Magic on Changeling Mountain

It was almost 9pm when they heard what sounded like a gunshot. Carolyn jumped to her feet and told Tammy, “Stay inside. I’ll be right back.”

Carolyn headed for the back door, but since she could see and hear better and run faster as a cat, she transformed as she jumped to the ground and then stood listening and sniffing the air, waiting for another shot or the sound of running feet when she heard a grunt somewhere in the direction of the creek where she had first seen Sebastian. She ran in that direction, until she heard another shot, which caused her to duck and freeze. She listened as she slowly lifted her head. If she didn’t hear anything, maybe she would smell or see something. She crouched, unmoving for maybe 3 or 4 minutes, then she heard something large, running through the woods towards her. Suddenly a large mountain goat came crashing through the trees right towards her. Carolyn jumped up onto a fallen tree and screamed out at the animal to stop. She was not certain if this was a changeling or just an ordinary mountain goat but someone was chasing him and shooting at him and to Carolyn that was not acceptable. When the goat came within a few feet of her it stopped and looked over its shoulder. It had heard her but because of her dark fur, it had not spotted her yet.

Carolyn could hear the running footsteps of the hunters coming. They were going to be on them soon. She screamed loudly and suddenly the footsteps stopped and she could hear the men talking. “There’s a cougar around here somewhere. Keep your eyes open. I don’t plan on getting mauled tonight.” One of the men said.

“Let’s give it up, Sam. I bet that goat is halfway across the mountain by now and we’ll never be able to catch him.”

“Ben’s right, Sam. Let’s give it up! We need to come back with dogs that can keep up with it.”

Carolyn didn’t recognize any of their voices so she changed back into her human form and walked directly at the men. “You had better not come back here at all. This is private property and we don’t allow hunting.” Carolyn told them as she stepped into the clearing where they were standing.

“Well, well, what do we have here? Who the hell are you to tell us where we can and cannot hunt?” The one called Sam asked as he approached her with a swagger. “We have licenses issued by the state that says we can hunt anywhere we want within the state.”

“I’m Dr. Carolyn Masters and your hunting license does not give you the right to hunt on private property and you are currently trespassing on my family’s land.” Carolyn stood her ground as the large, overweight man approached her, trying to intimidate her with his size. He stood over six feet tall and was probably at least three feet across in the middle. She wondered how he had managed to keep up with the much more agile goat in a foot race. The goat had to be injured and Carolyn’s concern was for the animal.

“Look here missy” Sam started to say, then Carolyn heard footsteps behind her and suddenly her father and her uncle Ray appeared behind her.

“You heard my daughter. Leave now and stay off this mountain and there won’t be any trouble.” Daniel Masters stepped up next to Carolyn and straightened up to his full height of well over six foot five and the man called Sam backed down.

“Ok, ok. Come on, Sam. Sorry folks. We didn’t realize we were on private property. We’ll go but just so you know, we think we hit the goat and it’s injured. Someone ought to find it and put it out of its misery.” The man called Ben said as he pulled on the sleeve of Sam’s shirt.

“Alright. Let’s go.” Sam finally said and they turned to leave. As soon as they were out of ear shot, Carolyn turned to her father “I think he’s a changeling. Help me find him? If he’s hurt, he’s going to need my help.” Carolyn said, then changed back into her cat form and turned to follow the goat’s trail. Daniel turned to Ray and said “Make sure they leave and then meet us back at Carolyn’s.” Daniel turned into his bear form and followed Carolyn’s trail back through the woods.

Together they followed the goat’s scent through the woods easily because the goat was definitely bleeding and there were spots of blood here and there as he pushed through the undergrowth. Carolyn raced ahead of her father and found the goat stumbling through the brush, barely able to stay upright. She called to him “Stop. I can help you!”

The goat seemed startled and started to bolt again but he was so weak that he stumbled and fell to his knees. He seemed to give up as Daniel came upon him in his bear form. Daniel quickly transformed as he bent over the goat. “Careful, Dad. I’m not sure if he’s a changeling or not. He acted frightened when I tried to think-talk to him just now. Those hooves of his are razor sharp.” Carolyn cautioned her father as she changed from her cat form and crept towards the large goat. It lay panting on its side and watched them with wary eyes as they drew closer, softly talking, hoping to calm him.

“It looks like the bullet went right through the back of his neck. He’s bleeding like crazy.” Daniel said as he pulled a small flashlight out of his pocket and shined it over the goat’s body. “He must have been running for a long time. There is blood all over him.”

The goat turned its head and seemed to stare at Daniel. Daniel had to concentrate but he finally realized that the goat was think talking to him. “He’s got a heavy accent, definitely not from around here, but he’s trying to tell me something. I just can’t make out what he’s saying. He’s very weak and it’s more like a whisper but the accent is so heavy that I can’t make out what he’s saying.” Daniel told her.

“We are going to need help moving him. He’s too big for us to move without hurting him even more. I need to get him down to the clinic so I can examine him more closely.” Carolyn told her father.

“I’ll watch over him. Go get Tammy.” Daniel told her.

“What? What can Tammy do?” Carolyn asked, perplexed.

“Hurry up. We’ve got to get this bleeding stopped or he’s going to bleed to death. Just do as I say.” Daniel ordered, as he put pressure on the wound.

Confused but she did as he ordered. She changed back into her cat form and ran for her house. Tammy was pacing back and forth on the porch, wringing her hands as Carolyn came into the clearing.

“Oh, thank goodness. I was getting worried. What took you so long?” Tammy asked as she watched Carolyn run towards her and transform. The sight of her friend changing from the big black cat to her human form never ceased to amaze Tammy.

“I don’t have time to explain but you need to follow me right now. There’s an animal hurt and for some reason, my father thinks you will be able to help us move him.” Carolyn said as she climbed the steps to the porch.

Tammy nodded and without hesitation, descended the steps and followed Carolyn back into the woods. Daniel had taken off his shirt and was holding it over the open wound. The goat was still lying on its side, it’s breathing slow and labored.

“Tammy, can you lift him and move him to the road? It’s about 100 yards from here. Ray should be coming with the truck soon.” Daniel said, as he looked at Tammy and smiled.

Tammy nodded her head and brought her hands together. Her aura began to shine brighter and brighter until it was so bright that it almost hurt their eyes to look directly at her. Slowly the goat began to rise off the ground and float in the air. It thrashed out at first but then quieted as Daniel and Carolyn whispered to it. They quickly tied Daniel’s shirt around the goats’ neck and kept pressure on its wounds as Tammy “carried” the wounded goat through the woods towards the road. Ray was there and waiting with a surprised look on his face as he watched Tammy lower the large goat into the back of his truck. Tammy was drained as she gently settled the large animal onto the bed of the truck. Daniel climbed into the truck bed to keep pressure on the goat’s wound as Carolyn raced to her friend as her aura faded and she swayed on her feet.

“Tammy! Are you alright?” Carolyn caught her as Tammy’s knees gave way and she sank to the ground.

“Yes, I will be. Lord, he’s heavy and the brush was so thick. I’m just tired. Go. Go tend to him. I’ll be OK. I just need to rest for a minute.”

“Come on. Go to the clinic with us. I don’t want to leave you alone after that.”

Between Ray and Carolyn, they got Tammy into the front seat of the truck and Carolyn jumped into the back of the truck with Daniel and the goat. Ray carefully but quickly drove to Carolyn’s clinic and around to the side entrance. When he stopped, Carolyn jumped off the truck and raced ahead to open the doors and to get a gurney. Ray backed the truck up so that they could unload the goat directly onto the large metal gurney that Carolyn used to treat large farm animals. Tammy had just enough strength left to help them move the now unconscious goat onto the table.

Carolyn quickly gathered what she would need to clean and stitch the wounds closed. But first she needed to get x-rays too to make sure there were no broken bones or metal fragments that needed to be cleaned out of the wound before she stitched them both closed. She checked her blood supply and grabbed a syringe and a vial of morphine. She was going to type and crossmatch the goat’s blood just in case he was a changeling. If he was, then she would need to treat him as a human when it came to giving him blood.

She gave directions to her father and uncle and they quickly did as she asked. They were both experienced in helping her with injuries to animals on their farms so they knew that time was of the essence.

“Give me a minute to rest and I’ll help too.” Tammy said, as she sank down on a chair inside the back door.

“Actually if you could, please call Cindy and tell her to come as quickly as she can. I’m going to need her.” Carolyn said and tossed Tammy her cell phone.

Tammy quickly found Cindy’s number and only had to say that Carolyn needed her at the clinic and she was on her way.

Carolyn typed and cross matched the goat’s blood and was relieved to find that it had Type O blood. She was just moving the x-ray machine into place over the goat’s neck when Cindy came rushing in through the back door and came to a dead stop as she saw the large goat laying on the examination table. “Wow.” Was all she said and then rushed to pull on her apron over her street clothes and set about helping Carolyn get the x-ray machine set up and the things she would need to stitch the wounds closed.

“Who is he? Where did he come from?” Cindy asked as she raced around the room. Everyone had to step behind the protective wall as Carolyn took the x-rays and they told her what had happened. Cindy quickly transferred the x-rays to the machine that would allow Carolyn to see them.

“Doesn’t look like anything is broken and there’s no metal that I can see but from the amount of blood, I think a main vein has been hit. Cindy, set up some type O while I stitch him up. Also, a drip with antibiotics. Who knows what he’s run through in the woods. Be careful, I smelled poison ivy sap earlier.” Carolyn warned her.

“I don’t think he’s a changeling. He should have transformed by now if he was.” Ray said as he watched Carolyn give the large animal the injection that would knock him out completely.

Cindy changed into her goat form and stood looking directly into the larger goat’s large blue eyes.

Suddenly Cindy changed back into her human form and laughed as she walked over and grabbed a blanket off the rack by the washing machine in the corner. “He hasn’t changed back into his human form because he is naked and embarrassed.”

“Well, tell him to stay in his goat form. It will be easier for me to operate on him that way.”

The goat seemed to understand and lay quietly as Carolyn gave him something to numb the area so that she could stitch him up. She quickly found the bleeder and luckily it was only nicked and only took a single stitch to close it. She stitched the outer wound closed and then Cindy threw the blanket over the large goat’s lower half. He looked at Carolyn and she told him it was OK for him to change back into his human form, which he immediately changed into a large, very handsome young man with broad shoulders and strong, muscular looking arms. He had curly dark hair and beautiful blue eyes. He smiled at Cindy, who giggled and blushed like a schoolgirl, which she technically was.

Cindy had graduated at the top of her class from high school this past spring and would be leaving for veterinary school in less than a month on a scholarship that Carolyn had donated heavily to when she found out Cindy was interested in going to vet school. She hoped that Cindy would come back and work with her in the area but had a feeling that she would probably go on to follow her own dream.

Cindy and Carolyn worked together very well as a team and it wasn’t long before they had the large goat, now a very handsome man, set up with an IV. After about half an hour of getting some blood back in his system, the goat man began to try to sit up.

“Well, hello there. I guess introductions are in order. I’m Dr. Carolyn Masters. This is my father, Daniel, my uncle Ray, my best friend Tammy, and this is Cindy Pence, my assistant.” Carolyn took care of the formalities.

“Hello. I am Ivan Kozel. You say your name is Pence? Do you know Charles Pence?” Ivan asked eagerly.

“Yes, he is my uncle. They live in Yancey County, about 30 miles from here. ” Cindy confirmed, with a smile.

“He sent me to look for you. My cectpehka has been hurt and we need your help.” Ivan said, as he tried to get up.

“Hey easy there. You need some time to heal. I’m sorry but I don’t understand. Who is it that needs help?” Carolyn asked as she urged him to lie back down.

“Cecelia is my, oh how do you say it….. my seester.” Ivan tried to explain. “She got caught in a trap and her leg is badly broken and torn open. My mama managed to stop the bleeding but we don’t know how to set the bones.”

“Let me get my bag. Cindy, come on, looks like you are going to be doing some overtime tonight.” Carolyn said. “Dad, Uncle Ray, thanks for your help.”

“Sure. We are going to do another patrol and make sure those hunters did not circle back. I wonder where they came from?” Ray Masters wondered out loud.

“They have been hunting on the mountain where we live. I think they are the ones who set the trap that Cece got caught in. They don’t care what they catch, so long as they catch something. We have been disarming as many of them as we can find but the one Cece stepped in was covered with leaves and she didn’t see it.” Ivan said as he tried to keep the blanket around him as he slid down off of the table.

“Ivan, I’m going to have to go up and get my jeep. You stay here and rest and I’ll be right back. We’ll get on the road as soon as I return. Tammy, I’m sorry but looks like I’m going to have to cut our sleep over short. You are welcome to stay at the cottage and I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

“Or you can come up and stay at the house with us. I’m sure Angela would love to have you.” Daniel Masters smiled at Tammy.

“If you don’t mind, I would like to go along with you, Carolyn. I’d like to see you at work.” Tammy smiled. “Thanks for the offer Mr. Masters and please tell Mrs. Masters I said hello.”

“Fine. You can help Cindy gather up the supplies we will need. I’m going to go get my jeep and I’ll be right back.” Carolyn stepped out the back door and quickly transformed, then took off in the direction of her cottage. She quickly ran along the side of the road since she was on family land and she wouldn’t have to worry about anyone seeing her, or so she thought. Suddenly a shot rang out and came so close to her that she actually felt the bullet brush the tip of her ear. She dived into the bushes and froze, crouching low to the ground, her senses on full alert.

“Those damned hunters didn’t leave after all.” Carolyn thought as she scanned the area with her nose as well as her eyes. It took her a minute to locate them but she finally smelled them. They had been walking and sweating for several hours so their scent was quite strong and not at all pleasant. Carolyn screamed, hoping that would scare them off, as she lay crouched in the bushes. But she could hear them talking amongst themselves. “I’ve never seen a black cat that big in my whole life. Must be one of them there Panthers. Someone must have set one loose up here.” Carolyn recognized the voice of the man named Ben.

“I don’t care what it is. That black pelt is going to look great hanging on my wall.” The man named Sam said.

Suddenly the woods came to life with the sounds of all kinds of animals and all headed in the direction of the hunters. Carolyn turned and crept back towards the clinic, keeping under the cover of the thick bushes and overgrowth until she was out of sight of where the hunters were crouched down in the woods on the other side of the road. Then she transformed and headed back in their direction at a run.

As she ran up the road, she yelled “Hey, I thought I told you men to stay off this mountain. We do not allow poaching on this property. Now leave or I’m calling the law.”

“Screw you, lady. We seen a big black cat and I’m going to get me that pelt.” Sam growled at her and then he began to scream as Daniel Masters, in his bear form, rushed him and with one big paw, knocked the large man clean off his feet. Daniel Masters kept the man pinned down, growling and drooling in his face as he lay sprawled flat on his back. The other two men took off running as soon as they saw Daniel. “To hell with this. I ain’t messin’ with no bear!”

“I’ll call Sheriff Noble as soon as I get back to the cottage.” Carolyn said as she quickly ran behind a tree, transformed again and ran up to her cottage. She ran up her front steps, transformed and let herself in. She called Sheriff Noble’s office as she walked through the cottage looking for her jeep keys. His Deputy, Sidney answered the phone and greeted Carolyn like the old friend he was. “Hey Carolyn, how’s tricks?”

“Hey Sidney, is Colin around? We’ve had to chase some hunters off our property twice tonight. Well actually, once anyway. My dad has one of them pinned and shitting his pants right now. They are about half way between the clinic and my cottage. I’ve got to go over to Yancey County. A young girl has been hurt and needs my help.” Carolyn and Sidney had grown up together and had even dated once or twice in high school. His animal form was a beaver. “Can you get a hold of him and ask him to run them off with a warning not to come back?”

“Sure thing.” Sidney said and then hung up. Carolyn found her keys on her dresser and she grabbed her purse, then locked up the cottage and headed out to her jeep. She climbed inside and quickly drove back to the clinic, passing Colin Noble on the way. She stopped and told him “Dad, has one of them pinned down over there.” Carolyn pointed to the place where she had left her father and the hunter.

“Don’t worry Carolyn. I’ll take care of it. If they are the ones I think they are, they are from the other side of Yancey County. The Sheriff there has banned them from hunting on the mountain there so it looks like they have come here to fulfill their blood lust. They don’t discriminate either. They will shoot anything that crawls, walks or flies. So far, they haven’t hit a changeling but it’s only a matter of time.” Colin told her.

“Correction. They’ve already injured two changelings. They shot a goat that they chased onto our land earlier tonight. They also set traps over in Yancey County and the goat they shot says his younger sister got caught in one. Her leg is broken and I’m on my way to not only take him home but to help her.” Carolyn explained.

“Well, that changes things. Hunting is one thing but setting traps is illegal. If they have any traps in their possession when I catch up with them, they will be doing some jail time.” Colin said as he put his car in gear and drove up to where Daniel was still standing over the downed hunter, growling and slobbering. If the human knew what a bear sounded like when it laughed, Sam probably would have gotten up and ran a long time ago.

Daniel ambled away as Colin got out of his patrol car and walked over to pick the man up off the ground. Sam was in shock and had definitely soiled his pants. He was soaked and very smelly from the crotch down, especially in the back. Colin cuffed him and picked up his rifle and then led him over to the patrol car. Colin popped the trunk and got a plastic tarp out and covered his back seat before seating Sam inside. Sam just looked up at him with big scared eyes and gave him a weak smile.

“Damn, he really scared the shit out of you, didn’t he? Hahahahahaha!” Colin laughed as he closed the door and stowed Sam’s rifle in his trunk.

Colin drove back down the hill and turned north towards Yancey County. Sure enough, he saw the other two men stowing their guns in the back of a dark blue pickup that was parked off the road and half hidden by trees. They both kept looking over their shoulders and acted very nervous as they hurried to get things put away.

Colin pulled up behind them and both men ran towards the patrol car. “Oh thank God you are here. Our friend has been attacked by a bear!” An excited Ben began telling Colin who thumbed over his shoulder to the back seat.

“Oh Sam, thank God you are OK. How did you get away? We thought you were a goner for sure.” The other man said. “Whew, man, what happened? Did he shit and piss on you? You smell awful.”

“Climb in guys. We are going to take a ride back into town.” Colin said, after he stepped out of his patrol car and looked under the blanket in the back of their truck. “Traps are illegal in this county. How many have you set?”

“None so far. We usually set them up as we leave so that we don’t accidentally step on one.” Ben admitted.

“Never mind if some poor unsuspecting person happens to step in one of them! You boys may be facing criminal charges. As I understand it, one of your traps caught a little girl and broke her leg pretty badly. Dr. Masters is on her way over there right now to help her.” Sheriff Noble wagged his finger in the faces of the two men who stood there looking sheepish.

“I told Sam we shouldn’t have set traps and left them.” Ben said to his companion.

Colin Noble loaded the men into his car and drove them down to the police station. He allowed Sam to take a fast shower and provided him with some orange jail coveralls before putting him in a cell with his friends.