Disclaimer: I don't own the Animorphs, and I don't own the Pemalites.

A/N: Yes, I know I'm kind of dancing on quicksand here. But hear me out, okay? There is logic buried in there, somewhere. Congratulations to everyone who guessed right.

Chapter Ten.

A Pemalite ship.

For a moment, I really think my heart stopped.

I'd been taken in, cared for, by Pemalites.

My life had been saved by an ancient race that had been annihilated millions of years ago.

And then, with sudden clarity, all the pieces fell into place.

Their canine features, similar to dogs or wolves –the animals the Chee had put the essence of their dying creators into. Their happy, friendly, doglike way of behaving. The kindness and decency that had prompted them into saving me. Even the fact that they had saved my life was in itself a testimony to their advancement.

Of course I thought I'd seen them before, because I had –but not in the flesh.

I'd seen them as a hologram, when Erek the Chee had told us where he and his fellow androids had come from. I'd seen them playing, having fun. I had heard their chuk-chuk-chuk laughter.

I'd seen them dying, in a hologram.

All of it suddenly fitted together. Even the similarities between their language and human languages. The Chee had been around on Earth for a long time. Long enough for Pemalite inflections to have entered our speech.

I stared at the ship, feeling a strange mixture of wonder and terror.

Wonder, because I had met with a long-dead race.

Terror, because of the same.

The Pemalites had known nothing of war. And they were dead, or I'd thought they were, at least partly because of that fact. But they were here.

I really, really could not understand.

But I knew one thing. I had to stay here. For reasons I couldn't quite yet understand, I had to stay here, on top of this mountain. It was sheer gut feeling, at least right then, but I knew it.

My attention was so focused on the ship that I didn't notice Inest until she was standing right beside me.

"Pemalite," I said softly, looking at her.

"Pemalite, che," she agreed.

For a moment we stood in solemn silence, sensing the importance of the moment.

Then Inest took my hand and gently led me away from the ship. That huge, battered, beautiful ship.

----

We went back out, back out of the forest and into the sunshine, where the Pemalites seemed to spend most of their time –out on the grassy summit, playing on the slope.

As usual, from what I'd seen, the place was already becoming rather active. The children –six or seven of them –were chasing each other around in a circle. A few adults were playing, of all things, what looked like a card game.

Yes, a card game. Though it used some pretty weird cards.

I can't tell you what was going through my mind right then. Amazement, excitement, a desire to ask questions. I don't know. But I am sure of one thing –I really wanted to talk to someone.

As in, someone who would understand what I was saying. Someone who would be able to communicate with me, reply to me. Someone who didn't have a grasp of English limited to twelve words.

I guess, yeah, I could have morphed osprey and flown home. And, oh, I wanted to. But who could I have talked to? The other Animorphs probably hated my guts right about now, and as for the Chee…well, imagine explaining to a million-year-old android that their supposedly-extinct creators are walking around on a mountain. See where I'm coming from?

Besides…I'd promised. And a promise is a promise. The only thing worth breaking a promise for is the threat of death.

In addition to which, there was the very strong feeling I had which said 'stay here'. That feeling really, okay, felt like it should be listened to.

There was so much I wanted to know. So many other thoughts and doubts welling up inside me that I didn't know what to do with them or even which to pay attention to. Some of them were big thoughts, and some were small, and the overriding one was that…I wanted to talk.

"Inest," I said.

"Che."

I laughed. It all seemed so funny suddenly. I was standing on the top of a mountain with a Pemalite, to whom I was about to say a lot of very confusing things, while a hefty chunk of a galactic war played out in a city maybe a few dozen miles from here.

Oh, and said galactic war had just had another species thrown into the game.

I stopped laughing.

The realization slammed into me like a hammer blow.

The Yeerks. The Yeerks we had prevented from getting hold of the Pemalite ship. We had worried about what they would do with Pemalite technology.

What would they do if they could infest the Pemalites themselves? If they could reach directly into Pemalite minds and discover how their technology worked? If they could twist that technology and wrap it directly into their evil schemes?

The Pemalites had been more advanced in their time than the Andalites were today. The Yeerks would become unstoppable.

I had to tell someone! But who?

"Inest," I said. I guess something in my voice must have got through to her. She turned to me.

"What?"

Yes, I had to tell someone. Telling Inest would be more or less useless, because she wouldn't understand, but it would help me get my thoughts in order.

I didn't even know where to start. So I started with the war, and the morphing power –things I could talk about now because right now she couldn't understand me –and then I went on to the question of how they could possibly alive, this old, old race, and the surprise I felt, and all the guilt and pain the war had unloaded on me. I rambled at length on the strange serenity of this place –the air of peace that existed despite all the madcap activity. I talked about my friends.

I ran out of things to say. But I felt good for saying them. Like a weight had been taken off my chest.

Inest was still standing there patiently. I'd been talking for a while.

"Sorry," I said lamely.

She put her hand on my wrist. I looked at it, the stubby-fingered hand covered in short, soft fur.

"You need to…say?"

"Talk."

"Che. You need to talk. I am…not…" She seemed to be struggling for a word.

"Upset?" I suggested.

"Not upset, as you say." She smiled, and my heart glowed.

I realized something else that day. It was a day for revelations. I realized why I had to stay there.

Pemalites don't fight.

If the Yeerks came, as they surely would, I would be the only line of defence.