The Refugee

Chapter 11- Cassie

Moving day. Marco, Alloran, Ax and Feralae were putting the pieces of the wagon together. I was loading Feralae's backpacks and other pieces of luggage onto the llama's and other pack animals. The other's were putting everything back together. They used hork bajir made rope, which was made from vines. I could only hope that they hadn't harvested poison ivy!

But finally we finished. Feralae shunted Beemur and another shire back into the handlebars. The horses were huge. That shire alone could probably pull twice it's weight. Beemur was a cross between a percheron and a shire. Beemur stood at about seventeen hands high. Each hand is four inches. Imagine that. I mean this thing was huge. The record for tallest horse is held by a shire at nineteen hands.

Feralae was a very accomplished animal handler.

The hork bajir helped us load and secure the load. Each of us Animorphs, plus Toby, Ax, and Alloran held the halter of a llama, vicuna, or alpaca. Then we started up the path to the cabin. Jaguar, Pontiac, Grand Am and Trans Am followed us, trotting at the wheels of the wagon and providing help when an animal strayed from it's path.

After about an hour, we found the cabin. The twins had run ahead and opened the barn door for the wagons and animals. Feralae would leave the wagon where it was and bring the animals back down to the valley. The hork bajir were already working on a way to keep the animals from wandering off.

We stopped the pack animals at the door. The twins carried the luggage in and David slid down the rafters to join us. Hi! Took you long enough. Thanks for the cheezits Feralae, they were excellent!


Feralae laughed. "You're welcome, David! Thanks for letting me stay."

Hey, I could use the company. A rat doesn't exactly get time to socialize. David joked.

Feralae put David on her shoulder. Then we formed a chain and passed the bags along it. Toby carried in the futon and set it down next to where we were putting the bags. Within ten minutes the wagon was unloaded and Feralae and I were backing it into the barn. We lead the horses back down, with help from Jag, Pontiac, and attending puppies. Then we morphed and flew back up to the cabin.

We demorphed and made it to the house. I set up the generator and hooked up the computer, heater, lights, television, and the radio. I turned on the dial to the local hip hop station. Ludacris blasted our ears as one by one we opened the bags.

I folded my clothes into assorted trunks and wardrobes. Since the futon took up the most room, Marco and I morphed Gorilla and lifted the mattress up, up, way, way up! It landed on the bed with a BOOM! We demorphed and Feralae, Rachel, and I whipped out some of blankets from the bundles. Sheets fit the mattress perfectly and we layered a couple of blankets on top of that. I folded the rainbow blanket at the foot of the bed and piled the pillows at the end. David happily dropped from the rafters onto the bed.

WHEEEE!!! He laughed as be bounced on the bed. I haven't seen a clean bed in ages!

Our attention was turned next to the newly cleaned shelves. I pulled out my books and binders, as well as my movies, CD's and DVD's. I stacked them on what room was left on the shelves. CD's, DVD's and movies went on one shelf. The next one had books that I had brought. The one after that had my journals. The next highest shelf had Caroline's books, and the final shelf had everything else.

Feralae brought down the crates and stacked them as more shelves. However, instead of books, other equipment such as small tools, statues, jars of pencils, pens, and markers. A jar of beads, and other jars with other small, colorful structures were placed on them. Blank books and file folders were put in the other crates.

What didn't fit in the crates was put in the desk drawers. Feralae pulled a portable range out of the pile of things, along with a crock-pot, a plug in grittle, a toaster oven, a microwave and one of those small, college freezers. She plugged these into Erek's generator. The food appliances went in what was obviously the kitchen in the small, two room cabin.

Feralae sighed and sat back. "I'm not sure how I'm going to get food for this place."

I can show you how to do that. Alloran said calmly. Simply do the Frolis Maneuver.

"The what?" We all asked.

Where you combine DNA of different individuals of the same species to create a new morph. Answered Alloran. It's quite simple really.

We all looked at Ax. "How simple?" Feralae asked.

Relatively. He answered.

Feralae turned and began unpacking dishes. "That could work. I'm not sure how I'm going to get food, but that could do it."

"I'll order Kentucky Fried Chicken." Erek offered. "I don't need food, but I can see that your stomachs are growling. I'll be back in about ten minutes." He stepped outside and zoomed off.

"I wish I could run that fast." Feralae said mournfully. She let out a totally fake, long suffering sigh. "That would be so cool!"

Erek came back in more like five minutes with a bag full of still steaming southern cooking. "I got it. Come on ya'll, sit down!" He said in a fake southern accent.

"I say again, you guys get to have all the fun." Feralae sighed, pulling out a chair.

We pulled up crates and chairs. Perhaps I should not morph to human. Ax suggested, as he and Alloran crouched in the Andilite version of a sitting position.

"Um…" Feralae looked to us for an explanation.

"Ax has trouble controlling the human sense of taste." I explained helpfully. "He once ate an entire tray of cinnabons."

I did not know the precise size of human stomachs, and thus I ate too much. Ax explained.

Alloran raised both stalk eyes skyward. Goddess help us. He rolled his eyes.

I laughed and sat down, as Feralae dolled out the food. "Ax, as long as you leave some for leftover's you can."

Ax brightened. Alloran was already morphing human. "Thank you very much Feralae."

To both Ax and Alloran's credit, the meal went without incident, and now it was time for Feralae to create her promised disguise. She closed her eyes, focusing inward first, then she moved towards me. I shook her hand, and I felt myself getting sleepy as I went into the acquiring trance. She moved on to Marco next, Rachel then, and after that to Jake. Alloran acquired Feralae, then moved on down the row.

They began to morph. Feralae's skin turned a darker olive. Her hair shortened, and became strawberry blonde and curly. Her eyes turned from black to green. She looked about fifteen or sixteen.

Alloran was morphing as well. His morph was almost identical to Feralae's, only male and slightly younger, about fourteen.

Everybody clapped. "Great work!" I exclaimed. "Are you guys going to go out and get groceries now?"

Feralae snatched up her wallet from on the desk, and set her watch. "I probably should."

"I'll demorph." Alloran said calmly. "It appears that Erek will have to carry her and the groceries. I may be too much to carry."

"Not too much weight, but a little cumbersome. Maybe in a little while Alloran." Erek shouldered Feralae, opened the door, and took off.

"I so totally wish I could do that." Rachel sighed.

~Feralae~

We were out of there! OUT! OF! THERE! I'm talking some major g-forces!

And almost as quickly we were at the nearest Safeway. "Thanks Erek."

I started with fruits. I couldn't stand most veggies, but I put some token carrots, potatoes and green beans into the cart, not many, just enough for a couple of weeks. I'd freeze them later.

Erek and I breezed down to the deli and waited for about fifteen minutes while the person filled our orders. I mean, it takes awhile to slice up half a pound of turkey right? I grabbed a couple of bags of hard rolls and a loaf of sourdough bread.

We went past the fish counter. I do not celebrate Lent, so I would never need to go to the trouble of bringing fish all the way up into the mountains. I could catch them if I was that desperate. I also passed the meats section. The only thing I picked up was a pound of ground chuck. Alloran fed off the grass. I would not need much. Maybe I could share with Tobias or David, which would be about all the non-vegetarian guests that I would have.

I started down the baking supplies aisle. I chose only one bread pan, a rolling pin, and a baking sheet. Then I picked up a two-pound bag of flour and a one pound bag of sugar and a single bag of chocolate chips. I grabbed a yeast package. I knew how to make a yeast culture from my grandmother. This would be child's play.

I bought a half-gallon of milk and a few eggs. I never drank milk. I never ate eggs. I did, however, need them if I was going to bake bread. I preferred to bake my own bread, there was something about the smell of bread that I found comforting.

I bought strawberry jam and tomato sauce before turning down the freezer isle. I bought cheese, butter, and a pint of chocolate-chip-cookie-dough ice cream. But my watch went off, half an hour left in morph!

And so I nosed my cart up to the bathrooms. Erek stayed to guard it, putting up the hologram of an impatient mother. I turned and headed down the hall.

Demorphing went without a hitch. I had remorphed and was coming out when I heard the voices. "Visser Three, I came to bring you the biobase report. Visser One has given the authorization for infestation. She'll be here tomorrow. The creatures are not only eminently suitable for infestation, their force field and bioengineering technology is incredible!"

"Right then fool. Your favorable report has just put me in a good mood. So here is what you tell Visser One. Tell her to wait for me at the Biobase. I will meet her at exactly five P.M. tomorrow. I will be coming by means of the primitive human transports called helicopters. If I am shot down, I will kill you first and the controller who shot me down next!"

"Yes Visser!" The controller shivered.

The Visser walked past the door that was open a crack for me to hear. I hid behind it, shaking uncontrollably. Would she sense? Would she hear? Would she guess? My mother always had seemed to know where I was in the house. Would she see me with the eyes-in-the-back-of-her-head sixth sense that mothers always had?

I shivered in abject fear as she walked down the hallway, but the Visser didn't see. I could only hope that Erek wasn't in his disguise, that he wasn't visible. I waited five minutes, and then I followed. Erek was waiting in his normal form. That was sensible enough, since he had fooled the yeerks into thinking that he was a controller.

"Erek, did you hear what the Visser said?" I asked him.

"I heard enough to know that the mission tomorrow is going to be Hell."