Elayne steps outside of her ship and stops a few paces ahead as she catches sight of a familiar figure, which causes her stomach to give a strange--and not-so-pleasant--jump. "Mar?"
She glances back at Trey, a bit apologetically, and then takes several steps towards her strange friend. When they had agreed to spend some time apart, Elayne had imagined it would be longer than an hour or two. And considering his increasingly apparent love for Myitt, which ran deeper, or at least longer, than any affection Mar and Elayne may have developed for each other since she landed, she was not sure she wished to see him yet.
Tora sighs, eyes still glued to the holoscreen, and nods. "You are right." The thought of home sends a warm, happy shiver up her spine.
Idly, she swaps the nearest holoscreen's ship information for a visual. What she sees drains all the warmth right out of her.
<Yaolin!> The Andalite curse escapes Tora's thoughts before she can stop herself. About to walk out of the holoscreen's frame is the human morph of her old partner, Serid--a human morph she has previously infested with her since little-used Yeerk morph. The man she sees on the screen must be Serid, because his human morph was created with a frolis maneuver, like her own. The DNA is entirely unique.
Illim continues picking his way through the gravel, diverting his course to go around a nearby parked ship with quiet engines. The lower part of his green jumpsuit is slowly becoming coated with a fine layer of grey dust from the rocks he kicks up.
