The Change

by K. A. Applegate

  «Maybe we could take them there,» I suggested.

  Jake shrugged. "We don't have any better plan. Right?"

  75 "Right now I need to think about what story I'm going to tell my dad when I get home," Marco said. "Tomorrow we can worry about taking Adam and Eve Hork-Bajir off to Tobias's Garden of Eden."

  Not a bad description, I thought. That was a little what the valley was like. I could see the place as clearly in my mind as any place I had ever been.

  There was just one little problem. I'd never been there. I'd never actually seen it.

  And I had no idea where the lovely pictures in my mind had come from.

  74

  J. usually spent the night in my favorite nighttime perch. It's a high branch, up in the very middle of an incredibly old oak. I like the rough oak bark because it's easy to hold onto. I can sink my talons deep and drift off to my dreams.

  My regular perch is deep within the tree because it keeps me out of sight of the night predators. The raccoons and foxes and wolves all work at night. They don't worry me too much. Wolves and foxes don't climb trees very well.

  I do keep an eye out for raccoons because they can climb when they want to. And they are nasty, dangerous enemies. But it's a rare raccoon that can climb my tree without my hearing him.

  76 I worry more about owls. Not that they usually prey on something as large and tough as a red-tailed hawk. Mostly they eat mice, same as I do. But they still scare me because they have powers I don't have.

  I'm used to having this edge over all the other creatures. In the daylight I hear better than most animals, and I see better than any of them. My vision is many times better than human vision. If I were at home plate and you were holding a book open way out in right field, I'd be able to read it. If you were walking by on the other side of the street, I'd be able to see a flea crawling around in your hair. But that's all in daylight. At night I see a little better than a human ... I mean, better than a normal human. But not much better.

  That's why the owls scare me. They see through darkness like I see through daylight. To an owl I'm as visible as if I were outlined in bright red flashing neon. And an owl doesn't make any noise as it flies in for the kill. No noise. None.

  It makes me nervous. But what can you do? I guess everyone has problems, right?

  But at night as I listen for the sounds of raccoons scrabbling and open my eyes to watch the ghostly owls do their killing work, I wish I had a house.

  If you asked me what I think of being a red-

  77 tailed hawk, I'd give you two different answers, depending on the time of day. When the sun is up, and the thermals are piling up the tall clouds, and I'm riding the high breezes a million miles above the humans who crawl along below me ... well, then I'd say it's great.

  But at night, when I cower on my branch and peer half-blind through the leaves at a cold moon and can only listen to the sounds of the night predators doing their work, well, that's different.

  This particular night was different for a couple of reasons. I was not on my regular perch. I was in a scruffy pine tree that was located near the cave. I was standing guard over the Hork-Bajir, listening for any threats to them. I was out of my normal territory, in an unfamiliar tree. And I was jumpy.

  As I sat there with my talons dug into bark, I heard the high-pitched squeal of a mouse.

  I drifted back toward sleep. I tried to remember what it had been like to sleep in a bed at night. But I couldn't really remember. I could only imagine what it was like for the others.

  Cassie, Jake, Marco, Rachel, all asleep in their beds. All with covers pulled up and pillows fluffed. Alarm clocks glowing on their night-stands.

  I heard a sound. My eyes opened. I peered down through the branches and saw a shape like

  78 a deformed deer, ghostly pale in the filtered moonlight.

  «Hi, Ax-man,» I said.

  «Hello, Tobias. You heard me? I was trying to be silent.»

  «You're very quiet. For a big old four-legged, two-handed, four-eyed, scorpion-tailed alien.»

  Ax laughed. «0ne of these nights I may show you.»

  «Hah. Right. And eagles may fly out of my butt.»

  «ls that possible?» Ax asked, sounding alarmed.

  «No. See, that's why it's funny.»

  «l understand^ Ax said, clearly not understanding at all.

  Nights in the forest have gotten a bit better since Ax joined our little group. Having him around is not exactly like being in a nice, snug bed. But it's good to have someone to talk to. The other forest animals don't have much to say.

  «0ur two Hork-Bajir are pretty quiet in there,» I told Ax. «They were talking earlier. Mostly in their own language. But even then they used some English words. Why is that?»

  «The Hork-Bajir were never a very intellectual species,» Ax said, with a hint of snobbery. «Their own language was primitive. It only had about five hundred words. That's what we learned in

  79 school, anyway. I suppose it's true. I guess for duty here on Earth, the Yeerks thought they should be able to speak a few words of a human languages

  «l didn't mean to eavesdrop on them,» I said. «But it was easy for me to hear. They kept using some Hork-Bajir word. It sounded like kawatnoj. Something like that, anyway.»

  «l don't know the word,» Ax admitted. «l don't speak Hork-Bajir. I'll ask them tomorrow what it means.»

  «Maybe you shouldn't. They don't seem to like you Andalites.»

  «We tried to save them from the Yeerks,» Ax said with sudden anger. «We failed, yes. But we did try. Why should they hate us?»

  «l don't know, Ax-man. Maybe they've had Yeerks in their heads for so long they've just absorbed the Yeerk hatred of Andalites.»

  «Well. The Yeerks should hate us. We An-dalites will defeat them in the end! And of course, you humans will help, too.»

  I laughed silently. I like Ax, but he is a bit arrogant about his own species.

  «l guess I'll go patrol around again,» Ax said. «l haven't seen or heard anything unusual, though. Do you really think we can lead these Hork-Bajir safely to this mountain valley you mentioned earlier?»

  80 I didn't answer. Mentioning the valley just reminded me. «Ax? Have you ever just had information pop into your head and not know where it came from?»

  «No. I don't think so. Maybe something I forgot and then remembered later.»

  «No, this is like stuff I couldn't possibly know. It's like . . . » I froze.

  Taxxons!

  They were crawling through the woods. I could see them in my mind - huge centipedes, each as big around as a redwood tree. They moved on dozens of rows of needle-sharp legs. They held the upper third of their bodies erect, keeping their fragile rows of upper legs clear of the ground.

  I could see them in my mind! I could see the gasping round mouths ringed with teeth. I could seethe jelly-glob eyes.

  «Tobias?» Ax asked, sounding concerned.

  «Taxxons,» I said. «There are definitely Taxxons coming!»

  «Where?» Ax asked in alarm. His tail cocked back, ready for a fight.

  «l . . . they're coming. !...» ! looked around me at the dark woods. No sign of anything strange. Let alone Taxxons. But I was dead sure they were coming, just the same.

  «Ax? You know how I was just talking about

  81 knowing things I couldn't possibly know? It just happened again. Just now. There are like a dozen Taxxons coming this way. Somehow they can smell the Hork-Bajir. Like bloodhounds.»

  All four of Ax's eyes looked up at me. He looked grim. «Taxxon trackers can sense warm flesh from miles away, as long as they have a sample. They're a special breed of Taxxon. How did you know that? How did you know Taxxon trackers hunt by smell?»

  «l don't know, Ax. But I am sure going to find out,» I said angrily. «Someone or something is using me, and I don't like it very much.»

  Ax ignored my outburst. «lf the Yeerks have sent Taxxons, they'll back them up with Hork-Bajir or humans. No am
ount of Taxxons could ever destroy a pair of Hork-Bajir. Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak could slice up Taxxons all day.»

  «Can we throw the Taxxons off the scent?» I asked.

  «No. If they have smelled these Hork-Bajir, nothing will throw them off.»

  «Then we have to move the Hork-Bajir. Now. Taxxons can't be all that fast. But we need to move out. Ax? I can get the Hork-Bajir started. You have to get to Jake quickly. Tell him what's happening.»

  «Yes, Tobias. I'll do that. But how will we find you if you're busy hiding from the Yeerks?»

  82 «Take to the air. You all have bird of raptor morphs - eagles, ospreys, falcons. Use them. There's nothing raptor eyes can't find. I'll be heading toward the mountains.»

  Heading toward the mountains with a pair of Hork-Bajir, while someone or something used me like a sock puppet.

  Well, that was going to change. I was the predator. I was the hunter. No one was going to use me.

  83 « Jara Hamee, we have to go. Right now,» I told the Hork-Bajir as Ax ran off into the night.

  Jara stuck his bladed snakelike head out through the bushes. "What has happened?"

  «Taxxons are tracking you.»

  I swear he went pale. His narrow eyes widened in fear. "Taxxon," he said, as if the very word made him want to spit.

  But he reacted very quickly after that. He went back into the cave and came back out with Ket. I still couldn't really tell one of them from the other. At least not in the dark.

  "Dark," Ket said, looking around.

  «Yeah, I know. But I guess that won't stop the Taxxons. So let's get going.»

  84 But how exactly we were supposed to move through the pitch-black forest, I had no idea. I couldn't see. And to my disappointment, the Hork-Bajir were not all that good at seeing in the dark, either.

  It was tough going. I couldn't exactly drag my feathers through thorn bushes. The Hork-Bajir couldn't fly. And it was totally dark. The kind of dark you only get when you are a long way from the lights of homes and cars and streetlamps. It was so dark you couldn't see a tree till you ran into it. It was like being blind.

  I rode on Jara Hamee's horns, just like I had with Rachel. Only we were moving more slowly and trying not to leave tracks.

  "Where?" Jara Hamee asked. "Go where?"

  «l don't really know,» I grumbled. «l guess the little voice in my head will tell me.»

  The Hork-Bajir grunted, like that made perfect sense to him. "My head voice told me to run."

  «When? What voice?»

  I couldn't see his face, so I couldn't see his expression. Not that I would have known what a Hork-Bajir expression meant, anyway. "Ket Hal-pak and Jara Hamee at Yeerk pool. Yeerk drained out. Yeerk in pool. Head voice say, 'Run. Go that way!'"

  I sighed and narrowly avoided getting slapped

  85 in the face by a branch. Talking to Hork-Bajir is frustrating.

  «You're saying the idea just popped into your head to run away from the Yeerk pool?» I asked.

  "Head say, 'Run, Jara Hamee. Take Ket Hal-pak. Run and be free. Run from Yeerks.' I ask how? How will Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak be free? Head say, 'I will send a guide.'"

  «What?»

  "Head say, 'Run, Jara Hamee -'"

  «No, that last part. About a guide.»

  "Head voice say, 'I will send a guide.'"

  «Who? Me?»

  The Hork-Bajir didn't answer. I was quickly coming to realize that Hork-Bajir don't really get a lot of things. Speech seems unnatural to them. And it's true, they are not the geniuses of the universe. Which was fine.

  But I was getting more and more annoyed by the whole thing. I had been moved around, put in one place or another. Things I couldn't possibly know had popped into my head. I was being used. And I really didn't like the idea of that.

  I deeply didn't like the idea of that.

  «0kay, that does it. Stop,» I told the two Hork-Bajir.

  They stopped. The two big monsters just stood there in the dark between trees and waited.

  "We go now?"

  86 «No.»

  "Taxxons coming."

  «Yep,» I said. «l know.»

  "We go now?"

  «Nope. Not until I get some answers,» I said defiantly. «This little parade stops right here until I get some -»

  By the time I'd said «answers» I was not in the forest anymore. I was not anywhere. Not anywhere I could understand, at least.

  I felt myself floating. Hanging in the air, only there wasn't any air. I wasn't flying, just floating.

  There was light, a beautiful blue-green sort of light. It didn't come from any one place, though. It just seemed to be coming from everywhere at once.

  One thing was for sure - I was not in the forest anymore.

  HELLO, TOBIAS. WE MEET AGAIN.

  The voice was huge, but not harsh. It filled my brain and seemed to resonate throughout my body. My feathers quivered. My fingers tingled.

  Fingers?

  And only then did I begin to realize that I was changed.

  I looked down at my body. And somehow, in a way I can't explain, I seemed to be seeing through my body, too. It was as if I could see

  87 everything, from every angle at once. Like I was seeing myself through a million different eyes.

  I was no longer a red-tailed hawk. But I was not human, either. At least not the way I had once been human.

  I had arms that were wings. I had legs that ended in talons. I had a beak, but it was a mouth, too.

  I know this all sounds crazy. I know it's impossible to really imagine it very well. But somehow I was both a human and a bird and some third thing that was in between the two.

  We had seen many incredible things since we'd first found a dying Andalite prince in an abandoned construction site. I've seen Yeerks and all their tools - the Taxxons, the Gedds, the Hork-Bajir. I've seen Andalites and met the Chee, the androids in human form. I've traveled through time and to the Yeerk pool and into orbit in spaceships.

  But there was only one species that could do this. Only one species that could own that huge head-filling voice.

  "The Ellimist," I said in an actual voice that came from my own mouth.

  Then, from the vague turquoise fog around me, I saw it flying toward me. It was a bird of prey. A raptor. Some undefinable shape, part fal-

  88 con, part eagle, part hawk. It had a snow-white belly and reddish-brown back and a tail that spread to show a dusky rainbow of colors.

  The bird flew to me, then stopped and floated in midair.

  YES, TOBIAS. ELLIMIST. OR AT LEAST AN ELLIMIST.

  It laughed and the whole turquoise universe laughed along.

  "So you're the puppet master," I said. "I should have known. But this isn't how you looked last time we saw you."

  The bird shape smiled. Don't ask me how it smiled with a beak. It just did. I chose a shape

  YOU WOULD IDENTIFY WITH.

  "Baloney. You know better than that. You know I'm human."

  ARE YOU? YOU DON'T LOOK LIKE A HUMAN TO ME.

  I felt a queasiness in my stomach. I looked at the body I had. A body that was equal parts boy and bird.

  "What do you want from me? Why are you making me do things I don't want to do?"

  WHAT HAVE I MADE YOU DO, TOBIAS?

  "You put me in places I don't want to be. You've dragged me into this stupid mess with these two Hork-Bajir."

  The Ellimist dissolved from bird to human. But not entirely human. He was a human with wings. He looked like I did at that moment. And

  89 when he spoke again, it was with a simple, human voice.

  "Once I put you and your friends in a position to give your own former species a chance. I looked deep into the future, and found a way to help you - without using my power directly. And now, you are in a position to help the Hork-Bajir. Do they not deserve the same chance as humans?"

  "You're trying to save the Hork-Bajir race from the Yeerks?"

  The Ellimist smiled again and shook his
head. "We do not interfere. We do not use our power for one species against another."

  "Bull," I said.

  The Ellimist let that go with just a faint smile. "I will not force you, Tobias. And I will not guarantee you will even succeed. There is every chance you will die and the two Hork-Bajir will die, and all will have been a waste."

  "Thanks. That really cheers me up," I said. "Why me? Why stick me with this job? What am I, some kind of hero?"

  The Ellimist didn't laugh. "Tobias, you are a beginning. You are a point on which an entire time line may turn."

  I guess that should have made me feel important. But it didn't. I wasn't interested in being flattered.

  91 "You want my help?" I asked the Ellimist. "Fine. Then I want yours. You're just about all-powerful, according to Ax. You can make entire galaxies disappear if you want. I don't know why you don't just make things happen the way you want them to. But, hey, whatever." I looked him right in the eyes. Right into eyes that were a disturbing mirror image of my own.

  "You want me to lead these Hork-Bajir to this place you've put in my head? Fine. But I want to get paid for my services."

  "And what do you want, Tobias?"

  "You know what I want," I said, almost choking on the words. "You know."

  "Yes. But do you know what you want, Tobias?" the Ellimist asked. "And if you get it, will you still know?"

  And suddenly, without any sensation of movement, I was back in the dark of the forest.

  90

  It was a long night. I can tell you that for sure. A very long night. Even the Hork-Bajir were worn out by the time the first faint gray of predawn started to appear.

  The whole time I was waiting to see a bunch of Taxxons suddenly show up, followed by heavily armed Hork-Bajir. Or else Visser Three in one of his awful morphs. Every shadow looked like it could be an enemy.

  And I had other enemies in the forest to worry about. I was extremely aware of the fact that any number of other birds and various hungry mammals were noticing me and thinking maybe I'd make a nice snack.

  But I was riding atop a Hork-Bajir. And none

  92 of the forest predators could quite figure out how to deal with that. At one point a pair of wolves, probably scouting for their pack, stood a few dozen yards away and watched us pass.