"It's Cassie," I said. "Emerging from the chrysalis."
Ax looked puzzled. "But this is not at all the body she had."
"No, that's what happens," Marco explained. "The caterpillar becomes the
butterfly."
Suddenly, the butterfly simply took off. It fluttered away, off across
the flowers, like it was shopping for just the right one.
"Naturally-occurring morphing?" Ax asked quizzically. "You didn't tell me."
"I guess it is natural morphing," I said. "And I guess it's better to
live your life as a butterfly than as a caterpillar."
"Would Cassie prefer being this creature to being human again?" Ax
asked. "Creee-cher. Cuh-ree-ture."
Rachel sighed. "No, Ax, of course not. We're just saying that this is
better than her only other choice. Better to be a butterfly than a
caterpillar."
"Ah. I see," Ax said. "But maybe she would like to demorph now."
"I'm sure she would," Marco said grimly.
"Then she should," Ax said.
Slowly, one by one, we all turned our eyes to stare at him. Rachel did a
little more. She jumped up, grabbed him by the collar and said, "Are you
jerking my chain, or do you have something to say?"
Ax seemed a little surprised, to put it mildly. But he said, "Oh, I see.
You didn't realize. Zuh. Re-uh-liiii-zuh. A very complicated word,
'realize.' And the 'z' sound makes my human mouth-parts tickle."
"Ax! Are you saying Cassie can morph?!" I demanded.
"I believe so," he said. "This naturally-occurring morph should reset
the morphing clock. She has two hours to demorph."
"GET! THAT! BUTTERFLY!" I yelled.
