The Other
Page 2
After almost twenty minutes of futile searching, I suggested we head home. Get some sleep. Get in touch with Jake and the others.
I’m not big into taking unnecessary risks. The idea of morphing in such a dark and lonely place. Especially without having the others around to watch our backs. Nope. The thought did not thrill me.
I was even less thrilled by the idea of getting stuck with a flea-and-tick problem for the rest of my days.
So while Tobias kept aerial guard, I landed on the ground, close to the west rim of twisted pines, and quickly began to demorph. Ax, on the other hand, was still descending, several yards away. We thought it safer to stagger our morphing.
SCHLOOP! SCHLOOP!
Okay. No wings. But no arms yet, either. Great.
SPLOOT! SPLOOT!
Shriveled arms. Little stubs of fingers at the tip. Slowly, slowly filling out.
With my still-owl eyes I saw Ax beginning to demorph.
Decided I’d rather not watch.
Flipped my eyes to the right. Saw a furry old possum. And …
Too late. I was three-quarters human.
It had finally happened. We’d been too careless. Underestimated the enemy.
We were really dead.
And for some reason, I looked over at the possum.
It doubled in size.
Doubled again. Again!
Its gray fur began to turn blue, almost like the color was being poured down each strand from a zillion small vials. Or like one of those goofy pens that change color when you tilt it back and forth.
It didn’t take a rocket scientist to realize this was no ordinary possum.
It was an Andalite.
It was not Visser Three.
And it was not the one we’d seen on television, either.
This Andalite had a monstrous tail, long and thick. And at its end, a blade that, to my terrified eyes, looked a lot like that scythe thing the Grim Reaper carries.
I was barely finished demorphing when the Andalite started to walk toward Ax. His tail sliced the night air menacingly, blade glinting in the light of the almost full moon. Each hubcap-sized hoof clomping the dewy ground, sending little clods of soil flying. Field mice scurrying.
This was no — vecol. This guy was massive. Bigger than any Andalite I’d ever seen. Bigger than Ax’s brother, War Prince Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. Bigger than Aloth-Attamil-Gahar. Bigger even than Alloran-Semitur-Corrass, host body to Visser Three.
Shoulders like a fullback. A chest that was cut like a competition-level bodybuilder. Arms that, except for the blue fur, could pass for those of a middle-weight champion. Even the usually small and delicate many-fingered Andalite hands were broad and toughened. Like those of a carpenter or construction worker.
Most disconcerting: From the almost human waist to the rounded, deer or horselike haunches, the guy looked like a Clydesdale. A really big one.
No way was Ax, a kid, an aristh, a match for this guy. Ax is good, a seasoned fighter, but you would have to have been downright dopey not to see that this guy could kick Ax’s butt with one casual twitch.
I’m not a betting kind of guy, but if I were, I’d have laid my money on Mr. Macho for a first-round slice up.
But the Andalite didn’t strike Ax. Or me.
He stood there, not five yards away. He was ignoring me but he was staring at Ax, who was now also back in his natural form, tail blade cocked. The big Andalite seemed to be waiting for something. For Ax to strike first?
Nervous and unable to answer Tobias, I shot a glance at Ax.
He stood perfectly still, mimicking the ready stance of his opponent. Waiting for a first move.
Too late!
“TSSEEER!”
Tobias swooped down from the night sky! In the white light of the moon, talons suddenly extended for attack, he looked like a hellish feathered demon.
“TSEEER!”
The Andalite flinched. Flinched! Took a slight, faltering step backward. Twitched his stalk eyes upward and kept his main eyes on Ax.
Yes! Tobias was going to do it, hurt or distract him enough to allow us the advantage …
FWAPP!
With blinding speed and accuracy the Andalite’s massive tail cut Tobias out of the sky.
And then there was a sickening thud as Tobias hit the ground.
“TOBIAS!”
I started running toward Tobias’s lifeless body. But a warning glance from Ax held me in my place. What was I going to do? Maybe, at least, retrieve Tobias before his body could be sledgehammered by those monstrous hooves.
I could morph, I thought wildly. I could …
Now Ax was a mind reader? Forget it. I’d go gorilla …
CLOPCLOP CLOPCLOP!
The Andalite galloped at Ax.
CLOPCLOP CLOPCLOP!
Ax galloped at the Andalite.
Ax lunged.
FWAAAP!
Swiped at his opponent’s throat.
And missed.
Now the big Andalite had full advantage. Before Ax could set up another shot …
THWAAAP!
He was struck with the flat of the Big Blue’s blade. And then Ax was on the ground.
The Andalite stepped back to allow Ax to climb awkwardly to his feet. Then he calmly pressed his broad tail blade to Ax’s throat.
Ax replied, with an admirable amount of dignity, considering the huge tail blade pressed to his throat.
Half a second passed. The Andalite appeared to be processing that bit of information. Grappling with it.
Now the Andalite’s thought-speak became stronger. Challenging.
What was this? I felt like a wallflower at some bizarre Andalite Academy reunion. And while they chatted, Tobias …
The roar of the Andalite’s angry thought-speak was deafening. It actually made my head hurt. I watched helplessly as he pushed his tail blade even deeper into the skin of Ax’s neck. Drawing a small trickle of blood.
Ax is no fool. When he spoke, he kept the tone of his thought-speak neutral.
This was insane. Ax definitely had a career as an actor alongside Gwyneth Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love. Or maybe as a diplomat. I was so freaked out that I was about to wet my pants, and Ax was acting like a hero in a witty drawing-room comedy or something. Talk about grace under fire.
Gafinilan removed his tail blade from Ax’s neck. He looked embarrassed. Awkward. Not displeased by Ax’s praise but not pleased, either. He averted his main eyes from Ax’s own.
Gafinilan retorted bitterly. he added, his tone darkening,
Ax seemed about to protest.
I stood as still as I’d ever stood. Almost at attention. Stiller even than I’d stood at my own mother’s funeral. Only this time, I was afraid that if I moved so much as a hair I’d be killed.
Rebellious, nonmilitary-issue behavior from an Andalite should not have struck me — us — as unusual. Or disturbing. Not after the stories we’d heard about Alloran on the Hork-Bajir planet. Not after knowing that Elfangor had broken one of his society’s strictest laws. And especially not after our recent encounter with Arbat-Elevat-Estoni, a soldier and thinker driven mad by war.
Still — there was something awful and dark and desperate emanating from this stranded alien soldier. I had no doubt whatsoever he meant what he’d said. That he’d kill us if we came looking for him and Mertil.
Unless …
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Tobias stir. Was outrageously grateful he was alive. Willed him to be still, not to call attention to himself.
Gafinilan turned away from us, all four eyes forward as he walked back toward the dark woods. Away from the revealing light of the moon.
At the edge of the woods, he stopped. He did not turn around, not even his eyes.
We followed Gafinilan. Of course. He probably knew we would.
And now I knew he wasn’t going to do anything to us.
Gafinilan had us trapped and had knocked Tobias out, but he had let us live. We wanted — needed — to know why.
And there was something else.
The Andalite had seen me demorph. At least, I was pretty sure he had.
Maybe he hadn’t seen the entire process. How great were a possum’s eyes, anyway? I had no idea. Maybe he thought he’d missed something, that I’d already morphed from my natural Andalite body to human …
Who was I kidding? He had to have seen it all. My gut told me that. Besides, why would any guy with a tail blade morph to a weak-limbed, soft-skinned thing in the face of trouble?
It didn’t matter much what he found out about me from this point on. As long as he didn’t live long enough to tell it.
I went wolf, fast. Ax went harrier. While we morphed, Tobias checked himself out and decided he was okay. So, even though he was still a little wobbly, he took off after Gafinilan.
I took off. With the wolf’s superior sense of smell, with its amazing stamina and agility, we stood a decent chance of tracking Gafinilan. I hoped.
I tore through the dark mass of trees. It was like racing through a maze to reach the prize in the center — a prize you really didn’t want ’cause you knew it was dangerous and maybe even lethal. A prize you’d have to destroy before it destroyed you. But a prize you had to have, no matter what.
Around and past dark green pines and small masses of rock. Under heavy, low-hanging branches. The air chilly and damp, masking certain odors and altering others. Still, I was pretty sure the wolf’s keen nose detected the big Andalite. I ran.
Above me, Ax and Tobias did their best in the lousy flying conditions.
But their best wasn’t good enough.
I stopped under the branch where Tobias perched. Thrust my nose at the ground, desperate to locate Gafinilan. Raised my head and sniffed the air. Ax came swooping down close by.
It was some kind of cave or passage. About another three yards to the right. Not easy to spot unless you were looking for it. The entrance was low and narrow and almost completely hidden behind the sweeping branches of an evergreen.
Something was coming out of the cave.
Someone. A human. A man.
He stopped just outside the cave’s entrance. Looked around carefully. Suspiciously. As if he were expecting to find spies hidden behind the trunks of trees.
He was average.
Nothing remarkable about him at all except his total and complete averageness. Good-looking. Average height and weight. Middle-aged, maybe thirty-five, maybe forty-five. Hair halfway between blond and brown, halfway between short and long. He wore a pair of nondescript jeans, a dark plaid shirt, scuffed white sneakers.
He was the kind of guy who would disappear into a crowd instantly. The kind of guy who would blend.
The kind of guy Jake might have become if fate hadn’t chosen a spectacularly odd path for him.
When the guy was satisfied no one was going to jump him, he headed off. Quickly and purposefully through the nearly black forest.
Ordinarily, we might have followed him. Especially since we assumed he was a Controller, coming up from the Yeerk pool. But Gafinilan was far more important to us now.
Hunkered down to the damp ground, my belly touching pine needles and moss and soil, I moved closer to the cave opening and waited in case there were others. After a few minutes, I sniffed at the entrance. Yes, Gafinilan had been here. I was sort of prepared to go down to the Yeerk pool if we had to. To find the Andalite before he could reveal our secret.
I wasn’t prepared for what I found inside the cave.
Nothing. No false panel or trapdoor or secretly coded keypad. Nothing. Just a small, dusty, hollowed-out space in a big rock.
I crawled out of the cave.
Ax, perched on one of the sturdy branches that protected the entrance to the ca
ve, said,
Of course. Second stupid mistake of the night.
I ran. At the edge of the woods, I demorphed and then went owl.
We followed Gafinilan to a neighborhood near the university.
An average neighborhood.
We watched him walk up the driveway to the front door of an average-looking house. A small ranch, like every other house on the block. The name “H. McClellan” in gold letters on the standard-issue black mailbox.
He stopped at the door. Looked around. Then reached into his pocket, took out a set of keys, and let himself in.
We waited. Heard several locks turning and slipping into place.
No lights went on inside the house, even after almost a full four minutes.
“Jake, the guy saw me demorph.”
Rachel jumped from her seat on a wooden rail. It was early the next morning, before school, which because of some teacher conference was starting late that day. As usual, we were gathered in Cassie’s barn. “Great, Marco. Good job,” she said sarcastically.
“But,” I went on, “he didn’t even flinch. Didn’t look at me again, didn’t talk to me. Didn’t ask Ax about me. It was as if he didn’t care or something.”
“I guess then the question is, why?” Jake said. “Remember how Gonrod almost had a heart attack when he found out there were humans with the morphing power. This guy’s got to care. Maybe there’s something bigger on his mind right now. Something else going on.”
“Oh, yeah. Has to be. Like I said before, the guy didn’t ask questions,” I said. “It didn’t make any sense. He didn’t ask how Ax knew what was going on with the Rakkam Garroo conflict. Didn’t ask about me. Didn’t ask how many ‘comrades’ Ax had. Who ‘we’ were. Come on. No one’s that disinterested. That’s selective attention. That’s calculation.”