Disclaimer: I own nothing but the concept of this story.

Chapter Six.

For the second time in two days, I woke up on a cold stone floor with my ankle hurting. This time, though, there was a difference: Instead of being warm on my front and cold on my back, I was freezing cold all over with uncomfortable flushes of heat which seemed to come from nowhere.

I groaned and sat up. Then I closed my eyes and swayed as a wave of dizziness came over me.

Light filtered through the entrance. It showed me the cave I'd taken up temporary residence in.

Surprise. I wasn't lying on the floor of the cave. Instead, I'd curled up on a kind of ledge at the back, huddled into a niche cut into the wall. A cave within a cave. One of them conveniently situated.

I gritted my teeth. I climbed to my feet and swayed again. Or foot, rather, because my ankle, the one I'd shredded when circling around, hurt too much to put any weight on. I hopped towards the entrance to the cave. Then realized how stupid I was being.

I sat down. Drank some water, because the sudden surges of heat were awful and my throat was dry. I would've eaten what was left of the biscuits, but the thought of food made me nauseous.

I took a deep breath and unwound the strip of fabric I'd tied around the wound.

I stared at the injury. I looked away. But then, inexorably, my eyes were drawn back to the cut.

It was not pretty.

Neither was the bandage, which I turned over and retied. I should have changed it, but I was running out of jacket.

And I had a mission to complete.

Swallowing past the lump in my throat, limping awkwardly, trying to clear my brain, I walked out of the cave and began to creep vaguely stealthily up the mountain.

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I almost needn't have bothered about making a noise. They made plenty of it themselves. I heard them –their voices and their strange laughter –before I got anywhere close. Nearby –well, I wasn't being too quiet. I mean, I was human. Not the best shape for stealth. Add that to the fact that I gasped in pain every so often and kept lurching, and you've got one none-too-quiet tracker.

But they didn't even notice.

You know I said they seemed familiar? They did, but not because I'd seen them before. You know what they reminded me of? Dogs.

Not so much the way they looked, although that –seen between twigs and leaves –was vaguely canine. It was the way they acted. Bounding around. Chasing each other. Having fun.

Andalites look sort of like centaurs. These creatures looked sort of like dogs. And the way they were running around having fun in their doglike way made me think of the golden, underground land of the Chee, and the horde of dogs that they kept down there.

If I'd had my head in gear, I might have made the connection right then. But I doubt it. I mean, it was impossible. It was only later that it all made sense. Even then, I asked quite a few questions before I was satisfied.

I watched them, and learned.

At first –after I got over the nervousness of being close to an unknown alien species –all I could think of was that the Yeerks would really, really like to have this species as their slaves.

I mean, they were fast. Have you ever seen a racehorse? Or any horse at all, running? Or jumping? Here's what I saw: These aliens could run nearly as fast as a horse. Not quite as fast, but fast. And could they jump! I saw one of them jump maybe three times its own height.

I was fascinated. Amazed. Maybe just a little bit wistful.

They'd taken up residence on the side of the mountain, not far from the treeline. I figured they must've landed their ship on the other side of the mountain, where, incidentally, I couldn't see it. And for some reason I wasn't too keen on creeping around to get a look.

I told myself it was better to stay safe.

I watched them for a whole day. At first it was just duty, my responsibility. But after a while, I watched them in a kind of daze. I just crouched there, staring at them. Taking in the way they spoke to each other. Absorbing their speech, their movement, their actions.

For hours I huddled behind bushes and trees, sipping water when I dared, watching them tensely. And yet, I wasn't all that afraid. I had to remind myself to be afraid. They somehow put me at ease, without even speaking to me.

Although maybe it was just the fact that I hadn't been noticed after two hours and wasn't likely to be because of the noise.

I wanted to like them. I…well, I really wanted to like them. They made you want to like them. But if there's one thing this war has taught me, it's suspicion. So I kept myself neutral. Watched them. Tried to learn.

Even an Andalite, someone like Ax or Elfangor, can have a Yeerk slug locked inside, and one that happens exterior appearances are irrelevant. The creature, no matter what its natural personality, will be under the control of the Yeerk. Will have to carry out the Yeerk's intents.

I wished, wished, wished that it wasn't the case.

There were a couple of times that I could have sworn I caught them watching me. One of them in particular started to look familiar. One time I was staring at a couple of younger ones wrestling, and then felt a tingle on the back of my neck.

I looked up to see the familiar one looking at the bush I was hiding behind.

Closest I'd ever come to a heart attack.

It happened a few more times. I'd catch one of them looking sort of in my direction, and then saying something I couldn't hear. But they always turned away after a second or two. After a while, when none of them came to get me, I started to relax.

The thing that really caught my attention happened at sunset.

Up until then, they'd been acting all over the place. Some would be playing what looked like a board game. Others would be trying to jump onto tree branches that were still attached to the tree.

But at sunset, that changed. They stopped what they were doing. Stood up. Formed into loose groups that merged into one large group, maybe fifty of the aliens, which scattered across the hillside.

They turned to face the setting sun. Then each of them held out an arm, the palm of the hand towards the sun.

They all spoke together. They said the same words. A single phrase. Spoken with an air of ritual about it.

"Tenra chee eyona alsen mer, erenet."

Needless to say, I didn't understand. But I sat there, caught by the beauty and respect that infiltrated the…ritual? Ceremony? I didn't know quite what it was. A custom, perhaps, that was also a ritual…

For a few seconds after they had spoken, the air was full of unaccustomed silence. I heard the breeze, and birdsong, and the rustle of leaves. I heard, faintly, a stream flowing further down the hill. It seemed to me right then that all of nature was holding its breath, preserving itself, frozen into that one, beautiful moment.

They lowered their hands, and movement and sound returned in the form of running, jumping, and sudden outbursts of bluejay laughter.

I ducked, crawled, scuttled, and crept away until the little Alien Central was out of sight. Then I walked down the slope, back towards the cave.

My ankle gave out in a savage surge of pain. I collapsed to the ground and rolled down the dusty track.