CHAPTER #1
My name is Tobias Fangor.
I know what you’re thinking: I just told you my last name. Normally I wouldn’t.
Let me just tell you this, right now: My life is not normal. In fact my life is about as far away as you can get from ‘normal’. I live in such an abnormal life that when I watch TV I get upset. There’s all these perfect families with perfect lives and if there is a problem it’s nothing a little family conference can’t fix.
I wish a family conference could fix my problems. But my problems are more than ’Oh no! Jimmy got beat-up!' My problems are the Yeerks. They’re worse than monsters-under-the-bed and problems at school combined.
The Yeerks are aliens.
For real.
The Yeerks take over people’s minds. They crawl inside the person’s ear and wrap their slug body around the brain. That’s my life now.
In my old life I had the typical work it out with a family conference problems. One problem: No family. My parents had died when I was really little. I used to live with my aunt and uncle who passed me back and forth between them.
Used to.
Now I’m a red tail hawk. Now no one wants me.
No, wait. That’s a lie. My friends want me. My friends are Jake, our natural leader, Cassie, our tree-hugging animal lover, Rachel, Jake’s cousin who's role model is Xena, and Marco, our sort-of-funny-sort-of-annoying comedian.
Now you’re probably wondering why I’m a red tail hawk who has relatively normal friends.
Well, the truth is this: My friends aren’t normal. Take all of the stuff I told you and put it into a war against evil aliens. My friends are what you get.
We can all morph.
If you look that word up in the dictionary, it says to change form or something like that. So let me paint a picture of what has happened to me.
Imagine five normal kids. They take a short cut home one night and meet an alien. The alien gives them the power to morph. His name is Elfangor. Elfangor is an Andalite. Andalites are like a hybrid of a deer, a scorpion, and a human. So anyway, these kids get the power to morph, but have to use it to fight alien slugs. One more problem. There’s a two hour time limit. If you pass that time limit you stay in morph forever.
Got it?
Now imagine these kids finding an Andalite kid. This Andalite is Aximili. He’s Elfangor’s little brother. We call him Ax. Pretty complex stuff, huh? Well think about all that stuff, then throw in normal life.
School.
Friends.
The mall.
So now you know what my life is like. You would think that not knowing my parents wouldn’t matter to me, but I didn’t even know my dad’s name. So you would imagine that I would want to find out. Right?
CHAPTER #2
You see, on a sudden influence, I just had to know who my father was. That’s when it occured to me: I could morph human, go to the library and check out records.
So that’s what I did.
When I got there I found out that my dad was a guy named Alan Fangor. He excelled in all of his classes. He especially liked history. He went on to write software, and was pretty good at it too. Then one day, about eight months before his only son (me) was born, he disappeared.
I was hooked. I had the computer check for any articles on him, and there was one.
It was his graduating photo. He was on the honor roll. When a teacher was asked if he had known Alan Fangor, he had said, ‘Sure I knew Al Fangor, he was out of this world, and he was always polite.’
Then another one popped up; it was just after his disappearance. His work buddy, a guy named Bill somebody or another, said that he had always acted like he knew something. Him and his wife, Loren, too. During questioning Loren said, at first, that she knew what it was, then denied the whole thing. People started saying aliens had abducted him. Everyone just accepted that story because it was right during the time with all the alien reports. Everyone except my mom, Loren, who looked so hard she got lost and died, leaving her son, Tobias, to live with his aunt and uncle who later got divorced.
“Al Fangor,” I said aloud. Suddenly I was in a construction site with a dying Andalite at my feet.
~My name is Elfangor,~ he was saying.
Then my mind did a rewind and he was saying again, ~My name is Elfangor,~ but this time he didn’t say ‘Elfangor.’ He said ‘Al Fangor.’
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CHAPTER #3
I was surprised, and that’s putting it mildly. I mean I could have screamed! But I was in a library, so I kept quiet. For a while I just sat there, staring into thin air, when, suddenly I remembered the two hour time limit!
You would think that I, of all people, would remember the time limit, but hey, why don’t you try finding out that your dad was an alien! I’ll bet you anything that will rock your world so much that you won’t care about the time.
I went to see Rachel. I had to talk to her; she would comfort me. On my way I passed by Cassie’s house. I was feeling pretty confused at the time so the hawk brain was getting alot of control. Too much as it turned out.
All of a sudden there was a mouse, a perfect strike. Just one problem: the mouse ran. The hawk brain was so totally concentrated on that mouse that it didn’t look where it's...no, OUR body was going. We crashed into a low branch, and, BOOM!! Lights out!
But luckily, like I said, we were, I was, by Cassie’s house. In fact right between the house and the barn. Five minutes or so later Cassie’s dad came up and saw me all sprawled out on the ground. Or at least, I GUESS it was five minutes later. You see, I was knocked out and don’t remember any of it.
When I woke up I was in a cage! I was right by this beat-up crow and an owl. I tried to fly, but one wing was in a cast and the other had most of its feathers missing.
“TERRRERRRSSSSERRR!” I screamed. Suddenly Cassie was there, telling me it was all right, but some thing was wrong: she was calling me birdie. There was no one else in the barn so it wasn’t an act, but then what....
Of course! She didn’t realize it was me!
I had to tell her.
~Hi, Cassie,~ I said in thought-speak.
“What?” she said and spun around. “Where are you?”
~What? You don’t recognize me?! I’m Birdie.~
She looked down at me. “Tobias?” She said in a surprised voice. “What are you doing here?”
~Being treated for a broken wing,~ I said.
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CHAPTER #4
Just then Cassie’s dad came in.
“Hey, Cas. Who you talking to?”
“Uh, no one dad, no one at all.”
“How’s that new bird doing?”
I slightly resented being called ‘that new bird’ but what could I do? Say, ~Hey Mr. Cassie’s dad, I don’t like being called ‘that new bird!' So could you stop it? The name’s Tobias!~
“Fine dad, what kind is he any way?”
“Don’t know, I’ll check”
Then he stuck his face real close to my cage. The hawk in me said to nail him, but I settled for squawking a bit and looking too weak to do much more.
“I don’t know, Cas. It looks like a hawk of some sort. It’s about the right size to be a Copper’s or a red-tail. I wish it had tail feathers still. I guess we’ll have to wait until they grow back to tell.”
“So what do we call him?” Cassie asked.
“I don’t know that either. George, Dan, Frank?”
Cassie groaned. “Some modern-day names, please.”
“Well why don’t you pick out one?”
~Toby,~ I said silently.
“Okay,” She said pretending to answer her dad. “How about Toby?”
“Fine, he’s your bird.”
“Cool.” She said.
Her dad walked out of the barn.
~What did he mean ‘He’s your bird’?~
“Oh, it just a game. If a patient comes in that doesn’t need total ER work than it’s mine. Completely. I even get to fix it up to start with. Dad kind of watches that part though.”
~So you put these bandages on?~
“Mainly. You looked like you would be one of dad’s patients, but once he set your wing he said you’d be okay.”
~How long before they come off?~
“I guess a couple of months.”
~Too bad I can’t just morph outta this,~ I dryly commented.
“Why not? I mean why can’t you morph out? The others have done it.”
~Yeah, but not when your dad expects them to be hurt for two months. I’d love to morph in and out but I think that you dad would find it strange if a bird with a busted wing, no tail feathers and missing a bunch of other feathers today could fly tomorrow.~
“Oh, yeah. Good point”
~Hey,~ I said. ~Why don’t you get the others over and we can see if they can think of any thing to do?~
“Yeah, that’d be good.”
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CHAPTER #5
“Hi guys, what’s up?” Jake asked Cassie, Marco and I. Of course, he didn’t know that I was there.
~In the words of Ax, up is the opposite of down. Although, of course, those terms are meaning less outside the context of a distinct, localized gravity field.~
“Say what?” Jake asked.
~Ask Ax.~
“Hey Tobias, where are you anyway, man?” He asked scanning the rafters where I’d normally be.
~In the cage by the owl and the crow.~
“Get out of there.”
~Can’t. I’m hurt.~
“Duh, I can see that.” Jake said. “Just morph.”
“He can’t,” said Cassie. “My dad saw him and expects him to be here for a couple of months.”
“Great,” said Jake.
“Ya know maybe you could like morph the injuries too, and the casts the way we morph clothes.” Marco commented. “Speaking of which we have got to get better ‘clothes’”
“Marco, is that all you ever think about?” asked Rachel who was walking up coolly with a strange looking boy with an even stranger name, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthil. Ax.
“Hi Rachel, Ax.” Jake said, “Did you come to join our loony conversation?”
“No, I came because we have a problem.” Rachel said.
“Ohhhh, mighty Xena is admitting that we have a problem. Yeah Xena, we do have a problem and it’s not going away.”
“Wha-wah what pro-pro-blem?” asked Ax.
“The pro-blem is that evil slugs from outer-space are invading us and all that Earth has on it’s side is five kids and an Andalite who can turn into animals!” Marco said sounding like ‘am I the only sane one here?’.
“No, stupid, the other problem.” Rachel countered.
“You?” Marco slyly asked her.
“No, my little sister.” Rachel said quickly.
“What, we’re being invaded and Xena worries about family?” asked Marco.
“What’s wrong with her?” Jake asked Rachel, figuring it wasn’t too serious because, being cousins, he would have heard about it.
“Which one?” Cassie asked.
“Jordan.” Rachel answered, clearly showing that she didn’t want to answer the other question.
“What’s wrong?” asked Jake again.
“She knows,” Rachel said quietly.
“She knows what?” asked Cassie.
“Everything.”
“Cool, would she help me with my algebra?” Marco asked.
“No stupid, I mean everything about Animorphs.”
“Oh, that everything.”
“How did she find out?” Cassie wondered.
“I sort of told her.” Rachel said.
“How do you sort of tell someone something?” Marco asked.
“Okay I all-of-the-way told her, but it was an accident.”
“How was it an accident?”
“Well I was dreaming and she got scared and came into my room. I was talking in my sleep.”
“And you ‘told’ her everything?” Jake asked, almost frantically.
“I guess so.”
“Great.” Jake said unhappily. ”Let me summarize this meeting: Tobias can’t help us, Rachel’s sister knows about us and I still have a science test tomorrow.”
~Yeah, that’s about it,~ I said.
“Now that Jake has summarized the meeting, can I conclude it?” Marco asked.
“Yeah.” said Cassie dully.
“Okay. Than I would like to conclude this meeting by saying a word I shouldn’t say.”
He said the word and then started to leave unhappily.
Then Jake called out, “Hey Rachel, bring Jordan to the mall. We’ll meet you there, then we can go some where else.”
“Okay,” was all she said before running off.
~Well, that was fun,~ I said.
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CHAPTER #6
~Maybe what Marco said would work.~
“What do you mean?” Cassie asked.
~I mean if you really concentrate on it you can probably morph some injuries.~
~No, that is not possible,~ Ax said. Ax had demorphed and was about to leave but heard our conversation.
~Great,~ I said. ~Okay. How about Jordan?~
~If a human knows of us then we must get rid of them,~ Ax said wearily.
“Actually, there is another choice...” Cassie said, letting her sentence trail off.
~No. Not again,~ I said alarmed.
“But this is Jordan. Not some new kid at school,” she pleaded.
“Wha-t do you-u mean?” Ax asked. He had figured that he would hang around so he had morphed back to human.
“I mean the blue box,” Cassie explained for Ax, who doesn’t really get human voice tones.
"The others would not agree."
~No,~ I agreed. ~Not after David.~
“But this is Rachel’s little sister.”
~That doesn’t mean we can trust her. That’s what Jake said about Tom too. Think of the mess we’d be in if we gave the morphing power to him,~ I argued.
“What do you think, Ax?” Cassie asked.
“If this child is not some-one-won-one, those words are so much a like, we can trust then we should not use the Escafil Device by any means.”
~Let’s just go to the mall and meet her first,~ I suggested.
“Ye-yes. The mall. Where deli-delicious cinnamon buns -bun -z z-z-z bunz are sol-sold.”
“Maybe Ax shouldn’t go as a human,” Cassie said.
Ax tried to look calm but my hawk eyes saw a bit of apprehension in his face.
“What should-d I be then?” He asked trying not to play with words.
~How about you go as a mouse?~ I said, joining in on the teasing.
“No! I mean, no. That would not be wise. The mouse would be scared.” he said quickly.
"Okay. Maybe you could come as human. IF you promise not to eat the plate or anything else weird,” Cassie said.
“I pro-omise, promise.” Ax said, releived.
“And you won’t play with words?”
“No. I won’t,” he said, stiffly formal.
~Alright then. Ax goes to the mall in human morph,~ I said. Ax looked like he had just won the lottery.
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CHAPTER #7
When they got back, Cassie gave me the complete summary about what happened.
“Well, when we got there Jordan was like, ‘Oh no! What’d I do wrong?!?’ but then she calmed down. We told her that we had a surprise for her and all she had to do was come here in a half an hour.”
~Good.~
“The others should be here any-“
“Hi guys! It’s MARVOLUS MARCO to the rescue!” A voice yelled.
“And his pal, Jake the, um...”
“LEADER!”
“Oh, yeah. How could I forget?”
“Marco, are you beating up on my cousin again?” Rachel asked.
“Who? ME!” Marco exclaimed.
“No. The other Marco.”
“Oh. Good, for minute I thought that you were talking about me.”
“I was, dummy.”
~Hello Marco, Rachel and Prince Jake,~ Ax said.
“Don’t call me Prince Jake. I’m not a prince.”
“Oh, Prince Jake. . .” Marco taunted.
“Stop before you get yourself killed, Marco,” Jake warned.
~Hi, guys,~ I said as they all came into the barn.
“Hi, Tobias.”
“Hi, bird-boy.”
“Hi.”
~Hello, Tobias.~
~So what do we do about Jordan?~ I asked. Rachel looked away so Jake answered.
“We bring her here and find out just how much she knows and then go from there.”
~That does not sound like a solid plan, Prince Jake.~
“Ax. If you would call me ‘Jake’ just once, I could die happy.”
~Why should you plan on your death?~
“Never mind. You are right about the plan though.”
~Jake, Ax has to morph human now. I can here a car coming down the road.~
“Okay. Ax? Morph.”
~Yes, Prince Jake.~
“Ax, while Jordan is here PLEASE don’t call me ‘prince’.
~Yes, Prince Jake.~ Sometimes I wonder if Ax thinks he’s being funny when he does that.
Ax finished morphing and putting on regular clothes just in time.
“HI!” Jordan bounced through the door.
“Hi, Jordan,” Jake said. “You know Cassie and Marco, right?”
“Yep.” She seemed to have calmed down a bit. “But who’s that guy?” she asked, pointing at Ax.
“That’s Phillip. He’s Marco’s second cousin.” They must of thought of what to tell her about Ax before since they couldn’t say he was Jake’s cousin.
“Hi Phillip.”
“Hello.”
“So, Jordan. Rachel says that you heard her say some weird things last night,” Marco said.
“Yep. I did.”
“Like what?”
“A bunch of stuff about aliens.”
“Which aliens?”
“They had weird names. Mom said one of them before.” Of course. Her mom had been a lawyer for this guy every one thought was insane but really the Yeerk in his head was the crazy one.
“What were they, Jordan?” asked Jake, taking over.
“She said ‘Yeerk' and 'Andalite' and 'Hork-Bajir' and 'Taxxon'.”
~Yep. That pretty much covers it,~ I said in private thought-speak to my friends.
“She said the Yeerks were invading us.”
“Did she talk about animals?” Jake asked, turning the discussion our way.
“She said that she could become an animal and that you guys could too. Can you?”
“Okay Jordan. I need some help.” Cassie said. “Come with me.” Jordan followed her out.
“This is not good,” said Jake.
“No kidding,” Rachel commented.
“She’s defenetly not a Controller,” Marco said.
~So do we use the box?~ I asked.
“I don’t know. Can she even keep the secret? And if she can what if what happened before happens again? I’d hate to do that to my little sister.”
“Do what, Rachel?” Jordan said walking back in.
“Never mind. Come on. It’s time to go.”
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CHAPTER #8
“We’ve got to go,” Jake said. ”Come on Marco, Ax.”
“Bye guys.”
~Bye.~
“Um, Tobias?”
~What, Cassie?~
“I think I know how to get you out of this.”
~How?~
“Um, I don’t think you’ll like this...but we could kill you.”
~KILL ME!?!?!~ I yelled in a outraged voice.
“Yes.”
~That doesn’t get me out of anything.~
“I didn’t mean for real.”
~Okay. So what are you going to do? Fake kill me?~
“That was what I had in mind.”
~Why?~
“If my dad thinks you're dead, he won’t expect you to be here for two months.”
~Oh. Good point,~ I said. ~How will you kill me?~
“Maybe you could fake it.”
~Like this?~ I asked and then dropped on the floor of the cage and laid still.
“Yep. Works with me.”
~Okay. Go get your dad.~
“DAD!” she yelled, running out of the barn. “DAD! Come here!”
“What, Cas?” he answered.
“That new bird!” she replied.
“What’s wrong?”
“All of a sudden, he just fell over!”
“Oh, no.” He ran over to me and checked for a heart beat.
“He’s still alive. We’ll hook him up to the machine.”
They tied me to this machine that monitored my pulse and breathing. I thought, ‘How on Earth are we gonna fix this one?’ Of course, Cassie knew what to do. She walked over to where the machine was plugged in and bent down as if to scratch her leg. On the way down she bumped the plug that powered the pieces connected to me. All of a sudden the machine started screaming and the hawk brain was freaking out. I laid still, only barely winning the battle with the hawk. Cassie’s dad froze. But just for a second. Then he tried just about anything and everything short of cutting me open. Finally he gave up.
“Okay, Cas. That’s it.”
“Do you want me to bury him?”
“No. I will,” Her dad said. That was a problem.
~Cassie. What do I do?~
“Wake up,” she muttered.
“TERRESSERRR!” I screamed, pure red tail.
“Ahhh! He’s awake!” Cassie’s dad yelled. ”Untie him! NOW!” Cassie quickly untied me from the wires and tubes connecting me to the machine.
I began to flap madly, but that was killing my wings.
“STOP HIM!” Cassie’s dad yelled.
He grabbed me but then became very still. I was acquiring him. Absorbing his DNA pattern. When I was done Cassie took me to a horse stall before her dad came out of the trance and hid me behind some boxes. I morphed roach then back to hawk and flew out an open window. As I perched on the barn roof I heard Cassie and her dad talking.
“You’re sure there wasn’t a hawk in here?”
“Yeah.”
“I could of sworn there was a hawk in here.”
I flew off but he saw me as he was coming out of the barn. He smiled and went into the house. Probably for a nap.
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CHAPTER #9
“Was that really necessary?” Marco asked. It was the next day and Cassie and I had just finished telling the others about my daring escape. While they lounged around on fallen trees.
“Sure it was, Marco,” Rachel replied. She was the only one, besides Cassie and me, that thought we did the right thing.
“He could have been a Controller, though.”
“Why would a slug care about animals?” That stopped Marco. Unfortunately it gave Jake a chance to talk.
“A slug wouldn’t really care but he might pretend to.”
~Prince Jake, I believe that Tobias and Cassie had no other choice. We needed Tobias and they saw a chance to get him back,~ Ax said thoughtfully.
“Yeah, well, acquiring Cassie’s dad was kind of drastic.” He said slowly, beginning to see Ax’s point. Ax does that to people. He’s so logical that you can’t help thinking about what he says.
“Be thankful that they cleared up one problem,” Rachel said.
“Yeah,” Jake agreed. “They did do that, didn’t they?”
Marco still wasn’t sure but he let it go when he saw that he was out numbered.
“So what do we do about Jordan?” he asked instead of protesting.
“I don’t know,” Jake said. “How about a vote?”
“Okay.”
“Who says we tell her to keep it a secret and forget about it?” Nobody said anything.
“Forget that one. How about giving her the power?” Cassie, Rachel, him and Marco raised their hands.
“Or just forgetting about it.” Nobody again.
“Ax?”
~I believe that it is too early to tell. Although giving her the power to morph seems like the best idea presented.~
“Tobias, how about you?”
~I agree with Ax.~
“Okay. So we give her the power.”
“Not again,” Marco moaned.
“If you didn’t want it why did you vote for it?” Rachel asked.
“I figured no one else would want it.”
“That’s really stupid. Even for you.” Rachel, of course.
“Okay guys. Rachel, bring her to the barn tomorrow at noon. Cassie, try to get your dad out of there by then.” Jake said.
~Bye guys,~ I said. ~Come on Ax.~
“Bye, Tobias. Bye Ax!”
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CHAPTER #10
~Tobias?~
~Yeah Ax-man?~
~What is wrong?~
~Why?~
~You have been sitting on that branch for a long time and you didn’t say anything when I came here.~
~Oh. Sorry, Ax.~
~So what is wrong?~
~Did you ever find out something that you thought that you wanted to know but then realized that you really didn’t want to know it?~
~Yes. I found out what happened to Elfangor.~
~That’s what is wrong with me.~
~What did you find out?~
~I found out that. . .~
~That what?~ he asked gently.
~That Elfangor was . . .~
~Was what?~ he asked, getting a little annoyed at me for not finishing my sentences.
~My dad.~
~Your WHAT!?!~
~I know it sounds a little hard to believe but I think it’s true.~
~HOW? How do you possibly think something like THAT could be true?~ he yelled into the cool night air.
~Think about it. My dad’s name was Alan Fangor. Shorten that and you get Al Fangor. Kind of hard for something like the difference between an ‘A’ and an ‘E’ to be a coincidence.~
Ax looked like he was ready to faint. But he was thinking about it.
~How?~ he whispered again.
~I don’t know.~
"I KNOW," A booming voice said.
~Ellimist,~ Ax snarled. I almost agreed when I thought of all the things that the Ellimist had roped us into.
"YES."
Suddenly I was floating above a criss cross of lines. Each line belonged to a person. Each was that person’s life line. I saw Elfangor’s. I was drawn down to it, pulling Ax with me. We fell past the end of his line.
~How can we go into past Elfangor’s line?~ I asked, confused.
"WHEN A GOOD PERSON DIES FOR BEING BRAVE HE IS ALOWED TO CHOSE THE SETTING WHERE HE WILL SPEND THE REST OF HIS AFTER LIFE," the Ellimist explained.
~So this is going to be Elfangor’s idea of Heaven?~ I asked.
"IN A WAY, YES. ELFANGOR WILL KNOW YOU," was all the Ellimist said before we were drawn into what became Elfangor’s Heaven.
I looked up. There was a field of grass like the one we found Ax in. No one else was around. Then we heard running. Elfangor came into view.
~Hello, Tobias,~ he said. ~Hello, Aximili.~
Ax seemed shocked. He keep saying, ~Brother? No. It can’t be. It’s another on of those dreams. Brother? Is it really you?~
~Yes, Aximili,~ he said laughing. ~It is me.~
~Oh, Elfangor!~ he yelled, arching his tail blade forward. Elfangor arched his blade forward too and the tips touched. I know it’s weird but I guess this was their idea of hugging. Elfangor stepped back and looked at me.
~Tobias.~
“Hello,” I said, surprised to see that I was in human morph.
~Hello, Tobias.~
Well, this was going great. I was in Elfangor’s idea of Heaven and couldn’t think of anything more to say to him than ‘hello.’ Luckily Ax took over.
~Elfangor! It’s so good to see you.~
~And you also, Aximili.~ Okay, so the ‘Aximilli’ thing was a little weird, but it wasn’t the only thing that was weird around here. He turned back to me.
~Tobias,~ he said like he couldn’t believe it was me. ~Tobias. My son.~
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CHAPTER #11
“So you created Visser Three?” I asked, amazed.
~Yes.~ His voice was full of sorrow. I guess he was remembering what had happened to him.
Ax was ignoring Elfangor. He was mad. I don’t really blame him too much, but the way Elfangor told me (even though he was pointing out his mistakes the entire time) made it seem like it was nobody’s fault and really just an accident.
Elfangor walked over to Ax almost silently. He pressed his hand against Ax’s arm and Ax looked up in surprise. I guess he wasn’t expecting this from his war-hero brother. And then touching. Andalites aren’t a touching species and Elfangor was probably the last person Ax expected to try it.
~I’m sorry, Aximilli. I’m so sorry.~
Ax looked, well, confused. Like he wanted to accept that Elfangor was sorry but he wasn’t quite ready to forgive him yet. Mostly he looked like he wanted it all never to have happened.
~Elfangor. . .I. . . I always thought that you could be nothing less than perfect. That anything that would get some one else in trouble was forgotten if you did it. That’s why I told them that I gave the humans the power to morph. Because I thought that your perfect image shouldn’t be scoffed. Now I wonder if I made the right choice.~
~Maybe you did and maybe you didn’t. Only time can tell.~
Ax looked like he wanted to cry, but Andalites can’t cry.
Elfangor turned back to me. ~How are you doing in this war?~
“Alright.”
~Tell me what has happened.~
I told him what had happened. When I was done he looked amazed.
~That is probably the most incredible story I have ever heard. Five human children fighting and winning against an army of alien slugs. Amazing.~
"ARE YOU READY TO GO?" Great. The Ellimist.
~No,~ Ax said.
“No,” I echoed.
"FINE. YOU HAVE TWO MORE HOURS AND THEN YOU MUST LEAVE. NO ARGUMENTS."
~Tobias?~
“What?”
~Acquire me, please. And Aximilli too. If he gives his permission.~
“Okay.” This could be a little strange.
~You have my permission to acquire me, Tobias,~ Ax said.
I touched Elfangor’s shoulder and concentrated on him. Then I did the same to Ax.
~Now you must concentrate on both of us at once. Picture a blending of our two bodies.~
I pictured something that looked a little like Elfangor and Ax together and began the morph.
This was probably the strangest morph yet because it felt so right. As I stood in the field my body became blue. Out of my stomach two thin horse-like legs grew. My head became a kind of rounded triangle shape and from the top, where my hair had been, grew stalk eyes. My back legs changed to match the set that grew out of my stomach. Then the tail appeared. It grew from my lower back, arching over my shoulders which had grown thinner.
When I was done I wondered, how did I morph from my human body? I shouldn’t have wondered. Of course. The Ellimist.
I turned one stalk eye in the direction of Elfangor and Ax. Elfangor did his ‘smiling with his eyes’ thing and for some reason it overjoyed me.
I realized why he had smiled: He had finally seen his son morph. Like a human father seeing his kid walk for the first time.
Ax looked at me quizzically, like he couldn’t quite believe what he saw. Then he said, ~Come on.~
With that he raced off with Elfangor following him, laughing in my head.
I looked at them and when I saw how far they had gone I thought that I would never catch up. But I tried. As so as I started running my hooves began absorbing the grass. There wasn’t really much flavor to it, but it gave me energy. I soon caught up to Ax and Elfangor. They looked at me like, ‘See? We told you this was fun!’
Elfangor smiled at me with his eyes again.
~I am proud of you, Tobias. You have gone so far in the past few months that it is amazing.~
I searched the Andalite brain that was included in my morph looking for the correct response. All that came up was ‘Yes my Prince.’ That didn’t really sound right so I stuck with a simple ~Thank you.~
He smiled again.
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CHAPTER #12
We realized that our two hours were almost up, so I demorphed to human (the Ellimist again, I guess). I got a few more morphs like a Kafit bird and some thing called a fleer. It was kind of fun but also sad because I knew that I would have to leave soon.
When there were only five minutes left, Elfangor did something that I did not expect him to do. He morphed human. When he was done I was thinking ‘How did he get clothes?’ but then he came up and hugged me. I think maybe that’s the first time somebody that was related to me really hugged me. It was a great feeling.
Then he morphed back to his self.
All of a sudden the voice from above came back.
"COME, TOBIAS AND AXIMILLI. IT IS TIME TO GO BACK."
Ax and I turned to Elfangor to say good bye but we were already floating above the criss cross of lines again.
~Was that for real?~ I asked, once again in my hawk body.
"YES. IT WAS REAL."
Suddenly we were back in the forest, but the sun had begun to come up.
~Wow,~ I said to Ax.
He was laying on the ground shaking like it was cold or something, except that it was like sixty already.
~Are you okay Ax-man?~
~Yes.~ He stood up. ~That was very traumatizing.~
~Tell me about it.~
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Prolouge
“And you expect us to believe that?” Marco asked.
It was the next day and we were out in the woods. Ax and I had just finished telling our story to the others. Jordan was there to, listening intently.
~Yes. We do,~ I said firmly. Then I morphed into my Andalite morph. Fortunately Jordan wasn’t looking then.
“Okay. Fine. I believe you. Now on to her,” Marco said, jerking his thumb at Jordan. I demorphed.
“I believe we decided to give-ive her the pow- power” Ax said.
“Well no kidding, Space-boy.”
“Okay,” Jake said. “Ax? Demorph. Jordan? Don’t freak out or any thing.”
Ax demorphed. Jordan looked pretty calm until his tail appeared. Then she tried to run. Jake and Rachel caught her and brought her back.
She watched Ax finish with big eyes then she asked “Will I be able to do that?”
We all smiled. Jordan was going to be okay.
THE END