Author's Note: Yes, technically, this should be a chapter from Orkath's POV. I have, however, decided that the storyline is more important than a silly pattern, and left this chapter from Chris' POV. Next chapter will be from Orkath's.
I don't know how long we stared. I was sure that it was too long. After all, if Craig was the bear from the battle with the National Guard, then he would have had plenty of opportunity to see us in my natural, human body. He had to know that I was a Controller.
But then I remembered our shared encounter with the bear during my boy scout days, and that I'd had to throw the rock to get the bear's focus on me. One of the hundred people who'd visited me in the hospital had explained that the bear's eyesight was probably too bad to see me on his own, and Craig was giving off the stronger smell, being as afraid as he was.
So Craig had no idea I was there. He didn't know what I was.
"Geez, man, you smell like a rhinoceros took a dump on you," my mouth stated coyly, breaking the stunned silence.
«Oh, c'mon,» I complained, «you're /not/ going to use my friendship with him like this, are you?»
«What do you want me to do?» Orkath asked, sounding panicked. «Just say, 'Oh hey, you're that Animorph who tried to kill me, how interesting?' I need to think this out.»
Craig snorted. "Skunk, actually," he said. Did he sound suspicious? I couldn't tell. "It crawled right up in the center window, damnedest thing."
"Yeah," my Yeerk agreed, trying desperately to sound like he was convinced. But he was having a hard time concealing the anger that I knew he was feeling.
«You're not going to… turn him in, are you?» I asked meekly.
«Are you kidding?» Orkath replied. «This is one of them! One of the soldiers who's been annihilating my people!»
«He's also one of my oldest and best friends,» I pointed out firmly. «I risked my life to save him.»
Orkath didn't reply to me, concentrating on what Craig was saying to him. Unwilling to risk being off guard if the Animorph attacked. I couldn't help but be transfixed, too.
"We were… in scouts," Craig was saying, eyes aglow with the resurfacing memories. "We wandered off from the pack… and there was a bear. In a cave."
"Yes," Orkath agreed, easily recognizing the description of the memory that he had replayed, time and time again, inside my head. Again, I wondered at why Orkath found the memory so intriguing, but the Yeerk wasn't likely to answer anytime soon.
«Of course,» he murmured, thinking out loud to me. «I should have seen it after I heard the blind girl was given the morphing power. These Animorphs must have chosen /all/ damaged humans for recruits, because they know we won't infest them.» I felt my own eyes peering quizzically at the spot where Craig was supposed to be injured. «But morphing fixes injury… probably even old injuries. This human is no longer damaged – he's faking it, to stay here.»
"We ran away… the bear was gaining…" A slow, appreciative smile appeared across Craig's face, as if he were seeing me for the first time. "And then you told me to run, and you picked up a rock. You saved me."
"Yeah," my Yeerk stated, and although we were sort-of friends now, I still felt a little resentful about how deceptive he could be. He made my voice sound modest, matter-of-fact. "It was no big deal… dumbest thing I ever did."
«Outside of joining the Sharing,» I pointed out. But still, Orkath could not be lulled into conversation.
"Well, it saved my life," he pointed out. "After… I ran… It started raining, so I took off my uniform and used it with some twigs to make a sort of shield for myself." He sighed. "Then I just cried for awhile… I mean, I just knew you were dead and I felt like I'd killed you. I'd probably have looked pathetic to anyone who saw me… a kid in his underwear, hiding from the rain, bawling his eyes out."
«Heh… we know a little something about looking pathetic and running around in underwear, don't we,» I joked.
"Anyway," Craig continued, "the next day I decided to get my bearings… I left my little shield set up for a base and then marked a trail as I went so I could get back to it, or so the searchers could follow it if they found the camp while looking for me."
«You always were a good scout,» I noted, and Orkath, deciding it was a good way to breed trust with his enemy, repeated the sentiment aloud.
Craig blushed a little. "Thanks…" He sighed. "I went up to the top of a nearby cliff, and that… that's when I saw it."
"Saw what?" Orkath asked curiously.
"You wouldn't believe me," Craig stated flatly, turning away. Looking more than a little upset.
"Yes I will," the Yeerk insisted. "You can tell me."
Craig gave us a once over, seemed to shrug, and nodded. "I saw a spaceship… it was really big, and it had these big, long scoops that were sucking up fish and water."
«He saw a Yeerk supply vessel,» Orkath commented to me, seemingly enjoying the irony of it. «It was in the mountains near your campsite on the day it was destroyed by the rebels. Of course, at the time, we assumed them to be Andalites, so for months afterward we took the risk of heading into the most dangerous area of the planet for our resources, to shield us from detection. How foolish we were. All those ships…»
«Our planet has dangerous areas to you?» I asked curiously.
«You call it the Bermuda Triangle,» Orkath replied. «In reality it's a temporal divergence, called a Sario Rip. One misnavigation can hurtle a ship over vast distances of time and space. The two convoys we lost in it could very well have wound up in Earth's stone age, or it's future, or some other world… anywhere, really. Wherever they went, they clearly didn't find a way to leave us any indication.»
«Heh… well, they'll have plenty of company,» I commiserated. «Humans have lost quite a few sailing ships and and planes to the Triangle.»
"I knew you wouldn't believe me," Craig pouted, misinterpreting our silence. Or was he testing us?
"No, I be.." Orkath started to say, but then he caught my thought and decided that it might, indeed, be a test. "I mean, I believe that it /could/ have happened… I admit, it's hard to really know for sure. Could be you're mixing your memory up with something you saw on TV."
Craig seemed to think about that for a moment, and I guess he liked the explanation, because he went on. "Well, I only saw it from a distance… but whatever I saw, it exploded and that scared me so bad I backed right over the cliff… next thing I knew I was here, I couldn't remember anything, and the doctor said I'd been here for five weeks."
"They never identified you?" Orkath asked.
Craig shook his head. "I wasn't wearing my scout uniform, so they didn't know I was from scouts. I don't know why they didn't link me up with missing persons, though."
«I can guess why,» Orkath admitted. «My people likely noted the vicinity he was last seen in and deleted him from the database. Last thing we wanted was more attention to that area while we were dealing with the wreckage.»
«And because of that, he stayed here and became an Animorph,» I commented. «Ironic, everything you do just seems to get you in more trouble here.»
Orkath moved me in again, to hug Craig. For a moment I was worried he might try to choke his adversary. "It's good to see you again."
"You, too," Craig agreed, almost teary.
"I'll be right back," Orkath assured him. "I just need to go get a drink." Halfway between the bed and the room door, he turned. "Want anything?"
Craig shrugged, grinning back at us. "Nah. Hard to eat when you smell like this."
Orkath chuckled, and then he stepped out of the room, but we didn't go any further than the door, staring almost transfixed at the open walkway as Orkath declared to me, «I have to turn him in, Chris.»
«No you don't!» I insisted. «Orkath, you've come so far, I know you know that we can coexist! But we can't do it if Visser One wins!»
«It's not that simple,» Orkath grumbled. «I'm a soldier, don't you understand? It's not about what I agree with. Your military didn't want to drop atomic bombs, but they did what their commander ordered them. I'm bound to do the same.» He sighed with my voice. «I'm not you, Chris. I can't just pretend I don't know things or feel things. I thought I could, but I can't.»
«So what do you do about your bond with me?» I asked. «Going to tell the Yeerks about that?»
«After…» Orkath struggled, knowing how lame he sounded to me. «After your race is subjugated, perhaps then I can convince my people to free some of you. There are so many, after all.»
«I see,» I mused angrily. «You can delay it… when it works for you.»
He didn't get a chance to respond, because just then, all hell broke loose. See, we'd forgotten that other Controllers had come with us. And that many heard stories about the details of the battle.
"Despat," the detective moaned, coming near the door. "It smells like skunk in there. Didn't one of the Animorphs get hit with a skunk smell?"
Orkath stared dumbfounded at the Controller, the choice hanging in the air. One word and he would seal Craig's fate, but he hesitated – for a fleeting second, that word didn't come.
And then that word had no opportunity to come, as a bat swung from behind the detective, smashing him in the head and knocking him to the floor. And holding the bat was…
ME.
"Don't try to understand," my voice said back at us. "Just sleep." And then, suddenly, the world went black.