Animorphs - The Proposal

Insert normal disclaimer here.

Thought-speak in italics.

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My name is Tobias, and I was so nervous I felt like I was going to wet my pants. Well, if I was actually wearing pants that is. Things were getting serious in our war against the Yeerks. Not that they weren't serious before, but this was a whole new level of seriousness. We started the day off with a raid against the Taxxons who were busy digging a new Yeerk pool. We all made it back but for the longest time we all thought Jake had actually died. He finally returned to the valley after a few hours and said he had figured out a plan to attack the pool ship. Jake's little brush with death made me realize that any one of us could really be killed at anytime and if I wanted to do this I had to do it now.

Let me back track a bit to about a year and a half ago. I was enjoying an afternoon flight riding the thermals as usual when something shimmering in the sunlight caught my eye as I flew by. I swooped down for a closer look and to my amazement I saw a gold ring that someone had probably lost while hiking. It didn't have any diamonds or other stones on it and there was no engraving on it except the jeweler's mark. It was just a simple loop of gold. This spot was far off any normal trails so I knew there was no hope of anyone ever finding it again. If I turned it in to the rangers office it might seem kinda suspicious so I decided to keep it.

As I was flying back to my meadow I tried to think what I could do with it. I could always go to some pawn shop somewhere and see how much I could get for it. Maybe then I'd treat Ax and myself to a few "human comforts" down at the mall. And then I thought of another, crazier thought that had to do with a certain special someone. Nah, she'd never go for it, I said out loud to no one in particular. We were only a couple of 14 year olds. We both will have a lot more time to think about stuff like that after this war was over. But there was something in the back of my head that kept saying, Well, you never know Tobias…

So I stashed the ring in my little secret hiding place that even Ax didn't know about. It slowly faded from my memory and I had almost completely forgotten about it until the scare with Jake. That's when I knew that I had to get it and just ask Rachel. Even if she said no, I'd still have told her what she really meant to me and I might not have another chance.

Jake told us he had a plan, but he wanted to talk to us all individually. That gave me some free time to go back to my old meadow and see if the ring was still there. It wasn't an incredibly long flight back to my old meadow so in half an hour I was there. I found my secret spot undisturbed and started rummaging around for the ring. I kept only the things that had any real value to me here like an old drawing I did, a few baseball cards that I couldn't leave behind, and a few other assorted things that I managed to get out of my uncle's house. After searching for a minute or so I found it. It could use a little cleaning up, but it was none the worse for wear. I morphed to human, cleaned it up as best I could in a nearby stream, and put it in my pocket.

We had just recently learned to morph some decent clothes. The secret is imagining yourself in your clothes, but you have to put extreme focus directly on the clothing down the tiniest details. Trying to morph something in your pocket was about ten times as hard, and after somewhere around thirty attempts I finally got it down. I demorphed and morphed back into my human self to test it out and I seemed to have the hang of it so I demorphed one final time and started heading back to the valley.

The whole way there I was trying practice what I would actually say to Rachel. Being a bird of prey for about three years will give a person loads of extra confidence, but even that much extra confidence isn't enough to deal with proposing to someone. I was just about as nervous as I've ever been in my life and it was only getting worse the longer it took me to get back. All this morphing and flying was tiring me out, but I had to do this right now because I didn't really know if there would be a next time.

I came in pretty high over the valley and started looking for Rachel. She wasn't that hard to spot since she usually had her two little sisters following her everywhere, and right now was no exception. I swooped down and landed by her side.

Hey Rachel, can I…um…talk to you for a bit? I said with some anxiety in my voice.

"Hey Tobias. Yeah, sure, what's up?" Rachel said back seemingly oblivious to the tone of my voice.

I'd rather we do this somewhere more private, if…um…if that's okay with you that is. It came out a little creepier than I would've liked.

"Yeah, alright. You okay Tobias, you seem a bit edgy," she said as she started her bald eagle morph.

Aren't we all a bit edgy nowadays? I asked, trying to calm my nerves.

Yeah, I guess so, Rachel said back.

We flew to our own favorite personal hang out spot deep in the woods of the valley. To my knowledge Rachel and I were the only ones who knew about it which made it our little secret spot. When we got there Rachel demorphed and I morphed to my human form like usual. I concentrated so hard on that little loop of gold in my pocket that I'm surprised that I actually morphed into human and not into the ring itself. The first thing I did once I was fully human was to check that the ring was still in my pocket and it was. Phew, that's one obstacle down, about a million more to go I thought to myself.

"So, what's up Tobias? What's with all the secrecy?" Rachel said after we both sat down on our usual fallen log.

"Well…" I began to say. "Um…so Jake has this plan to…um…attack the pool ship, and….uh…well…this is a whole new level of seriousness." I really wish I had put in some more practice into this about now.

"Yeah," Rachel said, "This is going to be it. I can feel it. Someone is going to win and someone is going to lose, and if I have anything to say about it we're going to kick some butt." Ah, good old Rachel.

"Yeah," I continued, "That's kind of my point. This is the end and I'm not sure what the total outcome is going to be." Rachel began to get a sort of confused look on her face. I figured that it was now or never, and I don't think I could live with myself if it was never. I took a deep breath and continued on. "Rachel, you mean the whole world to me. You're the only one who really cares for me and you're the only thing I have to hold on to."

"But what about your mom Tobias?" Rachel interrupted, "She cares for you too."

"It's not the same," I answered back, "She only cares for me because that's what a mom's supposed to do. She has no memory of me and I have no memory of her. It's totally different."

"But…" Rachel tried to say.

"Wait. Let me finish what I want to say." Rachel grew quiet and attentive. "For more than a year and a half I have been wanting to ask you a question. At first I thought it was silly. Heck, I kinda still do, but I have to have an answer or else it'll eat away inside me forever."

"Whatever I can do for you Tobias I will," Rachel answered softly.

"Look," I said, my whole body trembling. Clearing my throat I continued, "I know that we're really still kids and we will have lots of time to think things through after this whole mess is over, but you're everything to me. We've been through more these past three years than any other couple has been through in a lifetime. I don't think I'll ever find someone else like you Rachel. You're the only one who really cares for me and likes me for who I am."

"What are you trying to say Tobias?" Rachel said with a puzzled look on her face.
"I guess what I'm trying to say is that I want to wait for this whole thing to be over before I ask you this question, but I couldn't bare to have not asked you in case something does go wrong."

"What question would that be Tobias?" Rachel asked more intrigued then ever. I reached into my pocket and pulled out the ring in my closed hand.

"What I'm trying to say is that Rachel, after this whole war is over, will you marry me?"

As soon as I opened my hand and showed her the ring I was instantly tackled by a hug and we both fell off the log and landed on the ground.

"Oh, Tobias," Rachel said with tears streaming down her eyes, "Of course, of course! Why wouldn't I?" She pulled me into the tightest hug I've ever felt and I thought she was going to break my spine. I hadn't quite expected this…

"Rachel," I said with a combination of happiness and relief in my voice, "You've just made me the happiest hawk-boy on the face of the planet!"

"Ha," Rachel said still sort of sobbing, "You're the only hawk-boy on the face of the planet." That's what I loved about her. She was having the happiest moment of her life and she still could return one of my jokes. I returned the hug as hard as I could and then our lips met in what had to be one of the longest kisses ever recorded.

We had to be there like that for at least half an hour before we finally got separated enough for her to try the ring on. It was just a tad loose, but hopefully her fingers would grow just a little more since she was only sixteen.

All of a sudden I could see a thought hit her and I had a feeling I knew what it was. "So," Rachel started, "Does that mean that you'll give up flying and stay in your human morph permanently just for me?"

"Rachel," I said, "For you I'd stay in any morph possible, but as for right now we have a job to do."

"That was officially the weirdest expression of love I've ever heard," she said with a hint of sarcasm in her voice, "But I know you're right. We have a mission to accomplish. We better find Jake and see what he wants us to do, we've been gone for some time now."

"Yeah, lets go," I said. "Oh, and one more thing. Could you please not tell anyone about this? God knows what effect it would have on Jake's plan and just think what Marco would say. He'd have lame jokes for years to come."

"Alright," Rachel said, "Lets do it."