Disclaimer: I don't own the Animorphs.
Chapter Two:
[Tobias, you realize what they are?] I asked as we swam, pushing my shark morph to its limits.
[I think so!] he gasped. [But how? I don't understand.]
We rocketed through the water, each straining to keep ahead of the pursuing creatures. Whatever they were—what Tobias and I thought they were—they were fast. Faster than we were.
If I were human, I think I'd be crying.
[They're too fast,] Jake said. [Man, they're fast! We can't outrun them. We either have to split up or fight!]
[Fight!] Rachel, of course. Sometimes her bravery was helpful. Today, I wanted to slap her. [They're just some kind of big squid or something probably. Let's get them!]
[Split up,] Tobias said. [I don't think we can beat them.]
[We haven't tried yet,] Rachel snarled.
[We can't!] I snapped. [Not even sharks can—]
SWOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!
Like a freight train, something erupted from the depths. With a flash of deadly teeth, it closed its impossibly long jaws around me and one of the others.
[Aaaaaaaaaahhhh!] Tobias and I screamed together. We were trapped, held as if we were in a vice, carried up toward the surface. The monster broke the surface, tossing me and Tobias into the ear like popcorn. It swallowed Tobias in one motion, but I was left to fall through space until I slammed into the water surface.
[Help…] I groaned, fighting to stay conscious. Something was wrong. I could smell new blood in the water. My blood, seeping from my gills. [You…you guys…]
Suddenly, I was lifted into the air again as the monster's jaws closed around me again and I slipped into darkness.
I woke up screaming as I sloshed into a lake of stomach acid. It ate my skin, burning away at the tough skin of the hammerhead. I was being digested.
[Tobias!] I moaned, writhing in pain. [Where are you?]
[I'm here!] I could feel him moving beside me. [We're being digested!]
Then, someone else slid in beside us.
[Who is that?] Tobias gasped.
[It's me!] Rachel raged.
[Rachel!]
[Who did you expect? Jonah? We have to get out of this thin. Ahhhh! My skin is itching and burning.]
[Stomach acid,] Tobias explained, [It's digesting us.]
[It's not digesting me!] Rachel said. [I'm gonna—]
[ I can't breathe!] I gasped. There was no water in here, and I kept inhaling stomach acid. [I've got to morph.]
[I'm tearing a hole out of here,] Rachel snarled.
We both started to demorph, trapped inside of the gullet of the beast. As soon as we were both human we morphed again.
Fur sprouted on my arms and the back of my hands. My face bulged out, and my mouth filled with sharp teeth.
Still no air! I gasped for breath, but inhaled nothing. We had to do something or we would all die. But my blunt little claws wouldn't cut it. Literally.
"Lungs!" I moaned, fighting to stay conscious.
"Yes, I know," Rachel said. "I'm suffocating."
"No, stupid!' I yelled. "Not your lungs!"
I couldn't see, but I could feel the mass of muscle and fur to my left. I felt it draw back a massive paw and swing it forward, dragging what I knew to be six inch claws into the insides of the creature.
"HREEEEE-UH!"
The monster screamed.
The bear beside me attacked again, twisting its claws this way and that.
SHWOOOOOSH!
The air poured in from the ruptured lung. I inhaled deeply, gulping down great breaths.
[Tobias! Breathe! There's air!] Rachel said, widening the hole.
I lunged forward, using the hyena's bear-trap jaws to bite into the flesh and rip it apart. We had to get out of here.
Water rushed in. It swept in and pulled Rachel out, then me and the crumpled mass of feathers that was Tobias. I doggy paddled as soon as I was free, glad to know that we were in shallow water.
[You guys, that sucked.] I drug myself onto the sandy shore and fell in a heap.
[Tobias, are you okay?] She picked him up as gingerly as she could with bear paws.
[Do I look okay?] he said. [Busted wing. Feathers a mess. Half my tail feathers ripped out or eaten away by stomach acid. I'm a definite mess. On the other hand I'm alive.]
[Yeah,] Rachel sighed. She raised on her hind legs and looked around. [I'm smelling…I don't know what. It's like something is missing. Like the air had been scrubbed clean. I smell various trees and plants but…I don't know. Something I should be smelling, only not.]
[Car exhaust? The smell of fossil fuels burning? The faint smells of backyard pools and grease-belching fast-food restaurants? The smell of human sweat, perfume, garbage? In other words, all the smells of civilization?]
I was barely paying attention to them. I could smell what Rachel was talking about, but it was more of what I saw that was weirding me out.
[Uh, guys?] I stood up and trotted a little farther down the beach.
[Well, my wings and tail are a mess, but my eyes are still working. I can see what you can't.] Tobias said, continuing their conversation.
[You can't see smells.] Rachel
[No. But I—]
[You guys!] I yelled, barking to get their attention. [Look!]
The bear and hawk followed my gaze across the river where at least a dozen large animals were grazing along the banks. They were at least thirty feet long and about twice as tall as a full grown man. They were animals with wide, duck-like bills and long tube-like crests on the back of their heads. Even the youngest kid would recognize what they were, even if they couldn't pronounce the name.
[What are those?] Rachel asked, falling onto all-fours.
[Hadrosaurs,] Tobias said.
[Parasaurolophus to be exact,] I added. [They're my favorite.]
[Favorite what?] Rachel asked. I knew she couldn't see them very well; her grizzly bear eyesight was horrible. [What is a hadrosaur?]
[Hadrosaurs were a group of duck-billed dinosaurs.]
[Tobias, would you mind making just a little bit of sense? Dinosaurs?]
[Yeah. And let's see, if I remember my old dinosaur books, those long-necked things in the water were Elasmosauruses and the thing that you and Kyle just chewed a hole through was probably a Kronosaurus.]
[Yeah . Right. Dinosaurs?]
[Yeah. Dinosaurs.]
[You guys,] I said, still watching the massive creatures forage for food. [I think we're gonna need a bigger morph.]