Although double posting is usually regarded as an unforgivable sin, I'm going to do it anyways.
Chapter 4
I had a plan. It was a bad plan. A very bad plan. But we had used worse plans in the past and come out alive. Most of us. I knew why the leopard hadn’t pounced yet. It was interested in the new humans. When the other humans came in, they were probably careful. They probably brought tranquilizer guns and came in when the leopard was asleep. It was also interested in the human who turned into a bat. Leopards are smart. Not smart enough to understand morphing, but smart enough to know that it was unusual. I was counting on that. I landed on the ground and demorphed as fast as I could. It took me about thirty seconds. Then I went back to Hork-Bajir. If I was going to mess with a leopard, I wanted some serious firepower.
There were at least five reasons why my plan was a bad one. One: Hork-Bajir do not see well in darkness; leopards do. Two: This was the leopard’s turf, not the Hork-Bajir’s. Three: The leopard had no one to protect, while I had to defend Jeanne and Santorelli. Four: I had no idea how many leopards were in this habitat. And five, the leopard could just attack while I morphed.
I made it to Hork-Bajir okay. The bad news was that I lost the leopard. I didn’t know where to look. And I couldn’t wait for it to come after me. If it did that, I’d be dead. I turned and shoved a blade into the nearest tree. I pulled it out and then kicked a different one. I started shaking the trees, trying to lure the leopard out. I heard rather than saw the big cat drop in front of me. As soon as it hit the ground, maybe even before, it lunged me with fangs wide open. I held up an arm and felt the cat bite down. The pain! I had forgotten how much it hurt to be bitten. But I didn’t miss a beat. Combat was reflexive now. I wasn’t in control and neither was the Hork-Bajir. It was the hawk who ruled now.
The hawk was a predator. And he understood that the leopard was the prey. The hawk knew. The hawk attacked with the strength of the Hork-Bajir. Leopards are small as far as big cats go. Smaller than tigers and lions, at least. It was difficult, but I got a hold on it. It couldn’t struggle too much without getting cut to ribbons by my bladed body.
I pinned I to the ground. <Jeanne,> I said. <Acquire it.> She put a hand on the leopard and it calmed down. In order to morph an animal, you have to acquire its DNA by touching it. When you did that, it went into a sort of trance. A perfect time to make an escape. We booked it out the door. I stayed in Hork-Bajir morph. We had a rule about morphing sentient creatures like Hork-Bajir. We didn’t do it unless it was absolutely necessary. I suppose I was breaking that rule, but I didn’t really care. I was trying to prevent a second Yeerk invasion. Any price was worth it.
We ran down the hallways. We didn’t stop running until we were sure we had passed the big cats. All the while, we heard security guards behind us. A few times, we even heard the click of pistols being ****ed. We didn’t stop.
“They’ll shoot soon,” Santorelli said.
“And I can’t run much longer,” Jeanne panted. Santorelli was in great shape. I was a Hork-Bajir. Jeanne was herself. She didn’t have much chance of keeping up. I had been going slowly enough to keep her in sight. I was sure Santorelli was doing it too. We had to get out.
We were coming to a corner. There was a door dead ahead of us, and ones to the right and left. <The door up ahead,> I said.
“The door on the right or the left?” Santorelli asked.
I ran flat out at full Hork-Bajir speed. Hork-Bajir are seven feet tall. Their big, long legs take big long steps. They can run faster than many earth animals. I used that speed and ran straight through the door. At least, I tried. It turned out to be a big steel door. I bounced back. I turned back to see the small army of security guards massing behind us. Jeanne and Santorelli came to meet me.
“You get the guards,” Jeanne said. “I’ll get the lock.”
I didn’t stop to wonder how. I just leapt at the men. Now, a man with a gun in his hand is usually brave. But no one can be brave when a seven-foot-tall monster from outer space is jumping at you. You never want to see a Hork-Bajir jump at you. You’ll have a heart attack on the spot.
Many of them dropped their guns, turned, and ran the other way. A few braver ones kept their guns on them. Then I heard Jeanne say, “Got it!” I turned and we ran through the door. The guards were shaking too badly to hit us with their shots.
We were in an open area. It was one of the outside habitats. In the distance, I could see what was probably a fence. We kept running. Then I realized: I knew this habitat.
I had been here before with Jake on one of our more disastrous missions. He had come here to acquire a certain animal. Which gave me an idea. <Santorelli,> I asked, <how do you like rhinos?>
“Remind me of my dad,” he answered. From what I knew about his father, that was probably a compliment.
<Then keep your eyes peeled. Security’s probably circling around, getting ready to cut us off when we leave the habitat. If I remember correctly, this place has thick concrete walls. Enough to stop a rhino. There’ll be only two exits. The one we used to get in and the one where people stand to look at the rhinos.>
“You got a plan?” he asked.
<We find a rhino. You acquire it. Then you two morph to flies. I morph to hawk, you get on me, and we fly out of here.>
“Sounds good.”
Up ahead was what looked like a big pile of rocks. I slowed down. With Hork-Bajir eyes, I couldn’t be sure if it was a rhino or not and you do not want to scare a rhino. Rhinos are a lot like Hork-Bajir. Both are passive grazers. And both are unbelievably strong. They have bones like steel and a hide like a suite of armor. I’ve seen bullets hit a rhino full in the face and do nothing at all. Not even slow it down. Santorelli walked ahead. I saw the rocks move. So it was a rhino after all. Calmly, he knelt down next to it, and put his hand on its shoulder. I couldn’t tell if it got still or not. It was pretty calm to begin with. He came back a moment later after giving the beast a pat on the head. “Not as stressful as working for Visser Six,” he said to me. In a few minutes, he and Jeanne were flies. I was my old hawk self. And we were out of there.
We ended up at Cassie’s barn. It was once the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. Cassie and her father took in injured animals from all around and healed them. It was one of the places where we got a lot of our morphs. It was also where we held most of our meetings. I was counting on the animals still being there. Sure enough, I was bombarded by the cries of various animals as soon as I flew in through the hayloft. Birds in cages cried out. Rodents of all shapes and sizes cowered in terror. A lone wolf howled. A pair of horses whinnied loudly. We were lucky. Cassie’s dad wasn’t there. I didn’t want to go through the same conversation with him that I had had with his wife.
We all demorphed. “Pick a bird and let’s go,” I said.
“Pick a bird?” Santorelli asked. “I guess I’ll go with chicken. Deep fried. Extra crispy.”
“To morph,” I clarified. “Hawks and eagles were our usual transit morphs. They can fly far and see everything. Not too bad in a fight either.”
I saw Santorelli eyeing up a bald eagle. “E pluribus Unum,” he whispered.
“Please, any bird but that,” I said.
“Why?” he asked.
I just shook my head. I guess he could tell by my expression that I was serious. The truth was, Rachel had a bald eagle morph. I just couldn’t take the thought of someone else having her morphs.
Santorelli stuck his hand into the cage of a Cooper’s hawk. Cooper’s are scary birds. They don’t usually eat mice and squirrels like I…like other birds do. They eat smaller birds. They capture their prey and squeeze the life out of it with their talons. Sometimes, they even drown it.
Shoving your hand into a birdcage is a bad idea. Especially when the bird inside is a Cooper. The hawk took a chunk out of his finger. Santorelli didn’t even flinch. The hawk went limp as he acquired it.
I turned to Jeanne. “Did you acquire something already?” I asked.
“Well,” she looked at the ground and clasped her hands behind her back, faking innocence. “Back when we were first given the morphing power, I may have acquired a hawk.”
“Yeah?” I said. “Why?”
“I remember Commander Jake’s face when he spoke about flying. He made it seem like the best thing in the world. I had to try it.”
“I won’t tell Jake. Just get morphed.” I sat down on a bale of hay and closed my eyes. I had morphed more that day than I had in years. Morphing is exhausting, both mentally and physically. I needed a moment to rest. I wasn’t sure how many more morphs I had in me.
When I opened my eyes five minutes later, I was looking at a Cooper’s hawk and…and at a red-tailed hawk. “Jeanne,” I asked, “why a red-tail?”
<It is the most popular bird in the galaxy. Everybody loves red-tails,> she said.
I sighed and then morphed my own red-tailed hawk. It was the body that I had lived in for more than six years. It was almost like I couldn’t remember a time when I wasn’t a hawk. Sometimes, I used to feel like I had always been a hawk. This morph didn’t feel like getting a new body. It felt like going home.
The first thing to change was my eyes. Everything came into focus suddenly. I could pick out individual pieces of hay on the barn floor. I could see the grain of the wood in the barn’s walls. I could see a fly on the opposite side of the barn.
Next came my ears. I heard everything in startling detail. Every sound in the barn. The breathing of the animals and the scratching of a squirrel on the roof. Nothing escaped my senses.
For one glorious moment, I was a human being with the senses of a hawk. So this is how superman felt, I thought. Then, I shrank.
Shrinking is sort of like falling. Except, instead of you getting closer to the ground, the ground gets closer to you, like it’s rushing up to hit you. I went form being about six feet tall to two in about three seconds.
The feathers came next. They started like an intricate tattoo all over my body. Then, they exploded into three dimensions. Brown, white and red. My tail came with them.
My feet, my weak human feet, became the steely talons of the hawk. These talons had taken more lives than I could count. They were featherless so blood didn’t stick to them.
Finally, finally, came my wings. My glorious wings! It felt like I had been born again. Like I had been a cripple suddenly allowed to walk. I spread my wings, flapped them a few times just to make sure they were still there, and then folded them.
I waited stupidly for a moment for the hawk mind to surface beneath my own. I felt noting. No instincts, no urges, nothing at all. Then I realized. I had never lost these when I became human again. The hawk would always be a part of me.
I took off without any more delay. I had been tired when I started morphing. Now, back in my right body, I mean back in my hawk morph, I was alive again.
I got out of the hayloft and felt warm air billow up beneath my outstretched wings. It was a great thermal. A thermal is a pillar of warm air. You can just wait in one with your wings spread and ride up forever.
I floated there for I don’t know how long. It felt so natural, so right. I had come back to Earth hours ago. I had just now come home. I was hungry, suddenly. I hadn’t eaten since we had gotten here. And I could see a tasty mouse not too far below me. It was mine. So easy to swoop down, open my wings, sweep low across the ground, seize the little rodent in my talons, and dig my beak in. So easy to -
<Tobias? Can you hear me?> Santorelli asked. That brought me back we had a job to do. The fate of the world was in my talons.
<I can hear you. It’s just…give me a minute,> I said I got my bearings. I knew every detail of the land for the next hundred miles. This was my sky. My home.
I smiled in my head. I knew this place. I knew the way to get to Cassie. I flew out of the thermal and soared towards the mountains. Soon, I would find her and the Yeerks would be stopped cold.
Can you believe I was ever that stupid?
It wasn’t hard to get to the valley. Not anymore, at least. In the early days, the few free Hork-Bajir lived there. The Ellimist put some sort of…magic spell over the place so that, even knowing where it was, you couldn’t find it easily. That spell was gone now. Maybe it was because the Hork-Bajir no longer needed to hide. Maybe the Ellimist didn’t care anymore. Maybe it had something to do with Crayak or the One. I didn’t know and I didn’t really care.
The valley opened before me. I had called it home for a short time. The Yeerks had figured out who we were so we fled there with our families. Not everyone made it, but those of us who did lived there with the free Hork-Bajir.
Now Cassie was trying to make it home to Kafit birds, a species of animal native to the Andalite homeworld. I had to agree with her mother. It was a terrible idea. But that was Cassie for you. There was a place for every creature.
I saw her long before she saw me. She was with some guy. Roger or Rupert or something if I remembered right. He was her boyfriend and partner in ecology.
I buzzed low over their heads. <Hey, Cassie,> I called. <Something very important to tell you.>
She looked up. “Tobias? You’re back! Where’s Jake?” She shot a look at Ruben. She and Jake used to have a thing going but it fell apart near the end of the war.
Cassie was short and black, with short black hair. She was wearing her standard workboots and jeans that didn’t quite fit her. She had also brought climbing gear and a heavy backpack. I guess she hadn’t flown here.
Cassie was always the nicest person I knew. She always knew how to stop a fight without hurting anyone. The war was terrible on her. She was a pacifist by design, but she was forced to kill every day. I respect her all the more for it.
<Jake and Marco are busy with something else. There’s something important I need to tell you,> I said again. I told her in closed thought-speak. I didn’t want Rodney to hear. I landed on a tree branch near her head before I continued.
<The Yeerks may be coming back. It’s a long story so I’m only going to tell the short version. The Yeerks now…worship…a being called the One. The One was the thing that drove Crayak out of his own galaxy and into ours. Now the One controls Ax.>
Cassie tried to stay calm, but I could see the sweat that broke out on her head. I could see the twitch of her face when I mentioned the Yeerks. At least she didn’t scream or cry.
<There’s more. We have reason to believe that the One is bringing the Yeerks back here to try for a second invasion. It’s part of a plan to finish off Crayak. Jake and Marco are guarding the Yeerk homeworld to make sure the One doesn’t get more Yeerks. We need you to warn the world leaders of the possibility of a new invasion.>
“Why me?” she asked.
<Jake and Marco are busy, and no one will believe me. They wouldn’t know who I am. We need your credibility.>
Cassie sat down on the ground and put her head in her hands. “I can’t go through another one, Tobias,” she said quietly.
<I know. I’m not asking you to. I just need you to tell everyone what could be happening again. If Jake and Marco fail, the Yeerks will come here. But we’ll have allies this time. It will be different.>
“What are Jake and Marco doing?” she asked.
<We think the One might use Ax to get Yeerks from the Yeerk homeworld so he can start a new invasion.>
“Why would he use the Yeerk homeworld?” she asked. “There are plenty of other places to get Yeerks. Easier places, too.”
<Like where?> I demanded.
“The Hork-Bajir homeworld, the Taxxon planet, and even here on earth. We have hundreds of specialized prisons just for Yeerks. There are thousands of Yeerks right here on earth.”
It hit me like a brick. <And no one knows what happened to Ax. He could just walk into any Yeerk prison on Earth, take a truckload of Yeerks, and be on his way without trying to stop him. Meanwhile, Jake and Marco are waiting for something that isn’t going to happen, and I’m off in this valley talking to you.>
“Is the One really that clever?” she asked.
<He tricked Crayak into following us into his own section of this galaxy. And he’s smart enough to know what a threat we can be. Yes, yes he is that clever.>
“So what do we do? Where will he go?”
I thought about it for a few moments. Then I realized. <Sun Tzu once said, “Know your enemy.”>
Cassie took that in. “No,” she whispered. “No, not that. Anything but that.”
Rupert was starting to look alarmed. He looked from me to Cassie. He could only hear her end of the conversation, but it was enough to scare him.
I nodded my head. It must have been an odd thing to watch a bird do. <Yes, I’m afraid so. What Yeerk would be a better recruit to fight us?>
“But not even Ax would be allowed there,” Cassie said. “They wouldn’t even let me in the few times I tried.”
<Maybe they won’t just let him walk in, but I don’t think they could stop him.>
By this time, Santorelli had landed. Jeanne was still circling above our heads, keeping an eye out. I appreciated that. Jake must have taught them our usual procedure. Jeanne was dong my job.
“Who’s this?” Cassie asked, looking at Santorelli. She wanted to change the subject.
<His name’s Santorelli,> I said. <One of Jake’s new recruits. The other’s above us, doing my job.>
“I think I see him,” Cassie answered.
<Her.>
“Kind of hard to tell by the morph,” she pointed out. “Is that another red-tail?”
<It’s the cool thing to do,> I told her. I called up to Jeanne. <How are things up there?>
<Not bad,> she answered. <You’re clear except for that Andalite.>
“Andalite? What Andalite?” Cassie asked.
<You didn’t bring an Andalite?> I asked her.
<There’s an Andalite a few thousand yards deeper into the valley, behind the trees. He is coming your way, actually,> Jeanne told us.
I looked at Cassie. Neither of us said what we were thinking. But Santorelli did. <Do you think it’s Prince Aximili?> he asked.
“I hope not,” Cassie said. She turned to Robert. “Try to get somewhere safe,” she told him. “If this is what we’re afraid it is, you don’t want to be here.”
Santorelli and I demorphed. I started to morph to Hork-Bajir. I didn’t want to be unprepared. Santorelli went rhino.
Cassie started to speak. “Tobias, how -”
“Crayak,” I answered. <I’ll explain later,> I said as my thought-speak kicked in.
Cassie stayed human. She could morph to something dangerous in a mater of seconds. There was no need to alarm this Andalite if he was just an innocent Andalite tourist.
Of course, in the long Animorph tradition, our luck wasn’t that good.
Prince Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill. He was once an Animorph and my closest friend. My father’s brother, too. He and I fought side-by-side more times than I can count. And now the One had him. He looked like any other Andalite, I guess. I had gotten good at telling them apart, and I knew Ax better than anyone. I would recognize him in any crowd. He was older now than he was last time we met in person. He was taller, and his tail had gotten longer, stronger. He was the spitting image of his brother, the late Prince Elfangor.
Then the One did his evil magic. A red slit appeared in Ax’s mouthless face. It widened into a mouth with red, pointed teeth. He smiled at me. “Tobias,” he said. “It has been a long time.” He noticed Cassie. “And Cassie. I have not seen you in years.”
<Drop the act,> I said. <We know who and what you are.>
“Yet I do not feel your fear. Why are you not afraid, Tobias?”
<The worst you can do is kill me,> I said. <My life is the only thing I have left. What else can you take from me?>
“I can take your planet, your friends, your home,” the One answered calmly. “I can take this galaxy from those two fools, Ellimist and Crayak. I can enslave your people, the Hork-Bajir and the Andalites. I can take everything from you.”
<Maybe. But I won’t be around to see any of that.>
“And why is that?” he asked.
<Because to do that, you’ll have to kill me first. Do you think Ax is a match for me?> I demanded. <Come and find out.>
“Ah, but that is beneath me,” the One sighed. “No, no, I have others to do that for me.”
I don’t know where they came from. One second it was just Cassie, Santorelli, Ax, and me in the valley. Jeanne was circling above. I had no idea where Ricky went. Then, we were surrounded.
They were about as tall as Hork-Bajir. Their legs were like a cat’s legs, bent back and with clawed paws at the end. They had humanoid chests. Their arms were strange, though. One ended in a hand with at least ten fingers; I didn’t really have time to count them all. The other was a massively muscled arm. There was no hand there, only a single, foot-long blade. Their heads were the strangest part. They reminded me of alligators. They had long snouts with mouths full of teeth. Cats ears, swept back against the sides of their heads, twitched constantly. Short whiskers, like a catfish’s, dangled form their snouts. They had no eyes. All of their body was covered with black flesh. They stood on their hind legs, but I could see that they were meant to be on all fours.
<What are these things?> Santorelli asked me. He had finished his morph.
“Kelbrid,” the One answered. “My loyal warriors. Rather stupid on their own. But with a Yeerk in their heads, quite formidable.”
<Wonder how they stack up against Hork-Bajir,> I said, looking at my bladed arms.
“You will find them superior,” the One smiled. “Hork-Bajir are naturally peaceful. They lack the killer instinct to be truly formidable. But the Kelbrid are natural superpredators. They possess that drive that Hork-Bajir lack.”
<Yeah? Well I’m in here too,> I said. <And I bet my killer instincts are more honed than your Yeerks’.>
“That may be. But you are far outnumbered.”
<That’s never stopped us before,> I said. <I’m sure you remember.>
“I have no time to reminisce. There are places I must be. Matters to which I must attend. Goodbye, my shorm. Goodbye, Tobias. Say hello to Rachel for me.”
That last comment did it. I don’t know what came over me. I guess I just snapped. Here I was, standing before the Yeerks, the creatures who had taken everything from me. Now, I was going to take everything from them. The time I spent as a hawk that day reawaked my predator side. I would not be their prey. Never again would I be prey.
I leapt at the nearest Kelbrid. I guess this surprised the Yeerk. The Kelbrid mind was used to creatures fleeing. The Yeerk didn’t know how to react. My elbowblade bit deep into his back.
I thrust my kneeblade into his chest. The Kelbrid toppled before it had a chance to react. I turned to face the others. A rhino and a wolf came and stood next to me. I didn’t know where Jeanne was. I didn’t care.
<Tobias,> I heard Cassie’s voice say, <we have to run. We can’t stand and fight.>
<I’ll never run. Never again!> I yelled. I ran at another Kelbrid. By this time, the others had decided that it was time to attack. They dropped to all fours. The blade on the back of their larger arm retracted. They balled their other hand into a fist and ran.
That was a mistake. I killed my speed and waited. One came close and lunged at me. It tried to bite me with its alligator mouth. I kicked it in the face with my Hork-Bajir talon. It dropped.
A blow to my back sent me sprawling. I felt something warm flow down my back. Blood. My own. I briefly wondered why I didn’t feel any pain. Then I was back on my feet.
Another Kelbrid knocked me to my side as the one who had hit me from behind closed in. I could see my own blood on his bladed arm.
I swept my tail back and forth. I cut up their legs pretty badly. They paused. I kicked one in the stomach and he fell. The other jumped on top of me. His bladed arm swung down at my head.
I blocked it with my wristblade. Then I jerked my shake-like head forward. My horns went into his chest. He dropped on top of me. Dead weight.
I pushed him off and stood up. I saw a wolf backed into a corner by four Kelbrid. I saw a rhino gore a Kelbrid only to be knocked to the ground by another one. The Kelbrid shoved his bladed arm deep into the rhino’s side. I wondered why Santorelli didn’t cry out. He was tough, but no one was that tough.
More Kelbrid were coming at me. They were everywhere. Three charged at me on all fours. I jumped over them. I landed on the chest of another and dug my talons in. He screamed. It was a satisfying sound. I turned and made for Cassie.
She didn’t look good. Blood was all over her. Her fur was matted down with it and she was moving slowly. She was hurt badly. Again, I wondered why she didn’t scream.
I stumbled suddenly. I didn’t know why. I saw Cassie waver and fall to the ground. From behind me, I faintly heard something large fall to the ground too.
<It’s a poison,> I heard Cassie say. <The stingers have poison in them. That’s why we can’t feel our wounds. It’s an anesthetic.>
<Fascinating,> I said. Already my mind was going foggy. I couldn’t see clearly. I couldn’t think straight. I couldn’t hear as well either.
I struggled to my feet. Cassie did the same. <We have to run,> she said to me.
<I…> I couldn’t decide. The Yeerks were here again. And it felt so good to fight. I had forgotten. Had I once hated this? Impossible. This was justice. This was right.
<You and Santorelli run. Get far enough away to demorph. Go to hawk and get back to the barn. I’ll meet you there. I’ll hold them off.>
<Tobias,> she said in a warning tone.
<Go! I have a plan,> I lied.
She took off. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Santorelli get up and run off into the trees. A few Kelbrid pursued him. Some followed Cassie. Most stayed with me.
<You Kelbrid might be tough in your own galaxy,> I said to them, <but I’m from the mean streets of Earth. You don’t have a chance.>
I knew I didn’t have much of a chance. I was injured, perhaps fatally; I couldn’t know. I could barely see and hear. My arms felt weak and slow. And there were about twelve Kelbrid surrounding me. But I wasn’t alone.
I saw the movement in the tree above me. Gold with black spots. A clever face. Long claws and sharp teeth. A leopard. Jeanne.
I had expected her to be there. I knew she was smart enough to use her leopard morph to get the jump on the Kelbrid.
In the moment before she dropped, I realized the mistake. The Kelbrid had no eyes. They didn’t rely on sight to find their prey. And they probably used more than hearing. The whiskers were some sort of sensory organ like a bug’s antenna or a snake’s tongue. They knew where Jeanne was. And they were baiting her.
She dropped onto the nearest Kelbrid. At least, she tried. The Kelbrid jerked his stinger up with incredible speed. She landed right on it. Skewered like a leopard-kabob.
The Kelbrid carelessly dropped her and came for me. They all did now. I had nowhere to go and no more allies.
They took their time, tightening the ring. All they had to do was wait, really. I didn’t know if their poison was deadly or just sickening, but it would finish me off sooner or later. Already I could barely stand. Real Kelbrid probably would have rushed me, eager for the fight. The Yeerks knew who I was and weren’t about to take that chance.
<Jeanne,> I said. <Jeanne, if you can hear me, you need to demorph. He cut your stomach open. I’m going to get us out of here, but you have to demorph.>
I forced my mind to focus. I didn’t have much more energy. The morphs of the day were catching up with me.
I leapt and grabbed a tree branch above me. I swung myself over the heads of the Kelbrid Controllers. I landed near Jeanne. She was shrinking as I watched. Not quickly, but at least she was demorphing.
I scooped her up. I could barely lifter her. She shrank, but I got weaker too. The poison and the exhaustion were growing as my rage shrank. I was literally sick and tired. But I had a job to do.
I jumped as high as I could and landed in a tree. I stumbled my way through the boughs of the forest trees. Hork-Bajir were specially designed just for this. It was difficult with my ailments, but I managed.
The Kelbrid followed below me. I couldn’t outrun them, but I didn’t intend to. Soon, Jeanne was her human self again. As long as we stayed in the trees, they couldn’t get us. The Kelbrid may have been superpredators, but they couldn’t climb. I was glad.
I shrank back to my human form. My hearing returned, but that was it. The exhaustion blurred my eyes and dimmed my brain. I could barely lift my arms. I wouldn’t be able to morph again.
“Tobias,” Jeanne said. She had already started morphing to hawk. “Tobias, you must morph. We have to escape.”
“Yeah, I’ll, you know…” I said. I tried to focus on the hawk, but I couldn’t. It was too much. Too many morphs too quickly. I couldn’t make it and I knew it.
I felt strong arms lift me up. I looked around and realized it was a Hork-Bajir.
<Just rest, Tobias,> I heard Cassie’s voice say. <We’ll get you to safety. Just rest for now.>
I don’t know how long she carried me or how far. Truth be told, I fell asleep. I woke up in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by pine trees. Jeanne and Santorelli were sitting on the ground, watching me. I didn’t see Cassie.
“I think I’m ready to morph again,” I said. I was shocked by how weak my voice sounded.
“You need to rest,” Jeanne argued.
“No time. We have to get to…to…” I couldn’t think of the place.
<Alcatraz,> Cassie’s thought-speak voice said. I guess she was up in bird morph, keeping watch. <We have to get there before the One does.>
“Why?” Santorelli asked. “What’s at Alcatraz?”
“Not what. Who,” I answered. “Sun Tzu: know your enemy.”
“I don’t get it,” he admitted. “Who’s at Alcatraz that the One wants?”
<Our greatest enemy,> Cassie answered. <The Yeerk named Esplin 9466. The one we always called Visser Three. The One wants to free Visser Three.>
