Ta-Ka-Me-Ray

At a small, cozy house near the woods there lived a boy and his family. The boy’s name was Jefferson Smith III, but he preferred to be called Jeff. Jeff had brown ruffled hair, freckles and a big smile; he was 9 years old and he had a hunger for adventure. Jeff lived with his ma and pa and his brother—he loved them even when his brother, Jack, was really annoying, and his family loved him back. His ma was 41 years old and Jeff got his smile from her. She had black hair (some white, thanks to Jeff and Jack) and was kind, loving and she liked to bake cookies. His pa was 43 and Jeff got his freckles and hair from him – pa also had a huge sense of humor which ma sometimes didn’t approve of. His brother’s name was Jack and he was 5 years old. He had black hair just like ma and had a (weird) sense of humor. Jack and his family lived in a peach two-bedroom ranch! It seemed like a peaceful house but inside it was filled with pictures of dragons. Jeff happily called this place home, and disliked going to school and leaving his home. But, once he was at school, he loved it there and all the subjects, yet math was his favorite. He also took band and played the trumpet.

Still he loved coming home from school and when he entered the house he would see pictures of himself fighting dragons, fighting wizards, sitting on a pile of golden butter cakes, spooning cream puffs (with golden cream) into his beautiful mouth. He had drawn all of these and would love to draw more but the hallway could not fit any more pictures.

However, today none of this amused Jeff, as he wanted an adventure. So he went around the house to see if anyone wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons, a game where you roll to do your action and fight, but nobody wanted to the play. So Jeff went outside to play with his huge dragon: a stuffed animal, Mr. Flamer had short wings and big disc-like eyes, and was about a foot taller than Jeff. He’d gotten Mr. Flamer two years back, when he turned 7.

Today was a beautiful sunny spring day and Mr. Flamer was ready to rumble. Jeff grabbed his wooden stick and charged at the big smiling dragon like there was no tomorrow. His stick was an enchanted poison blade, which did infinite damage, the battle was long and hard but Jeff pulled it off and got the gold coins (which were a bunch of rocks) that the dragon kept in his cave. Jeff returned to his imaginary village victoriously, and was the hero.

When he was playing with Mr. Flamer, he heard very quiet words being chanted, “Ta Ka Me Ray.” Jeff wondered what that was and followed the sound of the words into the forest. “Ta Ka Me Ray, Ta Ka Me Ray, Ta Ka Me Ray.” The words slowly got louder and louder and Jeff soon found the source of the sound. It was a necklace with a piece of wood, which had been carved into the shape of animals: a bear, a squirrel and a wolf.

Jeff considered how the hero has an amazing 6 pack and passes a test. Jeff quickly prayed, hoping that he would live, and then said, “Ta Ka Me Ray. Ta Ka Me Ray.” POOF!!! When Jeff opened his eyes he saw fur on his arms, then on his legs, then everywhere! He was a bear! He was so surprised he started running (probably away from himself) but ended up tripping over a log and falling down. By the time he got up he heard his mom calling, “Dinner in 20 minutes.”

Jeff was very hungry and started walking back but then he realized he was a bear and that he couldn’t go back. He smacked himself in the face to see if he was dreaming, but the bear claw barely missed his eye and the pad punched his nose. When his eyes stopped tearing, he saw a pack of hungry wolves silently surrounding him.

Jeff was so scared that he backed up away from the pack and tripped over a stump – the wolves saw this as an opportunity and they attacked. Poor Jeff ran for his life, but while he was running he realized something, for if “Ta Ka Me Ray,” changed him into a bear, maybe he could change back with the same words. “Ta Ka Me Ray”, he shouted.

POOF!!! He was a squirrel and he was being chased by some very confused wolves, who were running a little awkwardly, looking toward the alpha male who commanded them with a snarl to keep on chasing. Jeff recalled failing gym class and feeling his squirrel bones begin to ache, quickly ran up a tree for a break. He couldn’t believe how easy it was to rise 40 feet vertically, without even thinking.

Then Jeff tried to sit and slipped, but his claws saved him, and when he clawed his way to a sitting position, he looked at his body and tried moving his legs and arms, they felt the same. Still surprised at the ease with which he climbed to 40 feet, he looked at his paws and smelled them; the odor was gross, like an old man’s foot. He then looked around his furry body and it wasn’t a pretty picture, with matted fur in greasy lumps – he really wanted to be a regular boy again.

All of a sudden Jeff heard a “Boo!” Jeff was so surprised he jumped and touched the sky. He looked behind and saw a baby squirrel laughing very hard. The baby squirrel had big round eyes and a fluffy red tail. She said “Hi, my name is Corny, what’s yours?” Jeff was still in shock but managed to say, “J-J- Jeff.” “Coo-coo-coo-cool!” Jeff stared hard at the little squirrel, obviously his junior, and sniffed. He had better things to do than to be laughed at by a runt who couldn’t even formulate a word. He had to get out of here, he thought, and his attention went back to the wolves, who had disappeared from the base of the tree. After a half hour of ignoring Corny and waiting to spot a wolf, Jeff, rested by now, pointed his head down the tree, but unlike he’d do as a boy, swinging his feet down, lowering his body, Jeff found that his squirrel instincts had him going headfirst! His claws bit into the trunk, and he marveled at the lightness of his body – in fact, the tree stretched out below him like a knobbly roadway, and he began laughing to himself at the freedom he felt as he raced down towards the ground. Maybe it wasn’t such a pain to be a squirrel after all! As he reached the base, the roadway seemed to lift out, and he found himself turning his world right-side up as his claws bit into the earth. Jeff began running around like a little hatchback, tail up, paws drumming the earth like mad, up and over bushes. He felt like he was flying, and when he glanced up to see if Corny was admiring his actions from above, he was greeted with two yellow moons. It was the alpha-wolf! The rest of the wolves had sprung out of their hiding spots. He screamed as he felt hot drool slide down his shoulder, but then he heard a “Hi-yah!”

Out of nowhere, a huge Corny came out and started beating up the wolves, and this was a completely different side of Corny.

It was like a tornado of fury. Corny’s fists were flying into wolves’ faces making their teeth fly, she was like Hulk; unfortunately Jeff didn’t have any popcorn to eat while watching. Soon all the wolves had given up. They were whimpering like little dogs and ran away. “Yay, I beat up all the bad guys!” shouted Corny. “You think you’re the only one with Ta-Ka-Me-Ray powers?” snickered Corny. “I have my own pretty necklace of bones, and I use it to grow five times my size and gain huge muscles!” Corny even had a new voice: a lower voice, filled with brawny power. “No one hurts my new friend J-J-Jeff!” she roared, causing the last wolf to puke and then faint.

After Corny stopped panting and went from Hulk size to normal size they started walking, looking for someone to help Jeff. After a while Jeff started to get hungry so he began looking for food. Jeff had once watched a survival show about how to survive in the woods, but he didn’t have a bow and arrow to shoot some deer for dinner. Then he looked at his necklace and realized that he had turned into 2/3 of the pictures on the necklace. There was a bear and a squirrel: the other one was a wolf. Suddenly Jeff knew what to do, and he said, “Ta Ka Me Ray!” POOF!!! He was a wolf and his instinct to hunt kicked in. His friend Corny looked really delicious, but Jeff knew it was wrong to eat a friend. So Jeff decided to look for some dinner. After a while he spotted a deer eating some grass which made his tummy rumble. He slowly crept towards the deer and he got in position. As fast as lightning, he launched off of his hind legs and pounced onto the deer. It was safe to say that soon, Jeff’s stomach was full. After his delicious meal he went to bed on the ground. The next morning Jeff and Corny woke up and Corny got to ride on Jeff because he got tired of her complaining.

After a while the “Corntastic” duo (which was what Corny named them) stumbled upon a little cottage. Jeff tried his best to knock with his paws but the door was too hard. Corny tried to knock on the door with her head but with no success. Jeff, frustrated, started howling. After a while they heard “All right, all right, I’m coming, I’m coming.” As the door opened, they saw an old man with a brown, knobbly, twisted wand in his hand which made Corny say, “It’s a magic guy!” Jeff tried to talk, but all that came out was “woof.” Then the wizard chanted a spell and slowly Jeff’s woofs turned into actual words! “Woof, woof …you help me?” “What is your problem?” asked the wizard. Jeff told the magical wizard everything from finding the necklace to being chased by wolves. The wizard did not say a thing while Jeff explained. Then Jeff asked the wizard his most important question, “Woofers, woofly, woo… Woo – wow can I turn back into a human?” The wizard calmly replied, “You are the chosen one, the protector of the woods. To turn back into a human you need to chant the spell backwards.” Jeff howled in glee. “Arrroooooo! Aaaa-thank you mister. I just have… Woof, woof, wone more request: can you bring me back to my home?” Right after Jeff finished his sentence, Corny shouted “Mr. Magic Guy, can I have a cookie?”

As soon as Corny finished her sentence, Jeff and Corny were teleported back to Jeff’s house. He then said the spell backwards, “Yar Em Ak Ar.” POOF!!! He was a human again! He put Corny into a hole in a tree with her cookie. Then he walked into the house where Jeff’s parents rammed into him with love saying, “We were so worried. We missed you!” When Jeff finally pried away from his parents after an hour of hugging, he went to his bedroom and he put his necklace on his bedside table and went to sleep dreaming of bears, wolves and squirrels.