The girls had a few difficulties getting back to the store. For one thing, they had to duck behind a tree or other object whenever someone approached. Fortunately few people walked the streets in the dusk hour. Lina kept having problems with her shirt, as it was becoming so big on her she was tripping over the bottom of it. Not to mention her increasing rat features were making it hard to walk on two feet. Amy had to slow her pace considerably to allow her small friend to keep up.
By the time they made it to the shop, it was closed, as they feared it would be. "Great," squeaked a one-foot Lina through a rat muzzle. "Now what?"
Amy had shrunk as well, but only by a few inches. She was now in the vicinity of eight years old. Her satyr features didn't stop at her legs, either. Now her ears were half-formed into furry points. Her hair was scragglier and turned a deep brown. Small nubs formed the beginnings of two horns poking out of her hair. She tried to read a hand-written sign below the large "CLOSED."
"I can't make out the big words," she complained. "But I think it says he'll be open at eight a.m. So that's..." she trailed off as she counted on her fingers.
"A whole twelve hours from now," Lina interrupted. "And by then you'll be a clueless pipe-playing kid and I'll be scarfing down a wheel of cheese. Which, now that I think of it, sounds pretty good."
"We should break in," Amy said, a crafty smile forming on her small face. "See if something inside can fix us."
Lina found a mail slot on the door. "If you can pick me up, I might be able to crawl through that," she pointed with a gray claw. She slipped completely out of her remaining clothes, revealing a fully furred body. Amy held her up to the slit and lifted the flap. Lina's body was much more flexible now, and even though she was still about ten inches tall, she easily slipped through. She hit the floor with nimble legs and scurried on all fours to underneath the doorknob. She jumped up to the latch, failing to grab it a few times, but finally was able to turn the lock. Amy entered quietly.
"I hope he didn't put any freaky magic curses in here as a secruity system," Lina jittered. The girls proceeded to search the dark store for something that looked remotely like a magical fix for their situation.