Speaker 1: Hello, friends from across the nation and around the world.
I'm Martin, and you are listening to Dad's bedtime Stories.
Tonight is a great night to start listening, because tonight
we're starting a brand new series, one that was suggested
by a listener who left me this voicemail.
Speaker 2: Let's check it out.
Speaker 3: Hello, Martin, my name is Audrey. I'm eleven, and I'm
from Victoria, BC. I would like to suggest a new
series where you wake up and find that you are
a shape shifter and you end up saving the world
countless times.
Speaker 2: Great idea, Audrey.
Speaker 1: I did have to come up with a little more
of a plot than waking up and finding out you
were a shape shifter because some different ideas came into my.
Speaker 2: Head for that.
Speaker 1: And as far as saving the world countless times, I'm
going to need everyone's suggestions for that because tonight will
just be the beginning episode, and whether or not I
do more will depend on if I get ideas from
all of my listeners.
Speaker 2: So if you want to hear more.
Speaker 1: Episodes of the Shape Shifter series or any other series,
don't forget to leave me a message on speak pipe
with your ideas that could get played on a future episode,
or fill out the Google form, or send me an
email or let me know on Patreon. Now, if you
like the podcast, one of the best things you can
possibly do is to share it with other people. If
everyone listening shared it with one other person, we would
double our podcast listeners just overnight. So I'm going to
do something I've done a few times in the past,
and i am starting the social share contest once again.
Speaker 2: The idea here is that if you.
Speaker 1: Share the podcast on social media with some other people,
you get entered in a draw for a guaranteed story,
which I'll be doing at the end of March, and
that guaranteed story idea, as long as it's reasonable, will
be accompanied by the option for a little bit of
an interview to be played on the same episode. I
did this at the same time last year, and we
had lots of fun and I had a lot of
really cool story ideas and some pretty fun interviews as well.
So if you want to join, I'm gonna put all
of the info in the show notes below. This year,
I am asking that if you share the podcast to
please fill out the Google form I have just let
me know that you shared it, because I'll be using
the names from that Google form for the draw itself.
If that makes any sense. Parents, you have to be
a part of this. I won't take any kid kids
submissions that aren't brought to me by their parents. And yeah,
that's about it. So check that out in the show notes.
There's a form to fill out share the podcast if
you want to. But now it's that time again. Time
to get as comfy as you can in that bed,
close your eyes and imagine yourself doing what the kid
in the story does.
Speaker 2: Imagine yourself walking down.
Speaker 1: The street one day when you see a little dog.
You're not sure exactly what kind of dog it is.
It kind of looks like a mix between different kinds.
It has a coat of black and white, and for
some reason, it's holding up one of its paws. It
looks injured. You carefully run over to the little dog
and bend down. It seems very friendly and it walks
up to you and presses its head against your hand.
Are you okay, little guy, you say, petting it on
the head.
Speaker 2: It looks like you have a hurt paw. Can I
help you? You ask?
Speaker 1: In answer to that, the dog sort of jumps into
your arms. Ohkay, you say, as you stand up now
carrying the dog. It's small enough that it's not too
heavy to carry, and you decide to bring it home
with you. Hopefully your hat als will be okay with that.
You arrive home and somehow nobody else is there right now.
You place the dog down on the ground and run
to the kitchen to get a bowl of water. You
fill the bowl up, place it under the pet, and
sit down on the couch, wondering what you can do next.
Why thank you? A voice says from somewhere. You jump back,
looking left and right, trying to figure out where the
voice is come at from. When you hear it again
down here, you look down to see the dog staring
at you. Oh, don't be so shocked. That's right, it's
me the dog. What how are you? How are you
talking to me? You ask, I'm talking to you by
pressing air out of my mouth and through my vocal cords.
But uh, I believe what you really mean is how
is a dog talking to you? And the answer is
a dog is not talking to you, for I am
not a dog. Suddenly, the dog's body starts to get
sort of squigly, sort of less solid and mushy. It
starts to stretch out into a strange looking wizard with
a green hat on, or at least you assume it's
a wizard based on the outfit. He still seems to
have a hurt arm.
Speaker 2: What are you doing in my house? You ask?
Speaker 1: Oh, don't be silly, I won't hurt you. The name
is Toby, Toby Thornfoot, and I am a.
Speaker 2: Sheep shifting wizard.
Speaker 1: As you may have figured out, I truly appreciate you
helping me there. I mean, as a sheep shifting wizard,
I have every ability to heal my own wounds, but
I hadn't had time yet, and you seemed very nice. Uh,
you're welcome. Wait, you can heal your own wounds?
Speaker 2: You ask?
Speaker 1: And in answer to the question, Toby lifts up his
herd arm and focuses on it with both his eyes
and his other hand. His arm itself becomes sort of
wobbly and less solid once again, and then it just
sort of puts itself back in place. He moves the
fingers on his hand to sort of test the thing out. Ah,
that's better, and yes, I can heal myself from most
physical wounds.
Speaker 2: Part of being a shape shifter the trick, you.
Speaker 1: See, is to just sort of shift your shape back
to an unbroken one, though it takes a bit of
concentration to do. But enough about that. Onto your reward,
my reward. But I didn't even really do anything. I
just brought you home. But it turns out you could
have just healed yourself. You say, ah, that's true. But
in bring me home, you proved yourself to be a
friend of animals, and as such, I am going to
give you an opportunity that was once given to me.
How do you feel about becoming a shape shifting wizard yourself?
You mean like I could transform into animals? Yes, in fact,
you could transform into just about anything as long as
you can sort of absorb its DNA. I have been
around for a long time and can form myself into
many different things. As if to demonstrate, the wizard once
again became sort of well, less solid, and shaped itself
into a tiger, then from a tiger into a kangaroo,
from a kangaroo into an orangutang, from an orang a
tang into a bird, and from a bird back into
a wizard. Now I should warn you that with great
power comes great adventure. For some reason, activating the power
of any kind of wizard tends to attract some attention,
some strange events and synchronicities that lead you to getting
caught up in other things, but mostly things that can
help people. The wizard explains, So would you like this power?
How does it work?
Speaker 2: You ask?
Speaker 1: Well, first you must make contact with an animal. You
must focus on that animal, imagine yourself becoming that animal,
and absorb that animal's DNA signature. From there you should
be able to transform.
Speaker 2: Ah, and what do you mean.
Speaker 1: About the adventure thing like I'm suddenly going to be
caught up in strange happenings. Well, yes, essentially, you see,
the universe has a strange way of matching.
Speaker 2: Up people who need help with people.
Speaker 1: Who can help, and as a shape shifter, you will
have an ability to help.
Speaker 2: You think about it for a moment.
Speaker 1: It would be really cool to be able to turn
into a tiger or a bear, or like a big
bird that could soar high above the world. Oh, I'll
do it, you say, Still not sure if any of
this really makes any sense.
Speaker 2: Very good.
Speaker 1: Now, all I must do is unlock your DNA Yeah. Uh,
just stand still there, you stand in place in the
middle of your living room. The wizard Toby walks up
to you and places his hand directly on your forehead.
There's a strange sensation that passes through your body, like
warm water is suddenly shooting out your ears. It's honestly
difficult to describe, but by the time he's done, you
feel different. Ah what now, you ask? Now you find
some animals in practice turning into them. Remember, place your
hand on them, focus on the essence of the animal,
and allow your body to.
Speaker 2: Do the rest. Can you show me? Oh?
Speaker 1: Fine, Toby agrees, but honestly, it's going to come naturally.
Speaker 2: Follow me.
Speaker 1: Toby leads you out of the house and into the yard,
where he looks around for many animals in the area.
Oh and I probably should have mentioned. The power also
gives you the ability to commune with the animals, to
speak to them in a way they'll understand, to call
them to your aid when needed, or to find them
in the neighborhood when you need an animal to teach
someone else. Ou to become a shape shifter. Toby bends
down towards the ground, and out of nowhere, a cat
runs across the grass and stands in front of you.
There we go a neighborhood cat. Simply bend down, touched
the cat on the head or wherever. Honestly, even a
little scrap of fur will do for getting DNA and
focus on becoming the cat. When you look at the cat,
you feel something you've never felt before, as if you
can sense the cat's feelings. He seems curious, apprehensive. It's okay, buddy,
come here, you say, and the cat listens. He walks
over it, towards you and pushes his head up into
your hand. You scratch him on the side of the head.
Then you close your eyes and focus. You focus on
the cat what it's like to be a cat, and
a strange glowing power shoots through your body. You start
to feel less solid, and you begin to change shape.
Your arms and legs shrink, your body squeezes inward, and
fur starts to grow out of pretty much every part
of you. Somehow, your clothing just sort of transforms into
part of the cat as well, which is super strange,
but probably less strange than a cat wearing pants and
t shirt. The world around you suddenly lights up a
different way than it did before. You start to notice everything,
as if the world around you is moving slightly slower.
You hear the wind against the grass, and you feel
it on your whiskers. You see every bird, every animal,
every rodent in the area, and you can smell things too,
and your smell sort of transforms into your eyesight, as
if you can see trails leading all over the place.
You also feel super agile, and you have a sudden
distaste for humankind for some reason that you can't quite
put your finger on. You start to run. You run
like a cat would run, darting across the lawn at
incredible speed. You see a tree and leap in the air,
Grasping on to the tree with your retractable claws.
Speaker 4: You climb up and make.
Speaker 2: Your way on to a branch.
Speaker 1: You look down at the world below, and everything just
seems so peaceful, so serene, very good, Toby says. Walking
over to the tree, he reaches up and grabs you,
pulling you out of the branch and down to the ground.
Now it's important not to get lost in the animal.
It's an easy thing to do. If you stay in
one of the forms too long, you can very well
forget your humanity for a while. I once transformed into
a bird and stayed that way for a year. Boy
was I surprised when I finally snapped out of it.
Anyway to transform back, just focus on being yourself. You
look at him sideways, this strange, very dull man. But
something about what he says makes sense. So you close
your cat eyes and focus on what it was like
to be a human, and slowly you start to feel
less solid once again. Your body begins to grow, your
fur disappears, your clothes appear once again, and before long
you find yourself standing up right directly in front of
Toby the Wizard.
Speaker 2: Very good, and with.
Speaker 1: That, I'll leave you to it. I suggest exploring as
many animal forms as you possibly can. The more full
you have, the more powerful you will be. Once you've
absorbed a form, you can transform into at any time
you wish by simply remembering what it felt like to
do it the first time. But for now, I must
be off, Toby says. Then he becomes sort of less
solid once again, as if his body's melting. He suddenly shifts,
shrinks down, and grows large wings, becoming a pretty gigantic
looking hawk. He jumps in the air, begins to flap
his wings, and flies high up into the sky. I'll
check on you later, he says, as he disappears toward
the clouds.
Speaker 5: Oh, a bird, huh. Becoming a bird would be super useful.
You see a little bird in a tree nearby. How
can I catch it? You wonder, And then you remember
that you are supposed to be able to commune with
the animals.
Speaker 1: So instead of running towards the thing, jumping into the tree,
and trying to tackle the bird, you simply call out
to the thing with your mind. Hey bird, ah, I
want to come over here, you say, holding your hand
up in the air. The bird looks at you sideways,
then jumps from the tree, spreads its wings, and glides
over towards you, landing gracefully on your fingers. You focus
on the bird. You allow the birds DNA and yours
to become one.
Speaker 2: And soon you're.
Speaker 1: Body feels less solid. You begin to melt down towards
the ground. Your arms and legs shrink once again. Your
clothing somehow absorbs into your body, and your arms transform
into wings, Your legs transform into little bird feet, and
somehow you get a tail sticking out behind you. You're
not even sure what kind of bird you are, just
a little one. The other bird, the one that was
in your hand, lands on the ground in front of
you and looks at you. You feel a sense of
well friendship with the bird, a sense that the bird's
calling you to follow it, so you decide to do
just that. The bird hops away, spreads its wings and
begins flat them, pulling itself up into the air. You
instinctively decide to do the same thing. You spread your wings,
hop forward, and for once it feels as if the
air is something that you can actually grab onto. Not
quite like swimming in water, but a lot more like
swimming in water than you might imagine your large bird
arms or wings, I should say, take scoops of the
air and easily lift your light body up. You fly
higher and higher, flapping after the other little bird. You
rise up above the houses in the neighborhood, and then
the bird in front of you begins to just glide,
to spread its wings and fly forward, flapping every now
and then to get a little more height. You imitate
the bird, gliding over on the wind, flapping your wings
for a little more height, and together you soar high
above the world, over top of the city, over top
of shops and stores, and forests until you see something
very interesting below, a place you sort of remember, a
place with lots of different animals. A zoo, the perfect
place to acquire a little more DNA, as long as
you can find a way to touch the animals anyways,
The more dangerous ones, the ones that you would actually
be interested in having, tend to be locked up behind cages,
though birds can fly over many of those cages. Glide
over top of the zoo, taking in all of the
different animals. There's a pen of birds, some sort of
ox creature, strangely, some horses, a couple giraffes, some elephence camels, tigers,
and even a pen full of bears. Besides that, a
whole cage full of all sorts of gigantic looking gorillas.
The only question was exactly where to start. You decide
to swoop down on the tiger cage, since it would
be a pretty good idea to have some sort of
powerful animal in your arsenal. As you first lowered down,
the tigers look very excited, as if they want to
attack you. WHOA, don't attack me, you say, use your mind.
I'm okay, I'm wait a second, I'm a shape shifter.
In fact, I ask all of you to calm down,
to lay down on the ground.
Speaker 2: This is not a bird you want to eat.
Speaker 1: You try to project the best you can, and strangely,
the animals listen. The three tigers inside the cage just
lay down on the ground and relax. You swoop down
towards the grass land beside one of the tigers and
walk up towards it. You lift up one of your
bird legs and place it on the tiger's fur. The
tiger doesn't react in any way, and you focus on
the tiger's DNA.
Speaker 2: The same strange.
Speaker 1: Sensation passes through your body and you begin to feel
more liquidy once again. Your body starts to stretch out
to grow. You grow fur out of your arms and legs,
and you start to feel very very strong. Your little
bird tail transforms into a real tiger tail, and you
feel like you could take on an elephant. You look
around and see that you're well trapped in a cage.
Not the idea way to practice with the form. Maybe
it's something you'll have to try later on. Instead, you
move towards the side of a cage, duck down behind
some grass, and focus on the bird form. Once again. Again,
your body becomes less solid and you transform back into
the bird. You flap your little wings and fly high
up above the cage. Then you come over towards the gorillas.
You land on top of the gorilla cage and look
inside at all of the trees and the little gorilla habitat,
and again you focus on asking the gorillas to be
calm to accept you into the cage. Slowly, they all
just kind of sit down and relax. You duck through
the bars on the top of the cage and land
on one of the gorilla's shoulders. You absorb the gorilla's DNA.
Your body becomes less solid, and you hop over towards
the ground before transforming into a gorilla, developing very strong
gorilla arms and legs until you reach up as tall
as the gorilla that you scanned. You have the sudden
urge to make fists and bang them against your chest.
Speaker 2: So you do.
Speaker 1: You see the trees around you, and well, for some reason,
it feels like an excellent idea to jump up and
grab one of the branches. You do just that, and
it feels natural, as if you could hang here forever.
You swing from one branch to another, making your way
through the gorilla habitat, before deciding that you might want
to get out of here as well. You focus on
the bird once again, transform and fly up out of
the cage, squeezing through the top nimbly before taking off
into the air once again. You're starting to feel rather sleepy.
Maybe it's all of the absorption of different animal powers,
or well, honestly, you're not quite sure, but you are
sure that it's time to head home. You spread your wings,
flap them as hard as you can until you get
up high enough over top of the world and you
begin to glide.
Speaker 2: You glide over.
Speaker 1: The same forests, in the same houses, the same buildings,
until you finally see a familiar home, your home. A
window is open, so you swoop right in into your bedroom.
You land on the ground and focus on what it
was like to be you before all of these animal
shapes came along. Your body transforms, your arms and legs reappear,
along with your clothing, and you crawl into bed. You
pull the covers up to your chin, close your eyes,
and you begin to focus on your breath. With each breath,
you try to let go of a little more tension,
and your muscles You start with your feet and your legs,
allowing yourself to melt down into the mattress. Then you
move on to your shoulders and your neck, releasing all
of the tension you can and allowing yourself to sink
down deeper and deeper into the mattress. And with each
breath you sink down a little bit more. And the
deeper you sink, the better you feel, and the better
you feel, the deeper you sink, until your mind begins
to wander off to thoughts of new dreams, new adventures,
and new animal forms to come.
Speaker 2: Good night.
Speaker 4: Everyone must.
Speaker 6: Never richmon name acommon.
Speaker 4: In ne.
Speaker 6: More union kicking thing