I was on all fours. Long, yellow fangs grew in my mouth. Long, wicked claws grew where my fingernails had been.

I felt the tiger's mind.

I saw through the tiger's eyes.

I felt the surge of power, the rush of the tiger's might. He was at home in a tropical forest. This was the kind of place he belonged. The tiger was lord of his own native turf.

But of course in the tiger's native jungles, there aren't Hork-Bajir. And there's no Visser Three.

I leaped forward, following the path Rachel had plowed through the bushes. I caught up to her easily. I belonged in the jungle. The grizzly did not. Rachel was breathing hard.

"I can't see... can't find them . . . keep hearing noises, but they keep moving."

I listened with my tiger's ears. I receded just a bit within the tiger mind and let the animal in stincts guide me. The tiger knew how to follow sounds in the rain forest.

"Come on, Rachel." I said. I plunged forward, toward where I heard the loudest sounds crashing through the forest. But I soon realized Rachel couldn't keep up.

I was really ticked off right then. At Rachel, for being so impulsive. At Tobias for acting like I wanted to put Ax in danger. At the Yeerks for causing all this. At the jungle itself. And worst of all, at me.

I'd made mistakes. Too many mistakes. Now I had to choose.

Stay with Rachel, or rush ahead and try to find Ax.

Help came from the sky. "Left about fifty feet, Jake." Tobias called down to me.

I was mad at Tobias. But not so mad I would ignore him. I charged left, slinking swiftly through the brush.

"Jake! Look out! There's one right-"

"Haarrgghh!" the Hork-Bajir yelled trium phantly. He swung a bladed arm at me and sliced through the ferns and bushes like a lawn mower going through grass.

His elbow disblade missed me by inches. I felt the breeze from it. I knew what to do next. I fired the coiled muscles in my hind legs and I flew. In midair I extended my paws, each as wide as a frying pan. Out came my claws.

And I roared. HRRROOOOOWWWWRRRR!

I swear, that sound actually silenced the monkeys and birds.

I hit the Hork-Bajir. He went down, swinging fast, but too slow. Hork-Bajir are fast. But when it comes to close-in work, slashing and parrying and applying the teeth, the tiger is faster and nastier.

He slashed. I felt pain sear my right shoulder.

I slashed and heard the Hork-Bajir cry out.

His snake-head jerked fast, aiming his forehead blades for my face.

I ducked and dove in, sinking my teeth into his neck.

From somewhere I heard the sound of a bear's pained roar. I heard crashing, thudding sounds.

I pulled back, leaving the deadly, bladed, seven-foot-tall Hork-Bajir lying on the jungle floor, moaning in pain.

I actually felt a moment of pity. The Hork-Bajir race has been enslaved by the Yeerks. This Hork-Bajir warrior didn't ask to be here, bleeding from a dozen wounds in an alien jungle a billion miles from his home.

But then, I didn't ask to be here, either.

I listened for sounds of Ax. Nothing.

I listened for Hork-Bajir. Nothing.

I listened for Rachel. Nothing.

It was like they'd all just disappeared in the green. Green, everywhere I looked.

Then . . .

A sharp pain in my left paw. I looked at the Hork-Bajir, but no, he hadn't moved.

I realized I was falling over.

Simply falling over.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the snake slithering off.

It was bright yellow.

"Demorph!" I told myself. "Demorph!"

But my head was swimming. And the green was closing in around me. Burying me in green.

A bird landed beside me. I could see that.

"Jake! Morph back, man! Morph back!"

I was trying. I was trying to remember what it was I was supposed to become. Then . . .

FLASH!

I was walking home from school. Me and Marco.

We were talking, wondering what Tobias wanted. Tobias's thought-speak voice was in our heads saying FLASH!

Tobias's voice saying, "That's it, Jake. Come on, man. Keep at it."

I could see again! I could see my hands stretched out in front of me on the ground. They were half-human, half-tiger. Could I morph away from poison? Would morphing get it out of my system? Should have asked Ax, I berated myself.

But I was already learning the answer. As I became more human, I felt the poison weaken.

"Come on, Jake, come on." Tobias said. "There's no time!"

"What. . . what is it? More Hork-Bajir?" I asked him when I had a mouth again.

"No. It's Rachel."

I felt my heart miss several beats. I climbed up, rickety from the quick change. I felt like throwing up. Maybe it was the poison. Maybe it was just too much happening at once. "Where is she?" I asked.

"Straight behind you. Maybe a hundred feet. Hurry! I'll go up and see what's happening."

He flapped away, leaving me alone and barefoot and vulnerable in the rain forest. I found Rachel by following the damage she had done: three Hork-Bajir lying unconscious or worse. I didn't have time to worry about them.

Because that's when I saw Rachel. She was out cold, still in grizzly morph. She'd been cut up badly by Hork-Bajir blades.

She was lying there on her side, bleeding. But that's not what made me want to scream.

Her fur was alive.

Alive with a million ants that were already ripping away a million tiny bites from her wounded flesh.

2:30 P.m.

Rachel!" I yelled. "Wake up!"

"Jake! Stop shouting." Tobias warned from up above me. "Hork- Bajir could still be all around here! I can't see through all this undergrowth caret I threw myself down next to Rachel and started swatting at the ants. But instead of getting rid of them, the ants just swarmed across my hands. There had to be ten thousand ants. Rachel had fallen almost on top of their mound. I could see ants carrying away tiny pieces of bloody bear flesh.

"Do you know if there is any water near here?" I asked Tobias.

"There's a stream. But it's too far, Jake, she weighs hundreds of pounds. What are you going to do, carry her to the water?"

I could see Rachel's bear chest rising and falling. She was breathing. Still alive. I kicked her. I kicked her hard. "Wake up!" I hissed. "'Come on, Rachel, wake up!"

The ants were getting at her ears now. They swarmed across her closed eyes. I wanted to scream. I wanted to cry.

I don't think I've ever felt so totally helpless.

Rachel was out cold. The thousands of swarming ants would make sure she never woke up. They would kill the bear before Rachel could morph out. They would eat out her eyes and crawl into her head, and there was nothing I could do.

"Tobias! More ants! Find more ants!"

"Are you nuts?"

"Do it!" I yelled, not even caring if someone heard me. "I need another colony of ants!"

Tobias clicked. I could see his fierce eyes grow wider. He flapped away, staying as low to the ground as he could. He circled tightly, and then flared to kill his speed.

"Here! Here!" he yelled.

At that moment I heard movement in the bushes. I looked and saw two wolves.

Two very out-of-place wolves.

Their intelligent faces were sticking out of the brush.

"Cassie! Marco! That is you two, right?"

Looking closer, I could see that they had been in a fight.

There were cuts. There was blood. They began to demorph.

"0h, my God."

Cassie moaned as she saw Rachel and realized what was happening. I didn't have time to explain. I bent down and began yanking out tufts of bloody grizzly bear fur.