Challenged - Skinwalker Book 2

Chapter 21

Sierra crouched on all fours and started to think of Jason and how amazing his thick brown fur felt beneath her fingers. Then she started to think about how lean and light she felt in wolf form in comparison to the heavy, densely structured muscling of the cats - their bodies were so much more dense and compact. The muscles in her body started to ripple and seconds later, she clenched her jaw as bones started popping into a different skeletal arrangement. Then her muscles and ligaments started to snap apart and twist to realign to the new framework. She fought against the pain, feeling the waves of transformation switching back and forth as her body slowly changed shape until a familiar wave of prickles washed over her skin leaving her blanketed in a thick fur coat. She sat on her haunches and lifted her black, padded foot to lick the little soft section of fur inside her forearm.

Wait a minute...

She arched her neck around and tried to get a better look at herself. She was black - completely black. The transformation had been triggered by her thoughts of the heavy cat muscling instead of the light wolf shape she'd been trying for.

Give me a freaking break!

She scowled and huffed in irritation with herself before glancing up to see the perplexed look on Adam's face.

"I thought we were going for something with more fluff and less claws...?" he inquired from behind the safety screen.

I was!

Frustrated, she paced a bit then swatted at the near-broken stool. It scuttled across the floor like an odd-shaped missile, hit the polymer screen and crumpled up even further before springing off it again.

"Okay Sierra, I can see you're annoyed - but think of this as a learning curve," Adam coaxed gently. "Whenever something unintentional happens, you can use it to analyse how to get it right."

Sierra sat down with a dubious harrumph. At least that was a sound she could make in cat form.

"It'll be ok. You'll get this - I promise," Adam told her. His voice was soft and strangely soothing. "Would you like to return to human form for a bit before we try again?" he asked.

Sierra nodded then set her mind to the transformation. Coming back to human form was always easier for her. A person never forgot what it was like to be human. She braced herself against the pain, eyes scrunching up against the contorting and reshaping of her body until finally her jaw unhinged and shrank back into its normal shape.

"Wow! That's a big difference in time," Adam remarked. "3:25 minutes for the initial transition into a panther and only 2:38 for the return transformation."

Sierra let herself fall to the mat for a moment to recover. She felt drained and she was sweating lightly from the effort. Hunger was starting to gnaw at her stomach uncomfortably.

Adam came over to her and put a reassuring hand on her back.

"You feeling okay?" he inquired as he passed her a water bottle to sip from.

She nodded and took a long sip from it.

"I'll be fine. I just need a moment to recover," she suggested.

"Here, have some of this," he advised as he handed her a big, thick bar in a paper wrapper. Its shape was vaguely reminiscent of an extra thick, extra large chocolate bar.

Intrigued, she unwrapped it to take a look inside.

That... definitely doesn't look like chocolate...

The substance inside was somewhat gelatinous looking with a golden-amber hue. It wasn't as soft as jelly, but it definitely wasn't quite solid either. She poked it with suspicion and her finger sort of bounced off of it.