"I thought I heard something down here," the girls heard a deep male voice say. Amy stopped playing and turned to face the old man they had seen yesterday. His hair was shaggy and he was in what looked like an old hand-made sleeping robe. The candle he carried lit up the store much better than the moonlight seeping in from the front windows.
"Hello," Amy said sweetly. "I'm Amy."
"Of course you are, little one," the man said. "I remember you from yesterday. And you as well," he stared at the rat on top of Amy's head. "As you can see, I prefer to abide by my own sense of justice."
"I've learned my lesson," Lina squeaked honestly. "I came back here to return the ring, but some other guy beat me to it."
"Ian? Is that boy gone?" the old man looked around. "A shame. He was the only thing close to a companion I've had here in quite some time."
Lina began fearing of what the old man would do to them. If he considered a boy-turned-rat his closest friend, he couldn't be all well in the head. "Uh...what are you doing here, anyway?" she asked, trying to change the subject.
"I live upstairs," he explained.
"Wanna see me pway?" Amy asked expectantly. She started another improvisational song without waiting for a response.
"Will any of these songs change Amy or I back to normal?" Lina shouted over the music.
The old man came closer to them and eyed the parchment in Amy's hand. "Hmm...no," he said. "That's just a book I found rolled inside one of those pipes. There is only one song that will reverse Amy's state, but I lost it many years ago."
"Then why do you keep those pipes on sale?!" Lina shouted.
"You see the large shop I have to run by myself," he said calmly. "Sometimes things don't get dealt with properly. That why I had to curse everything in here against thieves. I can't do it all by myself."
His eyes lit up. "Now that gives me an idea. Would you two be interested in helping around here? I just need people to keep a solid inventory and clean the place up."
"If it'll change me back to normal, I'll do anything," Lina said, her ears perking up. Amy stopped playing her panpipes in order to think about it.
"Can I still pway fwoot?" she asked finally.
"Certainly," the man said. "It will add some atmosphere."
"Okay!" she said gleefully. Then she returned to her pipes and started skipping down the aisle again.
Lina jumped off of her and onto the floor. She craned her neck to stare up at the man. "So change me back already," she said impatiently.
The old man smiled. "Follow me."
They walked to an aisle with pet food. The old man found some rat poison and took several beads out of a jar. He held them in his palm while his other hand danced above them. Some nonsense dribbled out of his lips and the beads glowed yellow momentarily. He held them down to Lina.
"Don't worry, it's not lethal anymore," he assured. Lina gobbled them down. They were the most awful thing she ever ate. She assumed it was much like what sulfur tasted like, however she gladly stomached the revolting meal if it meant getting back to normal. She finished all of them and the old man stood back up.
Lina felt a grumbling in her stomach, and thought for an instant she really had been poisoned. Then the shop began to shrink around her. She knew she was growing bigger, and the rapid change of perspective made her so dizzy she rolled over onto her side as the change progressed. Her face shrank inward just a little, though a small muzzle remained with long teeth poking out of her mouth. Her whiskers shortened and her eyes brightened into an almost human gaze. Her claws grew out into furry hands with long sharp nails, but her legs remained those of a rat. Pressure on her chest told her that her breasts were returning. She sat up, looking over her body and stroking her fur, waiting for it to disappear into her skin, but nothing more happened.
"What gives?" she asked, standing on her long clawed paws. Her tail lay limp on the floor reaching a couple feet behind her.
"As payment for your services, I will give you one more morsel per day until you've returned to your fully human self. Then I will consider your debt paid." The old man turned around and walked back toward the front of the store. "Have a good night. I expect to see you both tomorrow."
"Wait!" Lina shouted, but the man wouldn't heed her calls. "Wait! What about Amy?" Never mind Amy, she thought. What about her parents and friends? How could she explain what happened to her? She couldn't just sequester herself in the shop until she was completely back to normal...or could she?