Jake stopped, looked around, and announced, "This is good." We were a few hundred yards into the woods. I came to rest on a low branch of a huge oak tree. The hawk in me took note of a squirrel a few branches up. He started chittering and shrieking his little squirrel warning: Danger! Danger!

Hawk! Hawk!

I gave him a look. He twitched, stuck the acorn he was holding into his cheek, and took off at full speed.

"What I don't get is why I have to be a girl wolf," Marco grumbled.

"We had one male and one female," Cassie explained for the tenth time. "If two of us morphed into the male, we'd have two males. Two male wolves might decide they had to fight for dominance."

"I could control it," Marco said.

"Marco, you and Jake already fight for dominance, and you're just ordinary guys," Rachel pointed out.

17 "She's right," Cassie said sadly. "I'm afraid your primitive male behavior might slow us down."

"Hey, when I morphed into a gorilla, I handled that gorilla brain okay, didn't I?" Marco demanded.

"Sure, Marco," Rachel said. She batted her eyes. "But that was different. You and the gorilla were already so much alike."

Cassie and Rachel gave each other discreet high-fives.

"Hugely funny," Marco said.

"We flipped a coin, fair and square," Jake said. "I got to be the male. You're one of the females. Get over it."

"Let me see that coin again," Marco said suspiciously.

Jake just smiled. "Let's just do this. Cassie, you want to go first, to see what it's like?"

We had learned from hard experience that morphing can be extremely disturbing. Jake had morphed into a lizard and been almost overpowered by the animal's fearful brain. The same had happened to Rachel when she'd morphed a shrew. She still had nightmares about the shrew experience - its fear and, worse, its hunger for bugs and rotting flesh.

On the other hand, Jake had morphed into a flea, and according to him it was kind of a big nothing. Like being trapped inside a very old, very bad video game where you could barely see anything. The flea brain had been too simple to make trouble.

"Okay. I'll let you know." Cassie closed her eyes and concentrated. Then she opened them again. "Wait. Let me get down to my morph suit first. I don't want to get tangled up in my clothes."

She removed everything but a leotard, kicked off her shoes, and stood barefoot on the pine needles.

The first change was her hair. It went from very short black to shaggy silver in just a few seconds. It traveled down from her head, down her neck, over her shoulders, around her neck.

Long, shaggy fur.

Then her nose bulged out.

I shuddered. You never really get used to seeing people morph. It is something straight out of a nightmare. Even though Cassie seems to have some kind of talent for it. She's never quite as gross as the others. I guess it's because she's so close to so many animals. Maybe she just has a special feel for them.

Still, as the wolf snout began to push out from her face, it was not a pleasant sight.

Her ears grew furry and pointed. Then they slid straight up the side of her head till they almost touched on top.

18 Her eyes went from brown-black to golden brown.

All over her body, the fur replaced the bright pinks and greens of her leotard. A tail suddenly shot out from behind. I could hear the grinding of her bones as they rearranged. Her upper arms shortened. Her lower arms grew longer. Fingers shriveled and disappeared, leaving behind only stubby black nails, There was a sickening crunch as her knees changed direction. Her legs shrank and thinned and grew fur.

Suddenly she fell forward, no longer able to stand erect.

It had taken about two minutes.

Cassie was now a wolf.

"How is it?" Jake asked.

Cassie jerked suddenly at the sound of his voice and spun around to face him. She bared her teeth and snarled a warning that would have made a Taxxon back up.

She had very impressive teeth.

"Let's all stand really still," Jake said.

"Good idea," Marco agreed. "Really, really still. Because those are really, really big teeth."

Everyone stood motionless. They had all been through similar experiences. We knew what was happening. Inside the wolf's head, Cassie was fighting to gain control of the wolf's wild instincts.

"Sorry," she thought-spoke at last. "I have it now."

"Are you sure?" Rachel asked warily.

"Yes, it's fine. I'm fine. In fact . . . it's really kind of wonderful! The sense of hearing. Wow!

And my nose. Whoa, that's incredible. I've never morphed an animal with such a strong sense of smell."

"Then I'm extra glad I put on deodorant," Marco joked.

"Who had bacon for breakfast?" Cassie turned her wolf head this way and that. "Rachel?

Bacon? I thought you were going to go vegetarian!"

Marco laughed at the guilty look on Rachel's face. "Oooh, busted by Cassie the wonder-nose.

"

"Let's get busy," Jake said. "The two-hour clock is now running. Tick-tock."

One by one they each stole a glance at me. I'm the handy reminder of what happens if you stay in a morph for too long.

19 20 CHAPTER 7

I was jealous.

I mean, okay, if you ever have to be stuck as an animal, I think being a hawk is the coolest choice of all.

But still, I was jealous. My friends were really enjoying being wolves. I guess it was a strange experience for them.

I flew above the forest, skimming the treetops, while down below they ran. They moved so fast it wasn't always easy for me to keep up. Not that their actual speed was so great. It's just that they never stopped. Never rested. They just moved at a constant twenty miles an hour or so. Over fallen logs. Between trees. Under bushes. Nothing even slowed them down.

Well, actually, that's not completely true. Two things slowed them down a little.

One was Jake. He was the dominant male. In wolf packs that's called an "alpha." So he had a special wolf job to perform.

"Jake, just how many more times are you going to pee?" Rachel demanded after his fifth stop.

"I . . . I don't know. I kind of have to do it a lot," he admitted.

"Why? Did you drink too much soda before we left?"

"I don't know," he admitted. "I just keep getting this urge to pee."

"You're scent marking," Cassie explained. "You're marking out a territory."

"I am?"

"Yes, you are. It's normal. For a dominant wolf. At least that's what my wolf book said.

Although it's a little gross for the rest of us to have to watch." The other thing that slowed them down was when they stopped once and started to howl. It was Jake who started it. It caught everyone by surprise. Including Jake himself.

"OWWW-OOOOOOO-yow-yow-OOOOOO. "

"What the - " Marco started to say, but then he was doing it, too.

"Yow-yow-OOWWOOOOO!"

Cassie and Rachel weren't far behind.

"OOOOO-yowww-OWW-OOOOOOO!"

I heard the yowling, of course, so I took a quick turn around a tree and headed back to them.

"What are you people doing?" I demanded. "We're in a hurry here. You guys can only stay in morph for two hours. Why are you wasting time howling?"

21 "I don't know," Jake admitted sheepishly. "I just suddenly felt like it would be a good idea."

"Once he started I . . . I kind of felt like I should join in," Rachel said.