Even though it had been four hours, the whimpering hadn't stopped. Every time Astrana would manage to get herself under control, she would open her eyes, or something would trigger a memory which would in turn cause her terror to take hold of her once more.

It was killing Marco. Having to listen to her in pain like this cut him deep. And the fact that she kept begging him to let her out didn't help either.

"Please." She sobbed desperately. "Please little one, please!"

Jake and Rachel arrived and de-morphed. Jake walked over to Marco, putting one hand on his shoulder. Marco hadn't moved from that log in a long time. "Hey, Marco. Your time's up."

Marco stood up abruptly, shrugging off Jake's hand. "You're damn right it is!" He snapped. "I'm not doing this again." He turned and ran off before anyone could say anything.

Jake went to go after him, but Cassie stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. "Let him go Jake. This has been really rough on him."

This puzzled Jake. "How has this been hard on him?"

Cassie sighed and started to explain. When she was finished, Jake was much less puzzled, but a whole lot more worried. He rubbed the back of his head distractively, not knowing what to do. It was still to risky to let her out.


So Astrana had to stay imprisoned. The two days that followed very nearly destroyed her. When they came to let her out, she didn't even hear Jake say, "Okay, it's been three days; I guess you're not a Yeerk after all." All she knew was that suddenly she was free.

Instinct took over and she bolted to the safety of the nearby trees. She rested her forehead on the bark and breathed deeply. Then she noticed the one she had guessed was the leader approaching. "Go away!" she hollered.

Jake put up his hands as a gesture of peace. "It's okay. No one here's gonna hurt you."

"No, but you might lock me up again! I won't let you!" She took off; racing through the treetops with all the speed she could muster.

Jake reacted instantly. "Tobias. Go after her. There's too much we don't know about her."

(You got it. One chase coming right up.) He launched himself into the air after her.

(Prince Jake, I would like to go as well. I treated her very badly and wish to make up for it.) Jake nodded, and Ax ran off in the same direction the other two had gone.

But it wasn't that easy to follow her, she was exceptionally fast and she kept also kept veering off in different directions, sometimes even dropping out of the trees to try and hide her trail.

(Hey, she's changed direction again.) Tobias flared his wings, turning ninety degrees.

(Which way now?) Ax was determined to catch her.

(Heading west. She's slowed down a bit though, but she's still going pretty quick. I reckon she might even be able to beat a Hork-bajir! Wait a minute; she's stopped in a clearing about a hundred yards west from you.)

Tobias settled in a nearby tree so that he could see her and waited for Ax to arrive. Of course, with his vision, it didn't matter how far away he was but he wanted to be able to hear her clearly. She was muttering half under her breath. Even though he could clearly hear every syllable, very few of them were actually intelligible. Occasionally she would say several words in English and Tobias would later swear that he heard some things that sounded almost like Hork-Bajir.


Astrana was furiously banging things around swearing in every language she could think of, from English to Hork-Bajir to the language of her own people, the Kinto'un. She knew she should file a report about what had happened, but was preoccupied with cursing those stupid humans in every way possible.

Her verbal tirade was cut off by Ax appearing at the edge of the clearing. This was the final straw. Pausing only a moment she streaked through the trees towards him, drawing out both her daggers. They may be mostly ceremonial, but they were still deadly.

Before Ax knew what had happened, she had pounced from a tree and slammed him into the ground. She pressed one blade to his neck and used the other to block the swipe of his tail above her head.

Astrana drew back her lips to reveal her long incisors and hissed at Ax. "What do you want?" she said slowly. When Ax only looked at her she began flicking her tail irritably.

"Tseer!" Tobias came suddenly at her, talons outstretched.

She rolled sideways and released Ax, then jumped back up into the safety of the trees. "Don't worry; I wasn't going to kill him," she said, slotting her daggers back into their sheaths on her legs, "I was just making a point."

(Some point.) Ax said dryly, getting to his hooves. (And to think I came to apologize.)

Astrana laughed. "A mighty Andalite? Apologize? But that aside, I want to make clear that I want no further dealings with you or your little band of humans. Now run off and repeat that message."

(But-) Tobias began.

"No, I don't wish to hear any more. Go." She pointed back in the direction they had come.

(What do you think we should do?) Tobias asked Ax in private thought-speak.

(Go back and tell Prince Jake. I doubt that we will get any more information out of her.)

They both turned and left, leaving Astrana alone once more. Back in her nest, she sat staring into space, just thinking. At first she had been curious as to why there was an Andalite here, but now all she wanted to know was they were far away from her. She probably shouldn't have attacked him like that, but for once, her temper had gotten the better of her.

An instrument to her left started to beep. It had found the Chee.

A/N: If anyone wants to know more about her daggers, review me and I'll send you a sketch and a couple of notes.