I grabbed the remnants of the hot dog and gently washed the ketchup off before I threw it in a plastic shopping bag. I was about to run back over to Tash's when I remembered the nuts, and grabbed the half eaten bag scowling that someone had found the snack and took half my testicles in a few handfuls.
I ran back toward Tash's house only to meet her halfway there, she had a bag of her own and her eyes were puffy and face was red, it was clear she had been crying. Her shirt wasn't fitting like it used to for the same reason my pants felt a bit breezier...
"Tash, that old woman, the food..." I muttered.
"Lets go." she said with a determined look on her face, obviously having reached the same conclusion as me.
We retraced our path into the woods and searched for the tiny one room hut we had found before. Along the way I noticed traveling seemed more and more difficult.
"Uh, Tash, what's going on?" I chirped in a higher octave than I was used to.
Tash whipped around as I examined myself realizing my clothes were oversized. "You! You're shrinking!" she yelled.
I looked at her in horror only to realize that she was too! "You too, no... you almost look younger..."
We exchanged horrified glances and as we stared at each other we both concluded finding this woods woman was our only hope, I hiked up my pants and we trudged off to find our prey.
Only a few moments later we came to a familiar small clearing with a fire pit and spit, but no cottage to be seen...
We explored the area finding no trace of the hut but the embers were warm. "You don't suppose she could have moved it do you?" Tash asked.
"Not by herself and I didn't see any mechanism to turn it into a wheelbarrow like structure, not that I think she could have done that by herself either..." I said in a voice just past the beginning of puberty.
Tash was fairing only slightly better than me having started puberty sooner, our clothes were fitting worse by the minute as our bodies seemed to shrink to match our primary sex traits.
Staring at the ground looking for drag marks or something to indicate where the hut could have gone I followed the footmarks from the fire pit off in the direction the hut used to be until I ran into something, "OW!" I cried catching Tash's attention.
"What happened?" Tash asked not understanding why I cried out.
"I hit something, with my head and knee." I tried to explain, though there was nothing there for me to hit. Carefully I extended my hand and was shocked to feel very solid wood. "Tash its here, or there's something here..." I cried with equal parts excitement and confusion.
Tash cautiously came over, probably thinking I was playing a trick on her, and she let out a small yelp when I knocked on it and it made a sound.
"I think its her house but somehow invisible" I muttered carefully feeling for the door. Tash joined and within a moment we found the door and knob.
"Well what are you waiting for, go in." I said..
Tash bit her lip, "I'm not sure we should. A person with an invisible house probably doesn't expect or want many guests..."
"Maybe knock then?" I offered. "We need to figure out how to reverse what this food did."
Tash looked around 10 but I had shrunk more, down to 6 or 7. I have my sister to thank for that.
Nervously Tash knocked on the door... no response came, she gingerly turned the knob and the entire building suddenly came into view! The door swung open and we found