Saturday, May 5, 2012


Tiger's Eye


The full moon's light shined strongly into my fur. I could feel it welling up inside me, growing stronger and stronger. I shut my eyes to concentrate harder on what I was doing.

It happened. After one hundred years, I finally succeeded to build the power I needed for this change. My fur grew backwards and exposed my naked skin, I could feel the breezy wind brushing across my new skin. My fangs retracted at the same pace as my face. My claws changed, thinned into what looked like branch sticks while the nails retracted. I could feel my whole body shrink two times smaller than my original size. My bones twisted, crunched, changed. I shivered; there was no feeling of pain to the transformation, just uncomfortable sounds of cracking bones and the feeling of change that reigned my whole body.

When it stopped, I knew it was complete. I breathed and my throat released an unfamiliar sound. I lifted my tiny paw - hand - and squeezed the fingers together.

I was instantly curious with what I looked like, so I started moving toward the little pond up front. The paws and legs were much thinner, weaker than they really were. It felt weird to touch the muddy ground underneath my new skin: Even weirder, the knees on my back legs touched the ground the same time my hands and feet did. It was weird to be so unfamiliar with my new body, like I was a newborn cub that didn't know this world. But I did know this world. As I continued crawling to the water, I also realized that something was missing - my tail. I couldn't feel it anymore.

When I reached the waterside, its surface reflected my new face at me. The first emotion that came to mind was horror. I couldn't recognize any part of myself in this new face. The little mouth that had no fangs, the ears that were now placed on either side of my head instead of above. My nose shared the same color as the rest of my human face. My head had short and thin fur in black color. I was a little bit relieved when the reflection showed my yellow eyes - my original eye color. And then, I fought back the negative emotions. "This is what I wanted," I told myself. The ones before me did it to reach divinity. I did it to survive.

Once the bad feelings about my transformation were contained and taken away, a second emotion emerged: joy.

I did it. I had taken human form for the first time. Inside, I was still the tiger that I had always been, only now I was in a human's skin.