A/N: Just for clarification, I would like to say that LOONS (the bird, not the nutcases) will take over the world, NOT Cat, Nydia, ants, gundams and zoids, or elves. LOONS! All hail them! Also, Marco, George Weasley, Sean Biggerstaff, and Orlando Bloom still belong to me, but Marco most of all!
Chapter 9
I raced up, and up some more. It was effortless to just go up twenty feet in a Hork-Bajir body. We needed to get up as high as possible, because, just like flying, altitude equaled distance. When we got to the top of this tree, we could swing down to the next, and from there onto the next, et cetera, at last allowing us to come to where we wanted to be.
I looked down one last time, and saw General Doubleday and Sandra waving, and Menderash looking at us. The Murkra held their strong arms up into the sky, although I do not know what it meant.
At about the same level as me, Toby struggled to go upwards while holding Guide, who came up to about chest-height, had calves that extended forward onto the ground, and a delicate, wheezing diaphragm. All the while, Guide was still kicking and wheezing loudly. Not far below me were Ax, Marco, and Cassie, climbing steadily. Far above me already was Rachel, occasionally shouting, I love this body! Jake was a mere thirty feet over my head, and he had stopped, waiting for the rest of the group. Indi was above him, but below Rachel. He climbed a few feet every few seconds, and then looked back down at us. Tom, Jeanne, Santorelli, and Yahal scampered up the tree in their chadoo morphs.
We were now nearly five hundred feet off of the ground. As we rose, I looked at the surroundings and they started looking more and more familiar.
I finally reached the top of the tree, where Indi, Jake, and Rachel were already waiting. Toby, Ax, Marco, and Cassie came up to us only a few minutes later. We stayed there for a couple of moments to allow Toby to rest after carrying Guide.
Toby stared at Cassie and Rachel sadly, and after a few seconds under her gaze, Rachel started to squirm.
May I help you? she asked icily.
"I'm sorry," Toby said, "but your morph used my father's DNA. You look exactly like Jara Hamee, who is dead. And we could not rescue him, like we rescued Tom and yourself."
Rachel fell silent. I'm sorry, she finally said quietly.
No one said anything for a minute or two, and then Toby smiled sadly.
Finally, we started off again. Indi went first, and he ran along a long branch near us, and when he finally made it to the end, he bounced a couple of times, and leaped off into space. Yahal, Tom, Jeanne, and Santorelli scurried after him, opening their skin flaps when they jumped off the tree. Rachel and I jumped off after them, soaring through the air.
YAAAHHH! I yelled, trying to flap my wings. The wings which I did not have. I know that I float through the air every day, but I always have wings to hold me up. I didn't have anything this time.
This is great! Rachel hollered back, plummeting next to me. I love her to death, but sometimes she really can be crazy.
I let the Hork-Bajir mind take over for a few moments, it knew what to do to keep from hurtling to its death. I reached out one strong arm, and grabbed a branch overhead. It slowed my momentum down, and I managed to grab another one after that, and swing myself on top. Nothing like landing as a bird.
Rachel landed a few feet away, and came back over to me. Fun! she exclaimed in open thought speak, so that everybody could hear. Let's do that again!
If I had been able to roll my eyes, I would have.
Ax, Marco, Jake, and Cassie, who had come right after us, walked over as well. Okay, Xena, Marco told her, but I would like to say, just for the record, that swinging through the trees as alien Salad Shooters, not to mention having fun while doing that, is INSANE!
The rest of us laughed. It felt so good to have us all back together again. After the war, I could simply not go on. I was mad with grief for Rachel, and I hated Jake. Hated him. I just did not understand how he could have ordered his cousin to kill his brother, even knowing that she would die as well. I isolated myself from everybody, only coming into public that one time to get Rachel's ashes. What I now realized was that they were probably just another illusion created by the Chee. I only talked to Cassie and Toby. Cassie tried to help me, but I was beyond help. I wanted nothing besides death or Rachel, back again, somehow. When she finally accepted that, she would just bring me news of the world. I really did not care, but she was trying to help so I listened. Toby would come to me for advice, and tried to help me out of my grief, but she was no more successful than Cassie. I started wishing that I had never even been born, because then I wouldn't have had to suffer through the hell that I was living.
I missed my friends. I missed Marco's stupid jokes, Cassie's moral discussions. Ax's technical explanations and his company at night when I was troubled, and Jake's orders. I hated Jake, but that did not mean that I missed the old Jake, the one I had been friends with, the one that I met after he saved me from bullies trying to push my head into the toilet.
If it had not been for him, I never would have been an Animorph, met Rachel, or met my father. Or my mother. I never would have felt the air under my wings, or done so many other things. Yes, I hated him, but if I had never known him in the first place, I never would have really gotten to know Rachel.
And most of all, I missed Rachel. Her devil-may-care smile, her recklessness, her bravery. Everything about her, even her little insecurities.
I missed them all, but I knew that we could never be the same as we were ever again. We had changed. Rachel was dead. Marco was rich, and famous. Cassie had her dream of working with animals. Ax was a prince, and in space. Jake was depressed, according to Cassie. I only wanted it to be like it was, back before everything got so sad and everybody had to be evacuated to the Hork-Bajir valley. That was when everything started coming apart.
But most of all, I just wanted Rachel back.
Whatever you say, Marco, Rachel retorted to his earlier comment, but at least I don't amuse myself by swimming through pools of money!
Ouch, he said, that hurt. Anyway, what's wrong with doing that? You don't know just how happy it makes you feel. You aren't a millionaire! He laughed.
What ever happened to the simple pleasures in life? Don't you guys think that it's nice to just sit outside and watch the stars? Cassie asked innocently.
We all stopped what we were doing, and stared at her.
I was just kidding! she exclaimed, laughing. We all joined her.
Ax was quiet at first, but then he said, Hah. Hah. Hah-hah.
What was that? Marco asked, looking at Ax strangely.
I was laughing.
Right… Whatever, Ax, Rachel teased.
Finally, Toby jumped into the tree next, carrying Guide. I don't know how she managed it, but she somehow made it safely. Indi started swinging through the trees again, and we all followed him, still laughing together.
A/N: Okay, now that that's finished, I would just like to do some shameless advertising for myself and some friends. PLEASE read my other fics. Besides my trilogy, I have quite a few music videos and song fics, as well as a very humorous series of conversations me and some friends had with a really scary guy from my brother school where we pretend to be Cassie, Rachel, Melissa Chapman, Danae Fangor (future daughter of Rachel and Tobias), Aldrea Berenson (future daughter of Jake and Cassie), Jake, Ax, and Crayak. I also have one Animorphs poem, and one original poem, and one original novel (but if I don't get some reviews on it soon, I'm going to take it off!). As for my friends and fellow authors, please read the works of:
Divel-17
Chibi Chang
Aidyn Elcrom
Ami of Destiny
Anifan1
Emily White(formerly known as Trampling Rose
Lady Lupin
Lillybell04
Peacockgirl
Phennphenn
Quackingduk
The Excessively Loud Waterfowl
The Wandering Blue Andalite
Thanx!