The Hork-Bajir stood peacefully as Rachel reached out her slender fingers to touch the creature's back. The Hork-Bajir went slightly limp as she began to "acquire" him. To absorb his DNA and make it part of her.
«Guys?» Cassie called down from the sky. «l'm serious now. The bad guys are definitely getting close. I can see them.»
With my hawk's hearing, I heard the sounds of heavy creatures stomping and crashing clumsily through the woods. I heard the metallic clank
56 of weapons against belts and the muttered commands between human-Controllers and Hork-Bajir.
«Cassie's right?» I said. «We're down to two minutes maximum.»
Rachel gave a nod. She sent me a cocky wink. She closed her eyes and focused on the new morph.
And then . . . Rachel began to change. I wanted to turn away, but somehow I felt like I owed it to her to watch. It was because of me this was happening to her.
I can't tell you how utterly bizarre that scene was. The woods were growing dark. Shadows were deep all around, and even with my hawk's eyes I couldn't see through the shadows. Overhead the sky was dark blue streaked with red and orange, not yet black. True night was still an hour away. But under the shade of the trees it was night already.
We stood there, an insane nightmare of creatures- the Hork-Bajir, eyes closed tight; the Andalite, deadly tail twitching nervously at the prospect of battle; the orange-and-black-striped tiger climbing down from the rocks, moving like liquid power; a gorilla walking erect, using its massive fists as extra feet; and me ... the Bird-boy.
And in the middle of our group was Rachel.
57 She was growing taller now. She was already tall for a girl, but now she was quickly heading toward Shaq-size.
Her skin was changing. It turned dark, almost green-black. Her feet mutated swiftly from dainty human to the three-toed, one-spur feet of the Hork-Bajir. Feet that looked like my own talons except much, much larger.
Her face grew elongated. The jaw bulged outward and became smooth as a bullet. Her eyes were narrow, red-tinged slits. And then the blades began to appear.
SHWOOP! Horn-blades exploded from her forehead!
SHWOOP! Blades appeared at the wrists and elbows!
SHWOOP! Blades grew at her knees!
Rachel had become a walking razor. Seven feet of muscled deadly speed.
«So,» Rachel said. «So this is a Hork-Bajir.»
58 «You can open your eyes now,» I told Jara Hamee.
He did. And he turned to face . . . himself. Rachel was an identical copy of the Hork-Bajir, grown from his own DNA. I don't know what I expected. But it sure wasn't what happened next.
"HeeeeRRRROOOOOWW!" Rachel bellowed in a voice that made the leaves quake.
"HeeeeRRRROOOOWWW-Unh!" Jara Hamee responded.
«Shut up, you idiots!» Marco cried frantically. «We're halfway surrounded by Yeerks!»
SSSSEEEWW! Rachel slashed viciously at
59 the air! She missed Jara Hamee by an inch! Half an inch!
Jara Hamee responded instantly with a forward stab of one of his big feet. If it had connected, it would have ripped Rachel's stomach open. But the blow missed by a hair.
Rachel slashed and Jara Hamee slashed, but all the blows missed. Not by much, but they did miss.
«Back off!» Jake yelled. «Stop it!» I could see he was getting ready to jump in between them. That was all we needed - a three-way fight between two Hork-Bajir and a tiger.
«Jake, wait! I think ... I think it's just a ritual^ I said. «You see this kind of thing all the time in nature. It's a dominance ritual.»
The two Hork-Bajir had stopped slashing. Now they preened, circling around each other, stretching up on tiptoes to see who was taller.
«Hey, we so totally do not have time for games,» Marco said.
He was right. I saw flashlights through the trees.
Jara Hamee and Rachel bent their heads forward and touched their scythe like horns together with surprising gentleness.
«Rachel, are you okay in there?» I asked her.
«What? Dm ... what?» she asked. She was
60 confused. Morphing a new creature is confusing. Sometimes the experience can be overwhelming. The instincts of the creature surface and can even take over control for a while.
Or that's what everyone tells me, anyway. It's been a while since I morphed.
«Rachel? We are out of time,» Jake said gently. «Are you up for this?»
«L)m . . . yeah. Uh . . . okay. Sure. Sorry. I got kind of caught up there for a minute. I'm not getting Jara Hamee's thoughts or memories, but I definitely got a big bundle of Hork-Bajir instincts.»
«Jara Hamee? Back in the cave,» Jake said. «Do not come out. Everyone get ready. We just want to lead the Yeerks away. We are not looking for a fight. Rachel? You hear that about not looking for a fight?»
«Mmm-hmm. Sure,» Rachel said, even as she slashed at the air, trying out the Hork-Bajir blades. «Whatever.»
«Rachel, you can still back out of this,» I suggested.
«l'll bet you ten bucks she says, "Let's do it,"» Marco said quickly.
Rachel turned her snakelike head toward Marco and grinned what I think was a Hork-Bajir grin. «Let's ... go for it.»
«0h, man!» Marco complained. «She cheated.»
61 And then the enemy arrived. Suddenly four human-Controllers armed with guns crashed clumsily into view. And with them, two Hork-Bajir.
They saw Jake and Rachel and me.
They did not see Marco. He lumbered up behind one of the Hork-Bajir, tapped him on the shoulder, and the instant the Hork-Bajir turned, Marco landed a punch that would have split a telephone pole.
Ka-BOOM!
The Hork-Bajir went down hard.
"Whoa!" one of the humans cried.
And suddenly the Controllers weren't chasing us. We were chasing them.
I flapped hard and landed on Rachel's forward-swept horn blade. I gripped the bone blade with my talons.
«What are you doing?» Rachel asked.
«Just hitching a ride,» I said. «l'm not going to be left out. Not this time.»
«Cool. Let's go.»
«Yee-hah!» I yelled with totally, totally fake enthusiasm.
We took off through the woods. Rachel's Hork-Bajir body had an easy, loping run that was faster than it seemed at first.
I sat there holding on tight. I was tense and scared and ready for trouble. But at least I was in
62 for the fight, you know? At least I wasn't off somewhere safe while the others ran all the risks.
«You guys!» Cassie called down from above. «Stop chasing those Controllers! They're setting up a trap. They're leading you right between two bunches of bad guys!»
«0ops. Time to turn around,» I told Rachel.
«Yep.»
She turned and started running in a new direction. She was like some big tank, and I was the hood ornament.
Then . . .
«Yaaahhh!» Rachel cried. She pitched forward. I pitched forward. We hit the ground hard, and rolled through a juniper bush.
«Sorry. I tripped. You okay, Tobias?»
«Yeah. I think so.»
I was caught in the branches of the bush. I couldn't fight too hard to get out or I'd damage my feathers.
Slice!
Slice!
Suddenly the juniper branches were gone.
«AII right! I like these blades,» Rachel said. «Excellent!»
I fluttered my wings and hopped up to get back on Rachel's horns. But I must have overshot my goal because suddenly I was flying through the air.
63 No, wait! Hold on! I was up above the trees! Impossible!
How did I get here? I hadn't even flown. I'd barely hopped and now I was up in the sky? What the . . . ?
I did a quick turnaround, trying to figure out where I was. The sun was setting fast and there wasn't enough light for me to use my full powers of sight. But I wasn't blind, either. I saw a horned owl floating just at treetop level. Cassie. But she w
as so far away. Maybe a quarter mile!
«No way,» I said in total confusion.
Then I heard gunfire. Quite close. In fact, just beneath me.
BLAM! BLAM!
A human voice yelled, "Freeze! Freeze or I put the next shot in your second heart."
There was a small clearing below me. I knew the meadow. It was the territory of a Swainson's hawk. Not as nice as my own meadow, but a nice territory, anyway.
But I wasn't looking for mice in this clearing. I saw three humans, each well-armed, surrounding a single Hork-Bajir.
Rachel?
No. Couldn't be. She was back . . . back where I should be. Was it Jara Hamee himself? What was going on?
I noticed that one of the human-Controllers
65 seemed to be sick. He was doubling over, like he was having a spasm. No, wait! He was morphing!
It took a few seconds for me to be sure. But when I saw the extra stalk eyes appear and the sharp-tipped tail, I knew. It was an Andalite.
There are only two Andalites on planet Earth. One is Ax. The other is not a true Andalite at all. It's a Yeerk who uses an Andalite body.
The only Andalite-Controller in all the galaxy.
The only Yeerk to have the power to morph.
Our greatest enemy, leader of the Yeerk invasion of Earth, murderer of Ax's brother, Elfangor.
Visser Three.
64
Andalites always look like they're right on the borderline between cute and dangerous. But with Visser Three, that line doesn't even exist.
It's not that he looks any different outside. I mean, he looks like an older Andalite is all. But there is some dark, evil glow that shines from within him. And when you meet him you have no doubt ... no doubt at all that he is dangerous.
Deadly dangerous.
«Guys?» I called in thought-speak. «Um, Jake? Rachel?»
No answer. I was too far away from them.
The Andalite body emerged fully from the human form it had morphed.
«Well, well, Ket Halpak,» Visser Three said.
66 «That is your name, isn't it? Your original Hork-Bajir name? You've run us a nice chase, but it's time to come home now.»
Visser Three seldom bothered to whisper his thought-speak. I guess when you're that powerful it never occurs to you to worry that someone might overhear.
Ket Halpak, he had called the Hork-Bajir. So it was not Jara Hamee. This was his kalashi. His wife.
They had her surrounded. Two humans carrying shotguns and Visser Three, armed with all the lightning speed of an Andalite. Not to mention morphs from all the dark corners of the galaxy.
There was no way to save the Hork-Bajir female. I'd have to take Visser Three out, and that wasn't going to happen. See, Andalites - even false Andalites - are impossible to sneak up on.
Those extra stalk eyes, turning this way and that, always looking in every direction, made it impossible.
Unless . . .
Unless there was a distraction. I knew the Swainson's hawk tended to roost in one particular elm tree. The light was too dim to see him. He might not even be there. But if he was . . .
I flapped hard to gain altitude. Not too much, there wasn't time. Just enough. Forty feet. Fifty
67 feet. Sixty feet. Then ... I folded my wings and plummeted toward the ground.
"Tseeeeeeeeer!" I screamed in the voice of a red-tail.
"Tseeeeeeeeer!" I called again, making sure the Swainson's hawk would hear me.
And down I came, wings back and tail narrowed for maximum speed. I aimed straight for Visser Three.
If the Swainson's hawk wasn't home, I was toast.
Then, a rustling sound from the elm! From the corner of my eye I saw wings flapping. The Swainson's was coming out to defend his territory against the pushy red-tail.
I've never been so relieved to see a fellow hawk.
«That bird! It's probably one of them!» Visser Three shouted, pointing at the Swainson's.
The two human-Controllers spun and raised their shotguns to their shoulders. And Visser Three, bless his evil heart, turned his stalk eyes toward what he thought was a threat.
«l'm a friend of Jara Hamee,» I said to the Hork-Bajir. «Get ready!»
Talons forward! Beak thrust out! A sudden flaring of wings to adjust the angle and . . .
Strike!
69 My talons raked Visser Three's exposed stalk eyes from behind.
«ARRRRRHHHH!» Visser Three bellowed in pain.
«Now, RUN!» I told the Hork-Bajir.
BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! The shotguns fired.
And we were out of there! Out! Of! There!
The Hork-Bajir bolted. I flapped like my life depended on it. It did.
The Swainson's hawk turned so hard, so fast, I thought he'd been hit. But then he was hauling his tail feathers outta there, too.
«Andalite filth!» I heard Visser Three scream in my head.
But by then I was out over the trees and the Hork-Bajir was running flat-out below me, and I was just screaming like an idiot from the sheer insane rush of it all.
«Yesss! Yesss! Bird-boy shoots, he scores! Yah-HAH!»
68
lara Hamee and Ket Halpak were reunited in the shelter of the cave.
We were all exhausted and scared and confused. But we also had that slightly lunatic rush that comes from cheating death.
Marco and Cassie were both fretting about being late getting home. And everyone was getting close to the two-hour morphing limit. But despite all that, it was kind of sweet seeing the two Hork-Bajir together.
They didn't exactly hug. I guess hugging doesn't work all that well when you have blades all over. Ket Halpak did touch the healing wound Jara Hamee had made in his own head.
«Look, we have to get out of here,» Rachel
70 said. She was still in her Hork-Bajir form. «l'll be grounded for the weekend if I don't get home. And I have the feeling we're going to be busy this weekend, so I can't get grounded.»
«Your mom wouldn't ground a Packard Foundation Outstanding Student, would she?» I asked.
There was a kind of embarrassed silence. I wasn't supposed to know about Rachel's award.
«lt's not that big a deal,» Rachel said. She looked down at the ground.
«What do we do about these guys?» Jake asked. He was still in tiger morph. There were scratches and cuts on his sinuous orange-and-black fur. While I was off rescuing Ket Halpak, there had been a skirmish between the rest of my friends and some Controllers.
No one had been hurt. But once again, I wasn't there when the real fighting started.
«You guys go on home,» I told the others. «l'll keep watch over our Hork-Bajir friends here.»
«You can't keep watch all night,» Rachel protested.
«Hey, I have nothing else to do. I'll take a perch in the tree by the cave entrance. Not a problems
«l will help keep watch, too,» Ax chimed in.
«let's, um, go outside and talk about this,»
71 Jake said. To the Hork-Bajir he said, «Jara and Ket? You have to stay in this cave till we come and get you. Tomorrow some time.»
"What will you do with Ket Halpak and Jara Hamee?" Jara asked.
«We really don't know yet,» Jake answered honestly.
"We will wait. Here."
"We fellana ... we thank you," Ket said.
Outside it had definitely turned dark now. No stars in the sky yet, but it was just a matter of minutes. Everyone demorphed while Ax and I kept a nervous watch.
"Okay, so what do we do about this?" Jake asked, once everyone but me was normal again.
I kept pace with the others by flitting from branch to branch. I'd let them walk a little way ahead, then fly a few yards ahead of them and wait till they caught up.
"We have two real live aliens," Rachel said. "We could take them to the media. How can you deny there is a Yeerk conspiracy when you see those two?"
«There is already a real, live alien among you,» Ax pointed
out. «Me. But I have learned about human society. Humans invent all sorts of things that are not true. I have seen photographs of aliens in human newspapers. Do most people believe them?»
72 "Those aren't real newspapers," Marco said. "No one with half a brain believes those supermarket tabloids."
"And how do we know which newspapers and which TV networks are already infiltrated by the Yeerks?" Cassie said. "We could end up handing the Hork-Bajir right back to the Yeerks."
"Well, what exactly are we supposed to do with Romeo and Juliet back there?" Marco asked sarcastically. "Rent them an apartment? Buy them a house? Get them jobs? I mean, they are just slightly obvious. You know? People are probably going to notice them if they start shopping at the mall."
We all laughed. But it was a brief laugh. The truth is, we didn't know what to do.
«Those two may be the only free Hork-Bajir in all the galaxy,» Ax said. «The only two free Hork-Bajir in existences
"Like members of an endangered species," Cassie said thoughtfully. "The last two free Hork-Bajir. Maybe the last hope of their kind."
"Oh, man," Marco groaned. "Cassie, don't start in with the ecology stuff, okay? Those are not a pair of spotted owls or humpback whales back there."
«l must stop here,» Ax said. «We are close to the edge of the forest.»
Everyone stopped. Even though they all were
73 real anxious to get home to be yelled at by their various parents, no one left.
"What Cassie said may be true," Jake pointed out. "These two are an endangered species. What do you do with an endangered species?"
Cassie shrugged. "You find them a safe, protected environment. And then you hope they have lots of little Hork-Bajir, and somehow the species survives."
"Dm, hello. This is Earth," Marcosaid. "There is no safe place for an alien that looks like a mix of gargoyle and a lawn mower."
«Yes, there is,» I said.
Four human heads and one Andalite set of eyes all turned to stare up at me.
"Where?" Rachel asked.
«l know a place. Way up in the mountains. A valley. There are caves and fresh water streams. It's hidden.»
The picture of the place was clear in my mind. I could see it perfectly. I saw a beautiful waterfall. I saw tall trees that practically blotted out the sky in some areas. And a wide meadow filled with wildflowers. In my mind I could even imagine the place being home to Hork-Bajir.