achel was getting larger very fast. Huge leathery ears sprouted suddenly from the side of her

head. Her nose stretched and stretched till it was longer than her body had been to start with. Her

arms and legs were big as tree trunks. And from her mouth grew two enormous, curved teeth.

My cousin Rachel now stood almost thirteen feet high and weighed about fourteen thousand

pounds.

The weird thing was, I was happy about all this.

<Ha HA!> I heard Rachel's triumphant laugh. <I did it.>

The Hork-Bajir and the Taxxon came closer.

Rachel began twitching her little ropy tail. Her front legs pawed the dirt floor of the cavern. She

raised her massive head and stuck out her three-foot-long tusks.

The Taxxon was the first to notice her with his all-around red-jelly eyes, but I guess he didn't

know how to react.

Rachel charged. One minute she was standing there, and the next minute she was barreling

forward like an out-of-control eighteen-wheeler.

The Hork-Bajir was fast. He spun around and slashed at her trunk with his elbow blade.

Too little. Too late.

Rachel was moving, and no little flesh wound was going to stop her.

<Puny little nothing!> Rachel cried, outraged. <You attack ME?!>

The Hork-Bajir went down, crushed under her monstrous feet. He bellowed, but Rachel's

trumpeting was louder.

The Taxxon tried to run. It turns out Taxxons can move out when they want to.

It also turns out elephants are faster than you think. They can be very fast.

Rachel's foot caught the Taxxon's back end. The needle legs collapsed, cracking like broken

twigs. Yellow goo oozed from the popped flesh of the big worm.

She just kept rolling over him, leaving behind a big, extremely disgusting pile of goo. The foul

smell of the squashed Taxxon nearly knocked me out.

The human was still just standing there. He said, "An elephant?" Like he couldn't even think a

bout it being real.

Rachel wrapped her trunk around his middle.

<Yeah,> we heard Rachel say. <An elephant.>

The man screamed. I guess he figured out it was real.

Rachel threw him through the air. I never saw where he landed.

"Quick!" I yelled at Marco. "Morph!"

"Nice work, Rachel," Marco said. "Remind me not to ever make you mad."

I focused on the tiger. I knew his DNA pattern was in me. I thought of him, lying there in his

habitat at The Gardens wishing he were back in the jungle, hunting and taking down his prey. I

guessed maybe he wouldn't mind the use I was making of his DNA. This wasn't quite a jungle, but it

would have to do.

<More Hork-Bajir coming!> Rachel said.

Rachel turned to face them, tusks ready.

I felt the morph begin. The hair grew from my face. The tail squirted out behind me. My arms

bulged and rippled. They were massive! My shirt ripped. I fell forward onto my hands, now my frontlegs.

The power!

It was electric. It was like a slow-motion explosion. I could feel the power of the tiger growing

inside me.

I watched claws, long, wickedly curved, tearing, ripping, shredding claws, grow from my puny

human hands. I could feel the teeth sprouting in my mouth.

My eyes looked through the darkness like it was broad daylight.

But most of all, the power! The sheer, incredible power.

I was afraid of NOTHING!

Hork-Bajir were running at me, their arm blades slashing at the air.

I opened my mouth and I roared. The Hork-Bajir stopped dead in their tracks.

That's right, my little Hork-Bajir friends, the human part of my brain thought. Time to meet the

tiger.

The muscles in my back legs coiled up. I bared my teeth and gave them another roar loud enough

to make the ground quiver.

I leaped through the air, claws outstretched