Within less than a minute, Amy had sprinted to the front and found the old man scribbling notes into his large book.
"Rrrow! Old man! I need your help! My frrrriend, she's changing and we don't nnrrow why!"
As Amy panted, the old man looked at her with a weary expression. He slowly stood off his stool and reached into a compartment behind the desk. He retrieved a pain black collar and said gruffly "Show me the way."
It was taking the old man a while to get back to Lina, so Amy darted ahead to check on her. "Help is owwrrn the way!" she shouted jubilantly once she had Lina in her sights. As she sped toward her friend, she saw the new changes that had occurred in the two minutes she had been gone. Lina was hunched against a rack of sweaters, her pants on the floor in front of her. Her legs were pulled up, obscuring her upper body, but Amy could see she now had the cloven hooves of a cow, with spotted hind legs to match. Her brown-cuffed stringy tail stretched limply two feet across the floor. Her hair had grown out, but the new parts of the strands were snow white instead of their natural brown. Her black ears were even more different, wider and probably seven or eight inches long. They were so heavy they were drooping down, with their points even lower than her chin. Her arms were covered in the same black-spotted fur, and were cuddling her knees. From what Amy could see of her face, it was now furry with two large black spots encircling both eyes and leading up into her hair on the sides of her head, presumably to connect with her ears. Lina was audibly sniffing into her knees.
"Lina, it's okay," Amy said as soothingly as she could muster. She even tried purring, but wasn't quite experienced enough yet with her new voice box. She knelt at Lina's side.
Lina lifted her head, revealing a slightly wider and flatter nose. "It's not stopping," she whispered.
Amy watched closely, and sure enough, she could see very minor changes to her friend's face. Her hair was still creeping slowly out of her scalp.
"What's all this?" asked the old man. "Are you okay, miss? Aside from the changes?"
"I...I guess so," Lina said nervously. "Can you make it stop? Can you change me back?" Amy noticed a pair of small gray cones emerge from Lina's hairline.
"Making it stop is easy," he said. "Changing you back depends on several things." He lifted up the collar, motioning to Lina to stick her neck out. She obliged, stretching her spotty neck as much as she could while the man fastened the collar on it. At once, Amy saw the things she now recognized as horns stop growing at a short three inches. Lina breathed a sigh as the strange sensations it her body lessened.
"You can relax now," Amy said. "It looks like it stopped."
"Yeah, but can you change me back?" Lina asked the man.
"I'll need to know what turned you into this cow lady in the first place," he said calmly.
"I don't know what it was," Lina said, still clutching her knees to her chest. But Lina was fooling around with some jewelry."
"I knowwwrrow!" Amy exclaimed suddenly. "I was taking the last bracelet off, and I said 'Don't have a cow!' Lina I'm so sorry!" She remained kneeling, but set her back straight and clasped her hands in an apologetic fashion.
"It's a little late for apologies, don't you think?" Lina said, sounding like she was dazed.
"Could you show me this bracelet?" the old man asked.
"Yeah. Come on, Lina," Amy said, tugging one of her folded arms. Lina stayed firmly planted to the spot.
"Umm...you guys go ahead."
"What's wrong? Can you move?" Amy asked.
"It's not that. I...oh, hell," Lina sighed and let her legs stretch out, revealing her upper body. Her shirt, which had tightened around her slightly larger body, was bunched up at the bottom to make room for a bulbous mass with four fleshy fingers sticking out of it. Lina rubbed it with hands that had only two thick fingers and a thumb.
Amy gasped at the sight of her friend's udder. It wasn't that large, but it would still be noticeable under a shirt. She knew she shouldn't be surprised, though, considering the rest of Lina was turned partway into a cow.
"Yeah, so any way you could change me back quickly?" Lina continued.
"It's not that bad, Lina. Come on, we can fix this." Amy helped Lina to her feet--hooves, now--and assisted her get accustomed to walking. The three slowly made their way to the jewelry aisle.