Minecraft: Uncoded

Chapter 2: Beasts

"ROOAAWR!"

Stampy almost fell out of his tree. He gripped the branch, bark cutting into his hands, whipped around...and stared right into a pair of green bear eyes.

He relaxed again and said, "Ha, ha, very funny, Lee."

The brown bear laughed, a deep, guttural sound, clinging to the tree trunk near Stampy's branch. It climbed up the fork in the tree's trunk and started to...change.

Fur twisted and flattened into tan skin. Claws retracted and fingers lengthened. Ears swerved and repositioned. Even the laugh changed, elevating into a nice, higher sound. The only thing that stayed the same were his eyes. Bright, scaly green, and teeming with life. Lee wore rolled up, blue denim jeans and a sienna-brown hoodie with special fabric cub ears similar to Stampy's golden-bronze one. He wore no shoes, but didn't seem to be uncomfortable as he padded over to Stampy.

"I was almost certain you would morph and maul me!" Lee exclaimed, still laughing, brown spiked hair waving in tune with his giggles.

"Nah, I was too busy trying not to fall. You're lucky I was in human form, or I would've heard you from a mile away!" Stampy shifted on the branch to make way for Lee, who was still shaking with laughter.

"Maybe, but that was the best face you've made all day!"

"Really?"

"Yeah! Stampy, you literally sprinted for the woods almost before sunrise. Probably should've TOLD one of us..."

Stampy winced slightly. "Yeah, sorry about that."

Lee took a hard look at Stampy, and said, "You've been at Brender Valley, haven't you?"

"How did you-"

Lee put a hand through Stampy's vibrant brown, almost redhead, curly locks and pulled out some spiny leaves that smelled like spearmint and dew. "These."

"Oh."

Lee nudged Stampy playfully and looked at the ground fifteen feet below. "C'mon, Rose told me to be back before sundown, with or without you."

Sundown!? Stampy looked out through the trees to fragments of orange and blue sky. No wonder Lee came looking for me.

Stampy didn't want to go back. He wanted to just keep on running. But like Lee was gonna let him run.

So, while Lee morphed back into a bear and started lumbering down the tree trunk, Stampy braced himself, tensed his legs, and leapt off the branch. He let himself fall a bit, then morphed.

His hands turned into white paws, his fingers to silver claws. The hoodie seemed to meld to him, ears gaining feeling and life, brassy fur covering him where the hoodie touched and even where it didn't. His shoeless feet strengthened and took the brunt of the fall, like suspensions on a go-cart. A gold tail tipped with white swished, ready for Stampy to lunge automatically. Blue eyes, still recognizably human, turned to Lee, who was having trouble on a certain patch of branches.

"Race ya back when you get down," Stampy said a bit tauntingly. Lee started scrambling down twice as fast to get to the ground. He shuffled, squirmed, then gave up and jumped the remainder of the distance to the ground. He hit the ground with a hollow thud and braced himself to run.

Stampy tensed up too. He was an average sized wildcat, about half Lee's size, and Lee looked pretty intimidating...but Stampy had no doubt in his mind that he was faster and more agile.

"Ready..." Stampy said, pushing backwards with his front paws. Lee did likewise.

"Set......"