Chapter 4

Whilst Philip and Maggie flew off to find some decent morphs, Samantha and I were left with the not-so-enviable task of 'route planning'.

"Norwich!" shrieked Sam. "Norwich is in completely the opposite direction to where we want to be going!"

"Well, excuse me, but I'm not the one who thought Glasgow was twenty minutes flight from here!"

Unfortunately, since neither of us had a map, (or a particularly sound geography of Britain) things weren't going very smoothly.

"Maybe we should wait til Philip gets back. He did route planning with the army at Sandhurst – cross country too – so he'd be better at this than we are."

I thought this was a very reasonable suggestion, we had been at this for at least half an hour and so far, our plans consisted of 'morph…um, something' and that was about it. But Sam did not take well to constructive criticism of her leadership and planning skills.

"We do not need Philip for this!" she snapped. "I can do this on my own!" She was getting rather peeved off, both to the fact that she couldn't plan a route to save her life (oh, Boom Boom!) and that fact that I was lounging around, trying to catch a spider in the ventilation shaft and clearly being more than laid back about the whole thing.

"Ok," I said, trying to resolve peace. "You're the boss."

Eventually, when we had managed to half-sort out a plan, I spotted two dark shapes in the sky, heading towards us. Philip and Maggie had returned, and Maggie had obviously got herself a bird-of-prey morph. The two of them landed beside us – Philip began to demorph immediately, but Maggie flapped her wings and did a sort of bird-of-prey fashion show. It looked like she'd at last got the hang of morphing. Her first one didn't go down too well with any of us, but I think she had enjoyed being a bird. Flying is fun.

I gaped. Her morph was huge! Bigger, even than Philip's buzzard morph!

"What on earth is that?" I asked Maggie, ducking as her six-foot wingspan almost knocked me off my feet.

--It's called a White Tailed Eagle,-- Maggie said, swollen with pride. --Largest bird in the UK. Bigger, aye, than the Golden Eagle.-- She had a Scottish accent, which was obvious even whilst speaking in morph.

"Wow," I said. It certainly put my little hobby falcon in its place. "That's pretty amazing."

--Aye,-- said Maggie. --I wanted a decent morph to make up from that horrid experience I had as a beetle. This was the best morph I could find.-- She squawked, ruffling her wings noisily.

"Great stuff," I said. "What other morphs did you get?"

--Well, a goose, like Sam said. Except, I don't think it was actually a goose I got at all, but a swan.--

"A swan? Don't you know the difference!"

--Yes, of course I know! I just couldn't see the whole bird! It was a bit scary acquiring it! They can break your arms with their necks, you know. But there was this one goose, or swan, sitting in a hutch-like thing put there by the keepers. It had its bum sticking out, but I couldn't tell if it was a goose or a swan. So I acquired it anyway. It doesn't matter,-- she laughed, seeing the look on my face, --Geese and swans are both excellent long-distance travellers, and they look the same in the sky anyway!--

"True," said Philip, who was already mostly human.

"What other animals did you acquire?" asked Sam.

--I got the swan and the eagle, and I also got a wolf. That will be great for fighting as well as travelling. Wolves have a unique bone structure in their legs, you know, which means they can run tirelessly for hours on end.--

"I acquired the wolf, too," pointed out Philip.

--Plus a tawny owl and a dolphin.--

"I've got a dolphin morph!" I said. "They're great fun! I can't wait to morph it!"

Philip ignored me, and said,

"So, not a huge amount of animals, but we didn't have much time. The birds were easiest to acquire, which is why she has ended up with three. The wolf will be pretty universal, so she can use it for travelling when we're in deer morph."

"Should do us well," said Sam, nodding. "Come on, Mags, you'd better go back to human. You've only got two hours in morph, remember."

Maggie started demorphing. Her light, honey coloured feathers turned the pinkish peach of her skin, and dissolved into her skin. Her huge, yellow, hooked beak melted into her own nose and mouth. Bushy red hair sprouted (more wildly than my own, I may add) from the top of her head. Her fierce amber eyes slowly became larger and gentler. Ears popped out of the side of her head, fingers and toes reformed, replacing wings and talons. Her white feathered tail split in two and moulded into her legs. And, last but not least, a red and orange leotard appeared over her body and down her arms!

"I, err, took the liberty of acquiring Maggie a morphing outfit whilst she acquired the animals," said Philip.

"Very cool one, too," said Sam, admiring the flame designs of the velour leotard. "Where did you get it from?"

"Oh, er, just a little sports shop I spotted on the way back," Philip said vaguely.

Something wasn't registering here. What was it? Ah – of course!

"How did you pay for it?" I said, incredulously.

Philip blinked and ran the tip of his tongue round his upper lip. He does this when he's nervous – or about to tell a lie.

"I knew it!" I squealed triumphantly. "You nicked it, didn't you!"

"Nicking's not the word!" he retorted. "I was merely borrowing it! I have all intentions of returning it once-"

"What, once we get to America?"

"I'll find a way," he said loftily. "Besides, this is a case of life and death. I would expect everyone to be issued the correct kit."

"Right, well," said Sam, obviously feeling this was the point where she should step in. "Philip, maybe you shouldn't have stolen the leotard, but it's too late now. Besides, this is a matter of urgency. And Maggie definitely needs a morphing outfit. So we'll leave it for now, and if we ever find a way to pay the shop back, we'll do that. Agreed?"

"I absolutely love it when Sam gets all commanding like that," I joked.

"Agreed?" Sam repeated, glaring at me.