Chapter 1
My name is Tobias.
I can't tell you much more than that. Maybe even that might be too much information. If Jake's older brother, Tom, found this, he would recognize all the names in this story, except for maybe Ax.
I'm writing all this down because... Actually, I don't really know why I'm writing this.
I think it might have been Cassie's idea. Back in the beginning, we were having a very hard time dealing with the memories of our first time in the Yeerk pool. I think Cassie said that if we put this on paper we would feel better.
I know I'm certainly not.
You're probably wondering what I'm talking about.
This planet, good old Earth, is under a silent invasion by a species of aliens called Yeerks.
They don't appear dangerous. If you saw a Yeerk in its natural state, you'd just see something similar to a slug.
But we know better. My five friends and I have fought the Yeerks.
They look harmless, but they really aren't.
You see, the Yeerks are parasites. They crawl through your ear, wrap themselves around your brain, and take control of your whole body.
The Yeerks spread through a species like a virus. They lure you down to the Yeerk pools in the bodies of your friends, family, and everyone you know.
The Yeerks have a secret organization called the Sharing.
From the outside, it appears to be a fun after school club that kids can go to. Actually, you don't even have to be a kid to get in.
Anyone can join the Sharing. They have all sorts of fun activities. They have camping trips, barbecues, ball games, and just about everything you can think of.
But the full members are all Controllers. That's what we call someone who has a Yeerk in their head.
They ask you to become a full member. If you say yes, then they bring you to the Yeerk pool. They tell you about the Yeerk invasion. If you still want to join, then you have a Yeerk put in your head and you become a voluntary Controller.
If you change your mind and no longer want to join, then... Well, it's too late for that. Your head is forced into the Yeerk Pool, and you get infested with a Yeerk anyway.
They do that to everyone they can.
But the Yeerks have an important weakness.
They feed off of Kandrona rays, something in the Yeerk pool. They leave their host every three days and swim in the Yeerk pool.
If they don't return to a Yeerk pool in three days, the Yeerk dies and the host is free.
There is a small resistance against the Yeerks.
Five humans and our Andalite friend.
The Yeerks will probably win this. We're just kids who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.
My friends, Jake and Marco, as well as Jake's cousin, Rachel, her friend Cassie, and I were just taking a shortcut home from the mall.
We walked through an abandoned construction site, and saw an Andalite ship crash.
Of course, none of us actually knew what it was, but we were curious and decided to investigate.
An injured Andalite stepped out of the ship, and he told us about the Yeerks, and how the Andalites were the main resistance against them.
Well, before that he did accuse us of being Yeerks and try to kill us.
But I guess eventually he believed us, because he warned us and gave us the power to morph into animals.
We could turn into any animal we touched. But we couldn't stay in morph for more than two hours.
The Andalite, Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, acquired a human morph that was a mix between the five of us. Then we escaped.
We call him Ax for short.
It was a perfectly normal day.
No sinister Yeerk plots for us Animorphs to bust.
I was having a Yeerk free day. And I invited Ax to hang out at my house.
In human morph, of course.
We couldn't tell my parents about the Yeerks. It was always possible that they could be Controllers.
I waited outside as I saw him coming up the driveway.
"Hello, Tobias." Ax said. "It is a nice day. D-d-day. The D sound is very pleasant."
Andalites use thought-speak to talk, so they don't naturally have mouths. When Ax is in his human morph, he always plays with sounds.
Even better, however, is the sense of taste. He goes crazy around any type of food. Especially cinnamon buns.
We went into my house.
"Ah. You must be Max," my dad said, "Tobias has told me about you."
"It is nice to meet you." Ax said.
We played video games.
Then, Ax had to demorph.
Looking back on it, he probably should have demorphed in the bathroom. If he'd done that, then what happened next wouldn't have happened.
Right as Ax had completed his transformation to Andalite, my dad walked into my room. "Tobias, Max, supper's—" He trailed off, and his eyes went wide.
I stared at my father in horror. "Andalite?" He asked. "What is an Andalite doing here?"
No! No! My dad was a Controller. MY DAD WAS A CONTROLLER!
[Yeerk!] Ax said, hatred in his voice.
My father's face twisted in anger. "How dare you. You march into my house, and you dare to call me one of those filthy parasites?"
I was confused. My dad wasn't a Controller. But how did he know about Andalites.
"Dad?" I asked. "How do you know about Andalites and Yeerks and all that stuff?"
"I could ask you the same thing, Tobias." He said.
"Am I actually talking to my father right now?" I asked.
"Yes."
I decided to tell him the truth.
He told me about how he was an Andalite named Elfangor once.
"I think we should tell the others." I said.
