Rob crouched over a pebble. Ever since the festival and her metamorphosis a few days earlier, she had felt a new power within her. It wasn't just being a girl, her sisters didn't seem to know what she was talking about when she asked them, but it was connected to the change, that she was sure of.
Her littermates didn't seem disturbed by the fact that their brother was now a sister, except that for a while they had been worried about whether a sudden gender change would happen to them as well. (Katy got a kick out of parodying a man, walking around spread-legged with a serious frown.) Sami and Nick were worried, but as Rob adapted to her new gender and no one else followed her example in suddenly switching, they seemed to relax a little bit. Rob's best friend from another burrow, Brandon, was still her best friend, but no one was of any help in dealing with the power.
Very well, Rob thought, I know it can make fire. What else can it do? The power yearned to be used. She concentrated on the pebble trying to get it to move.
The pebble moved, all right. It turned from a gray, shapeless, pebble to an oblong one with a hard, shiny surface, bifucated by a dark line. Two darker spots emerged near one end. It grew six little legs, and, transformed into a beetle, it scuttled off.
Wow, Rob thought, that wasn't what I was expecting.