Chapter 4

Sara, Elliott and I all met at 9pm as planned outside the zoo and of course, it was Leo and Lindsay that were late! I had been there about 15 minutes by the time they arrived and I was freezing cold!

"So, we ready for some acquiring fun?" Leo seemed unusually enthusiastic

"What's up with you?" I frowned at him

"I love this morphing business! It's awesome!" He gave a cheesy grin

"So you have practiced it?" Sara enquired

"Yeah..." Lindsay replied- she did not seem impressed by it "It was not a pretty sight..." It was hard not to crack a smile at this.

"That is a point: have people brought spare clothes?" I asked. As I had expected, no one expect Sara and I had done "Where would you be without me?" I raised an eyebrow jokingly. We threw our bags of extra clothes over the zoo fence so that we had some clothes to get changed into over there.

"Let's get going then" I tried to be enthusiastic despite the prospect of what we were about to do

"Yeah! Let's morph" Again, Leo was way too enthusiastic

We all began to quickly morph. I couldn't tell you what was happening to the others as I was focusing too hard on what was happening to me. The first thing that changed was my feet- I felt them become all scaly and develop claws, instead of toes. Then, the feathers began suddenly popping up all over my skin. I slowly began to shrink whilst my wings began to develop instead of arms. At this point, I must have looked like a bird with just a feathery human head but then that soon changed when my face began to extrude outwards into a beak. Now, I was a magpie!

I looked around me- God, birds have amazing eyesight! I could see the other four birds near me- a hawk, a robin and two blue tits.

Are we ready? I looked around- that was Sara's voice in my head Yes, I can do thought speech as the Andalite could She was informing the others It is pretty easy actually. Have a go!

I tried but only could make a bird's audible noise, not thought speech

Have I done it? Elliott had mastered it



Sara explained I think you can channel your speech specifically to one person or to a whole group but I'm not sure about that just yet

Can you hear me? I suddenly managed to do it

Lindsay quickly did it also, leaving Leo who seemed to have a lot more trouble with it. We left it at that for now as we needed to get on with what we were doing.

This morph was much easier to control when compared with Millie's mind: this magpie's mind seemed to be relaxed and didn't mind me taking over.

We began to learn to fly- it was relatively simple but tiring to do once you got the hand of it. We flew upwards and over the large fence of the zoo and into it. Remember; look out for security guards- do not land near them! Sara warned us

We flew in and landed on the ground, nowhere near any security guards so we were safe. We automatically began to 'de-morph' out of our animal forms. We quickly grabbed for clothing as we were ready, and putting them on in record time to avoid embarrassment.

"We really need to fathom out some solution to that!" said Leo and we all agreed

"Ready then?" Sara asked "Well, once I get us behind the scenes with my Dad's pass, we can split off and go wherever we want pretty much and acquire morphs. Remember, the more dangerous, the better"

"Oh, yippee- I can't wait to die" Leo said sarcastically. He received another whack across the arm from Lindsay

Sara began to walk to the door with access to the enclosures "Come on". We followed her to the door and Sara whipped out her Dad's pass, slipping it through the sensor machine- it granted us access. "We're in" Sara gave us a devious smile and we quickly entered behind her. We gathered as a group just behind the door.

"I will go with Zach and Elliott" Sara dictated "You two can go together" She motioned her head at Leo and Lindsay "Keys should be on hooks somewhere near the enclosure entrance, take them and let yourself in or the doors just might be accessible with the animals in cages within. Ok? Oh, and be careful! Quickly acquire the DNA of the animal and get out of there. Make sure you lock up afterwards if you do have to use keys!" She took a deep breath "Oh, and do remember about the security guards" She gave everyone a smile.

"Not much then" Leo rolled his eyes slightly

"Come on, let's go!" I began to walk off in a random direction. Sara and Elliott quickly began to follow me. I turned back around to Leo and Lindsay, remembering something "Be back here in about half-an-hour!" I then turned and carried on walking.



Sara ran up beside me "So, what do you want to acquire and I can take you there?"

"What do you have?" I grinned like a little child at the thought

"Well, if I remember rightly, I reckon the lion enclosure is just up here, if you want? Oh and maybe the gorilla one too"

That put an even bigger grin on my face "That sounds great!"

Sara turned to Elliott "What about you, Elliott?"

He smiled widely also "Do you have any polar bears?"

We had now reached the entrance to the lion enclosure. "You ready?" asked Sara as she reached for the keys to open it for me

"You coming in with me?" I asked, slightly scared suddenly

"Yeah" She gave a confident smile. Sara then opened the door and I could see inside to each of the cages that each singular lion was held in. Sara was first to go in and then I followed, going in carefully and quietly as not to agitate one of the lions (not that I would actually know how to it!). Sara walked over to a cupboard and retrieved a toy of some sort for the lions. She then quietly approached the Alpha Male lion, holding out the toy for it. It was enticed by the toy and came forward quite calmly. Sara jolted her head to me and whispered "Come acquire it now, do it slowly!"

I went wide-eyed "Oh yeah". I reached out my hand to the lion and slipped it in between the bars of the enclosure. I rested my hand gently on the forehead of the lion and began to acquire it's DNA. It quickly went limp as they do. I had lion DNA as part of me now! I pulled my hand away and gave her a smile "Well, that was easier that what I expected"

"Yeah" she simply said and suddenly began to attract the attention of the female lion in the next cage. It quickly came towards her.

I looked worriedly at her "What are you doing?"

"I might as well acquire one too" The female lion went limp also. Sara pulled her hand away and casually made her way over to the cupboard once more, putting the toy back where it was originally. She then turned back to me "Next one?"

"Of course"

We made our way out of the enclosure and was greeted by a suddenly cheery Elliott "Oh thank God, you're alive!"

I chuckled at hi "It's not as bad as you think"



We carried onwards without any glitches i.e. being killed by a wild animal or being caught by a security guard. We all acquired a wolf, I acquired gorilla, and Elliott and I acquired oxen. I was now waiting outside for Sara and Elliott to acquire polar bears: I didn't really fancy being a polar bear for some reason.

I regularly look left and right, up and down the corridor. I suddenly saw Leo and Lindsay running towards me with a look of horror on their faces.

"Run!" Leo shouted at me. Then, a security guard came up behind them, chasing after them! Trust Leo and Lindsay to get caught I thought

I frowned for a moment, thinking but then I kicked into action. I looked into the polar bear enclosure to shout for Sara and Elliott "Security Guard!"

They looked at me with widened eyes. Sara dropped whatever she was holding and they quickly ran out.

Leo and Lindsay were just arriving at us now with the security guard on their heels.

We all looked to Sara who looked as if she was trying to work out something. She then pointed down the corridor "That way!" She began to run and we followed. We turned left, then right and then left again, losing sight of the security guard, and arriving at an exit door.

Sara quickly whipped out the card again and swiped it through- it let us out. We ran out and into the middle of the public square of the zoo. Sara looked to the group. "Morph into birds and fly home!"She instantly began to morphing, and as did we all.

Once I was morphed, I began to take flight. Bye! See you at school tomorrow! I then flew away. What an eventful two days these have been I thought.

I arrived home quick enough, and snuck in so that no one would have to see me naked. As had happened the previous night, I just got into bed and wondered what to do next...