Chapter 3
We all met at Sara's house later as planned. There was awkwardness between us all- we must have all been thinking of the previous night's occurrences.
I sat next Sara on a sofa. Leo, Lindsay and Freddie all sat on a larger sofa together and then Elliott sat by himself in the large chair.
I stood up "I think we all know why we're here..."
Freddie cut me off "It wasn't real, Zach, so I don't know why we were here actually!"
I stood in silence staring at him, wondering what to say to him. I looked to Sara for help.
Sara stood up beside me "So, you don't call this real?" She closed her eyes and I could tell she was beginning to focus, to be able to morph. She suddenly sprouted bright ginger hair all over her body. She wasn't becoming her robin morph she had used before, she was becoming something else.
I suddenly realised something and put my hand on her arm "Don't Sara: you know what happened when you morph back"
She quickly removed all the ginger hair that had appeared. She nodded her head at me, slightly embarrassed "Oh yeah, thanks"
"Look, is that enough proof?" I looked to the group. All were just stunned by what Sara had just done.
Freddie was the first to recover from his shock and speak "I can't do this, Ok? I guess I'll be off" He got up from the sofa and quickly exited the room. We all stared at the door he had left from and we heard the door slam
"I believe you" Elliott cheerfully piped up "I've done it too... morphed, I mean"
At least this put some confidence in me that half of the original six had now already tried morphing. I looked to Leo and Lindsay "What about you two?"
Leo looked at me, frowning "Zach, I don't know about this"
"Don't be a wimp, baby bro!" Lindsay hit Leo across the arm playfully whilst reminding him of that fact that she had been born about 15 minutes before he was- she always reminded him of it! "We're in" Lindsay stated for the both of them
"That makes five of us then?" Sara asked for confirmation
I nodded in response "Seems like it" I looked around the room and everyone was nodding in response also.
"So, how we gonna bust some 'Yeerk' ass?" Lindsay seemed extremely enthusiastic at the whole prospect surprisingly. I just think that Lindsay enjoys the thought of being all powerful.
"Well, everyone needs to experience what it is like to morph first. Since Zach, Elliott and I have already tried it out, it looks like it is you two that need to now" Sara looked to Leo and Lindsay
"We don't have any pets" responded Leo
"My Dad runs a rehabilitation centre in our garden for injured animals in his spare time and remember, he is a Vet at the zoo too!" Sara gave them a smile "We can go acquire some in both places"
"Sorted then!" beamed Lindsay "So, back to the Yeerks?"
"I think we need to wait around to see whether there seems to be any activity from them" I explained to the group "Remember, the Andalite said to us that we will know when we are needed"
"Anyone in our life's could be a Yeerk host..." Elliott suddenly said bringing a negative atmosphere in the room. He seemed to notice and tried to justify what he had said "It's the truth..."
"I know" I sadly backed him up "Just think we are fighting this battle for our loved ones" It sounded so cliché I thought but it felt like it should've been said!
We stayed silent for a few moments, thinking. I wondered could anyone I know be a Yeerk host? It was question that I truly did not want to know the answer to
"We need to stay together at school, at lunch, at break, whenever!" stated Lindsay "We need to evaluate everyone as if we can figure out who one of them is, then they could lead us to, like, their lair!"
"Their lair?" Leo chuckled to himself "You watch way too much TV!"
Lindsay gave him a disapproving look "Well, I don't know!"
"So, you fancy going and acquiring some animals?" Sara cheerfully said "At the zoo I mean"
"Can you get us in?" I frowned at her, confused
"Well, in the rehabilitation centre we take in birds too so I thought that we could maybe fly over the fence of the zoo tonight and then go and acquire at few of the animals" Sara had it all planned out!
"Sounds great!" I gave her an approving smile- this was just what we needed to do!
"So, are we just gonna be morphing animals like dog and stuff?" queeried Leo
"Nope" Sara replied simply
"Elaborate" Leo made a befitting hand gesture
Sara chuckled to herself but was unable to answer as Elliott did for her "Leo, we are entering a war, and we will definitely not win a war with a dog or a robin morph, hence, we need more powerful morphs i.e. lions and tigers and so on. Am I right?" He looked from me to Sara and we both nodded
"And you expect us to get that DNA, how?" Leo really did not seem convinced
Lindsay looked to her twin with a devious smile "That is why tonight is gonna be fun!"
On that note we decided to leave it, we were just all at a point where we were ready to just go ahead with it tonight.
Sara led us through her garden and up to the shed at the end of it which was just massive! Inside there were a few rows of cages which were only partially filled (probably because Sara's parents were away and they wouldn't want to have bombarded Sara with too much responsibility). She led us up to the far end of the cages where all the birds were kept. There were only a few birds, not too many, only about 7.
"Here we are" Sara opened a cage to a magpie. She brought it out of the cage and looked at me "Zach, you wanna morph this?"
I slowly nodded my head as I reached my hand out to the magpie. I placed my hand on the animal, focused on it and began to acquire its DNA. It went limp as Millie had done. I then pulled my hand away "Done" I gave Sara a smile as she placed the magpie back in its cage, closing it up and moving onto the next one which contained only a little blue tit.
Sara looked up to them, holding the magpie. I think she must have realised that Leo and Lindsay did not seem to be impressed that they were only going to be a blue tit because she said "We are only flying a short distance so you don't need anything too powerful and this blue tit will do just fine"
Both Leo and Lindsay held out their hands begrudgingly to the blue tit, placing them gently on it to acquire it. They acquired it quickly enough as I had and Sara put away the bird in the cage.
Sara went up to the next cage which contained a much bigger bird "Elliott, you can be this hawk" Sara looked to him. I saw a large smile come across Elliott's face at the thought of this.
"Wait, how come he gets the cool bird?" Leo sounded jealous
"I am just going along a line, Leo!" Sara reasoned with him "We have just got rid of most of our birds of prey as far as I know anyway, sorry. Anyway, I think you will make a perfect little blue tit" Leo didn't respond to this comment- he probably knew it was best not to.
Elliott began to acquire the DNA of the hawk "This is so much cooler than morphing my hamster" We all burst out laughing at Elliott's comment as it just seemed to come out of nowhere. Elliott stared about confused, not realising the randomness of his comment. He quickly finished acquiring the hawk.
"So, are we all done then?" I asked
Sara smiled "Yep" She put away the hawk and turned to the group "Meet outside the zoo at about nine tonight?" She looked to the group for a response, everyone nodded at her. Sara then looked to Leo and Lindsay "Oh, you two need to try morphing out at home"
"How?" questioned Leo
Before Sara could answer I spoke "I'll be off, Sara. I have to be home. See you tonight!"
"I'll come too" Elliott unexpectedly piped up
We both quickly exited the shed because we didn't really need to learn how to morph as we had obviously already done it, then, I knew Sara would attempt to show them and I wanted to save the embarrassment of potential nakedness again, and I did actually have to be home for something, Emma was appearing on the news for something she had done at college and Mum had rang everyone in the family and invited them round so we could watch it and congratulate her- it was pointless!
I looked to Elliott "So, where do you live?"
"Just around the corner from you" His answer actually seemed a bit short, but I got over it
I just answered simply "I didn't know that"
"Yeah, well, people don't really pay attention to me" He seemed slightly bitter
We stayed silent for a few moments "So, why have you moved here?"
All I had heard about why he had moved here were just rumours, not actual fact, but they did actually turn out to be true "My parents split up" Again, we stayed silent for a bit- this was just becoming a really awkward situation! "Are you ready for this?" Elliott suddenly asked me
"What, against these Yeerks?"
"Yeah" It seemed a strange question
"As ready as I will ever be, I guess"
We were beginning to reach the corner of my street now, it turned out that our silent periods in between speaking had actually lasted a bit longer than what I had thought "This is my street" We then reached it "I guess I'll be seeing you tonight..." I began to walk away
"Yeah, bye" He waved at me and we went our separate ways.