Prologue
3000 years before the invasion of Earth...
My name is Ellimist.
From his dark lair, the burning red eye that calls itself Crayak watched me. His last move in the game that we both play had been a painfully slow, but good one. The poor race called the Drung Pa had been annihilated by his Howlers. They had just reached sentience, only to be massacred by Crayak's dogs. I knew the future was uncertain. I knew things could not be foreseen as easily as I had assumed long ago. But I felt that this particular move...this particular species Crayak had wiped out would change the force of the Universe. The extinction of the actual species would mean little in the long run but it was the monstrosity that Crayak had created from the Emperor of the Drung Pa that shocked me.
I had seen the battle as if I was standing right there on the battlefield. On one side stood ten thousand Drung Pa, armed only with clubs and sticks. Across the steaming swamp that occupied most of the planet stood seven Howlers. It would be slaughter. I watched as the Howlers charged, weapons raised. I saw the fletchettes fire and dozens of Drung Pa fell before me. I felt saddened by the destruction of such an innocent race, but I felt it was nesseccary for this race to succumb if one very important race was to survive in the near future. If the Drung Pa had survived, the nearest planet in this particular solar system would have died once the Drung Pa had discovered space-travel. They had to die. But still, watching the Howlers open their mouths and start to emit their brain- shattering cry...well, it didn't seem right.
The Drung Pa died. And still Crayak wasn't satisfied. I saw him plotting, felt his corrupted mind scheming. I felt a connection grow between Crayak himself and the rotting corpse of the Drung Pa emperor. I felt his evil mind expand down into the planet. I saw the swamp-life die before my eyes. Insects of brilliant density died instantaneously as Crayak's powerful will bored through into the planet. Plants wilted. The few species of mammal that lived on the planet breathed their last before collapsing. I saw Crayak reaching over the emperor and at once, I felt the Drung Pa's brain neurons firing again. There was activity where there should never have been again.
'That is outside the rule limit, Crayak,' I said calmly.
'It has been stretched,' Crayak responded with the cold, evil voice that almost froze your organs. 'If I am allowed to do this, you will be allowed to do your thing.'
I had already seen what must be done. From a distant planet I saw a ship. Recently the Howlers had annihilated the creatures that lived on that planet, but their creations—a species of android survived. I wrapped myself around the fabric of space and time and saw the ship. Inside there were many androids—Chee they called themselves-and a few specimens of their creators. The Pemalites. My own creation. A species I had made entirely by scratch. Crayak would never have bothered with the Pemalites for at least another ten thousand years hadn't he known I had created them. But he had known and that's why they had been annihilated. The last few Pemalites, the final remnants of a spectacular race, would die. But their creations, the Chee would not. Unaffected by the disease that was slowly picking off the Pemalites, I could see the Chee desperately trying to find a suitable planet to live on.
'Earth.' I spoke to one of them. His android eyes lit up, remembering Earth as the small, lively planet they had visited once before fifty thousand years before. I stepped back, my work here done. It was a small, minor move even but I would work to be advantage. Perhaps nothing would happen for thousands of years, but it would work. Crayak felt it too. I felt the indescribable rage building up inside him. But it quickly subsided.
'No matter,' he said to me. 'I have what I came here for.'
I saw the emperor of the Drung Pa stand up, his eyes ablaze. Evil radiated from here, an evil that could almost match the evil of Crayak himself. I knew exactly what it was, I knew what Crayak had created and I knew its purpose, but I asked anyway.
'What is it?'
'The One,' was Crayak's reply. 'My Howlers may be my shock troops, but they are, after all, destructible. This new 'creature' is not. It is practically invincible. As long as those eyes shine as they do, its pure evil will surge it forward. It claims souls, not bodies. It can shape- shift, become any creature it takes the soul of. Entire races will fall, the galaxy will bow before myself and The One.'
'A bit overly-optimistic, aren't you?' I replied, not impressed by Crayak's invention. Nothing was indestructible. Not even I.
Thousands of years passed. My moves were getting stronger, but so were Crayak's...I had concentrated on a species called the Andalites. They were essential for the survival of the galaxy. Crayak had seen this and had tried to stop me claiming the Andalites. He failed. Space-travel was accomplished. They travelled the galaxy, searching for other species...which was when Crayak seized his chance. He had been observing the species—an intelligent but lowly race called Yeerks—for a while and when the Andalites arranged a visit to the Yeerk homeworld, everything fell into Crayak's hands.
'A species that requires other beings to see, hear and do pretty much anything?' Crayak mused, as we observed the stinking, retching world that was covered by shallow, dark pools—the Yeerk's natural habitat. 'They would give anything to be able to take control over the bodies of other species and roam the stars.'
'They already have hosts,' I argued. 'Gedds, I believe they are called. They do not need other hosts.'
'But the Gedds are slow, cumbersome and half-blind,' Crayak said carefully, his blood-red eye locked on the Andalite ship that settled onto the planet's surface. 'If they knew about the Universe and its many other species, they wouldn't make do with the Gedds as hosts.'
I could not stop Crayak, just slow his progress. And so it was that the Yeerk plague was unleashed onto the galaxy. I could not save the peaceful Hork-Bajir, try as I might, although I wasn't upset too much–the Hork-Bajir would be free one day. That I knew for sure. Next came the Taxxons, a species I was not entirely bothered about. It was around this time that one time-line became much more clearer than every other time-line in the galaxy–an Andalite male, called Elfangor. I realised his potential to stop the Yeerk invasion in its tracks. However, changes had to be made...
'What are you doing, Ellimist?' Crayak demanded of me.
'I am placing the Time Matrix so that it can be recovered,' I answered calmly. I buried it on the planet where I had sent the Chee to—Earth. My plan worked accordingly. A species called the Skrit Na located it and shipped it off. But it was on this particular Skrit Na ship that I arranged for two creatures of the same species to be placed. They were called humans, creatures of earth. Both of these particular humans would go on to be important in the future, I felt.
The Time Matrix was located and found, although not before Crayak had his say and played the game so that an Andalite war-prince would be taken by a Yeerk. An abomination, a foul disgusting creature that never would have happened had I rethought my plan. And it was that Visser Thirty-two had story in the plot. A world was created; a mixture of the Andalite homeworld, the Yeerk homeworld and Earth...and it was here that I tightened the bond between Elfangor and the human female. What happened next was not according to plan, however. Elfangor permanently morphed into a human and went to live with the girl on Earth. The other mistake was that the other human was left to die, something that was impossible.
I bent the rules ever so slightly but only if Crayak could. I rescued the human from certain death and returned him home, his mind erased. I also returned Elfangor from his human form back to his true Andalite body, the one he would need in many years to come. I returned him to the Andalite- Yeerk fight. But Crayak would not be silenced. As it turned out, he infected another mind, the Yeerk that was to become the infamous Visser One. He infection caused her to relentlessly search for Earth and when she found it, would slowly infiltrate and take over the planet. This was something I could not allow.
I protected Elfangor for a while, preventing him from dying, but at last I had to let go in order to guard six new beings. Earth had to be saved. I arranged for four humans and an Andalite to join forces on earth and fight the Yeerks. Searching I found Visser One's host body's son, Elfangor's son (whom he had had with the human female), Elfangor's Andalite brother, and an anomaly. This person would prevent the timeline that Crayak would try to bend from being damaged. I needed one last person to join these people together and so the leader of the 'Animorphs' as they were so called was born. The last human was an accident for me, but not for Crayak. He had sensed her unstable mind and arranged for her to join the 'Animorphs'.
But the presence of The One could not be forgotten. He waited, biding his time for there would be one day when The One, the Yeerks and the 'Animorphs' would all meet...I had to be there.
3000 years before the invasion of Earth...
My name is Ellimist.
From his dark lair, the burning red eye that calls itself Crayak watched me. His last move in the game that we both play had been a painfully slow, but good one. The poor race called the Drung Pa had been annihilated by his Howlers. They had just reached sentience, only to be massacred by Crayak's dogs. I knew the future was uncertain. I knew things could not be foreseen as easily as I had assumed long ago. But I felt that this particular move...this particular species Crayak had wiped out would change the force of the Universe. The extinction of the actual species would mean little in the long run but it was the monstrosity that Crayak had created from the Emperor of the Drung Pa that shocked me.
I had seen the battle as if I was standing right there on the battlefield. On one side stood ten thousand Drung Pa, armed only with clubs and sticks. Across the steaming swamp that occupied most of the planet stood seven Howlers. It would be slaughter. I watched as the Howlers charged, weapons raised. I saw the fletchettes fire and dozens of Drung Pa fell before me. I felt saddened by the destruction of such an innocent race, but I felt it was nesseccary for this race to succumb if one very important race was to survive in the near future. If the Drung Pa had survived, the nearest planet in this particular solar system would have died once the Drung Pa had discovered space-travel. They had to die. But still, watching the Howlers open their mouths and start to emit their brain- shattering cry...well, it didn't seem right.
The Drung Pa died. And still Crayak wasn't satisfied. I saw him plotting, felt his corrupted mind scheming. I felt a connection grow between Crayak himself and the rotting corpse of the Drung Pa emperor. I felt his evil mind expand down into the planet. I saw the swamp-life die before my eyes. Insects of brilliant density died instantaneously as Crayak's powerful will bored through into the planet. Plants wilted. The few species of mammal that lived on the planet breathed their last before collapsing. I saw Crayak reaching over the emperor and at once, I felt the Drung Pa's brain neurons firing again. There was activity where there should never have been again.
'That is outside the rule limit, Crayak,' I said calmly.
'It has been stretched,' Crayak responded with the cold, evil voice that almost froze your organs. 'If I am allowed to do this, you will be allowed to do your thing.'
I had already seen what must be done. From a distant planet I saw a ship. Recently the Howlers had annihilated the creatures that lived on that planet, but their creations—a species of android survived. I wrapped myself around the fabric of space and time and saw the ship. Inside there were many androids—Chee they called themselves-and a few specimens of their creators. The Pemalites. My own creation. A species I had made entirely by scratch. Crayak would never have bothered with the Pemalites for at least another ten thousand years hadn't he known I had created them. But he had known and that's why they had been annihilated. The last few Pemalites, the final remnants of a spectacular race, would die. But their creations, the Chee would not. Unaffected by the disease that was slowly picking off the Pemalites, I could see the Chee desperately trying to find a suitable planet to live on.
'Earth.' I spoke to one of them. His android eyes lit up, remembering Earth as the small, lively planet they had visited once before fifty thousand years before. I stepped back, my work here done. It was a small, minor move even but I would work to be advantage. Perhaps nothing would happen for thousands of years, but it would work. Crayak felt it too. I felt the indescribable rage building up inside him. But it quickly subsided.
'No matter,' he said to me. 'I have what I came here for.'
I saw the emperor of the Drung Pa stand up, his eyes ablaze. Evil radiated from here, an evil that could almost match the evil of Crayak himself. I knew exactly what it was, I knew what Crayak had created and I knew its purpose, but I asked anyway.
'What is it?'
'The One,' was Crayak's reply. 'My Howlers may be my shock troops, but they are, after all, destructible. This new 'creature' is not. It is practically invincible. As long as those eyes shine as they do, its pure evil will surge it forward. It claims souls, not bodies. It can shape- shift, become any creature it takes the soul of. Entire races will fall, the galaxy will bow before myself and The One.'
'A bit overly-optimistic, aren't you?' I replied, not impressed by Crayak's invention. Nothing was indestructible. Not even I.
Thousands of years passed. My moves were getting stronger, but so were Crayak's...I had concentrated on a species called the Andalites. They were essential for the survival of the galaxy. Crayak had seen this and had tried to stop me claiming the Andalites. He failed. Space-travel was accomplished. They travelled the galaxy, searching for other species...which was when Crayak seized his chance. He had been observing the species—an intelligent but lowly race called Yeerks—for a while and when the Andalites arranged a visit to the Yeerk homeworld, everything fell into Crayak's hands.
'A species that requires other beings to see, hear and do pretty much anything?' Crayak mused, as we observed the stinking, retching world that was covered by shallow, dark pools—the Yeerk's natural habitat. 'They would give anything to be able to take control over the bodies of other species and roam the stars.'
'They already have hosts,' I argued. 'Gedds, I believe they are called. They do not need other hosts.'
'But the Gedds are slow, cumbersome and half-blind,' Crayak said carefully, his blood-red eye locked on the Andalite ship that settled onto the planet's surface. 'If they knew about the Universe and its many other species, they wouldn't make do with the Gedds as hosts.'
I could not stop Crayak, just slow his progress. And so it was that the Yeerk plague was unleashed onto the galaxy. I could not save the peaceful Hork-Bajir, try as I might, although I wasn't upset too much–the Hork-Bajir would be free one day. That I knew for sure. Next came the Taxxons, a species I was not entirely bothered about. It was around this time that one time-line became much more clearer than every other time-line in the galaxy–an Andalite male, called Elfangor. I realised his potential to stop the Yeerk invasion in its tracks. However, changes had to be made...
'What are you doing, Ellimist?' Crayak demanded of me.
'I am placing the Time Matrix so that it can be recovered,' I answered calmly. I buried it on the planet where I had sent the Chee to—Earth. My plan worked accordingly. A species called the Skrit Na located it and shipped it off. But it was on this particular Skrit Na ship that I arranged for two creatures of the same species to be placed. They were called humans, creatures of earth. Both of these particular humans would go on to be important in the future, I felt.
The Time Matrix was located and found, although not before Crayak had his say and played the game so that an Andalite war-prince would be taken by a Yeerk. An abomination, a foul disgusting creature that never would have happened had I rethought my plan. And it was that Visser Thirty-two had story in the plot. A world was created; a mixture of the Andalite homeworld, the Yeerk homeworld and Earth...and it was here that I tightened the bond between Elfangor and the human female. What happened next was not according to plan, however. Elfangor permanently morphed into a human and went to live with the girl on Earth. The other mistake was that the other human was left to die, something that was impossible.
I bent the rules ever so slightly but only if Crayak could. I rescued the human from certain death and returned him home, his mind erased. I also returned Elfangor from his human form back to his true Andalite body, the one he would need in many years to come. I returned him to the Andalite- Yeerk fight. But Crayak would not be silenced. As it turned out, he infected another mind, the Yeerk that was to become the infamous Visser One. He infection caused her to relentlessly search for Earth and when she found it, would slowly infiltrate and take over the planet. This was something I could not allow.
I protected Elfangor for a while, preventing him from dying, but at last I had to let go in order to guard six new beings. Earth had to be saved. I arranged for four humans and an Andalite to join forces on earth and fight the Yeerks. Searching I found Visser One's host body's son, Elfangor's son (whom he had had with the human female), Elfangor's Andalite brother, and an anomaly. This person would prevent the timeline that Crayak would try to bend from being damaged. I needed one last person to join these people together and so the leader of the 'Animorphs' as they were so called was born. The last human was an accident for me, but not for Crayak. He had sensed her unstable mind and arranged for her to join the 'Animorphs'.
But the presence of The One could not be forgotten. He waited, biding his time for there would be one day when The One, the Yeerks and the 'Animorphs' would all meet...I had to be there.
