"But" said Eodora, desperate to head off any more playing with dolls "Can I pick the next game?"
"Of course" said Igna "Now let me work my spell."
Fortunately, Igna's age-reducing magic was much less nausea-inducing than her gender-change magic. Eodora felt only a slight nausea as her body loss several inches in height and several pounds in mass, while losing its curves. Surprisingly, the little girl body, with its flat chest and freedom from disturbing female sexual feelings, felt much more like her old male one than did the late adolescent female body she was temporarily giving up.
Igna, like Eodora looking about eight years old, handed an egg to her guard. "If you need grownup me," she explained to the guard "smash it and it will abolish the age reducing spell. Otherwise it will last an hour." She turned to Eodora. "What game do you want to play?"
Eodora had spotted a willow tree. "Tree-climbing" she yelled.
"Daddy doesn't want me to climb trees." Igna responded.
"I don't see Daddy around." Eodora answered.
"Well, OK, I guess."
As a little boy, Eodore had been an avid tree climber, and the skills came back quickly. For the first time since the metamorphosis, she forgot the alienness of her body. But Igna stood at the base of the tree, uncertain of what to do. Eodora came back down, and asked her friend what was wrong.
Igna was crying. "You're so good at this, and I don't know anything."
"Don't cry." said Eodora. "Let me show you how." She demonstrated to Igna how to get the the first crotch of the tree. Igna tried, but couldn't quite get there. Eodora helped her up, and after about fifteen minutes Igna was able to climb the first step of the tree by herself.
"I did it all by myself!" Igna boasted. As she saw Igna in the tree, radiant with joy, it occurred to Eodora that it was the first time she had seen Igna happy.