Chapter 3

When I had been given the full tour, Jennifer and I were sitting at the table in her little shack. It was a short table, because that was all Danielle could provide. That was okay though, because at least we could sit at it without chairs.

The floor was normal wood, but it looked as if it had been sanded and glazed or something, because it wasn't splintering like wood usually does. Whoever had built this treehouse was really good at it. But the treehouse wasn't the best part.

Right beside the treehouse was a clearing. And there was a stream running through it and—I'm not even making this up—a freaking arched bridge across the stream. I don't know who they paid to do this, but whoever it was had taken a lot of money.

There were imperfections of course. The grass was overgrown in places where passing deer had not eaten it. What had obviously been a garden years before was now filled with weeds. The bridge was evidently getting old and trees that looked like they should be bearing fruit were looking pretty pathetic.

But like Jennifer said, 'Nothing that couldn't be fixed.'

It made me sick to my stomach to think that she could fix all this stuff by herself. She was supposed to need me. And then it made me even sicker to realize that I had just thought that.

"Hida-ho!" Danielle announced as she appeared by the treehouse with Cassidy trailing behind. "Are we ready to get out of here?" Jennifer and I descended to meet them.

"And how are we supposed to get there and back before night?" Cassidy asked.

Danielle grinned.

"Oh stop it! You've been ignoring me all day. Just tell me what your plan is!" she snapped. "I'm not staying the night anywhere if that's the idea!"

"Oh, it's a lot shorter by the way the crow flies," Danielle said, unable to keep a straight face.

"Crows?" Cassidy asked. "That was your big secret? I could have guessed that!" I found myself wondering if she was lying.

Jennifer disappeared into the treehouse and brought back a big wire cage with a raven in it.

"Well, not really crows, but as close as it gets," Danielle commented. "I can't wait to fly! It'll be soooo cool!"

I hope that at this point you all know that I was translating everything for Jennifer.

'It is cool,' Jennifer commented to me after putting down the cage.

"Where did you get that cage?" I asked Danielle.

"I got it a long time ago for my cat. My parents got me one before they got Magic, but it sort of attacked Mark and we had to get rid of it. He hasn't liked cats since, and I don't blame him. They're nasty little animals if you ask me." Her voice had gotten almost vicious, and all of us were a little surprised. "Sorry," she muttered after realizing that she'd overreacted a little, "I'm more of a dog person."

Danielle opened the cage and stuck her hand inside. The raven made a move for the open door, but Danielle grabbed its wing. Needless to say, it didn't like that much. It whipped its head around and sunk its beak into the base of her thumb. She jerked her hand back and the bird darted forward. Luckily, I was close enough to grab it like a runaway chicken, pinning one wing to its side. The other flapped feebly and I closed my eyes and concentrated like I had on Pickles and the rat.

The raven stopped flapping its wing and folded it to its side. We passed it around. Cassidy went to put it back in the cage, but Danielle stopped her.

"We don't need it anymore," she explained. "You can let it go if you want."

So Cassidy put the bird down on the grass and it hopped away.

"Let's go," Danielle said. "You know the way, don't you Jennifer?"

I asked her and she said she did.

So we all stripped off our outer clothes, stashed them in the treehouse and changed into ravens. It was a disgusting show of strangely shaped skin and feathers, but eventually there were four ravens hanging out on the ground.

((Lead the way,)) Danielle said. Jennifer took off ahead of her and the four of us followed, leaving plenty of space for each other. It was mostly a silent flight, aside from the few comments needed to navigate and explain how we were going to get in to the zoo. It was free for students but we weren't about to change from ravens back to people at the front gate.

So we landed a little way down the road and changed back in the forest. We all wore a mix of leotards, spandex and tank tops, but at least we were covered. Jennifer however, changed back into a raven. We didn't want to risk her being seen by someone who was supposed to think she was dead.

We walked out of the forest and to the front gate.

"We look like a bunch of freaks," Cassidy complained.

"What do you care?" I asked her, pointedly looking at her hair. "You make a show of standing out, after all."

She immediately slipped away from complaining and bit back like a dog whose tail has been pulled. "Right, I forgot. You must be suffering the most, eh Barbie? Is this a fashion crime?" she patted her hair. "Are you Fashion Police Barbie? You gonna arrest me in the name of all that goes with miniskirts?"

I knew she was just trying to get a rise out of me, but it was working.

"Oh yeah. You bet I will," I growled, trying to suppress the urge to hit something. I had been here once when I was little. The only thing I could remember was the nasty smell and the tiger, and both were still there.

I noticed her as soon as I walked in the door. She was the main attraction, of course. Her name was Diana, which I thought was a pretty suited name, considering that Diana was the Roman goddess of the moon and the hunt. Of course, I might have been the only person ever to notice that. It might not have even been a factor when they named her, and now the staff only called her Di, which sounded even more sinister.

When I walked in and saw that tiger pacing in her cage, I made my choice.

"Di," I muttered.

"Gee, how nice of you," Cassidy replied.

"No," I said. "I want Di." I had now attracted everyone's attention and pointed to the tiger.

"Well Die is what you're gonna get if you go in that cage," Cassidy said.

I ignored her.

"You're sure?" Danielle asked, glancing at the cage.

"Positive," I whispered. "Can you imagine what we could do with that kind of power on our side?" I made sure to sign in order to keep up my act and help Jennifer along.

((True,)) Jennifer said. She was perched on the roof of a supply shed. ((If all of us had tigers, we could do a lot of damage to the yeerks.))

"All of us as the same animal?" Danielle whispered. "No, that's a bad idea. What if we need to get into a small spot? Diversity is good. We should all pick something different." She was careful to scan around in case someone was listening, but there weren't many people around.

"How are you even going to get in?" Cassidy demanded. "The gate is locked and there's a double fence. Tigers aren't the kind of animal you pet, you know?"

Danielle had already thought of that. "I'll come back with her at night. They'd keep the tiger in a larger enclosure then and we'll go in when it's sleeping. In the meantime, we'll browse around for me and Cassidy and if Sarah finds something else she likes she can take that instead."

I was surprised. Danielle had really stepped up to the plate. What surprised me even more was that it didn't bother me. Usually I hate it when someone tells me what to do, but for some reason or another, I was just content to listen to what Danielle told me. She was in charge without ever declaring it or belittling anyone. I had to respect her for that.

We walked around and pretended to be interested in all the monkeys and parrots that the staff wanted to show us. Overall, it was very boring and we saw nothing of any use to us.

As soon as she saw someone she knew, Cassidy sprung into action.

"Bella!"

The girl turned around. She was definitely one of Cassidy's friends. She was thin and short but had a very skimpy, way-too-tight tank top on and very trashy looking cutoff jean shorts. She probably would have looked much nicer in a pair of capris or maybe a sundress. And somebody needed to do something about her hair. It looked like it had been bleached into the next millennium. Right now it was a sickly faded pink. It was a shame, because she looked like the kind of girl who could pull off any natural hair colour. She was wearing a deep blue baseball cap that had "guide" printed on the front along with the tiger logo for the petting zoo.

"Oh, hey Cassidy. How's life?" She had managed to respond flawlessly, but there was some obvious confusion on her face as to why we were hanging out with Cassidy.

"Pretty good," Cassidy replied smoothly. "We're doing this science thing about an animal and we've gotta pick one. You got some time to show us the really cool stuff?"

"Yeah, sure," Bella said.

Bella wasn't in our science class. Then again, neither was Danielle, but maybe she didn't know that. It was a good excuse, I had to give Cassidy credit for that one, not that I ever would say it aloud of course.

First, we went to see the snakes.

"That's a milk snake," Bella said, pointing to a small one.

"But what about the really deadly ones?" I asked impatiently. So Bella took us to the really deadly snakes.

I had made my choice. This was boring. Why did I still have to hang around? I made a point of asking Danielle this. Why? I don't know. It felt wrong to do something without talking to her first after she had so obviously taken charge.

"Because we have to leave together. We're a team now, like it or not."

I looked at Cassidy, who was marvelling at an incredibly poisonous snake that was now completely useless because its poison had been milked out.

"Not," I muttered. "Definitely not."

Jennifer had been following us, and was now on the ground not far away, enjoying popcorn that some kid had dropped in the dirt. I gave her a look.

((It's good,)) she commented. ((The raven is pretty obsessed with garbage, okay? This is the best way to curb it.))

"On to the equines!" Cassidy announced. We paraded past the other reptiles and into an area that looked very much like a farm. There were goats, pigs and geese. We weren't stopping here of course. We went right through.

Cassidy fell back from her place ahead of us with Bella. "I got mine," she whispered.

"What?" Danielle asked.

"That really poisonous snake. The Black Mamba. I figure that when I change, the poison will come back like Jen's sight did."

"Maybe," was all Danielle said.

"Let's hope so," Cassidy said before catching up with Bella.

Before long we came to bigger animals. Zebras, gazelles, giraffes and about seven other kinds of hoofed animal were there, including the Caribou.

"There!" Danielle said. "The big-horned sheep!"

I looked at her, alarmed. Wasn't she giving us away?

"We should do them for our project!"

I relaxed. It was okay, we had cover.

Danielle was very excited. "Can we go in? I need to get a good look at it so I can draw it."

"Okay," Bella said nervously. I'm not completely sure, but I think that she would have licked the ground we walked on if we thought it was a sensible thing for her to do. She was very obviously desperate for good friends. It was almost sad. I hoped we hadn't asked her to do anything against the rules that she could be fired for.

We entered the enclosure and she closed the door behind us. She picked something up out of a container on the inside of the fence and made a clicking noise with her tongue.

"Can I see a male one?" Danielle asked. "They're the ones with the big horns, right? They'll be the better ones to draw."

"Sure," Bella said.

Three big-horned sheep trotted over to us. Luckily, one of them had the horns. Bella gave all three of them the little treats in her hand that I could now see were sugar. She cautiously put her hand on the big guy's side and moved over to a place where she'd have more control over him.

I was nearly positive that this was against the rules at this point and Bella really didn't know what she was doing.

Danielle stepped forward anyway and put her hand on the animal's side. Then, so she didn't look suspicious, she patted the sheep's brow with her other hand and felt his horns a little. He looked sleepy like Pickles had when I'd done the same thing to him.

"I think we've found our animal," Danielle announced. "What do you think?"

"Oh yeah," I said enthusiastically. "That's the one." I was signing. And not very good at faking enthusiasm, so I guess it made for a very pitiful effect.

"Thanks, Bella," Cassidy said.

"Can we see the birds now?" Danielle asked.

"The birds are back there," Bella said, pointing.

"No," Danielle insisted. "I mean the real birds, like birds of prey. Ones that you would see around here."

"Yeah," Bella said, "they're over there on the way out. The only one we have that lives in this area is an osprey though. You probably didn't see him because he was feeding just a while ago and we don't like him tearing up rats in front of the public."

"To the osprey then," Danielle said.

The osprey was very tame. Bella had to go into the back room and get a leather glove so she could hold him, but the osprey's claws were gentle and when we each touched him. I'm pretty sure it was again, against the rules, but we got what we needed anyway.

And we left, just like that. It felt too easy, almost wrong. We could just walk right out of there with our spandex outfits and the ability to turn into some very dangerous animals. All except for me, of course. I would be going back later.

And I did. At ten o-clock, I opened my window and flew out as a raven. I didn't want to be an osprey at night. It was a tiring flight all the way to Danielle's house, but I made it okay. She and Jennifer met me in the little clearing by the treehouse and I changed back to myself.

Danielle insisted that Jennifer should stay behind. If something were to go wrong and we weren't back in three hours, she was to get Cassidy and come looking for us. Again, I was surprised at the ease Danielle could give orders. She just said it, and everybody knew it was the most reasonable thing for us to do. Like she was just giving input we could all agree on.

So Danielle and I changed into ravens and took off. It was a silent flight, once again. We were sort of caught up in our own thoughts lately.

((If we land inside the cage, we don't have to worry about getting there later,)) Danielle said, ((but we should probably figure out where Di is first.

So we flew over to the cage and looked. A raven's eyes aren't that amazing in the dark, but I could make out the trees and basic shape of the land. It wasn't long before I found Diana, the huntress sleeping. Since then, I've read that tigers usually sleep during the day when the sun is high and then hunt at night. Apparently this wasn't how it always worked, because Di was definitely asleep. I settled down a good distance from her sleeping form and changed back into myself. I didn't know if touching the animal worked if you were already in a different form, but I didn't want to be a one-bite-meal in case Di woke up.

Danielle had landed beside me and changed back as well. Before I could speak to her though, she'd already begun changing into the ram.

"What are you doing?" I hissed.

Danielle smiled, but it was a twisted, disgusting smile because her teeth were growing and her mouth was in the middle of sprouting from her face.

((I'm getting ready. If Di here wakes up and attacks, at least we'll have some defence.))

"Danielle," I said, "you're prey."

((I know,)) she said nervously. ((Let's hope it doesn't come to that, okay?))

I was glad that she was scared too. Up until that point, I had been wondering if she didn't feel fear or something, because though it was fun, handling wild animals was a lot more dangerous than you'd think. If she was afraid, I could be the strong one and fake fearlessness.

Not that I was looking down on Danielle or anything. She was definitely taking one for the team in coming with me and offering to fight the tiger. I knew that as she was, if there was a fight she had no chance of winning and no chance of getting away. I knew that she had already thought of this, it wasn't out of foolishness that she was doing it. I admired her for that.

I would just have to be very sneaky.

I crept towards the tiger, watching the ground in front of me so that I didn't snap any twigs. My eyes would flick up to the tiger.

Step. Step. Flick. Step.

My heart was beating. I wondered if Di could hear it.

I stretched my hand out. Now or never.

CRACK!

I looked down. A broken twig. One of Di's eyes opened. My hand was inches from her side. Only one way out now.

I lunged. Grabbed her fur. Both her eyes were open and she whipped around to stare at me. A low growl.

Oh god. Oh god.

Tiger, tiger, tiger, I thought. Tiger.

The growl died out and she gave me a blank stare. Then she decided that I wasn't worth the energy and laid her head back down to sleep.

I felt the touch finish and broke contact.

A weirdly scary purring noise came from the sleeping tiger, and my heart jumped into my throat. She was definitely asleep though, so I crept away. Danielle was nearly human again by the time I got back to her, and together we changed into ravens and flew away.

It wasn't until I was at home and in my bed that I felt safe.