"F" : Human being or Cat

Baptiste, 13 and a half was in the forest to collect some wood, when he saw a wild gray cat with black stripes and some brown spots. It was so beautiful that Baptiste followed it to a river. But there he saw nothing, he looked around for the cat but he didn't see it. Suddenly a woman's figure barely visible was standing behind the river, watching him. Her eyes looked like a wild cat's eyes.
-”Who are you?”, asked Baptiste.
But she didn't answer, Baptiste realised that the young woman had disappeared.

Later in the evening, Baptiste tried to talk to his parents but they thought he was mad. Baptiste went back the next day. The young woman wasn't here anymore, but he saw traces of cat paws that appeared on the floor, so he followed the footsteps up to a small den large enough for a human. He saw a little light out there. With great courage and great curiosity he crept inside. And there, he found a little girl crying. When she saw Baptiste, she turned into a cat and ran as fast as possible in the opposite direction.

  Shocked by what he had seen, Baptiste returned back home. The day after, he decided to go to the den again. The little girl was still there, and she was still crying. But this time she didn't see him! Baptiste went closer and then tried to console her:
-”What's wrong, little girl?”, asked Baptiste.
-”It is my mother ... She disappeared, kidnapped by a band of wild cats around here”.
-”Was it your mother that I saw last day, near the river?” asked Baptiste.
-”Yes this was the last time I saw her ... where do you come from, and what's your name?”, asked the little girl.
-”My name is Baptiste and I am a human being! And you?”, Baptiste asked.
-”Me? I am half-woman half-cat and my name is Sofia”, replied the little girl.

Since that day, there was a great friendship between Baptiste and Sofia. Every day, they played together.
One day, Baptiste asked Sofia:
-”Is it possible for me to become a cat? “
He didn't know why, but every time he asked this question, she didn't answer. It seemed that he was bothering her and she spoke about something else.

All was going on well until the day when Sofia and Baptiste found the dead body of her mother on the river side. A message had been left there. It was written in another language. When she saw it, Sofia cried even more than before. A week later, when Sofia got calmer, they read the message together. It said : “if you do not join the band of headhunters this month we will kill you”. Baptiste consoled Sofia and went back home to steal his father's gun and some knives, in case the headhunters would attack them. Sofia said to Baptiste that now he had to turn into a cat. Baptiste said yes of course, because he realy wanted to be a cat, and his parents didn't have so much importance to him, they were sometimes beating him.

Sofia started a ritual. It was a night of full moon. Baptiste, who was surrounded by candles, began to change : his ears disappeared and two new ones grew. He began to be extremely hairy. A long tail grew too. At the end of the ritual, the following morning, Baptiste fell asleep, exhausted by the ceremony. He looked like a normal human being. When he woke up, he realised he didn't know how to become a cat ! Sofia had to teach him. Then the lessons started. Two days later he knew perfectly how to turn into a cat, how to move like a cat, how to be a cat. There was something special about Baptiste, a sort of problem : he was a very big cat, as big as a wolf ! That is why Sofia didn't want to answer him when he had asked her how to become a cat a few days before. But times had changed and headhunters would come soon. They were already in their dreams. It was time to get ready!
Baptiste made traps, and Sofia went and looked for her mother's old friends to help them in their fight. The enemies were close! Their friends arrived. They were wearing armors on their back while they were cats, they also had extended indestructible iron claws. It was great. Baptiste would have preferred not to fight, but he had no choice.

The day after, they had to get prepared for the battle. They put their armor and their iron claws too. And they waited for the headhunters. Suddenly they arrived and they drew a circle around Baptiste and his friends. They had to fight one against one. The headhunters were much more numerous than the cats but the cats had the advantage with their armors and their claws.
Baptiste with his father's gun shot on several headhunters. After an hour of fighting the headhunters ran away. Two of Sofia's friends were hurt, and many friends of Sofia's mother died. The ground was red with blood.

Sofia and Baptiste healed all the victims and burnt all the dead bodies, even the enemies'. After all these difficult days and this bloody battle, it was time to rest and forget about those headhunters.

One month after the carnage Baptiste and Sofia fell in love. Yes, love was now the only feeling present in the forest. And after a few years, they had beautiful children, half-cat and half-man who grew up and passed the beautiful story of Baptiste and Sofia from generation to generation.

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