The Newcomer

The Newcomer

By Tes-sama

Prologue

Hello, my name is Gina. This is going to be a little new for you, I can tell you my name and I can tell you where I live. I can tell you all this because I don't belong here. My name is Gina Williams. I live, well; I used to live in Circle Pines, Minnesota. I know about the Yeerks and how they infest people and aliens and turn them into slaves of the Yeerk Empire. I know about the Hork-Bajir, the Taxxons, the Gedds and the Leerans.

I especially know about the Animorphs. I know things about them they don't know themselves. In fact I know too much. I know all of these things, things that seem so impossible because I "read" it, and that is how my story begins.

I had been looking forward to today; it was the day that the new Animorphs books were going to come out; Number 23 and The Hork-Bajir Chronicles. My mother said she would take me to the mall bookstore to get the books once I got my homework done. Once I finished my math, I went to the mall.

There was a new Barnes & Nobles in the mall and it was huge. I asked one of the people that were stocking books, where the Animorphs books were, and she pointed to a stand decorated with pictures of Animorphs with Elfangor and a T-Rex head. I went over and snatched the books I was looking for. One book said Animorphs the Hork-Bajir Chronicles. The book had the picture of a female Andalite and a Hork-Bajir. The other book showed a picture of Tobias morphing a rabbit with his former self in the background.

I found a place to sit and read because my mom was looking for a book of her own. I got through the first few pages of the Hork-Bajir Chronicles when "Quite a book series isn't it?"

I looked to the direction of where I heard the man, but there was no one there. I looked in the other direction and there was a man sitting next to me on a chair that wasn't there before. The man was fairly old, with a thick, gray, beard, weathered face, gray hair, and blue eyes. He looked a lot like my grandfather who died four years ago.

"Yes sir, I've read all of them. They're my favorite books. The best one or at least my favorite is the Andalite Chronicles. I've read it three times" I said, a little confused that I just blurted all that out to a total stranger. But I felt strangely relaxed around him, I don't know why.

"Is that so?" The old man said. "K.A. Applegate has quite an imagination."

"Yeah, I wish I had an imagination like hers', or like George Lucas', or Anne McCaffrey's." I said with a laugh.

"Well, they say that lessons in life are learned through experience. Maybe that applies to imagination too. Imagination is expanded by experience with amazing things. Some people are born with a great imagination and some create it. Others hide it deep inside and are afraid to show it.

"Let me ask you a question, if the Animorphs were real and you had the chance, would you join them? Now don't answer yet!" He said, before I could blurt out 'You bet I would!', "Now I want you to think, I mean, really think about that. Remember how they described what they went through. The terror...the destruction...the pain... and the sorrow." Then I noticed a tear running down my cheek. I couldn't believe it; I had really felt for these characters in the books.

"Now, remember the courage... the triumph...the happiness. They know they are the last hope for this planet. So I ask you again, if the Animorphs where real, and you had the chance to join them in their lasting struggle to save the world, to fight along side them, even to morph....would you?"

"Yes... oh yes I would! I truly would!"

When I looked up he was gone I didn't bother looking for the man, I just started reading again. I got threw the first six or seven pages and my mom told me we had to get going.

When I got home I went into my room and started reading it again. That night I sat on my bed starring at the Animorphs collection I had set on my bookshelf. I had all the Animorphs books #1 through 23, all the Megamorph books, and all the chronicles.

Then for no reason at all, I gathered all my books and put them into a traveling bag I had in my closet. I don't know why, I just did. I looked back toward my bed and there was the old man, the same one that was in the bookstore, sitting on my bed! I yelped in shock, and looked around to figure out how he got in here. " You're the guy at the bookstore! How'd you get in here?" I demanded still shaken. "Who are you?"

"The question is not who but what. I am what is called an Ellimist."

"Ha! The Ellimist is just a character in the books."

"Yes, and he has chosen you!!!"

Suddenly, I was floating in this array of colors, traveling through what seemed like a wormhole on Star Trek: DS9. I was flung out into space, stars all around me with Earth in the distance. The thing that bothered me was the fact that I could breath. I must be dreaming. Yes, I fell asleep while I was reading my book, I said to myself.

NO, YOU ARE NOT DREAMING, GINA.

"Aaaahh, what's going on?" I yelled in panic. Suddenly I was falling.... falling.... Suddenly –

CRASH!

"Oumph!"