Chapter 4

"Ok, Peter's going to say some stuff about the training weekends now, as he's the best guy for the job."

Lucy stepped back and a tall, dark haired third year took her place.

"Hey, guys," he said. "Ok, training weekends. As you might know, it's the law in this country for all potential morphers to go through an intensive training course before they are qualified to go solo. That's the same for everyone - military and civilians, animal experts or Joe Public, and it happens the same way all over the world. Which is great, because once you've got your licence, you can morph anywhere - here in England, or Australia, France, anywhere. Of course, they don't just let anyone morph. I expect everyone here will be able to do it, but they might check that you don't have any serious criminal convictions or anything like that. Also, you have to be in good health, because they're still not sure what the effects on people with illnesses are. It is alien, after all. There was a case in the courts a few years ago about doctors in some hospital in America just giving the morphing technology illegally to patients to make them well again, but one woman's symptoms became even worse. She went public, there was a lot of throwing around of lawsuits, and eventually the doctors were sacked and yet another law was passed."

"Sounds mad to me," I said. "Like people still don't know what this technology entails."

"That's why it's so dangerous," Julia murmured. "I'm still not a hundred percent sure I want to do it."

Peter continued talking. "Anyway, back to the training weekends. It's basically a day of lessons teaching you the theory of morphing. How to morph, what it's like, how to control the animal's instincts, how to communicate in morph, all the rules and safety procedures. Morphing is often viewed as one of the most dangerous sports you can do, but it's actually one of the safest - very few other sports have such extreme safety measures and insurances in place. Nothing can go wrong - as long as people stick to the rules. Wherever you read about an accident that is the result of morphing, that's only because the idiot didn't follow the rules."

"Bet that Berenson dude didn't have all these licensing rules and stuff," Sebastian whispered. Jake Berenson was one of the world's very first morphers, famous, of course, as the leader of the resistance of the Yeerk invasion of Earth.

"The training weekend will generally take place over two days. The first day - Saturday - will be for the lessons and will include a short test at the end."

This got a groan out of everyone.

"Don't worry!" Peter laughed. "It's just a half-hour multiple-choice thing. Not like these tortuous uni exams. Anyway, the Sunday will be the day you actually get the morphing technology and acquire your first morph. Then, in a one-on-one tuition with an instructor, you will carry out your very first morph - something I bet you're all dying to do! When you've done one good, full morph, you go off into groups and practise. Make sure you can control the animal, learn to thought speak, demorph properly and all that. I think you have to do at least three different animals successfully, including an insect or a fish before you pass and get your license. Anyone got any questions?"

A girl in the front row spoke up.

"What is your first morph? Do they choose it for you?"

"It's usually something basic, like a cat or a dog," Peter replied. "I think they also do horses, flies, and a few other things for the learners as well."

"Where does all this take place?" another guy asked.

"There's a zoo about forty minutes from here which does morphing courses. We've been using it for about two years now, and it's really good. A lot of the instructors are ex-army or zoo-keepers or vets, and they really know their stuff. They're a good laugh, too, so it should be a fun weekend."

"When is the training weekend?" I heard Sebastian ask.

"We're probably going to have to run three or four, considering the number of people we have here, so I'll have to send out some emails and let you all know. But there is one booked for this weekend, for anyone who can't wait to get started, and they'll probably just run every weekend after that until the end of October. There's some forms at the front for people who are interested, just fill them in and hand them to me at the end of the meeting. They'll be an email about details coming round too - times and what to bring and stuff. We will be staying over night though, so make sure you can get hold of a sleeping bag as the accommodation is pretty basic there. And it's an early start on Saturday, so don't go painting the town red on Friday night!"

"Up for it?" René asked me.

"Yeah, I think so," I said brightly. "Be great if we can get on the first weekend, before our work load starts."

"Anyway, guys, I'm going to let Nick take over now to chat a bit about what we do on Tuesday nights, for people who can already morph."

Peter took his seat, and was replaced by Nick, whom Chloe had found attractive. Being a guy, I wouldn't know, but I suppose he did remind me of a younger version of Brad Pitt. He stood up and introduced himself - I was never going to remember all these names! - and told us about Tuesday nights.

"Basically," he was saying in his lazy, drawling voice, "once you've passed the test and got your license, you can pretty much morph whenever and whatever you want. A lot of people go home and try out morphing their pets or whatever, and this is all great, but sometimes it's fun to do it with other people. You can get more morphs that way, and learn from other people. So on Tuesday nights, same time as now, we can meet up and morph together. Sometimes it's one we've all got already, like a dog, and we go mess about for a few hours on the common. Other times we might arrange a trip to a acquire a certain new animal - which is how most of us get some of our more unusual morphs. A lot of zoos, shelters and even pet shops let people acquire their animals for a couple of quid."

"Or we just sneak in!" laughed the committee member named Danni.

"Yeah, there is that! I got a fox morph that way once!" Nick grinned. "Just don't get caught by the police - or morph before you do - or you'll get a fine! Anyway, like I said, sometimes we go out for a bit of fun morphing, other times we go acquire animals. It's really casual, just depending on who turns up and what people want to do. Usually, the first few Tuesdays of term are for acquiring animals, so everyone has something better than cats and dogs, and then after Christmas, we tend to just go for morphing. There's the Lake a few miles from here where a lot of people morph fish and dolphins, which is good fun. I think we're going there next Tuesday, actually, for anyone who's interested. There's often a really good atmosphere there because there's so many morphers around. Or we might just go owls and have a bit of a lazy flight over the city. A few of us went out last week to the fields the other side of the motorway and morphed horses - that was a laugh. Occasionally we meet up on Friday afternoons to go flying, as the thermals are better for it then than in the evening. Even if you don't have the same morph as everyone else, you can come along anyway, because we can all thought-speak to one another."

Nick paused and took a swig of water from his water bottle. "We usually go out and get drunk after that!" he laughed. "So all the more reason for coming along!"

"I've got a quick question," some guy said. "I can already morph, but I was just wondering how you meet when you go out for a morph, not an acquisition? Do you all come on the bus, get changed, morph, come back, get changed and go home? Or morph at home and meet in morph somewhere else?"

"Depends what we're doing," Nick replied. "If it's something like dolphins, then we meet up beforehand and get the minibus down to the lake and get changed there. Although again, someone might prefer to morph at home and meet us there. If we're doing birds, we usually morph at home and meet in morph. People do different things according to what morphs they have and if they are really confident at doing it alone."

"This is gonna be so wicked!" squealed René. "I can't wait!"

Nick eventually passed us over to Jane, who talked to us for a while about costs and prices of things. It was fairly expensive - three hundred pounds for the training weekend and your first morph, plus the thirty quid membership fee. But after that you got a lot of stuff for free, like if you went to a zoo which allowed acquisitions, they would pay for it. Simon then took over and talked bit about the upcoming Estrinology tournaments, and how they would be holding try-outs for experienced morphers later in the month. But I found all that difficult to take in. I was going to become a morpher! A person who could transform into animals, with the help of alien technology! An Animorph, as the traditional term was! I couldn't wait.