Shapeshifted

• Faith Constantino, Grade 5
• Short Story
• 2022

One morning, I woke up feeling something furry. I looked under the blanket, seeing a flame coloured tail on my bed. I reached out to feel it then I saw my hands. Only they weren’t hands… They were paws! The paws were flame coloured like the tail. Did that mean that the tail was part of me? Was I turning into some sort of animal? There was only one way to find out. I sprang out of bed, and I looked at the mirror. I was a cat! There was a strange note on the mirror saying: You are not an ordinary cat. You are Firestar from Warrior Cats. You will be him for one week.

So I went out of the house, into the forest and tried to find the ThunderClan camp. I found the camp then I saw cats burying a body that looked like my body. I realised that it was Firestar’s dead body… my dead body? Suddenly I saw a shadow. Someone was coming. I had to hide but it was too late. A cat came bounding towards me. It was a dark ginger cat that looked like Firestar. Then I remembered that it was Squirrelflight, Firestar’s daughter. Then there was a dead silence. All that I could see was her piercing emerald green eyes staring at me. Afterwards she meowed, half confused and half relieved to see me. “Firestar is that you?” “I thought that we buried you.” “Yes it is me.” I said yes just because I didn’t want to disappoint her after all she had gone through.

Then I went to the camp to sleep in my own den. Everyone was asking if I was Firestar. I always said yes and they were cheerful to see me.

*Yawn* I woke up. It’s a new day. Today I went to the border of the territory to do border patrol and also to hunt because there was not enough food to feed the whole clan. Then while I was hunting, I saw other cats from the other Clan hunting our prey. I had to deal with them. So I told them to leave or I would tell their leader. So they asked if it mattered. “Of course it does.” I answered. “Fine,” they sighed. “But we don’t have any prey left. If our Clan starve to death it will be all your fault.” So they all left. That was the first thing I had ever done to help ThunderClan.

Now this is my daily routine. Wake up, do border patrol, hunt, eat, make announcements, eat then sleep. I’ve been doing this for the last 6 days.

Today is now my last day. I went to the Great Rock to make an announcement that I was leaving. They all asked why. I said that I wasn’t the real Firestar. They were disappointed.

I went back home and turned back to normal. I would miss them all. But I knew that someday I would visit them again.