James and Nicola spent the best part of the next hour frantically searching every street nearby for some sign of the mysterious magic shop they had fatefully entered earlier that day, but it was all to no avail.
"I told you, it was definitely on Ludgate Hill" a frustrated Nicola huffed and folded her arms in defeat eventually "This is a waste of time"
"It can't have just...gribbit..dissapeared..gribbit!" James protested. His croaking had worsened somewhat over the past hour and was starting to irritate Nicola.
"The shops are all closing now anyway" she reasoned "Lets head back to mine for tonight. We can try again tomorrow"
"Tomorrow!?" James panicked, wondering what sort of condition he might be in by then "griiibit! But what if.."
"Look, lets assume for one crazy moment that remote works" Nicola interrupted, tired of this nonsense now "you have at least 24 hours, that give us until nearly 4pm tomorrow. If we come back first thing hopefully you will be able to stop making that annoying noise in time for work tomorrow"
"Yeah I guess we have no...griibit..choice" James sighed hopelessly, before noticing the strange look on his friends face as she gazed down at his hands.
Instinctively raising his right hand up in line with his vision James was shocked to see that his four fingers had now somehow fused into three. The webbing he had noticed earlier was more prominent too and worse still there was a definite greenish brown tint to the skin on the tips of his fingers, the nails of which seemed to have vanished completely.
"Look, lets just get out of here" Nicola ordered more than suggested, and James couldn't help but agree. A crowded London street wasn't the place for whatever this was to play out. He was starting to feel like a freak.
As James and Nicola made their way solemnly and wordlessly to the nearest tube station it quickly became clear that James couldn't silence his croaking just by not speaking by this point. Every so often an unfortunate ribbiting sound would make itself heard even as he tried his best to remain silent. Nicola had noticed that the area below James' chin had started to inflate a little to accompany the sound each time he involuntarily made it too, though she didn't mention it to him.
People were starting to notice James' strange behaviour now though. Sometimes they pretended not to, but on other occasions people openly stared or even giggled in James' direction. Both he and Nicola were becoming increasingly self conscious of this.
"Can't you do that more quietly?" Nicola couldn't help herself from snapping after one of her friends louder croaking outbursts drew laughter from a group of after work drinkers gathered outside a nearby pub.
"You think I ....gribbit...am doing this on..griibit...purpose...griiibit?" James answered back angrily, his frustration only seeming to exacerbate his new speech impediment. Nicola fell silent. She had to accept at least some of the blame for this after all.
A few meters away from the station James made some noises of discomfort before suddenly hopping awkwardly into a side alley to afford himself a greater degree of privacy.
"What is it now?" Nicola rolled her eyes before reluctantly following him.
She soon found her companion sat on the floor next to a bin desperately trying to remove his shoe, a near impossible task with his new frog like hands.
"Here, let me get that" Nicola sighed sympathetically as she crouched down and carefully freed James' foot from his clothing.
She almost recoiled in shock at what she saw. At the bottom of James' ankle was a fully formed, green coloured frogs foot proportionate in size to the rest of her friends body.
"Quick the..gribbit..other one!" James ordered pointing to his left shoe, pain outweighing any other emotion at that moment.
Nicola did as instructed and quickly confirmed that both feet had been altered in the same way. There was no doubt in her mind now the remote was real and was transforming her friend exactly as she had jokingly instructed it to.
"Ok, we need to get back to mine asap" Nicola spoke urgently. This wasn't a scene that should be playing out publically, as unbelievable as it was.
James just about managed to stand but his attempts to walk on his webbed feet were futile and he quickly fell into a squatting position on the floor, his hands now serving conveniently as a second pair of feet in front of him. He looked more comical than anything to Nicola at this point, but she was acutely aware of how serious the situation was becoming.
"I can't ..griibit..walk!" James complained.
"Well, you'll just have to hop" Nicola replied matter of factly "It isn't far. I can see the station from here'
James could too, but there were so many people around and this was all so dehumanising. However, not seeing any other choice he jumped sheepishly after his friend as she made her way back out into the main street.