The Trapped
By: Andalite Girl
(Authors note: You gotta read THE DEFECTOR to understand this one because it basically starts in the middle of that story.)
Chapter 1
Tobias#1
" Tobias's you better morph so you guys can trade off with the Axs." Jake1 said.
The Axs nodded and took off as I focused on a picture of an andalite.
The first thing that happened was my feathers. They suddenly seemed to shatter into a hundred pieces and turned color to form blue and tan fur. I started growing taller and taller.
My wings dislocated themselves with a painless snap, and re-jointed to from slender arms. My talons melted together to make black hoofs as two new legs squirted out of my chest.
Stalk eyes popped from my head, and my tail grew out. Last of all, my beak melted like wax on a candle to from three nose slits. Can I say " Yuck"? Morphing was always strange but this one was particularly odd.
Anyway, I was an andalite. Or at least I was a human in a red-tail hawk body who has turned into an andalite. I felt like a smart, arrogant horse.
I turned a stalk eye toward Tobias2 who was just finishing morphing an andalite also.
I feel like someone just walked on my grave. Tobias2 complained.
I laughed. That's what my aunt used to say.
She was my aunt too you know. Tobias seemed to shutter. I'm ok now. Let's go.
We started moving at a fast trot toward what our brains told us was the north. That's where Visser 3's forces would be.
The plan was to play chicken… with aliens who were armed to the teeth. Jumpy aliens who could move as fast as we could.
Yippee.
I'm not really the sarcastic one in the group. We have the Marcos for that, but this plan was utterly dangerous and definitely not on the fun side. We were going to play the Hork-Bajir trick on the Yeerk forces. We were going to make them think that the andalite's they were hunting had committed suicide by jumping off the ridge. Yes, it was the same trick we used to free Jara Hamee and Kat Halpak.
Suddenly I saw a flash of blue going the other direction though the bushes.
Was that- I started
-the Axs? Tobias2 finished.
Then, out of the bushes, came a whole line of Hork-Bajir controllers on three sides of us. Run for it! Tobias2 yelled.
We turned toward the free side and started to run like our lives depended on it.
It did.
Unfortunately for us the only was we could go was right up a large hill. Our bodies were designed to run across plains and grass lands. Not hilly places. The Hork-Bajir, on the other hand, was made for this. They were gaining.
We need to split up. I realized. They will run us down soon.
Yeah, Tobias2 agreed. Good luck.
You too, I turned and ran to the right.
If you read The Defector then you already know what happened to me. This really isn't my story anyway. This is Tobias2's story and what happened to him.
Chapter 2
Tobias#2
We need to split up. Tobias1 realized. They will run us down soon.
Yeah, I agreed. Good luck.
You too.
Tobias1 ran to the right. I split off to the left.
At that moment I felt a chill run up and down my spine. The same chill I felt when I had morphed into this body.
This is so not the time Tobias!
I said to myself. Get a grip. Focus on the here and now!It was kind of hard running sideways along a very steep hill. I had to swing my giant tail to the right to keep my balance. But at least I was moving a lot faster then before and I wasn't wearing out.
TSEEEWWWW!
A red beam of light sailed over my head and hit a tree right next to me. Another foot and… I didn't want to think about it.
Up head the forest of trees stopped and a forest of rocks began. Hurtles! I cried as I leaped and bounded my way though the rocks. Then I realized that I was laughing.
Here I was, temporally in my uncle's cloned body who just happened to be an alien. I was jumping over rocks half as big as I was with devil kangaroos chasing me and ready to shoot me on site…. And God help me, I was having a good time.
A rock exploded 20 feet away from me. The victim of a dracon blast. You guys suck! I yelled as I skirted a patch of brambles.
My laughter was cut short when I almost ran into a very large wall of rock. I gasped, the wall was at least 40 feet high and it jutted right out of the mountain/hill. Could I go around?
No.
Could I demorph and morph into a bird of prey?
No time!
" Freeze!" Yelled a guttural voice. It was coming from one of the ten Hork-Bajir that had finally caught up to me. In its hand was a dracon beam. " Put your tail down." The Hork-Bajir yelled.
I turned one eye to the rock wall. There had to be a way out somehow… Then I saw it.
You see, andalites know a lot about the ground around them. It's some sort of instinct or whatever. But I knew just from looking at the rock wall that the saplings that have grown on it recently have been making parts of it very unstable. The roots from the young trees have been pushing into the cracks and displacing rock.
" I said put your tail down!" The Hork-Bajir repeated.
I took aim and whipped my tail with the wonderful blade at the end at a nearby sapling. It hit in the trunk and the tree fell down, pulling most of its roots out with it. The ground started to rumble.
I saw one last glimpse of the Hork-Bajir's horror stricken face.
Something hit me hard on the head and I went down.
Chapter 3
Ax#1
We did not have to continue the Hork-Bajir trick for once the Yeerks learned of Visser 3's death they gave up andalite hunting. We buried Aximili2 with a human stile funeral.
Everyone was present except for Tobias2. No one had seen him since he and Tobias1 split up to lose some Hork-Bajir that was following them.
We fear that he is either dead or captured.
Chapter 4
Tobias#2
My first thought was: Who am I? What happened?
My second thought was: What is that smell?
I couldn't think. My head hurt so much.
I opened my eyes to look at a big reptile with blades on its body. An idle fly flew into its mouth and back out again.
I tried to scream, but no sound came out, save for a feint hiss from my nose. What the- what the hell was going on? I buried my face into blue hands and it all came rushing back to me.
The Animorphs.
The Hork-Bajir
The rock slide
I opened my eyes. How long have I been in morph? Let's see, I went into morph around 7:42 A.M. and it was now 8:33 A.M.
The next day.
No, I whispered. No this can't be… this can't be happening!
I stood up and concentrated on my human form. Please change, please change… please… please…I begged but nothing happened.
This wasn't real, this can't be real. I'm gonna wake up any second now and laugh and laugh. But as I looked around I realized that it was horribly real. The dead Hork-Bajir smelled like dead carcasses out in the sun. The birds were chirping as merry as they always were in real life. Even my head hurt like hell.
I gingerly touched my wound and my fingertips came away sticky with blue black blood. Blue black, like the color you would find in a cheep pen. Not red. Not like a human. Blue black.
Suddenly I had to get out of there. My legs were fine, it was just my head that hurt. I had to run.
My hoofs made Clup-Clup sounds and the sounds echoed around the surrounding rocks.
Then it hit me. I wasn't running. Running is something that a person does with two legs. Left leg, right leg, left leg, right leg.
I wasn't moving like that. I would move my back legs, then my front legs, back legs, front legs, back legs, front legs. No, I wasn't running. I was galloping. Galloping like a damned horse.
I am human. I am human. I am human! I screamed over and over in my head.
Oh God, I will never be able to talk again. I will never be able to open my mouth… the sense of taste was totally gone to me.
I galloped though the forest full speed not even caring if I ran myself into a tree. What had Tobias said he was? Oh yeah, a nothlit.
Well that's what I was now.
A nothlit.
Chapter 5
Tobias#1
I was busy preening my feathers. It's a thing I do when I'm stressed or when I make a messy kill. It's calming like a hot shower, and I needed a lot of calming.
Ax2 dead, Tobias2 missing… I had killed my own father. Granted he wasn't really by father in my own universe and he was Yeerk controlled… but it didn't make me feel any better.
And it wasn't just me who was upset. Everyone was taking Ax2's death hard. Then there was Tobias2. If he had been captured and infested then the Yeerks would know everything about us. We all might have days, maybe hours, to live.
God, at this rate I would preen myself bald.
Chapter 6
Tobias#2
I ran and ran until the blood from my cut seeped into my main eyes. Panting, I slowed to a stop. I just wanted the nightmare to end. When would it end?
I was hungry, tired, hungry, thirsty, and hungry. What do andalites eat anyway? I muttered. Or for that matter HOW?
Great I was going to starve to death.
I don't have to take this. I thought. I could just end this here and now.
I looked back at my tail blade. Sharp, razor sharp. I could use that blade. I could use it to end this.
I could be me again.
Carefully, I brought the blade to my throat. Ok, Tobias, on the count of three.
One.
Two.
Goodbye world.
Thr-
" Help meeeeeee!" A voice shrieked. A human voice, but high pitched like a child. " Help meeeee!"
I sighed and took the blade from my throat. It wouldn't do to have a kid stumble across my body. Maybe I could scare her away. I trotted through some weeds as high as I was and found the girl. She stared at me with huge Grey eyes.
Uh, hi. I said.
" Are you a monster?" She asked.
No, uh, listen you better go back to your mom and dad.
" I… I'm lost and I don't know where they are!" The girl said. She looked like she was going to burst out into tears.
I awkwardly put my hand on her shoulder, " Don't cry, I'll help you get home." After all, it wasn't like I had anything else to do.
*************
15 minutes later
*************
The little girl skipped along beside me as we went through the woods. "What's your name?"
Tobias, yours?
" Beth," And now she started skipping in circles around me. " What's wrong with your head?"
I got hurt in a rockslide.
" You don't have a mouth." She pointed out. " How do you eat?"
I don't know Beth! I said exasperated. Jeez, do you always ask this many questions?
She stopped skipping and looked at me very solemnly, or at least as solemnly as a 5-year-old can get. " You're grumpy, kind of like Oscar the grouch. But you're not a monster. What are you anyway? Some kind of a pony??"
This kid was really, really getting on my already frayed nerves. I'm known as a freak of nature. I said. Now shut up.
Amazingly enough she did shut up and only asked me an annoying question every 10 minutes or so.
About 2 hours later we heard the unmistakable sound of a wolf pack howling.
Oh no, oh no, oh no" Beth moaned, looking around. " They're gonna eat us!" Her voice rose to a shriek.
No they won't.
"Yes they will Tobias!" Another wolf howled to emphasize her point.
Great, the last thing I needed was a hysterical child hanging around. Look, see this? I swung my tail over my shoulders. That keeps wolfs away… in fact that's my job… To find lost kids and keep them safe from wolfs.
" It is?" She asked, " What if a wolf swallows me before you can chop it up?"
I faked a brave laugh. I'm too fast! Look at that branch right there. I snapped my tail and the branch was cut in two.
" I don't know…"
She needed to be distracted from the howls. Here, I'll give you a ride and we can get away from the wolfs if you want.
" Like a horse?" She asked.
Yeah I guess so, I think my back is strong enough anyway.
This seemed to make sense to her because she gripped one of my shoulders and swung herself onto my back. " You're kinda like my pony, Steve."
Hold on. I said. At first I went into a tentative trot, just to see if she could hang on. Beth didn't seem to be having a problem so I accelerated into a canter, being careful not to hit her with my tail.
Soon the wolf howls were far in the distance, but I kept running. It felt good to run, completely unlike that panicky dash I did when I first learned I was trapped.
Somewhere, something happened in the back of my mind. Something triggered and I began to absorb what I was running over through my hoofs.
I was so startled that I stopped.
" Why didja stop?"
I'm eating!
"No you're not."
My hoofs. I'm actually eating through my hoofs. I guess I was too stressed out to do it before. Beth this is amazing! I bet I could drink the same way too.
"I'm confused." She wined.
I laughed, really laughed. It released all that tension that was eating away at me. Never mind, let's get you home.
I ran again then, happily absorbing food into my starving body.
Chapter 5
Tobias #2
It was well into the evening before I finally got my bearings on where we were. We were about ¼ from civilization.
Beth, wake up. I said when I caught sight of a Seven Eleven.
Beth had decided to take a nap while still siting on my back. I have no idea how she held on but she did. " Huh?" She looked around. "Where are we?"
In back of a Seven Eleven. Beth it's time for you to go now. Walk into the store, tell the clerk who you and that your lost.
She slid off of my back, Go with me Tobias, I'm scared.
I almost chuckled, thinking of what would happen. I can't.
She tugged at my hand. " Pretty please with sugar on top? I don't want to go in alone."
I sighed, I was definitely going to miss the kid, but she had a home to go to, unlike me. Remember when I said it was my job to find lost kids?
"Yeah."
Well I use magic to do that. Only my magic won't work anymore if I leave the forest.
She dug the toe of her shoe into the dirt. "Oh."
And you have too not to tell anyone, ever, about me. Because that makes my magic stop working too.
Beth looked up at me, her eyes were filled with tears. " Will I ever see you again?"
I thought for a moment. Yes, if you promise not to tell anyone about me then, someday I will see you again.
Beth smiled a little, gave me a quick hug, and left.
I turned and walked back into the deep forest. I had one other thing to do. What was it? Oh yeah, I was going to kill myself.
Suddenly I didn't find that idea as appealing as before. I wanted to live, I realized with a shock of joy. I really did, even in this body. After all, some life was better then none. Beth had shown me that.
I decided to look for Tobias, after all I had been gone for two days. But he found me instead.
Hey Ax-man. What happened to your head?
I searched with my stalk eyes until I found him, way up high in an oak tree. Rock slide. Then I realized that I sounded exactly like Ax. Tobias would not know. And I'm not Ax.
Tobias1 was silent for a moment like he couldn't believe the news. He sailed down to a lower branch. Tobias2? Is that really you? Oh man, we thought you were dead or captured. Jake and the others were so worried, so was I. He added.
That surprised me. Really?
Yeah, why don't you demorph and we can fly over and tell them.
Jeez he didn't figure it out. I…I…I… can't. The rockslide… knocked me out, for more then two hours…
Tobias moaned. Oh no. I mean, how are you taking it?
Fine… now. It wasn't so great when I realized… but its' not such a bad body to be in. I laughed a little Ax1 and Ax2 are going to freak.
Ah, shit. Um, I didn't know how to tell you this but Ax2 was killed.
I was silent as I absorbed what he said. How?
Elfangor did it, but… I got him in the end.
I'm gong for two days and everything goes to hell. I muttered, still shocked at the news.
Tobias 2 fluffed up his feathers to change the subject. C'mon, we need to get one of the Cassies to check out your head. It looked terrible.
We both went to Cassie's barn then. He a boy forever trapped in a red-tailed hawk body, and I, a boy forever trapped in the body of an alien.
To be continued..
Questions? Comments? Death Threats? Well e-mail 'em to me!
Subvisser1@hotmail.com