Chapter 1

My name is Ax.

Or rather, that is what my human friends call me. My full name is Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill; I am an aristh warrior-cadet, and younger brother to Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul.

As any Andalite may or may not know, my brother is dead; slain at the hand of the Abomination, Visser Three; the monster enslaving the mind of War-Prince Alloran.

Elfangor died on a planet called Earth; a small planet in an unimportant region of space far from the Andalite homeworld, and also the site of one of the latest Yeerk invasions.

When our dome ship was destroyed by Visser Three's Blade ship over Earth, I was jettisoned to safety inside the dome while Elfangor's fighter crashed into the Earth's surface, just ahead of Visser Three's forces. Before Visser Three murdered him, Elfangor used Andalite technology, namely the Escafil device, to give morphing abilities to five human youths, who he implored to fight the Yeerk invasion.

Then, Visser Three murdered my brother, using one of his most foul and vile extraterrestrial morphs.

Someday, I will kill Visser Three, or I will die trying.

For now though, my duty is to Prince Jake, and to fight for him and his people, most of whom do not even know the Yeerks exist. We are invisible warriors in an invisible war.

Most amusingly, Visser Three believes my five human friends to be Andalites like myself. It would be extremely amusing to see the expression on his face if he were to realise that the 'Andalite bandits' foiling him at every turn are only five human adolescents and an aristh. It would be funnier though to watch his head roll from his shoulders when the Council of Thirteen finds out that the invasion has been stalled by children.

Visser Three's host body is an Andalite, a great warrior by the name War-Prince Alloran-Semitur-Corrass. It is for this reason that he is our deadliest foe. For of all the millions of Yeerks in the galaxy, Visser Three alone has the power to morph. Not only can he morph a human disguise, the Abomination has many alien creatures he has acquired during his many conquests; most of which are far stronger than any Earth creature.

My human friends and I have succeeded in foiling Visser Three's plans from time to time, but we have not, and may never be able to halt the invasion, merely belay it until my people come to stop the Yeerks themselves.

We have even fought the leader of the Yeerk invasion, Visser One, and succeeded in ruining a project she had been running for the Yeerk invasion of Leera, and, more recently, we find that she is in the Anati system, overseeing a last attempt to regain the respect of the Yeerk leadership.

The humans are my people now, and Jake is my Prince. I will follow him until my people come and destroy the Yeerks, or until death free me from duty.

Jake may be my Prince, but all of the humans are my friends. Marco, Prince Jake's closest friend is small for humans of his age, but I have noticed he is particularly intelligent, and has, so he says, mastered the art of human humour. I myself do not fully understand it, and any Andalite who does not have knowledge of humans should accept that they probably never will. He has had to face the fact that his mother, previously thought to be dead, is the mastermind behind the invasion of Earth. She is another abomination whom I have already mentioned. Marco's mother is Visser One. Perhaps this humour is Marco's form of escapism.

Rachel is Prince Jake's cousin. She has yellow hair and bright blue eyes, and of all the 'Animorphs', she is the most fearless and a brave warrior.

Cassie is one of my friends as well. She has dark skin and dark eyes, and is a talented estreen. Cassie looks after animals, and by animals I mean animals other than humans. Humans consider themselves too advanced to be animals. And the Yeerks say my race is arrogant.

Then I have my closest friend; my shorm, Tobias. Tobias was once a nothlit, but thanks to the intervention of the Ellimist, Tobias has regained his morphing powers, with one condition; he is still a red-tailed hawk, but with the ability to morph his old human body.

Tobias and I are kindred spirits. Neither of us has a home, neither of us have a family. We are alone. Except, of course, for one another. Because, you see, Elfangor was Tobias' father. That makes us family, and family is very important to Andalites.

I live in the forest with Tobias, though while he lives in the trees, I live in my scoop on the ground. We Andalites love trees, but we do not like to live in them.

Like Tobias, I have a human morph. However, unlike Tobias, my morph is no specific person. My human morph is a fusion of the DNA of my five human friends, which allows me to appear inconspicuous amongst humans, especially since I have refined the art of acting human so precisely.

In fact, it was in my human morph that this particular day began. I was with my friend Marco in a commercial centre that humans call 'the Mall' on my way to acquire my beloved cinnamon buns and meet with our fellow Animorphs, when I saw something with my human eyes that registered as somewhat peculiar.

Marco had gone to the human male's bathroom while I waited outside, and moments later, he called me in with him.

Marco told me he had seen something 'freaky' and that I had to see it. If I understand the usage of the word 'freaky', what I then saw certainly fit that description.

Lying on the floor of this 'bathroom', I saw something most unusual.

A human male and a Yeerk.

Both dead.