Chapter Three
Rachel
I couldn't believe it. It was so embarrassing. I had been yanked through a window and turned into a Controller. Then, I had led them to where other Yeerks lay in wait, ready to put yet more disgusting Yeerks in my friends' heads. I was disgusted.
{Not as good as you thought you were, Miss Animorph?} said the Yeerk.
{Shut up!} I shouted.
{Why talk to me? I can read your every thought.} I kept silent this time. No point in talking. He was right. He morphed me into a bald eagle. I could feel him prying into my mind, sifting through my knowledge and thoughts. I would've felt sick, but my body wasn't mine to feel sick with. So I just felt disgusted. The Yeerk stretched out my wings, ready to take off. Suddenly, something cold and traveling very fast hit the side of my head. I knew nothing more.
When I awoke, I was tied up. I tried to look around, but two things stopped me: one was the fact that I was now a Controller. The other was the fact that I was blindfolded.
{Awake, are you? Yeerk! I am addressing you!} said Ax's cold voice. The Yeerk continued to ignore him.
{Yeerk!} said Ax again. {Answer!} The Yeerk was still ignoring him.
{Very well,} said Ax. {It does not matter whether you answer. You will be dead in a matter of three days in any case.} The Yeerk said to me something along the lines of, {Dream on, Andalite filth}.
{You dream on, Yeerk!} I shouted. He ignored me and started to demorph. I supposed Ax didn't care, because he wasn't doing anything about it. What really was bad was when the Yeerk started to morph flea.
{Ax!} I cried, knowing it wouldn't do any good. Only the Yeerk could hear me. Luckily, before I was fully morphed Ax hit me with his tail blade and I blacked out. When I awoke, the Yeerk demorphed, losing hope completely. I suddenly realized I was in a glass cage. The Yeerk laughed and kicked as hard as I could at the side of the cage. Nothing happened, except a recording played.
"Do not try to escape," said the voice of Ax's human morph. "It is useless. There are no cracks, so do not be tempted to morph a small animal. Morphing a large animal will merely result in severe pain." (Ax must have worked hard to keep from playing with the words.) I didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to test that theory. I was wrong. The Yeerk started morphing elephant. The cage started feeling awfully tight. The Yeerk kept morphing 'til I was almost fully elephant. It was painful. He demorphed. I sensed he was giving up hope. I was glad.
I wondered how Ax had escaped being a Controller. I also wondered how he would explain away our absence for three days. It was simple when only Jake was a Controller. Ax could just morph him. But Ax couldn't morph all five of us at the same time.
Then it hit me! The Chee! The Chee could imitate us and help keep the Yeerks from escaping. The Yeerk had already figured it out. He hadn't told me because he'd wanted me to be as uncomfortable as possible. Ha! There was no way the Yeerks could win this one. After three days, they would be dead and we would be free to take our lives back where the Chee had left off.
Well, what can I say? It was a fairly uneventful three days. The Yeerk had tried to morph elephant once more and escape. It worked this time about as well as it did the first time. The Yeerks also morphed animals small enough to fit in the cage so they could devise escape methods with each other by thought-speak. They didn't come up with anything, luckily. At the end, the Yeerk was saying every curse he knew, down-putting my friends and me and saying everything he could to discourage us. Stuff like how his death was trivial, and the Yeerks would win the war. The Yeerks had weapons we couldn't dream of. The Yeerks would prevail. The Yeerk empire would destroy the "Andalite bandits" they had been trying to capture for so long. The Yeerks, the Yeerks, the Yeerks! I was sick of it. That only fueled the Yeerk's eagerness to bother me, of course.
Marco's Yeerk died in only one day. He stayed to help guard the rest though. Not that it was necessary. The cages would keep them. Jeke's went out in two days in the middle of the night. Ax told me. Cassie and I took longer. Tobias hadn't been captured either, but I didn't notice until I was free. Finally, the end came. I saw into the Yeerks memories. His first host: a Gedd, kind of dimwitted and slow, but exciting compared to a life of blindness and deafness. Then, he was promoted and moved up to Hork-Bajir. He was sent to Earth when they had sent a shipload of new Yeerks because the rate of infested Controllers per month was going up quickly. He didn't get any hosts but me. And now he was dying.
He kept threatening until the pain was too much to bear. Then he fell silent for a long while. Finally, he let out one last cry and died. He managed, luckily, to wiggle most of the way out of my ear before he went. I pulled him, disgusted, the rest of the way out. He was all dry. He fell to the ground and disintegrated into dust. I let out a triumphant whoop of glee.
Ax made an Andalite smile with his eyes. He gathered everyone else up and we had a small meeting. There wasn't anything to talk about really, so we went home. Little did we know that this wasn't the end of it. The Yeerk had given away one crucial bit of information. Our addresses. . .
Rachel
I couldn't believe it. It was so embarrassing. I had been yanked through a window and turned into a Controller. Then, I had led them to where other Yeerks lay in wait, ready to put yet more disgusting Yeerks in my friends' heads. I was disgusted.
{Not as good as you thought you were, Miss Animorph?} said the Yeerk.
{Shut up!} I shouted.
{Why talk to me? I can read your every thought.} I kept silent this time. No point in talking. He was right. He morphed me into a bald eagle. I could feel him prying into my mind, sifting through my knowledge and thoughts. I would've felt sick, but my body wasn't mine to feel sick with. So I just felt disgusted. The Yeerk stretched out my wings, ready to take off. Suddenly, something cold and traveling very fast hit the side of my head. I knew nothing more.
When I awoke, I was tied up. I tried to look around, but two things stopped me: one was the fact that I was now a Controller. The other was the fact that I was blindfolded.
{Awake, are you? Yeerk! I am addressing you!} said Ax's cold voice. The Yeerk continued to ignore him.
{Yeerk!} said Ax again. {Answer!} The Yeerk was still ignoring him.
{Very well,} said Ax. {It does not matter whether you answer. You will be dead in a matter of three days in any case.} The Yeerk said to me something along the lines of, {Dream on, Andalite filth}.
{You dream on, Yeerk!} I shouted. He ignored me and started to demorph. I supposed Ax didn't care, because he wasn't doing anything about it. What really was bad was when the Yeerk started to morph flea.
{Ax!} I cried, knowing it wouldn't do any good. Only the Yeerk could hear me. Luckily, before I was fully morphed Ax hit me with his tail blade and I blacked out. When I awoke, the Yeerk demorphed, losing hope completely. I suddenly realized I was in a glass cage. The Yeerk laughed and kicked as hard as I could at the side of the cage. Nothing happened, except a recording played.
"Do not try to escape," said the voice of Ax's human morph. "It is useless. There are no cracks, so do not be tempted to morph a small animal. Morphing a large animal will merely result in severe pain." (Ax must have worked hard to keep from playing with the words.) I didn't think anyone would be stupid enough to test that theory. I was wrong. The Yeerk started morphing elephant. The cage started feeling awfully tight. The Yeerk kept morphing 'til I was almost fully elephant. It was painful. He demorphed. I sensed he was giving up hope. I was glad.
I wondered how Ax had escaped being a Controller. I also wondered how he would explain away our absence for three days. It was simple when only Jake was a Controller. Ax could just morph him. But Ax couldn't morph all five of us at the same time.
Then it hit me! The Chee! The Chee could imitate us and help keep the Yeerks from escaping. The Yeerk had already figured it out. He hadn't told me because he'd wanted me to be as uncomfortable as possible. Ha! There was no way the Yeerks could win this one. After three days, they would be dead and we would be free to take our lives back where the Chee had left off.
Well, what can I say? It was a fairly uneventful three days. The Yeerk had tried to morph elephant once more and escape. It worked this time about as well as it did the first time. The Yeerks also morphed animals small enough to fit in the cage so they could devise escape methods with each other by thought-speak. They didn't come up with anything, luckily. At the end, the Yeerk was saying every curse he knew, down-putting my friends and me and saying everything he could to discourage us. Stuff like how his death was trivial, and the Yeerks would win the war. The Yeerks had weapons we couldn't dream of. The Yeerks would prevail. The Yeerk empire would destroy the "Andalite bandits" they had been trying to capture for so long. The Yeerks, the Yeerks, the Yeerks! I was sick of it. That only fueled the Yeerk's eagerness to bother me, of course.
Marco's Yeerk died in only one day. He stayed to help guard the rest though. Not that it was necessary. The cages would keep them. Jeke's went out in two days in the middle of the night. Ax told me. Cassie and I took longer. Tobias hadn't been captured either, but I didn't notice until I was free. Finally, the end came. I saw into the Yeerks memories. His first host: a Gedd, kind of dimwitted and slow, but exciting compared to a life of blindness and deafness. Then, he was promoted and moved up to Hork-Bajir. He was sent to Earth when they had sent a shipload of new Yeerks because the rate of infested Controllers per month was going up quickly. He didn't get any hosts but me. And now he was dying.
He kept threatening until the pain was too much to bear. Then he fell silent for a long while. Finally, he let out one last cry and died. He managed, luckily, to wiggle most of the way out of my ear before he went. I pulled him, disgusted, the rest of the way out. He was all dry. He fell to the ground and disintegrated into dust. I let out a triumphant whoop of glee.
Ax made an Andalite smile with his eyes. He gathered everyone else up and we had a small meeting. There wasn't anything to talk about really, so we went home. Little did we know that this wasn't the end of it. The Yeerk had given away one crucial bit of information. Our addresses. . .