I met Erek at The Sharing's headquarters the next afternoon. He smiled at me.
"Ready? The Animorphs are looking forward to meeting you."
"I wish I felt the same way," I muttered. I wasn't interested in a clique of self-centered "heroes" at the moment, but I'd do anything for Dalla.
Erek's superb hearing picked up my comment, and his hologram took on an anxious look. "Just behave yourself."
I was annoyed. Why wouldn't I behave? I wanted my sister safe, didn't I?
Just then, a screech sounded overhead. I looked up and saw a couple of hawks soaring at about the same proximity to each other. Erek's Animorphs, obviously. Then, something struck a chord in my mind, and once again, Elfangor's last words popped up.
I have given the morphing power to five human youths…
Counting the Animorphs, I came up with six. But even so, I was nearly positive that these were Elfangor's youths. Which meant that one of them was his son…
I then recalled the Hirac Delest telling me that Elfangor's brother would join his son and five others. Now, I was positive that these were Elfangor's friends.
And I was just as positive that I wasn't going to tell them about the Hirac Delest. Unless, of course, Erek had already told them.
The eagle swooped down and demorphed. Looking at her, I could tell that this Animorph was one of the four obscure Animorphs. Besides being female, she had an aura of barely controlled violence about her. I'm particularly good at seeing others' auras.
The osprey that landed next demorphed into a boy with an aura of cunning and ruthlessness. I couldn't be positive that he was Elfangor's son, but he seemed like progeny of Elfangor's.
Two more landed next, a girl with an aura of one in touch with nature, and a boy who felt like he had the whole weight of the world on his shoulders. I laughed at his naiveté. I knew that life was harder than just being the leader of some guerrilla group.
The next bird was obviously Aximili, Elfangor's brother. Not only was his aura alien and unfamiliar, the sense of duty he had nearly matched Elfangor's.
The last Animorph that came was in a red-tailed hawk morph. He made no move to demorph, and the others didn't seem to find this odd. He had been trapped in hawk morph on their very first mission, and since then had been given the power to morph again by a powerful creature named-
What was I doing! I stopped in shock. Somehow I had just accidentally reached into the hawk's- Tobias, I now knew was his name- mind and plucked out all the information I wanted to know. Well, if I could, I might as well continue. You can't just ignore a power like that. Never mind it probably wasn't ethical. After all, desperate times called for desperate measures. I continued reading Tobias's mind, ignoring the uneasy voice in the back of my head.
"No way. You're Elfangor's son?" I asked aloud. Erek looked at me sharply.
"How'd you know that?" His voice was both accusing and alarmed.
I thought fast. "I could tell from, um, his noble bearing, so like a Andalite, yet human."
The boy I had originally thought of as Elfangor's son, Marco, raised his eyes at me. He, like the others, didn't believe me. But there was no other way I possibly could have known about Tobias.
The animal girl, Cassie, was staring at me, trying to get into my head. I quickly scanned her mind.
She's obviously lying. Who is she? How did she tell that Tobias was who he was? Does she also know things about the rest of us? Wait, she's staring right at me, as though she knows what I'm thinking-
I quickly turned from her to the boy beside her, Jake.
Is she a danger? Erek must have told her about Tobias. He said that she found Elfangor's Hirac Delest. Maybe she really is telling the truth. She's looking at me, just like everyone else, waiting for me to talk. Does she also know that I'm sort of the leader here? I'd better say something-
"Okay, we're here to help Dera here save her sister, and possibly get some information from an insider in the Sharing," Jake told us. "Dera, I'm Jake. These are Rachel, Cassie, Ax, and Marco, and Tobias is overhead. You have morphing powers, we've been told."
I nodded.
"I guess that makes you an Animorph," Marco commented.
"Is that official?" I asked, noticing that Erek had slipped out. I felt him move through the woods behind us, pleasantly surprised that my strange powers were not just limited to living things. "You know, the only morph I've got is a cat."
Do I dare to let this stranger become one of us? Jake wondered. The others all agreed before the meeting that, if needed, we would make her an Animorph. But now that the moment has come, it's all my decision- my fault if it doesn't work out-
"For God's sake," I said, amused. "If they already made the decision, then it's just one-sixth your fault. Stop obsessing over it!" Then I realized that I had spoken aloud.
"Did you just read my mind?" Jake demanded of me.
Cassie's mouth fell open in horror. Rachel, whose mind had not even been touched by me, looked aghast at the thought of someone knowing what she had been thinking. Aximili reeled back, glaring at me. Tobias rose a bit more, as though being a mile away would save him from me. Marco just laughed.
"Well, that explains the little bit about Tobias's father," he said calmly. "My vote is still with her joining. Imagine that power on our side!"
I grinned at him. He seemed more my type than the other Animorphs. "I only found out about it just now," I explained. "That's why I'm not great at keeping quiet about what I hear. So, am I an Animorph?"
Jake nodded, almost to himself. "That makes two for," Marco said cheerfully. "Ax, I assume you're with your prince, that's three." He looked at me. "Normally, I'd be completely against this sort of thing- I'm very suspicious- but you're just too good a prize to lose."
Cassie looked up. "I'll vote for if Dera swears not to use her powers on us."
"Done," I said calmly. "They probably won't last anyway."
Rachel and Tobias were still silent, but the majority was still for me. I was officially an Animorph.
"Battle morphs, everyone. Dera, if you don't have anything-"
"I think I may be able to become something without acquiring it," I interrupted.
The others looked at me in astonishment, but I had already become a female Andalite with a longer, wicked-looking blade that I had somehow made poison-tipped.
There was no time to wonder at how I had done something so incredible. The others were already almost totally morphed, and we were set to attack the Sharing- and save Dalla.
A/N: I know, I didn't get any feedback. But I was just really in the mood to write some more, so I did, and here it is! Just a little plug here- there's a really good story by tobiasrox about something vaguely similar to this. Read it! You won't be disappointed!
Disclaimer: No, I don't own Animorphs. If I did, I would have stretched it out at least ten more books. (Oh, and murdered Jake and let Aldrea take over Cassie's body completely, forever.) It belongs to K. A. Applegate (duh).