The Refugee
Chapter 4- Cassie
We were incredibly lucky that Ax had seen the limousine and vans escaping the scene. He had turned around mid-flight to warn us that the yeerks were headed for Feralae's house. I had just morphed and was going for Jake when Tobias arrived to tell us what had happened. Alloran was free, but Feralae's morph capable mother was being carted off to be infested, along with her father. Tobias tracked Feralae and Alloran in their frantic escape. I went off to get Jake and Rachel. Ax went to find Marco. We had converged on the house to find it empty. Tobias came then, to tell us where Feralae had stopped. He had told us Alloran's desperate cry not to let them take him again.
We demorphed, and Feralae's jaw dropped. Alloran's stalk eyes fell. "You… I know you Cassie! How did you? Who gave you the power?"
It was Elfangor wasn't it? Alloran asked. I should have known the sentimental fool had one last trick up his sleeve. He hated the Visser too much to let him win. The attacks started almost immediately after Elfangor's death. Alloran laughed. Amazing, the things you've done!
"But, does that mean that you were tracking me?" Feralae demanded.
"Pretty much." Marco said with a grin. "I take it Alloran has already told you about the yeerks?"
"Yeah, but what were those bladed creatures?"
"Hork bajir." Rachel answered. "They're incredibly powerful, but not invincible."
"Yeah, I know, I ambushed two of them when they came after me. I acquired one of them too, but neither lived to tell their superior anything about what happened." Feralae said with considerable satisfaction.
"Well." Jake said, rubbing his hands together. "This saves an introduction doesn't it?" He asked.
"Pretty much." Tobias answered.
"Not quite, who's your friend?" Feralae asked, inclining her head at Ax. "And what's the hawk's name?"
My name is Aximili Esgarrouth Isthil, however, my human friends insist on shortening my name to Ax. Ax answered.
And my name is Tobias. The hawk answered.
Tobias son of Elfangor? Demanded Alloran. I thought that you were a street kid!
I sure fooled you and the Visser huh Alloran? Tobias asked with what I swore was a hawk smile.
"Well then, Feralae we need to find a way to get you and your animals out of here." I said. "I doubt that this place will be safe long."
"Yeah, I'm just lucky that my mom doesn't know about this place. It's hidden by a waterfall." Feralae pointed to it. There was a portion of the cave that wasn't covered by the waterfall. That was how I'd gotten the animals in without getting my belongings wet. "I grabbed everything that was useful. I just need to find a place to keep it. I doubt I'll be able to go home." She said with a sigh.
"You're right, which means that we need a place to keep all the animals." Jake said with a weary sigh.
"The hork bajir valley?" Marco suggested. "I mean, we were going there anyway."
"Sure, I mean, we're not likely to sneak her into the other contacts." Jake said with a sigh.
He was deliberately not mentioning Erek or Mr. Tidwell, for the reason that he was worried about giving them away. If the yeerks were to recapture Alloran then he'd already know who we were. We could carry on the fight if we had to evacuate, but we needed contacts in the city in order to do that.
I settled down to my first watch with a sigh, and helped Feralae with the horses and other animals.
~Feralae~
We made plans. We would alternate watches tonight and set out for the hork bajir valley in the morning. Ax and Tobias would be with us at all times. Tobias made the birds nervous, but between us we managed to build a corral in the back of the cave to keep the animals from escaping. I tethered the jesses of all but Lexus before heading off to hunt. I came back with a couple of wild turkeys and a pair of rabbits. I cut pieces off the meat for the dogs and the falcons before roasting the rest. Tobias went off to hunt his evening meal nearby.
Alloran and Ax gathered bundles of grass for the horses, sheep, and pack animals. They set them down in different places in the corral. Tobias came back with Rachel, who was available for the evening watch because her mother was taking Sarah and Jordan to the end of year craft fair at their school. She would also be attending
That was an incredible escape. Ax said with an eye-smile. Were you andilite, it would have made you a hero.
"Yeah, well I'd trade the fame for a hamburger any day." I said, tearing off a piece of turkey from the roasting carcass and testing it. "Mmm… could use a bit of barbecue sauce."
A bald eagle blew through the curtain of water created by the waterfall. Hi! Rachel said cheerful as she demorphed. "It's my watch, so I figured I'd come visit."
"Hi." I said with a smile. "Come join me for dinner." I said with a grin. I had toasted a couple of slices of sour bread from my parent's freezer downstairs. I handed her a roast turkey sandwich before biting into my own.
"Wow." Rachel exclaimed before biting into the sandwich. "This stuff is pretty good, where'd you learn to cook like this?"
"Home on the range." I said with a chuckle. "I'm an only child, although my mother is pregnant with a second sibling. I wonder how the Visser will react to that." I said with a wicked smile. "My dad used to take me out camping. He's a rancher first and an artist second. He's an Irish orphan, but he was adopted by a Navajo couple who were infertile. He was raised a Navajo. He learned metallurgy, weaving and ranching. My mother is the daughter of a miko, you know, a Japanese Priestess."
"No I don't." Rachel blinked in surprise.
"Okay, remember Rei in Sailor Moon? She's a miko."
"Oh!" Rachel exclaimed. "That's a miko. They never used the Japanese word."
"Of course they wouldn't." I said, rolling my eyes. "You learn a lot from subtitled anime."
Rachel took a big bite before swallowing. "That's pretty cool, a really mixed background."
"Yeah." I said with a smile. "Anyway, I picked up a lot of my father's skills." I explained. "He's the one who made me this." I snuggled deeper into the wool rainbow blanket that my dad had made. He was the only one who knew that I was a lesbian. It was hard, keeping the secret, but it stood me in good stead now that I was part of the battle.
"That's a pretty blanket." Rachel commented. "Do you like rainbows?"
"Oh yeah!" I grinned. "It has a special significance for me."
"Oh tell me about it!" Rachel begged.
"Nope, my secret!" I smirked. I liked Rachel. She just needed to unlearn a few prejudices. Like the fact that gay sex was close. "My dad even made me some jewelry. I've got a labrys, and ankh a dragon, and a thunderbird with six wings. But you can't exactly morph jewelry, so I packed them."
Rachel fussed over the jewelry, which I dug out to show her. She loved them. "When we free your father I swear I'm going to spend all my allowance to commission a grizzly bear necklace and pawprint earrings!" She squealed.
I laughed. "Rachel are you always like this with clothes?" I asked, flushing.
"Pretty much." Rachel said with a chuckle. "Pardon my manners."
I chuckled. "That's quite alright." She didn't know, and I was not ready to tell her unless she favored yea or nay.
Rachel threw a cheerful arm around my shoulders. "Come on, cheer up. There are some good things to being an Animorph as well."
I looked up at the stars outside the cave. "'Still I feel like a child as I look at the moon, maybe I grew up a little too soon.'" I mused.
"What's wrong?" Rachel asked. "Having trouble taking it all in?"
I chuckled. "I used to have angels/ They used to watch over me/ Love was not a stranger/ Love ain't what it used to be/ Don't want these devils/ They're knocking at my door… Oh I can love you, no more…" I sang softly.
"Hey, you can still love your parents. I mean, they're still alive. They just have a yeerk in their brains. We fight for the people that we love. That's the thing about being an Animorph. You fight for the people that you care about." Rachel explained.
I chuckled. "That's all well and good if your parents are free. But my mother is very likely Visser 3's new host body. And that could be a problem."
"Marco's mother is the host of Visser One." Rachel said with a quirky smile. "If you need somebody to talk to about that, it's him."
"Thanks." I said with a smile.
I had thought that Rachel was prejudiced, that she would be hard to deal with. I was totally wrong, because she totally understood. Just one problem… one issue that I wasn't sure that she'd deal with.
I shared dinner with Rachel before Marco came in for his watch. "Hey." He said with a smile. "I just wanted to let you know that if you think you're alone, you're not really. My mother is one of them, she's Visser One. And Jake's brother Tom is one of them too."
I smiled. "Thanks Marco." I said with a smile. "So what's the hork bajir valley like?"
"Absolutely beautiful. It looks almost like Eden. There's enormous trees and flowers everywhere. It's amazing. And there are caves where you can store your stuff. The hork bajir live in trees, so they don't use them." Marco explained. "And there's a lake with a river and several springs leading to it, so it doesn't dry up."
I smiled, "Sounds nice. Marco…" I said, seeming to wilt. "What am I supposed to do? About my mother I mean. Visser three is very likely to take her as his host, because he wants a morph capable body."
"I'm not sure Feralae." Marco said softly. "Every time my mother comes to Earth I try to be cold, to focus on the mission, but it doesn't work, I end up screwing up big time. It works out okay though. It hurts, but it works out okay."
I was SO not reassured. But then Marco noticed the blanket that I had wrapped around my shoulders. "Cool, is that a P.R.I.D.E. flag?"
I snorted. "How'd you know?"
"I'm bisexual." Marco smirked. "Girls or boys, they're all the same, I just get hooorrr-ney!" Marco laughed. "So…"
"So what?" I asked.
"So I told you MY sexual orientation, you tell me YOURS." Marco chuckled, giving me a little nudge.
"Lesbian." I said with a small smile. "And someday I'm going to go there."
"Go where?" Marco asked.
"Lesbos silly! That's where we get the name Lesbian." I smirked. "You should really learn your geography. By the way." I leaned over to whisper in Marco's ear. "Is Rachel free?"
Marco rolled on the ground in laughter. He laughed so hard he had tears coming out of his eyes. When he could finally keep a straight face (no pun intended) Marco said. "As far as I can tell Rachel is head over heals for bird boy Tobias."
"Great. You and I are the only queers in a miniature army. Do they have a 'don't ask don't tell' policy too?" I asked, rolling my eyes.
Marco shook his head. "I don't really know. But you're not the only person to be disappointed by Rachel." Marco laughed again. "Just hang in there. Things will get better, and get some sleep, I'll wake you up if something happens."
Rachel and the bird boy. Great. But I followed Marco's advice and flopped down on my P.R.I.D.E. blanket.
I had barely slept when Tobias and Jake were shaking me awake. "Feralae, you have to wake up. The yeerks are coming, we need to move!"
I was up in an instant. Everybody was there. I began to morph to gorilla. There was no need to give away more morphs than were necessary. The Visser would be expecting a gorilla. He'd/She'd get a gorilla.
Even as I morphed I packed up camp. Tobias, how far away!? I demanded.
Ten miles and closing. Hurry it up! Tobias shouted.
I snapped open the corral enclosure. The animals were nervous. I noticed that the other Animorphs were doing battle morphs. Can you drive the animals? I asked. I'd suggest wolf, but how many hork bajir are there?
Ten, that plus the Visser? That's way way too many. Tobias said, near panic.
I backed mother's shire team into the harness and hooked them up in record time. Marco! Help me out!
Marco rolled everything up into a ball in the PRIDE blanket and shoved it under the futon. Then he retied the cargo. Ready to go! He swung up into the wagon.
I grabbed the falcons and unhooded them. Move! I told the Eagle, Falcon, and Hawk. Drive, herd and move!
They followed Tobias out of the cave, gaining altitude.
Five miles! You guys you need to hurry!
I grabbed the attention of the lead dog, the male border collie that my father had trained with hand signals. Then I made the signal for the same commands I had given the birds.
I followed Marco up into the wagon. Jake had become a tiger. Cassie had morphed a wolf. Ax was Ax and Tobias was Tobias. Marco was a gorilla, like me. YAH YAH! I told the team. Cassie and Jake snapped at their heals. We blew out of the cave. We were away! We were away!
I drove the horses to the limit. Marco had taken up my bladed spear. The Animorphs drove the wagon at top speed. Where are we going? I asked Marco.
The next way point in the journey to the valley. He explained. There's a ravine. If we can get there before the Visser does we can hide.
Ten miles behind us I heard the roar of rage as the Visser found an empty cave.