LittleMidgett; Thanks for your reviews, i'm glad u liked the last chappie of David's Back. I thought you would. And... you have a mind???? ;p
Just kidding. I might need your help with all of these characters. They all need to be different. Can you help me?
Neways, here's da nxt chappie...
Seth
Okay, let's get this straight; genetically, I am human. Me and Sean have the average human genes floating around inside us. Our dad is the full alien here. And if you don't understand me, think of it this way; Tobias's dad was an Andalite, and he's still a fully fledged human. Ok? Got it? Good. Now, on with the story.
During breakfast (which was actually just a whole bowl of delicious fruit) I noticed Nicole and Alex seemed worried. Neither of them were talking very much, and Nicole just kept picking up a piece of fruit then dropping it back down into the wooden bowl.
"Who died?" I asked, trying to make it sound like a joke. I picked up a purple piece of fruit, stuck it in my mouth, and chewed. It really was good fruit. I caught Marco and Jake stealing worried glances at each other, like they thought something had gone on with the two that shouldn't have. Cassie sent a sharp look at both of them, and soon they returned to eating.
"Nothing. The party just bored us into submission, that's all" Alex tried to make a joke, but I saw through him. I wasn't his best friend for nothing, you know.
But everyone else seemed to believe him, and nothing else was said after that. Well, nothing about those two.
Soon, Rtaia offered to give us a 'tour' of the city, as well as their museum and meet the council. They were all up for it, except the 'meeting the council' thing. I wasn't. I'd been all around this place, when my parents had taken me and Sean up here to meet our great-grandparents and our 'cousins' and stuff. They'd each shown us the same things about fifty thousand times.
Thankfully, all of us kids agreed that we'd rather stay here and just play some ball or something. So, the parents went merrily off after they'd showered and changed, and us 'kids' waved goodbye to them.
"Well, what now?" Sean asked, scratching the back of his strawberry-blond hair. We both had that hair, and I got mum's (yes, I say mum because I am Australian) brown eyes. He got the wicked cool blue eyes from our dads' human form. Oh well, can't win every time.
"Well, we can't play ball. Someone forgot to bring the ball and a bat" Toni said, glaring at me. Soon the others were too.
"Hey, don't look at me. Try having my mum for a...uh...mum. She's very strict, you know"
"In other words, you forgot" Cody rolled his eyes.
(Perhaps a computer game will amuse us?) Aerionna offered. She led us into the 'lounge room' and I watched as her and Elfangor played a cool 3-D game of battle ships or something, then Cody and Sean tried it. I yawned.
"Well, I don't know about you guys, but last night tired me out. I'm going back to bed" I said, stretching and turning to go back into my room.
"All right" one of them said, I don't know who. Little did they know I wasn't going to do any such thing.
I went into the room, thinking of locking the door, then deciding against it, knowing it would seem suspicious to the others. I'd just have to chance it.
I was going to do the one thing that my mum and dad had told me never to do by myself. I was going to shape-shift.
I'd done it a couple of times before, and had managed to put skin-tight clothing into the change (like the Animorphs and their morphing), but nothing more than that. And let me tell you, it's embarrassing the first time around. Let's just say I'm glad my dad was teaching me, and not my mum.
Shape-shifting itself was exiting, and it made me want to try it more, but for some reason my parents were against me doing it more often.
I'd become a dolphin and a wolf, both of whom were either bigger or about the same height and weight as me. But now, I was going to become something that could fly. I was going to become a Chudnit. Like a Chanaiben version of a bat. They're greyish blue, about a foot high, and have creepy white eyes. Yeah, you heard me, white. All white, and it looks like they're blind.
I'd seen one on our last visit to the Chanaiben world. They blend into the trees, and I got a good look at one when someone accidentally knocked one out of the trees with a baseball (hey, I couldn't help it, I didn't even know it was there)
I'd never done the shape before, so I wasn't sure what to expect. I mean, I know they had echolocation like regular bats, but I don't know how they used it. After all, I'd never been a bat before.
I changed into my tight-fitting jeans and my black top, stuffing my P.J's back into the drawer under my bed, looking at the dresser in front of me and seeing myself. I was tall for my age, so was Sean, but for some reason it didn't look like it. I looked about four feet tall.
Hang on a sec... I was four feet tall!
"Yah!" I yelped, then clamped a hand over my mouth and cursed myself silently for being so stupid, stopping my change immediately.
Dammit! I'd forgotten to focus! I had been just randomly thinking about it and nearly turned myself into something between that and my mum and dad. Urgh! Ga-ross!
I took a few deep breaths and closed my eyes, hoping to calm myself. Then I focused, keeping a clear picture in my head of the Chudnit. I continued to shrink, although not as fast anymore, focusing on changing my head first. My ears migrated to the top of my head, becoming larger and more triangular in shape. My nose turned into the three slits of the Chudnit's nose, and in my mouth my teeth reshaped themselves to become the small ripping teeth used for eating the bark and hard fruits in the trees. Then came the eyes. And suddenly, I realised the Chudnit was far from blind. It could see the world but only in some ugly yellow and greys.
Then came the hard part. Keeping the clothes while I changed the rest of me. Thankfully, I managed that part quite well, and I watched with the creepy eyes of the Chudnit as my shirt melded into the grey/blue fur of my chest. My little feet emerged as my knee joints snapped the other way and my legs turned skinny like I hadn't eaten in years.
Finally, the wings. I opened my tiny little arms, focusing hard on the wing shape, watching as the spaces between my fingers grew webbed, and the flap of leathery skin emerged from my arm and torso, connecting them together, with the tiny bat wing bones growing in to strengthen the leathery wings themselves. And then, quite suddenly, I was fully Chudnit.
I looked around the room, which now seemed like an entire mansion to my one-foot self, and fired off some echolocation clicks. It happened automatically. But I suddenly realised why they saw in such funny colours. They needed the little Etch-A-Sketch picture to complete what they saw. And what they saw was amazing.
It was full colour! It was like digital T.V jacked up to about a million times better!
But it only lasted a second, and then I was seeing the world in funny colours again.
I still have to see how this thing does at night. I reminded myself, still absolutely amazed at the change I had done. I opened my wings and flapped them, almost crying for joy as I lifted off the ground, and made it as far as my temporary bed, making probably the worst landing in bat or Chudnit history. Head over little bat feet I landed, thinking I'd probably broken a wing. I hadn't, thankfully.
I righted myself, then had a heart attack as I heard my brothers' voice in the hallway.
"Seth! Hey, Seth! Man you've gotta see this! Cody and Toni are having a serious one-on-one in this video game..." he opened the door, then trailed off as he saw little old me perched on the bed.
"Hey, what the..." I could see the wheels in his head turning, before it finally clicked for him and he turned and quickly shut the door behind him.
"Seth? Man, please tell me that's you and I haven't lost my mind" Sean said as he came and kneeled down in front of me, coming almost eye-level to me.
(It's me) I said in thought-speak, focusing on directing it only to him. I guess he was more than a little surprised.
"What... are you nuts! Do you know what will happen if mum... no, forget about what will happen when mum finds out, what about dad!"
(I know that. And besides, they won't find out if no-one tells them, will they?)
He sighed, then sat himself on the bed beside me, making my little Chudnit body stumble a little.
"So, what do you plan to do now?" He asked, giving me the look that said 'man, you are so dead'.
(Umm... I don't know. Think you could sneak me outside?) Now it looked like I'd hit him.
"Are you crazy?!"
(Uh, yeah. I mean, c'mon... hello?) I opened my little bat wings, indicating to myself to prove it. He looked away for a few seconds, and when he turned back to me I knew he'd cave. That's my bro. I can get him to do anything. Too bad he can do the same to me when the roles are reversed.
"All right. But you'd better be back before mum and dad do, or you are D.E.A.D, big time. All right?"
(Don't worry, I just want to try it out for an hour or so. Then I'll come right back, I promise) I said, knowing I'd probably take more than two hours.
I clung to his back as he went to talk to the others, not going into the room for fear that they'd notice me on his back, telling them all I wanted to do was sleep, and I'd said to 'bugger off and come back in a few hours'. They believed it, and when they had all turned back to the game Sean crept backwards until he was at the stairs and bolted up them, worried that Aerionna had seen him, and muttering words I can't ever repeat here.
He got me outside, where I unlatched myself from his clothing, seeing I'd just ruined his favourite night shirt (and deciding not to tell him about it) where he picked me up one final time to look at me.
"One hour and then you're back, all right?"
(Sure)
"And if you're not I'll come looking for you" Then he smiled at me "Either that or I'll tell mum and dad and let them find you" That got me.
(Okay, okay, I said I would, and I will)
"And uh... Seth?"
(Yeah?)
"Tell me how it feels like, ok?"
He finally let me go, where I soared off into the daylight, feeling more free than I ever had been as a human, firing my little clicks and seeing the world in a different way.
------------------------------------------------2-----------------------------
After making sure I wouldn't get lost in the Chanaiben suburbia, I flew towards a dense patch of trees, about three miles out of town, joining what I saw as a whole bunch of other Chudnits, hoping they were a group species.
The flying itself? It was... it was amazing! It was like all my dreams had come true in an instant! Seeing everything from above? It's thrilling.
I stopped again at a larger stretch of trees, almost as big as an average forest, and hung off one of the spindly trees with my little hooked feet. Automatically, I set off some little chirps, not echolocation.
Chit-it-it-it-it-it-it-it-it!
And all of a sudden, the tree I was on came alive.
CHIT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT!! It was a chorus of little Chudnits!
Two used their little bat feet and hands to make their way down the tree to me. I tensed, thinking I'd done something really stupid. But... no! They weren't attacking me. They were... curious. I felt them nosing my body. My back, my own funny little nose, my wings... one of them even licked my face.
(Eeeuck! No thankyou, I don't need a bath!) I said, but of course they couldn't understand me. Very soon they both gave me a quick once over, then stayed next to me, body to body. I felt so warm, so... comforted.
"Chit" I chirped softy.
"Chit"
"Chit-it" Was their reply as they huddled close. One licked my face again.
(Hey, this is fun) I said to myself, thinking the others would be so jealous if they knew I'd been able to communicate with animals. I was the modern day Dr DoLittle!
I hunkered beside my new mates, feeling happy and letting myself relax just a little more. So nice...
Maybe I feel asleep during that time, I don't know. All I knew is when I next looked up I saw a dark shape looming above the forest I was in. And the Chudnits were going crazy!
CHIT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT!!!!
CHIT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT-IT!!!!
To my little bat brain it translated into 'Danger!'
I looked up as it moved to the left of me, and out of sight of the town, and I suddenly felt very, very small.
It was like putting a fly (me) next to a humpback whale (the thing).
It. Was. HUGE!!
From what I saw, it looked like a medieval battle axe. And the colour... I couldn't begin to tell you how black this thing was. It made the darkest night seem grey.
I watched it was I moved away, and the Chudnits seemed to calm down a little. They moved around on the branches, getting comfortable again. My two new companions moved away from me, dropping down to the branch below me, and I think they wanted me to follow them.
But I needed to see what this thing was, since I knew it couldn't be any authorised ship since they all landed at the Chanaiben 'airport'. Plus, no Chanaiben in their right mind would want to upset the small amount of wildlife that was here.
I flitted from tree to tree, scrabbling around on the branches towards the big thing, keeping my eyes on it and watching as it began to land in the area past the trees. At the edge of the trees I stopped and just stared at it. It sent shivers up my spine but I just couldn't look away from it. It was massive!!
And did I mention it was big? Enormous?
I watched as one of the 'doors' on it slid open, and three figures stepped out.
Two were human. The other... had blades everywhere. It was a Hork-Bajir. They were each carrying Andalite shredders. No... they weren't! But they were some kind of weapon, that's for sure.
"Chit?" I wondered, and they both turned to look at me.
Uh-oh...
Then... they were coming at me!
"Freaky looking things, aren't they?" The first human... a woman... said as she stopped a few feet from me. I chitted a little worriedly.
"Yes, but they'll be a good morph. No-one will suspect three little bats flying around now, will they?" Said the other, a male.
"I'll get it" The Hork-Bajir said in a guttural voice. He came at me, and I instinctively started chittering a lot more. Soon, the forest was alive with the sounds of the others.
"What the...?" The woman screamed, covering her ears. I took that moment to take off, chittering and screaming inside my own head.
"Hey! Get it!" In seconds, they were firing at me.
TSSSEWWWW!!
A shot that missed me by inches!
(Hey!) I yelped, suddenly realising my mistake.
In an instant...
"Andalite!"
"No! Animorph!"
Now they were really shooting at me!
TSSSSEEEWWW!!
TSSSEEEWWWW!!
(Stop shooting! Please!!) I yelped as I dodged a blast that almost burned my entire right wing off. This was nuts! It was... it was...
TSEEEEEWWWWW!!!
(Aaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!!!)
They got me! My right wing was nothing but... well, lets just say there was now a bloody stump where my wing used to be. And the pain! God, it was agonising! It was like nothing I'd ever felt before!
I fell towards the earth, flapping feebly with my left wing and spiralling crazily towards the ground... bracing my little body for the impact, listening as the three talked...
"Well, so much for a quiet infiltration. Bug fighters! Deploy!"
"But..."
CHOMP!
I was in something's mouth! Jaws... and when I looked up at it, I saw shaggy grey...
(It's all right little bat, I've got you!) Came the desperate voice as the thing carried me.
(Cassie! We're not trying to save the animals!) A male's voice snapped.
(I don't care! They shot this poor thing!) A voice replied, and I finally realised what was carrying me.
A wolf!
"Aaaah!!" I heard the man cry, and then a chorus of angry Earth animals engulfed his own cry. A... a tiger? Two? The roar of a... a bear?
TSSSEWWWW!!!
TSSSSEWWW!!!
Now the fire was coming from the sky! What looked like two fighters or something arched down towards us, and the wolf dodged. But it was enough to send me careening on over the edge of insanity.
(Aaaaahhhh!!! Aaaaaaaahhhh!!! Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh!!!) I screamed in my own head, and I swear the wolf almost dropped me.
(What the... who's that?) the voice I could only guess as Cassie's asked, and it sounded like she was the wolf.
(I... I...) I stuttered, screaming again as another red laser blast barely missed us.
(It's one of the kids!) Came my mothers voice, and behind me I heard an angry bear roaring.
(But which one?!) Jake... at least I thought it was Jake... cried desperately in my head.
(It's... it's me) I whimpered.
(That really doesn't tell us much!) came Marco's voice sounding more than a little angry. The wolf... Cassie... was then joined by a gorilla and a polar bear, one on each side.
(It's Seth!) I cried again, beyond terrified now. And I was beginning to feel a little woozy....
(Seth!) my dad snapped angrily, although it didn't sound like he was angry at me.
TSSSSSSEEEEWWW!!!
(Aaaahhh!) Cassie screamed. She'd been hit!
She stumbled, biting down just a little harder, but then two big gorilla hands picked her up. And we were off again!
(Cassie!) Jake and my mum cried in unison.
(They got my back leg! I... I can't help...)
(Don't worry, I got her!)
(Get behind that wall of trees coming up and demorph!) Jade's voice this time. But all from far away... so far...
(Mum... feel funny...) I muttered as the world began to spin.
(The second she drops you change back Seth! That's an order!) my mum yelled out. The polar bear was left behind.
(Yessir...) I muttered as we reached the treeline, and the gorilla placed the wolf gently down. The wolf sort of... spat me out... the started to shrink and change...
(Come on kid! You too!) Marco's voice was in my head... too far... why couldn't they just leave me...
(Seth, do it!) my dad's voice roared this time, and I suddenly remembered who I was. I had to get out!
I focused hard on my own body, remembering how I looked... but still so hard to...
"That's it Seth, you can do it!" Cassie's voice this time, and a hand was on my shoulder. She was encouraging me. I kept going. Soon, I was laying on my side next to a human woman and a big gorilla. I sat up suddenly, looking around and spotting a battle between a bunch of Earth animals and Hork-Bajir... as well as some more humans with other weapons like I'd seen before.
Wait, there was a... an Andalite there too! He was tail-blade fighting with the animals. Then... I suddenly realised who they were....
"Mum! Dad!" I cried, getting up and starting to head towards the battle, but the gorilla stopped me, and giant fists closed around my skinny arms.
(Sorry kid, this is not your fight)
"It's not ours either" Cassie said, looking sympathetically at me. I turned back and watched as a horse erupted out of the melee, and towards us. Tobias was seated on the horse, and it looked like he had a tight grip on its flowing white mane.
(Be ready to give Seth to us!) My dad's voice shouted.
(All right) Marco replied, and he lifted me into the air like he was lifting a pillow.
"Don't throw me!" I cried kicking my legs a little.
"Trust us Seth. We have to get you out of here" Cassie said trying to sound sweet and soothing. Too bad it didn't sooth me at all.
"Here! Give me your hand!" Tobias shouted as we neared them, and the gorilla let one of my arms go and I reached it out to him. Tobias reached out his own hand and grabbed me as he passed me. In seconds, I was swung through the air and onto the horses back, just behind Tobias.
"Man, I should have kept my wings!" Tobias growled as I grabbed onto him, locking my arms tightly around his waist, turning back to look at...
TSSSSSEWWWW!!!
The tree line was blown apart! Where I was seconds before!
"No!" I screamed in absolute terror, looking around and not seeing Cassie or Marco anywhere.
(Pull back!) Jake yelled in my head (Pull back to the house!)
And then I heard the sirens sound. Sirens of an attack. And I knew, this was... it. This was war. And it was far more terrifying than anything I'd ever experienced.
I watched as the whole line of animals turned and started running towards us. I saw the polar bear and a grizzly sweep up two things from the burning trees, and my heart sank, knowing what... who they were...
We ran, retreated, until I finally saw the cave dwelling Aerionna and Elfangor called home...
Uh... well? Whatcha think? Flames still appreciated...