James smiled at the good looking young woman and readied himself to give the most charming response he could muster.
"Buck buck-cawk!" He clucked instead as realistically as an actual chicken might have.
"I'm sorry?" the woman looked confused and a little disturbed.
"Arf! Arf! Ruff!" James attempted to clarify.
"You see Sophie? This is why you should never talk to strangers" the woman told her daughter as she turned sharply and agrily away from James.
There was giggling across the bus now, and not just from the teenagers. Even the formerly stern looking old woman had cracked a smile at the clumsy animal impersonating oddball.
This time Jamezms did feel his face flush red and, worse still he could also feel hinself becoming physically smaller - a more noticeable and sizeable decrease than before. He was around the same height as Elspeth now and she must have been the best part of a foot shorter than him before the bus had arrived. His clothing was starting to feel impracticably baggy too and he was concerned about how he was going to keep some of it from falling down when he left the bus. This trip was turning into the stuff of surreal nightmares yet there was no waking up from it.
"If you'd like me to remove the animal voice curse just say the word" Elspeth whispered across at James.
"Ribbit" James answered to his dismay.
"Oh dear, I'm afraid I have no idea what you mean by that so I'll leave you as you are" the witch sniggered mischievously "but never mind, we'e nearly at our stop"
She soon rang the bell as the bus came close to the ..