Meanwhile Sophie's friends were blissfully unaware of her current predicament or the danger they were in themselves. Nonetheless, not all of them were happy.
"This sucks *croak*" Annie complained as she surveyed the store cellar "There's no prince down here *croak* we may as well head back upstairs"
"Come on, where's your sense of adventure *ruff* *arf*?" Lucy enquired as she crawled around on her hands and knees literally trying to sniff out something interesting in one of the many boxes lying around.
"Yeah *croak* I feel like we should explore this place a bit more *croak*" Laura added as she jumped across the floor in search of something to help shift the nagging feeling in her mind that she was forgetting something important, or that there was something she was supposed to be doing? Her train of thought was interrupted though as she shot out her vastly elongated tongue to gobble down a passing fly. Delicious!
"Well you two can stay down here looking at *croak* junk for as long as you want. I'm *croak* going back up"
Annie hopped somewhat awkwardly up the stairs, her boobs jiggling athletically as she did so, until she was back on the shop floor again where she was greeted by a familiar figure emerging from a door behind the counter.
"Ah, Annie just the girl I was looking for!" the shop owner beamed triumphantly.
"Oh, yeah, hi" Annie was still sulking a little "So are you really going to find me a *croak* handsome prince tomorrow?" She pouted.
"Let me put it this way, I'm sure we can find someone with a lot of money to take you home and look after you" the shopkeeper grinned "But I'll need to make a few adjustments first"
"Whay kind of *croak* adjustments?" Annie asked with more than a hint of confusion.
The owner carefully reached into his pocket with his gloved hand and retrieved a piece of crystal which he held up close to Annie who stared at it tranfixed.
"Well, for a start I think you should.."