I have always considered myself to be a logical individual. I never believed in the fairy tales my mother had told me as a child. I only believed what I could see, what I could touch... but now, in my final moments, I have been given the chance to make my hirac delest.
My ship has been destroyed, I have no way of knowing if these final thoughts will ever be heard. I do not know if it is real, perhaps I have gone mad from fear and the finality of death.
Regardless...
My Name is Floran-Jakhal-Castouss, I am a Warrior, an Andalite, and this is my last statement.
I come from a family of Warriors. All the males in my family joined the army and became great fighters for my people. My father was a Warrior who died in battle when I was a child, in this war. The war against the Yeerks.
But, despite the history of my family and the legacy of my father, the life of a Warrior held no interest to me. My interests have always been in science. More specifically zoology, zoophysiology, zoosemiotics.
When I was young, I was taken to another planet one with a broad variety of animal life. Thousands of species, all on a single planet! It was fascinating, even to my still developing mind. My own world, unfortunately, holds very few species in comparison.
That one of of the reasons why the Escafil device was so appealing to me. The device allowed one to become another species! To experience it's natural instincts and behaviors first had! It is unfortunate that it is used as a weapon in this time of war.
We are all taught how to morph at a young age. As Arisths we morph the kafit bird. It is one of the three species of birds on my planet. It was six wings, and a razor sharp beak it uses to hunt creatures in the tree tops. We all rather enjoyed it, me especially, unfortunately I could not do so often, as morphing for any recreational sense was against the rules, though most do so anyway.
I am the only male in my family. It is expected of me to become a Warrior and fight for my people...
Although, I was never much of one to begin with.
My teacher would call on us to practice tail-fighting. One by one he called us forward, the others performed with varying degrees of success...
{Floran.}
Then it was my turn.
I felt my hearts sink as I stepped forward. No doubt this was to be another humiliating scene for me. I was the eldest Aristh in the group. Most of my friends my age had already become Warriors and left to fight in the war...
His tail lunged forward, I tried to block- but missed. If this had been a real battle, I would have been dead on the spot. He strikes at me several times, and I barely manage to keep up, until, finally he hits me with the dull side of his tail-blade.
THWAK!
{Aristh Floran!} He snapped. {How do you expect to last one day out in battle if you can't even keep up with me?}
{I'm sorry.} It was all I could say.
I heard the laughs of my fellow Arisths, I had long since become a subject of ridicule. I was trying... but still, I knew my mind was not meant for fighting. Somewhere inside me, I hoped my teacher would see me as a lost cause, and deny me from going to war... I prayed for it.
{That's all for today.} He said tiredly. {Dismissed.}
I began the journey home, ignoring the taunts from the others.
That's when I saw some movement in the grass.
I trailed behind it carefully. It was a Garba lizard, they were very rare during this time of the year!
I watched it slink through the grass, very carefully. It's skin was shifting colors as it crawled, helping it bled in with the grass... unfortunately this caused it to have a tendency to be stepped on. However, they are a very resilient species. One of only two eyes turned upwards towards the sky, to watch for predators, the other turned forward to see where it was going. It had excellent maneuverability due to it's long, slender body and six legs, three on each side. It feasted on smaller insects and only emerged from it's hiding places during the hotter, more humid days of the year.
Carefully, I laid my tail-blade into it's path, laying it flat on the ground. It climbed over it, but just before it could jump off, I lifted it off the ground. It nearly jumped away, but I managed to get a hold of it and acquired it.
Then I put it back onto the ground.
{If you showed such interest in your training as you did that creature, you would be a War-Prince by now.}
The harsh thought-speak made me cringe, I turned to face my instructor. {I-}
Suddenly, I saw his tail lunge forward, but not to me. It would slice the Garba in half! I didn't even realize I had blocked the blow until several second after doing it.
{You're a strange boy Aristh Floran.} He said with a slight laugh. {You may be a Warrior yet, once you finally get your priorities straight.}
I looked down at his hoofs with my main eyes, my stalk-eyes bent low. {I am sorry.}
He took a step forward. {You know we are in a time of war.}
{Of course.} I replied. How could I ever forget?
{Then you know the dangers we all have to face. These are dangerous times Aristh, and you must face them like a soldier.}
I wanted to argue...
{Excuse me.} My hearts lifted at the familiar thought-speak. My elder sister Lanam! {I am here to see my brother, our mother wants him home.}
My instructor nodded. {On your way.}
I could feel his eyes on me as Lanam and I began the long walk home. Trying not to run, but feeling relief only when he was out of sight.
{Are you alright?} Lanam asked, a harsh, worried tone to her thought-speak. {He was picking on you again, wasn't he?}
I didn't want to speak about it to her. I loved my sister, but I was still a young boy. {No.}
{You are a terrible liar.} She chastised, but the tone in her voice was now more jovial.
{I am fine.} I insisted.
Lanam placed her palm on my face. An Andalite kiss. I shrinked away. {Lanam! Please!} If anyone saw my sister kissing me I'd never hear the end of the teasing.
She ran ahead, laughing at my embarrassment.
My sister Lanam is the only one who knows me, or even cares to know at all. And even that I am about to loose. She is nearly marrying age. Soon she be expected to find a mate, she already was working with the other scientists, soon she would move to one of the cities and leave our scoop altogether.
I followed after her, she was much faster then I was but soon I caught up to her and when we were both too tired to run, we walked side by side again.
{Mother told me that you may be leaving us soon.}
I slumped. She had to remind me. {It is possible...}
{I'm sure you will be fine.} She chimed. {You're still an Aristh, so even if they make you go, you probably wont see any battles.}
Somehow, that did not make me feel any better. {Mother will be happy that I'm going.}
My sister remained silent at that. She and mother were often at odds with one another. I knew Lanam was looking forward to leaving.
{You may get to see some interesting alien species!} She added brightly.
That did make me smile. Though I wouldn't be allowed to examine them, I could always morph them later and experience it all for myself...
I could see my scoop sitting in between the river and the trees that circled most of our land.
{I think a storm is coming.} I said, looking up at the sky.
{We should hurry inside then.}
That was when I saw it, a ship coming towards our scoop. It landed close by and from it stepped an Andalite Warrior.
{Sirem!} I heard Lanam whisper excitedly.
Sirem-Nabilin-Gralwan was a Warrior who remained on the home world in case of threats. From what I heard, he'd been recently promoted. His father and our father had been close when they fought in the war and even after my father was killed in battle his family still kept in touch with us. Lanam fancied him, which I think it strange, considering how much older he is to her, though she would get defensive when I mentioned it.
Lanam walked towards the scoop, a little faster paced them before... but upon seeing the grave look on Sirem's face slowed to a crawl.
He turned upon seeing the two of us arriving, his expression became unreadable. {Hello Lanam.} He gave her a nod, then upon seeing my mother greeted her curiously
My mother stepped forward. {To what do we owe this visit Sirem?}
{I have orders. I decided to deliver the orders personally.} He turned to me... {Floran-Jakhal-Castouss... you have been awarded the rank of Warrior. You are to come with me. You're leaving on the next dome ship.}
My world shattered in that instant... I had a an hour to say goodbye and pack anything I may need... but then it was time to leave.
My mother placed her palm on my cheek. {I know you will do well. Your father will be very proud.}
I couldn't respond... I felt sick.
Lanam had run inside the scoop, I went to see her one last time...
{Lanam?}
I expected her to be seriously distraught... but instead she held a sack. {I have a gift for you.}
She ushered me inside. I felt a little awkward in the small space. Lanam opened the sack... inside was a blue box. It was about four inches long on all sides and bright blue.
{Where did you get this?} I asked in wonder.
She smiled. {It's from the laboratory, they'll never miss it. I've been wanting to give it to you for a while now... this seemed like the right time. I know how much you wanted to see one again.}
{You're giving it to me?}
She smiled. {It will give you something to examine during your time in space. Just try not to let anyone see it.} She closed the pack and gave it to me. She took my hand in hers. {Be careful Floran, come back to us safely.}
{I will.} I gave my sister my word... not knowing then that I would not be able to keep it.
I left my mother and my sister behind. Sirem and I walked to his ship in silence. I followed him inside, gave one last look at my mother, my sister, my home, then the doors closed...
{You...} Sirem started to speak, but stopped. He seemed to have trouble finding the right words.
{...do... do you know where I am going?} I asked, trying to break the silence.
He nodded. {Yes. We believe the Yeerks have targeted another species to infest. We're sending a dome ship to the planet.}
It was disheartening news. The Yeerks already allied with the Taxxons and almost completely conquered the Hork Bajir, and now some other race would be taken unless we could stop them...
{You'll be fine.} Sirem said at last, he sounded cheerful, though I believed it to be a fake bravado. {I hear Elfangor will be on the dome ship.}
That did brighten my spirits. {War-Prince Elfangor?}
Sirem nodded. {Indeed.}
Elfangor was a great hero to my people. He'd fought and won many victories over the Yeerks.
{Just do your duty... and keep your head down.} Sirem added. {Help in any way you can, but don't feel like you have to run into battle tail first.}
Sirem and I were not so close, but he was always very kind towards me. I think he saw my reluctance.
It was a long, mostly silent journey. Though I wish it had been longer.
We landed and I was escorted to the dome ship. Several Warriors were already boarding.
{Go on then Warrior Floran-Jakhal-Castouss.} He raised his tail and I instinctively raised mine as well our tail-blades touched in a salute. {Fight bravely and honorably.}
{Thank you.}
I followed the group of Warrior onto the dome ship. And soon the ship lifted off.
I saw rise from the city. We rose and I saw, beyond it, the rolling hills full of grass of different colors, stretching for miles. We rose further still. In moments I was no longer looking at the familiar Andalite sky, but into the vastness of space. My eyes looked back to the planet, which was mostly covered in land with a few large bodies of water...
We had only just departed, and already I was homesick.
The journey to the planet was a long and uneventful one. I spent most of my time trying to stay as quiet as possible, to not get in the way of the others or draw attention to myself.
I decided to learn more of the planet to which we were headed. We'd learned a little in school... though very little was documented.
It was the third planet in the solar system. It was mostly covered in water. The most intelligent species on the planet called themselves 'Humans', and they had named the planet 'Earth'.
The more I learned about the planet, the more excited I became. It seemed as though this planet had many species of animals, perhaps millions. What kind of planet could sustain millions of animals? What did they look like? How did they eat? Perhaps most of them were water based creatures, considering the vastness of the oceans on the planet.
Perhaps this trip would not be so terrible after all.
Needless to say, I was wrong.
When we exited Zero-Space, the Yeerk mother ship was waiting for us. All fighters were ordered to launch. At least ten of the enemies Bug Fighters charged towards us and we opened fire on one another. I fired my ships shedders, a few successful hits, but then two came up on me from behind! I could have been dead if another ship had not noticed at gave me support to out maneuver the Bug Fighters and they went down! At first I thought we had a chance... but then that hope died.
A Blade Ship emerged. The blade ship of a Visser. It had been hidden in one holes of the planets moon. The large dome was separated from the ship and fell towards the planet.
They tried to fight back, but the blade ship was too fast, too powerful, and the entirety of the Andalite fleet, over one hundred Andalites, were massacred in that one moment.
Our Prince was no where to be found. The others that still lived charged into battle. It was a hopeless effort, but they did their duty as Andalite Warriors. As soldiers.
Outnumbered, overpowered, I committed a great betrayal to my people...
I ran away.
I ran from battle...
I ran...
I managed to escape, my fighter retained little damage from the battle. I landed it on the planet below, but I was sure it wouldn't be long until they came for me. My ships cloaking mechanism was still operational. I hid in my ship for, what must have been days, until I was sure they were no longer searching for me...
But now I faced another problem.
The fleet was destroyed, I was alone. I had no idea how long it would take for reinforcements to come...
I took a step out onto the planet. It was very different from my home, very strange.
As I stood, alone on the face of that strange new planet, I felt despair.
I was a failure. I couldn't even die with honor. What kind of Warrior runs while his comrades are dieing all around him.
I was a weak, stupid, stubborn child.
And I was alone...
