Chapter 2
I opened my eyes to the greens and browns of a forest. Light filtered through the canopy, softly lighting the area around me. Birds were chirping and the wind was rustling the branches and leaves above my head.
I hear the crunch of leaves behind me and I turned. Instantly the blood drained from my face, because cutting through the undergrowth not ten feet away were three huge creatures, covered in blades. All three pairs of their piercing eyes were drilling into my skull. I turned and run but it was no use. In three bounds they had caught up to me and a solid kick from one of their talon like feet sent me flying to the leaves. I was too stunned to struggle, but just looked up as two of them grab me and lift me upright. One of them began talking into a z-space communicator for backup. The other two Hork-bajir held me tightly by my bare arms. And then…
I begin to loose all feelings of weakness. I felt as though I had just shed a lead trench coat and gown another foot and a half. The three Hork-bajir begin to stare in wonder, then in fear, as my skin changed to a shade of green, then cracked like a dried lake bed and erupted into scales. I looked at my hands, sharpening into claws, my armsr rippling as muscle piled onto muscle. My theigh bone shrunk, heel raised up, shin streatched. My shoes split open as my toes melded into three. And then became too big to fit into my shoes: "Streeeeaaaatch- Rip!" the toes burst out. I had grown a tail! I could feel my neck becoming more flexible, longer.
The two Hork-bajir holding me must have known what was coming next, because they let go of my arms. And then they flew out. "fewwwt!" Blades erupt from my head, my wrists, my elbows, ankles, tail, knees. Huge, boney, insanely sharp blades nearly covered my entire body. arms and legs.
I think at that moment, I and the three other Hork-bajir realized the same thing. I was sheer muscle. My reflexes were like a cat's. I had Power! And then at the same moment we all moved. I lunged at one of my would be captors, slashing with my wrist blades, but I was new to this body, and clumsy. I missed the Hork-bajir, who merely sidestepped my attack and tripped me. The other ran from behind and grabbed my arms. I tied to whip my head around, catch one of them with the blades on top, but the first grabbed me by the neck and pressed a dracon beam to my temple. The third put down the z-space communicator and chuckled.
"Huh. So the Andalite bandits aren't andalites after all. The visser will be pleased none the less." He nodded to the Hork-bajir holding me by the throat. "Do it. We don't need any more trouble tonight." I looked up at the Hork-bajir holding me, who gave me a nightmarish grin, and then he pulled the trigger-
"Clang!" My eyes open as the Hork-bajir guards step into my cage, dracons leveled still leveled at my head. "Did I wake you, Human pudjaf?" one sneered. He pulled me to my feet and blindfolded me. We walked for a long time but stayed in the yeerk pool, judging by the screams. Finally I was brought inside a building where two Hork-bajir grabbed me, threw me onto a table, and held me there. I could hear a buzzing sound over my head that grew louder and louder until I could see through the blindfold a green light getting brighter and brighter. At the last second the Hork-bajir release me, just before a white flash, then blackness.