53 - 12 - Anaconda

The snake I was staring at looked about a foot thick and so long I couldn't begin to guess at its total size. It had a clearly delineated head and a sort of rough-edged diamond pattern to its scales.

It was either asleep or dead. Or very relaxed.

"The anaconda is part of the python family," Cassie said. "One of if not the biggest snake species on Earth. It hunts live prey, but snakes are far from the kind of hunger a Taxxon knows. They have very slow metabolisms. They can go a long time between meals."

(...)

"It's a snake. It's a snake the size of palm tree."

"Come on." She put her arm through mine and drew me away toward the access corridor behind the cages.

We both went in and I knelt and touched the dry scales. Not slimy at all, but still creepy. I acquired the snake. Its DNA joined the DNA of how many species floating around in my blood? I couldn't even remember them all.

"When you do this morph your biggest problem will be staying awake," Cassie said.