Back by popular demand…
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My name is Cassie, and I just found out that I am dead. A strange, silver, bat-winged creature told me so. I think I finally know how Aldrea felt…
This Aurgonian didn't seem to have much in the way of proof, except Rachel. I know it's weird, but in this world, Rachel's alive! And so were Tobias, Ax, Marco, and Jake.
The creature, Luna, had thrown open a pair of enormous doors. It was like a paradise here! A beautiful dream garden, a theme park, a prairie, and (in some areas) a hedge maze all rolled into one. The sun shown brightly from a clear, purplish-blue sky. A crystal river ran from an enormous waterfall, to further than the human I could see, and a marble building sat tall near the falls.
"What did you call this place again?" I asked.
"Windigate! I already told you," Luna seemed to be annoyed by all the questions, and apparently so was Rachel.
"Come on, guys," Rachel said. "You've just gotta see this place!"
"Wait," Luna told her. "I'll call our ride." She walked out toward a slope, then flew to the top of a small hill. She cupped her hands around her mouth and yelled, "Cheeks! Come here, Cheek-ies!"
Nothing happened at first, but then a huge dark shaped appeared in the distance. The shape grew and grew. An outline of what appeared to be a humongous dog with spike on its back and bat wings was charging toward us! The ground beneath us shook as it approached, and I began to worry. What is that?
The thing, Cheeks or whatever she called it, stopped right in front of us. Rachel walked up and started scratching it behind its dog-like ear. It was quite a reach, seeing as it was about twenty feet tall!
Luna flew back over towards us, and landed behind its first spike. "Down cheeks," she commanded, and Cheeks rolled down low enough for us to climb on. No one moved, save Rachel, who climbed behind the next spike.
"Are you guys coming or not?" Rachel asked, looking annoyed.
"What is this thing?" was all I could say.
Luna and Rachel looked at each other. "Do they always ask this many questions, or am I just special?"
Rachel grinned. "I guess they haven't figured out what's going on yet."
Luna looked down at us, then, with a fluttering of her wings, flew down in front of us. "You'll have to excuse me," she said. "I am used to snapping my fingers and making things happen, so patience isn't one of my strong points." She gestured towards her pet. "This is Cheeks," she explained. "He's a Koglink. You know how most Americans have dogs? Aurgonians have these. He's a Razorred Koglink, and good for long journeys. You can hop on, and we'll take you for a quick tour of my kingdom."
"Come on, Cheeks is perfectly safe," Rachel said. "Can we take 'em to the palace first?" she asked Luna.
"I see no reason why not," she replied.
Jake looked hard at both of them. "I still don't know if I believe you," he said. "But I'm guessing we can't leave unless we are going with you."
"Your cousin doesn't miss much, eh, Rachel?" Luna said. "Climb on board, Animorphs. Plenty of room, plenty of time."
All of us "new comers" looked at each other, then I walked up to the "Koglink." He had fur as soft as rabbit's fur, and dark as ebony.
"Just grab a fist-full and climb up," Rachel said, so I did. I gripped the spike on his back, behind Rachel's, and stood up straight. It was then I noticed a problem, Ax couldn't climb.
"Can we morph here?" I asked.
"Sure you can," Luna replied. "You have all the same abilities that you died with."
One by one, all my friends climbed up, including Ax in his un-aged human morph.
"Hold on back there," Luna called as Cheeks spread his wings. "It's kind of a ruff start."
All of a sudden, Whoosh! We were up in the air so quickly, that we barely had an opportunity to hold on. Thing wings flapped on either side of me, and I broke the number one rule. I looked down…