DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS OR THE BOOKS. I only own the plotline. Thank you
It wouldn't let me put the little pointy things in for thoughtspeak, so I used parenthisese.
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My name is Tobias. Where I live, and what my last name is, don't matter. What matters is, there is an invasion going on. And I have to tell you about it.
Those are the words I usually tell myself. But right now, I was sitting in my meadow, waiting for Rachel to come so that we could go flying. That was what mattered right now.
I had just eaten. A nice, young mouse. Tasty. Probably good with some barbeque sauce. But condiments are a little hard to come by in the forest. You're probably wondering why a boy is in the woods eating mice, and dreaming of sauces when there's a grocery store just off of the highway. It's a good question. But I'm not exactly a boy anymore. I'm not even a human being.
Well, in my mind, I'm still Tobias the teenager. I still like to play videogames, go to the beach and hang out with my friends, and eat cereal for breakfast. I don't exactly get to do those things anymore, because I'm a red-tailed hawk. Now my life is eat a mouse for breakfast, hang out in my meadow, talk to Ax, the Andalite, every once in a while. See, the Andalites are aliens. Not little green men from Mars, but still aliens. Don't stop reading right now. I'm not a lunatic. I'm probably more than a little crazy, but, believe me, I'm not making this up. The andalites aren't the only aliens out there. And that's where we see a problem. Not all aliens are good like the Andalites. Some are evil. Some are evil little slugs that crawl into your brain and take over your mind. They know your thoughts, your feelings, and they know your memory. They're called Yeerks. Me and my friends, who are still human, fight them.
We call ourselves Animorphs. Marco came up with it. it's a mix of the words "Animal Morphers," because a dying Andalite gave us the power to morph into any animal just by touching it. And we're your last hope. That's a lot of pressure on a group of four teenage kids, a formerly human red tailed-hawk, and an adolescent Andalite.
The reason that I live in this meadow is because I'm what the Andalites call a nothlit. There's a time limit on how long we can stay in a morph, two hours exactly, and then we're stuck. That's what happened to me.
But right now, all of that was far from my mind. Rachel was here. Or, Rachel the bald eagle was here. Bald eagles usually scare me, but not this one.
(Hey Tobias!) Rachel said in thought speak.
Thought speak is kind of like telepathy. We can only use it when we're in morph.
(Hey Rachel. Welcome to my humble abode. I was going to have a barbeque, but I couldn't get a grill on time.) I joked.
I swear, if she was human, she would have rolled her eyes at me. Even so, she gave me a look. It was more of a death glare, since eagles are already constantly glaring.
She landed as gracefully as a huge bird can, and began to demorph. Believe me, it's not a pretty sight. We don't just poof back into people when we demorph. We have to physically change back. It should hurt, but there's some kind of painkiller built into the morphing technology.
The first thing that happened was that Rachel's hair started to grow out. It looked like a bald eagle wearing a wig. No pun intended. Then, she began to grow, and her wings gradually slimmed into human arms. There was a grinding noise as her bones reversed direction, and elongated. Her face was there, the human Rachel, but with a bird beak. Her wingtips melted together to form fingers, and her three toes split into five human toes. Finally, the last of the beak disappeared, and the feathers flattened into a pattern on her skin, and melted away.
There stood Rachel, clad in her leotard and barefoot. See, we haven't figured out how to morph anything other than skintight clothes yet, and definitely not shoes.
"I brought a hamburger. I figure I can eat the rest of it." I was busy trying to figure out how I hadn't noticed the red and white bag that had materialized from behind her back. I was too distracted, I guess.
(Thanks, but you didn't have to.) I said. I don't need pity from anyone, especially not Rachel.
She just opened the bag, and pulled the patties out of the burger, and started on the rest. I flew down to sit on a rock next to the bag, and began to tear into the meat, using my talons to keep it in place. No reason to refuse free food, especially if you don't have to kill it yourself.
(So how was school today?) I asked, and looked away, regretting saying it. I'd sounded too wistful, and slightly self pitying.
But Rachel didn't seem to notice. "We were all exhausted from that meeting we had at Cassie's the other day." She looked exhausted, with her eyes half open. Not to mention the fact that morphing tires you out.
She ate the last bite of burger, and looked at me, as if waiting for me. But I had already finished my burger, and had been subtly waiting for her to finish. I picked up the habit of eating fast after a fox stole my lunch once.
"Ready to fly?" She asked.
(Of course.) I answered. I was always ready to fly. But first, she had to morph back.
"Turn around or look away. I've got a surprise after I'm done morphing." She said.
I obliged, turning my head away as she began the morph. It probably wasn't exactly the same, since morphing is different every time. Like, instead of her hair growing in this time, her wings could start first, or her tail. I heard a crunch as her bones shrunk to bird size, and a schloop-ing noise as her hair was sucked into her scalp. A few minutes later, she was done.
(Okay, you can turn around now.) she said.
I turned my head. But I didn't see Rachel the bald eagle. I saw Rachel the red-tailed hawk.
(I figured it would be easier if we were the same bird species. I mean, then we can fly together, right?) Rachel asked, sounding just a little bit unsure, which almost never happens.
(Yeah. Let's go. The weather is nice, and I can practically feel the thermals from down here.) I like thermals.
Rachel took off before I did, catching a nice updraft which let her pretty much surf in the air.
(YEE-HAW!!!! Tobias, it's so much easier to move as a hawk! Why didn't I pick this one in the first place?!) Rachel practically yelled, as much as you can in thought speak.
Her excitement was beginning to infect me. I flapped hard to get off of the ground, and soared up to her level.
(I know. Awesome, isn't it?) I asked happily.
(Yeah.) Rachel replied. (Hey, look at this!)
She made a wide turn, and then swooped back gracefully to end up behind me.
(It's so cool. I could spin completely around right now, and end up in the exact same place! ) And then she did.
Right then, something clicked in my hawk brain. I began to wheel around and swoop around Rachel. I wasn't even doing it intentionally, I just was.
It seemed as though she was just as affected as I was. Probably more so, because this was her first time morphing a red-tail. She'd had some practice with the bald eagle, but the instincts were different.
Because that's what it was. It was a strong instinct, taking over both of our minds, driving out the human. I was completely lost in the hawk as I swooped, dived an soared. I was completely at a loss as to why exactly the hawk felt such a strong need to do so, but Rachel was doing it too, so it must have been something important.
We flew closer, then farther apart, as if choreographed by some mad dance instructor. In the back of my mind, where the human in me was shoved, I realized that it was a dance. A mating dance. Rachel had morphed a girl hawk. But the hawk in me was too far in control, and I was lost in it, forgetting all about everything else, completely immersed in the dance.
I had to show off. A hawk doesn't get a mate unless it can impress her with a mating dance. And that was exactly what I was doing. I did an impressive loop-de-loop around the female hawk, and she in turn dove down, and back up to meet me. Our talons intertwined, preparing for the inevitable. The hawk felt self assured, certain.
(Tobias… ) Rachel whispered. It wasn't a conscious thing, just her brain spitting out information.
The mention of my name shook me. My human name. I remembered who I was, and what I was about to do, just before it was too late. Rachel was still a hawk, still following the hawk's instincts. She began to sink to the ground with me, knowing what her instincts told her was coming next. But I was me again, in control.
Although it was me, I still hesitated to stop. I know it was wrong to hesitate, know I should have stopped as soon as part of me realized what was happening. I mean, sure I like Rachel, but--I definitely wasn't ready yet, and it was up to me to stop it.
(Um…Rachel?)
No response.
(Rachel? It's Tobias. You're not in control. You need to wake up.) I said urgently, before her instincts took us too far.
I saw the human awareness flicker to life in her eyes.
(Huh? What's going--Oh…) She unlocked her talons from mine. (Whoops…)
That was an understatement.
(Yeah…) I said awkwardly. (I guess you shouldn't morph the hawk in spring time, huh?)
I was trying to be funny, trying to laugh it off. It was a bad attempt.
She laughed, but it was fake. (Yeah, I guess not.)
We landed back in my meadow, perching on separate trees.
(Sorry.) She said. (I didn't realize it was a girl. It never occurred to me.)
(It was more my fault. I should be in control of myself.) I tried to reassure her.
From the way she looked at me, eyes looking me over, I could tell she could see I still wasn't in control yet.
To save myself from further embarassment, I said, (Maybe you should demorph now.) It wasn't really a question.
(Yeah.)
She flew down to the ground and began to reverse the morph. A few minutes later, human Rachel was standing in front of me.
"Well, I guess I should go home now." She said awkwardly.
(Yeah.)
She began to morph, but not the hawk this time. She was changing into a bald eagle. As she finished the morph, she started to take off, almost not able to fly. She clearly wanted to get away from me as fast as possible.
(Rachel?) I said hesitantly.
(Yeah?) She asked, slowing down.
(You know that I would never have let it go that far, right?)
There was silence for a few seconds, and then she began to flap away faster. I barely heard her answer as she flew away.
(Of course I do.)
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Well, that's that. I'm sorry if it wasn't very good, I wrote it in about an hour! I think it turned out a bit more depressing then I intended, but I came to the end of it, and couldn't think of any other way that would end. I mean, they almost just mated. What else are they supposed to do? Anyway, please review it, and tell me what you HONESTLY think. I can't get better if nobody ever tells me what I'm doing wrong. Flames are NOT CONSTRUCTIVE CRITICISM. Thank you for taking the time to read it all the way to the bottom. This is going to stay a one-shot, unless I can think of something to add to it without putting a lemon in, since I don't feel like writing an Animorphs lemon. XD