Chapter 14
I stared. The horse – Ferdie - started twisting and writhing. Its long brown mane was sucked into its neck, and was replaced by shaggy strawberry blonde hair. Its hooves melted into human fingers. Its body shrunk, the back legs began to stand erect, the tail dissolved into nothing. The rich, brown fur disappeared. Ferdie's horse eyes slid from the side of his face and turned from dark brown to green. His big, black nose became small, pink and finely drawn. His Mr. Ed teeth shrunk to a set of perfect white pearls. Finally, a dusting of freckles drew themselves over his face as if he was being flicked by light brown paint. Ferdie stood before us, wearing nothing but tight black underwear. I quickly averted my eyes.
"Impressive morph," I said. "Impressive entrance too, come to that."
"Cheers, my dear," laughed Ferdie, plonking himself on a chair opposite me. "I'm glad that worked out. That's only the third time I've morphed and they've all been rather messy so far!"
"Third?" I asked, glad to have been thrust into the topic of alien technology, without having to bring it up myself.
"Yup." Only acquired Dynasty, my best polo pony, so far, but I've already morphed her twice. Absolutely amazing." He leaned back in his chair. "You should try it, Phil."
"I'm not acquiring anything," snapped Philip, switching out of his gentlemanly role. "I'm having nothing to do with this ridiculous road trip. You three can do what you like. I'm staying at home."
"Philip," I said cautiously, "I really don't think we have a choice. That Andalite probably risked his life, and career, or whatever it is they have, giving us that morphing power so that we could escape. We can't let him down now."
Philip threw down his bread roll. "I already told Ferdie. I'm not having any involvement. I'm not going anywhere. I shouldn't even be discussing a mission of any kind."
"Guys," I said, looking at them all instead of just Philip. "We're already wasting time! We're all in danger just sitting here. Don't you remember what Eramas said about the Yeerks? They'll track us down in less than a day if we don't move out of here. We're at war, guys!"
There was an awkward silence. Philip refused to meet my eye.
"Shhh," said Ferdie, in a Basil Fawlty stage whisper. "Don't mention the war."
I stared blankly at him for a second, then continued. "Well, anyway. We have to get out of here. We have to acquire some decent morphs, and we have to get cross-country ASAP, and find this Resistance the Andalite was on about." I looked Philip in the eye. "I hardly know you guys," I said. "Whatever problems we all had before this whole thing started, they mean nothing now. We stick together, and leave our pasts behind us. We have no choice. We're not leaving you, Philip. And that's not just me being honourable and all. It's for selfish reasons as well. I don't want you becoming captured by the Yeerks and spilling the secrets about us and the other human morphers."
Philip glared at me. Then, he lowered his eyes and allowed himself to give me the tiniest of nods.
"Ok, then. That's settled." I relaxed and leant back in my chair. "I suggest we find a zoo, or farm of whatever, get a good variety of morphs, and set off. We can't use any type of human transport, as the Yeerks will be able to trace us at customs or with credit cards or whatever. So we'll need some animals that can get us long distances, for both land in the sea. I acquired my dog, a greyhound last night, just to check that we're not all still dreaming, but we'll need other stuff. Birds maybe. Horses and dogs won't get us far."
"Or gerbils," piped up Asha.
"What?"
"I came round to Ferdie's a few hours ago after saying good-bye to my parents on the phone. He let me acquire his sister's gerbil. Just to see if I could still do it, ya know?"
"Oh right." So three of us had morphed on our own. And there I was, hoping to impress them with my Tallulah morph!
"I know a place where we could get some good morphs," said Ferdie. "A little zoo – Archington House Wildlife Park - not too far from here. We go there, get our animals, and then set off straight from there. It's not a huge place, but they've got a wide range of creatures. Sure we could find something useful. I can get us in free, too." At this point, Philip caught Ferdie's eye, a knowing look in his eyes.
"Ok, cool," I said. "Sounds good. Do you know someone who works there, or something, then?"
"Actually," Ferdie announced, "I know the guy who owns the place. My great-uncle owns most of Archington estate. He set up the zoo a few years back to help with tax and all that stuff."
I was impressed. Ferdie's great-uncle owned Archington House? There must be a lot of money in the family, I guessed. I wished that, with that cash floating about, the Lawless's could be able to get us bodyguards or our own private jet to help us find the Resistance! But, of course, we couldn't tell anyone. From what the Andalite had said, anyone could be a controller. Visser Five could have landed on earth by now. There could be traps laid anywhere.
"Excellent stuff," I said. "So that's settled."
"Hold on!" interrupted Philip. "We haven't even thought this through yet! Who's to know this whole thing isn't a trap in itself?"
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"How do we know Eramas isn't a Controller himself? He could be a Yeerk, using us as bait to find these other human animal morphers."
"Philip," sighed Ferdie, "the Andalite gave us the names and faces of the other humans. If the Yeerks already had that information, why use us to lead the Yeerks to them?"
"Course!" Asha breathed. "If the Yeerks knew what the Andalites knew, why use us? They could just capture us and the others right now and use us all as hosts, innit?"
"Exactly," said Ferdie. "I don't think there's any use worrying ourselves with anymore than we have to. Our task seems pretty straightforward. Learn to morph, find Jake and the others. Simple."
"Yes, how simple it sounds when you say it that way," said Philip sarcastically. "Although, in my experience, whenever you expect something to be simple, it's going to end up as the complete opposite."
I'm sure Ferdie's attitude was the right attitude to take. But it didn't stop a new worry beginning to wiggle itself into my mind, like a worm, slowly working its way through a tasty red apple. I realised that there was absolutely no way we could be caught by the Yeerks on this mission. Because if they caught us, we'd lead Visser Five, and sooner or later, Visser Three, right to the front doors of Earth's only resistance.
