It took several attempts, several pages of the book, several spells and chants...
But Sophie was still a monkey woman.
Nothing really had changed, apart from the spell that made her fur smell like peppermint. That was the only spell that worked. The rest were complete duds that didn't last a single minute.
Laura moved on to Lucy. Still nothing. She was still a dog woman. Same with Annie, she was still a frog. The only thing that worked was that her voice was back, and that she stopped believing that she was cursed by a witch. Her thoughts about needing a prince still hadn't changed though.
"So *ook*, what's the next spell?".
"There is no next spell".
"*whine* What do you *arf* mean?".
Laura flipped through the pages, trying to find one that she missed. At least one would do. Nothing. She did them all. All of them and only two of them really worked out.
"We have finished this entire spellbook. I don't think that I can change you guys back. I'm... I'm sorry"
Laura sat down and covered her face in her arms. She started to sob gently. Her friends were still animals to her. They could talk but they still did what normal animals did.
"It's... *whine* okay, Laura. I'm happy being like this *bark* *pant*"
"But don't you want to be normal?"
"What is normal these days? I'm fine with being who *arf* I am"
"*ook* Same here. *eek* No more worries about jobs, I *ook* guess".
Annie didn't want to say that she preferred being her royal self because she knew that it would just make Laura sadder. Instead, she hopped towards Laura and gave her a hug.
An idea popped in Laura's head. "Wait a minute..."