#3 The Lost
By: Boo
Chapter One
Marco
I was falling. A treacherous twenty-two miles before I hit the water. But where I was falling, I was most likely to hit rocks. Free-falling was horrible. I knew my awful fate.
I was screaming. I think that could be assumed. Falling toward a nasty fate, I would not be silent. I was screaming for whoever could hear me. "Tobias, Ax!"
Ax? The Andalite. The Andalite! The Andalites created the power to morph! I was saved!
What could I morph? A fish? A bird? Bird. Good, I was on the right track. What bird? Only a few seconds. All I needed were wings. The sun was setting. Owl.
I saw the bird of prey, heard its voice. I began to morph. Not in the order I wanted. My face? My face was morphing! Not my face! I don't need my face to change, I need wings.
As the water came closer my skin was itching. But it was happening slowly! My arms became wings! I began to flap as hard as I could. I was too heavy! Three-fourths of my body was still human, at least one-hundred pounds, subtracting what had already been lost.
WHAM!
I felt it, the sharp tingling pain in my back. I hit the water back first. My lower back went numb, but I was alive. I tried to kick my legs. The message was in my brain, but not making the connection. What happened? In panic I started to flail my arms.
I was pulled under, a strong current took me down the river. I was being suffocated for air.
Arms grabbed my under my armpits.
"Come on, Marco. Kick Marco. Come on."
Rachel. My head splashed over the water. "I can't. My legs won't move! They won't move Rachel. I can't!" I panicked.
She struggled to pull me onto the muddy coast. Jake and Ax bent over me.
"Come on Marco. Stand."
I tried. I couldn't feel my legs. I couldn't stand. What happened?
"I. Can't."
Suprisingly enough, I think at that moment I knew the awful truth. But I wouldn't accept it.
"Yes you can." Rachel said.
Ax turned his main eyes onto me and let one of his stalk eyes looked at Rachel. {Marco fell from about twenty-two or twenty-five miles up at a strange angle. The angle he may have fell from,} he paused and looked away from me. I knew what he was going to say. {The fall may have cause paralysis.}
"No!" I screamed I flailed my arms. Jake held me down. "I can't move my legs! I'm a cripple! She did it. I can't ever be me again. I'd rather have died!"
I didn't mean that, but at the time. I did.
Chapter Two
Cassie
"So is it true in high school everyone does drugs?" Grace asked me. It was after breakfast and we were in the pen of animals.
"What is up with the fascination in high school. Try just to fathom it."
"Fathom?"
"Try to put the picture in your head. And no, Out of five hundred kids? Maybe one or two have done drugs, and no one does drugs at our school."
The horse came galloping over. "What's his name?" I asked her.
"Her name is, Butter. We found her when she was about one year old. Wanna ride her?"
I climbed over the gate and slowly approached the horse. "Hi sweetie."
She stayed on the other side of the gate as I stroked the horse's neck. I began to aquire it. This horse was very different than the one that I own. A big strong Belgian. Acclimated to the climate here.
"Have you ever rode Cassie?"
I put one foot up and swung the other over to the other side. She stayed very still, unconcerned and detected absolute confidence from me. "Have I ever rode?" I began to walk, faster into a trot, a canter and then a gallop. I whirled around a group of trees and went back into the direction of Grace.
"What are you doing Cassie?"
I went as fast as I could and leaned close into the horse. "I'm going to jump the gate!"
Her face twisted in alarm. "You're going to jump the gate? I don't know if Butter can take it."
"Are you going to get in trouble?"
"No." She yelled. "My mom has gone to the town for a few days. I just think that you'll get hurt because she can't do it."
I increased speed. "I'm jumping the gate Grace."
I was a few feet away. I pulled up and caught air. And then we hit the ground. The horse stood still.
"Whoa."
"That wasn't anything wrong with that."
She walked over. "So. Cassie, how'd you get here?"
I looked at her, "Like I know. But Grace," I said thoughtfully. I was taking a big leap to say she wasn't a controller, but then again. Why would the Yeerks infest these two? They can't do anything for them. They live out in the boonies. They are just two lonely women. "Grace, you could help me get home."
She opened the gate for me to put the horse back in. "How?"
I thought about it. How could I? I had an idea. "I'll show you."
Chapter Three
Jake
Marco was a wreck. His hands were marked up, his back was entirely red, his face had a cut down his cheek. And his legs, both were bashed and bloodied.
And worse yet, Ax had said that he might be paralyzed. which made matters worse. Someone would have to carry him.
Rachel fought back tears. No matter what front she put on, or how much she jerked around Marco, she did care. "What can he do? Can't he morph?"
Ax looked at me. {The morphing will be quite painful. Pain might block concentration. I suggest that Marco wait at the very least a day so that his open wounds may heal. Then morphing would be a possible and plausible solution to the predicament.}
I looked at my best friend. Poor guy. The person that pushed him over, it wasn't Cassie. I don't know who, but it was not Cassie. "Buddy, we'll find a place to stay and you can rest. 'Kay Marco?"
"Yeah man. Thanks."
I looked at Tobias. "Tobias. Can you take air and look for a cave or something. Preferably something vacant. No angry bears or disgruntled rabid opossums or raccoons."
{No problem Jake.}
"Thanks man."
Tobias took off. Ax stepped back and stood against the wall of gorge. Rachel was withdrawn. I was alone with Marco. "Hear that man? Tobias is going to find a place for you."
Marco was in his own little world though. Not responding to me.
I decided to let him do whatever he was doing.
Chapter Four
Tobias
I had never seen terrain like this before. The geography was complex. And there wasn't a city for miles. In fact there wasn't one. In the distance I could see smoke coming from a smoke stack. But that was so far, I could barely see it.
I dived down into mountains about a mile away. The top of the mountain was snow capped but the rest was not. Actually suprisingly enough it was rather warm.
I looked for a cave near the base. None.
Back to the gorge. I soared over Rachel and the others. Farther down the river. A hole? It was a cave! I dived in, skimming the water. I curved and went into the cave. There were rocks on the ground. Big, like boulders. I didn't see any animals.
I turned and exited the cave. {Jake! Jake and Rachel! I found someplace.}
I landed on a root sticking out of the stone wall.
"Where is it Tobias?" Rachel asked me standing.
{About a mile down The river.}
"How are we going to get Marco there?"
Marco was now propped up. "I could hitch-hike a ride on Ax. You know, the cavalry has arrived."
Chapter Five
Cassie
"Grace, there're these things. Parasites, Yeerks. And, I'm serious, they're taking over the Earth." I looked at her face for a reaction. I knew it was a long shot. And there was always the possibility that she was a controller. But Grace was my last hope. "Grace?"
Her big eyes looked into mine. "'You aren't pulling my leg. You aren't messing with me?"
I looked into her big eyes. "I'm not. But you can't tell anyone. 'Cause anyone could be one of them."
"How do you know I'm not?"
I looked at her. What was she asking.
"I'm not, I just wanted to make sure that you don't have some weird power. Like to read minds or something."
I hadn't told her about my plan yet. I needed to see.
"A Yeerk?"
I nodded slowly to make sure she got the picture.
She looked at the ground and took a deep breath, as if she were preparing herself to do something big. "Even my mom?" She looked up at me.
I hesitated. I didn't want to say no. If she was and she mentioned it to her it could or would be fatal. Just like me telling Grace. "I think 95% no. But she goes into the town. God knows what happens there. I think you're best bet would be to not mention it to her. For the sake of the human race. Are we clear on that?"
She nodded vigorously. "Uh-huh." She put on a smile, giving me her toothy grin. "So how can I help?"
I stood from the kitchen table. I looked at the floor. On the floor was another book. One I read before. By Peter Macmillan. Rusty.
The book was named after the main character. Ronald. His nickname was Rusty. He and a friend of his, a tomboy, Sarah. The two set out for gold. Going to Alaska. The two survived. Sarah was native American. She was clever and knew the land. Rusty had the resources and smarts. They made it. And died there. But that wasn't the point.
I picked up the thick book. The cover was plain red and tattered.
"Are you reading this?"
"Yeah. I really like it."
I walked toward my new room. I had received a few changes of clothing from Gladys. "Oh really? Who is your favorite character?"
She blushed. "Charles."
Charles is the first character Rusty meets in Alaska. Actually in Dawson in Canada. The boy that Sarah falls in love with, but denies. "Oh really Charles?"
"He sounds so dreamy! So polite and proper and handsome!" Grace squealed. "Why?"
I put down the book. "Have you gotten to the part, where Sarah gets separated in Alaska from Charles and Rusty?" I was drawing out the conversation. Trying to think quickly, finding obvious and big flaws in the plan I was spinning.
"Yes. My favorite part. Right after Charles kisses her."
I sat. "Read it to me, please."
She pushed papers out of the far corner and propped herself against the wall. She flipped through pages, to the beginning of the middle of her book. "Paul Macmillan writes:
"Charles shoved his partner out of the way. Pushing through the brush into the bright arbors of the trees, where mud was abundant. Rusty followed.
'What are you doing Charlie?' he yelled ahead, following in the footprints embedded into the snow. He struggled with the snow, his foot dropped in about three feet.
'I'm going to find her.'"
I jumped up. "There. That's what we're going to do. My friends. It's as if they're Sarah and we are Charles and Rusty. They went out. I mean eventually they nearly die, but we won't! We can take butter. And there's more, but that'll come out when we get there!"
"Wait Cassie. We have one horse. There are two of us. I wouldn't let you walk however I am not prepared to walk twenty-some miles y'know?"
I put my hands on her shoulders. "This is the other part of my secret. I have this ability. The Andalites gave it to me."
"The bad guys?"
Under normal circumstances I would have brought up the peace movement and Aftran. "Um. No. Those are the good ones. They gave me the power to morph. To change into any living animal with DNA.
"Outside. Riding your horse I acquired him. I'm gonna do it. It'll be weird. Maybe even a nasty morph, but, try not to freak. Okay?"
First my hair turned gray. And began to lengthen. y body itched as corse hairs sprouted out of me. I fell forward on all fours, but was caught by my now hard, like cartilage and welded together fingers. My eyes shifted to the side of my head. Preventing me from seeing forward. I had four real hooves now. Last a tail, whispy with gray and white and black hairs sprouted out of me.
"Ca-Cass-Cassie? T'you?"
{Yes. Grace.}
She jumped about a mile in the air, looking for the source of the voice. Finally she looked at me. "You?" She laughed. "You're the horse! You are Butter!"
{Yeah. You can ride the real Butter and I could walk.} I demorphed quickly.
"That was amazing!"
I grinned. "You have no idea. Go put some food in a bag. As much as you can. Clear out the place if you have to, we'll need it. I'll get other essentials. As fast as you can."
Chapter Six
Cishtu
I finally got the hang of my new body. I was still confused as to what happened. I had heard the legends. One leg in front of the other to walk. I told myself. I sat. The legends were, like karma. Your bad actions get you bad things. But it made no sense. A legend, that's all.
This is what happened? No! Something happened, when I was angry! And anything that you do can be fixed! I would fix it.
Or I would fix the stupid girl who did this to me.
I would fix her.
**In the next installment. Cassie and Grace begin their journy, but not everything is going to plan. Heck, this is the boonies. Anything could happen out there! There's a problem with Ax's easy solution for Marco . . . (hehehe! That's all I'll say) Cishtu is pretty angry. But actually, other that throwing Marco over a cliff, she can't do much. Because she hasn't seen anyone morph. She hasn't discovered that wonderful power to morph. During the night, Rachel, indistress, makes some pretty stupid and essentially wreackless descisions. Jake sees and goes after her. Equally stupid. Can anyone spell, 'Big Uh-Oh'? Everything answered in the next installment: #4 Mishap (ohhh you know raymai! Talk to Meagan. Can anyone spell cliche?)