CASSIE:
That night I had an awful dream...
Scratch that, a nightmare.
It started off innocently enough: I was sitting in my desk in English class, looking out the window and watching the clouds in the sky. The floor wasn't the floor at all, but grass; knee high blades of grass. There were trees in the classroom, too. Massive trees; like the ones found in Tobias' meadow. And it was bizarre, because the desks were still there! But, where there should have been other students sitting at their desks, there were wild animals. Four wild Animals, actually, and an Andalite. It seemed like everyone of the Animorphs had attended my English class that day.
And that wasn't the weird part, either. The really, really strange part was Chapman, our vice-principal, walking in with a briefcase; apparently nonchalant about a bunch of animals sitting in his classroom.
"Alright, children," he said, smiling and opening his briefcase. "Open your books to chapter twenty. It is here we shall learn about a famous traitor to the United States of America...Does anyone know who this person was?"
Rachel, who had managed to maintain outstanding grades in addition to saving the world--unlike the rest of us--raised a meaty bear-claw in the air and said, <Benedict Arnold?>
Chapman smiled. "No, Rachel, I'm afraid you're wrong."
Suddenly, Chapman was holding a dracon beam in his hands! It was pointed directly at a red-tailed hawk, perched on the desk beside Rachel.
TSEEEEEEEW!
Tobias dissapeared.
In the place where he had been perched was a roast turkey.
Suddenly, Chapman wasn't Chapman, but David. Beside David was an eight foot tall birdcage. In the cage were Chapman, Tom and Visser Three.
Suddenly, the wild animals were all armed with dracon beams. But, instead of a Tiger, Bear, Gorilla and an Andalite, there were lions! And they held the dracon beams in their massive jaws!
And everyone kept asking me questions. They said I would get thrown into the Yeerk Pool if I got them wrong!
Suddenly, I was a trapeeze artist, walking on a thin line of rope hundreds of feet above the Yeerk Pool.
"Who led the French at Trafalgar?"
"What's the square root of nine thousand, four hundred and sixty-six?"
"What would the time be at thirteen hundred hours?"
"Do mice eat cheese?"
Hundreds of questions that I had no answers to, ringing in my head. I was losing my balance. I fell from the rope!
<Cassie, need a lift?> Tobias asked.
I was falling...but I was no closer to the ground than I had been a minute ago. It was like a cartoon! Like, when Bugs Bunny is falling with Yosimite Sam, holding a carrot in his hand and saying, "Eeeeeeeeh, What's up doc?"
"You're dead!" I shouted. "David turned you into a turkey."
<You can't keep a good bird down, Cassie.> he laughed.
He raked his talons...He was a golden eagle now.
All the while I was falling towards the pool.
I woke up. I figureD that the sensation of falling did the trick. But that didn't make much of a difference. It didn't mean that I was really, really awake, did it? I mean, ever since I got involved in the invasion, I've been having ridiculous dreams within more ridiculous dreams. After a year of that, you start to wonder what is real and what is not.
There wouldn't be a point in going to bed. Not yet. Not after a dream that involved David.
I sat up straight in my bed and removed the sheets. I put on a pair of boots by my bed and grabbed the denim jacket hanging from the bed post. I then walked, carefully down the steps of the stairs leading to the main floor. I was pretty much an expert at sneaking out by now, but I didn't want to run the risk of waking my parents.
I would go to the barn. Spending time with some of the injured animals helped get my mind off things. It was my escape. Just like how Marco used Jokes, and Rachel shopped, and Tobias...turned himself into a bird. A nice break from murder, lying, deception, infestation, Yeerk Pools, dreams, traitors...
I grabbed a flash light from one of the cabinet drawers.
The barn was dark. It was pretty early in the day. The sun hadn't risen yet, and a thick blanket of darkness hung over my sleepy town. I clicked on the flash light and walked towards the big red doors. I undid the lock and pushed the heavy door open. A thin beam of white light peeped into the dark, musty barn, and a dozen pairs of eyes stared out into the night.
It was comforting, seeing all those little peepers. I never got creeped out or nervous around animals; even the slightly unattractive ones. While Rachel spent her time at the mall, I was elbow deep in mud, looking at worms and beetles.
I turned on the lights in the barn.
A lot of the animals were nocturnal. Some were pacing in their cages, if they could; others squaked, chirped, moaned or scratched themeselves. In most cases, all the animals could do was squeak, chirp, moan and scratch themselves. We take care of a lot of sick and injured animals that we find in town. We have a lot of big birds, like Owls and eagles, and hawks. We also have some small, forest animals, like raccoons and skunks; even larger forest dwellers, like deer. Once, we had a mountain lion.
I was looking inside the cage of one of the small raccoons. It wasn't mature, yet; still a kid, like me. "Poor little guy," I said. "You don't want to be here, do you? No, you want to be with your mother."
Scratch, scratch, scratch, tiny claws moving quickly across the barn floor. Had one of our patients escaped?
I listened closely, for a clue that would hint at the animal's hiding place.
Nothing...No pitter patter of animal paws touching wood. No noise from the rafters.
Just a strange crackling sound, like popcorn in a microwave.
Or burning wood from a campfire...
Suddenly, the barn was alive with flame!
