I said, absently brushing a black ant from the morphing cube. It hit the ground and ran up my leg.
“No, it’s not, Cassie. It’s only mimicking,” Rachel insisted, shaking her head. “Don’t make this more than it is. It should have died a long time ago.”
“She’s right,” Marco said, giving me a knowing look. “You didn’t do it any favors by keeping it alive, Cassie. Now one of us is going to have to …”
There was an uncomfortable pause.
“Well,” Jake said, rising. “I think we’d better get moving again. The Yeerks are going to find us, no question about that, but we want to be in place when it happens.”
“Mee-meep,” Marco said, jumping up. “Anvil time.”
I rose slowly. The buffa-human did, too.
“You have to get it to morph back to buffalo,” Jake said, avoiding my eyes. “It’s probably safest that way. The rest of us will head out. We’ll move slow enough for you to catch up, Cassie.”
And the buffalo? I wanted to ask. What about it? Am I supposed to lead it off another cliff, or out into the dangerous undertow and abandon it? What was I supposed to do with this poor, mutated animal that never should have existed? And why was I the one who was going to have to kill it?
But I didn’t ask that last question because I knew what they would say.
And they were right, only …
I turned away as the others began their morphs.
“Ready?” I said in a low voice to the buffa-human, blocking his view of the others.
It cocked its head. “Guuuuhhhdd.”
“Yes, you’re good,” I whispered, closing my eyes and concentrating on the buffalo’s powerful DNA. “Now, pay attention.”
I felt the changes begin. The usual. Bones grinding, contorting, wrenching backward and forward, stretching and disappearing. The feeling that your entire body is shot full of Novocain, so you’re aware of the impossible crunches and gurgles, but you don’t actually feel them.
I opened my eyes and saw the buffa-human finishing its morph. Thick horns were crawling out of the center of its massive head, slithering down past its tufted ears, and curving back up with deadly accuracy.
SPRROOT!
Its tail sprouted and it flicked it.
I told him in thought-speak, watching his ears flick and twist, disturbed at the sound that made no sound outside his head.
Thwok thwok thwok!
Jake picked up the blue box and held it tight in his jaws.
I moved behind a huge clump of bushes, where the buffalo couldn’t see me. Demorphed and remorphed into a wolf.
I felt my teeth shifting in my gums, sprouting into long, gleaming fangs. Felt my body stretch and grow sleek with powerful muscles. Felt the thick ruff of fur ring my neck and ripple across my body.
Thick pads bulged and hardened on my hands and feet.
My skull cracked and remolded, expanding into a canine muzzle.
Jake called impatiently.
I said, as soon as the morph was finished.
Rachel began.
Marco said in his best “superhero voice.”
The air stirred as the others raced out of the clearing.
I smelled the buffalo’s confusion. Heard the dull clop of its hooves against rock as it hurried after them, snorting and calling, puzzled at being left behind.
And suddenly, I was overcome. Fear. Frustration. Panic. Exhaustion.
Why had this happened! To us? To this poor creature?
I didn’t know and would never know. And I was tired of not having the answers.
With a whimper I bolted into the woods after the others. Bulleted past the lumbering buffalo. Ignored its plaintive calls.
Ran and ran and ran until the faint scent of the salty ocean filled my nostrils. Ran until the buffalo’s cries had faded to whispers, replaced by the dull, insistent throbbing of a distant, but approaching helicopter.
I could hear the others padding swiftly through the woods in front of me and the faint crashing of the surf against the shoreline.
I didn’t want to think about the buffalo lost somewhere behind me.