Chapter 10 (Ax)

I did not spend long on earth after our return from Kelbri. I spent a few weeks 'hanging out' with my human friends and eating delicious earth foods. But eventually I was forced to return to my duties as an Andalite Prince.

I took a new fighter, and once again flew away from earth. Back to my birth people, back to chains of command, orders, rituals, codes of honor.

I stayed with my family for a while. With the Blade Ship no longer posing a threat, there were no more missions for me. Even as a prince, I was nothing more than a figurehead, now. Most of the Andalite high command had been reduced to redundancy.

It was not the case, however, that there was nothing else that I could be doing instead. After being captured by the Kelbrid, I was suddenly the leading Andalite expert on not one, but two alien species. As such, I was considered a potentially important asset to the diplomatic attempts that were now being made at settling the differences between Kelbrid and Andalites.

However, I turned down all the offers for such a position. I tried to explain why such attempts were futile. But many other Andalites thought that if trade could be established between our races, the results would be beneficial to both. Perhaps they were right, in a way, but in any case, I knew it would take a long time to reach any sort of understanding.

For months, no other orders came for me. So I had nothing to do except go back to the home world, back to the scoop where I hadn't lived since I was a child.

But at least it was nice to see my parents again. It was good to go back to a place where I wasn't a prince anymore, where I was just my father's little Aximili-kala. Of course, I would be lying if I said it was like being a child again. It would never be.

Still, it was good to taste the grass of home.

One day, almost two months after I had left earth, I was running across the fields, feeling the soft and succulent grass crunch under my hooves. A normal evening.

I saw my father from a distance and slowed my run, raising a hand in greeting. He returned the gesture.

((News for you, Aximili-kala,)) he said, holding up a communications reception device.

I was expecting another offer for a diplomat position, but I was surprised to hear my father say that the message was from War-prince Galuit-Enilon-Esgarrouth. I had first met Galuit before he had been promoted to war-prince, during the battle for Leera. I had heard stories of how he had continued resisting the Yeerks in many battles since then.

I opened the message interface on the device my father handed to me. It was a recorded message, not a direct communication.

((Prince Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthil,)) Galuit began respectfully. ((You have more experience waging guerrilla warfare than any other living Andalite. It is because of this, not because of your admittedly commendable leadership as prince, that I am calling on you. We need someone who can fight without being seen or heard. We have a situation. You are needed on the Hork-Bajir home world.))

Apologies for the short chapter. The next ones will be longer, I promise. And twice the apologies to Ax-fans. He kinda got gypped in this whole story. Not on purpose of course, since he's my second-favorite character, but that's just sort of the way it happened.