Imagine a picture of Al turning into a squirrel.

71: The Lesson

AUTHOR'S NOTE

Some clarification is definitely important here. If you've been following the series, you probably know that John3Sobieski was writing mostof book 71 for me. We've had a slight change in lineup here. While John was writing The Price, I was doing some work of my own on this book, the Lesson. I realized that I was almost done with this one, and that releasing it before The Price wouldn't really throw off the series. So, to avoid you readers having to wait longer, I'm releasing it now. The book written by John will be the next one.

Enjoy or go to hell.

If I owned the Animorphs, you wouldn't be reading this for free.
And if I owned Streetlight Manifesto, I'd have better things to do than write fan fiction.

Chapter 1


My name is Alloran-Sirinial-Fangor. I believe that at this point, it would be redundant of me to inform you that I am an Andalite aristh serving on Earth under my Prince and half-brother, Tobias. I am also relatively certain that you are aware that the Yeerks have returned to Earth and are once again attempting a covert takeover of the planet. So I shall instead begin by informing you of one thing that I am fairly certain you do not know: I suffer from rather severe insomnia.

In my childhood, it was never much of an issue. The automatons who cared for me and taught me had no concept of night and day. When I was awake, it was day and when I slept, it was night. After I no longer was required to live in hiding, it was still only a small issue, as it was very easy for me to obtain certain medications to counteract the effects.

Here on Earth, it is considerably more difficult. I decided to forgo my medications and simply live with my insomnia. It was, after all, only a minor inconvenience. And I have learned that there are a great deal of very entertaining programs on television that only come on at hours when sensible beings would be comfortably asleep.

So, on this night, like so many other nights, I could not sleep and instead amused myself by watching the Late Late show on television. In order to maximize my pleasure, I had morphed to my human form so that I could sit upon the sofa. I had the volume turned down very low so that Prince Tobias, Rachel, James, and David would not be awakened by the noise. And knowing how thin the walls of our tiny apartment were, I was especially careful.

I was laughing quietly at a joke the man on the television told me. My laughter cut off abruptly when the door swung open. Prince Tobias walked in. Where had he been at this hour? "Prin-"

I cut off again when I realized he was not alone. Two men followed him into the apartment. The first one, directly behind Prince Tobias, had blond hair and was wearing mirrored sunglasses and a trench coat that was a shade of yellow so revolting that it made my eyes water. Behind him was a man who was approximately six and a half feet tall. There were numerous scars on his face, and there were probably more hidden behind his neatly trimmed beard. Like the other man, he was wearing a trench coat, but his was black like his hair. It matched the coats Prince Tobias and James had been issued as part of their occupation; the sunglasses were also identical.

"Al?" Prince Tobias asked, walking towards the kitchen through the dark living room. "What're you doing up?"

"Hey, Toby! You didn't tell me you had kid!" the blond man said, rather loudly.

"Younger brother," Prince Tobias answered evenly. The large man closed the door and stood with his back to it. "Al, this is my boss, Sergio, and his...friend...Nicolai."

Nicolai nodded once, slowly, but that was it. Sergio flopped down on the couch next to me. He looked from me to the television and back again. "Good choice. If you're up at this hour, there is no excuse not to watch that Scotsman, eh Nicolai? Toby?"

Again, Nicolai nodded slowly. "If I disagree, do I get fired?" Prince Tobias asked; I assume he was joking. I am not especially adept at discerning what is humor, so I have decided to assume that most things are attempts at it. Prince Tobias had turned on the water and was washing his hands with a lot of soap. I wondered why but decided it was best not to question my Prince in the presence of his superior.

"Toby, Toby, Toby, you don't fire friend. You just make sure you never see him again, da? Maybe accident happens to him..."

"Are you saying you'll kill me if I don't like Craig Ferguson's comedy?"

"Kill? What is this kill? Nicolai, did I say kill?"

Slowly, Nicolai shook his head.

"There! You see? No killing!"

"You mind keeping it down? If you wake up Rach, no one will ever see any of us again," Prince Tobias warned.

"Oh, da, she lives here, doesn't she?"

"Yeah; I know I told you that before. So would you -"

"Wouldn't that be rude of me? To come all this way and not pay visit to famous Rachel? No, no, no, no! I am many things, but never rude!" Then he did perhaps one of the craziest things I have ever seen; and I'm an Animorph! Sergio leaned his head back and yelled, "RAAAAACHEEEEEL!!!!"

The effect was almost instantaneous. Prince Tobias dove halfway across the apartment, seeming to appear in front of us in an instant. His hand was over Sergio's mouth. The soap coating it was pink. Why...?

My mind was drawn to something far more important, though; and dangerous. Rachel stormed out of the bedroom she shared with Prince Tobias. She wore only a night gown. Her hair was a mess, and her stomach, due to the pregnancy, was several sizes larger than it should have been. Her face was a contorted mask of terrifying rage.

For a moment, no one moved. Rachel managed to glare at all four of us simultaneously. Prince Tobias, ever the fearless leader, broke the silence. "....'Mornin', Rach."

"Tobias..." she began softly. But I suppose she could not maintain that tone for more than one word, because her next few sentences came out in a shout. "WHAT THE HELL IS GOING ON HERE!?" A Howler would have been hard pressed to match her volume.

"Um... I had to work tonight. Sergio and Nicolai drove me home. And Segio wanted to meet you..."

"So he decided it was sensible to bellow my name in the middle of the night!?"

"You'll have to trust me when I say that this is his idea of polite," Prince Tobias answered. I remained perfectly motionless, hoping that perhaps if I remained still, she would not see me and decide that I was in some way responsible for this.

She turned to glare fully at Nicolai. "And what do you have to say for yourself?"

Slowly, Nicolai shrugged. That seemed to upset her even more. She turned the full power of her glare on Sergio. "And what about you?"

Then Sergio said something that will perhaps go down in the annals of history as one of the ten most foolish things any human being has ever said. "You were prettier in my head."

Chapter 2

Sergio was insane. There could not possibly be any argument about that. He was also very nearly dead. Only the fact that Prince Tobias managed to get between him and Rachel saved his life. He gripped her forearms to keep her form smacking Sergio to death.

I halfway expected her to morph to her grizzly bear and maul Sergio, but apparently she was not so blinded by rage that she forgot the danger morphing might pose to her unborn child. She contented herself with cursing.

She stopped abruptly when she got a good look at the hands that were holding her. "Tobias, why are your hands red?"

"Sergio wanted one of the walls of his office painted," Prince Tobias answered. "He's got a thing for red."

I could not see Prince Tobias's eyes because of his glasses; nor could I see the eyes of the other two. "Take those glasses off and say that," Rachel commanded him sharply.

"What for? You'd know if I was lying to you."

"Take off the glasses and tell me this isn't blood on your hands, Tobias."

"You're being ridiculous, Rachel."

"You expect me to believe your boss dragged you out of bed in the middle of the night to paint his office?"

"You expect me to tell you that he dragged me out of bed in the middle of the night to kill someone?" Prince Tobias responded evenly.

"There's that word again," Sergio muttered. "Such unpleasant word, that 'kill.'"

Rachel glared at him over Prince Tobias's shoulder. "I think I'm going to have to teach you just how unpleasant it is."

"She-bear growls, but does she have claws?" Sergio mused. Then, with absolutely no connection between the two thoughts, he said, "Hey, Toby, James lives here too, da?"

"Yeah; but knowing him, he's either hiding in his room or he's jumped out the window by now..."

"I'd send Nicolai outside to look for him, but I think I like having him where I can hide behind him if you let she-bear go." Then, just as before, Sergio leaned his head back and shouted, "JAAAAAAMES!"

Slowly, Jame's bedroom door eased open. David was perched on his shoulder. James took a long look at Rachel. Once he was satisfied that Tobias had her in a tight grip, he stepped into the living room. "Hi, Mister Sergio."

Sergio spat on the floor. "Bah! That word, 'Mister!' Do you call friend 'Mister?' Eh? Hey! That might be fun! What do you think, Mister Nicolai?"

Nicolai leaned his head from one side to the other in a noncommittal gesture. Sergio turned to James. "You have rat on shoulder, Mister James."

"Oh...that. It's -"

"I did not know you were one for pet! Me, I like cat. Quiet, unobtrusive. Cat never asked me question. I like rat, too. Quiet, unobtrusive. Never asked me question either."

((Rat fan?)) David asked in thought speak that Sergio and Nicolai couldn't hear. ((He must not be all bad, then.))

"Yeah, David and I-"

Sergio seemed to materialize in front of James. I am not sure when he left the couch. The next thing I knew, though, he had David in both hands and was holding my shorm at eye-level with his sunglasses. "Hello, Mister David."

((Hi, Mister Nutjob,)) David responded, again in private.

"Hey, maybe I need pet. What do you think, Nicolai?"

Nicolai shrugged.

"What do you think I should get?" He looked at Nicolai for a few moments. Nicolai made neither sound nor gesture, but Sergio suddenly exclaimed, "Perfect! I get rat! Just like Mister David! Hey, maybe Mister David knows rat looking for new place to stay, da?"

((I could put an add in our local newspaper,)) David answered privately. James failed to hide a smile.

"Wouldn't that be a little dangerous with your cat?" Prince Tobias asked.

"Cat? What cat? Who says I have cat?"

"You just said you like cats..." James pointed out.

"Of course! I love cat. But I don't have one. I love one million dollars, too, but I don't have that either."

"You don't have a million dollars?" Prince Tobias questioned. His face, as usual, was expressionless, but the surprise was evident in his voice.

"Of course not!" then Sergio gave him a big smile smile with unnaturally white teeth. "I have nine million. Speaking of which..." He pulled a stack of money from inside of his coat and tossed it onto the coffee table in front of him. "You did good work tonight, Toby. You get bonus."

"I'm...good with a paint brush," Prince Tobias said slowly.

"Hey...paint brush. I think we call it that from now on. Mister Nicolai, what say you?" Nicolai nodded slowly. "All right! Now we're getting somewhere!"

Rachel had gone quiet, but none of us were foolish enough to think she stopped being upset. Her face was still livid, and every now and then she tried to jerk free of Prince Tobias's grasp. I suspected she was angry beyond words.

Sergio reached into his coat again and took out a silver flask. Leaning back in the couch and putting his feet up on the table, he took a long drink from it. Then he glanced over at me. "You drink?'

"No," I said quietly, still hoping not to attract Rachel's attention.

"No? Me, I drink every day of my life. Even before! My mother, she drank while I was in womb."

((That explains soooooo much,)) David said in our heads. This time, James hid his smile behind a cough.

Sergio pulled something new out of his coat. A large cigar. As he fumbled around for a lighter, though, Tobias shook his head. "Not in here, Sergio."

"Huh? Why not?"

"Have you forgotten entirely about the angry pregnant woman I'm holding back?"

Sergio probably looked startle, though it was difficult for me to tell. Between the glasses and my unfamiliarity with human facial expressions, I could not be sure. He may have simply had a stroke.

"Oh yeah! I forgot she was here. What happened to growling, she-bear?"

"I'm thinking of skipping that and just going to biting," Rachel answered through clenched teeth.

"Hey, now that's something! But wouldn't Toby get jealous if he found out?"

Rachel stared at Sergio for a moment. Then, flatly, she said, "This is the part where you leave."

Chapter 3

Sergio did, in fact, leave after that. But on the way out the door, he turned back and said, "Mister James, I need you early tomorrow morning at fourteen hundred, da?"

James nodded. "I'll be there."

"Good, good. I need some things moved. Nicolai, say goodbye to nice people." As an afterthought, he added, "And she-bear."

Nicolai waved one hand and closed the door behind him as he and his boss left. Only after we heard a car start up did Prince Tobias decide it was safe to release Rachel. He walked back over to the sink and resumed washing his hands.

"Tobias?" Rachel began, her voice sounding very much like her younger sister, Sara's.

"Yeah Rach?"

"If he ever sets foot in my home again, I'm going to do that thing he doesn't like to talk about."

"Audit?"

"Kill."

"Oh, yeah; he's not a fan of that, either."

"I'll probably have to kill Nicolai, too... Make sure we always have some spare garbage bags around, I plan to put him in several different dumpsters throughout the town."

"Duly noted."

James slowly began backing into his room, but Rachel stopped him. "Not yet, James. First, we all need to have a little talk."

"What about?" James asked carefully. "Sergio said I have to get up early tomorrow, you know."

"He said be there at fourteen hundred. That's two p.m. How is that early?"

"Early for him," James answered carefully. "What do we need to talk about?"

"We need to talk about why Tobias is sneaking out in the middle of the night and coming back with blood on his hands. You were right, Tobias. I do know when you're lying to me."

Tobias did not turn around from the sink. "Look...you have to understand that under normal circumstances, I would never have done it."

"So you admit it?"

"It's not what you think."

"I don't think you have any clue what I'm thinking right now," Rachel said sharply.

"Just listen. A lot of money runs through Sergio's hands. And he's pretty paranoid, so he hates keeping it around where anyone can trace it to him. So he spreads it around. A little here, a little there. That way, there's no record that he has the money, no trace of it going anywhere, and most importantly, no hard evidence if things go south.

"He's got a lot of...friends...who hold money for him. Sometimes, they decide that their friendship is over and make the decision to keep it. After all, it's not like Sergio could go to the police or anything... But he's got other options."

"So you just agreed to go out and kill someone for his money!?" Rachel demanded. I was sure there had to be more to it, though. My Prince has no compunction about killing his enemies; he is a great warrior. But I just could not see him killing an innocent man over ill-gotten money. I am sure, had Rachel been in a reasonable frame of mind, she would have felt the same way.

"Just listen," Prince Tobias repeated. "At first, I wasn't going to do it. But then I saw the picture of the man who had his money."

"I don't care how ugly he is, that doesn't make it okay to-"

"It was Kalroth."

That silenced Rachel. "So Kalroth is -"

"No, he's alive. He has a compound outside of town, just inside the mountains. We went there, but after seeing the security, Sergio actually had a rare bout of good judgment and decided not to chance it. We waited until we saw Kalroth leave in a limo and then we followed him. When he got out, we attacked him. He got away, but Nicolai put at least one bullet in his arm. I shot one of his bodyguards and ended up in a fistfight with the other. Sergio destroyed the limo. For all his oddities, maybe because of them, that man is a wizard with a grenade."

Rachel sat down on the couch. James did the same. "What does all of this tell us?" she asked.

"I don't want to make any conclusions yet," Prince Tobias answered. "I'm going to call Cassie tomorrow and get her over here to talk about things. Maybe we can piece some things together. This night was very helpful, though."

"How so?" James asked.

((For one thing, now we know where Kalroth holes up,)) David answered. ((And we've got some idea of the security around it. It may have been tough for a few mafia thugs-))

"Let's not use that word," Prince Tobias interrupted.

((Sorry. Mafia goons-))

"The other word."

((It might have been too much for a few...friends...but with a little poking around, I'm sure we can think of something. And who knows? Maybe we don't even have to do the deed ourselves,)) he added.

"You lost me at the end there, Bolts," James told him.

Prince Tobias was the one who answered, though. "Kalroth has apparently been taking money from...friends. Probably to help fund Guraff's war effort. Taking Kalroth out will be a major blow to the Yeerks. He's not dangerous like Guraff, but I think he's sort of a symbol to them. If we can get rid of that, it'll cripple their morale."

"I get that. But why did David say we might not have to do it ourselves?"

"'Friends' get upset when you don't give them their money. I'm willing to bet this is not the only time Kalroth's done this. We don't have to siege his compound. If we can just get him out in the open, get rid of his bodyguards, and make sure some of the other people he's angered are in the area...things will take care of themselves from there."

((Kalroth getting killed by Animorphs in battle is one thing,)) David agreed. ((Getting gunned down by thugs is just sort of embarrassing. That might hurt them even more than us killing him would.))

Tobias nodded. "We can all talk more about it later. But I'm exhausted. And I'm sure Rachel wants to get back to bed. You and David need to get to sleep anyway, Al."

"Why is that?"

"Don't play that game. I know you forget almost nothing. You've got your first day of school tomorrow."

I winced. I had been hoping he would forget.

Chapter 4

I understand, intellectually, why Prince Tobias decided to have David and myself attend a human school. Currently, the war consumed our entire lives. Prince Tobias did not want to see it consume who we are the way it had him. It was a noble sentiment; but I still did not want to go to school. Something deep within my soul rebelled against it.

Rachel woke me up by throwing some clothes on top of me. She still seemed to be a bit angry from the previous night's...festivities. Silently, I morphed to human and dressed myself. I have gotten rather good at it; I usually get the clothing on the proper appendage on the second try.

It was not my usual human morph. We knew that Alpha Front was heavily infiltrated by the Yeerks, and that important Yeerks might recognize my human morph. So I had tweaked the DNA a bit to produce a morph that looked suitably different from my usual one.

At first, David and I had been extremely apprehensive about attending school. We feared that we would be virtually surrounded by Controllers. But some data we had retrieved from the Yeerks revealed that much of the younger population of the town was uninfested. Although the Visser had infested numerous people of my approximate age, Guraff had added few more. The Visser, having been defeated by children before, was somewhat obsessed with making sure that did not happen again. Guraff had no such obsession. While we would still need to exercise caution, it would not be the minefield I had feared.

David and I...I am going to use the word 'ate' though I do not think it is precisely accurate...ate the objects Rachel prepared for breakfast. During that time, she dragged James out of bed. He was supposed to walk us to school. While I would have preferred for Prince Tobias to walk us there, there was not a Yeerk on Earth who did not know him by sight.

"The new kid yet again," David muttered as we walked. "Let's hope this goes better than it did the last time."

"What happened last time?" James asked.

"I got cravings for cheese and a fear of cats."

"Oh; that."

James abandoned us a block away from the school. Although he was less easily recognized than Prince Tobias, they had been seen together a few times and it was entirely possible that he would be recognized as well.

Ronnie met us outside of the school and then led us inside. He spoke briefly to the principal, got directions to our first class, and then took us there. "Cassie or I will be back at the end of the day to pick you up," he told us.

I nodded. Ronnie left us and we entered the classroom. We were introduced by the teacher and directed to seats near the back of the room. Then we sat through perhaps the most boring experience of our lives. It was a history class. Which would not have been so bad, except that that it was the history of the Yeerk War. Although it is a subject that I am understandably fascinated in, the teacher could not possibly provide a single fact that I did not already know.

My eyelids felt heavy. I sat there with my elbow on the desk and my cheek resting on my fist. I was not paying complete attention, but something the teacher said caught my interest. "Let's see who did the required reading. Does anyone know what Captain Nerefir's nickname was and why they called him that?"

Without thinking, I answered, "They called him 'Old Hoof and Tail' because his tail was eight inches longer than that of the average Andalite and his left hoof was replaced with a steel prosthetic due to an injury he sustained before the invention of morphing technology." It was common knowledge on the Homeworld.

A few people turned to stare at me. The teacher nodded. "Correct, Alan. But next time, try to raise your hand first." I answered a few more childishly easy questions during the class. Then it was dismissed. Since we had been in morph for a bit, David and I were headed towards the bathroom to demorph. It was perhaps a little dangerous, but if we were caught, we had had a story prepared. We would simply say that we were Andalites but were posing as humans because we feared the reaction of our peers if they learned the truth.

"Hey, Al," David began, "I know you're a genius and all, but you're going to need to keep it down. We don't want to attract attention. So try not to answer too many questions; especially not in science."

"That sounds logical."

"And please, oh please, don't start correcting teachers."

"If you insist."

We went through a few more classes. I was, predictably, extremely bored. Science was a waste of my time, as were human mathematics. One class did seem to be extremely useful for me, however: physical education.

If there was one thing humans could teach me, it was how to use their bodies more effectively. Although I was somewhat clumsy with my human body, I managed to make it through physical education class without making a complete fool of myself. I was fairly certain that, in a few weeks, I would learn a great deal there.

After that, it was time for perhaps the best moment of the day: it was time for lunch.

Chapter 5

I got to the cafeteria before David did. We did not have mathematics and physical education together, so I had lost track of him earlier in the day. Also, I knew that he had to stop and demorph after whatever class he had. After our first class, we had gotten onto different morphing schedules so that we were not repeatedly going to the bathroom together.

Because of this, I was alone when I entered the cafeteria. Rachel had explained the lunch procedure to me, so I knew more or less what to do. I managed to obtain my rations without any sort of difficulty. Certainly not the sort of scene I was told my uncle Aximili would have made.

I stood alone for a few moments, gazing around the cafeteria and looking for a place to sit. I was unsure what to do. Should I attempt to locate some place that was currently unoccupied or try to insert myself into a preexisting grouping of humans? It was a conundrum.

Then a human male met my eyes and waved at me. "Over here, Jim."

Although I had never been introduced to someone as 'Jim', the eye contact made me reasonably certain that the individual meant me. I quickly searched my memory for this boy's face. He had been in my physical education class. Raphael was his name. I sat down next to him. "Hello." I was not sure what to say next. So I asked, "Why did you call me 'Jim'?"

"Short for Jim Morrison. Because you're so trippy," Raphael answered. Then he turned back to his friends and jerked his thumb at me. "He fell over seven times today during gym."

They all laughed a little. I was not sure if they were laughing with me or at me. I responded, "It is physical education, after all. If I had already mastered the physics of the human body, attending the class would be redundant."

There was a moment of silence. Then a few of them laughed. "Funny guy," one I did not recognize said of me. Apparently, he thought I was joking. I was content to allow him to believe that. "I'm Tim."

"Al," I introduced myself. We all spoke for a bit, mostly about me. I stuck to the story we we Animorphs had agreed upon earlier and kept the details as vague as possible. They seemed more or less content to accept that.

After twenty minutes, though, I was beginning to get concerned. David was nowhere in sight. Had something happened to him? It was possible; perhaps someone had caught him morphing. That would be a serious problem; especially if that person was a Controller.

I excused myself to search for David and began wandering the hallways, searching for him. The hallways seemed oddly deserted; perhaps the teachers were eating lunch as well. "Hey!" someone called from behind me.

I turned around to see three large human males approaching. They appeared to be two or three Earth years older than my own morph. "You're that new kid, Al, aren't you?"

"I am he," I told them. I recognized the one who seemed to be their leader. He was in the same mathematics class that I attended. Troy was his name, if I was not mistaken. I am not sure why someone several years older than I am was in the same class.

"Great! We've been looking for you." In an odd gesture of companionship, he put his arm over my shoulders and began steering me down the hallway.

"Me?"

"Yeah, you. See, I was kinda hoping you could do us a little favor."

"What favor?" I asked, surprised. What could they want from me?

"My friend Brad here gets a little forgetful sometimes." He jerked one thumb at one of the two males following us. "Seems like he forgot his lunch money back home, and he gets real hungry, see?"

"That sounds like quite the predicament."

"You getting' wise with me?"

I turned to him, not understanding. "I was not aware that we were acquiring wisdom together."

"You think you're funny?"

I thought about it. Raphael, Tim, and the others seemed amused by me. I supposed that qualified as me being funny, though it was unintentional. "Yes, I believe so."

"Hear that, guys? The wise guy here thinks he's funny," Troy said to Brad and the as-yet-unnamed other one. Why was he repeating what we had just established? Surely his friends had heard our conversation.

"You mentioned a favor?" I prompted, hoping to spare Troy further embarrassment lest he repeat something else needlessly.

"Oh, so now you want to talk favors?"

"You were the one who mentioned it," I reminded him. He gave me a look that struck me as oddly similar to the one Rachel had been wearing this morning.

"Yeah, see, Brad needs money for lunch."

He seemed to have a habit of repeating what was already common knowledge. He must have been remedial; that would explain why he was in the same class as me.

"Yes, we have established that," I responded. I was growing slightly annoyed.

"Well, we were thinking he could have yours."

That surprised me. What an unusual request to make of a stranger! I was aware of how much humans prized their money. Prince Tobias had certainly spent enough time worrying about it. "While I would like to be so altruistic as to aid you, I fear I have already spent mine and consumed the meal that I purchased therewith."

"Oh, that's no problem," Troy said quietly. "You just bring us the money tomorrow and there won't be any problems."

"Why would you need it tomorrow? Surely Brad will be able to remember to bring the requisite funds then."

The three of them stared at me for a moment. Then Troy said, in a soft voice, "Maybe you're not getting how this works. You're going to give Brad that money tomorrow before lunch, got it?"

"Why should I?" I asked. Troy's reaction to my honest question caught me off guard because it was so unexpected. He struck me in the face with his fist. I have been wounded many times before, in battle with monsters that Troy could not conceive of in his darkest nightmares. But this still hurt. I could taste my own blood.

I stumbled back and before I had time to recover, Brad kicked my legs out from under me. That was rather unnecessary, of course; the way my balance was, a slight shove would have been sufficient to knock me over. The third male kicked me hard in the ribs. I lay there, gasping for air and tasting my own blood.

Troy stood over me and shook his head. "I didn't want to have to do that. But I've got to make sure Brad gets fed. He gets violent when he's hungry. So unless you want this to be a daily thing, you'd be best off making sure Brad doesn't get hungry again any time soon."

I rolled onto my stomach and then lurched to my feet. By the time I was erect, they were gone. I leaned against the all and looked around. There were too many emotions to sort through in my mind. Surprise was a large quantity of it. But mostly, it was shame. I was an aristh! A warrior! I have held my own against Kelbrid! But I was no match for three large humans; not in this body, at least. This sort of thing would never have happened to Prince Tobias; I could not imagine it. I was a complete failure as a warrior.

That was why I was crying. It was not the pain; I have grown accustomed to that. It was the knowledge that I had been soundly defeated by perhaps the three weakest enemies I have ever fought.

"Hey, are you alright?" a feminine voice asked. I looked up and my heart stopped.