Ch.5 Hunted
My seagull muscles strained as I flew my heart out. It didn't help matters that the morphing cube was slowing me down. 3 pounds doesn't seem like much, till you're only about a foot tall. It felt like being weighed down by a fifty pound barbel. I didn't need to look back to know that my pursuers were rapidly gaining on me. [It doesn't have to be like this, Rachel!] Cassie taunted. I had no idea how I was gonna get out of this. There wouldn't be time for me to demorph to something that would do damage, and I couldn't lead them to Mom.
At the same time, I couldn't drop the morphing cube either. If the Yeerks got their hands on the morphing power, it might as well be the ball game for the entire universe. I couldn't let that happen. Tseer! I barely dodged as Jake attempted a dive. As a matter of fact, I shouldn't have been able to dodge. In a dive, the peregrine falcon is the fastest animal on earth, bar none. [Well played, Rachel] he commented. [But it's over. Surrender now, and we will spare your family.]
I laughed. It was a grim laugh. [You're my family, Jake!] I fired back. [And fyi, Ax made the same offer at my house, only to admit that once you had me you were gonna infest them anyway.] The Yeerk seemed at a loss of how to respond. I could imagine he was privately chewing Ax out. I tried to fly low, under the tree cover. If I could evade them till sunset I'd be set. Then I could morph to great horned owl and get back to my family.
That was assuming my friends didn't use the very same morph to continue the chase. We all had it, well, except Tobias. I prayed he made it out, but it was far more likely that he was dead. I evaded an attack dive from Marco as I hit the tree line. [That was luck, Xena!] he said angrily. I laughed. [That was skill, Yeerk!] I refused to defile my friends by referring to the Yeerks with their names. I could hear flapping wings as my friends tried to find me. I could've demorphed to human, but I'd reveal myself, and they'd all pull their battle morphs.
This was not a fight I could win. I didn't even think my african elephant could take four on one. Not with Jake's tiger, Marco's gorilla, Cassie's wolf, plus Ax in his Andalite body. There wasn't a morph in our combined arsenal that could take those kind of odds. If only I'd been able to keep her dinosaur morphs from our little visit to the past. I was tempted, in light of my current situation, to morph to T-Rex and start laying the smackdown all over the Yeerks. But because that experience only happened because of an underwater nuclear explosion, the morphs I acquired were lost when I returned to the present.
I thought it was safe to take off, when I was struck by Cassie. Her's was a northern harrier. It was bad luck that she struck my right wing and crippled me. [She's wounded!] she called out. Jake's falcon began to advance toward me in a dive. This was the end. I was prepared for death. As Jake began his descent, I closed my eyes. Tseer! The sound was a bird of prey, but it wasn't Jake. I opened my eyes in time to see Tobias intercept him. He knocked Jake out of the air, and the others retreated.
[Oh my god, Tobias! I thought I'd never see you again!] Tobias stared at me with his fierce eyes. [Demorph] he ordered. I realized I had to. He morphed to human as I demorphed. As soon as I had my body I pelted him with questions. "Were you hit? How did you escape? Where have you been?" He raised his hands, trying to calm me down. "Slow down, Rachel!" he yelled. "I was hit by a handgun," he began explaining.
"One of the human controllers got a lucky shot. The bullet crippled my wing. Luckily, they quit focusing on me when they caught the others." He paused, not sure if this was a good thing. "I thought they got you too. Then, I was flying, trying to figure out how to get out of this mess, when I noticed a seagull being chased by four birds of prey." He smiled. "It seemed odd to me, so I followed. Then, I heard thought speak and I realized who it was." I hugged him so hard he sputtered in his struggle for air. "How did you escape the Yeerk Pool?" I asked. His face became solemn.
"It wasn't easy. I heard your warning, but I couldn't leave without knowing you were safe. I saw a fly evade dracon beams, and I knew it had to be you." He paused, ever so briefly. "I couldn't fly but I was able to hobble to a sewer opening and morph." I backed away instictively. "Relax, it's cool," he said. "I tried to find you at your house, but by the time I got there it was trashed and your mom's van was driving away. I followed you guys to the forest but I lost track of you."
Words couldn't describe how great it felt to know that Tobias was safe. And more importantly, he was still in the game. Now it was four on two. Not good, but better than four on one. We had to get back to the logging camp. I hoped the Yeerks would think it was just some random hawk that attacked Jake. That would make it better for us. It was the same strategy we'd used when we thought David had killed Tobias. If the Yeerks still thought it was just me, they'd be sure to make mistakes. "Do you remember where the Yeerk's logging camp is?" I asked.
Tobias nodded. "Of course. I fly by every so often to make sure they haven't come back to it." I smiled. "It's our base camp," I said. He demorphed to hawk, and I morphed to bald eagle. There was still just enough sunlight for us to see. "Lead the way, Xena!" We took off.