The woods

Charlie was on his first Cub Scout camping trip. It was late at night and he was having trouble sleeping. He was in a tent with 4 other people and they had all long since fallen asleep. He had been tossing and turning for several hours. No matter what position he tried, he just couldn’t seem to fall asleep. Finally having enough, he got up and went outside the tent, hoping to walk around for a bit to tire himself out. It was very dark outside, so dark that he could barley see where he was going. Everyone else was sleeping. The crickets chirped loudly. He could hear animal’s wondering around. He knew that he should have been scared and should have simply gone back in his tent and tried to get to sleep. Instead, he went against his judgment and decided to take a short walk. Walking towards the end up camp, he walked quietly so he wouldn’t wake anyone up. He had planned to walk for only a few minutes and to stay close to camp.

As he walked he could hear animals running around the ground and in the trees. They almost seemed to be watching and following him. He had been walking for at least 15 minutes when he decided to turn around and go back to the camp. The animals were still following him. He looked at the source of the sounds, but it was too dark to see what they were. It was almost pitch dark, and the stars were the only things that provided any light. He had walked for about 15 minutes and had expected to be back at the camp when he realized that something was wrong. There was no sign of it. He was sure he was going the right way, he recognized the trees and a big rock that was close to the camp. He walked up to the rock and touched it, making sure it really was there. It indeed really was there. He could even smell the remains of the smoke from the campfire they had earlier in the evening. Continuing to walk, he walked right into where the camp was. The clearing was there and he could see the remains of the campfire. But as impossible as it seemed, all of the tents were gone.

“What is going on? Where is everyone?” he said to himself. He was getting very worried. He hadn’t of been gone long and hadn’t of heard any commotion or noise. Sitting down on a rock, he thought of what to do next.

Charlie had been sitting on the rock for 2 hours when the sun was starting to rise. Hearing a noise behind him, he turned around and saw a pair of raccoons walking towards him. They looked at him, watching him. Walking up to him, they started pawing at his legs.

“What do you want?” he asked. He had started to wonder whether they were responsible for this. But the idea seemed impossible. The two raccoons started warbling and continued to paw at him.

“What?” he asked them. One of the raccoons jumped up onto his lap and started pawing at his chest.

“Whoa!” he said. He had always been told never to touch a wild animal, and had never seen a raccoon act like this. Petting the one of his lap, he again tried asking them what they wanted. They again ignored him and continued to pet at him. The one on his lap crawled up to his head and started pawing at his face while the one on the ground jumped up to his lap and started pawing at his chest. Both of them began making a sound that Charlie had never heard of a raccoon make before. Finally petting the one on his lap, he enjoyed the sounds it made and the warmth of its fur. He must have been sitting there for 2 hours, petting the two raccoons when it was getting fairly bright out. Both of them jumped off of him and stood on the ground looking at him, as if waiting for him to do something. Both raccoons started walking away then stopped, looking at him.

“You want me to follow you?” he asked. The two of them almost seemed to nod their heads and they continued to walk. Standing up, he followed them as they lead him away from the campgrounds. He still wondered that they had somehow caused everything to apparently disappear, but also thought that maybe he was in the wrong camp area somehow and that they were leading him to the right one. He wasn’t sure how long he had been following them, but it must have been at least an hour or two. He was getting deep into the woods and he didn’t recognize anything. Stooping, he asked them

“are you sure you know where you’re going?” Looking at him, they nodded and continued. Having few options, he followed them. He was getting hungry and was starting to get tired. He hadn’t eaten since last evening and he hadn’t gotten much sleep at all the night before. He had no idea where they were taking him. They both starting to warble again, and he thought that he must be close to camp, although he didn’t recognize the area, and had no idea how he could have walked this far away from it. The raccoon’s started to run into a clearing he could see. Running after them he saw them standing in the middle of a small clearing with several stones arranged in a circle. They stood on their hind legs, and started to excitedly warble. Curious as to what was going on, he walked into the middle of the circle of stones. The situation seemed surreal to him. Maybe this was all a dream and he really had been able to fall asleep. It felt so real though. He didn’t remember ever having had a dream as clear as this and something about the smells and sounds felt real enough that he knew whatever was going on was real. The two raccoons, seeing that Charlie was standing in the center of the ring of stones, climbed up a tree overlooking it and stood there, as if waiting for something to happen.

Charlie could have sworn that the circle of stones was starting to glow and make humming sounds.

“What’s going on?” he asked. The stones continued to glow and hum, a sudden quiet surrounded the area, and he felt a cold and strange wind blow all around him. Suddenly feeling very strange, he tried to run, but something was preventing him from doing so. His entire body started to itch. Looking at his arms to itch them, he saw fur growing on them. The fur looked very much like the fur on the 2 raccoons. As he watched it grow, his chest started to itch. Pulling up his tee shirt, he saw that similar fur was covering his entire chest.

“What are you doing to me?” he asked, as he looked at the 2 raccoons. His legs started to itch. Reaching down to scratch them, he saw that the same fur was growing on them. His face started to feel strange. He reached up to touch it, and he saw that his hands looked different. He now had sharp claws on the end of each finger, and his fingers seemed longer. The top of both hands had fur on them. Feeling his face it felt very different then normal. He was feeling a pulling sensation in his mouth and nose. When it subsided, he felt his mouth. What he felt was a short muzzle, he nose felt smaller and cold. His ears started to feel strange and felt as if they were shifting position. He felt the top of his head, and felt his ears moving upwards, getting not only furrier but also much more rounded. Feeling a pulling sensation in his rear, he looked back at it in time to see a long and furry tail rip it’s way through his pants. Feeling the tail, he could tell that it was indeed his. It was soft and felt warm and pleasant to the touch. The changes seemed to be complete and he stood there trying to figure out exactly what to do next. The two raccoons looked at each other, and acted as if they had forgotten something. They warbled a bit and once again the stones lit up. Charlie’s clothes glowed and changed shape quickly. Once the glow darkened, his clothes looked a bit different. His shorts now had a tail hole. And his tee shirt was now made of much lighter material, as he didn’t need to dress very warmly with all this fur he now had. His Cub Scout cap had changed such that it now had holes for his ears, which were now at the top of his head.

A mirror appeared in front of them, and he looked at his reflection in it. He looked like a humanoid raccoon; he admitted that he did look cute this way. Looking at the 2 raccoons, he asked them

“Thanks, but why did you do this?” The raccoons warbled back to him, and to his surprise he could understand them!

“I can’t understand you!” he said.

“Of course you can understand us! You’re one of us now!” they warbled back to him. Momentarily forgetting that he was lost, he asked them

“So what do we do now?”

“We play!” they responded. The two raccoons ran down the tree, with Charlie in hot pursuit. He caught up with them, and they both lay on their backs, warbling for him to rub their bellies. He did so, and they warbled in enjoyment. After several minutes of it, he took of his shirt and lay on his back and said

“now me”. The two of them started scratching at his chest fur, which he enjoyed immensely.

After several minutes of that they ran back up a tree, warbling for him to join them. He was able to climb up, but it didn’t quite feel right. His new claws enabled him to climb, but he still didn’t feel quite right doing so. Climbing back down the tree he watched them play together for a few minutes before calling to them. When they asked him what was wrong he said that

“I want to be able to play like you guys were, but I feel like I’m too big to be able to”. The 2 raccoons looked at each other then quietly warbled to each other, such that he couldn’t hear what they were saying. After a few minutes they walked down the tree and asked him to follow them to the circle of stones. He did so, wondering what they were going to do. Again they ran up the tree, and started to warble. This time he recognized what they were saying as some kind of chant. The circles again began to glow and started to hum. Charlie started to feel strange when his clothes suddenly vanished. Standing there very embarrassed, he started to shrink. He tried to speak, but his voice sounded strange. He felt his muscles and bones changing, reconfiguring themselves. It didn’t really hurt, but wasn’t very comfortable either. He was starting to find standing on two feet uncomfortable, so he knelt down to get on his hands and knees when he noticed something strange. He was now able to stand on all fours with his hands and feet touching the ground, his arms and legs had adjusted their size and shape along with his muscles and bones such that he was now 4 footed. He continued to shrink until he was about half the size of the 2 raccoons. The stones stopped glowing and humming and the 2 raccoons climbed down the tree and walked over to him.

He tried to speak, but he was only able to warble. He was still able to understand the 2 raccoons though. Again a mirror appeared and he looked at his reflection. His reflection was now that of a young raccoon kit. The 2 raccoons warbled happily. Charlie warbled to the coons, asking them what had happened to his scout troop.

“Oh, their still there. We just hid them for a while, but they have no idea they were hidden”.

“Won’t they notice I’m gone?” he asked.

“If you want, we can change you back, they’ll notice, but if you want we could also leave a note explaining where you went”. Charlie looked at the 2 coons, then again looked at himself in the mirror, enjoying what he saw. He inhaled the air, and realized that he could now smell far better then would ever be possible as a human. His ears allowed him to hear things that again would never be possible for him as a human. Did he really want to go back to a human life? He quickly realized the answer was no. He did want his friends and family to know what happened to him though, so he agreed on the option of giving his cub troop the note.

His troop, were all searching for them in the area when they saw 3 raccoons, 2 adults and a baby. The baby walked right up to one of the leaders and handed him a note. The leader read and looked right at the baby and said

“Charlie?” the little raccoon warbled happily. Scratching his head, and seeing that almost all of the other troop members had witnessed this event, he said out loud

“this is going to take some explaining”. Several other boys walked up to Charlie and started petting him; he really loved all of the attention. The two raccoons walked to where Charlie was. Several members of the group wanted to pet them. Deciding that they liked the attention, they rolled onto their backs and allowed several of the troop members to rub their bellies. It didn’t long before several of the boys started saying things like

“I wana be a coon too!” The 2 raccoons seemed very pleased about this. It seemed as if several of the kids who were at first shy about it, were given incentive to speak up when they saw how happy the 2 coons were to hear others wanted to join them. Before long every single boy there was asking to be transformed as Charlie had been. The 2 coons asked Charlie to come with them, and he did so. The troop members waited, hoping they would come back. After 20 minutes the three of them did. This time they had a wheel barrel with them, that was filled with several round stones. Charlie had a note and he handed it to one of the leaders. It said to arrange the stones in a circle, each stone being no further then a meter apart and for everyone that wanted to be changed to stand in the circle. It didn’t long for them to arrange the stones. In a matter of minutes a large circle was made. Everyone but the leaders was standing in it; all of the kids were encouraging the leaders to join them. It took a bit of convincing, but soon every member of the troop was standing in the circle. The 2 raccoons started to again chant, and the stones glowed brightly and hummed. Every member of the troop quickly grew fur, sprouted tails and shrunk. Within a matter of minutes the circle was filled with raccoons. The entire group walked up to the two original raccoons, which warbled happily, welcoming them to their group. The group walked happily into the woods.

Rumors went wild about what had happened to the Cub Scout troop that had vanished in the woods. There had been no signs of fowl play. The only sign was a circle of stones in their campground, with several bundles of clothing in the middle of it. People thought all sorts of thing about what might have happened to them. There were all sorts of theories as to where all the raccoons came from that suddenly inhabited the forest, before there had been very few. Some people had theories that they were in fact the scout troop, but those theories were quickly dismissed. Charlie knew the answer, but human affairs didn’t concern him much anymore, as did they for his friends. As the he watched the latest search team leave the campsite, he ran back down the tree to the group, where they played and had fun all night.