It was a humid dawn where only the first sun showed on the horizon. The breeze blew into the deep forest where the only sound was the buzz of bugs sucking blood. Jed grunted picking at what felt to be a tick stuck to him.

“Cover me” he said, picking the glove box for supplies.

“Don’t say another word” replied Mule, focusing on the flickering light inside the very long tollbooth.

Orange flames emitted off a lighter burning a very redneck, however it mostly killed the parasite attached.

“Let’s hope I don’t mutate due to some disease,” said Jed.

“Don’t be a worry wart soldier, you know as well as I the shots, pills, and medicine given to you before your mission by the empire”said Mule, spitting a wad of cured Wormleaf.

“Nope the budgets been cut and all we got was one multi shot in the rear”

“Mmm.mmm.mmm.. that smells like cherry pie” said Mule, whiffing a gulp of air.

He had trotted to the tollhouse, and was leaning his front hooves on the gated window of the super long structure.

“Hey why don’t I just kick the door so we can eat this food that’s been abandoned, knock knock anyone home”. Called Mule, taping his hoofs against the establishment.

“Now don’t get us thrown in jail behaving like an ass” said Jed, yanking the donkey away by the tail.

The sound of a coin hitting a hole in one hypnotized them to a stand still. Inside past the steamy pie claws more than four feet long gradually revealed round the corner. It swiped a quick attack, causing Jed, and Mule to wince.

They looked back inside the building. The pie once baiting them had disappeared while the paint had been peeled off the jukebox with claw marks. It was a music player built like a tank that sparked to life lighting a backlight depicting a cactus. A needle hit the groove of a spinning record somewhere beneath the cover of a curtain of filth. Dreary stingers began to play with old moans of dying speakers full of soot.

“What an awful choice of avant-garde art” said Jed, stepping back. “I like my baselines funky to accompany a dance in a honky tonk joint”. He finished slapping a leg.

“Agreed” shivered Mule.

The door next to them swung open, as the wind howled with it. The cat hissed, spraying them with a fishy smelling rain through the window. Mule jumped into the air while Jed’s legs buckled on seeing the large cat clawing towards them. He ran away carrying a Mule.

The floor inside the building loudly squeaked like a chew toy with every step of the advancing cat. Jed flung both of them past the metal gates blocking their big rig truck with no cab from going further.

“Let’s hope it suddenly becomes friendly, ' whispered Jed, after throwing his friend in the passenger seat.

It hissed, and showed golden fangs behind the bars of the ticket booth. It was dressed in a flashy sleeveless wool sweater vest. An intricate knitted fine armor with shark designs woven all over.

“Be ready” said Mule, snapping shut the shotgun strapped on his pack.

It held something threateningly in its paws.

“Behind the truck, show yourself as the rat you are if you want to advance” said the cat.

“What a riddle it wants?” whispered Jed.

“No riddle, look at your friend there, for you have been fooled by a master of changing to whatever shape helps its goals at the moment” smiled the cat, sparking a massive cigar.

Mule was having reactions to the liquid the cat had previously hit him with. He had started swelling, forming hives, and one leg had transformed into a goat hoof. Jed fell backwards in shock crawling away while who he thought had been his friend convulsed.

“What is this, what are you really Mule?” said Jed, pointing his rifle indecisively.

Mule’s body had disappeared into thin air. A large rat scuttled to safety underneath the big rig. The cat pounced underneath with one leap, and out the other side with another. Jed readied to shoot.

“Got yah” the beast smiled, playing with its food between paws with claws retracted.

“Put him down at once or I blast” said Jed, approaching with his weapon aimed.

“Hold up let me ask him some questions, I assure you if you shoot I will snap the life from him and most likely you too man with my cat like reflexes,” said the cat, flaring its nostrils.

“Makes sense.. Go on Mule start speaking” said Jed.

The rat wiggled and tried to free itself from captivity unsuccessfully. The cat chomped onto its stogie, and began smoking the hostage out of its nostrils. The vermin coughed a fit morphing into a golden haired howling monkey. Immediately after completing the transformation it started to resist. A smoke screen walled off Jed as the animal fight began. It sounded like a circus in rebelion. Jed finally got the nerve to run forward. As the smoke cleared the cat held its claws to the monkey's neck.

“Fine you got me” sighed the talking monkey.

“What is your real name?” asked Jed, switching aim back and forth between two targets.

“I don’t have one,” replied the creature.

“Nonsense if the lies do not stop then you will stop breathing” said the cat, pressing further with its claws.

“Why would something that can change into anything have a concrete identity” whispered the monkey shifting slightly.

The cat blew out another cloud of smoke and the monkey puffed away inside of it. A hornet buzzed away from them flying into the tollbooth. The barrier began to rumble as the gate raised away.

“Kill the cat and let's hit the road again Jed” said Mule’s familiar donkey bray from within the nearby building. “Just because I'm a shifter doesn’t make me shifty at heart” it finished.

“And how do you know he has one?” called the cat, licking its lips.

The truck pulled away stunning both creatures.

”Where do you think you're going cowardly human?” they both called in a united front.

“I’ve had enough of this shit, it’s time to gun it to my payday, and retire to a needed life of normalcy” cried Jed, hitting the steering wheel in rage.

He shifted into second gear, and the smoke stacks of the big rig launched magma, and soot like miniature volcanoes