(A/N) A.S. Amalon, thanks for reviewing again. Tabatha, thank you for
reviewing. It would seem that the cliff scene was popular. Hanyougohan,
thanks for reviewing my Animorphs fic even though you don't know what's
going on. You rock! Sabriel, thanks for reviewing. Now for your viewing
pleasure I will be posting chapter three.
Written in the Stars
Chapter 3: Silence
{ All right everyone. Move in. } Jake gave the command.
We were all in fly morph. Jake had decided that the best plan of action would be to infiltrate the meeting as bugs. So I had secured a fly morph and we were nestled on the heads of different human controllers.
The Sharing was holding a barbecue on the beach. The other Animorphs had told me that they had once been to something like this in order to spy on the Sharing. Jake had also found out that his brother was a controller at that meeting. I knew how that felt.
The fly's instincts weren't that hard to control. I hadn't come across one yet but the others told me that there were some morphs that were nearly impossible to control. One thing that did bother me was the vision. It was like thousands of tiny television screens playing in my head all at once.
"Quiet everyone! Quiet! Visser Three approaches!" I heard Chapman say. It had shocked me somewhat to find out that the assistant principle of my school was a controller.
{ Man, this must be big! Visser Three doesn't come to meetings of the sharing. } Cassie noted with concern.
Suddenly I saw a man step to the front of the mass of controllers.
"Silence!!!" the man commanded. Instantly they fell silent. I automatically assumed that this was Visser Three in human morph.
"I am not certain if all of you are aware of the events of the past few days but we now have a major problem. Two days ago, I received a transmission from a young human girl saying that she was selling a small, blue cube. She of course, had no idea that it was an Andalite morphing cube. I immediately rushed to her dwelling to retrieve it. When her parents wouldn't hand it over I was forced to kill them. Then she appeared, right along with the Andalite bandits. Somehow, the human girl, Stella, managed to escape me. During the fight the house was destroyed. Thus far we have managed to keep too much attention from coming to the accident. Many of the relatives of the two humans that were killed came to find out what happened to Stella. They have all been made into controllers in order to keep them quiet. Unfortunately they weren't able to give us any information concerning Stella's whereabouts."
"Visser", Chapman spoke to him. "Stella is a student at the school where my host works. She hasn't been there for the past few days. I will bet anything that if she hasn't revealed herself to the human authorities by now that she is with the Andalites."
"Where ever she is, she can lead us to the Andalite bandits. For now we don't have to worry about anyone noticing that she is gone. We have managed to erase the records of her existence. No one will come looking for her. But the most important thing now is that all of you look for her. We must find her." Having said this Visser Three began to pass small fliers around the group. It took me awhile to realize that the fliers were pictures of my face.
"If any of you find her, bring her directly to me. No questions asked." He added fiercely. All of the other controllers backed away from him in fear. With that the Yeerk Visser left the gathering and walked away across the dunes along with a bunch of bodyguards.
{ Guys, I think we should leave now. } Jake said solemnly.
{ Right. } I echoed half-heartedly.
Just as I was preparing to follow the others I felt a giant gush of wind and right where I had been perched was a human hand.
"What is it?" I heard Chapman ask.
"There is a small, buzzing insect in my hair." The controller that I had been sitting on said.
"Catch it. It might be one of the Andalites!' Chapman ordered.
{ Uh-oh, they found me guys. Get out of here now! } I yelled to them.
A giant horde of human hands reached up for me but I evaded them easily. I was feeling confident that I would escape. That was when one of the hands managed to reach up and swat me down to the sand. The controller gently picked me out of the sand.
"Over here! I've got it!" he yelled frantically.
{ Stella! NOOOOO!!! } I heard Ax's voice in my head.
{ Come on Stella! Get up! Fly away! } Rachel was screaming.
I desperately wanted to fly away but I was still very dazed from the fall. I was helpless. I lay still as my distorted fly eyes produced an image of the controller that had brought me down. Suddenly a giant shadow dropped out of the sky.
"TSEEEEEEEEERR!" I heard Tobias shriek as he dropped on the controller's head.
{ Go Stella, while you've still got the chance! } he shouted urgently to me.
The message finally got through to me and I flew long and hard, away from the beach. Away from the horror of what I had just learned.
We finally reached our meeting place just inside the trees of the wild life preserve. Tobias landed on one of the branches above us and we all began to demorph.
When I was fully human again I wondered away from the others and stared out into the forest. I was shocked by what I had just heard. My relatives had been made into controllers. The thought sickened me. My grandparents, my aunts and uncles, and my cousins. How many of them had been taken from me because I wanted to earn a few extra bucks? I felt my legs give way beneath me. I would have collapsed had Ax not come up behind me just then and caught me.
{ Stella! Are you all right? } he asked me. To my surprise I heard concern in his voice.
"I'm- fine." I managed to say as I steadied myself.
"Lets get back to Cassie's place before anything else happens." Jake said.
With that we all morphed into birds and flew out into the moonless night.
* * *
"There's no hope that there will be an inquiry into Stella's disappearance." Jake said once we were all inside Cassie's barn.
"Man that is just plain freaky. How the Yeerks can just erase your entire existence like that. So what? As far as the world is concerned Stella never existed?" Marco asked incredulously.
"What about the rest of Stella's family? What's gonna happen to them?" Cassie asked Jake.
"I don't know Cassie. I just don't know." Jake answered her.
{ Yo Stella! Don't you have anything to say about this? } Tobias asked me.
During the whole conversation I had been standing at the open barn door, thinking about what had happened. I had finally come to a decision. They had to know what the Yeerks had already done to me. They had to know about Claire. Silently I turned to face them, trying my best not to cry.
"I already knew about the Yeerks." I told them quietly.
{ What do you mean by that? } Ax asked me.
"Before Visser Three came and murdered my parents. I already knew about the Yeerk invasion."
"How could you?" Rachel demanded.
I proceeded to tell them the story.
* *
*
My sister Claire had been acting strange for quite awhile before the accident. She didn't spend nearly as much time as she used to with me. We were closer than most sisters. But lately she had been ignoring me and she would disappear for hours at a time and never tell anyone where she was going. That just wasn't like Claire.
One night she went out and didn't come back. For two days she didn't come back. My parents went ballistic. They searched everywhere for her. Finally, on the evening of the third day she stumbled into the living room and collapsed. My parents rushed her to the hospital. While they were out in the hallway talking with the doctor, I sat beside Claire in her hospital bed. They had checked her over and they had no idea what was wrong with her. By now she was unconscious.
Suddenly she jerked awake and I was about to call for mom and dad but she stopped me. She was shaking badly and she was wet with sweat.
"No. Wait." She begged me.
"I haven't got much time. When it dies they'll kill me." She began to sob.
"What do you mean?" I asked fearfully.
Then she stopped shaking and smiled up at me.
"Absolutely nothing." No sooner were the words out of her mouth then she began to moan in pain. "No-no. Stella don't listen! It's the Yeerk in my head talking. AAAAAAAHHH!"
"What's a Yeerk?"
"What do you mean? Yeerk?" suddenly Claire reached up and slapped her own face. Only the movement was jerky, almost as if something was holding her back.
"Stop fighting me Claire. I may be dying but you are still my slave."
"No! No I'm not! Let me go! AAAAAAAAHHH! NO! Get out of my head!"
This was truly strange. It was almost like Claire was having a conversation with herself! That was when I saw something gray and slimy slither out of her ear. I looked closely at it and realized that it was a slug. Slowly it withered and crumpled into nothing. Claire collapsed back upon the bed. She was hyperventilating now.
"What just happened?" I asked, taking her hand in mind.
"That was a Yeerk. They're an alien race of parasites that crawl into people's brains and take over their minds. They have invaded Earth."
My first impulse was to not believe her but after all, I had just seen the Yeerk.
"I was able to rebel long enough to keep the Yeerk from getting Kandrona. But they won't let me live. I know too much."
"What do you mean they won't let you live?"
"A friend of mine joined a group called the sharing. The group seemed shady to me so I decided to spy on them. I snuck in on a meeting that they were having and they caught me. My friend had been made into a controller. I agreed to join them only if they wouldn't hurt you. So they made me a slave." She was shaking violently now.
"Then Tom joined because of me. Now he's one of them."
"What should I do Claire? Should I tell the police?"
"No! Many of the police are slaves too. If they find out what you know they might kill you. Stella, don't ever tell anyone what you saw and heard tonight."
"No Claire. I can't just let them kill you."
"You must. But just promise me something."
"What?" I asked her. Tears were streaking down my face now.
"Don't ever let them make you a slave. Trust no one. Anyone could be one of them. And Stella, if Tom is ever freed, please tell him that I love him."
Suddenly the doctor rushed in, followed by my parents. Claire tried to scoot away from him but he got to her first. I saw him push a small steel cylinder to her neck and when I looked back up into her eyes they stared blankly back at me, lifeless. I gently shut her eyelids and backed away. The machine that was monitoring her pulse beeped once more and then fell silent.
When the doctor asked me what had happened I said that she had just screamed and started rambling insanely. I pretended that I had never seen the Yeerk.
When my mother realized that her oldest daughter was gone she began to sob hysterically. Finally she passed out in my father's arms. He simply held her close and let his silent tears fall into her hair. My grief, however, was beyond tears.
The doctor finally diagnosed it as a stroke. He must have been a controller too. There would be no questions about her death. I was the only one who knew the truth. My sister had been murdered and she had begged me at the last minute to keep silent about it.
Later that night, I went to sit on the roof of our house and star gaze. It was comforting to me in some way. As I stared up at the night sky I spoke my final words to Claire.
"I swear to you now Claire, I'll get them. Somehow, someway. For you. The Yeerks must pay."
* *
*
As I finished everyone stared at me with wide eyes. Except for Tobias. Against my will I began to feel tears squeeze their way out of my eyes. I bowed my head, not wanting them to see the tears.
"Stella..." Cassie began.
"Why didn't you tell us before?" Jake asked sternly.
I didn't answer. I only tried harder not to cry. Suddenly I felt someone's arms around my shoulders. I looked up and saw Ax's human face. For once, I didn't resist the comfort that he offered me. I had tried so hard not to let my emotions show but his concern finally broke the dam. I leaned my head on his shoulder and sobbed. I cried the tears that I had held back ever since that horrible night at the hospital. He began to run his fingers through my hair. I wrapped my arms around his middle and the two of us sat down together.
"Shh. It's all right Stella. I know how you feel."
I realized that for once Ax wasn't playing with the syllables of each word. For a long time I cried and no one said anything. Ax just held me in his arms.
"My parents, Claire, my whole family. They're all gone because they tried to save me." I cried in anguish.
"No. Don't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault." He whispered.
Finally I looked up and reluctantly pulled myself away from Ax. I then went over to Jake.
"I'm sorry." I told him.
"Why are you apologizing to me?" he asked.
"Don't you see? Tom is a controller because of me. Claire joined the Sharing to save me. Then Tom joined because of Claire. Now he's one of them. He probably thinks that Claire never even knew that he existed. If only he knew how much she cared for him. I'm sorry, it's my fault."
"No Stella. Ax is right. It wasn't your fault." Jake said to me.
"But Stella, like Jake said before, Why didn't you tell us about your sister?" Rachel asked me.
"I don't know. I guess that I've felt alone since Claire died. I just felt that I always had to stand alone and that there was never going to be anyone to turn to. Not even you guys."
"You shouldn't feel that way. You don't have to be an island anymore girl, you've got us." Marco said enthusiastically.
"Marco, what do you mean by that? Stella is a human not an island." Ax asked Marco.
At that everyone burst out laughing. Even I couldn't resist giggling a little bit.
"It's just an expression Ax" Cassie told him.
"We should probably all go home and get some rest. We'll plan our next move tomorrow." Jake said after we had all stopped laughing.
"Yeah, my dad is probably starting to worry. It is getting dark after all." Marco said as we all walked out of the barn. Cassie walked up to her house and the other three headed for the bus stop. Tobias flew on ahead to his meadow and Ax and I trailed behind.
When we reached our little camp sight I sat down on the ground and leaned against a tree.
{ Are you going to be all right Stella? } I suddenly heard Ax asking me.
"I'll live." I said quietly.
For awhile after that Ax was silent. Then I saw a strange look come into his eyes.
{ Why don't you use your Andalite morph and we can take a run through the forest. }
"Is it safe?" I asked half-heartedly.
{ Don't worry no one would see us this late. Come on. }
I was seriously thinking of saying no when I looked up into his eyes again. Something about his gaze drew me to him.
{ It will make you feel better } he said gently.
"All right." Slowly he helped me to my feet. For a moment he kept his grip on my hand but then he released me and I began to morph.
When I was fully Andalite I noticed that Ax was staring at me. It must be a real shock to see yourself standing right across from you.
Ax took my hand and at first he just led me through the forest. Then we separated and began to go faster. Finally we were both speeding through the forest. I was amazed that I could run at such a speed and not get tired. Ax was right. It did feel good to just run. Let the world slip away for a little while.
We ran deeper and deeper into the forest. Leaving behind human civilization. When we were deeper in the forest than even most people go we finally stopped. Ax was breathing hard but not nearly as hard as I was. I had never run so far in my entire life. That was when I noticed how quiet the forest was. It was way too quiet. I didn't hear any of the night sounds that I was used to hearing. No owls, no crickets, no trickling stream. Not even the whistle of the wind.
{ Ax what's wrong? Why are the woods so still? It's not normal. }
{ I don't know. } he said.
Instantly I began to demorph. When I was fully human again Ax stepped in front of me, almost as if he were protecting me. Suddenly, I noticed a shadow creep out from behind one of the trees.
"Ax!" I shouted to him. Before I could even blink his tail blade sliced towards the shadow. As my eyes adjusted I saw that the shadow was human, but it was unlike any human being that I had ever seen. It was a decrepit old man. He was much shorter than I was and yet it felt as if the very air that surrounded him was charged. He had a sense of great power and wisdom about him.
"Well met, Aximili." He said softly. Ax's eyes widened in fear and he stepped back from the creature. He put his arms around me and started to drag me away. But I felt that neither Ax nor myself should dare to step back from him.
{ What do you want with us? } he whispered in fear.
"I want nothing. We do not interfere." He answered.
{ Right. I've heard all of that before. What now? }
"Aximili, was that sarcasm?" the creature asked with amusement.
"Ax who is this?" I asked him.
"Hello Stella." The creature said as he turned to me. How did he know my name?
"I am the Ellimist."
* *
*
Written in the Stars
Chapter 3: Silence
{ All right everyone. Move in. } Jake gave the command.
We were all in fly morph. Jake had decided that the best plan of action would be to infiltrate the meeting as bugs. So I had secured a fly morph and we were nestled on the heads of different human controllers.
The Sharing was holding a barbecue on the beach. The other Animorphs had told me that they had once been to something like this in order to spy on the Sharing. Jake had also found out that his brother was a controller at that meeting. I knew how that felt.
The fly's instincts weren't that hard to control. I hadn't come across one yet but the others told me that there were some morphs that were nearly impossible to control. One thing that did bother me was the vision. It was like thousands of tiny television screens playing in my head all at once.
"Quiet everyone! Quiet! Visser Three approaches!" I heard Chapman say. It had shocked me somewhat to find out that the assistant principle of my school was a controller.
{ Man, this must be big! Visser Three doesn't come to meetings of the sharing. } Cassie noted with concern.
Suddenly I saw a man step to the front of the mass of controllers.
"Silence!!!" the man commanded. Instantly they fell silent. I automatically assumed that this was Visser Three in human morph.
"I am not certain if all of you are aware of the events of the past few days but we now have a major problem. Two days ago, I received a transmission from a young human girl saying that she was selling a small, blue cube. She of course, had no idea that it was an Andalite morphing cube. I immediately rushed to her dwelling to retrieve it. When her parents wouldn't hand it over I was forced to kill them. Then she appeared, right along with the Andalite bandits. Somehow, the human girl, Stella, managed to escape me. During the fight the house was destroyed. Thus far we have managed to keep too much attention from coming to the accident. Many of the relatives of the two humans that were killed came to find out what happened to Stella. They have all been made into controllers in order to keep them quiet. Unfortunately they weren't able to give us any information concerning Stella's whereabouts."
"Visser", Chapman spoke to him. "Stella is a student at the school where my host works. She hasn't been there for the past few days. I will bet anything that if she hasn't revealed herself to the human authorities by now that she is with the Andalites."
"Where ever she is, she can lead us to the Andalite bandits. For now we don't have to worry about anyone noticing that she is gone. We have managed to erase the records of her existence. No one will come looking for her. But the most important thing now is that all of you look for her. We must find her." Having said this Visser Three began to pass small fliers around the group. It took me awhile to realize that the fliers were pictures of my face.
"If any of you find her, bring her directly to me. No questions asked." He added fiercely. All of the other controllers backed away from him in fear. With that the Yeerk Visser left the gathering and walked away across the dunes along with a bunch of bodyguards.
{ Guys, I think we should leave now. } Jake said solemnly.
{ Right. } I echoed half-heartedly.
Just as I was preparing to follow the others I felt a giant gush of wind and right where I had been perched was a human hand.
"What is it?" I heard Chapman ask.
"There is a small, buzzing insect in my hair." The controller that I had been sitting on said.
"Catch it. It might be one of the Andalites!' Chapman ordered.
{ Uh-oh, they found me guys. Get out of here now! } I yelled to them.
A giant horde of human hands reached up for me but I evaded them easily. I was feeling confident that I would escape. That was when one of the hands managed to reach up and swat me down to the sand. The controller gently picked me out of the sand.
"Over here! I've got it!" he yelled frantically.
{ Stella! NOOOOO!!! } I heard Ax's voice in my head.
{ Come on Stella! Get up! Fly away! } Rachel was screaming.
I desperately wanted to fly away but I was still very dazed from the fall. I was helpless. I lay still as my distorted fly eyes produced an image of the controller that had brought me down. Suddenly a giant shadow dropped out of the sky.
"TSEEEEEEEEERR!" I heard Tobias shriek as he dropped on the controller's head.
{ Go Stella, while you've still got the chance! } he shouted urgently to me.
The message finally got through to me and I flew long and hard, away from the beach. Away from the horror of what I had just learned.
We finally reached our meeting place just inside the trees of the wild life preserve. Tobias landed on one of the branches above us and we all began to demorph.
When I was fully human again I wondered away from the others and stared out into the forest. I was shocked by what I had just heard. My relatives had been made into controllers. The thought sickened me. My grandparents, my aunts and uncles, and my cousins. How many of them had been taken from me because I wanted to earn a few extra bucks? I felt my legs give way beneath me. I would have collapsed had Ax not come up behind me just then and caught me.
{ Stella! Are you all right? } he asked me. To my surprise I heard concern in his voice.
"I'm- fine." I managed to say as I steadied myself.
"Lets get back to Cassie's place before anything else happens." Jake said.
With that we all morphed into birds and flew out into the moonless night.
* * *
"There's no hope that there will be an inquiry into Stella's disappearance." Jake said once we were all inside Cassie's barn.
"Man that is just plain freaky. How the Yeerks can just erase your entire existence like that. So what? As far as the world is concerned Stella never existed?" Marco asked incredulously.
"What about the rest of Stella's family? What's gonna happen to them?" Cassie asked Jake.
"I don't know Cassie. I just don't know." Jake answered her.
{ Yo Stella! Don't you have anything to say about this? } Tobias asked me.
During the whole conversation I had been standing at the open barn door, thinking about what had happened. I had finally come to a decision. They had to know what the Yeerks had already done to me. They had to know about Claire. Silently I turned to face them, trying my best not to cry.
"I already knew about the Yeerks." I told them quietly.
{ What do you mean by that? } Ax asked me.
"Before Visser Three came and murdered my parents. I already knew about the Yeerk invasion."
"How could you?" Rachel demanded.
I proceeded to tell them the story.
* *
*
My sister Claire had been acting strange for quite awhile before the accident. She didn't spend nearly as much time as she used to with me. We were closer than most sisters. But lately she had been ignoring me and she would disappear for hours at a time and never tell anyone where she was going. That just wasn't like Claire.
One night she went out and didn't come back. For two days she didn't come back. My parents went ballistic. They searched everywhere for her. Finally, on the evening of the third day she stumbled into the living room and collapsed. My parents rushed her to the hospital. While they were out in the hallway talking with the doctor, I sat beside Claire in her hospital bed. They had checked her over and they had no idea what was wrong with her. By now she was unconscious.
Suddenly she jerked awake and I was about to call for mom and dad but she stopped me. She was shaking badly and she was wet with sweat.
"No. Wait." She begged me.
"I haven't got much time. When it dies they'll kill me." She began to sob.
"What do you mean?" I asked fearfully.
Then she stopped shaking and smiled up at me.
"Absolutely nothing." No sooner were the words out of her mouth then she began to moan in pain. "No-no. Stella don't listen! It's the Yeerk in my head talking. AAAAAAAHHH!"
"What's a Yeerk?"
"What do you mean? Yeerk?" suddenly Claire reached up and slapped her own face. Only the movement was jerky, almost as if something was holding her back.
"Stop fighting me Claire. I may be dying but you are still my slave."
"No! No I'm not! Let me go! AAAAAAAAHHH! NO! Get out of my head!"
This was truly strange. It was almost like Claire was having a conversation with herself! That was when I saw something gray and slimy slither out of her ear. I looked closely at it and realized that it was a slug. Slowly it withered and crumpled into nothing. Claire collapsed back upon the bed. She was hyperventilating now.
"What just happened?" I asked, taking her hand in mind.
"That was a Yeerk. They're an alien race of parasites that crawl into people's brains and take over their minds. They have invaded Earth."
My first impulse was to not believe her but after all, I had just seen the Yeerk.
"I was able to rebel long enough to keep the Yeerk from getting Kandrona. But they won't let me live. I know too much."
"What do you mean they won't let you live?"
"A friend of mine joined a group called the sharing. The group seemed shady to me so I decided to spy on them. I snuck in on a meeting that they were having and they caught me. My friend had been made into a controller. I agreed to join them only if they wouldn't hurt you. So they made me a slave." She was shaking violently now.
"Then Tom joined because of me. Now he's one of them."
"What should I do Claire? Should I tell the police?"
"No! Many of the police are slaves too. If they find out what you know they might kill you. Stella, don't ever tell anyone what you saw and heard tonight."
"No Claire. I can't just let them kill you."
"You must. But just promise me something."
"What?" I asked her. Tears were streaking down my face now.
"Don't ever let them make you a slave. Trust no one. Anyone could be one of them. And Stella, if Tom is ever freed, please tell him that I love him."
Suddenly the doctor rushed in, followed by my parents. Claire tried to scoot away from him but he got to her first. I saw him push a small steel cylinder to her neck and when I looked back up into her eyes they stared blankly back at me, lifeless. I gently shut her eyelids and backed away. The machine that was monitoring her pulse beeped once more and then fell silent.
When the doctor asked me what had happened I said that she had just screamed and started rambling insanely. I pretended that I had never seen the Yeerk.
When my mother realized that her oldest daughter was gone she began to sob hysterically. Finally she passed out in my father's arms. He simply held her close and let his silent tears fall into her hair. My grief, however, was beyond tears.
The doctor finally diagnosed it as a stroke. He must have been a controller too. There would be no questions about her death. I was the only one who knew the truth. My sister had been murdered and she had begged me at the last minute to keep silent about it.
Later that night, I went to sit on the roof of our house and star gaze. It was comforting to me in some way. As I stared up at the night sky I spoke my final words to Claire.
"I swear to you now Claire, I'll get them. Somehow, someway. For you. The Yeerks must pay."
* *
*
As I finished everyone stared at me with wide eyes. Except for Tobias. Against my will I began to feel tears squeeze their way out of my eyes. I bowed my head, not wanting them to see the tears.
"Stella..." Cassie began.
"Why didn't you tell us before?" Jake asked sternly.
I didn't answer. I only tried harder not to cry. Suddenly I felt someone's arms around my shoulders. I looked up and saw Ax's human face. For once, I didn't resist the comfort that he offered me. I had tried so hard not to let my emotions show but his concern finally broke the dam. I leaned my head on his shoulder and sobbed. I cried the tears that I had held back ever since that horrible night at the hospital. He began to run his fingers through my hair. I wrapped my arms around his middle and the two of us sat down together.
"Shh. It's all right Stella. I know how you feel."
I realized that for once Ax wasn't playing with the syllables of each word. For a long time I cried and no one said anything. Ax just held me in his arms.
"My parents, Claire, my whole family. They're all gone because they tried to save me." I cried in anguish.
"No. Don't blame yourself. It wasn't your fault." He whispered.
Finally I looked up and reluctantly pulled myself away from Ax. I then went over to Jake.
"I'm sorry." I told him.
"Why are you apologizing to me?" he asked.
"Don't you see? Tom is a controller because of me. Claire joined the Sharing to save me. Then Tom joined because of Claire. Now he's one of them. He probably thinks that Claire never even knew that he existed. If only he knew how much she cared for him. I'm sorry, it's my fault."
"No Stella. Ax is right. It wasn't your fault." Jake said to me.
"But Stella, like Jake said before, Why didn't you tell us about your sister?" Rachel asked me.
"I don't know. I guess that I've felt alone since Claire died. I just felt that I always had to stand alone and that there was never going to be anyone to turn to. Not even you guys."
"You shouldn't feel that way. You don't have to be an island anymore girl, you've got us." Marco said enthusiastically.
"Marco, what do you mean by that? Stella is a human not an island." Ax asked Marco.
At that everyone burst out laughing. Even I couldn't resist giggling a little bit.
"It's just an expression Ax" Cassie told him.
"We should probably all go home and get some rest. We'll plan our next move tomorrow." Jake said after we had all stopped laughing.
"Yeah, my dad is probably starting to worry. It is getting dark after all." Marco said as we all walked out of the barn. Cassie walked up to her house and the other three headed for the bus stop. Tobias flew on ahead to his meadow and Ax and I trailed behind.
When we reached our little camp sight I sat down on the ground and leaned against a tree.
{ Are you going to be all right Stella? } I suddenly heard Ax asking me.
"I'll live." I said quietly.
For awhile after that Ax was silent. Then I saw a strange look come into his eyes.
{ Why don't you use your Andalite morph and we can take a run through the forest. }
"Is it safe?" I asked half-heartedly.
{ Don't worry no one would see us this late. Come on. }
I was seriously thinking of saying no when I looked up into his eyes again. Something about his gaze drew me to him.
{ It will make you feel better } he said gently.
"All right." Slowly he helped me to my feet. For a moment he kept his grip on my hand but then he released me and I began to morph.
When I was fully Andalite I noticed that Ax was staring at me. It must be a real shock to see yourself standing right across from you.
Ax took my hand and at first he just led me through the forest. Then we separated and began to go faster. Finally we were both speeding through the forest. I was amazed that I could run at such a speed and not get tired. Ax was right. It did feel good to just run. Let the world slip away for a little while.
We ran deeper and deeper into the forest. Leaving behind human civilization. When we were deeper in the forest than even most people go we finally stopped. Ax was breathing hard but not nearly as hard as I was. I had never run so far in my entire life. That was when I noticed how quiet the forest was. It was way too quiet. I didn't hear any of the night sounds that I was used to hearing. No owls, no crickets, no trickling stream. Not even the whistle of the wind.
{ Ax what's wrong? Why are the woods so still? It's not normal. }
{ I don't know. } he said.
Instantly I began to demorph. When I was fully human again Ax stepped in front of me, almost as if he were protecting me. Suddenly, I noticed a shadow creep out from behind one of the trees.
"Ax!" I shouted to him. Before I could even blink his tail blade sliced towards the shadow. As my eyes adjusted I saw that the shadow was human, but it was unlike any human being that I had ever seen. It was a decrepit old man. He was much shorter than I was and yet it felt as if the very air that surrounded him was charged. He had a sense of great power and wisdom about him.
"Well met, Aximili." He said softly. Ax's eyes widened in fear and he stepped back from the creature. He put his arms around me and started to drag me away. But I felt that neither Ax nor myself should dare to step back from him.
{ What do you want with us? } he whispered in fear.
"I want nothing. We do not interfere." He answered.
{ Right. I've heard all of that before. What now? }
"Aximili, was that sarcasm?" the creature asked with amusement.
"Ax who is this?" I asked him.
"Hello Stella." The creature said as he turned to me. How did he know my name?
"I am the Ellimist."
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