Once they had gotten inside, Cassie set Slade down and waited for him to demorph. Once he was done, Cassie turned to him, after having checked again that their way was clear.

"Okay, Slade, this is where the hard part begins."

Slade cocked his head. "I thought we were already done with the hard part."

Cassie smirked. "No, Slade, the hard part is just beginning."

Slade and Cassie both had to bite back chuckles, then they started moving down the corridor that led to where the more dangerous wild animals were kept. They didn't encounter any security guards on their way, and this was partly because of Slade's better than human hearing. Slade could hear a person's footsteps long before the ears of a normal person would have picked up anything, and his keen awareness of his surroundings insured that no mere human would be able to take him by surprise.

As they walked down the twisting hallways, a question Slade had thought about on and off ever since Cassie had decided to take him to this place came to the forefront of Slade's mind. Since Slade couldn't hear any approaching footsteps, Slade decided that now was as good a time to ask as he was likely to get.

"You mentioned something about using morphs to fight the Yeerks?" Slade asked.

"Yes. We kind of have to, since we can't fight very well in our human forms, and we don't want them to know we even have human forms."

Slade nodded. "That makes sense; it's harder to track an enemy when you don't know what they are."

"Well, the Yeerks think they know what we are," Cassie said. "They think we're a group of Andalite warriors that somehow managed to escape to Earth. We'd like to make sure they keep thinking that, so we all make it a point not to talk to them." Cassie smiled faintly. "After all, none of us has any practice with acting like an Andalite. Except for Ax, of course."

"Ax is an Andalite?"

"Yeah," Cassie said, considering whether or not to tell Slade about Visser Three. In the end she decided to tell him, since she figured Slade would have a better chance against the Visser if he knew about him in advance. "There is another Andalite on Earth, but he's not really an Andalite."

"Why do you say that?" Slade asked. "I mean, either this other one's an Andalite or he's not."

"The other one is Visser Three, he has a Yeerk in his head," Cassie clarified.

Slade still wasn't buying the distinction. "That doesn't mean he's not still an Andalite."

Cassie paused; she had never thought of it that way. "I guess not, but don't ever say that to Ax. He gets a little touchy about that subject."

"I'll remember that," Slade said.

The two of them fell silent then, Slade mulling over the things he had been told. Slade honestly didn't know what to think of Ax, not having talked to the Andalite for any real length of time, and having only met him once. Slade didn't know why the Andalite would be oversensitive about the fact that one of his people had been taken by the Yeerks. None of the Animorphs seemed that way, and it was their planet being invaded, after all.

Slade shrugged, deciding not to think about that right now. Looking around, Slade found that Cassie had stopped and was staring at him expectantly.

"What?"

"This is where Marco acquired his first morph," Cassie said, pointing to a steel-gray door labeled P-101.

"So what was Marco's first morph?"

"Big Jim, he's the adult silverback gorilla that we keep here. He's still in his own habitat. He's very gentle, so I really don't know why they haven't put him with the other gorillas yet."

"He's gentle?"

"All gorillas tend to be very gentle," Cassie explained. "Unless you're stupid enough to go and make them angry."

Slade considered this new information. "I'm not all that fond of apes." Looking down the hall, since Slade had thought he'd heard footsteps approaching, Slade turned back to Cassie only after the footsteps had faded again. "Do you have any big cats?"

Cassie chuckled. "Right this way, Slade."

Cassie led Slade down the halls, and soon they came to a T-section, and the two of them walked down the left hallway. Cassie led Slade down the hall until they had reached another T-section; this time Cassie led him down the right side branch. As they walked down the corridor, Slade lagging a bit behind Cassie since he didn't know where exactly Cassie was going to lead him, Slade looked around.

Slade's first thought was that they had gone underground; that was the ambiance that this new area had. But it was more then just the ambiance of the place, it was also the fact that the ceiling was more rounded-looking here, and the lights were spaced farther apart. All in all, it was like they had descended into a deep subterranean level of The Gardens. Slade personally doubted that that was really the case, since he hadn't felt like they had gone down any inclines.

The two of them took one more turn, a left, before finally arriving at their destination. Cassie and Slade now stood before a plain door of gunmetal-gray, tagged with the rather uncreative name of P-203.

"So, what's behind this?" Slade asked.

"This is the Siberian Tiger habitat," Cassie contemplated the door in front of her for a moment. "In fact, this is the morph Jake uses."

"It is?" Slade stared at the door in front of him. He didn't particularly want to be a pale copy of the Animorphs' leader. "Do you have any others?"

"Of course," Cassie said, grinning. "This wouldn't be much of a park if we didn't have more than one kind of big cat." Cassie took Slade to the next door down; P-205. "This is where we keep the Leopards."

"If you don't mind my asking, Cassie, what morph do you use in combat?"

"I don't mind at all," Cassie said, turning back to Slade. "I use a wolf morph to fight."

Slade thought about that. Frowning, not quite knowing how to ask the question that was on his mind without possibly offending Cassie, Slade decided that it would be easier for him if he just asked. Cassie didn't seem to be the type to get offended by something so small. "Wouldn't a wolf be, I don't know, kind of weak in a fight?"

"It doesn't do nearly as much damage as the morphs the others use," Cassie conceded, leading Slade to the next door down the hall, P-207. "That's kind of the point for me, though. I don't want to do as much damage in battle. I don't like to fight like Ra—like some of the others do," Cassie said quickly to cover her slip.

Slade either didn't notice Cassie's little slip-up, or he chose to ignore it. "What's behind this door?"

"We have a pride of Lions behind that door." Cassie thought for a minute. "I'm not sure if you'd want to acquire one of them. The rest of the pride might attack you while you're distracted."

"Okay, so the Lions are out," Slade shrugged, turning away from the door that led to their habitat.

The next door down was P-209. "This is where the Panthers are kept. Though, if you want to be technically correct I suppose you'd call them black Leopards."

Slade didn't have to think about his decision for very long. Something in him was eager for that morph. "All right Cassie, open the door. I know which one I want."