A. N: Sorry it took so long to update. I've been off track with other story ideas and things like that. As you may or may not know, my poll is now closed for voting. You can visit my profile to see the results. Now, on to the story!

CHAPTER 13: Searching

Jake's POV

It was Saturday, the day we were going to meet with the Cullens at Cassie's barn to discuss the attack on the Yeerk pool. We were all sitting at the barn waiting for Marco. I was getting slightly worried. Marco had never been late to a meeting before. Neither had anyone else, come to think of it.

"Okay, he's not coming," Rosalie declared irritably, "Can we just get started already?"

"Be patient, Rose," said Carlisle,

"No, she's right," I said, "Marco should have been here a long time ago."

‹I can't see anything,› reported Tobias, ‹I don't think he's coming.›

"That's not right. Marco wouldn't just skip such an important meeting. Something is wrong."

Marco hadn't been at school on Friday either, come to think of it. I hadn't seen him at all since the Andalite had landed. Tobias said there had been nothing to show that T.O. Ondar had even been in the forest at all. That was very strange. Suddenly, I heard a barking in the distance.

A very large wolf had just appeared, followed by two other very large wolves. It took me a second to remember that they were the werewolves that we had learned about just a few nights ago. They must have come back to tell us their decision on the alliance.

One by one, the wolves became human. They change insanely fast. It takes them about three seconds to change form, while it takes us about three minutes.

"Hello, Jacob," That was Edward who spoke, "Have you come to tell us your decision?"

"Yes," Jacob replied, "we have decided to ally with you guys, the leeches, and the Ani-whatsits."

"Animorphs," I corrected him.

"Whatever," he responded, "anyway, what we've come to tell you about is that we have scented a very strange scent in the forest. We have no idea whatsoever what is and have never smelled it before. We also scented a human scent close by."

A human scent? Could it be Marco? But then what was the strange scent Jacob spoke of? I just had a terrible thought. What if the scent was Hork-Bajir? That could mean one of two things. A) One of the free Hork-Bajir wandered off from the valley. Or B) The Yeerks are patrolling the forest. Neither one really sounded very appealing.

"What if the scent is Marco?" I asked the group,

"If it is," Cassie said, then we have to go search for him."

"But then, where do we start?" I turned to the werewolves, "Where in the forest was it?"

One of the younger wolves answered,

"Nowhere that we've been before, but it wouldn't be too hard to find, for one of us anyway. By the way, I'm Seth."

"We don't really have a choice," I said, "we cant just sit around and let Marco, if it is Marco, die in the forest."

"Why doesn't he just morph his way out?" Rachel suggested, "If he's under attack: gorilla, if not: osprey. He's perfectly capable of hauling his butt out of there himself."

"Oh really?" I asked irritably, "What if he's in the hands of the Yeerks? What if they're shoving a slug through his ear right now?" Rachel didn't have anything more to say.

"Tobias," I addressed the hawk, "go look around the forest. Try to go places that you've never gone before, and if you see something strange, come back and tell us."

About twenty minutes later, Tobias returned, ‹I saw what looked like an opening underground. It was covered in leaves and dirt but it was there. There was also a faint sound that seemed like screaming coming from the entrance.›

"I think we must search for him," It was Carlisle who spoke, "He is a valuable member of your team, correct?" I nodded. "Then we must,"

Rosalie stiffened, "Carlisle, we barely know these people and already, we're going to go out on a rescue mission for one of them? What if it's not even him? We can't even be sure that these Yeerks exist."

"Rose," Bella said, "before I met Edward, I didn't believe in this stuff, vampires, werewolves et cetera and I'm sure the rest of us here didn't either. The Animorphs have given us plenty of reason to believe and trust them." Rosalie relaxed, but just a little bit.

"We didn't believe in aliens before meeting Elfangor but now they are a very real part of our lives." I pointed out, "Just consider that."

"Anyway, I think you," I pointed at the werewolves, "should show us where you found the scent. We can morph birds to follow you and the Cullens should have no trouble keeping up."

With that, we were off. Up in the sky, I could see everything. Keeping up was no problem.

‹I hope this isn't a trap,› said Rachel, ‹If it is, we're screwed as heck. There is no way that we could outfight them.›

Oh boy. Things are bad when Rachel talks like that. If this were a trap, we would be done for. I just had to have faith in the Cullens.

‹Hey, look!› shouted Rachel, ‹Someone dropped their iPod in the forest.›

‹No, Rachel, we are not going to dive down to pick up someone's lost iPod. We're not thieves.›

Rachel ruffled her feathers in annoyance. The werewolves stopped suddenly. They shifted back to human and beckoned us down.

We landed and demorphed. Tobias was right. It did look like there was some sort of entrance. I swear I could hear some screaming but I couldn't be sure.

"It smells like there's bloodsucker scent here now," The female werewolf who's name I didn't know pointed out, "The treaty has been lifted for our "friends", the Cullens, but it still applies to anyone else. Whoever is down there is going to have to answer to me!"

"Hold on a second, Leah," Jacob started, "This bloodsucker, if that's what it is, may not even know about the treaty. We'll give him a chance to get lost, then if he doesn't comply, we can pound on him."

Leah agreed, but she was clearly unhappy about the decision.

‹I suggest that we 'get on with it already'.› said Ax,

"You're right, Ax, we need to find out what's down there. I know, one of us can morph roach. It'll be able to squeeze through the opening. Hopefully, we can get an idea of what's down there." There was a long silence,

"Okay, fine, I'll do it." I muttered irritably.

Morphing bugs is always disgusting. This time, the very first things to come were the legs. They came shooting out of my chest like spears! Next, my skin turned hard and I shrank down. My eyes went out for a second, and then they became the distorted eyes of the roach. I was now a cockroach. Gross.

I crawled down into the tiny slit into the room.

The memories of what I heard would last forever.

A. N: What will happen next? Ooh, pick me! Pick me! I know!