Bedtime Story #1

Once upon a time there lived a man who could turn into a panther. A were-panther. He enjoyed going for long walks in the Sahara Desert in Africa, whilst in his panther form.

One day, as he was rambling along, not hurting a fly, minding his own business, he spotted a Jeep full of humans on the horizon. He ignored this and continued strolling along, revelling in the feeling of sand under his furry black paws.

Three men disembarked from the Jeep. The were-panther noticed the guns, and realised, too late, that these men were poachers. He turned to make a hasty retreat, before he felt a sharp, stinging pain in his left hind leg.

Three drops of blood stained the sand. The were-panther was felled.

As he lay writhing in agony, the poachers descended upon him. The pain in his leg distracted him from registering that one poacher carried a long, sharp blade. The poacher ran the blade across the were-panther's throat, slicing his jugular, and silencing him forever.

The poachers then proceeded to skin the were-panther, as his shiny black coat could fetch around $10,000 on the black market. Little did they know that the creature they had slain was a human in panther guise.

As the last vestiges of life left the were-panther's dying body, he reverted back to human form. The poachers, upon driving away in their Jeep, discovered that the shiny black coat they had just procured, had transformed into a large sheet of human skin.

Realising that they had murdered a fellow human being, they turned themselves in at the nearest police station. They were charged with murder, but pleaded manslaughter. The prosecution would not have any of it, so a trial was arranged, and the poachers set off to prepare their case with a team of experienced lawyers.

A witness for the prosecution, was a long-time friend of the were-panther's. She was, in fact, a were-leopard, although when testifying in court, she obviously did not assume the leopard's form, and appeared as a normal-enough human being.

Testifying in a court of law was a very stressful experience for this were-leopard, who was, at that time, studying for her HSC examinations (for you non-Australian readers out there, she was sitting for her A-levels) and was aiming to get into an undergraduate law degree at a prestigious university.

However, she was unable to concentrate on her studies, due to the loss of her dear friend, and the added trauma of having to relive the experience of witnessing his slaughter. She did not do very well, and was not able to attend university at all. She decided to join the workforce as a waitress in an ice-cream parlour.

When she was nineteen, she married a rockstar. The rockstar had previously been involved in a criminal trial where he had been charged with assaulting his ex-wife, causing her grievous bodily harm.

The were-leopard was aware of her rockstar-husband's past, but chose to overlook this, as she was in love.

As of today, we are still uncertain as to whether the were-leopard is still with the rockstar, whether they parted amiably, or whether she too became victim to his abusive ways.