Lina gave chase after the rat, and on they raced through the store. She lost him around one corner, but picked up his scent and found him again. By the time she caught up with him, he was pausing in one aisle and staring about at the shelves. Lina recognized this aisle immediately...as well as the tin soldier and wooden jewelry box on the third shelf up.
The instant she laid eyes on them, the other rat bounded up the shelves and crawled to the box. "What gives with this thing?" she wondered. She jumped from shelf to shelf, finally reaching the box just as the rat had managed to open the door with his tiny claws. The foot-tall door was enormous to them, and the inside of the box seemed like a house. A house full of the most beautiful jewelry Lina had ever seen. The shiny objects seemed even more alluring to her now.
The rat dropped the ring out of his mouth into a pile of other rings of different makes and sizes.
"Hold on a minute," Lina tried to speak to the rat. "Don't tell me..."
Her mousy voice trailed off as the rat started to grow. He jumped off the shelf and back onto the floor as his body expanded and lost its fur. His frame slimmed down and his appendages lengthened. It became obvious to Lina that he was really a human, just as she once was.