Ch.6 Bonds of Trust
It was just getting dark as Tobias and I reached the logging compound. I demorphed and went to the building I remembered my family hiding in, Tobias riding my shoulder. "I'll go first," I said. [Fine by me] Tobias replied. I focused my mind on the cockroach, and soon I could feel my body shrinking. Tobias wisely turned away. Two legs sprung from my torso. My human limbs converted to insect legs, and my head began to feel weird as antennae grew from it. Morphing. I'd been doing it for years, and I still wasn't used to it. It was a different experience every time.
[You can look now, Tobias] He turned, glad he'd missed the show. [I hate insect morphs] he replied. The feeling was mutual. I crawled under a crack it the front door. Luckily for me, my mom wasn't watching it. She has a deathly fear of roaches. Sara was the first to notice me as I demorphed. "Mommy, mommy, Rachel's back!" she exclaimed. My mother turned to see a half roach, half human girl staring back at her. "Oh my god," she said. "I just lost my appetite." As the transformation completed, I nodded. I remembered that I had been dumb enough to watch the first time one of us morphed cockroach. My lunch was quickly deposited on the ground.
Jordan came downstairs. I hadn't noticed that this building had two stories before. "Did you find what you were looking for?" she asked with a smile. I returned the smile and said, "Yes, and more." My mom looked at me skeptically. "Everybody, I have a friend I want you to meet." I opened the door, and Tobias flew in. "Look at the birdie," Sara said brightly.
"Mom, Sara, Jordan, this is Tobias. Tobias, this is Mom, Sara and Jordan." I introduced. "You're one of Rachel's friends?" my mom asked, confused. [Maybe this will explain] Tobias replied. He began to morph to human. Soon, he was standing before us. My mom had a moment of recognition. "I remember, you came over one day three or four years ago looking for Rachel," she said. Tobias blushed. I was surprised. He never told me he'd met my mother. "You have some explaining to do later," I said darkly. He simply nodded.
"Why were you a bird before?" Jordan asked. I took this one. "There's one big limitation to morphing," I answered. "If you don't return to human form in two hours, you get trapped in morph. Tobias is what the Andalites call a nothlit." Tobias nodded his head. "The first time we went to the Yeerk pool, I was trapped. I went over the limit," he explained. "What's a Yeerk pool?" Jordan asked curiously. Shuddering at the memory, I answered, "A place you never want to see, trust me." We'd experienced too many nightmares from that place, including the one we were currently in.
I'd talked it over with Tobias as we flew, and he was a little skeptical. "Are you sure you want to do this?" he asked. "This is a lot to put on a twelve year old's plate," he said. I realized that. Heck, I lived that. We were all around twelve and fourteen when we recieved our powers. But there was an advantage to what I was about to propose. "And have you thought of what might happen if she reacts the way David did?" An extremely good point. David had found the morphing cube. We attempted to retrieve it, and were forced into battle against Visser Three. The poor kid had lost his parents to the Yeerks. To say that he didn't handle it well would be an understatement.
We thought that giving David the morphing power would be a good thing. He had nowhere else to go. It was either that or let the Yeerks take him, and no one deserves that. He ended up turning on us, and after a terrifying game of cat and mouse, we trapped him in morph as a rat. We hadn't heard from him since. "I think we'll be able to avoid that," I replied. He'd dropped the subject.
"I have something important I need to talk to you about," I said to my middle sister. Mom was silent. She gave me a slight nod, signaling to go ahead. Jordan looked at me expectantly. "You know what's been going on, right?" She nodded. "What I'm about to ask you is completely up to you. Would you like to have the morphing power?" Her eyes beamed at the prospect. She'd get to morph into animals and fight aliens just like her big sister.
"I understand if you need to think about this," I continued. It was time to get serious. "Before you answer, you need to know that this isn't all fun and games. It's a huge responsibility. Luckily you have something I didn't," I said. Jordan looked at me funny. "What's that?" she asked. She could tell that this was a lot to ask of her. "A choice in the matter." She took this in, and so did mom, because she didn't speak for several minutes. "Rachel's right," she said finally. "This is entirely your choice. I don't like the idea of my daughters risking their lives, but we don't have the luxury of doing nothing." My mother had surprised me with her wisdom.
"I'll do it," she said. I brought out the morphing cube. "Touch this," I instructed. Jordan hesitantly put her hand on the box. I didn't know how it worked, but after a few seconds, it emited the same light it had when I'd been on the recieving end. Jordan removed her hand. "That felt weird," she said. I nodded. I'd had the same thought. Tobias looked at me expectantly. "I hope you know what you're doing," he said. He morphed back to hawk, and took a place in the ceiling.
"Just promise me one thing," my mother said. "Promise me that she won't get hurt." I had thought about that. It was unavoidable. But I was going to train her for a long time before she'd ever see a battle. Another advantage she had that I didn't was that she had two of us to teach her the trade, so to speak. When we recieved our powers, there was no one to train us. We really had no idea what we were getting into.
"So I can morph now?" she asked. "How does it work?" I smiled. "Well, you touch the animal, and after a few seconds, you will acquire it. You kind of have to imagine the animal in your mind," I explained. She nodded. "And remember the two hour time limit." She looked at me. "I won't forget," she said. I realized more than anyone what she'd got into. "Let's sleep tonight, and tomorrow, you and I are going to The Gardens." "The wild animal park?" Sara questioned. "Yes, we need to get Jordan some morphs," I replied. I only hoped we could get in and out without a few dozen controllers catching us.