Lion Hat

This is the story of a brother and sister. Two kids named Danny and Lindsey. Danny was the youngest of the two at eight years old. He was a short, happy little kid. Shorter than his sister who was known for usually being…well, pretty bratty. Lindsey was ten. She was your typical “little princess”. Spoiled and very bratty. This factor aside, she was none too different from her younger brother. This is the story of these two siblings…and a special hat…

Danny and Lindsey were in the backyard, playing together on their jungle gym. Lindsey ran after her brother, attempting to tag him. Danny ran for the slide, gripping the handle on the top of the slide and propelling himself down the slide, his sister just barely missing him. Lindsey headed in the direction opposite of the slide, hopping off the jungle gym and continuing her pursuit of her brother.

“Naa naa! Can’t get me!” Danny teased.

Danny laughed happily to himself before tripping and landing with a dull thump right into a puddle of mud. Lindsey had finally caught up with Danny and tagged him. Danny, however, didn’t get up. Instead he lay there, in the puddle as he started crying.

“Aw, c’mon, Danny. You just tripped. It didn’t really hurt, did it?” Lindsey asked a bit unsympathetically.

“Yeah! It did!!” Danny cried in pain. He got up and showed his leg to her, which had been cut, a small spot of blood on his left knee.

Lindsey groaned in annoyance.  Danny was always a bit of a crybaby, even for an eight year old boy. The slightest little bit of pain he felt he would cry over, even so much as stubbing his toe.

“Alright, Danny, let’s go get you a band-aid then…” She said noticing the mud that was all over Danny’s clothes. “And maybe some new clothes…”

Lindsey walked with Danny back in their house. Their mother noticed Danny, still crying from the pain as he bent down to cover the part of his knee that he cut. Their mother took Danny up to the bathroom to wash the cut and get a band aid while Lindsey went to the washroom in order to get her brother some new clothes.

She rummaged through the many clothes her brother had, noticing he probably had more than she did. She noticed that her clothes were pretty dirty too. So she decided to get some new clothes for herself. Grabbing herself her favorite hoody and skirt, she headed into the back of the basement to change. She set her clothes on a basket and looked behind herself, noticing all the toys her parents had stored from her and Danny. She browsed the shelves of toys, some of which were almost overflowing with toys while others were nearly to the point of being too full.

Their parents had several sets of shelves for their toys. One set of shelves for Lindsey and the others for Danny. She looked at her toyshelf and surveyed all the things her parents had bought her. One such item caught her attention. One she had forgotten she had.

“When did mom and dad buy me this?” She asked herself, picking up the object. It was a hat that looked an awful lot like the top of a lion’s head. The hat was a light yellowish color with brown patches of hair attached to the top of it and going down to the sides of the fleece hat. In addition, two small rounded ears made up the top of the hat, the very tops of the ears bending over.

Lindsey dusted off the hat and looked at it for a few seconds. She remembered her mom telling her that she got the hat from this strange man she met at a convention. She also remembered her mom telling her that the hat was, according to the man, something that could change the wearer of the hat. Even at only ten years of age, Lindsey didn’t believe a word of it. She was about to set the hat back down when she figured that maybe she could just give it to Danny instead. Maybe as a little gift to make him feel tougher, she thought to herself.  

After putting on a new set of clothes, she headed back upstairs with some clean clothes for Danny and the hat in tow. She headed up to their bedrooms and knocked on Danny’s door. She opened the door just as Danny was getting ready to change.

“Here, Danny. Mom wanted me to get you some new clothes” Said Lindsey.

“Thanks, sis.” Said Danny as he took the clothes from her.

“And…” Lindsey continued. She handed the hat to Danny.

“Hmm? What’s this?” Danny asked.

“It’s a hat mom got me a while ago. Don’t tell her but I don’t really want it. If you want, you can have it instead. Maybe it’ll make you feel tougher if you wear it.”

“Thanks, Lindsey!” Danny exclaimed, wrapping his arms around his sister and hugging her.

Lindsey headed back out into the hallway as she waited for Danny to get his clothes on. A few minutes later, Danny opened his door, jumping out at his sister, his hat on as he roared and snarled, like a lion which made Lindsey nearly jump out of her skin.

“How do I look, Lindsey? Do I look tougher? Huh?” Danny asked excitedly.

“Yep! You’re lookin’ like a real lion now. Feelin’ any tougher?”

“You bet!” Danny exclaimed.

For the next few days, Danny would continue to wear the hat his big sister gave him everywhere he went. No matter what, no matter where he went, he would almost never take it off. On the fifth day, however, something odd happened to Danny. Just as he and his sister were getting ready to go play outside.

It was around noon when it began. With their parents out at the store, Lindsey was to look after Danny. She waited downstairs for him to get done getting dressed. She turned her attention to the outside for a sec, still waiting for him to get ready.

“Ok, sis! I’m ready!” Called Danny from behind Lindsey.

Lindsey jolted her attention back to Danny, shocked at the sight of her little brother. His hat had disappeared. Actually, his EARS disappeared too! Somehow the hat had merged into his head! His hair still remained, although it was becoming poofy and more animalike, slowly spreading down to cover his entire neck. The ears of the hat had burrowed into his head, replaicing his old ears. Becoming the ears of a lion.

“Danny…”

“Yeah?” Danny asked.

“Your….hair…it’s…”

Danny brought one of his hands to his hair and felt it, noticing that it was indeed poofy!  Slowly, his hair began to circle around his entire neck, eventually meeting up at his neck and becoming a large mane. Danny’s facial features now gave off a more animallike look to him.

“Danny, what’s happening to you?!” Lindsey asked, shocked and confused.

“I…I don’t know…” Danny replied. He was now very freaked out. He didn’t understand what was happening to him. He tried to make his way to the door when his sister noticed a tail growing out of his back! Lindsey’s eyes widened in shock.

“Danny…you’ve got…”

Danny looked behind himself, noticing a short but thick lion tail growing from his back. His sister grabbed his tail, not believing that her hands were holding an actual tail. An actual tail that her very own brother grew! Danny’s tail had a bushel of brown fur growing at the end while the rest of his tail was made up of yellow fur. Yellowish fur began to spread all over his body starting from his legs up. His feet ripped out of his shoes, becoming larger, becoming digitigrade feet complete with claws growing out of his toes, which had become thicker, some of them even fusing together in addition, leaving only four toes on each foot.

Danny screamed in pain as his legs cracked. He fell forwards as the bones in his legs began to reform in order to support his new quadruped posture. Tears started to flow from the young lion-child’s eyes as the fur continued to spread all over his body, the fur growing all the way up to his waist and only continuing from there.

His face began to push out. Slowly, it pushed and pulled out into a small, stubby snout. His teeth fell out of his snout, deadly sharp fangs growing out and becoming his new teeth.  His nose turned black and became wet. He watched as his hands soon began to grow fur. His pinky finger fused  into his second middle finger as his fingers became thicker and fatter to look just like his hands. He lifted one of his front paws, noticing black pads growing from the bottom of them. His fingernails began to harden, turning black and becoming thinner and somewhat bigger.

Lindsey watched, still in shock, not saying a word as her brother’s transformation soon finished with the fur spreading all over his body.

“Lindsey…help me…” Danny cried out, raising one of his paws out to his sister.

He started to shrink as his clothes began to cover the young lion in them. Lindsey walked over to the pile of clothes and brought her hand to them, moving them and noticing a small lion cub laying in the pile of clothes that it used to own. It crawled out of the pile of clothes it used to own in its human life and looked at the little girl. It walked up to her and rubbed up against her. Apparently, it seemed as thought the little guy was actually pretty friendly. Lindsey picked the lion cub up and held him in her arms. The small lion felt more comfortable now.

Lindsey wondered what she would tell their parents when they returned. They wouldn’t possibly believe that this small lion was in fact Danny.  But…she also saw it as an opportunity.

Lindsey held the little lion out in front of her. Her eyes meeting with its beautiful, blue eyes.

“Well, Danny.” She began. “If you’re a lion now, maybe I can teach you to be tougher. Then you can stand up for yourself for once.”

To Lindsey, it seemed like it may be a good chance to try and make Danny tougher. If he was a lion now, he may actually be able to be tougher, more ferocious. Unfortunately, childish innocence would get the better of her. Especially when she would learn how ferocious lions can really be.

THE END