Panthera Spelaea
Getting Away From It All

It wasn’t an out-of-body experience if you were still in your body, right?

The change happened so quickly! One moment I was meditating with the girls by my side. The next, I was lying on my side in a gigantic fur coat. My tail ended up too close to the fire, and I lept away from it. I turned back near the trees, the smell of burnt hair strong in my nostrils.

The girls had been knocked aside by my shift and were sitting up again, their mouths open wide. My cat took a big sniff; he didn’t like the scent of fear in the air. He sat down, licking the burnt part of his tail and waiting for them to approach.

I was getting a better idea of how the lion’s brain worked. My lion didn’t pass thoughts to me through my brain; instead, I got emotions. I could feel how possessive my cat side was of the girls as he waited for them to approach.

It took a minute for the girls to get over the shock and start moving. Svetlana was first to get up; she walked towards my lion with her hands open and low. “It’s all right, big boy. We won’t hurt you.”

My lion yawned and laid down, putting his head on his big paws. He seemed to know how to appear non-threatening as Svetlana reached him and scratched at his ears. I could feel how pleased the lion was at her attention as he moved his head to get more spots. By the time Anna joined her, my lion was on his side. He let out a satisfying rumble from his chest as the two girls rubbed his short mane. Like a puppy, he rolled onto his back so they could rub their hands on his chest and belly.

“He’s so soft,” Anna said as she explored the fur under a front leg. My lion was thoroughly smitten, letting them do whatever they wanted to his body as he stretched out on his back.

“I thought it would be bigger,” Svetlana said as she ran her hand down our belly and touched the outside of our penis.

“I looked it up; African lions are only seven inches long. That’s not much bigger than John as a human form,” Anna replied. “And now we know where that ballsack of his came from.”

Anna was leaning over our chest, and my lion took the opportunity to hook her back with a front paw and press her tight. She moved her head towards him, and he gave her a long lick up her chest and neck to her cheek. “Aaaaahh! Cat slobber!”

Svetlana moved up the other side of our body and got a hug from the other front paw. The girls relaxed into my chest and neck as the cat rubbed his scent onto them. I was so happy they weren’t afraid of me this way, and my cat was very happy right now.

When the girls finally got up, he rolled to his feet as well. His head was even with the girls, and they giggled as his whiskers tickled them while he sniffed at their necks and faces. He turned away to do something else, and I could only ‘sit back and watch’ as he trotted off towards the edge of the clearing. When he raised his leg and started pissing on a tree, I figured it out. He splashed pungent urine on a half-dozen trees surrounding the campsite before he came back to them, his territory marked for now.

The girls were back on the blanket by the fire, and the lion moved between them. He laid down with his head towards the light. I tried to tell him to do things, but he was in charge, not me. “John, roll over,” Anna tried.

The lion just looked at her and yawned. “John’s a lion, not a dog,” Svetlana said.

“Lions get trained in the circus,” Anna replied. My lion moved his head into her lap, pushing under her hand for scratches. “He’s got me trained.”

“I can’t believe he’s so gentle with us. Watching him tear up those men was frightening.”

“I know. The lion was protecting us because John loves us.”

I was stuck as the moon came up. I’d let the lion come forward, and I had no idea how to change back! I asked him in my mind and got no answer. I tried to shove him aside, and nothing. The girls asked me to change back for bedtime, but he just yawned and stretched and begged for more scratches. Finally, they gave up. My lion watched as they went into the woods to go to the bathroom, making sure nothing harmed them.

“I’ll get things ready for bed. The big lug can sleep outside if he doesn’t want to change back.” Anna went into the tent with a flashlight. The tent was a big one, ten feet square, with a dome top tall enough to stand up.

My cat followed her in through the open insect screen despite Svetlana yelling at him to stay out. We had three big sleeping bags, and she had two of them unzipped and covering the foam pads on the floor of the tent. My cat sniffed around the edges before turning in a circle and laying down on the blankets. He yawned before putting his head down with his nose near the entrance. “I guess it’s bedtime,” Anna said.

“Our cat takes up a LOT of the bed,” Svetlana said as she came in. She left her shoes by Anna’s near the door, and both of them took off their clothes before reaching for their backpacks. My lion growled as they came out with their pajamas. “What is that about,” she wondered.

When Anna put a leg through her flannel sleep pants, my lion reached out with his paw and pulled them down. She tried again, and this time he used his claws to shred them. Anna looked at the torn bottoms in shock.

Svetlana laughed and put her clothes back in her backpack. “I think he wants us to sleep naked with him,” she told her lover. Damn right; I was used to being naked with them, and there was no reason to stop now. Maybe I’d get control back overnight?

“It’s going to be cold tonight, maybe eight degrees!” Eight Celsius would be in the mid-forties. Uncomfortably cool without warm clothes and a warm sleeping bag.

“He’s a big fuzzy hot water bottle,” Svetlana replied. “It won’t be so bad.”

The girls snuggled into me for the night. Svetlana’s back was pressed to my chest, with Anna spooned to her in front. Both had their heads resting on the fur of my outstretched leg while my top leg rested across their sides. The third sleeping bag covered the girls, and we quickly fell asleep.

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