Chapter 3: Hawk
I struggled to get up with my weak human arms. "Yo, weren't we just on The Rachel crashing to our slow painful death?" I turned around, squinting. And there, behind me was Jake, Marco, Cassie and Ax. "Ax!" I yelled as I ran up to him and tried to give him a hug, or as close as a hug between an Andalite and a human could be.
Tobias…what happened? Ax asked quickly although he had already begun to suspect that something, someone had brought us here.
"I don't know. What happened to you? How'd you get here? We thought you were dead." Ax looked at me and smiled with his eyes.
No, but I was on the brink of it. His eyes darkened as he looked at me with all four. There's something about The One, something that I believe you of all people here should know… He was interrupted by Marco…
"Hey, is someone up there?" I followed Marco's gaze and saw the outline of a human on top of the hill that ended this beautiful valley.
The figure slowly made its way down. `Six champions…` a voice whispered inside of my head. `One Andalite…` I looked at the figure and saw the emerging figure of a girl, she looked around 20 years old. I guess that's how old I was now, I didn't really keep track since Rachel died. Toby or Cassie would come to my meadow with a cake or a big Mac, or something but that ended after a year or two.
The figure came closer and I swear my heart skipped a beat. She was beautiful, her hair was a beautiful shade of golden blonde and she walked with a sort of swagger, something so familiar. She looked at me as she stepped down the hill, I couldn't breathe, `five humans…` It was Rachel… I started walking towards her but then a light covered my eyes, making me look the other direction. When I looked back at her I realized that it was just an illusion, just a simple trick of a lonely heart.
"Now who do we have here?" Marco asked as he bowed. We were lost, for all we knew we were dead and he was trying to flirt with the first girl he saw…I guess he hadn't changed much since the war. It's funny, just to think of those three years as "the war." Just another period in our lives, just another year followed by two more.
The girl looked at him, uncertain then passed her eyes over all of us, stopping at me. She looked like an angel, even though I knew it couldn't be Rachel, there was something so familiar about her eyes that I just couldn't place. "Hello? Who are you?" Marco said slowly like he was talking to a child. She looked at him again and seemed surprised. "Yes, I'm talking to you." He said, getting impatient.
"Oh…I'm ra…uh I mean Gabrielle." She finally said with a sigh.
"I'm Marco…"
"Do you know where we are?" Jake cut him off, Marco looked at Jake like he was going to say something but then let it pass.
"It's where we need to be." She replied swiftly. "Congratulations ladies and gentlemen you have been "chosen" to participate in a lovely array of events leading up to the death of Crayak the birth of a new civilization yadayada, I'm Gabrielle, I will be your host for the time being so follow me and don't get in my way." She looked at us with hope in her eyes like she was going to say something but then shoved past us and started walking back up the hill.
"How do you know that's where we're supposed to be going?" Marco asked. She turned around and realized that no one was following her so she walked back over to us and sat on the ground.
"Do I really have to tell the whole story?" Marco nodded and everyone but Ax sat down as I tried to morph. "It won't work." She said looking at me. "You're not a nothlit but they don't want us to be able to change form, they say it's "cheating" of some sort."
"Whose they? And why do they want us here?" I asked. For some reason I had so much built up energy just starting to flow out of me. All of the anger, the rage, the pain that I had gone through since she died, it was all coming out. This was the first time that I was human since it happened and it was showing.
She was avoiding me, avoiding my eyes. "Aquaris and her people, they want Crayak and they want us to do it."
"And you are?" Marco asked, still trying to get a full name out of her.
"Unavailable." Marco winced but didn't give up. "I know why they'd want us, but who are you, why are you here with us?" He asked as she stood up and looked at him.
"I asked them the same thing, I didn't want to be here but I am here so don't ask about it and you won't get hurt." She walked over to a rock and sat on it, her back to the rest of us.
"I'm Jake Berenson." Jake said as he walked up to her and held out his hand. "We weren't properly introduced before and I think that before you go on some crazy, suicidal mission with someone, you should know who they are."
"My name's Gabrielle and that's a good theory," she walked away ignoring his hand. "We'll set camp here for the night then we'll be on our way in the morning.
"On our way where?" Cassie asked, she and Ax had remained especially quiet since this girl showed up, I guess I was being quiet too but I didn't know how to react to her.
She looked at Cassie and smiled. "Towards Crayak." She said quietly.
"That's insane." Marco commented as he laid down looking at the stars.
"Yeah, I can't wait." I heard her laugh as I took a spot away from everyone else.
"Are you sure I don't know you?" Marco laughed. "You sound like someone I knew once…
Crayak, I thought. Crayak was the creature that caused all of my pain. Crayak was the one that got Rachel killed; he would pay with his eternal life.
