Note: This short story takes place after my Map of a Dream fic and happens somewhere before the end of book 54, The Beginning.

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The Warrior's Gift

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Hoofbeats woke me up. I grumbled and tried to go back to my nap. Marco warned me that Andalite tourism was the next big craze. They usually invaded anyplace selling food. Andalites, human morphs and food were a deadly combo.

My name is Tobias. By now, you probably know my story. I don't need to repeat it. It's too painful, and I don't want to mope.

The galloping continued like a herd of ruptured elephants. Suddenly, it stopped at the top of the hill not far from my tree. I opened my eyes. I wanted to tell the Andalite to beat it.

I knew she was female right away. She had purple fur. Her tailblade was almost as big as Ax's. Her arms and lower body had some visible muscles. Not big bodybuilder muscles. More like Bruce Lee. And she carried herself differently.

My feathers needed a preening. I took care of that while keeping my attention on the Andalite.

She stood perfectly still. Her stalk eyes scanned the area. I watched her swipe her front hoof across the grass. She held something pale blue in her left hand. A small egg-shaped device with multicolored crystalline buttons on top. In her right, she carried an old silver box the size of a school textbook.

The Andalite trotted under my tree. I stopped preening. Her stalk eyes looked up at me.

{Are you the one called Tobias?}

Well, wasn't she bold?

{I am a friend of Aximili.} She added. {He told me I might find you here. I...hope you are the correct hawk this time.}

Oh, brother.

Now she fixed her main eyes on me. Her stalk eyes lazily watched the area. Always searching for danger.

I stared back. I hoped to make her shrink away.

She didn't. Great. The only way to get rid of her was to answer her stupid questions.

{Yeah, I'm Tobias,} I finally answered her. {What do you want?}

{Greetings.} The Andalite dipped her upper body in one of those weird Andalite bows. Wait, didn't military Andalites do that? {I wanted to meet the son of Elfangor.}

I almost fell off my perch. Nobody but my friends knew that secret!

I spread my wings and glided down to the branch below. Bringing myself eye level with her.

{Who are you? How do you know that?} I demanded.

The Andalite blinked all four of her eyes. She seemed surprised that I already knew about Elfangor.

{My name is Semeir. Elfangor told me many secrets he never told anyone else.}

I stared Semeir down. She peered back. Her main eyes were full of purpose. Something told me she wasn't like that one female Ax was crushing on a few years back - I couldn't remember her name at the moment.

{Secrets like what?} I asked.

{Elfangor told me about the human female called Loren.}

Okay, she definitely wasn't kidding around.

I looked closer at her. She was desperate. Sad. I could tell. At least until she blinked and composed her face again.

I said, {Loren is my mom, but don't try talking to her. She lost her memory a long time ago.}

Semeir nodded her head. {Yes, I know. Elfangor learned she was pregnant with you as the Ellimist wrote him out of her life. But how did you find out he was your father?}

I told her about how Visser One - Visser Three at the time - posed as a long lost cousin. About the letter and how stupid I felt for almost walking into a trap.

{...and that's it.} I finished.

{You are a nothlit, yet you are able to morph?}

{Thank the Ellimist for that.}

Semeir's eyes formed another smile.

{May I see your human form, Tobias?}

{Why?}

She dipped a stalk eye to the objects she carried. {You will need hands to receive what I brought.}

{I...okay.}

I fluttered to the ground and focused on my human self.

SHLOOP!

All of my feathers were sucked into my body at the same time. My wings shrank into arms and I felt my tail pull into my pelvis. My beak broke apart into my nose and mouth. The world grew slightly less focused as my hawk eyes became human eyes. I got bigger and bigger. Morphing isn't pretty.

In a few minutes, I was human.

Semeir was taller than me, but not by much.

Her main eyes opened wider. They were already big to begin with, now they practically took over her face. I remember Cassie telling me Ax's expression did something similar when he heard about Elfangor's death.

I'm pretty sure she wanted to cry. Andalites don't shed tears.

{You hold yourself the way he did,} she whispered, shifting the tiny blue device into her left hand.

"I do?"

{Yes. It is quite uncanny.} She held out a hand. It fell to her side before it reached my face. She turned her head to the side, as if embarrassed.

It's weird, seeing an Andalite lose their composure.

{Oh, excuse me.} Semeir controlled herself. {Elfangor and I - we were going talk about marriage when he returned from his mission aboard the GalaxyTree.}

Oh...

She was almost my step-mom. Suddenly, everything felt more awkward.

"I'm sorry," I said. I didn't know what else to say.

{I know now that you were present during Elfangor's last moments. How did he...?} She couldn't say it.

I didn't tell her about his last scream. But I told her everything else. That he died swinging his tail. That his sacrifice wasn't in vain.

{A warrior until the end...} Semeir's show of emotion melted back into a typical blank Andalite expression. {Thank you. Like you, I owe Elfangor everything. I had a dream, and he believed in it. I made it come true. I am a warrior.}

"Andalites let females in now?"

{No.} She shifted her hooves. {I fought for everything I have gained, Tobias. Elfangor taught me every fighting move I know. He showed me what was possible. The rest...I learned the hard way that being a warrior isn't all battle and glory. I impressed the right people at the right time. I am an exception. Other females will still need to fight as hard as I did to achieve my status, however I have proven that it can be done. I wonder if Estrid did the same.}

Estrid. That was the name I couldn't remember. It made me cringe inwardly. I didn't like her, but I think I can like Semeir.

Kind of.

I curled my toes in the grass. It was warm out that day. The ground in the shade was still wet with dew.

"So...how did you run into Elfangor?"

Semeir's eyes lost focus. She told me, and she didn't mince words. It reminded me of my own childhood. Her peers bullied her for being different. Guess it really is universal, isn't it?

And I could tell she wasn't over losing Elfangor or her family. Maybe she never will be.

Semeir's story made me miss Rachel. That scar hurt like a canker sore under hot sauce. My throat clutched. I didn't let myself cry.

Everybody else had a family. Arms to run into. I didn't. The only family I had didn't remember me growing up. I existed in a vacuum until I met Rachel. Now, I didn't even have her.

Was it all worth it? Was winning the war worth losing the girl I loved?

I don't know. I'll never know.

Semeir finished her story. It got so quiet I heard the leaves rustle.

"It's funny," I said. "I got picked on a lot, too. And I lost somebody I love. What next, you have to wonder...just what will I lose next?"

{I do not have that answer, I'm afraid.} Her main eyes softened. Then she shook her head and went on, {However, telling my story to you is not the reason I sought an audience with you.}

I peered into Semeir's eyes.

Semeir gestured to the tiny blue device. {You deserve to have this.}

She placed it in my left hand. It was surprisingly light and it made my palm tingle. She said, {I caught this broadcast while en route to Earth. I suspect the signal was trapped in a Z-space vortex for years, and I happened to pass through it. This file is important. You deserve the honor of hearing it first.}

Semeir showed me how to operate the contraption. The gold button started it, the white one paused it and the clear one stopped it.

{Aximili told me human children like to collect things - we Andalites do as well. This was Elfangor's when he was a child.}

She held out the silver box. I accepted it in my free hand and nodded my thanks.

{Tobias, thank you for honoring me with your presence,} said Semeir. {Elfangor would be proud of you.}

I got choked up again. My eyes stung.

"The pain doesn't really stop, does it?" I asked her.

{No, it does not, but you learn to tolerate it over time.} Semeir answered, sounding stiff and formal. She squared her shoulders. {I should go. Aximili wants me to try a cinnamon bun.}

I coughed a laugh. "Have you morphed a human yet?"

{Not yet, but soon.}

"Be careful when you get a mouth. They're dangerous."

Semeir twitched her tail. {Aximili said the same thing. I think I can handle it.}

I glanced at the objects she gave me.

Semeir followed my gaze. She saluted. {I will leave you to study them in peace. Um...} She blinked her stalk eyes and smiled. {Live long and prosper.}

Oh no, who exposed her to Star Trek?

"May the force be with you," I said back.

She giggled at me. Under all that warrior, she was still a regular person. Just like me, once.

Then I watched her walk up a small hill. At the top, she took off like a shot. Full gallop. She ran pretty fast.

I decided on the box first. It looked old and scratched up. The lid flipped up easily. I found myself staring at crystals of varying size, shape and color. They would be worth a fortune on Earth. And they were Elfangor's.

Marco's extensive collection of pogs suddenly seemed less awesome. Not even Jake's baseball cards came close.

And it made me nervous. Some idiot might steal these.

I made good use of my hands and buried the tin under my tree. I marked it with sticks and a rock while making a mental note to take the crystals to Toby in the morning.

Then, I demorphed. The blue device Semeir gave me was light. I picked it up in my claws. It didn't slow me down when I took off. I landed on a high branch. Maneuvered a talon to hit the gold button.

And I waited.

Soft thoughtspeak filled my head. It was familiar. Comforting. Sad.

{My name is Elfangor. I am an Andalite Prince. And I am about to die...}

I held my breath.

{My fighter is damaged. I have crash-landed on the surface of the planet called Earth. I believe that my great Dome ship has been destroyed. I fear that my little brother Aximili is already dead.

We did not expect the Yeerks to be here in such force. We made a mistake. We underestimated the Yeerks. Not for the first time. We would have defeated their Pool ship and its fighters. But there was a Blade ship in orbit as well.

The Blade ship of Visser Three.

Two Yeerk bug fighters are landing on either side of me now. The abomination, Visser Three, is here as well. I can feel him. I can sense his evil.

I cannot defeat the Visser in one-on-one combat. I am weak from my injuries. Too weak to morph. Too weak to fight.

This is my hirac delest - my final statement. I have formed the mental link to the thoughtspeak transponder in my fighter's computer. I will record my memories before the Yeerks annihilate all trace of me.

If this message someday reaches the Andalite world, I want the truth to be known. I am called a great warrior. A hero. But there is a great deal that no Andalite knows about me. I have not lied, but I have kept the truth a secret.

This is not my first visit to Earth. I spent many years on Earth...and yet no time at all...}

And the images came. Like a movie inside my head. A dream that wasn't mine. I watched with a pounding heart. Getting to know my parents. The father I wanted to love, but never got a chance to. The mother who gave birth to me, but didn't remember enough to know who I am.

Elfangor and Loren were just like Rachel and me. Together, despite the differences. And torn apart again by the same war I fought.

I took off into the sky. The device fit perfectly in my claws. I flapped until the trees below were indistinct specks in the sunset. Elfangor's story poured into my brain. I soared until the images stopped coming.

City lights sparkled in the distance. People were going home from work. Back to their lives. Lives I helped save.

Elfangor didn't have to do what he did. His last, selfless act led to the end of the war. Earth was safe. Earth had a future, and so did the people on it.

Yeah, I won't lie. It hurt. Seeing the bigger picture didn't make me miss Rachel any less. It didn't bring back the people who died. It didn't make me feel like a hero.

{...I remember seeing the time line that curled away from Loren and me. And I remember the burst of light as it was joined with four other human lines, and the line of my own little brother.

Tobias was that line. And joined with these others, he held powers that would make Visser Three tremble.

I, Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul, having transmitted all my last thoughts and memories to be sent through space to my people, now end my life.

My hirac delest is done. I go in peace to my death. And I leave as my last legacy...}

{Why?} I asked the empty air. {What kept Semeir going? What's keeping me going?}

Maybe I asked Rachel. Maybe I was asking Elfangor. I didn't expect an answer. But I got one. The last thought my father, Elfangor, ever transmitted.

{Hope...}