Author's note:Okay, I finally finished this chapter. Not as good as I would have liked, but once I get farther along in this story I'll go back and edit some things.


Chapter 3


It was dinner and we were sitting in our small dining room, wolfing down pizza. Tom sat across from me like any old time, and my parents sat to the side, talking about some boring story that happened at my dad's work. We laughed. We talked. We ate pizza while my mom attacked a salad. At that moment, the war with the Yeerks seemed so far off. In fact, it didn't seem to exist at all save for some silly TV series. We were just a family. A nice, normal family having a sit-down dinner. We were a family, yes. But we were my family.

I looked up from my pizza at Tom to say something. He'd insulted me again, in that brotherly way; something about how I couldn't sink a basketball in the Grand Canyon if I was standing right on the rim of it. It was a typical conversation that we had had many times before, but it was special to me. For now he was my brother. For now, I could try and forget the evil slug in his brain.

"You know Tom—" I started to say. Then I stopped. Something was wrong. He was changing, morphing into some creature right before my eyes. I couldn't move. I was frozen. No, it couldn't be…not now…

It was a snake. The same body he had died in at Rachel's hands. But it had Tom's eyes. Not the eyes of the Yeerk, but of my brother. My real brother. Tom. The one I had ordered my cousin to kill.

("You couldn't save me, Jake,") the snake said in Tom's voice. ("It was the only way out.")

I tried to say something, but nothing would come; I was the tiger, racing through a strange jungle. Yet it was my territory, my home. The power and strength flowed through my body, making me stronger, faster. The two moons hung above in the sky, shining on the brilliant purple and yellow leaves around me. It was so peaceful here, so wonderful. I never wanted to leave. All I wanted was to lose myself in the tiger's mind, in that moment of freedom and thrill.

A large grizzly bear loped up beside me and I stopped. It stopped. We looked at each other, and I knew. I could see Rachel's eyes staring down at me, filled with the fierceness and the courage of her everlasting soul.

("You have to keep fighting, Jake,") the bear said. ("You can't give up like this. Don't worry about me. It was the only way out.")

The jungle scene fell away and I was thrown into the midst of a battle on golden fields I had never seen before in my life. Strange creatures fought alongside me, their screams and cries mingling with the tearing sounds of laser fire and unfamiliar ships.

My claws lashed out and I sprinted through the enemy ranks, leaving a trail of destruction in my wake. This body was new, different, but so similar to the confidence and the power of the tiger. I wanted to run into the jungle and escape from the close quarters of bodies around me. Maybe later I would. After I completed the mission.

He stood before me, right in the range of my vicious claws. I lashed out at his guards and they fell like twigs. I was the power, the king of the jungle. This time, he would not escape.

I lunged at him, claws extended, fangs bared. This time, he would pay for all the pain he had caused…

We collided and fell in a heap, fighting and clawing and biting until both of us were nearly dead. The battle around us seemed to disappear. It was just us, fighting to the death.

Then I had him. He was mine. With a roar of triumph I raised my extended claws for the final blow. At last…this time…

Ax's almost-shaped eyes stared up at me from the misshapen face. I hesitated. How could I kill my friend?

(You must do it, Prince Jake,) he said, and for that one moment I knew he was Ax, not the monster that had taken him. (You cannot save everyone. Do it. It is the only way out.)

My paw fell…

I woke up.

To find myself hanging in a tree, at least fifty feet above the strange, alien ground.

It's then that I realized I hated heights.

"Ahhhhhh!"

"Hey, I think Jake woke up," Marco's voice said helpfully to my left.

"Yeah, I noticed," Santorelli mumbled.

It was day. Or at least I thought it was. The dim light filtering in through the thick canopy made it difficult to decide. But it seemed like day. It was certainly humid enough. It reminded me of our brief episode in the rainforest so long ago. Not a really pleasant memory to think about.

I twisted my body around and managed to catch Marco hanging a few feet behind me. Santorelli was to his left, Jeanne was behind him, unconscious. All of them were in their human forms. I couldn't see Tobias or Menderash. We were hanging from the branches of a very tall, very wide, and very purple tree, wrapped in thin purple vines that kept us suspended in the air, dangling helplessly for any predator to come and pick us off. Not that that was a very comforting thought.

There were other vines around us, some hanging loosely and some with bundles at the end of them, as if they were wrapped around something. I frowned and squinted at them. But the headache that erupted from my efforts made me give up.

Painfully, I tried to bring my hands up to my burning face, but found them tightly bound to my side. I tried to kick my legs, but they were bound as well. All I did was manage to make myself sway back and forth a bit and make my body scream with pain. I was still obviously burned from the crash. Which wasn't a surprise since you can't morph when you're unconscious. Usually.

"Where are we?" I asked when I had confirmed that the only thing I could move freely was my head. When I spoke, my voice was harsh and grating, high-pitched from the pain that burnt my body.

"We're stranded on an alien planet after making a suicide plunge through the atmosphere when you gave the order to crash into the Blade Ship that's gotta be, what, ten times our size, lacking two nothlits and one outlawed and very damaged Yeerk spaceship, billions of miles away from my very comfortable home on Earth where everyone is probably wondering where we've gone, because being chased by a mob of renegade Yeerks and a mind-reading freak with Ax-man's body and hanging around in great purple trees is just what we do for a living," Marco said a little too brightly. "So in other words, we're exactly where you'd think we should be: trapped in an overgrown eggplant with no way down except to possibly get eaten by whatever lives here."

"Oh."

"Yeah, 'oh, '" Marco continued on rapidly, his voice taking on a slight edge of panic. "We're food for the vultures or whatever else resembles a vulture on this stupid planet, Tobias and Menderash are probably both dead with whatever remains of our spaceship, and it's all because someone just happened to hear Ax-man call your name right before he got possessed by that face-changing maniac and you had to be the hero and go rushing out after him and certain death, dragging us along for the ride! So if 'oh' is all you can say, Jake, then I have to say, I'm very disappointed."

I tried to ignore the hint of accusatory tone in his words as I focused on what we had to do to get out of here. It bothered me that I didn't know where Tobias and Menderash were, and that the ship wasn't anywhere to be seen. If we had crashed, shouldn't there be some wreckage somewhere in view? And where was the Blade ship? Shouldn't it have caught up to us by now?

One thing at a time, Jake. First figure out how to get down from here.

"We have to get down from here," I muttered determinedly, forcing the panic at being stranded high above the ground.

"Yeah, y'think!" Marco practically yelled, his tone now very definitely panicked. "Any minute now and that stupid Blade ship will be coming along to use us as target practice!"

"Santorelli," I called over my shoulder. I could barely see him lift his head heavily in response. He was exhausted; like I felt and like I knew Marco was. It was a strange feeling, almost too strange, like all the energy was being drawn out of my body…I shook it out of my head. "Try and wake up Jeanne. It'd be nice to know if everyone's okay."

And to make sure I didn't get anyone else killed, a part of me thought bitterly.

"So now what's the plan, oh great and fearless leader?" Marco continued. The panic in his voice had faded a bit, but it was still there in his tired voice, just as surely as my own panic was in the back of my mind.

"Now," I said, trying to think and finding it difficult, "we morph into something small to slip out of these vines and try and find Tobias and Menderash."

"Already tried, Jake-man," Marco said, rolling his eyes. "Honestly, I'm not that stupid. I tried fly, flea, gorilla, wolf, bird…you name it I became it. The vines are just a little too tough to bite through, and they just tighten around you no matter what form you get into." He paused. "I wish my clothing would do that. You know, even the expensive brands don't even come close to doing that."

I frowned but tried not to show my irritation at my best friend's attitude. "Fine. But we morph anyway."

"Why?"

"Well, for one, I need to morph out of my wounds," I said with forced patience. "And unless you want to start screaming for help and let every creature in this jungle know we're here, we can use thought speak to try and get a hold of Tobias or Menderash."

"Okay now it's my turn: oh."

I sighed and focused my mind on the peregrine falcon DNA inside of me. My reasoning was that if I did manage to work my way free from the vines, I would at least have a way to get to the ground without taking a very nasty detour. Then I paused. The dream was slowly bubbling up into my mind. Tiger. Yes, that was the morph for here amongst the purple and the yellow. It just felt…right.

With a glance over at Marco who was tiredly morphing his gorilla and Santorelli who was morphing—what was that, a cheetah?—while trying to wake up Jeanne, I pictured the tiger in my mind and felt the changes begin. I was too tired to notice what was happening to my body. Though I did feel what was left of my clothing rip to shreds. Morphing had become a familiar dance despite its randomness. It was a routine that I could do without second thought. In a few minutes I was a black and orange striped cat on the wrong planet in a tree. Though the exhaustion remained, the pain at least was gone, which left me to think on more important things.

But I discovered that Marco was right about the vines. Though I had grown considerably compared to my human form, the vines had merely widened to accommodate me. Nothing had changed. Except the fact that I was a tiger.

(Oh, this isn't a strange sight,) Marco commented cheerfully. He sounded less tired. Which made me realize that I felt less tired. Something was tugging at my mind, something I should have noticed. It was an annoyingly familiar feeling; I had felt it many times during the countless missions. It told me that I was forgetting something. No, that I was overlooking something that was very important. Yes, that was it. There was something that I should notice that I hadn't.

(Does anyone else feel less tired after morphing?) I asked hesitantly.

Marco paused. (Come to think of it, yeah.)

(Santorelli?)

(Me, too.)

(It's probably just nothing. You know, we've probably just gotten so use to being human that when we morph some big, butt-kicking animals we feel stronger. No big deal.)

(Yeah. Yeah, I think you're right,) I said. But I was still uneasy.

(So. Now that we're a tiger, a gorilla, and a cheetah hanging out in a tree, what's next? I don't know if the circus has an opening for animal acrobats.)

I took a moment to think about it, all the while noticing that my tiger body was slowly starting to loose its energy. It was getting difficult to focus. But the feeling of uneasiness persisted stronger. I shook it out of my head. (Santorelli? Keep at Jeanne. We need her awake. Marco? You and I are going to try to reach Tobias or Menderash. We need to find out where they are and if they're okay.(

There was a moment of silence. (What, that's it? That's the extent of the brilliant plan, oh great and mighty leader?)

(Why? You got something better?)

(We could morph back to human.)

(Whatever for?)

(It's easier to cry and scream and complain about how unfair life is when you're in your own body.)

Jeanne woke up a short while later to the constant badgering of Santorelli. During that time Marco and I had figured out a way to make our thought speak louder and more effective by synchronizing our voices and projecting them as loud as we could. We had made it almost a game to see who could overpower the other.

(TOBIAS! MENDERASH!) we yelled together.

(Please report to the largest purple eggplant where your friends are being held captive to await certain death at the beaks of the alien equivalent to vultures or the Dracon beams of the Blade Ship. Thank you for shopping at Alien-mart and have a nice day!)

That last part was Marco, of course. I was getting too tired to think up stupid remarks like that.

"Wha…where are we?" a groggy Jeanne said as she painfully regained consciousness. "And why am I so…weak?"

I was too tired to respond and too determined to reach Tobias and Menderash to explain. (Santorelli? Fill her in. Marco? Let's keep at it. On the count of three, okay? One, two…)

I never managed to get to three.

(What the…what is that?)

It was a bird. Or at least that's what it looked like: a strange cross between a large, purple seagull and a black snake that had to be at least as big as a bald eagle back at home. Almost beautiful in its own, bizarre way. Especially in the slithering way it seemed to move through the branches and vines of the trees. Large wings supported the snake-like body. A long, cruel snout with razor-sharp teeth protruded from its reptilian face, not unlike a crocodile. It could easily rip off my exposed head with those gaping jaws. I wouldn't even be able to defend myself.

Which wouldn't have been that bad if it was flying away from us. If it didn't have its sharp, piercing gaze focused on us as we dangled helplessly. The problem was, it did. And it was flying right towards us.

And you know what my delusional mind thought was the worse part of it was? No one was ever going to believe this. I didn't have a camera.