Yar. I be somewhere else now.

This account name is like... so old. And not even applicable anymore ._.

Here. *throws new account in face* 8D

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Animorphs Volume 04
The Message
K.A. Applegate
*Converted to EBook by Dace K
2
Chapter 1
M y name is Cassie.
I can't tell you my last name. I wish I could. But I can't even tell you what town I live in or what state. We have to disguise our identities, we
Animorphs. It's not about being shy. It's about staying alive.
If the Yeerks ever learn who we are, we'll be done for. If they don't kill us outright, they'll make us Controllers. They'll force a Yeerk slug into our
brains, where it will take control of us, making us slaves - tools of the Yeerk invasion of Earth.
And I really don't like the idea of being under the control of an alien. I don't like the idea of being dead, either.
On the other hand, there are some things I do like about being an Animorph. Some very cool things.
Take the other night. It was late. I should have been in bed. Instead I was in the barn, get ting ready to turn into a squirrel.
Technically, the barn is really the Wildlife Re habilitation Clinic. My dad is a vet. So is my mom, but she works at The Gardens, this big zoo. The
Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic is just my dad and me. We take in injured birds and animals and try to save them, then release them back into their
natural habitats.
That's where I was. In the barn. Surrounded by dozens of cages full of birds, from a mourning dove who'd run into a car windshield to a golden
eagle who'd almost been electrocuted by a power line.
In another part of the barn we have bigger cages for the badgers and opossums and skunks and deer and even a pair of wolves who'd been
poisoned. At the other end (far from the wolves) we keep our own horses.
There's an operating room and a couple of small recovery rooms, too. Back to that night. Have you ever watched a squirrel in the park? They
are constantly alert. Constantly looking around. It's like every minute of every day they're thinking, "Hey! What's that?"
So I knew that if I morphed into a squirrel, all that nervousness and fear would become a part of me. It's something we've all had to deal with:
controlling the animal instincts, the animal mind that comes along with the animal body.
Anyway, that's where I was, in a gloomy barn with just the yellow overhead bulbs to light the room. Why was I there? Because someone, or
something, had been sneaking in and getting at the birds. We'd lost a patient just the night before. A duck.
And because I couldn't sleep, anyway. I kept having these dreams. Only they weren't like normal dreams, somehow. More like ... I don't know.
Just really strange, that's all. 3
"Relax, Magilla," I whispered to the squirrel in my hands. "This won't hurt at all." I pulled some chestnuts from my pocket and handed him one.
Another nut fell to the floor. Some morphs are easy. Some are terrifying. When I was a horse, that was cool. When I had to become a trout, well, that
was a little more weird. The whole time I just kept thinking how someone could fry me and serve me with tartar sauce.
And I don't like tartar sauce.
"Squirrel," I told myself. I always try to get into the feeling of what it might be like to be the animal before I even start morphing.
The first physical change was in my size. I started shrinking. It's a very bizarre feeling. See, you feel like you're standing totally still, but the
ground keeps coming up toward you. And the ceiling is moving away. Door handles aren't where they should be anymore. All of a sudden they're
over your head.
I had shrunk to maybe two, two-and-a-half feet tall when my arms came sucking back into my body. Right about that point, the real Magilla tore
out of there. He ran back to his cage, got in, and - I swear this is true - closed the door. Anyway, I still had normal (although short) legs, but my arms
were stunted. I still had the normal number of fingers, but they were teeny tiny now, way too small for my body.
My ears traveled up the side of my head to rest on top. Soft gray fur spread across my body in a wave. My face puffed out and grew pointed.
Then, the wildest thing! My tail sprouted out of my body! And what was cool was that I wasn't a squirrel yet. I was still about half human, the size
of a small child, and my tail just shot out, about two feet long! Much longer and bigger than it would be once I was totally squirrelified.
I tilted my head back and I could see this bushy gray tail arched up over me. Way cool. My legs sucked in and I was down on the ground, down
on the cement floor of the barn. I suddenly discovered I hadn't swept and mopped as well as I thought I had. Amazing what you can see when your
face is just an inch from the floor.
Then the squirrel brain kicked in.
WHOA! YOW!
Man, did I have energy!
It was like I was plugged into a million volts. I was supercharged! My slow, sluggish human brain was just blown away by the sudden explosion
of energy.
A noise!
What's that? I cocked my ears. I swung my head, focusing my big eyes. A bird in a cage!
4
A new sound! What was it? I spun around.
No, wait! What was that? And that? And the other sound?
PREDATORS! They were everywhere! I was surrounded! PREDATORS!
5
Chapter 2
Birds! Big birds with nasty claws. All around me.
Wait. There was a nut. Oooh. A nut.
PREDATORS! Alert!
I scampered across the floor. Look left. Look right. Sniff sniff sniff the air. Oh, yes. Predators. I smelled them. I heard them. Birds. A wolf. A
badger.
PREDATORS! RUN RUN RUN!
Oh, wait. Was that a nut? I hopped over to the nut. YES! A chestnut! I seized it in my little front claws and began immediately to chew a hole in
it. Excellent! Wonderful! Chestnut! And I had it! No one could take it away. Hah hah!
A noise! What?
PREDATORS!
Don't drop the nut! Run with the nut! RUN!
With the nut stuffed into my jaw, I ran.
I ran straight up the wall. Straight up.
And that was the moment when Tobias decided to show up.
Tobias flew in through the hayloft overhead.
Unfortunately, in my squirrel mentality, with my human brain just barely holding on, I didn't realize it was Tobias.
What it looked like to me was a red-tailed hawk. A bird of prey. And this one was not in a cage.
No, this one was flapping around the high rafters of the barn. The hawk had talons like steel and a hooked beak that could open me up like a
can of beans.
I felt his hawk's eyes on me.
RUN RUNRUNRUNRUN!
I didn't know what to do. I mean, me, the human being named Cassie. I didn't know what to do. I knew I had to get control over the squirrel. But it
was so hyper!
However, the squirrel knew just what to do.
ZOOOM!
6I
ran straight up the wall. My little claws grabbed at tiny splinters and cracks in the wood, and shot up at a terrifying speed. If you've never been
a squirrel - and let's face it, you haven't
- you probably don't have any idea what it's like to run up. The wooden wall was like a floor under me. But at the same time I knew the
difference between up and down. I knew if I fell it would be down. It's as if you were running across the floor in your house, but if you tripped you'd fall
back against the wall.
Very strange.
Tobias had come to rest on a rafter. But I could feel his eyes on me. I froze. I froze completely. Not even my tail twitched. I just clutched onto the
wall and froze. But I couldn't keep it up. That torrent of squirrel energy would not let me stand still for long. Suddenly, with barely a glance to the side,
I launched myself through space. I flew. I mean, I just jumped and hurtled through the air for what seemed like half a mile, but was actually just ten
feet.
SLAM! I landed on the wooden beam that runs above the horse stalls. Bad move. Tobias had seen my movement. Out of the corner of my eye I
saw his vast wings open. He swooped down, talons raked forward.
But then ... a new movement. Something large and furtive. A board in the side of the barn pushed open. A head poked inside. It was just below
me. An intelligent, alert face, looking up at me and wondering if I was dinner.
A fox! Aha! My mystery bird-killer.
I had to get control of the squirrel brain. It al ways takes a minute in any new morph, at least, to control those wild animal instincts, but I didn't
have a minute. Tobias swooped.
Suddenly it was insanity everywhere. Birds in every cage began to squawk and shriek! The wolves in the next room decided to start howling.
The horses were whinnying shrilly. Tobias sheered away, startled.
Too late. I had jumped again, and now I was falling toward the straw-covered floor of a stall. Fall ing toward the fox.
I hit the ground and blew out of there, leaving a storm of dust and straw in my wake. The fox came after me. He was fast. Very fast.
<Tobias! Help!> I yelled in thought-speak.
<What the ... Is that you, Cassie?>
I dodged left. The fox dodged after me.
7
He was faster than me and almost as agile. Unless I could find a place to climb up and away, I was done for!
<Yes, it's me!>
<Well, why didn't you tell me?!> he said, sounding grumpy in my head. <l was considering eating you.>
<l just morphed. I just got control of this crazy squirrel brain. Now would you PLEASE save me?>
The fox's jaw snapped at my tail. I felt his teeth comb the fur.
<Good grief,> Tobias said. He opened his wings and came hurtling down, straight at the fox. The fox saw the shadow of the big hawk. He
stopped dead in his tracks. Too late. Tobias raked him with his talons and shot past.
The fox decided this was more trouble than he needed. He bolted for his secret passageway. Tobias came to rest on a crossbeam and looked
down at me with his fierce hawk's gaze.
<Cassie? Why are you out here at midnight turning into a squirrel?> I was already starting to morph back to human shape. <Well, we've had
some birds taken in the last couple of days. We figured it was a badger or a raccoon or a fox, but we couldn't figure out how he was getting in. So I
decided to morph and wait to see when he showed up.>
<Well, I certainly can't criticize anyone who wants to rescue birds,> he said. He fluffed his wings and began preening some ruffled feathers.
I was halfway back to human shape, growing up from the floor, feeling my legs sprout beneath me. But my human mouth was not back yet. <So,
what are you doing here, Tobias?
Looking for a squirrel sandwich?>
Tobias had almost completely accepted the fact that he was permanently stuck in the body of a red-tailed hawk. Recently he had begun to hunt
and eat like a hawk. He was still a little sensitive about it, but I thought if I just made a joke out of it, he would realize I wasn't grossed out or any
thing. <Squirrel sandwich?> he said. <No, I was thinking barbecue. Sorry I scared you.>
"It's okay, my friend," I said in my own voice. My mouth had formed. I was almost back to normal, all but this huge tail, which was still poking out
of the back of my morphing outfit. Normal, for me, is about average height, I guess. Whatever "average" is. I'm kind of solidly built, not skinny and
not fat, with hair I keep short because I don't like messing with it. As my friends would tell you, I'm not exactly Ms. Fashion. Mostly, if you want to
know what I look like, picture a girl in overalls and leather work gloves, biting her lip as she concentrates on trying to force a pill down the throat of a
badger.
8J
ake once took a picture of me doing exactly that. He has it next to his computer in his room. Don't ask me why. I would be glad to give him a
picture of me in a dress or something. Rachel could loan me the dress. But Jake says he likes the picture he has.
<l hear something,> Tobias said, suddenly alert.
I strained my ears. Human ears are so lame. Almost any animal can hear better. But then I heard it, too. A voice.
"Is someone in there?"
"My father!"
<You still have a tail!>
Too late. The barn door swung open. My fa ther stood there, blinking sleepily and holding a flashlight. "Cass? What are you doing out here?"
I stuck my hands behind my back and tried to hold my big squirrel tail down while I attempted to morph it away at maximum speed. "N-n-nothing,
Dad. I-I-I just couldn't sleep.
"
He nodded. "Okay. Well, go to bed now," he said crankily. My father is one of those people who needs about an hour and three cups of coffee
to wake up.
"Okay, Daddy," I said.
He hesitated. "Cassie? Turn around."
"Turn around?" I repeated in a squeaky voice.
"Yeah. Turn around. It's . . . just turn around."
Slowly I turned. As I did, the last of the tail shwooped back into my spine.
"Huh," my dad said. "I gotta get back to sleep. I swear I thought you had a tail."
"Heh heh," I laughed weakly.
When he left I collapsed back on the straw. "I really should have just stayed in bed," I said to Tobias. "Dreams or no dreams."
<Dreams?> he snapped. <What kind of dreams?>
I shrugged. "I don't know. These kind of weird dreams about the sea."
<The sea,> he echoed. <And a voice, calling out to you from beneath the water.> It was warm in the barn, but suddenly I felt really cold.
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Chapter 3
N o, I haven't had any weird dreams about the sea," Marco said. "I've had weird dreams about my sheets trying to strangle me. I've had weird
dreams about falling from way up high and when I finally land I'm in Mister Rogers' Neighborhood talking to King Friday. I've had weird dreams
about that woman on Baywatch . . . hmm, well, that does kind of involve the ocean, I guess."
"You have dreams about King Friday?" Rachel asked him. She put on a worried look. "I see." She shook her head slowly and made a tsk, tsk
sound.
"What? What's the matter with dreaming about King Friday?" Marco demanded. Rachel shrugged. "All I'm going to say is you should think
about seeing a counselor before your condition worsens." Rachel turned so Marco couldn't see her and gave me a wink.
"Very funny," Marco sneered. But he still looked a little worried. We were in Rachel's room the next day, af ter school. Her room is so neat.
Straight out of a magazine, you know? Like everything matches or goes together. She has this bulletin board where she puts little wise sayings on
Post-it notes.
I drifted over to the bulletin board and read '"Don't think there are no crocodiles just be cause the water is calm.' - Malayan Proverb."
Just beside that was '"If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.' - Sun Tzu."
It made me a little sad. In the good old days, Rachel would have had a bunch of quotes about being a good person or whatever. It just showed
how much our lives had changed. In a very short time we had all grown accustomed to a world of fear and danger. We had arrived at Rachel's
house separately. We had each checked to make sure we weren't being followed. We had planned the afternoon in advance to be sure that
Rachel's mom and her two sisters would be out. We had even had Tobias fly over the area looking for anything unusual. That's what our lives had
become. That and quotations full of paranoia and battle. Jake hadn't said anything yet. Tobias and I had both told everyone about our strangely iden
tical dreams. About the voice that seemed to come from beneath the sea. The strange voice that called to us.
No one else had heard the voice in their dreams. Marco had made jokes. Rachel had been supportive but skeptical. Only Jake had remained
silent.
I suppose you could say Jake is sort of our "leader," although he's not bossy in any way. It's more like this natural aspect of his personality. He's
the one you just automatically look to when there's trouble.
Of course, I look to him for other reasons. Not that I would ever tell him or anything, but I really like Jake. You know, as in like.
10
He's very cute, in a big, strong kind of way. He has brown hair and dark, dark eyes. He seems very serious until you get to know him. And then
you realize he's still pretty serious, but he also knows when to laugh.
Jake has to know when to laugh because Marco has been his best friend since they were both in diapers. They've competed and foughtand
disagreed the whole time. Marco's mission in life is to find the humor in everything. Even in his best friend. Marco is kind of cute, too, although he's
not my type. He wears his brown hair long and has these amazing eyelashes that I would love to have myself.
Marco isn't interested in being in charge, or even in being part of a team. He wants us to just quit the whole thing. He wants us to forget the
Yeerks and forget morphing and just try and stay alive.
But at the same time, it's Marco who is very aware of all the security problems. He's the one who makes sure we never discuss anything on the
phone, where enemy ears might be listening in.
Rachel is my closest friend. She has been for years. How can I explain Rachel? First of all, she and Jake are cousins, and they have a lot in
common. They seem to grow strong people in that family, because Rachel is the strongest person I know. It's like nothing ever intimidates her.
She's totally fearless, or at least that's how she seems.
To look at her you'd think, Oh, she'll grow up to be some airheaded model, because she's very tall and pretty and blond. But I pity anyone who
mistakes Rachel for a wimpy airhead. Sometimes I think Rachel likes the way everything has worked out. It's like all along there was this Amazon
warrior locked up inside of her, and now she has an excuse to bring it out. But she was not a person who believed in dreams very much. "Well,
okay," she said, "if we're done with the dreams, let's - "
"Rachel," Jake interrupted, "I think I have something that may be interesting." He pulled a videocassette out of his bag.
"Cool. Let's watch a movie," Marco said.
"Not a movie," Jake said. "I guess no one else watched the late news last night?"
"I was busy watching my taped reruns of Mis ter Rogers' Neighborhood," Marco said, giving Rachel a sly look. "Last night it was the one where
it was a beautiful day in the neighborhood."
Jake rolled his eyes up to the ceiling, the way he'd done a million times before when Marco said something irrelevant or annoying. "Rachel,
can we go downstairs and use your VCR?"
"Sure," Rachel said.
We trooped down the stairs. Except for Tobias, who fluttered down above our heads. 11
"Hey, Tobias," Marco said, "I've been mean ing to ask you, are hawks like seagulls? I mean, do they poop while they're flying?"
<Depends on who's down below,> Tobias shot back. <Let me just put it this way - if you get on my nerves, you'd better buy a hat.>
Down in Rachel's living room, Jake turned on the TV and popped in his cassette.
"There was just this one small story," he narrated, as, on the screen, an old guy in a bathing suit held up a piece of what looked like metal.
"So now we're interested in hairy old guys who should be wearing shirts?" Marco asked.
"This old guy says he found that on the beach. It washed up during the storm a couple of days ago. Watch."
The camera focused on what looked like a jagged piece of metal, about two feet long and one foot wide. As the camera zoomed in, I saw what
looked like letters. Only they weren't any alphabet I had ever seen.
Now the tape was showing the anchorwoman smiling, and then it went blank. Jake turned the VCR off.
"Okay . . . so?" Marco prodded.
Jake sighed. "So the night the Andalite landed, when I went inside his ship to get the cube that gave us our morphing powers, I saw writing."
I felt a chill creep up the back of my neck.
"I could be wrong, I mean, I'm not some expert," Jake said. "But I think it was that same alphabet. Those same kinds of letters."
Suddenly no one was laughing. Not even Marco.
"I think what washed up on the beach is a piece of an Andalite ship," Jake said. Suddenly, without warning, I felt the ground swirl beneath me. I
fell straight back, not even caring that Jake caught me in his arms just before I hit the carpet. 12
Chapter 4
I was falling, falling, falling.
Falling into the sea.
Splash! I hit the water. But still I fell. Down and down and down through blue-green, sunlit layers of water.
<I 'm here,> a voice called to me. <l am here. I cannot survive much longer. If you hear me ... come. If you hear me ... come.>
Suddenly I opened my eyes. I stared up at Jake's concerned face. Glancing across the room, I saw Rachel with the telephone to her ear,
preparing to dial.
"She's awake!" Jake said.
"I'd better still call an ambulance," Rachel said.
"No!" Marco snapped, "Not unless we know she's hurt. It's too big a risk." Rachel's eyes flared the way they do when someone tells her
something she doesn't want to hear. "I'm calling nine-one-one," she said tersely.
"No, Rachel, I'm okay," I said. I sat up. My head felt a little woozy, but I was all right. Rachel hesitated, her fingers just above the keypad. "What
about Tobias?" I looked around the room and saw Tobias spread out on the floor, one wing crumpled beneath him.
He looked dead.
I jumped up and ran to him.
"Rachel, Cassie seems okay, and nine-one-one can't help Tobias," Jake said. Rachel replaced the receiver and ran over to Tobias.
"He's not dead," I said. I could feel him breathing. Then, just as suddenly as I had, he woke up. His enormous brown hawk's eyes opened,
instantly fierce.
His first reaction was pure hawk. He hopped up and flared. Hawks flare just the way cats do when they're trying to intimidate someone. They
hunch their shoulders and fluff up their feathers to make themselves look bigger than they are.
"Everybody stand still," I said quickly. "It's okay, Tobias, you were just out for a minute there."
He quickly gained control over the hawk instincts. <That was strange,> he said. 13
"It happened to me, too," I said. "I passed out. And then I had the dream again. Only this time I could hear an actual voice. Or at least I heard
thought-speech."
<Me, too,> Tobias confirmed.
"Okay, now this is getting weird," Rachel said. "Because at the same time I thought I kind of felt something."
"Yeah," Jake agreed. Marco nodded.
<l know this sounds crazy, but ... but it's like someone is sending out a distress signal. Like they are calling for help.>
"Only this someone is in the water, or under the water, or something," I said. "Seeing that video, seeing that writing, it was like suddenly the
message grew stronger."
"Or it may have just been a coincidence," Jake said. "This isn't a dream. I don't know what it is, but it isn't a dream. Even I halfway saw
something. This is some kind of a communication.
""
Well, this is all very interesting," Marco said, "but so what? I mean, are we getting some kind of psychic message from the Little Mermaid?
What are we supposed to do about it?" Jake looked closely at me. "Cassie? Was the voice in your dream a human voice?" I was startled by the
question. I hadn't really thought about it. I actually laughed. "When you asked me, the first thing that popped into my head was no, it isn't human." I
laughed again.
"But that doesn't make any sense."
<It's not human,> Tobias said suddenly. <l understand the meaning of what it's saying, but it's not human. It's not 'speaking' in words, really.>
"So what is it?" Rachel asked. "Yeerk?"
I let my mind drift back to the dream. I tried to hear the sound in my head again. "No, not Yeerk. It reminds me of something ... of some one."
<The Andalite,> Tobias blurted.
I snapped my fingers. "Yes! That's it! It re minds me of the Andalite. When he first thoughtspoke to us. That's what it's like."
"The Andalite," Marco muttered. He looked away. I knew he was remembering. We all were. We had been walking home from the mall at night.
Walking through a big abandoned construction site, when the Andalite ship had ap peared above us. It landed, and out came the Andalite prince,
fatally wounded in a battle with the Yeerks some where in space.
14
He was the one who had warned us of the Yeerks - the parasite species that inhabited the brains of other creatures and enslaved them,
making them Controllers. It was the Andalite who had warned us, and who, in desperation, had given us the great and terrible weapon - the power
to
morph.
We had been hiding, cringing in terror, when the Yeerks caught up with the Andalite. When Visser Three himself, the Yeerk leader, had
murdered im.
I shuddered at the terrible memory of the An-dalite's last, despairing ry.
"Yes," I whispered. "Tobias is right. It's an Andalite. That's who is alling to us from the sea. An Andalite."
For a few minutes no one said anything.
Then Rachel said, "He died trying to save us." She looked defiantly at Marco. "I know that doesn't mean anything to you. But the Andalite died
trying to save Earth." Marco nodded. "I know. And you're wrong, Rachel. That means plenty to me."
"Yeah? Well, if there's some Andalite calling for help, I'm going to try and help him," Rachel said.
I looked over at Jake and we shared this look, like "Oh, big surprise, Rachel is ready to go." I hid my smile and Jake kept a straight face.
"Tobias?" Jake asked. "What do you say?"
<l don't know if I should have a vote. I'm the one person here who isn't going to be much help dealing with water. Besides, you guys all know
how I'd vote.> Of all of us, it was Tobias who had stayed longest at the Andalite's side, even as the Andalite ordered him to get to safety. Something
really deep had gone on between the Andalite prince and Tobias.
It was my turn. "I can't just ignore someone crying out for help, if that's what this is." We all looked at Marco. I could see Rachel getting angry,
like she was ready to jump all over Marco if, as usual, he disagreed.
Marco just grinned. "I really hate to do this. I really hate to disappoint you all." Then he grew serious. "But I was there at the construction site,
same as all of you. I was there when Visser Three - " Suddenly his voice choked. "What I mean is, if there's an Andalite who needs any thing, I'm
there."
15
Chapter 5
You do realize that if we're down here at the beach because of that news story, some Controllers are probably down here, too?" Marco asked
for about the tenth time.
"Yes, Marco," Jake said patiently. "But maybe Cassie and Tobias can get some feeling from being down here, closer to the sea."
"So let me get this straight - we are now making decisions based on Tobias and Cassie's dreams, right?" Marco said. "And yet my dreams
are totally ignored. The fact that I once dreamed about staying home and watching TV in total safety, that means nothing, right?"
"Right," Jake said flatly.
We were at the beach. The same beach where the guy on the news had found what we now believed was a piece of an Andalite ship. It was
night, with a sliver of moon that painted ripples of silver across the black water. A salt breeze blew off the water, making me feel peaceful and yet a
little overwhelmed, intimidated, the way the ocean always makes me feel. There is nothing as big as the ocean. It's like this entirely different planet,
full of strange plants and fantastic animals. Valleys and mountains and caves and broad, flat plains, all hidden from our sight.
All I could see was the surface. All I could feel was the barest edge of the ocean, rushing over my toes as each wave crashed ashore.
But I could sense it out there. I could sense how vast it was, and how tiny I was.
"How about my dream of living long enough to get a driver's license?" Jake gave Marco an exasperated look. "Marco, you can turn into a bird
and fly. You could do it right now. Why would you care about driving a car a few years from now?"
"The babes," Marco said instantly. "Duh. You can't pick up girls when you're a bird." He glanced overhead, where we could see just the hint of
dark wings against the canopy of stars.
"No offense, Tobias. The wings are great, but I'm thinking of something bright red with about four hundred horsepower."
Marco's cooperative mood hadn't lasted long. I knew it wouldn't. Marco is never happy unless he's complaining about something. Just like
Rachel is never happy unless she has something to fight against. And Tobias is never happy, period. He thinks if he's ever happy, someone will just
come along and take his happiness away.
"So, Cassie?" Rachel said. "Do you feel any thing?"
"Well, I feel a little embarrassed," I admitted. "And a little foolish."
"Maybe we could try calling the Psychic Friends," Marco suggested. "Hi, is this Psychic Friends? I've been dreaming about aliens lately - "
16
"Why Cassie and Tobias?" Rachel wondered aloud, ignoring Marco. "Why would they get these images so clearly and the rest of us barely felt
anything?"
Jake shook his head. "I don't know. I mean, okay, say you're an Andalite. And you want to call for help. Who do you want to come and rescue
you? Other Andalites, obviously."
"Tobias isn't an Andalite, and neither am I," I pointed out.
"I know," Jake said. "But maybe this communication, whatever it is, is tied into the ability to morph. You know, like morphing ability makes you
able to 'hear' it. That way, only Andalites would be able to receive the call for help."
"Which still doesn't explain why Tobias and I _"
"Maybe it does," Marco interrupted, serious again. "Look, Tobias is permanently in morph. And Cassie, you're the one who has the most talent
for morphing." Then he flashed white teeth in the dark. "Besides, you know you like animals more than humans, so it's like you're halfway into
morph, anyway."
Suddenly a dark shape swooped low over our heads. <Lights!> Tobias said. <Up ahead on the beach. There's a bunch of people moving in a
line with flashlights, like they're searching for something. You can't see them yet because they're hidden by that dune. But they'll be here in a couple
of minutes.>
"Who are they?" Jake demanded.
<l can't tell,> Tobias said. <My eyes may be great during the day, but at night I don't see any better than you do. I'm a hawk, not an owl.
Fortunately, I still hear pretty well. You guys hide in the dunes. I'll be right back.>
With that he was gone.
"Come on," Jake said. "He's right. Let's hide in the dunes." We crouched down in a pocket between two dunes. I lay flat on my belly in the cold
sand and peered through the tall sea grass, focusing on the bright line of the surf. Tobias was back a few minutes later.
< It's them,> he said. He came to rest on a piece of driftwood. < It's a group from The Sharing. Chapman is with them.> He turned his head to
look at Jake. <Tom is with them, too.>
The Sharing is a front organization for the Yeerks. Supposedly it's this group for all ages, like Girl Scouts or whatever. In reality it's a way for the
Controllers to try and recruit new voluntary hosts. As impossible as it may seem, some humans actually decide to become hosts for the Yeerks. The
Yeerks like it that way. It's easier for them to have a voluntary host instead of a host that resists their control.
17
The Sharing is very subtle, of course. People are brought along very slowly, over time. New members have no idea what it's all about at first.
They think it's just fun and games. I don't know when they tell the members what's really happening. By then I guess it's too late. They either become
hosts voluntarily, or, like Jake's brother Tom, they are taken, anyway.
"Tom is with them?" Jake asked.
< I'm pretty sure,> Tobias said. <Some of the senior members - Chapman and Tom - are following behind the others. I could hear some of
what they were saying. They're very worried about that fragment of Andalite ship.>
"So it is Andalite?" Rachel asked, excited.
<l guess so,> Tobias said. <l heard something else, too.> The way he hesitated made me tense up. "What?"
<Something about Visser Three having visions. That's what they said. Visions. I guess the visions made the Visser cranky. He was on the
mother ship at the time and decided to shove a Hork-Bajir out of an airlock because he broke the Visser's concentration.>
"It's because of Visser Three's Andalite body," Marco said.
"That's the connection. These dreams or visions or whatever they are must be some kind of communication that's only supposed to be heard
by Andalites." Suddenly I saw the line of flashlights swing into view. There must have been twenty people strung across the beach, all looking down
at the sand, moving forward slowly.
"They're searching for any other fragments," I whispered. A part of the line stopped moving. I heard someone yelling. Others came running up,
ex cited.
"What did they find?" Jake wondered.
"I don't. . ." Then, in a flash, it came to me. "Our footprints! Four sets of fresh footprints that suddenly turn off into the dunes!"
"Let's get out of here," Jake hissed. "Now!" Too late!
The flashlight beams raced across the rippling sand and up the side of the dune. In an instant a dozen flashlight beams focused on the notch
where we crouched. We slithered back, down and out of sight. Then we jumped up and ran.
"We should morph!" Rachel gasped as we stumbled over the sinking sand. 18
"No!" Marco said. "Tracks. We would leave tracks that went from human to animal."
"Get them!" someone yelled. Chapman, I think. He's our assistant principal at school. I knew his voice from hearing him yell in the hall ways.
Jerky, wild beams of light danced all around us. We ducked and ran as fast as we could. But running across the sand was like running through
quicksand.
Jake was gasping out whispered instructions. "Double around ... if they follow us deeper into
... the dunes ... we can double around . . . get to the water. . . then morph ..."
"There! There! I see them!"
A beam of light swept over me. I could see my shadow, long and twisted, projected on the sand. I dodged left, out of the light. Just in time.
BAM! BAM!
Gunfire!
Someone was shooting at me.
19
Chapter 6
It seemed totally crazy.
I mean, I've been in one-on-one combat to the death with seven-foot-tall Hork-Bajir war riors, and I've been shot at by Dracon beams that sort of
disintegrate you slowly. But I'd never been shot at with plain old everyday guns.
It seemed nuts after all we'd been through.
BAM!BAM!BAM!
Phit! I heard something hit the sand just inches from my foot.
"Aaaahhh!" I cried in surprise.
This was real. Real! This was really happen ing.
A rough hand grabbed me and dragged me forward. Jake. I had frozen when I'd heard the bullet so close.
<They're all in the dunes!> Tobias cried. <Now's the time.>
"Come on!" Jake snapped. He half dragged me up the side of the nearest dune, but by then I was moving fine all on my own. I was scurrying up
the side of that hill, snatching at handholds of scrub grass, pistoning my feet into the sand.
Over the top. We slid and rolled and ran down the far side.
We were back on the beach. I stole a quick glance to the right. No lights on the beach. They were all in the dunes. Looking for us.
"Head to the water," Jake said. "Morph to fish."
"Jake," I panted. "Trout. . . they're freshwater fish . . . this is saltwater."
"You have a better idea?" he asked.
BAM!BAM!
"No," I said. We splashed into the boiling surf. As I ran I pictured the fish. I remembered being the fish. I focused as much as anyone can focus
with a dozen or so Controllers chasing her and shooting.
My feet went out from under me. They had shriveled and begun to disappear. I hit the water and got a mouthful of salty foam.
I tried to keep my head above water, but my arms were rapidly disappearing. The waves were high around me as I became smaller and
smaller. My clothing billowed. 20
The people from The Sharing, the Controllers, raced to the water's edge. I could see their lights, weirdly distorted as my eyes went from the airadapted
eyes of a human to the eyes of a fish.
With what was left of my ears I heard, "The tracks lead right to the water." Tom's voice. Then Chapman's. "I don't see them. They can't swim far.
The current is too strong. Fan out up and down the beach."
"Do you think these are the Andalite guerillas?"
"No. The tracks are human. Just some kids, probably. I doubt they saw anything. That fool should not have been shooting."
"Sir," a new voice said. "We found a pair of jeans in the surf. Look like they could be for a kid."
"Any identification in them?"
"No. Nothing."
"Coincidence," Chapman said. "Probably."
"If they're human, why don't we see them out there?" Tom asked. "Four sets of human tracks. No humans in the water. Is it possible... is Visser
Three wrong? What if they're not Andalites at all?"
I sank beneath the water. The morph was almost complete. But as I went under I heard Chapman laugh cruelly. "Visser Three wrong? Maybe.
But I'm not the fool who's going to try and tell
him."
The morph was complete. I was a fish, less than a foot long. A trout, to be exact. Excellent broiled, fried, or grilled.
The saltwater was harsh on my scales, and my gills were barely able to breathe.
<Everyone okay?> It was Jake. Now that we had morphed we had the same thought-speech ability as Tobias.
< I'm okay,> I assured him. <But I can barely breathe. I think we'd better be quick.>
< I'm with Cassie,> Rachel said. <l feel like my scales are burning up. And my gills are on fire.>
<Keep the shore on your left and go full speed as long as you can stand it,> Jake advised.
<Marco? Are you with us?> I asked.
< Oh , sure. Where else would I be? What could possibly be more fun than running around the sand dunes getting shot at and then jumping into
the ocean and turning into a trout, who, 21
incidentally, can't live in saltwater? I wouldn't miss it for anything. Now can we go home and watch TV?>
22
Chapter 7
The next couple of days we didn't get together, except for passing each other in the hall ways at school. We do have lives beyond being
Animorphs, after all.
Rachel was busy with her gymnastics class. Plus she got to go to this ceremony where her mom received some award for being Lawyer of the
Year. (And since this is Rachel we're talking about, going to an awards dinner meant major shopping for new everything.) Jake had totally blown a
test because he hadn't studied, so he had to do a paper as makeup work. And I was busy helping my dad out in the barn with the golden eagle who
had almost been electrocuted. He was at a difficult stage of his recovery. Tobias dropped by one evening and acted kind of snippy about me trying
to save a golden eagle. Golden eagles and hawks don't get along. Probably because golden eagles are known to kill and eat hawks.
It was a couple of days later that Jake rode his bike over to my house. I didn't expect him, so I was dressed like even more of a slob than usual.
Plus I reeked of various horrible things because I was mucking out the stables and cleaning the birdcages. Typical guy. He had the totally bad
timing to show up when I looked like Ms. Manure.
"Hey, Cassie," he said in his usual casual way, like nothing was going on.
"Hi, Jake. Did you come by to help me shovel manure?" He grinned. He has a great smile. It appears kind of slowly, like it doesn't quite belong
on his serious face. "I don't know. Did I?"
"Yes, you did," I told him. I handed him a shovel. "If I have to smell, so do you." We worked a little bit, with no sound but the steel shovel blades
scraping the concrete. I knew he had something to tell me. I can always tell. But I figured I'd let him get around to it whenever he was ready.
"So," he said at last.
"So?" I echoed.
"Look, um, I guess everyone is kind of waiting to see what you decide to do." This surprised me. I stopped shoveling. "What? What do you
mean?"
"I mean, we're waiting to see what you decide to do about this dream of yours." I shrugged. "I don't know. Besides, it's not just my dream.
Tobias has it, too. And all of you guys felt it a little, at least."
"Yeah, but Tobias figures he isn't going to be much help when ... I mean, if we decide to do something. We're talking water, and Tobias can't
morph. As for the rest of us, I don't know. 23
Rachel and Marco were talking about whether it might have just been something they imagined, you know? Because you made it seem so real
and all."
"What do you think, Jake?"
Jake stopped working and wiped his forehead with the back of his hand. He looked straight into my eyes. "Cassie, if you tell me it's real, it's
real. I think you and Tobias are right. But Marco is having second thoughts." He raised one eyebrow, as if to say "You know Marco." I felt a queasy,
sick feeling. "You mean, I'm supposed to make some kind of a decision? Like I'm supposed to say what we do?"
"Cassie, you're the one with the dream. Only you can decide if it's real, and if it's real enough for us to try and do something about it."
"I don't know if it's real," I said. What was he asking me to do? Every time we had tried to get into it with the Yeerks, we had ended up barely
escaping with our lives. Just two days had passed since I'd heard bullets whizzing past me.
Jake waited until I met his gaze again. "Cassie, you know we all trust your instincts. You're the best at understanding animals. You're the best
morpher. You know everyone in the group respects you."
I made a face. "Give me a break."
"If you think we should pursue this, you know Rachel will be right behind you. Me, too."
"And Marco?"
Jake grinned again. "Marco won't be right behind you. He'll be several feet back." We both laughed.
"I don't know, Jake. It's a dream. It's like a vision or something. How do I know if it's real?" He shook his head. "I don't know, Cassie. I guess
you just have to take your best shot and hope you're right."
I cringed at that. I'm not Rachel. I'm not a risk-taker. "Can't you decide for me?" I asked, joking.
He nodded solemnly. "If you want me to, sure."
"And then if it's a disaster, it will all be on your head," I said. "You'll be the one who feels bad. You'll be the one to blame." I reached out and
touched his cheek. "That's incredibly sweet of you. But you're right. I guess it's my decision this time." I sighed and looked around at the barn. It
smelled pretty bad, and sometimes it was a nuthouse of yammering birds and howling wolves and whinnying horses, all needing care, and all
scared of the care we gave them. But it was the place I felt most at home in the whole world.
24
Out through the door of the barn, the fields of corn and open meadow stretched off into the distance, till they pressed up against the dark trees
of the forest.
"I know this is crazy," I said, "but the ocean scares me a little. I understand the land. I under stand soil and things that grow out of it." I laughed. "I
guess I'm just an old farm girl. You know this farm has been in my family since the Civil War?" Jake winked. "Do I know that? Puh-leeze. I had
Thanksgiving with your family last year, you may remember. Your great-grandmother gave me the complete history."
"Going all the way back to when dinosaurs ruled the earth," I said. "Grammy does tend to go on about our history, doesn't she?"
He looked serious again, almost hard. "It's your call, Cassie. It will be really dangerous and we probably won't do much good. I mean, it's a big
ocean out there. But it's your decision."
"Yep," I agreed. I shook my head slowly, sadly. "I believe these dreams are real. I believe there's an Andalite out there, somewhere . . .
somehow . . . trapped. Calling for help."
"Good enough," he said. "Now. How do we get out there?" I frowned, thinking of the possibilities. "Some kind of fish? It would have to be some
thing fast. Something that isn't prey. You know, not some fish that's going to get snapped up by a hungry tuna or whatever."
Jake nodded. "And it has to be something we can acquire. Which means, probably, something at The Gardens."
"They have sea lions. And dolphins. But we can't morph them, can we?"
"Why not?"
"I ... I don't know. It's just that, I mean, dolphins? They're highly intelligent. It seems kind of, I don't know, kind of wrong."
"Well, you decide," he said, leaning his shovel against a wall. "I have to go. I can't blow another test, and I have to study."
He climbed back on his bike.
"You're just saying that to get out of shoveling manure," I said.
"Cassie," he said, "I would rather shovel manure with you than do homework without you, any day."
I think it was a compliment. Sort of.
He rode off, leaving me much less at ease than I had been before he'd come. 25
Chapter 8
The next day after school, the four of us headed toward The Gardens on a city bus. Tobias flew. He said he'd be there before we were, but he
wasn't sure how close to us he actually could get.
The Gardens is this big amusement park that also includes a zoo. Only they don't call it a zoo, they call it a "wildlife park." My mom works there.
Actually, she's the head of medical services, the head vet.
I have a pass to get in anytime I want, but the others all have to pay, which is kind of a drag be cause Marco never has any money. Ever since
Marco's mom died, his dad has been kind of messed up. He just takes temporary jobs, and they're always broke. I guess I kind of think it's
romantic, the way Marco's dad has never gotten over his wife dying. But on the other hand, it's like I had to learn when I started helping my dad with
the animals - sometimes death just happens, and all you can do is get over it the best you can. It's tough for Marco because he feels like he has to
take care of his dad - instead of having his dad taking care of him.
On the bus, I glanced over at Marco. He was looking out of the window, being kind of quiet.
"Hey, Marco," I said.
"What?"
"Is that a new haircut? It looks good."
"Yeah?" He looked surprised. He ran his fingers back through his long brown hair and kind of smiled.
I did some homework on the bus (math, gag, yuck!) and listened to my Walkman. When we got there, it turned out there was a special on
tickets - buy two and get the third ticket for a dollar. Marco had a dollar, fortunately, so we didn't have to go through any big scenes.
We cruised through the area where all the rides were, heading toward the wildlife park. Jake shook his head sadly, looking up at the monster
roller coaster. "That used to be the coolest thing in the world to me," he said. "But ever since I morphed a falcon, it just hasn't seemed like any big
deal. I mean, you're going maybe eighty miles per hour on a steel track. When I was a falcon I did like two hundred miles an hour in midair."
"This morphing stuff does kind of change things," Marco agreed. "I used to want to get all pumped up. Then I morphed into a gorilla, and it was
like, why bother lifting weights? I can just become a gorilla and bench press a truck."
"I don't feel that way," Rachel said. "Being a cat made me more interested in gymnastics. I mean, as a cat I was just so totally, totally in con trol
and graceful. Ever since then I've been 26
trying to use that feeling. When I'm on the balance beam I try and remember that cat confidence."
"And then you fall off just the same as always?" I teased.
"Oh, yeah," Rachel said with a laugh. She made little walking fingers in the air that then fell over. "Boom. I slip right off. But I feel confident while
I'm falling off." We reached the wildlife park entrance. The marine mammals are one of the first exhibits. There's a main building, then there are
several outdoor tanks.
We went straight for the largest outdoor tank. There were bleachers all around it on three sides where people sat for performances. A show
had just ended, and hundreds of people were leaving. The next show would be in a couple of hours.
"Good timing," Jake said. "Not too big a crowd."
"It's a weekday afternoon," I said. "It's never all that crowded on school days." We forced our way upstream against the rush of people, and
reached the side of the tank. It's pretty big. Like four or five big swimming pools. It's very blue, very clean-looking. There's a low platform on one side
where the trainers stand to communicate with the dolphins.
"So what's the difference between porpoises and dolphins?" Marco asked. "Both just fish, right?"
SPLOOSH!
The placid surface of the water exploded a few feet from us. Water sprayed across me.
"Oooooh!" we all said as one.
He flew straight up out of the water, like a sleek, pale gray torpedo. Eleven feet long from nose to tail. Four hundred pounds. He simply flew into
the air, seemed to hang there, ten feet above the surface of the water, took a skeptical look at us, gave us his permanent wise-guy grin, and slid
back beneath the water so smoothly that there was barely a ripple.
"That is a dolphin," I said to Marco.
"Okay, I like that. That is excellent," Marco said. "Did you see what he did?" You know how really great athletes never look like they're even
trying? Like Michael Jordan? How everything they do is perfect, and you know they must have practiced for a million hours, but they always look
like, "Oh. No big deal. Of course I can fly through the air. Nothing to it."
That's a dolphin in the water. Effortless. Per fect. Utterly in control. 27
Fish swim through the water. Sharks swim, tuna swim, trout swim, even people swim. Dolphins don't just swim through the water. They own the
water. The water is their toy. The water is one big trampoline and the dolphins bounce around like kids having a good time. Just watching them
makes you happy. It also makes you feel like you're just this clunky, awkward windup toy, jerky and stumbling and clumsy. Human beings may be the
smartest creatures on Earth, but we sure are dorky compared to a lot of other species.
"He's trying to get me to give him some more fish."
We all spun around. It was one of the dolphin trainers, a woman named Eileen.
"Oh, hi, Eileen," I said.
She nodded toward the dolphin, who was just exploding out of the water again. This time he turned a neat little somersault. "Joey is the biggest
con artist. He's always trying to get extra fish."
"He's amazing," I said.
"Yes, he is," Eileen agreed, with a look of pride.
I introduced Jake, Marco, and Rachel. "We were looking at some dolphin information on the Internet," I lied, "so we thought we'd come out and
see the real thing."
"Well, as you know, we have six dolphins here. Joey, whom you've met, Ross, Monica, Chandler, Phoebe, and Rachel. Hey, you guys want to
feed them a little? You start throwing fish in the water and they'll all come over."
"It won't upset their schedule?"
"Nah. Just don't let Joey get it all. He's kind of pushy." Eileen left us with a nice big bucket of fish.
"That is some nasty-looking fish," Marco commented.
"Once you morph into one of these dolphins, you won't think that," Rachel pointed out. Marco gave her a skeptical look. "Do you realize that just
a couple days ago we were fish?
Not that much different than these fish ?"
He was right. But it wasn't something I wanted to think about. I've always been very in volved with animals. But it is a whole different thing when
you can become different animals.
I took a fish by the tail and tossed it into the water. Just as Eileen suggested, the rest of the dolphins showed up very quickly.
"Wow. Think these guys like to eat?" Rachel asked.
28
The dolphins put on quite a show. They obviously knew how to impress humans.
"It's just weird the way they grin at you," Marco commented. "I mean, it's like they actually think something's funny."
"And they make eye contact," Jake pointed out. "They look right at you, right in the eye. Most animals seem like they're looking past you, or just
looking to see what you are. These guys look at you like maybe they recognize you from somewhere." Jake leaned over the edge of the tank to
stroke one of the dolphins. "Hi there. Do I know you from somewhere? Jake's my name."
The dolphin tossed his head back and forth like he was nodding "yes," chattering in his high-pitched dolphin voice.
"Okay, now that was weird," Rachel said. "It was like he was answering Jake."
"Are you so sure he wasn't?" I asked. "Dolphins are very intelligent. Not our kind of intelligence, but still, I guess they're one of the two or three
smartest animals around."
"It will be strange morphing something so intelligent," Rachel said.
"Yes," I agreed. Strange, and . . . wrong, somehow. I felt a twisting in my stomach. "How is doing this any different than what the Yeerks do?"
Rachel looked surprised. "Yeerks take over humans," she said. "Besides, they don't morph, they infest. We don't take over the actual animal,
we just copy his DNA pattern, create a totally new animal, and then - "
"And then control the new animal," I said.
"It's not the same," Rachel insisted. But she looked troubled.
"It's something I'll have to think about," I said. "It's kind of been bothering me." Jake joined Rachel and me. "We'd better do it."
I nodded. "Yes, we should, before we run out of fish to feed these guys." I leaned over the side of the tank and patted the head of the nearest
dolphin. Her skin was rubbery, but not at all slimy. Just like a wet rubber ball.
She grinned up at me, fixing me with one eye as she cocked her head to see me. I pushed away my doubts, closed my eyes, and concentrated
on the dolphin. She became peaceful and calm, as animals always do during the acquiring process. May I? I asked her silently. But of course she
couldn't answer. . . . 29
Chapter 9
That night I dreamed again of the voice under the sea, calling for help. Only this time it sounded faint. Like a radio with the batteries growing
weak. I wasn't sure if it was just a regular dream this time. A dream of a memory that might or might not be real. And I dreamed of the dolphin in her
tank at the wildlife park. The one they called Monica, although who knew if she had a true name of her own? How long had she been in that tank?
How long since she had been free in the open sea?
The next day was Friday. There was no school because of some teacher conference, so we had a three-day weekend ahead of us.
I called Jake. "Hi, Jake. Are we going to the beach today like we planned?" We were always very careful about anything we said over the
telephone. Phone lines can be tapped. Besides, Tom, Jake's brother, could listen in on an extension and overhear something we didn't want him to
hear.
"Actually, I was thinking the beach will be really crowded today," Jake said, sounding very casual. "I was talking to Marco and he said maybe
we should go down to the river instead." It was a good suggestion. We couldn't exactly morph on a beach full of people.
"I'll be there in two hours, okay? I have some chores to do." I ended up being a little late. They were all waiting for me.
It was an area I had been to before with my dad. It's a little park near a bridge. A good place for fishing. About half a mile away, the river
empties into the ocean. The river is lined with trees along most of its length. Here and there are homes and private docks, but the spot we'd chosen
was hidden from the bridge and from any houses.
"Hi, Cassie," Jake said, smiling at me.
"Hi, everyone," I said. I spotted a movement in one of the tree branches. "Hey up there, To bias. How's it going?"
<The same old thing. You know how it is. It's a hawk-eat-mouse world out there.> I laughed, pleased to hear that Tobias was learning to be at
peace with the fact that, at least for a while, he was as much a hawk as he was a boy.
< I'm going to be the timekeeper, watching the deadly two-hour limit,> Tobias said. < I'm the only bird in the world with his own watch.>
I looked closer and saw a very small digital timer strapped to one of his legs.
<Rachel put it on for me,> he explained. < I'll be over water the whole time, so I figured it was fairly safe. No bird watchers around to see me
and wonder 'Hmmm, when did red-tails start wearing Timexes?'>
30
Jake said, "I figured we'd hide our clothes, then wade into the river a little way, then start morphing."
"Sounds good," Rachel said.
"Cassie? Will you go first?" Jake asked.
I nodded. "Sure." For some reason everyone has decided that I am the best morpher. I think it's mostly silly. We can all morph fine.
But the first time we morph a new animal it's always kind of tense. You never know what it's going to be like. You never know how much the
animal's instincts and mind will resist you. And this time there was a new fear, at least for me. What sort of mind would I find? Would it be just the
dolphin instincts, or would I encounter a true dolphin mind, with thoughts and ideas of its own?
I shed my overalls and kicked off my shoes, leaving just the leotard that I thought of as my morphing outfit. See, it's possible to morph some
clothing along with you, but only something skintight. Anything bulky you try to morph just ends up as rags. And shoes?
Forget shoes. We've all tried morphing shoes and it never works. I stepped into the water. "Cold," I reported. The current tugged at my ankles. I
waded in a little farther, up to my waist.
Then I focused on the dolphin that was now a part of me.
The first change was my skin. It lightened from brown to pale gray. It was like rubber, tough but springy.
That was good. I wanted to hang on to my legs as long as I could. I wanted to change as many other aspects as I could before I had to drop
down into the water. I felt the odd crunching sound you get sometimes when bones are stretched or compressed. And right before my eyes - literally
- my face bulged out and out and out still farther.
"Oh, man, that's definitely not attractive,"
Marco groaned from the shore. "Not a good look for you, Cassie." Morphing isn't usually very pretty. In fact, it's the kind of thing that, if you didn't
know it was going to be all right, would freak you out. I mean, I've watched while Rachel does her elephant morph, and I can tell you, it is the
creepiest, scariest, most disgusting thing you'll ever want to see. Let alone watching people go from human to fish. Truly gross. I didn't have a
mirror, but I could guess how gross I looked. I had this huge, long bottlenose sticking out of my otherwise normal face. My skin was gray rubber. And
when I felt behind me with my rapidly shriveling hands, I could feel the triangular blade of a dorsal fin rising out of my spine.
31
My arms were gone, replaced by two flat flippers, and I was now standing about ten feet tall, wobbling on my puny human-sized legs.
It was time to let the rest of the morph proceed. I surrendered my human legs. Instantly I fell face forward into the water.
I looked down and saw my tail. I was cornplete. The water was too shallow, though, and I was barely afloat. I kicked my tail, scraped across the
sandy bottom, and finally surged out into deeper water.
I waited for the moment when the dolphin brain would surface, full of instinct-driven need and hunger and fear. The way it had always been
before.
But it wasn't like that. It wasn't like a squirrel or even a horse. This mind was not filled with fear and need.
This mind was ... I know this sounds strange, but it was like a little kid. I tried to listen to it, to understand its needs and wants. To prepare my
self for a sudden onslaught of crude, primitive animal demands. Flee! Fight! Eat!
But that didn't happen. I felt hunger, yes. But not the screaming, obsessive need that Jake felt when he morphed a lizard or when Rachel
became a shrew.
There was no fear. None.
And fortunately, I did not find a true thinking, conscious mind. I breathed a sigh of relief. Just - again, I know it sounds strange - but I just found
this feeling, like she wanted to play. Like a little kid who wants to play. I wanted to chase fish, catch them, and eat them, but that would be a game. I
wanted to race across the sur face of the sea, and that would be a game, too.
<Cassie?> I heard Tobias's thought-speech in my head. <Are you okay?> Was I okay? I asked myself. <Yes, Tobias. I'm ... happy. I feel like . . .
like I don't know. Like I want you to come and play with me.>
<Play with you? Mmmm, I don't think so, Cassie. Hawks don't do water.>
<Come on, everyone!> I called to the others. <Come on! Let's go! Let's swim to the ocean! I want to play!>
<Let's go! Come on, you guys, let's go!>
I didn't like the river. I wanted the ocean. I could feel it close by. I could feel it in the way the current rushed me forward. I could feel it in some
deep, hidden part of my dolphin being. The ocean. I wanted it. It was my place. It was where I should be. We swam in a school, the four of us, with
Tobias flying overhead. 32
We raced the river's current, and soon I could taste the salt. I could feel the saltwater on my skin. It was as if I had opened the door of a toy
store with every toy on Earth, and I had all the time in the world to play.
I saw my friends around me, swift, pale shapes in the water. Sleek gray torpedoes as they rose to breathe.
I lived in both worlds - the sea and the air. I saw the blue-green of the ocean, the pale blue and white of the sky. I slipped back and forth through
the bright barrier that separated them. Jake went zipping by, shooting up from beneath me to explode into the air. I heard the slap of his belly as he
landed. It was a game! I dove deep, down to where the sandy floor sloped toward depths even I could not explore. Then I powered my tail, steadied
my flippers, and drove hard toward the surface. Above me I could see the shimmering, silver border between water and air.
Faster! Faster! I was a missile.
<Yah haaaaah!>
I shattered the barrier of the sea and hurtled up into the sky. I felt warm wind on my skin, in stead of cold water. I hung, poised in midair, almost
floating above the surface of the water. Now the barrier was beneath me. I pointed my nose toward it and dropped from the sky.
<Aaaaah!>
The water wrapped around me, welcoming me back.
<ls this cool, or what?> Marco laughed in my head.
<This is cool,> I answered.
<This is beyond cool,> Rachel chimed in.
<Let's all do it at the same time!> Jake said.
The four of us dove deep. The ocean floor was still far below us, rippling sand dotted with rocks and clumps of seaweed.
Near the ocean floor we leveled off, practically scraping our bellies on the bottom. And then, aiming at the silver barrier once again, we shot
upward, racing each other, ecstatic from the joy of our own bodies' strength.
We launched into the air like a well-trained team of acrobats.
We flew, side by side, exhaling and refilling our lungs with warm air. Life was joy. Life was a game. I wanted to dance. I wanted to dance
through the sea. So I did.
33
There was nothing I could not do. There was nothing I could ask of my body that it would not give me. Racing, spinning, turning, diving,
skimming the surface, flying up into the sky. I wasn't just in the sea. I was the sea.
<Are you guys just going to play all day?> It was Tobias. <You realize you've wasted fortyfive minutes already?> Minutes? I laughed. Who
cared about minutes?
<Look, guys? I know you think the dolphin mind hasn't affected you, but it has. You need to get a grip. You have a reason for being here.>
Reason? What was that?
<You're supposed to be looking for ... well, for something,> Tobias said. <Something unusual. An Andalite spaceship or something.>
Yes, he was right. He was definitely right. But would it be fun? Would it be a game?
<Find the spaceship. Cool,> Rachel said. <l bet I can find it first!>
<No way!> Jake said instantly. <l'll find it.>
<Where is it? Let's go look!> Marco said.
<Good grief,> Tobias said. <You're like a bunch of five-year-olds.> But I was too distracted to care. <Hey. Can you guys do this?> I
concentrated, and suddenly, from someplace in my forehead, came a series of loud, very rapid clicks, almost like loud static.
<Whoa! What was that?>
Then, to my total surprise, I heard something in those clicks. It was weird. It was kind of like hearing, only not. The clicking noises had hit
something, far off in deeper water. I sort of felt the sounds as they came back to me, like scattered echoes.
There was a universe of information in that echo. Some of that information made me uneasy.
<You guys?> I said. <l know this is crazy, but I feel like there's something out there. Something ... I don't know. But I don't like it.>
The others immediately began firing off the clicking noise that is the dolphin's underwater radar. It's called echolocation.
<Yeah,> Marco said. <Now I see it. I mean, I don't see it, but you know what I mean.> I searched in my dolphin mind, deep down in the places
where instinct had been hidden be neath layers of intelligence.
34
Then a picture just popped into my consciousness.
<l know!> I cried, as if I had just won a contest. < It's a shark!> Suddenly we weren't playing anymore. The others had all found the same instinct
in themselves. The echolocation indicated that there was a large shark nearby. And we knew one thing for sure. We didn't like sharks.
35
Chapter 10
<You know, I hate to sound like the only sensible person - so to speak - > Tobias said, <but you aren't here to fight sharks!>
<He's right,> I agreed. <Dolphins don't attack sharks unless the sharks attack first.>
<Wait ... I'm getting more echoes,> Rachel interrupted. <There's more than one shark. And there's something bigger, too.>
I reached out with my echolocation sense and "felt" the sea ahead of me. <You're right,> I said. <Several sharks. And