My name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. However, my human friends insist on shortening my name to "Ax" (although Marco and Tobias sometimes refer to me as "Ax-Man.")
I do not truly understand the reason for this. However, I believe that this is due to the fact that humans can only communicate through mouth-sounds. Mouth-sounds are an incredible concept. One can actually make sounds by positioning one's tongue and vibrating one's throat. It's very hard for an Andalite to imagine. You'd have to witness it first hand.
Mouth-sounds, while a fascinating thing to play with, are not a suitable means of communication. While an Andalite can easily pronounce my name, humans find it very long and complicated.
So now they just call me Ax. I rather like the name. I wondered what it meant. I knew it was probably just the first syllable of my first name. However, I would sometimes fantasize that the name meant something great, powerful, or distinguished.
Later I decided that I would find what my name really meant. So I looked it up. I discovered that an ax is a human weapon or tool.
An ax is made up of a long, wooden stick, with sharp blades positioned on both sides at one end. An ax was used as a weapon in the ancient days of Earth. Now, however, an ax is now just a tool—it is commonly used for chopping logs of wood into pieces. I know it is hard for an Andalite to imagine humans actually chopping down a tree—but humans do very strange things.
I have noticed the striking similarity between a human "ax" and a Blade Ship of a Yeerk Visser. On an ax, there is a handle and two blades, on a Blade Ship, there is a bridge and two wings.
I wonder sometimes why my human friends call me this. While it is still probably just a means of making my name easier to pronounce, I wonder of they had some sort of secret agenda. Humans are a very strange species. You can never really know what they're up to.
I tried not to let it bother me as I did the morning ritual.
