So the Animorphs and Ax are going to find out some details about "The Superb".
Chapter 8: Learning About the Ally
Tobias
Even though there were only small patches of woods around Marianne's neighborhood, there were plenty of prey. But this area was no where near my territory. So I had to make my kill, then haul my feathered butt outta there. It was a nice, easy hunt. There were plenty of mice to go around. I didn't see any other hawks or eagles, but I was sure I saw at least one crow.
Crows and jays are real jerks. They're like the gangsters of the bird world. I was lucky to make it out of there before that big black crow decided to caw (heh heh, call, caw, same thing) over to his buddies to get me. Whew. Believe me, life as a bird of prey can be very hard sometimes.
Anyway, I used the nice cool breeze of a head wind and then found myself a thermal to fly back to Marianne's house. I didn't go very far in my hunting, actually. I fluttered to the deck, and looked through the window in front of me. I saw Rachel get up to open the doors for me. There was a screen door, and then a wooden door. Nothing out of the usual. It was just a normal suburban home like any other I've been to. It sort of reminded me of Rachel's house, for I go there often.
I found everyone else sitting at a table as I perched on the back of the brown recliner chair. I didn't have to dig my talons very far because the perch was very soft. There was a big chair, bigger than the other smaller brownish ones at the dining table, and Ax was sitting in it as his disturbingly attractive human form. He did this form in combination of Marco's, Rachel's, Jake's, and Cassie's DNA. He would have done so with me if I hadn't become a nothlit. It's an Andalite term for someone who's trapped in animal form.
"Hey Tobias," Marianne greeted me, showing me a kind smile. "You didn't have any trouble finding anything to eat, did ya?" -(Nope, no trouble at all. The woods around where you live has prey all over the place. Squirrels, mice, shrews…)- "Stop it Tobias. You'll spoil my appetite," Marco teased. I ignored that remark.
That's Marco for you, always making up jokes. He makes fun of me often, because for all I know, I sometimes give him the creeps, for me being me.
In the background, I heard the low hum of a microwave, coming from somewhere in the kitchen. -(What's cookin' guys?)- "Burritos," Jake simply said. "Ax's to be exact." -(Ah,)- I said, understanding. I knew how dangerous the Ax-man was around food. How long was it since I had a burrito? Too long. I hardly remember what it tastes like now. Sure, I could go human and try one, but I was full. The nice, plump mouse I ate filled me up.
Beeeeep! The microwave signaled Ax's food was ready. Jake, closest to the kitchen, got up to bring them out. "So, what's this story of yours about, since we're supposed to be inspiring you in some way," Marco said, eager to get this whole deal over with. I silently agreed with him. I mean, Marianne wasn't a bad person or anything. I felt kind of bad now for us tying her up and everything. But I didn't really want to do this deal. Not really, but I had no choice, if I wanted the Earth-Yeerk war in our dimension (yeah, I barely accepted the fact that I was made up by someone else) to turn out better. Besides, we probably weren't going to remember Marianne or any of this when our job was done. That's what the Ellimist said, but you can never be totally sure. He plays tricks on people, like it's some kind of game. He doesn't fully do what is requested. I know that by experience. You probably know about that already, so I won't explain.
The only big problem was, none of us knew how long we were going to have to stay with Marianne.
"Well," Marianne began. "Like I said, 'The Superb' takes place between when you guys helped form the free Hork-Bajir colony, and Zone 91. Jake," Marianne pointed to Jake. "gets a strange E-mail. My original character's email. A subtle approach for you guys to meet her at Cassie's barn in the morning the next day…" She sawed off a piece of her burrito with a knife and fork, chewed, and swallowed.
"My character's name is Laura. She's this human anomaly raised by the Ellimist-" -(What? The Ellimist wouldn't do that, would he?)- I interrupted. Everyone else shrugged their shoulders, including Marianne. "Just go with it, okay?" Marianne said to me. -(Alright… Sorry, go on.)- "Thank you," she said, calm. "Yeah, so she's raised by the Ellimist ever since she was about six years old, when her parents were vaporized and killed by a Yeerk Dracon Beam-" "Yeerk…" Ax hissed in a low hatred. Marianne paused, and looked down as her half eaten burrito, as if in thought. "The way I imagine it is in a busy city, it's dark cloudy and rainy in…someplace like New York, yeah…"
Rachel huffed an annoyed sigh. I knew how she felt. This whole deal seemed ridiculous, but we had to go with it anyway. Marianne wasn't not entirely thrilled about this either. Later on during that day I found out she probably had to go broke because of the clothes shopping and stuff for Jake, Marco, Cassie, and Rachel.
But at least this fanfiction author seemed to know what she was writing about. So far, about this Laura "character" who was going to join us… No, I felt sick inside. I was going to meet this character in my home dimension, wasn't I? And already I knew from the writer's mouth about what happened to that poor girl's parents. Was I going to remember this whenever Marianne got the motivation to get back to her story?
"Oh no…that poor kid," Cassie said, feeling similar to how I felt inside. She frowned and looked downward towards her feet. "Yeah, I know, really tragic, but the good side to this is: you guys will be like her new family," Marianne explained. She turned to Jake, who sat down again after putting in another burrito. "Whose burrito is cooking?" Marco asked. "I get dibs on the next one," Rachel said quickly, watching Marianne eat. Marco threw up his hand in defeat.
"Jake, you and Laura have something very big in common." "And what's that?" Jake demanded, listening, interested. "You both encounter Crayak in your dreams every now and then. And you still haven't told anyone about it. She knows this, and leaves it up to you to tell the group." "Oh, man," Jake moaned. "Yeah, and Marco," Marco sat up straight, as if he were caught sleeping in class. "You find out what Jake is hiding eventually. You know, being best buds and all." Rachel smiled. "I think I'm going to like this," she said. "Yup, I have all of you pretty much in character," Marianne replied, wearing a big smile.
"Rachel, you and Laura don't get along very well at first." "Oh? Why is that?" Rachel wondered, also interested in hearing about this story too. "Well, you stick up for Tobias, right? And you've asked Laura how come she couldn't just wipe out all the Yeerks on Earth by thinking about it. She can't."