The Animorphs Alternate-Universe Series
The Faith
Chapter 8 - Letting Out the Cat
(Sarah)

"Iades Aen matalan halen."
The forest was quiet, except for the sound of Jake's footsteps and mine. "Mi italan des Aen matalan shalen." Silence has always been something that bothers me. If silence was what the Four Gods had wanted, as someone once told me they did, they would not have given us voices. "Wides lalthai Muraien reisha." Nor songs nor noise in general. "Mi italan da ia." A squirrel leapt through the branches over head, then stopped and tittered at us as we walked by his tree. "Veranda, lina iai," I said to it as we walked by.
"You're in a remarkably good mood for someone who just walked into a pole." I made a face at Jake, making him chuckle. "That was the first time I've ever seen a Weapon walk into something-"Thump. Forests are good places for trees, something Jake, in all his undertone gloating, had forgotten. And, of course, one had just sprung up in his way to "bite him in the ass", as Marco put it later. Jake landed on his butt and caught himself before he fell over. I turned around on my heel and took a minute to debate laughing at him or helping him up, then laughing at him.
"Ow…"
"Very nice job, Jake," I said coyly as I knelt down. "I think you hurt the tree." He rubbed the middle of his forehead and winced.
"Okay, okay, I'll stop gloating," he said. "I deserved that in the worst way." He dropped his head onto his knees. "Ow."
"Let me see." He lifted his head again and I tipped his chin up to look at what he had done - a nice surface scrap, very little bleeding, and the beginning of a bump. "Not bad. If poles were as rough as trees, I would have done very much the same." I gripped the cuff of my sleeve in my teeth and pulled until it ripped. The piece that came off went to clean up the little blood Jake had lost and the dirt and other things that had made their home in his wound.
"Why did you walk into the pole when you saw me?" I folded the scrap in half and sat back on my heels.
"What makes you think it was seeing you that made me walk into the pole?" He touched his forehead and winced, then sighed.
"I think we need to call another meeting." A Weapon's ability to completely blow off questions. He was good.
"Why do you say that?" I asked him. "It is not like this is big news. Well, given, Tobias and Marco can Cast, Alay's a Weapon, and everyone but you and Rachel knew this." I stood up and silently asked for help from the fire seharai nendei. The scrap of cloth smoked, then smoldered, then burst into a dozen little flames that quickly combined into one. I let it burn everything but the corner I held, then dropped the corner as it burned. Ashes landed on the pine needled covered ground and were blown away by a natural breeze. I never had trouble with fire. It came when I asked for it and lingered even after I was done. It was my element, the basis of my seharai raisha, and was the easiest of the four elements for me to control.
"I can Cast as well," I said flatly, to Jake's confused face. My head was beginning to throb. All this excitement and the day was not over yet… "And I agree, we do need to call a meeting. There is much more that needs to be discussed, beyond this Weapon/Caster… thing." I waved my hand when the word I wanted failed to come to mind. "Come on. Let us find the others."
"Too late, we found ya' first." Alay landed on the ground, and leaned casually against the tree she had been perched in. "So… care to explain?" she asked coolly.
"That depends," I answered, pulling Jake to his feet. "How much did you hear?" She shrugged and stood easily, stretching her arms over her head as she did.
"Enough," she said, flexing her fingers and rolling her wrists. "And too little." Her arm suddenly twitched and, unless you were watching for it, it was completely possible to miss the flash of silver that shot through the air. Jake, true to form, ducked to the side, and there was a dull thud as the knife hit the tree that was one the other side of the clearing. Alay smirked, Jake frowned, and I simply shook my head.
"Nades verde?" I asked, walking to the tree. "He is a Weapon, you proved it."
"He's a trainee," she said flatly, as I yanked the dagger free. Alay's secret was her skill with throwing knives - deadly accuracy combined with a weapon that was virtually silent to the normal human ear. A thief's weapon - small, easy to hide, hard to detect - combined with a Weapon's skill - stealth, grace, speed, above normal eye sight and hearing. "He had better not forget it." Jake said nothing, but it was clear on his face that he was not amused by Alay's show of authority. Jake was our leader in the Animorphs, but he was an inferior level to Alay and myself. And Alay was quite… happy about that.
"For the time being," I interjected calmly. "It does not matter at the moment. We have a slightly bigger problem, a problem that goes beyond this. Now we have a risk of more then just Sadie and Emily - more Casters could be Controllers." "There's also the fact that Marco's sending out signals to every bloody seharai raisha in the immediate area," said Alay. "The nendei are attracted to him like flies to sugar and to hell if I know why. It's not just his water element either - everything is and my biggest worry there is fire elementals - he'd be toasted in no time flat." This caused a chill of fear down my spine and I made a mental promise never to Cast fire around Marco. Fire was capable of only destruction…
"We need to call another meeting," said Jake. "Later on today. It's too early in the morning now. Alay, do you know where Marco and Tobias are?" She gave a short nod and accepted the dagger when I offered it to her.
"I sent them on their way, since we knew Sarah was safe, but Tobias wants to talk to her tomorrow and Marco will probably hunt her down in school," she said, then pointed to Jake. "You, take Sarah home, but not to her house, back to yours. It would be easier to say she slept over somewhere and to just have her stay with you for tonight - I'll run in and grab something for you to wear to school."
"School," I repeated with a groan. "Kithe. How many hours until I have to go back there?" I looked to Jake, who shrugged, and Alay, who also shrugged.
"No watch," she said, pointing at her wrist. "Just assume something like four or five. Nothing worse than back home, jaia?" She laughed as I made a face at her.
"Back home, we chose to get four or five hours of sleep," I said irately. "Here, I am kidnapped, harassed by an evil dog, interrogated, shocked, and dragged around half the country side. That was not voluntary, in case you had not caught that point." Jake started laughing too, while I got to stand there and wonder just what in the five hells was so funny.