabs Mark’s leash and starts leading him along. By this time, Mark is fully compliant, and makes no fuss. It seems either he’s enjoying this now or has realized that this is the best way to ever become human again. Once in the room, Kohaku is provided with some snacks while Mark is provided with a small amount of premium dog food and water, since the actual show will take a while.

Mark looks at the bowl and sniffs it reluctantly, but something in his mind, when he smells it, tells him it will taste good. Mark still seems pretty skeptical, so he takes a small bite of the food and swallows it hard. “Oh, shit this is actually good!” Mark thinks to himself, then begins to chow down on the food, then he moves to the water. He stops and thinks about how to approach this. He sticks his tongue in the water and pulls it up but manages to just splash water around. He tries again a few times, making a bit of a mess with the water. He sits up on his haunches and stares at the water bowl, trying to figure out the logistics of drinking with just his tongue. After some thinking, he then tries to make a scoop with his tongue and is able to draw some water back into his mouth, though with a bit of a mess. A few more tries of this and he’s drinking as naturally as the other dogs, who have been watching him make a mess this whole time along with their handlers.

Soon after Mark figures out how drinking water as a dog works, they’re called. Kohaku gets up and tugs on Mark’s leash to lead him to the main arena. A staff member leads them up to a door.

“Okay, Mr…Kohaku? You and Mark ready?”

“Yep! We’re all ready!”

“Okay. Once I open the door, just follow the yellow tape on the ground to each of the segments.”

“Alright, easy enough!” The door is opened, and the announcer calls out to introduce Kohaku and Mark. Mark is led up along the tape on the floor to the first segment – the obstacle course. It looks similar, but not quite the same as the one in the practice area. Mark looks at it nervously. A staff member eggs Kohaku on to get his dog started. Kohaku unclips the leash and motions for Mark to go, and he’s off. Despite it being different, Mark nails the obstacle course with not much of a struggle and is soon standing in front of the second area, which is a small stage for the talent portion. Kohaku jogs up to where Mark is and takes out a treat and uses it to lead Mark up onto the stage, then gets down and whispers to him “Okay, you can start when you’re ready.”

Mark gets up onto the small stage and looks around, the lights, everyone, including the judges, staring at him, has got him nervous and he freezes for a moment. However, after a few moments of failing to get a train of thought going, he thinks about being human again and he snaps back to reality and raises his hind paws. The judges give an impressed eyebrow-raise and Mark starts walking along on his forepaws, shakily at first but soon getting back into the groove of it. He walks in circles a few times then puts his hind paws down, which triggers applause from both the audience and the judges. Kohaku offers a treat to Mark, who happily accepts it, this time being more careful to not bite Kohaku. He is then led to the final portion – the showcase. Mark is placed on a numbered podium along with several other dogs in the same class as him.

Soon, a team of judges approach Mark and start examining him. They get pretty close, and touch him in a couple of places, which makes Mark severely uncomfortable, but he has to remind himself that at this moment he’s no different than any of the other dogs here and he has to just accept what they’re doing. Before long, and the judges walk off without a word, and Kohaku and Mark are taken to another room where the contestants wait judgement.

After what felt like hours in the greenroom, the contestants are all called back into the main arena to hear the results. The chairman of some organization comes up and makes some long-winded speech thanking everyone for attending and some spiel about a charity or another, Mark, and Kohaku both tuned this out, all they care about is the results. After an eternity of listening to this guy drone on and on, the man steps down from the stage and the main judge comes up to read the results. After reading off several categories and smaller awards, Mark, and Kohaku both seem nervous that Mark’s name hasn’t been called, but more so Mark since his humanity is on the line here.

“And now, for the final award – Best in Show…Mark, and his handler Kohaku!” Kohaku and Mark both look surprised, and Mark nearly says something but stops himself. Kohaku grabs Mark’s leash and leads him up to the stage to accept the award, giving a quick impromptu speech.

“Okay, that was really unexpected.” Mark says to Kohaku as they’re in the car, driving home. “I know I did pretty well, but I did not expect getting ‘best in show’!”

“Yeah, you did great!” Kohaku smiles and ruffles the fur on Mark’s head, and soon they pull into the apartment’s parking lot. Kohaku leads Mark inside and takes off the leash. “Alright…you did excellently, I couldn’t have asked for a better performance. You’ve got a choice now…do you want to be human again or not?”

In his mind, Mark immediately jumps to wanting to be a human again, but something in the back of his mind is telling him that being a dog has been pretty cool! All he had to do was a few tricks and run around some and he got free food and delicious treats! Heck, if he stays as a dog he won’t have to go back to work, he’ll get free food, shelter, and care. He wouldn’t have to worry about a single thing!

“Mark?” Kohaku looks down at Mark, confused as he thought it would be a quick answer. He cracks a smile. “You enjoyed this, didn’t you?”

Mark’s train of thought is interrupted by Kohaku’s question and he fumbles for an answer, “Y-yes…maybe a little…”

“I know what you’re thinking…y’know if you want to be a dog longer, I wouldn’t mind taking care of you…in fact I may have already gotten a few things in case you decided to remain as a dog…”

Mark goes back to thinking about how nice it would be to live as Kohaku’s dog…heck, I’m sure that he can go back to human at any time, being a dog for a little while longer wouldn’t be bad… “Okay, I want to be your dog for a bit longer…maybe not permanently but I think I’d like to try it out for a while longer.”

“Hah, I thought you’d say that!” Kohaku heads down the hall and takes out a few things. A dog bed, which he places in the living room, food, and water dish, along with a large bag of dog food, and a few toys. “Here, I got you a few things!”

Mark checks everything out, and goes for one of the toys and starts chewing on it. “Wow, I never realized how much I’d enjoy chewing on things…no wonder dogs love to do it!”

“Glad you’re enjoying the toys! I wasn’t sure if you’d like them or not, but I figured it was worth a try.

After a couple of hours of playing, the sun sets and Mark is on the couch relaxing. He lets out a big yawn, “It’s getting late…I think I’m gonna go to sleep.” Mark gets up and hops down from the couch and walks over to the dog bed, thinking about how he’s seen other dogs do this. He walks around the bed in circles a few times, then after a few attempts, curls up and goes to sleep, beginning his new life as Kohaku’s pet.