A/N: To justify myself ahead of any discrepancies, And the moral of the story is is set somewhere between #28 and #29

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So there I was, wandering around in a forest. Only it wasn't a forest. It was a bird. And not just any bird, either. A talking one. One that can, for two hours at a time, turn into a human boy or anything else he can touch.

Me? My name is Dr Dolittle.

Just kidding; I'm Lora. Lora Maxwell. No worries about my name. Namely because I'm one and a half millimetres tall (apparently) and am presumed missing and possibly dead by everyone.

Isn't my life great?

I spent the best part of three days talking to a red-tailed hawk. Yes, nurse. I'd like my straitjacket extra padded, please. No, not the pink one! The one with green and blue stripes!

Anyway…

He couldn't find any of the others before Monday because they were all apparently being interviewed by the cops and my dad, who apparently blamed Jake and the others for my 'disappearance'.

For lack of anything else to talk about, Tobias - the bird's name - told me about the missions the Animorphs had been on in the past. I have to admit some of them were cool, like when he and Ax morphed bulls to get into a slaughterhouse.

What can I say? I like cows!

Nighttime was when Tobias stopped talking. Didn't stop me, though. I kept singing through the night, and a lot of the day as well.

"I talks to talking birdies
I likes to eat blue-green cheese
I want my straitjacket creased
In my bouncy rubber room
I lives among stick-thin trees
The ground just oozing with grease
I wants to go back home please
To a sis of doom and gloom…"

Monday came (allegedly) and with it, Tobias' not-at-all-subtle plan to get Jess' attention. He was going to do a fly-by outside the school. Clever. I mean, what if he was spotted, what if he got spotted by the wrong people? What if I fell off?!

But the bird was highly optimistic and assured me that as long as I held on, it shouldn't be a problem. Like a fool, I believed him.

We got to the school okay, and I heard Tobias cry out that he had to show Jess something.

No worries, Lora, he assured me on the way to the barn. Like a fool, I believed him.

We reached the barn.

Voices rumbled. I could just make out some of them.

"Well?"

It's Lora.

"What about her?" Jess?

She's alive.

Then it was like, EARTHQUAKE! "Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!"

Hey!

"You'd better not be messing with me. Me, Mum and Dad have been through hell and back the last three days." Jess again, presumably.

She's alive. I've been talking to her for three days.

"Fine. Assume that this is true. Then where is she?" The voice wasn't Jess, but it was male. Jake? Marco?

"Well? If you've been telling the truth, then I'm sure you won't mind telling me WHERE THE HELL MY SISTER IS!"

Calm down already! She's on me.

"Literally," I muttered.

I heard that, he said.

"What do you mean, she's on you?" asked Jess. Not for the first time, I wondered how she was getting on.

The Helmacrons. They shrunk her and kicked her off the ship. She's on me.

"On you?"

"Yes, on him you twerps!"

Lora says 'Yes, on me, you twerps. Tobias reported dutifully.

"Very funny."

I thought so.

"We need to get her off you," surmised someone who could only be Jake.

Obviously, Tobias commented. Have you heard the songs this girl sings?

"Yes." Jess.

"I think I have an idea," Rachel said.

"Uh-oh…"

Lora, you can trust them.

Like a fool, I believed him.