As it turned out the walk, or hop in James' case, to the station wasn't quite as bad as might have been expected. While being reduced to jumping around like a frog in a crowded street was indeed humiliating, this was London where strange behaviour was expected. The number of people staring, laughing or nudging their companions to point out the strange sight ahead of them was perhaps limited to around half of the people James and Nicola passed, rather than everyone as they had feared, and nobody directly challenged James about the way he was now forced to make his way around town.
The train itself wasn't too awful either. James managed to get a seat and was still able to sit as a normal human being would, for now anyway. He kept his amphibian hands in his pockets while Nicola strategically placed her bag in front of his transformed feet to keep them hidden as well. The general din of the crowded carriage naturally covered up the worst of his occasional croaking, which he was able to pass off as some form of hiccuping for the most part.
At the other end of the train ride the pair jumped, literally in James' case, into a taxi. If the driver was shocked by his male passengers' behaviour and vocal ticks he was too professional and conscious of his tip to let it show.
The good fortune continued as the pair arrived at Nicola's place which she shared for convenience with three housemates who were neither her friends nor particularly close acquaintances, but who she would rather not be judged as an oddball by for the company she was keeping.
"Thank fuck, there's nobody here!" she sighed with relief "Up to my room quickly"
As James hopped up the stairs he couldn't help but notice how natural this new form of movement was beginning to feel to him. That wasn't a good thing though, he wanted it to feel just as strange and alien as it should.
"Right, take your clothes off" Nicola ordered once the pair were safely locked into the privacy of her neatly kept bedroom.
"What? Griibit?" James raised his eyebrows in shock at the suggestion. Was she attracted to him like this? Did she have some kind of strange fetish for amphibian men and that was why she had chosen this particular curse?
"We need to see how bad it is" Nicola explained, as if there were anything she could do about it "Now isn't the time for you to be shy"
"I can't even - gribbit- manage the buttons griibbit!" James sat on the bed and held up his now fully amphibious hands to demonstrate.
"Fine, I'll do it" Nicola decided without hesitation.
She walked over without further comment and began unbuttoning James' shirt for him. This wasn't quite how this scene would have played out in his fantasies, but even in such bizarre and unsettling circumstances he couldn't help but become a little aroused.
"Holy crap!" Nicola announced tactlessly as she removed her friends shirt to reveal that the green colouring on his hands was also present from the bottom of his neck and all over his chest. James' arms were also the same shade of green while his stomach was a lighter whiteish tint of the same colour.
"Ok stand up" Nicola instructed next "well, you know, squat, whatever"
James obliged as well as he could as Nicola removed his trousers to confirm that his legs were now just as green as his arms. Then to his shock Nicola whipped off his boxer shorts leaving him completely naked in front of her.
"Hey, griibit!" James protested. Apart from his embarasament this made him feel even more like an animal in comparison to the fully clothed human examining him.
"We need to check everything" Nicola answered by way of justification, as if she were a doctor specialising in human to frog transformations.
Looking down James was partly relieved to see that his manhood had at least retained it's usual shape and size but partly dismayed, though not surprised, that it was looking far greener than usual.
"Ok, so somehow that remote really did work" Nicola expertly concluded as she continued to inspect James far more closely and clinically than he was comfortable with. There was still no hint of an apology from her.
"Don't worry though, we'll sort this out one way or another" she added, though it was clear she had no idea how.
As Nicola moved out of his line of vision and flopped herself down on the bed behind him, James was physically jolted at seeing his reflection in the full length mirror opposite which she had been obscuring until now. Suddenly the reality of this bizarre situation was hitting home harder than ever.
From the neck up, James appeared to be virtually unchanged. But below that he could barely stand to look at the creature squatting in front of him. While he had mostly retained his shape, almost his entire body was now some shade of green, and he rested on what he now accepted were functionally two pairs of feet that were entirely those of a frog in everything but size. Now he was able to look properly, his legs seemed to have thinned and lengthened a little in proportion to the rest of his body, while his arms seemed a little shorter and stubbier than usual. He was still more human than amphibian, but the balance was shifting disturbingly quickly.
"Gribbit!" The creature in the mirror croaked back at James with perfect timing, completing the effect.
James could only hope his condition didn't worsen over the next few hours to the extent he feared it might.