THE HUNTED
Chapter 14 Rachel
Okay, so even I was scared. Scared to death. Scared as in trembling, frightened, nervous-about-any-sound and down right petrified.
But I had to see what had happened to Cassie. And I had to demorph. So I landed in relative safety, and demorphed. Then I remorphed, back to owl.
But I couldn't find Cassie, after what must have been an hour's search. And I feared the worst. I didn't dare go back to the farm. Or home. Or anywhere else. After I had demorphed and remorphed again, I saw Hork-Bajir in the forest. Or heard them, more correctly. Then I saw them. They were looking for something, in the company of three wolves and a strikingly familiar Andalite.
Ax, and Jake, Marco and… Cassie.
So they did catch her.
What about Tobias?
I decided to leave them alone at the time. I could do nothing. So I flapped away, flying until my two hours were almost up again.
But I needed to sleep. And I couldn't sleep in animal form, in case I didn't wake up before the two hour limit. So I landed on a thick branch as far up in a tree as they were found. And I demorphed.
I didn't have much experience sleeping on branches with a ten meter drop below me. So I didn't sleep well. I kept waking up. From nightmares, mostly. Once when I woke up, I had almost fallen off the branch. It was very hard to go back to sleep, and I did so with my fingers clutched tightly around a thinner branch above my head. But I slept a little. Enough, I hoped.
For in the morning, I had things to do.
I was hungry.
I had no forks, no knives, no plates and no glasses. All I had in the way of clothing was my morphing outfit. So when I was human, I quickly grew cold. It had been a cold and very wet night. But I had one thing; morphing. I could morph an animal, and eat as that animal.
Once when we had been wolves stuck on the Artic, we had eaten a dead seal. The leftovers from the same polar bear that we later had acquired.
But right then, I felt for fish. So I decided to morph my famous bald eagle shape.
Maybe that was a bad idea.
My beak came first. Then my feathers, shooting out like plants here and there. I must have looked really strange. Then I felt like I was falling. Because I was so high up in a tree, that made me a little scared. But then I realised that I was only shrinking. Shrinking feels like falling, but you never hit the ground.
When I had stopped shrinking, I felt a tickling sensation on my feet. I looked down at them, and saw that I was growing talons on my knees, and my feet were shrivelling away. Then the bones in my legs rebuilt themselves to match the bones of the bird. Actually, they simply disappeared. I was very glad that I had been sitting down. Then they reappeared, and my legs grew all scaly and rough-looking like bird legs. The extra skin and muscles popped away, piece by piece. Kind of as if my legs had been filled with balloons and they were popped one by one.
That's when I almost fell off my branch. I had been holding on with my arms and hands… and all of a sudden I didn't have arms and hands any more. But I grabbed hold with a talon and hung on. My arms and hands turned to wings. I folded them up behind me.
I looked very weird, at the time. I was a bird, with a human torso and face… except for the beak. But then my human eyes were sucked into my head, and two eagle eyes rolled into their places, bursting through skin further on the sides of the same head. My ears disappeared, one by one, each leaving a small hole which is the eagle ear. Finally, my torso shrank and reshaped to proper eagle standards, and I was ready for lift-off.
I flew around, looking for some stream or river where I might find fish. I quickly found one. I saw two fishermen standing on one shore, and, obviously, they were fishing.
I was too hungry to worry about them. I looked out over the water. I could see the fish clearly under the surface, swimming around here and there, minding their own business.
Okay, Rachel, I said, just to hear a voice. Nothing to lose, so…
I chose a fish which looked big and healthy. I dove. I tucked my wings in, struck through the surface, and grabbed the fish in my talons.
Yes! I cried as I again rose upwards to the sky.
"Hey!" a fisherman called. "Wasn't it a bald eagle that the last Animorph usually morphed?"
Uh-oh. Controllers. Busted.
"Yes, I think it was…" the other replied.
"Get the eagle! Get the eagle!"
One dropped his fishing-gear and reached into his bag. He pulled out a dracon gun.
Kind of like a laser, I guess, for those of you who've never seen one. It shoots out a beam of light that burns anything it hits. Serious, wicked burns, too.
Jake in tiger morph has had his entire leg just burned of by a dracon beam - at low power. And that's bad, in case you didn't figure it out.
I decided it was for the best to haul outta there!
But no, I couldn't do that. That would blow the last of my cover. I ignored the fishermen, as any bald eagle would do. But I kept my distance. I kept flying, trying to get some altitude even though I had a squirming fish clutched in my talons.
The dracon gun was aimed. I ignored it. Then I happened to drop the fish.
It saved my life. For just as I acted on the reflex and dropped my wings to dive and catch the fish again, the dracon beam fired.
TSEEEEW!
About a hair above my head!
And as any real eagle, I panicked. I forgot about the fish and hauled butt!
That was one lucky fish. It saved my and its own life at the same time.
"Ah, forget it," the fisherman with the dracon gun said. "That's no Animorph. Just a normal eagle."
Oh, yeah?
I played my part pretty well, didn't I?
I found another stream. Without fishermen. I had had one too many close calls that morning. And I caught another fish. Not a big as the other one, but for an eagle it was big enough to fill my tummy.
So that took care of breakfast.
Now I had to think.
I flew back to my branch. I demorphed, and made sure I wasn't well visible from the ground. Then I thought.
What could I do? Nothing.
They should be in the Yeerk pool for a few hours every third day - or night. I needed to bust them out of there. How?
Blow up the Yeerk pool? No, they'd come out in pieces then. But they'd probably be grateful.
Wreck the new Kandrona? By myself? I told "myself" not to be stupid. We had been six the last - and only - time, and we had barely made it out alive.
Trick the Yeerks? Yes, that was the way.
First; find a way into the Yeerk pool. Second; find schedules for feeding. Third; find a time when all of them are in the pool. Four; bust them outta there.
Yeah, that'll be easy, I thought sardonically. No problems. Except for about a few hundred Hork-Bajir, just as many Taxxons, a highly technological security system, Visser Three and the fact that probably every Controller alive knows my face and morphs by heart.
But all alone? Was it even possible?
Worry about that later, I told myself. What have you got to lose now?
I needed to rest, too. Before I did anything, I needed to rest, and calm my mind. Get control over the panic.
I decided to check the situation later. During the afternoon… some other day. Just fly through the city. At the time, I could do nothing but wait. All the activity was during the afternoon. And I didn't dare show my face in populated areas so soon. I morphed the eagle again to be more alert. Super senses can be useful.
Chapter 15 Rachel
I lived like that. I sat in my tree, thinking up horrible plans. Going over my chances. Going over my disadvantages. Four days later - five days after the capture of the others - during the afternoon, I morphed a seagull to check things out. I decided to keep away from our houses, because they'd probably be extra guarded. Especially mine. I also held my distance to the mall, which is my favourite hanging-out place. I love shopping.
I flew past the school, but I didn't stop to take a better look. People were swarming out of there. So then I had a pretty decent guess on what time it was. And I did see Cassie.
Cassie the Controller.
I'd have to save their butts. All of them. Except maybe Marco's.
Then I continued. I flew past a TV store, and that's when I saw something which instantly caught my eye. On one of the TV:s in the display, on some international news channel… My picture! The news lady was sitting and talking. She showed pictures of me, my parents and Cassie, my best friend. Cassie, with tears in her eyes saying she was so worried.
Yeah, right, I thought. You're worried you won't get another morph-able host.
That's when something hit me. The morphing cube! Cassie was the one who knew where it was!
The Yeerks had the morphing cube! The cube that gave morphing powers!
That couldn't be good. Definitely, most definitely not good. That meant my mission grew a million times harder… a million morph-able Yeerks.
"Rachel?" a voice said.
I was startled. I looked around. I saw a human girl standing just three meters or so from me. Looking at me.
"Don't worry," she said. "I'm not a Yeerk."
There was something strange about her… she seemed to flicker.
"I'm just an android."
An android. One of the Chee. Another of our secrets, now revealed to the Yeerks.
The Chee are really robots, but they create holograms and from the outside they look like humans. But that hologram was made to fool human eyes, not my bird eyes…
Anyway. They were created by a completely peaceful, play-loving race called the Pemalites. But the Pemalites were wiped out by the Howlers. So now the Chee live on Earth, disguising themselves as humans. They live for a very, very long time.
Who are you? I asked.
"My human name would be Jenny," she said. "We haven't met. I have a message from Erek."
Erek, or Erek King as his full name is, is the android who is our spy on the Yeerks. The Yeerks knew about him, now, though. As everything else.
How is he?
"Erek isn't, any more, I'm afraid," Jenny said with a weak smile. "He just barely managed to send the message by Chee-net. They found out about him as soon as Jake was caught, and demolished him. And Mr. King, too. And that secret underground kennel reached by the basement-elevator, where quite a lot of us were at the time. Not many of us remain. There are only four Chee in this district, now."
I'm sorry.
Destroying the Chee couldn't be easy, although it is easier if you have dracon beams… The Chee are very strong. Once when I was a grizzly, one of them had held me gently like a baby under his arm. But they are non-violent. They are programmed that way. For their own best, actually, when you think about it. They can't lift a finger to hurt any living creature. I don't even think they are capable of - even accidentally - stepping on ants.
"It belongs to the past," the android who called herself Jenny said. "What we must worry about is the present - and the future."
What did Erek say? I asked.
"He told us, or asked us to, that if we could, we should help you out," Jenny said. "The others want to hide. But I'm a bit like Erek. I'd like to get even with the Yeerks for this. But of course, he didn't know how many of you were captured."
And you know?
Tobias. Maybe she knew about Tobias.
"Yes. But it isn't safe to talk here. I can meet you… well, I'll be walking around in the forest the day after tomorrow. I'll project my hologram as someone your sure to recognize. And I'll be carrying something I think you'll find helpful."
She looked around. "It isn't safe for me here, and most definitely not for you."
She left before I had asked about Tobias.
Chapter 16 Rachel
I flew back to the tree where I had decided to keep my base. It wasn't late in the evening, and the rain was gone, but I felt cold. Maybe because I was alone.
I missed Cassie. And Jake. And Tobias. And Ax. Even Marco.
Marco? I miss Marco? Well. There you have it, Rachel; you're going psycho. If you miss Marco, you must really be starved for company.
I thought that over.
Or maybe just for safety. For the safety of numbers.
But I didn't have time to go wacko. And just sitting still and waiting made my imagination run freely. Freely into thinking how I would be hunted down and caught… Moving would help, I knew from experience. Do something. Don't let your fears get a strong hold.
I morphed the well-known owl. I had decided to check Tobias' meadow out. See if he was there… or if the Yeerks were. I was sure the Yeerks were there. But I needed to find out about Tobias.
I flew. And that's when I got lucky. I heard it first. Heavy, irregular breathing. I followed the sound, just of curiosity at first. Then I saw it. A fox. A wounded fox. It was badly wounded, and would die.
Cassie would have been able to help it, probably. I couldn't. But it could help me.
I landed near it. It didn't even notice me. It had a burning fever, but that was about as far as I can tell you about its condition. It also had a huge round burn on its side.
I recognized the burn. It came from a dracon beam. So someone had taken a shot at it, thinking the fox was me.
I stretched out my hand, touching its fur. It didn't notice me. I pressed my hand against it. Still, it ignored me.
That poor fox. He was burning! But I kept my hand on his head. I stroked his ears carefully. Then I began acquiring his DNA.
He went into a trance. I shed a tear for him. Poor fox. That could have been me, too, and I knew that. Maybe that's why I shed a tear. For the sake of my old friend fear. I don't usually cry.
The fox died as soon as I had acquired him. His eyes didn't close, but his breathing stopped. He was obviously dead.
I decided to leave him to his peace. I walked away from there. But in my human shape I was vulnerable. And I kept reminding myself of that for every step I took. I was just waiting for a Hork-Bajir or a dracon beam or a Controller to appear from nowhere. I was very aware that my ears were useless, and my nose even worse. And I couldn't see anything behind me.
I decided to morph. That fear was beginning to grab hold again.
I felt for the fox DNA that now was a part of me. I concentrated on it. And the changes began.
I was morphing the fox.
I shrank.
My feet changed to paws. My legs became thin and my ears slid up the sides of my head. They were growing along the way. I fell down to all fours, still having normal arms and hands. My nose stretched outwards, and only afterwards my chin and jaws followed to match it. Whiskers spurt out and finally my hands and arms grew sleek. My hands quickly changed to paws.
So then I was what must have been called a Hair- and Tail-less Fox.
I felt a little silly.
But that stage didn't last long. I grew thick, brown-red fur, and a long, fluffy tail tipped with white. My ears and paws were coloured black. I could feel lots of fur growing between my toes. At least I'd get rid of cold feet.
Then the senses kicked in.
I was alert!
I knew what was happening everywhere around me!
My nose was very keen. I could smell the forest. It was full of life! Full of food!
But at the moment, I wasn't really hungry.
My ears constantly turned, focusing on sounds. There was a mouse scurrying under the ground, not far from me. It would be easy to catch it. I also heard birds up in the trees. I heard enough to feel perfectly sure about noticing dangers in time. And to keep away from them.
My sight was good, too. Detailed enough. Not anything like the dimness of the bear's vision. But not either like the intense detail of the eagle.
It was about dusk. And it turned out, foxes have very good vision at dusk. Now I know that they also see very well at night and dawn.
I started running. I could run pretty fast. I must have moved at 48km/h. And for a only meter-long fox, not including the tail, that's fast.
But I didn't have any need for running. I slowed down, moving at a steady, swift pace. Speeding easily trough the forest as if I never had done anything else.
But I never reached Tobias's meadow.
I smelt the Hork-Bajir and the human-Controllers long before. And I heard them. They weren't exactly being quiet.
I decided not to risk anything and to keep my distance. But still, I crept closer. To see what it was about. I was being very careful not to be seen.
Fortunately, Hork-Bajir and humans see almost nothing when it starts to get dark. But Hork-Bajir do have extremely good hearing. And a very good sense of smell, according to Cassie. I hoped it wasn't as good as a dog's. Then they'd be sure to smell me coming.
I sneaked closer. I kept at least 50m between me and the meadow. But I, with my fox senses, could hear the Hork-Bajir voices muttering in their alien language. And the humans speaking.
I didn't hear everything, but I caught parts of sentences here and there.
Enough.
"…don't think…" a authoritarian women voice said. "the… isn't stupid… she… won't be coming."
They must have been talking about me. Human-Controllers? Hanging about Tobias's meadow? When only I - and I didn't know about Tobias - were/was free? Which other "she" could they be talking about?
"…but… she's alone… Animorphs think…" another voice said.
Definitely me. That's all I needed to know to concentrate even more.
There was a loud, cocky laugh. "She'll look… bird, but… cage."
The "bird"? Must be Tobias.
Cage.
Cage?
CAGE?!
She had mentioned "Tobias" and "cage" in one sentence. I didn't like that. I didn't like that at all.
The others were caught. And from what I understood of what the Controllers had said, Tobias was in a cage. That meant he was down, too. I don't know if I was angry, disappointed or afraid. Maybe all of them. In fact, almost certainly all of them.
But I know I hauled fox butt outta there as quickly as I could. And I decided not to come back. Tobias's meadow was a dead end. He wasn't there. I should have known. And also, even if he had been on free wing - so to speak - he wouldn't have been there. For Jake, Ax, Cassie and Marco all know about that place. And it was quite obviously a good place for the Yeerks to place out guards. As it was in all our homes.
I returned to my tree. Then I sharpened my fox senses to make sure nobody was around. When I was totally sure that I was alone, I demorphed. I didn't want to risk getting trapped in morph. I had enough to worry about. I returned to my human form.
And instantly I felt afraid. Vulnerable.
Alert, but blind, deaf and without any sense of smell.
When I had finished demorphing, it was pretty dark to my human eyes. But my fox eyes had seen everything as if it was daylight. I noticed that I was hungry.
I morphed the fox again. And I searched for food. Rodents, mostly. But otherwise, I could eat almost anything. I was an omnivore, and a scavenger of high class.
But right then, I wanted to stay away from garbage cans - and civilization. So I decided on rodent.
Finding a meal was easy. Catching it wasn't as easy. A lot of mice got away before I caught one. I was a beginner. So I let the fox rule and judge. Not that long after, when I caught the trick of it all, I found myself clutching a mouse in my jaws. I sat down and ate it.
Well, this is going well, I commented. Now I'm eating mice. Even raw fish is better than this. At least I can compare that with sushi. Then, as an afterthought, I added; Tobias would probably be proud of me, though.
I ate the mouse and morphed to the owl. Then I flew up to my branch for the night.
Another cold, lonely night of waking up terrified again and again.
But I was getting used to it. It's amazing what people can get used to.
Chapter 17 Jake
The sixth day, when we were all in the cage in the morning - it was a Saturday, so there was no school - we decided to try an escape. We were all very down and miserable. Tobias had stopped pulling his feathers out, and he ate enough - all on strict orders from Cassie - but he sat in a corner looking fierce. He didn't say anything, and he didn't move. Cassie was crying silently in another corner. I held her hand. I tried to keep their moods up, even though I was probably the most depressed of us all. I had responsibility for them - and guilt from my mistake, which had gotten us into this. Ax lay on his side in the centre of the cage. His head was resting on the floor. His stalk eyes were hanging loosely and unused to the side of his head. Marco wasn't joking any more. He had joked a bit on the last visit to the pool, but this time he sat looking gloomy.
If Marco isn't joking, it's time to do something.
Something drastic. Something desperate.
We came up with a plan. It was an impossible plan, of course, but it was, none the less, a plan.
But one little thing was missing. We needed the Yeerks to black out the cage, just for a moment or so. So that they couldn't see what we were doing.
Naturally, that was an impossibility. So we made another plan. Basically the plan was the following; get the door open and run for it!
Then Visser Three arrived.
I looked at him. He walked up to the cage, his tail swaying cockily. He had been there at my capture. He had been the prime factor that I hadn't escaped.
I don't really want to talk about it. For a boy, fighting an Andalite isn't too pleasant. He'd have killed me, if I hadn't been more valuable as a host than I was dead. He hadn't been far from it, though. I would have bled to death very quickly if the Yeerk hadn't made me morph as soon as he had seized control.
So how are our little bandits feeling this morning? the Visser asked - but not pleasantly. More in the direction of spitefully.
The Visser has an Andalite body. So he talks in thought-speak. When you use thought-speak, you can direct it to specific persons, or you can just blast away for all to hear. When you're as powerful as Visser Three, I guess you just blast away. That's what he does, anyway.
We all tried to ignore him. But Cassie's hand squeezed mine more tightly.
Not so proud and cocky when you're in a cage, are you? Visser Three laughed.
He stood close to the cage, his Hork-Bajir guards behind him. He was close enough to my face for me to fly at him and grab his throat. But there was a force field between us. And his tail was faster than I ever could hope to be.
"Scum," Marco said, annoyed.
WHAT? the Visser roared. Maybe he didn't take insults well.
"I… said… SCUM!" Marco bellowed. Then he drew a long breath and added silently: "Loud enough for you, you piece of Yeerk rubbish?"
YOU DARE DEFY ME? Visser Three cried, furious.
"Hey, look, that UGLY abhorrence can talk!" Marco exclaimed with false surprise and pointed at the Visser.
I gave him a stern look. Getting the Visser mad maybe wasn't a good idea. He ignored me.
Guards! Open the door and BRING THAT REBEL OUT! Visser Three growled, shaking with fury. I'll teach him to call me "scum"!
Marco gave me a look. A slightly scared look. But also hopeful.
That's when I got it. I leaned closer to Cassie and whispered one, quick word; "Morph."
The door opened. A Hork-Bajir entered, and grabbed a struggling Marco's arm.
Cassie morphed with shocking speed. She was diving towards the door. She was shrinking as she went, being covered in feathers.
She was out!
"Go go go!" Marco yelled.
Cassie took to the sky, already a bird except for her feet and face.
Ax flew up to his four hooves from where he had been lying motionlessly. He kicked the Hork-Bajir with his back hoofs, as a horse would have. Tobias couldn't fly far with so few feathers, but I lifted him up and practically threw him at the Hork-Bajir's eyes.
Marco was morphing. He had gotten lose from the Hork-Bajir, and was diving for the door of the cage. I was working on the code on Ax's locked ropes. He was giving me quick instructions.
Tobias took a place at the door. Ax kept the Hork-Bajir in place and I tried to get his tail loose.
His very deadly, very accurate, very useful, and very needed tail loose.
I didn't manage. My fingers were too slow. Another Hork-Bajir stormed past Tobias and into the cage. He grabbed me and pulled me away from Ax, lifting me by my knee and letting me hang there, up-side-down. Then the Hork-Bajir and two of his friends put the shackles on Ax's hooves again. They also pushed him over and held him down.
Get the birds! Get the birds! the Visser roared.
I cast one look outside the cage. A human-Controller had just caught a half-morphed Marco. Cassie sped back to help him.
Then the Hork-Bajir shook me and I wasn't far from panicking. He threw me into a corner of the cage, and as he exited the cage the door closed behind him.
Left in it were Ax, Tobias and I.
The force-field turned black and we were suddenly in the dark, unable to see Cassie and Marco, and unable to help them.
And all sounds had been closed out. We could hear nothing except our own breathing.
But we did hear Visser Three's thought-speak.
You can't escape, fools! he said with a pleasant, self-assured voice. There are guards and BioFilters at each exit.
BioFilters filter out organisms. If it is programmed to let through only humans, all other organisms which try to pass through will be terminated. Instantly.
There seemed to be a major flaw in our plan.
Then Marco's voice said; We are so not returning to the cage, you repulsive jerk!
You will pay for your unwise choice of words! Visser Three promised.
Prince Jake, Ax's voice said. I believe this battle is lost.
"I think so too, Ax-man," I agreed. "But making Marco see that won't be easy."
I could convince Cassie to return to the cage peacefully. For her own best. But Marco was another matter. He's smart. He'd see reason, of course. He'd just ignore it.
There are be worse things we have to worry about, Tobias said darkly. We could be used as hostages, you know. Visser Three has us neatly tucked into his bag.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Author's Note;
Okay, that counts as a cliffie.... I guess... not one of my better ones, but it works.
I'll put the next part up later. And here's time for my favourite word... *grins* y'all know what it is... and for those of you who don't... REVIEW!!!!!!!!!
I have to find a synonym for that one soon. It is becoming a little worn-out...
Chapter 14 Rachel
Okay, so even I was scared. Scared to death. Scared as in trembling, frightened, nervous-about-any-sound and down right petrified.
But I had to see what had happened to Cassie. And I had to demorph. So I landed in relative safety, and demorphed. Then I remorphed, back to owl.
But I couldn't find Cassie, after what must have been an hour's search. And I feared the worst. I didn't dare go back to the farm. Or home. Or anywhere else. After I had demorphed and remorphed again, I saw Hork-Bajir in the forest. Or heard them, more correctly. Then I saw them. They were looking for something, in the company of three wolves and a strikingly familiar Andalite.
Ax, and Jake, Marco and… Cassie.
So they did catch her.
What about Tobias?
I decided to leave them alone at the time. I could do nothing. So I flapped away, flying until my two hours were almost up again.
But I needed to sleep. And I couldn't sleep in animal form, in case I didn't wake up before the two hour limit. So I landed on a thick branch as far up in a tree as they were found. And I demorphed.
I didn't have much experience sleeping on branches with a ten meter drop below me. So I didn't sleep well. I kept waking up. From nightmares, mostly. Once when I woke up, I had almost fallen off the branch. It was very hard to go back to sleep, and I did so with my fingers clutched tightly around a thinner branch above my head. But I slept a little. Enough, I hoped.
For in the morning, I had things to do.
I was hungry.
I had no forks, no knives, no plates and no glasses. All I had in the way of clothing was my morphing outfit. So when I was human, I quickly grew cold. It had been a cold and very wet night. But I had one thing; morphing. I could morph an animal, and eat as that animal.
Once when we had been wolves stuck on the Artic, we had eaten a dead seal. The leftovers from the same polar bear that we later had acquired.
But right then, I felt for fish. So I decided to morph my famous bald eagle shape.
Maybe that was a bad idea.
My beak came first. Then my feathers, shooting out like plants here and there. I must have looked really strange. Then I felt like I was falling. Because I was so high up in a tree, that made me a little scared. But then I realised that I was only shrinking. Shrinking feels like falling, but you never hit the ground.
When I had stopped shrinking, I felt a tickling sensation on my feet. I looked down at them, and saw that I was growing talons on my knees, and my feet were shrivelling away. Then the bones in my legs rebuilt themselves to match the bones of the bird. Actually, they simply disappeared. I was very glad that I had been sitting down. Then they reappeared, and my legs grew all scaly and rough-looking like bird legs. The extra skin and muscles popped away, piece by piece. Kind of as if my legs had been filled with balloons and they were popped one by one.
That's when I almost fell off my branch. I had been holding on with my arms and hands… and all of a sudden I didn't have arms and hands any more. But I grabbed hold with a talon and hung on. My arms and hands turned to wings. I folded them up behind me.
I looked very weird, at the time. I was a bird, with a human torso and face… except for the beak. But then my human eyes were sucked into my head, and two eagle eyes rolled into their places, bursting through skin further on the sides of the same head. My ears disappeared, one by one, each leaving a small hole which is the eagle ear. Finally, my torso shrank and reshaped to proper eagle standards, and I was ready for lift-off.
I flew around, looking for some stream or river where I might find fish. I quickly found one. I saw two fishermen standing on one shore, and, obviously, they were fishing.
I was too hungry to worry about them. I looked out over the water. I could see the fish clearly under the surface, swimming around here and there, minding their own business.
Okay, Rachel, I said, just to hear a voice. Nothing to lose, so…
I chose a fish which looked big and healthy. I dove. I tucked my wings in, struck through the surface, and grabbed the fish in my talons.
Yes! I cried as I again rose upwards to the sky.
"Hey!" a fisherman called. "Wasn't it a bald eagle that the last Animorph usually morphed?"
Uh-oh. Controllers. Busted.
"Yes, I think it was…" the other replied.
"Get the eagle! Get the eagle!"
One dropped his fishing-gear and reached into his bag. He pulled out a dracon gun.
Kind of like a laser, I guess, for those of you who've never seen one. It shoots out a beam of light that burns anything it hits. Serious, wicked burns, too.
Jake in tiger morph has had his entire leg just burned of by a dracon beam - at low power. And that's bad, in case you didn't figure it out.
I decided it was for the best to haul outta there!
But no, I couldn't do that. That would blow the last of my cover. I ignored the fishermen, as any bald eagle would do. But I kept my distance. I kept flying, trying to get some altitude even though I had a squirming fish clutched in my talons.
The dracon gun was aimed. I ignored it. Then I happened to drop the fish.
It saved my life. For just as I acted on the reflex and dropped my wings to dive and catch the fish again, the dracon beam fired.
TSEEEEW!
About a hair above my head!
And as any real eagle, I panicked. I forgot about the fish and hauled butt!
That was one lucky fish. It saved my and its own life at the same time.
"Ah, forget it," the fisherman with the dracon gun said. "That's no Animorph. Just a normal eagle."
Oh, yeah?
I played my part pretty well, didn't I?
I found another stream. Without fishermen. I had had one too many close calls that morning. And I caught another fish. Not a big as the other one, but for an eagle it was big enough to fill my tummy.
So that took care of breakfast.
Now I had to think.
I flew back to my branch. I demorphed, and made sure I wasn't well visible from the ground. Then I thought.
What could I do? Nothing.
They should be in the Yeerk pool for a few hours every third day - or night. I needed to bust them out of there. How?
Blow up the Yeerk pool? No, they'd come out in pieces then. But they'd probably be grateful.
Wreck the new Kandrona? By myself? I told "myself" not to be stupid. We had been six the last - and only - time, and we had barely made it out alive.
Trick the Yeerks? Yes, that was the way.
First; find a way into the Yeerk pool. Second; find schedules for feeding. Third; find a time when all of them are in the pool. Four; bust them outta there.
Yeah, that'll be easy, I thought sardonically. No problems. Except for about a few hundred Hork-Bajir, just as many Taxxons, a highly technological security system, Visser Three and the fact that probably every Controller alive knows my face and morphs by heart.
But all alone? Was it even possible?
Worry about that later, I told myself. What have you got to lose now?
I needed to rest, too. Before I did anything, I needed to rest, and calm my mind. Get control over the panic.
I decided to check the situation later. During the afternoon… some other day. Just fly through the city. At the time, I could do nothing but wait. All the activity was during the afternoon. And I didn't dare show my face in populated areas so soon. I morphed the eagle again to be more alert. Super senses can be useful.
Chapter 15 Rachel
I lived like that. I sat in my tree, thinking up horrible plans. Going over my chances. Going over my disadvantages. Four days later - five days after the capture of the others - during the afternoon, I morphed a seagull to check things out. I decided to keep away from our houses, because they'd probably be extra guarded. Especially mine. I also held my distance to the mall, which is my favourite hanging-out place. I love shopping.
I flew past the school, but I didn't stop to take a better look. People were swarming out of there. So then I had a pretty decent guess on what time it was. And I did see Cassie.
Cassie the Controller.
I'd have to save their butts. All of them. Except maybe Marco's.
Then I continued. I flew past a TV store, and that's when I saw something which instantly caught my eye. On one of the TV:s in the display, on some international news channel… My picture! The news lady was sitting and talking. She showed pictures of me, my parents and Cassie, my best friend. Cassie, with tears in her eyes saying she was so worried.
Yeah, right, I thought. You're worried you won't get another morph-able host.
That's when something hit me. The morphing cube! Cassie was the one who knew where it was!
The Yeerks had the morphing cube! The cube that gave morphing powers!
That couldn't be good. Definitely, most definitely not good. That meant my mission grew a million times harder… a million morph-able Yeerks.
"Rachel?" a voice said.
I was startled. I looked around. I saw a human girl standing just three meters or so from me. Looking at me.
"Don't worry," she said. "I'm not a Yeerk."
There was something strange about her… she seemed to flicker.
"I'm just an android."
An android. One of the Chee. Another of our secrets, now revealed to the Yeerks.
The Chee are really robots, but they create holograms and from the outside they look like humans. But that hologram was made to fool human eyes, not my bird eyes…
Anyway. They were created by a completely peaceful, play-loving race called the Pemalites. But the Pemalites were wiped out by the Howlers. So now the Chee live on Earth, disguising themselves as humans. They live for a very, very long time.
Who are you? I asked.
"My human name would be Jenny," she said. "We haven't met. I have a message from Erek."
Erek, or Erek King as his full name is, is the android who is our spy on the Yeerks. The Yeerks knew about him, now, though. As everything else.
How is he?
"Erek isn't, any more, I'm afraid," Jenny said with a weak smile. "He just barely managed to send the message by Chee-net. They found out about him as soon as Jake was caught, and demolished him. And Mr. King, too. And that secret underground kennel reached by the basement-elevator, where quite a lot of us were at the time. Not many of us remain. There are only four Chee in this district, now."
I'm sorry.
Destroying the Chee couldn't be easy, although it is easier if you have dracon beams… The Chee are very strong. Once when I was a grizzly, one of them had held me gently like a baby under his arm. But they are non-violent. They are programmed that way. For their own best, actually, when you think about it. They can't lift a finger to hurt any living creature. I don't even think they are capable of - even accidentally - stepping on ants.
"It belongs to the past," the android who called herself Jenny said. "What we must worry about is the present - and the future."
What did Erek say? I asked.
"He told us, or asked us to, that if we could, we should help you out," Jenny said. "The others want to hide. But I'm a bit like Erek. I'd like to get even with the Yeerks for this. But of course, he didn't know how many of you were captured."
And you know?
Tobias. Maybe she knew about Tobias.
"Yes. But it isn't safe to talk here. I can meet you… well, I'll be walking around in the forest the day after tomorrow. I'll project my hologram as someone your sure to recognize. And I'll be carrying something I think you'll find helpful."
She looked around. "It isn't safe for me here, and most definitely not for you."
She left before I had asked about Tobias.
Chapter 16 Rachel
I flew back to the tree where I had decided to keep my base. It wasn't late in the evening, and the rain was gone, but I felt cold. Maybe because I was alone.
I missed Cassie. And Jake. And Tobias. And Ax. Even Marco.
Marco? I miss Marco? Well. There you have it, Rachel; you're going psycho. If you miss Marco, you must really be starved for company.
I thought that over.
Or maybe just for safety. For the safety of numbers.
But I didn't have time to go wacko. And just sitting still and waiting made my imagination run freely. Freely into thinking how I would be hunted down and caught… Moving would help, I knew from experience. Do something. Don't let your fears get a strong hold.
I morphed the well-known owl. I had decided to check Tobias' meadow out. See if he was there… or if the Yeerks were. I was sure the Yeerks were there. But I needed to find out about Tobias.
I flew. And that's when I got lucky. I heard it first. Heavy, irregular breathing. I followed the sound, just of curiosity at first. Then I saw it. A fox. A wounded fox. It was badly wounded, and would die.
Cassie would have been able to help it, probably. I couldn't. But it could help me.
I landed near it. It didn't even notice me. It had a burning fever, but that was about as far as I can tell you about its condition. It also had a huge round burn on its side.
I recognized the burn. It came from a dracon beam. So someone had taken a shot at it, thinking the fox was me.
I stretched out my hand, touching its fur. It didn't notice me. I pressed my hand against it. Still, it ignored me.
That poor fox. He was burning! But I kept my hand on his head. I stroked his ears carefully. Then I began acquiring his DNA.
He went into a trance. I shed a tear for him. Poor fox. That could have been me, too, and I knew that. Maybe that's why I shed a tear. For the sake of my old friend fear. I don't usually cry.
The fox died as soon as I had acquired him. His eyes didn't close, but his breathing stopped. He was obviously dead.
I decided to leave him to his peace. I walked away from there. But in my human shape I was vulnerable. And I kept reminding myself of that for every step I took. I was just waiting for a Hork-Bajir or a dracon beam or a Controller to appear from nowhere. I was very aware that my ears were useless, and my nose even worse. And I couldn't see anything behind me.
I decided to morph. That fear was beginning to grab hold again.
I felt for the fox DNA that now was a part of me. I concentrated on it. And the changes began.
I was morphing the fox.
I shrank.
My feet changed to paws. My legs became thin and my ears slid up the sides of my head. They were growing along the way. I fell down to all fours, still having normal arms and hands. My nose stretched outwards, and only afterwards my chin and jaws followed to match it. Whiskers spurt out and finally my hands and arms grew sleek. My hands quickly changed to paws.
So then I was what must have been called a Hair- and Tail-less Fox.
I felt a little silly.
But that stage didn't last long. I grew thick, brown-red fur, and a long, fluffy tail tipped with white. My ears and paws were coloured black. I could feel lots of fur growing between my toes. At least I'd get rid of cold feet.
Then the senses kicked in.
I was alert!
I knew what was happening everywhere around me!
My nose was very keen. I could smell the forest. It was full of life! Full of food!
But at the moment, I wasn't really hungry.
My ears constantly turned, focusing on sounds. There was a mouse scurrying under the ground, not far from me. It would be easy to catch it. I also heard birds up in the trees. I heard enough to feel perfectly sure about noticing dangers in time. And to keep away from them.
My sight was good, too. Detailed enough. Not anything like the dimness of the bear's vision. But not either like the intense detail of the eagle.
It was about dusk. And it turned out, foxes have very good vision at dusk. Now I know that they also see very well at night and dawn.
I started running. I could run pretty fast. I must have moved at 48km/h. And for a only meter-long fox, not including the tail, that's fast.
But I didn't have any need for running. I slowed down, moving at a steady, swift pace. Speeding easily trough the forest as if I never had done anything else.
But I never reached Tobias's meadow.
I smelt the Hork-Bajir and the human-Controllers long before. And I heard them. They weren't exactly being quiet.
I decided not to risk anything and to keep my distance. But still, I crept closer. To see what it was about. I was being very careful not to be seen.
Fortunately, Hork-Bajir and humans see almost nothing when it starts to get dark. But Hork-Bajir do have extremely good hearing. And a very good sense of smell, according to Cassie. I hoped it wasn't as good as a dog's. Then they'd be sure to smell me coming.
I sneaked closer. I kept at least 50m between me and the meadow. But I, with my fox senses, could hear the Hork-Bajir voices muttering in their alien language. And the humans speaking.
I didn't hear everything, but I caught parts of sentences here and there.
Enough.
"…don't think…" a authoritarian women voice said. "the… isn't stupid… she… won't be coming."
They must have been talking about me. Human-Controllers? Hanging about Tobias's meadow? When only I - and I didn't know about Tobias - were/was free? Which other "she" could they be talking about?
"…but… she's alone… Animorphs think…" another voice said.
Definitely me. That's all I needed to know to concentrate even more.
There was a loud, cocky laugh. "She'll look… bird, but… cage."
The "bird"? Must be Tobias.
Cage.
Cage?
CAGE?!
She had mentioned "Tobias" and "cage" in one sentence. I didn't like that. I didn't like that at all.
The others were caught. And from what I understood of what the Controllers had said, Tobias was in a cage. That meant he was down, too. I don't know if I was angry, disappointed or afraid. Maybe all of them. In fact, almost certainly all of them.
But I know I hauled fox butt outta there as quickly as I could. And I decided not to come back. Tobias's meadow was a dead end. He wasn't there. I should have known. And also, even if he had been on free wing - so to speak - he wouldn't have been there. For Jake, Ax, Cassie and Marco all know about that place. And it was quite obviously a good place for the Yeerks to place out guards. As it was in all our homes.
I returned to my tree. Then I sharpened my fox senses to make sure nobody was around. When I was totally sure that I was alone, I demorphed. I didn't want to risk getting trapped in morph. I had enough to worry about. I returned to my human form.
And instantly I felt afraid. Vulnerable.
Alert, but blind, deaf and without any sense of smell.
When I had finished demorphing, it was pretty dark to my human eyes. But my fox eyes had seen everything as if it was daylight. I noticed that I was hungry.
I morphed the fox again. And I searched for food. Rodents, mostly. But otherwise, I could eat almost anything. I was an omnivore, and a scavenger of high class.
But right then, I wanted to stay away from garbage cans - and civilization. So I decided on rodent.
Finding a meal was easy. Catching it wasn't as easy. A lot of mice got away before I caught one. I was a beginner. So I let the fox rule and judge. Not that long after, when I caught the trick of it all, I found myself clutching a mouse in my jaws. I sat down and ate it.
Well, this is going well, I commented. Now I'm eating mice. Even raw fish is better than this. At least I can compare that with sushi. Then, as an afterthought, I added; Tobias would probably be proud of me, though.
I ate the mouse and morphed to the owl. Then I flew up to my branch for the night.
Another cold, lonely night of waking up terrified again and again.
But I was getting used to it. It's amazing what people can get used to.
Chapter 17 Jake
The sixth day, when we were all in the cage in the morning - it was a Saturday, so there was no school - we decided to try an escape. We were all very down and miserable. Tobias had stopped pulling his feathers out, and he ate enough - all on strict orders from Cassie - but he sat in a corner looking fierce. He didn't say anything, and he didn't move. Cassie was crying silently in another corner. I held her hand. I tried to keep their moods up, even though I was probably the most depressed of us all. I had responsibility for them - and guilt from my mistake, which had gotten us into this. Ax lay on his side in the centre of the cage. His head was resting on the floor. His stalk eyes were hanging loosely and unused to the side of his head. Marco wasn't joking any more. He had joked a bit on the last visit to the pool, but this time he sat looking gloomy.
If Marco isn't joking, it's time to do something.
Something drastic. Something desperate.
We came up with a plan. It was an impossible plan, of course, but it was, none the less, a plan.
But one little thing was missing. We needed the Yeerks to black out the cage, just for a moment or so. So that they couldn't see what we were doing.
Naturally, that was an impossibility. So we made another plan. Basically the plan was the following; get the door open and run for it!
Then Visser Three arrived.
I looked at him. He walked up to the cage, his tail swaying cockily. He had been there at my capture. He had been the prime factor that I hadn't escaped.
I don't really want to talk about it. For a boy, fighting an Andalite isn't too pleasant. He'd have killed me, if I hadn't been more valuable as a host than I was dead. He hadn't been far from it, though. I would have bled to death very quickly if the Yeerk hadn't made me morph as soon as he had seized control.
So how are our little bandits feeling this morning? the Visser asked - but not pleasantly. More in the direction of spitefully.
The Visser has an Andalite body. So he talks in thought-speak. When you use thought-speak, you can direct it to specific persons, or you can just blast away for all to hear. When you're as powerful as Visser Three, I guess you just blast away. That's what he does, anyway.
We all tried to ignore him. But Cassie's hand squeezed mine more tightly.
Not so proud and cocky when you're in a cage, are you? Visser Three laughed.
He stood close to the cage, his Hork-Bajir guards behind him. He was close enough to my face for me to fly at him and grab his throat. But there was a force field between us. And his tail was faster than I ever could hope to be.
"Scum," Marco said, annoyed.
WHAT? the Visser roared. Maybe he didn't take insults well.
"I… said… SCUM!" Marco bellowed. Then he drew a long breath and added silently: "Loud enough for you, you piece of Yeerk rubbish?"
YOU DARE DEFY ME? Visser Three cried, furious.
"Hey, look, that UGLY abhorrence can talk!" Marco exclaimed with false surprise and pointed at the Visser.
I gave him a stern look. Getting the Visser mad maybe wasn't a good idea. He ignored me.
Guards! Open the door and BRING THAT REBEL OUT! Visser Three growled, shaking with fury. I'll teach him to call me "scum"!
Marco gave me a look. A slightly scared look. But also hopeful.
That's when I got it. I leaned closer to Cassie and whispered one, quick word; "Morph."
The door opened. A Hork-Bajir entered, and grabbed a struggling Marco's arm.
Cassie morphed with shocking speed. She was diving towards the door. She was shrinking as she went, being covered in feathers.
She was out!
"Go go go!" Marco yelled.
Cassie took to the sky, already a bird except for her feet and face.
Ax flew up to his four hooves from where he had been lying motionlessly. He kicked the Hork-Bajir with his back hoofs, as a horse would have. Tobias couldn't fly far with so few feathers, but I lifted him up and practically threw him at the Hork-Bajir's eyes.
Marco was morphing. He had gotten lose from the Hork-Bajir, and was diving for the door of the cage. I was working on the code on Ax's locked ropes. He was giving me quick instructions.
Tobias took a place at the door. Ax kept the Hork-Bajir in place and I tried to get his tail loose.
His very deadly, very accurate, very useful, and very needed tail loose.
I didn't manage. My fingers were too slow. Another Hork-Bajir stormed past Tobias and into the cage. He grabbed me and pulled me away from Ax, lifting me by my knee and letting me hang there, up-side-down. Then the Hork-Bajir and two of his friends put the shackles on Ax's hooves again. They also pushed him over and held him down.
Get the birds! Get the birds! the Visser roared.
I cast one look outside the cage. A human-Controller had just caught a half-morphed Marco. Cassie sped back to help him.
Then the Hork-Bajir shook me and I wasn't far from panicking. He threw me into a corner of the cage, and as he exited the cage the door closed behind him.
Left in it were Ax, Tobias and I.
The force-field turned black and we were suddenly in the dark, unable to see Cassie and Marco, and unable to help them.
And all sounds had been closed out. We could hear nothing except our own breathing.
But we did hear Visser Three's thought-speak.
You can't escape, fools! he said with a pleasant, self-assured voice. There are guards and BioFilters at each exit.
BioFilters filter out organisms. If it is programmed to let through only humans, all other organisms which try to pass through will be terminated. Instantly.
There seemed to be a major flaw in our plan.
Then Marco's voice said; We are so not returning to the cage, you repulsive jerk!
You will pay for your unwise choice of words! Visser Three promised.
Prince Jake, Ax's voice said. I believe this battle is lost.
"I think so too, Ax-man," I agreed. "But making Marco see that won't be easy."
I could convince Cassie to return to the cage peacefully. For her own best. But Marco was another matter. He's smart. He'd see reason, of course. He'd just ignore it.
There are be worse things we have to worry about, Tobias said darkly. We could be used as hostages, you know. Visser Three has us neatly tucked into his bag.
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
Author's Note;
Okay, that counts as a cliffie.... I guess... not one of my better ones, but it works.
I'll put the next part up later. And here's time for my favourite word... *grins* y'all know what it is... and for those of you who don't... REVIEW!!!!!!!!!
I have to find a synonym for that one soon. It is becoming a little worn-out...
