It was the same dream I'd had so many times before. Up the grassy hill, seeing the checkerboard landscape unfold around me, the sudden thrill of seeing Elfangor standing there... but this time, instead of running up to him, I turn my head away in shame.

"I'm sorry," I say, "I screwed up. I failed. I couldn't find your son, I didn't save anyone from the Yeerks, and I let myself get trapped in morph. I've let you down."

I feel Elfangor place a seven-fingered hand on my shoulder.

(You have only lost a battle. Not the war.)

I look up into his brilliant emerald eyes.

(I failed many times in this war,) he says, (But the greatest failure would be give up entirely.)

"I can't morph anymore, though. What else can I even do?"

(You are human. Humans have a rare talent for finding creative ways to overcome problems.)

"But I'm not human! Not anymore."

(The shape of your body does not determine who you are inside.)

And then he starts to morph. It seems like something familiar, but before he can finish, I wake up...

Author's Note: Tobias was the Animorphs character I related to most as a kid. First, because I thought it was cool that he got to spend so much time as a hawk. Second, because I also never had close friends when I was a kid. Not because of an unstable living situation, but because I'm on the Autism spectrum and social interactions just did not make any sense to me until after high school.