Far away from where Ulysses Carter sat contemplating the unfairness of the cosmos, Jake, still in his Peregrine falcon morph, was just getting home. This had been one of the more unusual days of his life, and now all he wanted to do was take a nice long nap. The whole ordeal had left him more drained than even the Animorphs' first attack on the Yeerk Pool complex.
Jake wasn't really sure why, but maybe it had something to do with all the morphing he'd done. Morphing was a tiring process, one that required extreme concentration, and Jake had done five morphs over a relatively short space of time. Yeah, that was it, it was just from all the morphing he'd done recently.
Jake dove through his bedroom window, flaring just in time to cancel his momentum so he wouldn't splatter his guts all over the far wall. Listening with the falcon's superior hearing, Jake made sure that no one was coming. Once he had ascertained that fact, Jake started demorphing.
His hollow bird bones solidified, becoming heavier and denser. At the same time, his feathers were melting like heated wax, running together and confusing their elegant patterns. He shot up from the floor like a time-lapse movie of a plant growing, shedding feathers and growing human skin in their wake. His beak was sucked back into his mouth with a soft grinding sound, and lips grew in over his newly reformed teeth.
At last the transformation was complete, and Jake walked unsteadily over to his bed. Pulling the covers off, Jake slipped under them. Throwing them back over his body, Jake closed his eyes.
And, just like that, he was somewhere else…
*** ***
The entire place was in shades of blue, that was the first thing Jake noticed about it. As he started walking, each footstep echoed back to him as if it had been amplified, that was the second thing Jake noticed about it.
The echoing wasn't really annoying, just strange. Jake had dealt with strange before, so he was sure he could handle it again. When Jake looked up, he saw that he was in some kind of hallway that had an arched ceiling.
Looking ahead, Jake saw the end of the hallway. He was almost there; just a few more steps and he'd be out of the hallway. Jake wondered for a few seconds why he was so eager to get to the end of the hallway, but something, something that for some reason reminded Jake of the mysterious voice that had guided him to the underground place where he'd found Slade, urged him onward.
Now that Jake had reached the end of the hallway, he could see what was beyond it. It was… a starfield? Jake looked at the waist-high railing that bordered the platform where he now stood. It seemed to be the only thing that kept anyone from falling into that endless starry abyss.
Jake heard someone sigh, and his head snapped around to fix on the lone figure at the middle of the railing. He, for some reason Jake felt that a male designation was appropriate, turned his head to look at Jake over his left shoulder. He had no mouth, the same as Elfangor, but Jake suspected that he was more different than alike to the Andalite Prince.
He was a deeper shade of blue than the surrounding area, and Jake somehow knew that this was his real coloring and not just a trick of the lighting. Jake saw his eye, the same shape and quality as Slade's had been in his armor, flash bright sky-blue for a moment before quickly fading.
"Who are you?" Jake asked, his voice sounding muffled instead of amplified by the echoes.
This is a dream.
"Who are you?" Jake asked again, knowing that he might get the same answer.
The blue figure turned, and Jake now saw that he was wearing some kind of form-fitting body armor. There was also a cascade of what looked exactly like blue hair that sprouted from somewhere behind the helmet and flowed gracefully over his shoulders. Bordering the 'hair' on both sides was a five-inch long, rounded bladelike horn.
I am called Tekkaman Starfire, he answered.
