A few moments passed as they headed away from the shop. James was quite nervous, the whole event that just took place left him uneasy. It was so off it actually made him wonder if magic was real. However for the moment it seemed nothing changed so maybe it was just all in his head.
"Oh like anything in that shop was magic. What a crazy weirdo running that place....." Nicola said but her words seemed to trail off at the end just as a sudden quick sharp intense sense of vertigo came over her. That heart dropping feeling, like when you almost trip but don't fall or when your peering over the edge of a large drop. She appeared to stumble a bit but didn't fall over.
James saw this and his fears sparked up again. Was this a sign of a curse? What was those spell words he mumbled? "Chango shape-o?, yadda yadda, something or other. DAMN! Nope no good, no good clues on what that curse was" James thought. He was trying to remember but foreign never before heard words weren't helping his memory, "Damn, I should have read that spell page a bit more for something. But I just wanted to get out of there, the whole thing gave me creepy vibes. I just wanted to get out of that place" James continued thinking to himself.
"Are you alright?" James called out while walking over to see what was wrong.
Nicola nodded but stayed silent, she was trying to figure out what was going on. She felt a bit tingly, it was like pins and needles lightly poking her all over her body. Same sensation as when one of her limbs went numb after holding it in a awkward position for some time and then moving it again.
"Uh, I just feel a bit off all of a sudden, tingly. I'm sure I just need to eat something, I did skip lunch after all" Nicola finally said after a pause. Through all this she kept finding herself wandering in thought. For some weird reason she kept thinking of animals, wondrous creatures, and "transforming?". That last bit confused her, she couldn't transform. But as preposterous as an idea that was, it seemed like something awoken inside her. A new sense, ability, flow, and then suddenly she shrieked.
James caught sight of what startled her. Nicola's right hand was contorting and her entire right arm was twitching, muscle seemed to be throbbing. A brilliant rush of fur grew from hand to shoulder, in the pattern of a cheetah, golden yellow with spots. Then sounds of bones cracking, almost like someone was stepping on twigs nearby but much louder. In that moment her right arm appeared like jelly or water as it shrank a little and reformed into a cat-like limb, with a paw-like hand that retained a smaller thumb.
James looked up after a few moments. "Oh wow, look at your face!" James exclaimed, "It doesn't have any fur but you have black like markings and your eyes are yellowish-gold, just like a cheetah." James said as there wasn't anything better he could think of at that moment to say.
Nicola rushed to get a pocket mirror out of her purse. "Oh my god, we have to go back to that store. Your curse is turning me into a cheetah!" James nodded in agreement and both of them turned around to head back. However it wasn't there. Where they thought the magic shop was instead appeared to be a cellular store.
"Fuck! Magic is real... magic is fucking real! That bitch ditched us!" Nicola said in anger, breathing heavy. Her rage was fueling a new and different change, her eyes glowed. Some of the fur started to fall out and receded only to be replaced by fire red scales which started to appear elsewhere. Skin flaked in places that had no fur to reveal more deep red scales. Not unlike a snake or maybe more like a dragon.
"Look Nicola, your changing again! You must stay calm" James said attempting to ease the situation.
Nicola stopped breathing heavily. She was a mix of angry and scared, she didn't know what was going on. It was almost like she was controlling her transformations but not quite. It was as if a mere thought of anything not fully human caused a transformation. "Ok, ok! Lets start walking, maybe the store is further up the road than we realized. We have to find the store before someone notices me, I can't look like this in public. I also can't afford to be late from my lunch break."
"Well hey there are a LOT of things going in this city. If anyone notices we could just pass your changes off as a elaborate costume, special effects make-up. We'll just say it's for some random convention happening. Oh and don't worry about the boss, I'll vouch for you." James said in a reassuring tone.