This is StoryQuest. Today's story is the 10-year-old boy who became half snake and half-man mutant.

There are some things schools don't prepare you for. Long division, learning to cook rice without turning it into wallpaper paste, and of course the possibility that you might wake up one morning as a half snake, half mutant.

That's exactly what happened to Toby Fletch.

One morning, he was an ordinary 10-year-old with sticky hair, a football sticker collection,

and a bad habit of eating crayons.

By Tuesday, his legs had been replaced with a six-foot

green tail covered in glistening scales, and his arms had sprouted bumpy ridges like he'd borrowed

elbows from a rhinoceros. His mum, barely looked up from her tea. Oh, Toby, you're m're molten all over the carpet again, over it up, would you love?

At first, Toby thought being a half snake, half mutant might be fun.

He could hiss really loudly in maths class.

He could slither past bullies and tie their shoelaces together without bending down.

At lunch, he unhinged his drawer and swallowed a whole tray of fish fingers in one go.

But then, the trouble began.

Because when you're part snake, you don't just want fish fingers.

You want meat, and not sandwich ham meat. Toby found himself

staring at pigeons with a worrying new interest. By Wednesday, he nearly ate his science

teacher's hamster. That's when the scientists arrived. Three of them, white coats, clipboards,

glasses so thick they made their eyes look like fried eggs. They barged into Toby's classroom and

announced, This boy is unstable. He must be contained.

Contained? Like in a jam jar?

Toby didn't like the sound of that.

But the scientists weren't asking.

...