Changing for Love Chapter 4

Changing For Love

Chapter 4

Thomas

Celeste kisses me on the cheek and I’m just standing there with my mouth wide open.  I’ve never been kissed before and certainly not by a girl who’s part cheetah.  I’m too shocked by the kiss to even be remotely freaked out by the fact that she can turn into a huge feline at the drop of a hat.  I’m shaken out of my momentary stupidity by a roar and then an even louder roar.  Celeste is now a four foot tall cheetah and she’s facing off to one that is close to twice her size.  Holy crap!

Suddenly I remember the words she said to me just before she kissed me, ‘When I shift back into Cheetah, I want you to run as fast as you can. Jump on your horse and ride as fast as possible. I will come back to you if I can.’ So I do just that.  I run.  As fast and as hard as I possibly can.

I whistle as I get about halfway to Whiskey and he comes running toward me.  I grab hold of the horn on the saddle, run a few steps, and swing myself up into my seat.  I grab hold of the reins and turn Whiskey in the other direction to get away from this huge, angry cat.  Just as we turn, I look back to see and hear Celeste and her father collide.  They hit with such force that I can feel the ground shake beneath a running horse.  Her father falls over and just seems momentarily addled, but Celeste, she just crumples in a heap of fur and doesn’t move. 

‘Ride as fast as possible,’ her words are echoing in my head.  I should be running.  I should push Whiskey on and run far, far away.  But I can’t.  I can’t just ride away and leave her laying there like this.  She looks broken.  She looks hurt bad.  I have to get to her and make sure she’s alright.  I would never forgive myself if that beautiful, sweet girl died protecting me.

I pull Whiskey back around.  “Yah boy!  Run!”  I holler to him as we race back to where Celeste is laying.  As we get closer I see her dad start moving like he’s trying to get up.  Crap!  He’s lying right in my path.  I push Whiskey on and we jump over him.  I slide off the saddle as we get to where Celeste is laying.  Whiskey slows to a stop a few yards away.

I walk over to Celeste slowly.  I can’t tell if she’s breathing or not.  When I get right beside of her I kneel down and place my hand on her side.  I can barely feel her breathing.  Her fur is soft and warm.  She is definitely hurt but I don’t have the first clue where to start checking a cheetah for injuries.  I don’t see any blood right away so there are no open wounds.  I move around her so that I’m up by her head.   I don’t see any of the girl I met in these feline features that I’m looking at but I know she’s in there.  She has to be.

“Celeste!  Celeste, wake up!”  I tell her, frantically praying that she hears me and wakes up before her father is up on his feet.  I look over my shoulder at him and he’s still fighting off the effects of the collision with Celeste but it won’t be long until he’s fully awake and coming back after me. 

“Come on Celeste!”  This time I shake her a little bit.  Then I start rubbing her face.  “Come on Celeste!  Get up!  Get up!”  My voice has raised a couple of octaves.

I take another quick glance back over my shoulder at the massive cat that is now on his feet.  This is definitely NOT good.  I am so torn between running away to try and save my own hide or staying here to make sure that Celeste is ok.  I can’t leave her.  She risked her life for me; that is not something that I can just run away from. 

I turn and look again at Celeste’s dad.  He’s standing about twenty or thirty feet from where I am kneeling by Celeste and he’s staring right at me, or rather right through me.  This is not going to end well.  I lean down and kiss Celeste on the cheek.  Her whiskers tickle my face a little as I move my face up closer to her ear and whisper “Thank you.”  Then I quickly place one more kiss on her face just before I stand up and turn around to face her dad.

He is standing exactly where he was a moment ago but now he’s making this noise that sounds like a roar and a growl all in one.  Whatever it is I’m pretty sure it’s not a good sound for a huge cheetah to make.   I hold both hands up toward him, palms out, in surrender.  Surely we can talk about this reasonably, right?  Uh, no, that’s not going to happen.  Now he’s pawing the ground with a paw that looks like it is about the size of my dinner plate.  This whole situation has been one big accident.  Neither one of us set out to discover the other when we both left home this morning.  And God knows I’d never tell anybody about her.  No one would believe me anyway. 

Keeping my hands up, I slowly ease to the side several steps so that Celeste won’t be in the middle of anything that is going to happen.  Her dad follows me in movement and his eyes never leave mine.  There is no way that I can fight this big cat and come out in one piece. I’m sure of that. 

Suddenly he launches himself at me.  In one leap he is standing right in front of me.  His eyes are almost totally black as he glares at me and does that roar, growl thing again, only this time it is extremely loud up this close. 

“Easy now.”  I stammer as I’m trying to talk to him.  “I didn’t mean to see her.  But I promise, I swear, I would never harm her.  And I would never tell anybody about her.  I won’t even be around here in a few months anyway.”

He snorts at me.  His breath coming out in quick, hot bursts in my face.   I see the muscles in his chest tense.  He roars, then launches himself at me.  I throw myself to the side and roll away from him just as he lands.  I get back to my feet as quick as I can ready for the next attack.  He turns around sharp and stalks me.  We walk around in a circle eyeing each other.  His muscles bunch again and he’s airborne coming at me.  I dodge this one just barely.  One of his claws catches my arm and tears a gash from my elbow to my wrist.  I don’t have time to stop and check it out because he turns and charges at me.  I skid out of the way again. 

“Stop!”  I yell at him holding both hands up toward him again.  “Stop! There’s no need for this.  I don’t want to hurt you!  I don’t want to hurt her!  I just want to be on my way!”

He stops for a minute, his breathing slowing slightly.  He steps forward until his face is stretched up just inches away from mine.  We stand there starting at each other for what seems like forever.  He moves so quickly that I barely see him swing up and to the left with that big paw.  Whack!  Right in the face.  The noise in my ears is horrible.  For a moment I feel like I’m weightless until my back hits something really hard.  My breath goes out of me in one big rush.  My head hits the ground. And for just a minute, a split second, I think I see Celeste looking at me.  She has her golden eyes open and there are tears running down her snout.  Then…nothing.