• Chapter 3

    In front of Razsha stood a 3'8" (on all fours) leopard! She slowly started backing up, but when she did, the leopard sat down. "Razsha, I will not harm you. Come here." She stared at it with her jaw basically on the ground. "D-d-did you just talk?!" "Yes I did. As you may see if you come closer I am not an ordinary leopard. My name is Kiala, I'm your guardian spirit." She wasn't very afraid anymore, if she wanted to eat her, she would have right? She wasn't lying. She had amethyst colored eyes that seemed to glow in the moonlight, and she was decorated with beautiful glimmering feathers. There were 3 in a line starting from her eyes to her earline, and 2 stemming from each elbow and 3 more from each knee. There was a dragon's (dragon??!) frill on her tail. They were silver and shined like they were covered in frost. "Come sit." She obeyed and sat in front of her on the cliff. "Do you remember what happened last night?" 'My dream..' She nodded. "Do you wish to control that power." "I think so." The leopard balanced on her haunches and put both front paws in the air. "Give me your hands." Razsha put her hands to Kiala's paws and immediately felt a mix of adrenaline and electricity start moving up her arms and through her body. Wherever the sensation went, she began shifting.

    This time, it was painless. Her hands shifted into paws, her shoulderblades moved, her spine stretched into a playfully switching tail. Razsha completed the change and stood up. She walked over to a small puddle next to her and looked in. Her eyes were still green. Kiala spoke, interrupting my thoughts. "You must take control. Close your eyes and imagine you and the leopard. Stare into the leopards eyes and say 'You no longer control my actions in this form. I control it.'" She did as she was told and immediately felt..better. It was as if she had just woken up and she felt like she weighed 50 lbs. Opening her eyes, she looked into the puddle. "Wow..." Her eyes were now a beautiful sapphire blue that glowed whenever the moonlight hit, just like Kiala's. "Is there something you wish to ask me Razsha?" "Um, yes. How do I transform at will back home?" "All you have to do, is close your eyes and imagine the moon. Feel its light caress your skin and imagine yourself shifting. In a tight situation, just call out to me and you will be shifted. Now awaken!" Suddenly she began fading away. As she disappeared she left a 'thank you' dangling in the wind.

    *Beep, beep, beep..* She slung her hand towards the alarm clock. Air. "WTF?" No alarm clock, only a huge machine. She looked around the blurry room. It slowly came into focus. "The hospital??" Memories flashed about the fall, the forest, Kiala. She looked down at the IV in her arm. "Great, a drug induced dream.." She moved her hand to rub her aching head and something dropped onto the bed. "It can't be!.." In her hand was one of the silver feathers from Kiala. The door burst open and Alise, her mom, and Razsha's best friend Kristen ran in. "OMG, you're awake!" Kristen hugged her to the point of suffocation. "Kristen, you're killin me!" She rasped. "Sorry.." "It's alright." Razsha smiled. Mom jumped into the conversation, "You scared me so bad, I thought you were dead!!" "I'm sorry momma...can we go home now?" Kristen and mom exchanged glances. "What?" "We'll discuss it when we get home," mom replied, giving her a sympathetic glance. Then she understood. She looked down at the feather in her hand and smiled. "What's that??" Mom and Kristen asked at the same time. "..We'll discuss it when we get home."

    We pulled up to the house and I still had the feather in clutched in my hand. Kristen walked up to me as mom unlocked the door to the house and walked inside. "All right, spit it out. What is that thing?" I didn't want to tell her just yet so i fibbed. "Nothing, just a pretty feather I found. It's my good luck charm!" "OMG it's beautiful!!" Kristen screeched. "I'm thinking about weaving it into a bracelet." I finished. "I wanna help!" "Ok, I'll call you later!" "Bye Razsha!" "See ya Kristen!" I waved as she ran down a few houses and went in her front door. Mom was waiting on the couch as I walked in the door. "We need to talk and figure this thing out. So, why did you run out in the woods?" Huh? Does she not remember? "You don't remember mom?" "No, all I remember is you ran into the woods and I chased you because I had no idea what you were doing. I tripped and landed on what I thought was you, but I saw a leopard... I was so scared I guess I fainted...but..." "But what?" "When you were at the hospital and you got that migraine," (OMG she actually bought it!) "your eyes turned bright green." Uh oh. If she doesn't know, I don't think I should tell her. "It must have been a trick of the light." She sighed, "Yeah, I guess..." Whew, glad that's over with! How am I supposed to tell my mom that I'm a freaking' wereleopard?! I was so glad I didn't have to, but I needed to tell someone. I made up my mind. I would tell Kristen tonight.

    *9:30pm that night* *Ring, ring* "Come on Kristen pick up!" *Ring* "Hello?" "Kristen?" "Yeah?" "Hey come over to my house and lets work on that bracelet." "Oh! Ok! Be right over!" "See ya." "Bye." *Dial tone.* I grabbed my feather. Holding it in my hands, I prayed to Kiala for tonight to go well. *Dinggg ding* I opened the door and saw Kristen with a box of string, claspes, etc. "Sweet! Lets get busy!" For half an hour, we messed around with different ideas for our bracelets. Kristen thought it was a cool idea so she brought a feather over too. Hers was just like mine, but it was a shiny black one =/ explain that one. When we were done, mine was a double helix braided one with the silver feather, black twine, and blue twine. Kristen's had the black feather, white twine, and purple twine macrame style. I put mine on my left wrist. When I put it on, I felt a cool surge of energy that made me shiver. I remembered I was going to tell her about me being a were-leopard. "Hey, Kristen, I wanna show you something...follow me." "Uh..ok."

    We arrived at the clearing where I first shifted. "Ok. Kristen you have to promise you won't freak out and leave, alright? No matter what!" "Ok, I promise." "And you wont tell anybody?" "I promise." "Ok." I stepped back a few steps into the moonlight (it was a 3/4 moon). I felt the moonlight was over me. The cool rush soon changed into a tingly-adrenalin feeling. I envisioned the night with Kiala and myself in leopard form and I felt an icy feeling on my left wrist which undermined a full body electric sensation. I opened my shimmering sapphire blue eyes and looked at Kristen. She was standing there seemingly in awe. "That's so cool!!!!" Her ecstatic smile turned into a playful grin. "My turn!"