Notes:
--…sorry it's so short. O.o;;
Chapter 3
Ankulei-Shloroun-Dristhfill
By Aura Kage
I don't know why, but ever since I had first morphed the kafit bird, I had started to favor carnivorous morphs rather than herbivore ones. I, being an Andalite, was a herbivore, of course – but I had a weapon. Predator creatures were deadly. Some herbivores were, of course, armed to protect themselves from those who would antagonize them…but there was a sense of power, a sense of confidence in predatory creatures.
So that was why I was perched in the shade of veteran Captain-Prince Cosolran-Semitur-Juran's remaining eyestalk. I was a surujuli, an insect that could survive both in and out of water, from the planet Leera – a somewhat tiny bug, not small enough to be invisible but not large enough to be seen. Surujuli fed on other insects, poking an amazingly long sort of proboscis into its prey and injecting it with an acidic chemical that would instantly turn a its innards to mush, thus making it edible to the toothless surujuli.
The venomous spittle, however, was not strong enough to turn Captain-Prince Cosolran's insides to mush.
My eyes, large green oculars enameled with a thin retractable film to repel water, gazed around the brightly-lit room. I had a vague sense of color, but it was obvious that this predator hunted by movement as the cat did. I flexed my thin, but strong, wings, trying to shake off the surujuli's restlessness. It greatly disliked staying in one place – though it was a hunter, it was also preyed upon by a multitude other creatures.
I fought to quell the surujuli's mind, and twitched my foremost two grasping blade-like legs hesitantly. My other legs were thicker, stronger – for swimming. A serpentine tail the size of my body curled around my hind six legs, and I tried to cower down into Captain-Prince Cosolran's fur. Tried to be unnoticed. The mind of the surujuli agreed with me, and together we huddled in the protection of the blue fur.
In my mind, a perfect sense of time took away another Andalite minute. Ninety-five left until I had to demorph, unless I wished to stay a surujuli for the rest of my life.
~
Every hundred counts of time, I departed the veteran Captain-Prince and flew in total exposure to several private places – a closet or two, a waste elimination chamber, the cargo hold. The ship was not large and did not maintain the supreme air that a Dome Ship or fighter would have, so at first finding a place to demorph safely was difficult; but eventually I came to notice and use several marks as my guides.
How far away was Earth from the Andalite home world? I didn't know. I didn't like figures very much, which was possibly another component that led to my decision to quit the Academy. Morphing was so much easier, and I enjoyed it as well.
I stretched my wings and flapped them, immediately departing the ground. I few around the Andalite ship several times, enjoying the hyperactive body of the surujuli.
And then the logical part of my mind intervened into my play again. Why was I consenting to hiding on the veteran and his family? I could hide perfectly well in any other section of the ship!
So thinking, I flew off, back to the cargo hold. It was the largest of the private rooms that I had encountered, quite big enough to accommodate an Andalite. Not that I was planning to revert to my original form and stay there for the rest of the trip – that was too risky. But there was lots of room to fly around in the cargo hold, and the surujuli liked flying.
ZOOM! Up, up, up, towards the ceiling!
ZOOM! Down, down to the ground, the minuscule twisting fibers on the floor of the ship that kept Andalites with friction high all around me, a forest of skeletal lavender-navy-blue-white! Maneuvering was easy with four wings, the front to accustomed to the land while the back two flapped up and down, next to each other on my abdomen, as opposed to one on each of my sides. This was for easy propulsion through the water. I loved morphing.
ZOOM! Slipping through the oh-so-small crack between the door of the cargo hold and the floor! One of my back wings, in its "flapping upwards" stage, caught slightly but was jarred out in the next moment.
ZOOOOMM! In, up, down, sideways, FALLING! Up again, arching into the sky, then twisting in a spectacular dive bomb, falling towards the ground, lifting at the last minute! My tail swept around, a rudder of sorts, and I turned back up, high, high, high, higher –
KRACK!
Ahhhh! I cried as my right flying-wing was suddenly disabled. For a moment, I thought that it was a shredder, and I was caught by the incredulous image of an Andalite firing shredders at a tiny insect.
KRACK!
I prevented myself from crying out again but screamed privately as my right blade-leg was KRACK'ed off. I tried frantically to stay aloft with my one working wing, not trusting myself to survive the fall. What –
Up above! A small hairy monster, long flexible legs just visible through its array of messy long fur. An insect! I knew that insect! The ofrey, an Andalite bug, whose hair accumulated static as it scuffled along. He used that static to stun his prey, then used one of his long-range legs to take them up.
As soon as I had the image of myself being taken by the ofrey, one of the retractile claws reached forward.
AHHHH!
The bladed leg right through me! Piercing straight through my abdomen! Dragging me back to the ofrey's waiting jaw, pincers clicking, venom-stinger ready. He held me helpless, dangling, impaled and quickly losing life.
Ironic that instead of dying by Bug Fighter, I was dying by bug. Ironic. Stupid.
Ellimist, help me…! I shouted angrily, trembling, trying to ignore the immense pain and panicky feelings of the surujuli, its fear at being eaten. But I knew it was in vain – this was my problem that I had gotten into myself. I knew when to admit my mistakes. But that didn't stop me from being frantic myself. HELP ME!
I felt myself being injected with the venom that would close my eyes forever. I felt fear. I felt anguish. I felt defeat. I felt…relieved. No more dealing with life. No more hybrid-morphing. No more broken dreams and hopes and…yes, this was good. I would go forever.
No! No, don't give in! NO!
What was that voice? Who was that? I don't know…I don't care…
NO!
I caught hold of my awareness again, but felt it slipping away. I had to think! What could I do? How could I save myself? How –
Oh. Of course.
I looked straight at the ofrey as if to kill him with my eyes…and acquired him. His many eyes drooped, half-closing, and I powered my remaining wings back, un-stabbing myself, though some parts of me stayed behind.
Demorph! Demorph! Demorph!
Falling!
Demorph! Demorph!
Legs sucking into my sides! The hole in my middle filling with Andalite anatomy. For a moment, I saw my three hearts beating, and felt sick.
Demorph!
Antennae forming into stalk eyes! Main eyes turning almond-shaped, becoming clearer! Legs and arms and hands and hooves coming from my now-blue body, wings withdrawing into my back. It was finished. I was…
An extremely tiny Andalite. Smiling slightly, hysterics from near-death still staying with me, I enlarged into my normal size and height.
Now I was an Andalite in the cargo hold. Painfully aware of the fact that my stomach had been nothing just a few seconds ago.
I looked up at the ofrey, who was scurrying away to a hideout, afraid of his morphing prey. So tiny now. So helpless to me. I could squash him easily with a hoof, or cut him in half with my tail.
Yet, he had nearly killed me.
Trying not to think about the recent event, I focused on my new morph. No more wings for this trip.