Alanna

The rest of the day Aximili, Obony and I spent at The Gardens, where a whole bunch of Earth animals were located. Aximili told us that if we wanted to acquire any of the animals, it had to be done at night, when no one was around. Aximili bought us many more human treats, including chocolate. The many-colored globules were very tasty, and Obony and I both wanted more.

"Instead of chocolate. Choco. Late. There is another human candy that you must taste." Aximili then proceeded to buy what looked almost like human hair.

"What is this?" I asked. "Thiii. Isss?"

"It is called cotton candy, it is very good."

And indeed it was. Obony, Aximili, and I had soon finished one cotton candy each. Afterwards we had to go to the human bathroom. We were all very sticky. The bathrooms were very interesting. I tried to go into all of the little rooms, but some of them wouldn't open, and when Obony and I tried to break them open, the humans inside the rooms made angry mouth sounds.

After about thirty Earth minutes, we left the bathroom, and met up with Aximili, who was waiting by an animal habitat near the bathrooms.

"I would like to acquire one of those." I said, pointing to the brown animal. It was very big and appeared very strong.

"Yes, it is a nice animal. It is called a lion. I believe that this is a female, so it would be called a lioness." Aximili explained.

We moved on. There were many different animals, and Aximili told us what each was called. We came to a habitat that contained a very large black animal, similar to the one I had choosen.

"I would like to acquire this." Obony said. "What is it called?"

"This is called a black panther." Aximili said. "We will return tonight for you to acquire this and some other morphs that we use often."

We left The Gardens about two hours later - we had demorphed and remorphed in one of the tiny bathrooms.

That night, Aximili took us back to The Gardens. This time we flew in as birds and demorphed when we reached the dolphin habitat.

After acquiring one of the sleek gray animals, we walked to the lioness' habitat. It was not as easy to acquire the lioness as it had been the dolphin, but I managed.

It also was not easy for Obony the aqcuire the black panther - it was a very hostile animal.

We went on to acquire many more animals, including the killer whale, and the wolf.

‹Earth has many animals,› I stated.

‹Yes, indeed,› Aximili replied. ‹It is easier for us than it would have been on a planet with very few native animals.›

Obony told us that she wanted to look and see if there was another animal that she wished to acquire, and left Aximili and I alone.

‹Why did you leave us alone?› I asked Obony in private thought speech.

‹Uhhh, no reason,› she replied but I knew the reason.

‹Would you like to morph to human?› Aximili asked me. ‹I would like to show you something.›

‹Okay› I said and morphed to my human form. Aximili did the same.

"I would like to show another pleasure that humans share with their mouths." Aximili told me. "I have seen it on Friends and many other shows. I have also seen my friends, Jake and Cassie, share this."

He brought his human head close to mine and touched my lips with his. Aximili was right. This was a great human mouth pleasure, almost as good as Cinnabons. Almost.

Marco

Soon the trio of Andalites returned from their excursion to The Gardens. Ax and Alanna looked slightly sheepish. About what, I don't know. Obony and Alanna proudly showed off their new morphs, and Cassie and I applauded. I was still at Cassie's because I wanted to see the morphs.

Cassie was pleased with their choices. She told them that both would be powerful in battle.

Later they went back to Ax's scoop-thing, and I followed them. I wanted to

ask Ax about the funny look on his face when they had returned.

The girls went out to practice the lioness and panther, and I stayed with Ax. I demorphed from osprey and started bugging him.

"Hey, Ax-man, what was that all about?"

‹What? What was what all about?› Ax looked genuinely confused, but I didn't fall for it. It was an act. Takes one to know one.

"Aw, come on. You know," I said. "When you got back with that Ali chick and the other Obi chick. You and Ali looked embarrassed or something."

‹Embarrassed? We were not embarrassed. Why should we be embarrassed? We did not do anything that would cause us to be embarrassed.› Ax really did look embarrassed. Not an act this time.

"Oooh, come on, tell me. I promise I won't tell anyone." I crossed my fingers behind my back, in case it was something good I could tell the others.

‹Well. . . .› Ax trailed off and looked at some point behind me.

"Go on," I coaxed.

‹Well, Alanna and I were experiencing human mouth pleasures. I showed her the thing that the characters on Friends and The Young and the Restless do. I forget its name at the moment.›

"Kissing?" I shrieked. "You kissed Ali? Oh my gosh! I have to tell-" I broke off. I shouldn't tell Ax that I was going to tell anyone.

‹Tell who?› Ax looked at me menacingly.

"Uh. . .no one."

‹Good. And also do not tell that I have affections for Alanna.›

"You do?" I almost choked on the laugh I was holding in. "So that was why you kissed her."

‹Yes,› Ax agreed. ‹Because I have seen Monica and Chandler from TV do this when they have strong affection for each other. Which is often.›

Oh, crap. Andalites were getting crushes on each other. What a mess.

Obony

I had practiced my panther morph a few times. I was pleased with its strength and cunning.

I left Alanna alone with Aximili at The Gardens. I more or less knew what would happen. And it did. We got back to Cassie's barn and demorphed. Then Alanna

and I went to practice our morphs. It was hard at first to control the instincts that made the big cats want to fight each other. But we soon conquered that and had a good time.

As we were walking back to Aximili's scoop, Tobias joined us. He morphed to Andalite. I smiled at him, and he smiled back. I decided that I really liked Tobias very much. He seemed to feel the same way.

When we got to the scoop, Alanna went in. Tobias and I stayed out for a few moments. I do not know why. I morphed to human. I do not know why. Tobias demorphed and went to human also. That also I do not know the reason for.

Then, smoothly, so smoothly I almost did not notice, Tobias put his human arm around me. His eyes looked happy and nervous. He seemed to be deciding whether to do something. Then we went inside.

Marco was there. He looked at us with his large human eyes. "Whoo, Tobias likes an Andalite!"

"Shut up, Marco!" Tobias turned red. "How. . . would you know? Maybe I don't."

"Oh, yeah, sure!" Marco morphed to his osprey and flew to his human scoop.

I looked at Tobias. He was smiling with his human mouth. At me. I smiled back. Aximili and Alanna looked at each other and withdrew to a corner of the scoop. They touched their foreheads together. I almost laughed. So they really did like each other. Touching foreheads is an Andalite expression of love.

Tobias shot a glance at them. He raised and dropped his shoulders, then looked back at me. We demorphed. And I spent another night in Aximili's scoop.

Aximili

After I kissed Alanna, we did not resist showing our feelings toward each other openly.

I noticed that Tobias and Obony seemed to have feelings for each other too, but I did not note that as odd. Tobias was part Andalite after all.

The next morning, Prince Jake, Cassie, Rachel and Marco had school to go to, so Tobias, Alanna, Obony and I decided to take a tour - in the air.

Obony, Alanna and I morphed into birds and we soared above everything. Tobias was our guide, explaining what certain buildings were, I of course had seen everything many times, but I still enjoyed the trip. We stopped about every hour and a half to demorph and remorph. At about the time the rest of the Animorphs got out

of school, we stopped above the school and landed in random trees around the area - we didn't want to attract attention.

I saw Marco and Prince Jake come out after awhile, talking.

‹Do not look up, Prince Jake and Marco, but Alanna, Obony, Tobias and I are in the trees around you. We just came to say hello because we were flying by. Is there anything you need to tell us?›

Prince Jake shook his head.

‹I will return to my scoop now,› I said. ‹Tobias? Alanna? Obony?›

‹I will join you there.› Alanna was quick to reply.

‹I will also join you,› Obony said.

‹You know what, guys?› Tobias asked. ‹qI think I'm going to talk to Jake, I'll meet you at the scoop later.›

Obony seemed torn, but when Alanna and I took off, Obony followed.

I wondered what Tobias wanted to talk to Jake about, but I decided that if he wanted me to know, he would tell me.