Flytrap by Piers Anthony

illuminated hole. There to the side was the child, a muddy little boy. She reached forth and took him in. In moments she had him on the street, and the cameras surrounded them. They had recovered the lost child.
    “You better see this!” the man with the light called. A camera detached to go to him, and soon there was a holo projection above, of the scene below. A python and an alligator were locked in mortal combat.
    Mona had the wit to get the boy's statement while the cameras were on them. “What happened?”
    “I got lost,” the little boy said. “It was dark but I could see. The gator came after me. Then I heard the music and knew I would be found. The snake tackled the gator and I got away.”
    Brian put his head down into the hole. “Python! Let it go. Come up here. The job's done.” The Lamb bleated, as if translating.
    “There you have it,” Mona told the cameras in her trial-summation voice. “The boy crawled into the sewer system, not the Everglades. He couldn't find his way out. That's why he was not being located by the search party. But the alligator found him. Python saved him from that, and Vulture led us to them. All because of the Lamb's precognition; he knew where the boy would be found. That's why we had to bring them to Earth, in a hurry. We knew there was no time to argue with doubting media folk.”
    Python emerged from the manhole. Mona set the boy down, reassuring him, and he went to pet the big snake. He knew Python had saved his life. The cameras took it all in.
    That's how the child's parents found them, as they rushed back from the everglades. It was an international incident, but a positive one. Thanks to the Lamb.
    “One thing I don't understand,” Mona murmured when they had a private moment. “Why the music?”
    “This is Earth. Bunky no longer has the telepathic support of his dam. The lamb is a foreign host, one not naturally telepathic. He needed an assist.”
    “The Ewe was bolstering him on Jones!” Mona said. “I never thought of that.”
    “Neither did I, until I saw him falter. Then I caught on. Music has power, especially when there's telepathy; Elen told me that. They used music to fend off the vampires, as well as the shielding. So I made music, and it extended his range. Then Python and Vulture could go out; as long as they heard the music, they were in touch with Bunky. That made it work.”
    “The boy said when he heard the music, he knew he would be found. Bunky reached him too!”
    “Yes. The Lamb was the center of the operation. But he's young yet.”
    “He'll get better as he grows.”
    The evening news was filled with pictures of the rescue, with dramatic background music: Grieg, “Hall of the mountain King,” which had become abruptly popular, and with interviews with Mona and Brian. The skeptics had to eat dirt, again, and financing of Colony Jones administration was assured, as was the continuing administration of Amber Shepherd. There was just nothing like the peril and rescue of a child to compel public attention.
    But the best was the cartoonist who had been there for Elasa, and for Elen and the sheep. It was a picture of a happy little boy posed with a lamb, a huge python on one side, an ugly vulture on the other, like deadly guardians. Beneath it were the words WASTED MONEY. The irony was huge.

Chapter 5:
    Ogre
    Elasa opened her eyes and looked around. “It worked!” she exclaimed, relieved. She was in an unfamiliar office, along with a pregnant young woman, an amiable young man, and the three animals.
    “Elasa?” Mona asked. She had exchanged at the same time, and now was back in Elen's pregnant body.
    “Yes. I thought it should work, since it is consciousness and memory that is exchanged, but it's never been done on a machine before, so I had a nagging doubt.”
    “You remember the personhood hearing?”
    “How could I ever forget it. You made it possible, Mona.” Of course Mona was trying to verify that Elasa's exchange really had