1: Innocence and Danger

I think the point at which I realized that I was turning into some sort of animal was when I started growing a tail. This didn't really bug me, being the easy going fellow that I am, rather it was the claws and fangs that started getting to me. By the time I was covered in yellowish fur, complete with black spots, it was a little too late to go see a

doctor. So you might be able to understand how startled, as well as relieved, I was when I awoke one morning in the form of a perfectly normal human. Here's the catch, whenever I start running my body quickly transforms itself into the likeness of a cheetah and stays that way until I sleep it off. Just don't run you say, well I wish that were the only catch.

There was a sense that I picked up in my transformation, I can feel when animals nearby are in danger, and along with this sense I have an overwhelming compulsion to go rescue them. I first discovered this sense when a nearby pack of baby foxes bumped into a particularly angry bear (what either of these animals were doing in Indiana I don't know). It turns out that the bear was angry because he just found out he had cancer and was taking it out on the poor baby foxes. My heightened cheetah senses allowed me to locate the pack before any harm came to them but the angry bear was in a most fowl mood and did not let them go without a rather lengthy skirmish. You see, while I am in cheetah form I still retain my humanity and am unable to kill the bear (which I surely could have done). Who could kill a bear with cancer and escape with a clean conscience?

Much to my dismay, this was not an isolated event for the baby foxes are young and unaware of danger and one way or another end up back in plain view of the angry bear at which point I have to drop whatever I'm doing and go rescue them all over again. In what little time I have left to myself I am researching a cure for the particular type of cancer which the angry bear has in hopes that once I cure him of his affliction he will finally leave the innocent foxes alone and I can get some rest. If only it were that easy, at least I've got a good story to tell.