B25C14 - Wolf Use

<We were losing you. You have to demorph, Marco,> Jake said. <Then remorph as a wolf. It's the best morph we've got for this climate. Rachel, you too, if you think it's best. I'll take Ax and Tobias while you go first.>

<They can stay on me,> she said.

<Um, Rachel?> Jake said. <You have to pass through human on the way to wolf.>

<Like we'd see anything?> Tobias said with a laugh. <We're fleas!>

I began to demorph. Slowly at first. Everything very slow. Brain not thinking too good.

I began to change, shrinking back to my normal size. My frozen, swollen fingers thinned. My black fur sucked itself back into my body, leaving me even more vulnerable to the cold.

A few seconds later I was back in my human form, with nothing on but a pair of black cycling pants and a white T-shirt. Not a good body for the weather. I morphed swiftly to wolf.

Relief!

Not total relief. The wind still sliced through me with its cold steel edge. But I had fur that was at least designed for fairly cold weather. And feet that were evolved for something other than padding around on heat-rotted vegetation.

Cassie demorphed and remorphed as a wolf. Rachel was right with her. Jake morphed as well. I know he'd suffered in his tiger morph. But Jake, being Jake, wouldn't complain till everyone else was safe.

<I think this is the best morph we have,> Cassie said thoughtfully. <Unless we get to open water. Then my whale morph would be good. I don't know about dolphin or shark. I think they're both more warm water. Still, these wolf bodies are not equipped for the Arctic or Antarctic or wherever we are. We might be able to survive for a few hours at a time, long enough to remorph and regenerate, but we're still vulnerable. Too vulnerable to be fighting.>

<Point taken,> Jake said. <We stay out of fights, if we can.>

I stuck my head out of the alcove to see what was going on back down the slope. With this slight elevation I could see the base clearly, if not in detail.

But it wasn't the far-off base that got my attention. There was very little alive anywhere near us, and thus almost nothing to smell. So when the new scent drifted our way, all our wolf heads perked up.

You probably know how well a dog can smell and hear. Well, a wolf is to a dog what a Ferrari is to a Hyundai.

Smell! Sound! Sight! All locked on like some computerized targeting system.

<What the heck are those things?> I cried.

There were two of them. About eight feet tall. Humanoid. Torso, head, and limbs in the usual places. Only their heads were shaped kind of like a hammerhead shark's, oblong with big, dark globs on each side that must have been eyes. Each creature had two thick upper arms growing out of broad shoulders. The upper arms split at the elbows to make two forearms.

Big, burly, nasty-looking beasts. Silver, with flashes of blood-red and midnight-blue along their flanks, along their shoulders, and converging in their faces.

I'd seen that color scheme before.

They were sliding toward us on long, ski-like feet. They used two of their forearms, one right and one left, to propel themselves forward.

And they glistened in the light like diamonds or crystals.

With their third and fourth forearms, each carried a chunky black tube of some kind.

<Ax, we've got aliens coming,> Jake said. <I think they're the ones we saw in those cylinders.>

Jake described them.

<I do not believe it,> Ax cried. <A perfect description of a Venber.>

<Venber? What happened to them being extinct?> I cried.

<Reports of their extinction may have been exaggerated.>

<Ax, are you developing a sense of humor? If so, stop it, okay?>