Chosen to Control

Animal Staff

Chapter 25

Animal Staff





Stephanie leaped into the water of the lake as she was still changing, seemingly growing larger. ~Don’t worry about me Bobby. Go and take out Natalie. I will take care of Peter,~ said Stephanie to Bobby. Bobby flew up into the air and across the lake towards Natalie. He threw a punch at her, but she quickly dodged the blow. Natalie grabbed his other arm and pinned him up against a tree.

Bobby looked around to see where Peter went, but he seemed to have disappeared. Natalie pushed him harder against the tree. Bobby began to choke when Natalie said, “Peter, finish him!”

Bobby moved his head in both directions to see what was going on. He couldn’t see anything but he felt that something large was on the tree. Then a large, long mass appeared and began to wrap around his body. “Stephanie! You can help me anytime now!” shouted Bobby.

The shore by the lake erupted. “HHHWWWOOOAAA!” shouted a large hippo. It charged at full speed toward the two demons and Bobby. Stephanie opened her mouth and attempted to bite Stephanie, but she flew away into the sky. After chasing Natalie for a few feet, Stephanie looked at the tree and saw Bobby being squeezed to death by a large anaconda.

~Hold on Bobby!~ shouted Stephanie. She ran up to the tree and opened her mouth wide and placed her enormous jaw over the snake’s body and bit down. Peter cringed in pain and released Bobby in an instant. He then slithered off into the forest and from the corner of Stephanie’s eye, he began to change back into his original form.

Stephanie became human again and looked up at Bobby who was obviously in pain. “You OK?” asked Stephanie. Bobby looked at her with pained eyes and began to laugh, “I’ll be OK. I am gonna go take out Natalie, you should go take care of Peter.” Stephanie nodded her head and began to morph into a leopard.

Bobby flew up into the air and chased after Natalie. Natalie turned her head around and noticed she was being pursued. She smiled and spread her wings and angled them so that her body instantly turned to face Bobby.

She flapped her wings and sped toward Bobby. Bobby’s stone glowed and he sped toward her as well. They were headed for a collision. Neither of them slowed or budged an inch. They just locked eyes and kept heading toward each other.

They hit and grabbed onto each other’s hands and attempted to throw each other into the opposite direction. Bobby realized that Natalie was stronger and let go of one of his arms so that he would be able to grab onto her other arm.

Doing that did absolutely nothing for him. Natalie just lifted that one arm and threw him down toward the ground. Bobby did not stop himself from falling. He just continued to fall hoping that Natalie would think she won and chase after him without thinking that he would attack back.

Natalie dove down after him and when she was about to grab hold of his body, a large gust of wind came up from beneath them and lifted Bobby into the sky. Natalie continued to fall however and Bobby dove down at her and landed on her back. He put her in a headlock, but it did nothing. Natalie grabbed him and threw him down toward the forest again. He slowed his fall wind the wind, but he still hit the ground.

When he hit the ground he startled a very quiet leopard. ~Bobby! I think I just had him! Oh my God, are you OK?~ asked Stephanie changing her mind whether to pity Bobby or yell at him. “Sorry about that,” said Bobby a little embarrassed. He flew up into the sky to continue his fight with Natalie.

Stephanie then turned her head back toward the deep forest and said quietly, ~Where are you?~ She continued to walk into the forest deeper with the silence that could only belong to a big cat. She heard a crack of a twig and turned her head in the direction from which the sound had come and saw nothing, but she smelled just about everything. Stephanie knew where the demon had gone. She just had to follow the scent that was unfamiliar to the leopard’s nose.

There was a small clearing in the forest up ahead. Stephanie stopped just before reaching it and looked at the clearing from behind a bush. She saw Peter in the middle looking around into the forest around him anticipating an attack.

Stephanie stepped out from behind the bush and began to stalk Peter quietly. She stayed low to the ground and inched her body forward ever so slowly. She decided she was in striking distance and ran at him from behind.

His body began to rapidly change shape into the body of a large male lion. ~Oh crap,~ said Stephanie, but it was too late to stop her attack. She leaped at him and tried to bite his neck, but a mass of fur had begun to cover his neck. Stephanie pushed back from demon, but not without receiving a large scratch on her back.

Stephanie became human again from a safe distance and then began to morph again. ~It seems as if the tables have turned doesn’t it?~ asked Peter. Stephanie ignored the comment and continued to morph as fast as she possibly could. Her shoulders bulged out and her arms became massive. A large powerful jaw began to grow from her own and her legs became thick as small tree trunks. Her body became covered in brown fur and she continued to grow until she weighed roughly one thousand two hundred pounds. She had finished morphing when from the side of the bush, Peter, in lion form, appeared.

Stephanie stood up at about eight feet tall. Peter leaped at her attempting to knock her down, but it really did nothing but move her body slightly. Stephanie dropped to her paws and began to charge at the lion at an amazing speed for such a large animal at thirty miles per hour. Peter was smart. He turned around and began running into the forest.

Stephanie continued to run after him. She appeared to be a large lumbering ball of fur, but she was in complete control of her body and knew exactly how it was she would kill her prey, in this case, a lion. The mind of the Kodiak grizzly bear would guide her.

The distance between them was growing steadily. Stephanie kept running, not getting tired, but Peter was too fast. The lion then turned around and ran toward Stephanie. Stephanie realized this was going to be a head on collision, so she decided that an animal with a more powerful head would be a better choice.

Stephanie’s stone glowed and she began to change shape rapidly. As she was changing shape, her run slowed, but it did not stop. She became the large bull from the farm part of the zoo. She then powered her bull legs and charged Peter as fast as she could run.

When they were about to hit, Peter leaped over Stephanie and pounced onto her back. The lion went to bite her neck. Stephanie bucked him off of her and lowered her head and chased him. She dug her large sharp horns into the lion’s leg and lifted her head into the air sending the lion flying. Peter went back to his original form and flew up into the sky. ~You are not going to get away that easily!~ shouted Stephanie.

Her body rapidly became smaller, much smaller. She became a swallow and powered her little wings that never grew tired and followed the demon into the air. As Peter was still getting higher into the sky, she saw Bobby’s body collide with Peter. He was obviously fleeing from Natalie, but he had slowed down Peter in the process.

As Stephanie gained altitude, she began to shape again, this time into the large female golden eagle she had just learned to morph. Bobby was trying to take down Peter, but he barely did anything to damage him. ~Bobby! Forget about Peter. Natalie is coming right at you,~ Stephanie said. Bobby turned around and dodged Natalie’s attack just in time. He then followed chased her in the sky.

“TSEER!” shouted Stephanie’s eagle body. She dove at Peter with her talons stretched out and raked them forward. She made contact with his shoulder and pulled off a rock sized amount of flesh. “AAHHH!” shouted Peter in pain.

“Stephanie! I cannot take her down! We have to work together!” shouted Bobby shooting past Stephanie and Peter. ~OK. I hear you. Go down into the forest. It is a lot easier to fight down there. I can morph bigger things,~ said Stephanie.

Stephanie began to fly down into the forest, and so did Bobby when Peter said, “I have had it! The creatures from this world are too weak.” Peter’s stone glowed and he began to change shape it was almost as if he were becoming a lion again.

Stephanie turned around to see what he was turning into. His wings did not disappear like they had done so the other times. They merely changed into those of a bald eagle, but did not shrink in size. His arms became large talons and his upper body became covered in feathers. His head bulged out and became the head of an eagle. His lower body continued to take the shape of a lion. That part of his body became covered in tan fur merging with the feathers in the mid-section of the body.

~Bobby. We definitely have to take them down one at a time, together. Peter over here just turned into a griffin,~ said Stephanie to Bobby in awe. She flew down into the forest and became human again. She waited until she could see Bobby and began to morph Allison the horse.

Her head shot out and her legs became much longer and more muscular. Her arms went under a similar transformation. Hair began to grow from a newly formed tail and along her neck. She became a horse just as Bobby came flying toward her. He stopped and landed. He walked up to Stephanie and asked, “You said he became a griffin right, the one from Greek mythology?”

~You got it. Now hop on. We’ve got to plan something. Try to take them out as we run in the forest,~ said Stephanie. Bobby hopped onto her body. As soon as Stephanie felt his weight on her back, she took off running. Bobby wasn’t even fully on, but the wind pushed him up onto her body.

As he was riding into the forest, he almost fell off for he did not know what to hold on to. “Steph, what am I supposed to hold on to?” asked Bobby. ~Well in the movies when people ride bareback, they hold onto the mane, try that out,~ answered Stephanie.

Bobby reached out and grabbed her mane. ~Ow. Ow. Ow. That hurts. Ow. Just grab onto my necklace!~ shouted Stephanie in pain. Bobby grabbed onto her necklace. They continued to ride through the forest when Peter first appeared. “Stephanie! Peter’s here!” shouted Bobby. Stephanie powered her legs and began to now run at a gallop. Peter landed and tucked his wings in and began to run after Stephanie.

Bobby lifted his arm and slapped the air beside him. The leaves and dirt on the ground flew up into the air blinding Peter. “TSEOAWR!” shouted Peter’s griffin body as Bobby and Stephanie continued to run through the forest.

The forest began to thin out as they traveled through the forest. Stephanie continued to gallop and just then, Natalie flew down through the canopy of the tree and began to chase them in dodged in and out of trees. “Now we have Natalie on our tails,” stated Bobby. Stephanie continued to run as fast as her legs could carry her.

“I do not need Peter’s help to kill you both!” proclaimed Natalie. ~Uh oh,~ said Stephanie. “What is it?” asked Bobby. ~We’ve got a cliff coming up in about a hundred feet. After I jump, let go and fly after Natalie. I will join you in a little bit,~ said Stephanie. They began to get close to the cliff.

Stephanie leaped and Bobby let go and went to attack Natalie. As Stephanie jumped, her front leg hit an old root. She heard a snap and she felt pain in her leg. Stephanie fell off the cliff. She was going to morph to a bird, but with a broken front leg, a wing would’ve been broken. She could only heal herself if she became human and then became the animal.

Stephanie did not know what to do. She thought quickly of all the animals she would’ve been able to morph that might be able to survive a fall like that one. She suddenly remembered the perfect form. Her body began to shift and change. She shrank and her body began to change rapidly. An extra set of legs sprouted from her midsection. The front leg she had broken simply fell off. She had finished morphing a cockroach and fell down the cliff.

She hoped with all her heart that she would survive. Then she remembered what Melanie told her. She remembered never to forget the power of her stone and to always depend on its power. As she landed on the bottom of the cliff, she didn’t feel any bit of pain. A small group of rocks began to suddenly roll down the side of the cliff. They all landed on top of her but didn’t disturb her.

Stephanie quickly became human again and her body was fully healed. Her stone began to glow brightly and uncontrollably. She felt a tingling feeling on her back. She turned around and saw large gold eagle wings protruding from her back.

She noticed she had a few small sticks in her hair. She picked one up and her stone glowed even more. The stick began to grow. It became a total of five feet long and two inches thick. Stephanie looked at her stone. The part that used to be sharp was lifted up and the sharp part holding the stone wasn’t sharp anymore.

Beneath her stone, she saw a little charm hanging beneath her stone that was much like the large stick she was holding. Stephanie inspected her large staff. It had on top of it hanging by thick stings a feather of a hawk’s wing, a shark’s tooth, and a tiger’s toe nail.

Stephanie gripped her staff tightly and flew up the side of the cliff. When she reached the edge of the cliff she saw Bobby on the floor bleeding from his lip and his left arm. Natalie stood about ten feet away from him smiling. Stephanie flew at Natalie. Natalie had not noticed her so she did not have enough time to react. Stephanie lifted her staff into the air and swung. It hit Natalie in the rib. She fell to her knees and began to cough. Stephanie quickly lifted up the staff again and hit Natalie’s right wing breaking it.

Bobby stood up and asked, “Stephanie? Is that you?” Stephanie turned around and looked at Bobby in the eyes he seemed to have been healed suddenly. She then noticed the distorted air behind him. It seemed to form wings as well.

“Stephanie! Watch out!” shouted Bobby. He flew at her and punched Natalie in the face. She had grabbed a sharp rock and was about to drive it into Stephanie. Bobby spread his wings and said to Stephanie, “Looks like I have wings too, you just can’t see them as well as yours.”

Stephanie smiled and turned her body around while lifting her staff in the air. She smacked Natalie in the neck. They both heard an evident “crack” and watched her fall to the ground slowly.

Bobby grabbed Stephanie and held her tight in his arms. Stephanie began to cry and said sobbing, “I never want to do that again…” Bobby held on to her tightly and said to her, “Don’t worry, the other one is mine.”