Another War
Chapter Five
TOBIAS- Words
All right… I dropped off the face of the planet for a bit… And I'm sorry. Forgive?
Disclaimer:... Just in case anyone has forgotten, I just have the same initials as K.A. Applegate. The Animorphs and everything that pertain to them belong to her. Not to me.
I left as soon as Cassie would let me go, promising to be a good boy and take better care of myself.
Yah. Right.
My hawk body is failing. We both know it. And the simple fact of the matter is that I don't care. I'm done with life. Done with not having anything to live for.
Or at least, that's what I thought.
Ax was a total and complete surprise. It was a sign of just how bad my body was getting that I didn't see him coming, didn't have time to run, until he was already there. I was angry. I figured that Cassie had called him, or had told Jake and had Jake call him. I almost flew away, and then I just gave up.
There had been a time, not so long ago, even if it seemed like ages to me, that I could have outflown any one of them in any morph in the sky. Not now. Now Ax probably could have morphed his seagull and caught me. So I started talking first.
You're a long way from home.
Yes. Ax agreed. I wasn't surprised that he missed the sarcasm. He never had a great sense of humor. It was his next words that stopped me still.
So are you.
Me? My laugh was bitter. Maybe I was wrong and he had picked up more of a sense of humor on earth than I had first thought. Sorry Ax-man, but you are way off the mark. I don't have a home. Never have. Never will. End of story.
It does not have to be.
Man... what did he just not get? I had no place to go. I was dying. And I was happy about it. For a moment I wished that whatever bird had attacked me in the sky had finished the job. Then I wouldn't be here, having this stupid argument and reliving all of these memories.
O really? What do you propose to do about it?
You will come and live with me. As you should have from the start.
REALLY The sarcasm could not have gotten any thicker. I couldn't believe that I was hearing this from Ax. I always thought that he had more sense than this. But he was serious. I could see it in his eyes. All four of them. Right. We'll just show up the family scoop. Hey mom, dad, this is Tobias, and oh, by the way, he's your grandson, courtesy of Elfangor. Right Ax, I'm sure they'll handle that REAL well.
They already know.
There was another one to throw me for a loop. Great, so have you not told them anything? Anyway, what the heck would I eat? I can't handle a mouse problem all by myself, if that's what you want. And if you want pest control, go import a cat. It'll last longer than me.
You would eat grass, just like everyone else.
I opened my beak. C'mon. Ax, stop and think for just one moment. This was not designed to indulge in the consumption of greenery. It was made to eat the things that eat the greenery. You should know.
Tobias...
No. I cut him off. I just couldn't take it anymore. This conversation was over. I spread my wings and took off clumsily. Forget it Ax. Go home to your perfect life like everyone else and leave me. It's just better that way.
I didn't look back. I just flew. After a while I realized where I was. When Cassie had found me she had stabilized me, then taken me back to the farm. Back to the barn that had so many memories wrapped up in it that the whole thing was not even funny. I think that it was her way of trying to help me. It hadn't worked. But when I ran from Ax I had run blindly, and instinct had led me back to my meadow.
It was a half-finished housing development.
A shadow passed over me. I looked up and saw a northern harrier. I wasn't afraid. I knew who it was, even though I had hoped that he wouldn't follow me.
Your meadow is gone. He observed. Great. Now he felt like he had to point out the obvious to me.
It was never my meadow. I never really claim to it. It belonged to someone whose name appeared on a piece of paper lying around in the town hall records until they sold it. Smart move really, at the prices lands going for around here right now.
For a long while it was silent again as we floated on the thermals. For a while I almost forgot that he was there.
What are you going to do now?
I actually hadn't given it much thought. I guess I just sort of allowed my subconscious and the hawk mind to make the decision for me. Go back to the mountains, I guess.
And die?
The harshness and the directness of it, coming from Ax, kind of threw me for a minute. Then I just got plain angry. Yah. So what's it to you? You never cared before.
I know.
The sadness and regret in his voice, along with the self-reproach, almost made me feel sorry. What he said next finished the job.
Tobias... I must ask for your forgiveness. What I did was not right. Among Andalites, family is very important. I left part of mine here without a second thought.
I still felt sorry for him, but the anger that I was trying to bury came rising back up to the surface again anyway. Right, so is that what you came all the way back to earth to tell me? That you are sorry? That you came home to take a dying bird back with you? Wonderful Ax-man. Just great.
No.
The one thing that they had not level yet was the old tree that I had always roosted in. The one at the edge of my meadow that allowed me to survey the entire meadow all at once. I spotted a lot of dinners from this perch. I landed, gliding in like I always used to. And almost missed the landing. The same landing that I had done more than a hundred times, and I almost missed it.
No. Ax repeated.
Then he elaborated.
I wish you to return with me. As an Andalite. .
Sooo… Did I manage to startle anyone? Was it worth waiting for? Am I forgiven? Anyway, please read and review. I promise that it you will review I won't make you wait two months again for another posting…
