Chapter 15

The four of us demorphed so that we would be able to acquire the hare. Samantha morphed quickly to greyhound. Apparently this had been her first solo morph - the first once she'd done since we'd been rescued by Eramas. And this was the first time she'd put it to proper use. Maggie refused to watch. I could see I'd upset her, but I'm not the sort of person who's very good at apologising, so I just kind of avoided eye-contact with her and kept out of her way. To be honest with you, I think she deserved to apologise to me just as much as I should apologise to her. In my opinion, she'd shown prejudice about my sport, without knowing much about it. But I didn't say anything about this to her. Each to their own, as my mother would say!

Sam was soon greyhound. The hare was still munching away on the grass. It would have been practically invisible to a human, but we'd been able to see where it was as deer and wolf, and had remembered the location. Sam put her nose in the air, searching for the scent.

--Ok, I can smell the hare. God, this sense of smell's brilliant. Luckily the wind is blowing towards us, so I can smell the hare but it can't smell us as well. Right, I've never done this before, so wish me luck!--

"Good luck," I replied. "Shall I place a bet?"

And she was off!

What a show it turned out to be! Sam had crept within a few meters of the hare, but it had soon noticed her presence and was off like a shot! Soon the two of them were locked in a fearsome cat-and-mouse chase, weaving and zigzagging across the whole of the field.

--Ohhhh my gaaawd!-- yelled Sam, partly from the rush, partly from the thrill.

Left! Right! Left! Left! Right! Straight! Pause! Go!

The hare was trying to outwit Sam by turning sharp corners, but what it didn't know was that this was no ordinary greyhound chasing it. This was a greyhound with the mind of a human girl. Sam soon spotted what it was doing. There was no way it would escape.

Another sprint! It was breathtaking to watch! Sam's greyhound certainly knew a thing about speed. Thirty-Forty-Fifty miles an hour at some points! Her supple back bending and folding in on itself, then flattening out like a whip. Long legs propelling her across the ground like a cheetah, several meters a stride! I began to get jealous of Sam. With some many Controllers chasing us, there was nothing I felt like more, now, than a good chase with me doing the catching.

The hare was slowing down now - completely exhausted from its non-stop running. With one final burst of speed, Sam leapt up and grabbed the hare between her teeth.

--Got it!-- yelled Sam in triumph.

"Don't kill it!" squealed Maggie.

Sam bought the hare back to the three of us. Philip started to acquire it immediately to put it in a trance, then me and Maggie, whilst Sam demorphed at top speed to acquire it before it woke up from the trance. Soon, the four of us had the hare's DNA floating about in our bloodstream. The hare sprinted off, out of sight. Sam crouched on the floor, panting.

"Ok, guys," she gasped. "I'm just gonna take a breather, and then we'll all morph hare and sprint to the other side."

"Hope a real greyhound comes along," muttered Maggie, to me only. "Then you'll know firsthand exactly what it's like to torture an animal in the name of sport."

--Yaaahhh haaahh!-- I yelled.

I've felt speed as a horse. I've felt speed diving through the air as a falcon. That was pretty exciting, I can tell you. And I've felt speed whilst cruising along at fifty miles an hour five thousand feet up in the air as a goose. But I've never felt speed like I've felt it now.

--I'm the Energiser Bunny!-- I yelled.

It was like nothing I'd felt before. So close to the ground, my nose was practically scraping the floor, but shooting along through the undergrowth - it was like the ground was moving beneath me! I felt like I'd drunk a million cups of coffee! A lightening bolt had just hit me! I'd stuck me tongue in a power supply! I felt like I was strapped underneath a Ferrari, skimming across Silverstone at a thousand miles an hour. And my hares' crazy instincts just twisted the power button to maximum!

--Whoa!-- cried Maggie. --This is amazing!--

--Whoohoo!-- screamed Sam.

I almost didn't notice when we reached the other side of the meadow. It was over a few hundred meters from one side to the other, but we'd made it in less than 30 seconds!

--My god, that was incredible!-- gushed Maggie as we began to demorph. She had clearly forgotten her disapproval of the whole event.

--What a rush!-- I agreed, watching the brown hair on my body melt together to form my own pink skin. My huge long ears shrunk to become little round human ears. My hearing immediately dulled, as if someone had put the world on mute. My big black eyes slid round from the side of my head back to the front, decreasing my all-round view, but improving my depth perception. My strong back legs reformed into my weak human legs. Paws grew fingers. Toes popped out at the end of my back legs, only to be covered by my morphing boots. I grew upwards, my spine stretching out in actual terms, but shrinking in comparison to how it had been when I was a hare. I suddenly felt as if someone had shoved a ruler down my back to make me unable to move my back freely. At last, my little hare mouth and twitchy nose reformed into human features and my thought-speaking ability switched off.

I grinned at Philip, who had, as usual, reached human before the rest of us. "Enjoy that?" I asked.

"Yeah, but not as good as flying," he replied.

I laughed, and dizzy from the adrenaline rush, started my morph back to stag.