Dangerous Days of Daniel X

Chapter 89

I LET OUT a thunderous trumpeting roar, and I mean that literally. My tick legs thickened as my body bulged, expanding at an amazing rate.

Seth had begun to shriek for his MOMMY again.

Then my head hit the ceiling of something spongy, and I slid through tissue and membrane with a wet pop.

I blinked in the suddenly bright sunlight, raised my glorious trunk to the sky, and trumpeted again.

Yes, trumpeted!

I’d transformed myself into a glorious elephant! One the size of Chordata.

I towered there for a moment, feeling my elephantness, feeling the power and might and wisdom of everything that was hopeful and alive about Alpar Nok.

Seth was lying on the stone beneath me, and well… wow. Seth wasn’t doing too well. Euphemism. Look it up. Where his head used to be was basically a pool of pale-colored slime.

This piece of garbage who had nearly destroyed my planet had had a large head for sure. But even his head couldn’t contain a full-grown elephant.

I trumpeted again, and the kids from Earth and Alpar Nok leaped to their feet, cheering.

The remaining alien commandos stood there in shock as I morphed back into myself.

“You there,” I said to the largest and nastiest-looking of them all.

“Me?” The creature cringed, fearfully pointing a claw at himself.

“Yes, you,” I said. “What’s your name?”

“Krothgark.”

“Krothgark, I haven’t decided if I’m going to let you live or not. Would you like to influence my decision?”

“Yes,” Krothgark said. “Very much.”

“Then do yourself a big favor and unchain those kids,” I said. “And those kids. And those. All of them.”

“You got it, sir. Right away, right away. You heard the man,” Krothgark said, smacking one of the horse-head soldiers next to him. “Unchain the children.”

When I looked up I saw that people were streaming toward me. I gave Bem and his sister, Kulay, high fives as my uncle pinched both of my cheeks.

“Woooh,” I heard Joe yell from somewhere in the happy crush. “Yeah, baby! We’re going to Disney World.” Leave it to Joe.

“You’ve saved us,” Grandma Blaleen said as she hugged me tightly.

Then Dana had her arm around me too, and nothing had felt so good to me in a long, long time.

“You’re…” she sobbed. “You’re…”

“Still alive?” I said. “Of course. How could I let us die?”

Just then, a human girl came running up to us. She had flaming red hair, lots of freckles-very pretty. “I was held captive on that terrible spaceship,” she said. “Thank you for saving me. I’m Phoebe Cook, the real one.”

She had something tucked under her arm. “I found this on the ship. I thought it might be important.”

My laptop! I reached for the computer containing The List of all the other alien scum I had to destroy, but before I could say a word to Phoebe, Dana did.

“It’s very nice to meet you, Phoebe. I’m glad you’re all right. Now you should go back and celebrate with your friends. Daniel is with me. Bye-bye, Phoebe. Scoot along.”