The leader is Jake. He was perfect choice for the leader position because he’s brave and very quick at making decisions. Basically, totally leader material. He has brown hair, brown eyes, and a serious look upon his noble brow. His best friend is Marco. Marco’s the clown of the group. You know? He’s a total laugh a minute, I’m telling you. He’s a bit annoying, though. But he means well. He has long brown hair and laughing brown eyes. Jake’s cousin is Rachel. Rachel is a very beautiful girl. I mean, not a girl you see walking in the mall (which just so happens to be her favorite place) and say to yourself, “Hmm, she’s pretty.” But a girl you’d say, “Woah, she’s gorgeous!” and go goo-goo gaga over. She looks like a supermodel. She has long blond hair and sparkling blue eyes. But she doesn’t act like she’s a blond airhead mall-rat. She acts like something closer to Xena. That might scare some people, but it’s just pure Rachel. And I really admire that about her. Her best friend is Cassie. Cassie’s an animal-lover. Her parents are both vets, so she has a barn right next to her house full of tons and tons of animals. From normal, every-day pigeons, to exotic tigers and lions. Cassie has dark skin, dark eyes, and dark hair. And that’s all the Animorphs. Well…we also have a little extra helper. Ax. Ax is an Andalite. In fact, he’s Elfangor’s little brother. You see, Elfangor was killed by Visser Three. We’ll always remember his final scream for as long as we live. And that’s us.
I flew into the barn where the meeting would take place in couple of minutes. Cassie was already there trying to get a raccoon to swallow a pill. [Hey Cassie] I said in thought-speech. Cassie turned around to look at me. “Hi Tobias,” she said, smiling. “You’re early.” She turned back to the raccoon, who finally gave up and took the pill. [Yeah, I’ve noticed] I said. Suddenly, Rachel walked in. She smiled up at me, which made my heart melt like a popsicle. “Hi Tobias, hi Cass,” she said. She sat down on a stool. “Hi Rach,” Cassie said. I suddenly found my voice. [Hi ] I said. “Where’s everyone else? I thought I was late and Jake was going to have a fit on me,”she said. “No, I think it’s still early,” Cassie replied. Pretty soon, Jake, Marco, and Ax showed up. As soon as they settled, I suddenly felt light-headed. The others looked kind of dizzy, too. “What the…?!” What’s going on?!” “What’s happening?!” I heard their voices. All of the sudden, everything just swirled and went into blackness.
I woke up with a pounding headache. I opened my eyes and looked right up into Rachel’s concerned ones. I looked at myself. I was in my human form. “Rachel?” I said to her. “Where are we, Rach?” She looked around for a second and then back at me. “I have no idea,” she replied. I sat up and looked around for myself. “Woah,” I breathed. It was like a jungle or something. I stood up and waited for Rachel to also. Then I realized that her ankle was bent in a funny way. “Rach, what’s the matter with your ankle?” I asked, knowing the answer. “I think it’s broken,” she said slowly. Great. “Does it hurt much?” I asked worriedly. “Nah. Just if I move it too much,” replied brave Rachel. “Hmmm…maybe if you morph and then demorph, it’ll be fine,” I suggested. She nodded and closed her eyes and focused on a morph. I watched as nothing happened. She opened her eyes, looking confused. “I can’t morph.” “What?” I exclaimed. “It won’t work. You try it,” she said. I focused on demorphing back to my red-tailed hawk body. Nothing happened. “I don’t get it,” I said, exasperated. She looked down for a moment and when she looked back up at me, I noticed something in my fearless Rachel’s eyes…fear.
I felt vulnerable as a human. I couldn’t see that great, couldn’t walk that great, and couldn’t hear that great. Just great. “I wonder where the others are,” Rachel said. That’s right. The others should be around here somewhere. “Do you want to go look for them?” I asked. She looked down at her ankle. “I don’t think so,” she said. I walked over to her and put my arm around her, supporting her, helping her stand. She got up. “Here. You put your arm around me and lean on me,” I instructed her. “Okay,” she said, doing as I told her. I looked at her. She was inches away from me. She looked back at me. We leaned over close to each other, ready to kiss, when we heard, “Hey, Xena! Bird-boy! Yes, I found you!” We moved away from each other quickly. Marco came up closer to us. “Do you know where we are?” I asked. Marco shrugged as if to say ‘I have no idea’. “Where are the others?” Rachel asked. “I don’t know. I looked for them for awhile, though. But all I found was you two,” Marco replied. He looked at Rachel, who was still leaning on me. “What happened?” he asked. “I hurt my ankle,” Rachel answered. Marco nodded and there was a silence for a minute. “Maybe we should look for the others now,” I spoke up. “Yeah,” Rachel agreed. Marco took Rachel’s other arm. “Here, Xena. You can lean on me too,” he said. Rachel looked kind of shocked and I guess I did too. Marco just not one of those sympathetic people. Rachel smiled. “Let’s go,” said Marco. Then he stopped. “Wait…go ahead, Rach,” he said, waiting. Rachel grinned again. “Let’s do it!”
We walked for awhile, looking for the others with no apparent success. Then it started getting dark out. And rainy. “Maybe we should rest now,” I suggested. “But we have to find the others!” Rachel protested. “Rach, it’s getting dark and it’s raining. We should start looking for them again in the morning,” I said as firmly as I could. Rachel looked hesitant. “It looks like it’s going to storm or something,” Marco said. I nodded and Rachel reluctantly agreed. “We should find a shelter,” I said, looking around. “How about that?” Marco said, pointing. I looked. It was a cave. “Perfect,” I said. We walked over to the cave and stepped inside. It was kind of small, but big enough for us three to fit in it, with some extra room. It was also dark. “I can’t see,” Marco complained. “I know…I’ll be right back,” I said. I walked out of the cave for a second and came back with a few sticks in my hands. I rubbed them together fast, just like they do on old movies. Soon, a few sparks started and then, a fire. Suddenly the cave was much lighter. I could se Rachel and Marco’s faces. Marco was as soaked as I was form being out in the rain, but Rachel wasn’t. She has some strange ability to repel things like rain and dirt. I threw more sticks into the fire and it kept going. I settled back. Soon I heard Marco snoring. Rachel laughed quietly. “Sleeping beauty,” she said, still laughing. I smiled. She moved closer to me and put her head on my shoulder. I played with her long hair. “Do you think the others are okay?” she asked me in a whisper. “Of course,” I replied softly. “They’re strong.” Rachel nodded. Marco tossed and turned in his sleep. “No, dad,” he mumbled, “It wasn’t me. Jake made me do it.” Rachel and I giggled.
I don’t remember falling asleep, but I must have because when I looked, the fire was out and the sun was up. I sat up. “Morning, Bird-boy,” said Marco. He was already up, tying his shoes. “Morning,” I replied. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and looked around the cave. Rachel was asleep next to me. “Should we wake her up and head out to do our deadly mission?” Marco asked me. “Let her sleep for a little while longer,” I told him. She looked so peaceful. Marco nodded and finished tying his shoes. He stood up and walked outside of the cave. I followed him. “Do you think they’re out there, man?” he asked me, looking outside. All I could see was hundreds and hundreds of trees. I looked at him and knew what he was talking about. “Yeah,” I replied shortly. I studied the scenery. There were lots of birds flying, which made me jealous for my wings. Then I heard Rachel’s voice from inside the cave. “Hey, where is everyone?” she called out. Marco and I smiled at each other and went inside. Rachel was sitting up, fixing her hair. “How’s your ankle?” I asked her. “It still hurts, but not as much as my stomach,” she replied. “Your stomach?” I asked. “I’m starving,” she answered. “Me too,” Marco agreed. I nodded. “I’ll go look for some food,” I said, walking over to the cave exit. “I’ll come,” Marco said, walking over to where I was. “No, you stay here with Rachel,” I said firmly. “I’ll be fine, go ahead you two,” Rachel said, waving her hand in a shooing motion. “No way, Rach. Marco, stay with her,” I said, walking out. “Be careful, Tobias!” I heard Rachel call out after me.
Every direction I turned, there was a giant tree. Seriously. Right, tree. Left, tree. Ahead, tree. Behind, tree. I’ve never seen so many trees in my entire life. And lots of birds. I yearned for my wings. To be able to fly above all these trees. There must have been lots of sweet thermals around, too. I sighed and shook myself out of my daydreams. I had a job to do. To find some food. I found a few mushrooms and berries and picked them up. I had no idea if they were poisonous or not, but I took them anyway. Then I turned to head back to the cave. Uh-oh. I thought to myself. Which way was it? I don’t know. I was lost.
I looked down at my ankle. Well this stinks I thought to myself. I feel totally paralyzed. “Well, look on the bright side,” Marco said. He must have noticed what I was thinking by the look on my face. “What bright side?” I asked. “That vicious beasts only come out at night time and it’s morning,” he said, grinning. I rolled my eyes. “Thanks, Marco,” I said sarcastically. “Any time,” he replied, sitting back. I looked at the cave’s exit. “Tobias has been gone for a long time,” I said. Marco shrugged. “He’s fine, Rach, don’t worry,” he said encouragingly. “I hope so,” I whispered.
I looked around and around. Just trees, trees, and more trees. “Wonderful,” I muttered to myself. Then, a sound. Not just any sound, though. A loud, ferocious roar. And not that far away, either. “Uh-oh,” I breathed, retreating. I ran, clumsily tripping over large rocks on the ground. After awhile, I stopped. I looked at myself. I was sweaty, bloody, and dirty. I sat to catch my breath, and wiped the sweat from my forehead. Suddenly, I saw it in front of me. A jaguar. With very sharp teeth and massive claws that could rip my human flesh right open. I tried not to move suddenly, which was pretty okay since I was frozen stiff. He looked at me with gleaming eyes. It was hungry.
I glanced outside. The sun was starting to set already and we still hadn’t eaten. I was starving! Tobias still wasn’t back yet. Rachel was sitting right outside of the cave looking around. She was worried. I guess I was, too. But I couldn’t let her know that. I had to lighten the mood around here. That was my job. But I could barely concentrate from starvation. If the morale wasn’t so low already around here, I would have been screaming and wailing, “We’re gonna starve to death! We’re gonna dieeeeeee!” I glanced over at Rachel. I had never seen our Xena like this. She was tired, starving, worried, mad, and feeling beaten. She didn’t say anything about her ankle, but I could tell it was still bothering her. Every time she moved it she winced in pain. “Hey Rachel,” I said, walking over to her. She looked up at me. “Let’s play tic-tac-toe,” I suggested, grinning. She looked at me as if I was nuts like she always does. I drew a tic-tac-toe board-thingy on the ground and drew an ‘X’ in one of them with a stick and then handed the stick to her. She just looked at it for a minute, but took it.
I closed my eyes and prayed it wouldn’t come after me. What if it killed me? What about the others? Rachel and Marco? Rachel….I opened my eyes and saw the strangest thing. Or it was what I didn’t see. The jaguar. Where did it go? Believe me, I was no disappointed. I stood up, confused. I looked around. It was getting dark out. C’mon, Tobias. Concentrate on getting back to the cave. You don’t want to be here in the dark. I started walking, looking for anything familiar that I saw near the cave. I wasn’t sure what was familiar, though. Just…well, you guess. Duh, trees. I sighed and started my search for the cave.
Marco tried to entertain me with various games like tic-tac-toe and hangman. It was sweet, though, even if he did cheat. He must have noticed that I was worried. I was actually past worried. I-Xena- was getting scared. And I was also very hungry. But that wasn’t important. I just wanted Tobias to come back. “It’s getting dark out,” Marco said. He took out s few sticks and made a fire just as Tobias had done last night. Then I heard something outside. A voice…no, several voices. Marco and I exchanged glances and then three figures walked into the cave. “AUGHHHHHH!” Marco, the figures, and I all screamed. “Rachel? Marco?” one of the figures asked us. A very familiar voice. “Jake?” I asked. They stepped in closer so we could see them. It was Jake, Cassie, and Ax! “Good thing it’s you, you scared us to death!” Marco shouted, grinning. “Yeah,” Jake replied, also grinning. “Rach, what happened to your ankle?” Cassie asked, running over to me. She took a look at it. “It’s fine,” I lied. “It’s broken,” Cassie confirmed. “Thank you, Doctor Cassie,” Marco joked. She set it for me so it would start to heal. “Where’s Tobias?” Jake asked. I looked down. “Gone,” Marco said flatly. “You don’t mean he’s….” Cassie trailed off, wide-eyed. “I hope not,” I choked. Cassie sat down and put her arm around me. “Don’t worry, he’s probably fine,” she said, trying to comfort me. “Is he in human form like me? Form-uh?” asked Ax. I nodded. “What happened?” Jake asked. “Bird-boy went out to get some food. I wanted to go with him, but argued with me. He wanted me to stay to look after his hurt Xena,” Marco explained, winking at me. I tried to smile, but it must have come out as some weird, twisted mouth form. “Well, we can go look for him early tomorrow morning,” Jake suggested. I nodded again, hoping tomorrow wasn’t too late.
I must have walked for hours. My feet were killing me, and I was so tired and hungry, I was hallucinating. I thought I saw the cave. It was brighter out, the sun just coming up. I would guess it was about 5:00 A.M. I looked closer, squinting my eyes. Wait a minute, it was the cave! Could it be??? I walked over to it cautiously. “Hello?” I called into it. “Tobias?” I heard. I walked inside. The Animorphs were all there, and Ax. They look like they had just woken up. Except for one of them, who look like she hadn’t slept…but still, of course, looked gorgeous. Rachel. “Bird-boy!” Marco shouted, rubbing sleep from his eyes. “Hey, where’s the food?” he asked. I ignored him and walked over to the Rachel. “Tobias?” she asked, looking up at me. I helped her stand up and she kissed me. Long and passionately on the lips. I held her, not wanting to let her go. We finally broke apart and I looked at her with wonder. “Oooooo!” Marco shouted grinning. Rachel smiled at him innocently and then looked back at me. She sat back down, still grinning and I sat down next to her. “What happened?” Jake asked. I took my eyes off Rachel and looked at Jake. “A jaguar almost ripped me to shreds and I got lost in a bunch of trees,” I replied. Jake raised his eyebrows. “So, no food?” Marco asked. I looked down. “I kinda dropped them while running,” I said embarrassed. “That’s okay,” Rachel said, squeezing my hand. “As long as you’re safe.” I smiled at her. “Ewww. Okay, gross. This is getting a little too mushy. Can we go find some food?” Marco complained like usual Marco. We laughed. “All right, we can go look for food. But let’s all stick together,” Jake said, standing up. “What about Rachel?” Cassie asked, glancing at Rachel’s ankle. “I can help her,” I said. “Okay, good. Let’s go now before it gets too hot out,” Jake said. Rachel looked at me. I got up and then helped her out. She wrapped her arm around me and leaned on me. I smiled at her again. “Ready?” Jake asked. “Yeah!” Marco shouted enthusiastically. I laughed. “That hungry, Marco?” Rachel asked him, laughing. “Uh-huh!” he said, stepping out of the cave first. We all followed him. “Do they have cinnamon buns here? Bun-zuh?” Ax asked after awhile. Cassie laughed. “I don’t think so Ax,” she said.
All around I saw trees. And not just normal trees, huge trees. I looked over at Tobias, who I was leaning on. He was sweating. I wiped the sweat off his head and he smiled at me. I never really realized how much I loved him until then. It was almost funny. He’d do pretty much anything for me…even drag me across a jungle. I glanced at Cassie, who was explaining unsuccessfully to Ax why there wasn’t cinnamon buns in the jungle-or wherever we were. “Oh, oh, oh! Berries!!!” Marco shouted, running towards a bush. “Wait, Marco!” Cassie and Jake yelled, running after Marco, who was ready to start chowing down. Jake knocked the berries out of his hand. “Hey!” Marco cried angrily. Cassie picked up a berry and studied it. Tobias set me down on a log and joined the others. “It’s poisonous,” Cassie announced after a minute of studying it. Jake nodded. “I don’t care! I’m starving! Give me those berries!” Marco yelled, reaching for the berries. “Stop it, Marco! You’ll die if you eat these!” Cassie screamed. Marco stopped and looked at her for a minute, gaining control of himself. “Okay. Sorry, Cass,” he mumbled, walking away. He came over and sat next to me on the log. Cassie nodded. “Hey, what about those?” Tobias asked, pointing to a patch of mushrooms. We all looked at Cassie. She walked over to the mushrooms and took one. She observed it, sniffed it, and finally tasted a little piece of it. She chewed it thoughtfully and we all looked at her jealous and impatiently. “They’re fine,” she announced, swallowing. We chowed down and were stuffed. Much happier because we were full, Jake asked the question: “How do we get out of here?”
I asked the rest of my friends, “How do we get out of here?” They all just kind of looked at one another. Ax didn’t even know. “Great,” I muttered flatly. “Don’t worry, we’ll find a way, Jake,” Cassie said enthusiastically. She put her hand on my arm. I sighed. “Our parents are gonna kill us,” Rachel mumbled. “If we ever get home,” Marco said, looking down. Well, Marco’s very high-spirited as you can tell. That sent us even more down in the dumps. “Maybe it’s an Ellimist trick. Ick,” Ax spoke up. VERY GOOD, AXIMILI, YOU’RE AN INTELLIGENT ANDALITE. “The Ellimist,” Tobias hissed. YES, TOBIAS. “Why are we here, Ellimist?” Cassie asked thin air. REMEMBER THAT CHOICE YOU HAD TO MAKE BEFORE? ABOUT STAYING ON EARTH AND FIGHTING THE YEERKS OR BEING SENT TO ANOTHER PLANET? “Yeah….” I said slowly. THIS IS THE PLANET. We looked around again. “This is it?!” Rachel asked, disgusted. YES. “Well, I’m glad we didn’t pick that choice,” Rachel said flatly. Tobias nodded. YOU DO NOT LIKE IT? WOULD YOU LIKE TO BE TRANSPORTED BACK TO YOUR PLANET? “Yes!!” we all yelled at the same time. AS YOU WISH. JUST REMEMBER, IT WOULD BE DIFFERENT IF YOU LIVED HERE. YOUR FAMILIES WOULD BE HERE, TOO. THERE WOULD BE A CIVILIZATION. “You know what? Thanks Ellimist,” I looked at the rest of my friends, “but no thanks.” They smiled at me. FLASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We were back in Cassie’s barn in seconds. I looked around at my friends, who all looked around grateful to be back. I looked at my ankle. It was healed! I glanced up at Tobias who was in his hawk form. I winked at him. We were back.
