Another chapter, another rant about lack of correct thoughtspeak orientation.
Ax
It had been so long since I was in the forest, yet I knew it as if I had never left. I walked through the forest, calling out Tobias's name in thoughtspeak. Eventually he responded.
>Ax? You're okay!> My shorm fluttered down and perched on my tail. >I knew Jake could do it.>
>I don't wish to offend you, but why didn't you come?>
He thought a moment before responding, >I was hoping that I could get Cassie and Jake to...reconnect.>
>It worked.>
>How's it been?>
>Fairly good. There's something I want to tell you about. I brought some data with me from the Andalite home planet.> Carefully, I produced the disks. >Do you know what a hirac delest is?>
>No. It almost sounds familiar...but, no.>
>It is an Andalite tradition to record a message, if possible, shortly before death. There is a receptor that picks them up from across the universe. There are two-well, closer to one and a half-that I have brought to your planet to share. Here, take this.> I handed him a disk that he took in his claw. >This was picked up by the receptor, but we don't recognize it and cannot translate it. It was not sent according to the normal tradition, and it almost seems like whoever sent it didn't know it. The first two words of it have entered the Andalite language for "unbreakable code".>
>Well, what are they?>
>I don't know how to pronounce them in your language, but it would be similar to "Eye wunde reede".>
>Okay. What do you want me to do with it?>
>I assumed you could contact some earth cryptographer who might know what it meant. Of course, you could try and decode it as well.>
>I'll do that. And you said there was another one?>
>Yes. But I don't want to play it here. Is your mother still alive?>
>Yeah, why?>
>I want her to experience it as well.>
I used my bird morph to follow Tobias above the city. Loren's house was just like the others nearby. I demorphed and quickly went to human as I knocked on the door.
Loren opened it. Although no longer blind, she still had a tired look on her face. "Hello...don't tell me...Aximili. And Tobias."
>Yup>, Tobias morphed to human. "Ax has something he wants to show you."
So I played the hirac delest of my brother Elfangor. It had not been released to the general Andalite public-there was much in it that it was not appropriate for them to know. But there was no one who deserved to know the entire story more than Loren and Tobias.
It was long. Tobias and I had to demorph, but we kept it playing. It was interesting to watch Loren's face change from confused to shocked to even more shocked. But by the end, she was nodding slowly as if she knew what was going on.
Tobias just shook his head. >How could the Ellimist have known how it needed to work out?>
"Maybe he didn't," Loren replied. "Maybe he was just guessing. But...he's not perfect. Because as that was playing, I began...remembering."
>Perhaps his power is weakening.> I suggested. >From what I can tell, he and Crayak-that's his enemy>- I added for Loren, are having some sort of intergalactic wrestling match.
>Or maybe this was part of the plan all along, >Tobias added quietly.
All of a sudden we were morphing to human and hugging. It could have gone on for two hours, but suddenly there was a knock on the door.
"Ax! Tobias!" Jake called. "Cassie's house! Right away!"