Applegate, K A - Animorphs 11 - The Forgotten

by The Forgotten (lit)

  -" Suddenly there was no more green. A muddy stream ... I leaped for the water. Pah-Loosh! I heard Rachel hit the water beside me. Pah-Loosh! I swam toward her. She was still underwater. The water was too murky for me to be able to see her well. All I saw was flailing limbs. Ants were floating to the surface of the water and being carried away by the current. Then . . . SPLOOSH! Rachel came up, gasping for air. "Are you okay?" I asked her. She looked around, confused for a moment. Then she recognized me. And she spotted Marco and Cassie on the bank of the stream. "Get out of the water!" Cassie screamed. I grabbed Rachel's arm and dragged her to- ward the bank. I pushed her ahead of me, slipping and sliding up through the muddy grass. I was just pulling my feet up out of the water when I saw the churning, frothing commotion Cassie had seen first. I yanked my feet away, inches ahead of a school of flesh-eating piranha. "This is the rain forest?" Rachel demanded angrily, spitting water and combing through her hair for any remaining ants. "This is the rain forest everyone wants to save? Ants and piranha and snakes and bugs the size of rats? Well, as far as I'm concerned they can burn it down, pave it over, and put up malls and convenience stores!" I sat staring at the piranha. They say a school of piranha can strip a cow down to nothing but bones in a few minutes. Right then, thinking about what almost happened, shaking and panting and wanting to cry, I agreed with Rachel.

  3:09 P.m. Now we need to find Ax," I said. "But we need to be careful. This jungle alone is enough to mess us up bad. And we have the Yeerks to deal with as well." less-than like am not lost, Prince Jakeeagreater-than a thought-speak voice said. "Ax!" I cried. less-than Yes, it's meeagreater-than Ax said. less-than But I am in a morph. Don't be startled. greater-than With that, he dropped from the tree above us and landed on the ground. "Well," Marco commented with great satisfaction. "Someone finally made a monkey out of Ax." He was small, covered in brown fur, and definitely a monkey. But he was alive. I don't think I've ever felt so relieved in my life. I had been screwing up plenty. First by deciding to go into the stupid Safeway to begin with, then by endangering Tobias, then by endangering Ax, then by leaving Rachel alone to almost get killed. But at least no one had gotten killed. Yet. "I'm thinking spider monkey," Cassie said, frowning. "But I'm not sure. I'm not all that strong on rain forest animals." The monkey -- Ax -- was holding something in his paw. It was bright yellow and about the size of a computer diskette, only round and a little thicker. "What is that?" I asked. less-than like did what you told me to deagreater-than Ax said. less-than This is a vital part of the Bug fighter -- the computer core. No one can fly the Bug fighter without it. greater-than less-than That thing is the computer8greater-than Tobias asked. less-than Yes, the Yeerks are still somewhat primitive. An Andalite version would be a third this size. greater-than "W ell, I'm relieved you're okay, Ax," I said. "We haven't been doing very well." less-than like barely made xeagreater-than Ax said simply. less-than There are several dozen Hork-Bajir out combing the forest, looking for us. I think they are divided now into platoons of five, each accompanied by a human-Controller, I haven't seen the Visser, but he wilt be around as well. And as you know, Visser Three can morph, so he could be any of the animals we see. greater-than "That's a good point," Rachel said. "We have to be on the lookout for animals as well as Hork-Bajir and the natives." "The human-Controllers," Marco said thoughtfully. "I think I know why they're traveling with the Hork-Bajir. See, the human-Controllers would know which animals belong here in the rain forest, and which don't. If they see a grizzly bear or a tiger or a wolf, they'll know that it doesn't belong. They'll know it's us." "Good thinking, Marco. We need local morphs," I said. less-than like can take you to the monkeyseagreater-than Ax suggested. less-than to believe they are close relatives of yours. greater-than "Marco is second cousin to a monkey," Rachel said. I was glad to see she was teasing Marco again. It meant she was back. Still, there was a darkness in her eyes. Not even Rachel could just shake off what she'd been through. And knowing Rachel, she would react by being more aggressive. Maybe too aggressive. "Monkeys would be good," Cassie said. "It would get us up off the ground and into the trees." "Okay, Ax, lead on. Tobias? I hate to ask, but we could use some air cover." less-than No problemeagreater-than Tobias said. He flew up into the trees. I knew he was tired. And I knew he was hungry. Flying is hard work, and a bird's metabolism is fast. They can't en dure long periods of hunger as well as a human. But what else could I do? Ax did not lead us very far. Within ten minutes we were standing beneath a group of monkeys chittering and yipping in the trees high above us. It isn't possible to acquire a morph from a person who's morphed. In other words, we couldn't just copy Ax's monkey morph. We had to go to an actual monkey. less-than like believe I can get one of them to come downeagreater-than Ax said. "How?" Marco asked. Ax hesitated. It's hard to tell if a monkey is embarrassed, let alone a monkey with an An-dalite mind. But I could have sworn Ax was

  em barrassed. less-than to ...! believe that I am

  - that is to say my morph is

  - an attractive female. One of the males seemed interested earlier. greater-than "Well, that does it," Marco said flatly. "We have moved permanently to bizarre-o world. We've traveled in time, we're in a jungle fighting brain-stealing aliens and ten thousand annoying species of bugs, and our resident space cadet is a hot-looking monkey. Somebody

  - his his

  - wake me up when we get back to reality." his

  - wake me up when we get back to reality." Marco and I said it at the same moment. He stared at me. I stared at him. Everyone else stared at us. I sighed. "I guess I have something to tell you guys. I should have said something earlier, probably. But I thought I was just going nuts or something. See, I've been having these flashes. Really intense. It's like, I'd be in school and then sud denly I was here. And since we got here, I've been having flashes that I'm back home." Rachel rolled her eyes as if to say, "What next?" Cassie looked concerned. Marco looked like he was trying to find a joke in the situation, but was too tired to come up with anything. "I knew what Marco was going to say just now because that was one of the flashes," I said. Ax stared at me with large monkey eyes. less-than Prince Jake, how long ago did you start having these flashbacks8greater-than I shrugged. "It was just this afternoon. Yester day, or today, whatever you'd call it. I was square dancing when the first one happened. Why?" "You were square dancing?" Marco said. "I'd have paid to see that." Ax scratched his neck vigorously, then looked intently at what he'd scratched up. He popped whatever it was into his mouth. Obviously, he was letting the monkey mind have some control. less-than Prince Jake, as I said, I'm not an expert

  on Sario Rips. But I think what's happening is that the flashbacks are fluctuations where two simultaneous identical states of consciousness intersect outside of space-time." "That would have been my guess," Marco said. "Simultaneous . . . whatevers." less-than like have a theory . . disgreater-than Ax began. "A theory is more than I have. What is it?" less-than like suspect we have moved backward in time. But not far. We are existing simultaneously both here and back home. There are now two Marcos, two Cassies, two of each of us. One here, one there. At the same time. The flashbacks only started today. So I suspect we have gone back one day in time, a little less. greater-than "That's good," Marco said. less-than Noeagreater-than Ax said solemnly. less-than lt's not good. We are in two places at the same time. That is impossible. It's a time-space anomaly. It's an unstable conditions "Meaning . . . ?" I pressed. less-than like think it means that the two groups, the two Marcos, Rachels, and so ons, will annihilate each other. Like matter and antimatter, it is not possible for there to be two of us in the same time. greater-than "So why haven't we annihilated ourselves yet?" Rachel asked. less-than We are still within the Sario Rip effecteagreater-than Ax said. less-than like think. So ... so I think we're okay till we get back to the time when the rip occurred. At that time, the rip will end, and we'll have an impossible situation: two identical groups of people existing in two places at one time. I think my teacher said it would cause a m
utual annihilation. We'd cease to exist. Both groups. Here and back home. The time when the Sario Rip occurred was eight fifty-four, exactly. greater-than "In other words, if we're getting back to our own time, we have to do it before the Sario Rip occurs at eight fifty-four," I said. less-than Yes. We'd have to go back and change the time line. So that none of this would happen. We have less than six hours. greater-than "How do we do that?" less-than l'm not sure. greater-than I nodded. "Well, if we're trapped, so is Visser Three, right? He must know about Sario Rips, too. If he's going back, we can go back with him. All we have to do is get to the Blade ship, hide out on board, and let Visser Three take us home. I mean, that's the only way, right?" less-than There could be comgreater-than Ax started to say. Then he stopped. "What?" I asked him. "Is there some other way to get back?" Ax gave me a long look. Like he wasn't quite sure what to say. Or whether to say anything at all. He was in monkey morph, so I couldn't read his expression. less-than As I said, Prince Jake, I wasn't paying attention the day they taught this in school. greater-than I knew he was hiding something. I should have pressed him. But I didn't. Just one more mistake from the "fearless leader" of the Animorphs. It was easy to "acquire" the monkeys. Several of them swung down from the tree to sniff at Ax. And they didn't seem terribly frightened by any of us, since we were all standing very still and quiet. I reached very slowly, very gently for one particular monkey. He looked at my hand, considering it. Then he turned his back, as if asking me to scratch it. "Okay," I said. "I'd be glad to." I scratched the little monkey's back. And as I did, I closed my eyes and focused my thoughts on the monkey. He became quiet, like he was in a trance. That's how animals usually are when they're being acquired. I absorbed the monkey DNA into me. "This should be especially easy," Cassie commented as she finished acquiring a different monkey. "These monkeys aren't direct relatives of Homo sapiens, but still, most of our DNA will be identical. After all, a chimpanzee's DNA is like ninety-seven percent identical to human DNA." "Or in Marco's case, ninety-nine point nine percent," Rachel interjected. "Yes, it's like the fact that Rachel's DNA is actually ninety-nine percent identical to Malibu Barbie," Marco shot back. "Could we concentrate here?" I said gruffly. Actually, I was relieved to see everyone behaving normally. It's when Cassie isn't talking about animals and Marco and Rachel aren't teasing each other that you have to worry. "Ax? Did you have any problems with the monkey's mind when you morphed?" Cassie asked. less-than No. Except . . . well, they are similar to morphing a human, but much more excitable. Also, they don't fall over as easily as humans do. greater-than Ax is constantly amazed that humans walk around on just two legs, without even a tail to hold us up, "Okay, let's do it," I said. "We're short on time, and we are exposed, sitting out here looking like dumb, barefoot kids from the suburbs. Tobias? Ax? Both of you keep an eye out for any trouble." less-than This whole rain forest is nothing but trouble caret Tobias said darkly. less-than Especially when you're a red-tailed hawk and you stick out like a sore thumb. greater-than He was right, but I had to worry about one thing at a time. And I knew from my "visions" that we could successfully morph into monkeys. Unfortunately, the visions didn't tell me whether we'd succeed or fail, end up alive ... or not. I concentrated on a mental image of the monkey. And very, very quickly, I began to feel the changes. The real monkeys began to see the changes, too. SQUEEE to SQUEEE! SQUEEE! The real monkeys leaped onto the tree trunk and scampered up toward the high branches. I shrank. That was to be e xpected. But the more I shrank, the more vulnerable I felt. Brown fur sprouted from my arms and legs. My face remained furless, and my lips puffed out to form a rubbery muzzle. The largest single change was the tail. I felt it come shooting out from the base of my spine. But I'd had a tail before, so I didn't think much about it. Then I realized something. The tail moved. Not just back and forth, like a dog's tail. It moved like a fifth arm. less-than Hey, the tail is neateagreater-than Cassie said. less-than Try moving it. You can feel that there's a part of your brain that controls it. Just like an extra hand. greater-than She was right. And Ax was right, too. There was very little that was new or strange inside the monkey's mind. Like a human, it had only a few basic instincts. Like a human, it depended on learning to guide its actions. The eyes were similar to human eyes. The ears no better than our own. The sense of smell was a bit improved, though. less-than That was an easy morpheagreater-than Rachel said. less-than So. What can this monkey d8greater-than I shrugged my narrow monkey shoulders. less-than like guess it climbs trees. greater-than I turned to the tree trunk. Like almost all the rain forest trees, it was shockingly tall. And there were no low branches. But there were strangling vines wrapped all around the trunk, like a nest of snakes. less-than Let's try it oueagreater-than I said. I reached for a vine and held it tentatively. I positioned one foot. Then I carefully reached for another handhold. less-than Prince Jakeeagreater-than Ax said. less-than Let the creature do the climbing. It knows how. Like this. greater-than He put the Bug fighter's computer in his mouth and leaped right through the air, snatched a handhold, and was fifty feet up the tree before I could blink three times. I took a deep breath and relaxed my control. I allowed the monkey mind to come forward and just said, less-than Climb. greater-than Ax was right. The monkey knew how to climb. You know the way Michael Jordan knows his way around a basketball court? Or the way Kristi Ya-maguchi knows her way around the ice rink? That's how the monkey knew the trees. It knew the trees. It understood the trees. It was born to be in the trees. Hands, toes, hands, toes, it found every little handhold, every foothold, never a hesitation, never a doubt, never a question. That monkey knew exactly, precisely what to do. I felt like I had swallowed ten Mountain Dews and a box of Ring-Dings. I was tiny, but man, I had energy. I flew up that tree. I met Cassie up in the high canopy. less-than Yow! Ax was right. This monkey can climb treesffgreater-than less-than That's not all it can deagreater-than she said. The others were just catching up to us. less-than Watch this. greater-than She launched herself out into the air. We were fifty feet up, easy, as high as a five-story building, and Cassie just fired her hind legs and flew through the air. She snatched a hanging vine with one hand, but never stopped swinging forward. That was all I needed to see. It was a game of chase through the treetops. The monkey wanted to play, and so did I. I needed some fun. to needed some fun in the worst way. I leaped. For about two seconds that felt like ten minutes, I hung in the air. Then, my left hand simply reached out, found a branch, swung me forward, launched me once again through the air, reached out again . . . Swing and fly and grab and swing and fly and grab! less-than 0h, yes! Oh, definitelyffgreater-than Marco exulted as he followed Cassie and me through the trees. Swing! Flyyyyy! Catch! Swing! Flyyyyy! Catch! The little monkey brain processed every move, prepared every action and reaction. The entire world was branches and vines to the monkey. Swing! Fly through the air with the ground a deadly fifty feet down! Catch at the last possible second! Swing again, out into the void, catch just in time to save your life! it was the scene from my flash. Me, zipping through the trees. Ax paused to let us all catch up. He wrapped his tail around a branch and hung there, panting. I wrapped my own tail around the branch and let go with my hands and feet. I hung there, high above the forest floor, by my tail. I swayed gently in the breeze. less-than This sounds weird, but there's something . . . familiar about theagreater-than I said to Cassie when she caught up to us. less-than like mean, not to the monkey, but to me. To me, the human. greater-than less-than lt's called brachiating, I thinkeagreater-than Cassie said. less-than Swinging through the trees. It's what our distant ancestors did, millions of years ago. Maybe little bits of that memory are still stuck in the back of our human brains. Maybe all the stages of evolution are still a part of us. greater-than less-than 0r maybe it just reminds me of playing on jungle gyms when I was a little kid. greater-than less-than 0h, sure, if you want the boring, obvious explanation caret Cassie said with a laugh. less-than lt's like gymnasticseagreater-than Rachel said. less-than 0nly this monkey could totally destroy a
ny human on the uneven parallel bars. If the monkey team could be in the Olympics, they'd win every medal. greater-than less-than Can I ask a question8greater-than Ax interrupted. less-than Where are we going8greater-than We all stared at him. Then we burst out laughing. The monkey bodies laughed, too, a wild, chittering sound. That just made us laugh all the more. less-than like guess we did get kind of carried awayeagreater-than I said to Ax. less-than Now get serious. We have stuff to do. We have to find the Blade ship. And we have to get back to our own time before eight fifty-four. greater-than less-than Can we play chase some more first8greater-than Marco asked. And I would have said yes, because I was as caught up as he was in the idiot joy of being a monkey. But right then, I saw down below us a troop of Hork-Bajir. Five of them, slashing their way through the undergrowth with a human-Controller following along behind. less-than Let's follow themeagreater-than I said. less-than Sooner or later they'll head back for the Blade ship, right8greater-than I don't think I ever realized how strong Hork-Bajir are till we followed them as they rampaged through the rain forest. They used their arm blades to slash at the vegetation, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. They slashed and slashed and never seemed to tire. There was a human-Controller with them. A guy who looked like he might be nineteen or twenty. He was in good shape, but he was gasping and sweating and struggling to keep up with the powerful, tireless Hork-Bajir. Far above them we swung and flew and caught and swung again. less-than Are these guys going somewhere, or just wandering around8greater-than Rachel grumbled. less-than Tick-tock, ticktock. We're running out of time. greater-than "There! There!" the human-Controller rasped weakly, pointing in the direction of the base of the tree we were in. "That animal! That piglike thing, I don't think it belongs here." I think the guy was just tired. Looking for an excuse to sit down and rest. But without pausing even to consider, the lead Hork-Bajir drew his Dracon beam and fired. TSEEEWWW! The wild pig, or whatever it was, sizzled and disappeared. The Dracon beam kept traveling. It hit and sliced through the trunk of our tree. less-than Moveffgreater-than I yelled as the tree began to shudder and sway. We leaped wildly for the next tree. I fired myself out into the air. The tree was falling too fast. No time to plan a landing! I flew through the air for a very, very long two seconds. I dropped. The ground came rushing up. I could see the face of the human-Controller staring up at me, wondering . . . A branch! I reached. Missed! No, wait! Suddenly I was stopping, swinging in a crazy circle. I almost laughed when I realized what had happened. My tail had grabbed the branch my hand had missed. "I don't like that monkey," the human-Controller said. The Hork-Bajir leader once again drew his Dracon beam and aimed for me. But I was out of there. I raced back along the branch, holding on with my toes. And I swung around the back of the trunk a split second ahead of... TSEEWWW! ZZZZAAAPPP! The tree trunk exploded right in front of me as the Dracon beam turned its sap to steam. Heat scorched my face. I lost my hold and began to fail. Then ... a hand grabbed me. less-than Hold onffgreater-than Rachel said as she swung me toward a new branch. "That does it! That's no real monkey," the human-Controller yelled. "The monkeys! Kill all the monkeys! Kill every monkey you see!" Five Hork-Bajir drew their weapons. less-than Noffgreater-than Cassie cried. less-than Jake! We have to stop themffgreater-than less-than Cassie, get out of here! Gffgreater-than I yelled. TSEEEWWW! TSEEEWWW! TSEEEWWW! Dracon beams fired their killing light. Tree branches fell away like someone was trimming a rosebush. And one of the beams hit a monkey. less-than Cassie! Marco! Axffgreater-than I yelled. less-than lt wasn't one of ueagreater-than Marco answered. Monkeys were destroyed. Birds in the trees were destroyed. A sloth and its baby, hanging from a branch, were destroyed. The Hork-Bajir were on a rampage. They were past just shooting at monkeys. They were shooting at anything that moved in the high branches. less-than They're killing everythingffgreater-than Cassie cried, outraged. less-than We have to stop themffgreater-than less-than This isn't time to play save-the-rain-forest, Cassieeagreater-than Marco snapped. less-than This is time to play save yo ur own buttffgreater-than less-than Jakeffgreater-than Tobias yelled down from above. less-than like see Dracon beams being firedffgreater-than less-than Yeah, we kind of noticedeagreater-than Rachel an swered. We had swung away from most of the slaughter. But we were still near enough to hear the wild, huffing laughter of the Hork-Bajir and the giddy, insane cries from the human-Controller. I know there is a difference between human life and the lives of other animals. I mean, I guess there is. And I definitely know there is a difference between human life and the lives of trees. But still, that mindless, pointless mas sacre of trees and the animals in them made me sick. The Hork-Bajir were just cutting everything down. Smoldering stumps stood where trees had been sliced up. The forest was screaming in anger and confusion. HOO! HOOO! HOOHOOHOO! Ke-Raw! Ke-Raw! Ke-Raw! Then something strange happened. As the Hork-Bajir stomped on through the rain forest, something fell from a tree. It was very long, and it wrapped itself around the lead Hork-Bajir. less-than A snakeffgreater-than Rachel yelled. less-than Man, I didn't know snakes came that bigffgreater-than Marco said. The snake swiftly coiled around the Hork-Bajir and squeezed. The other Hork-Bajir began to slash at it. Then . . . less-than Get back, fools, and be glad I don't kill you alleagreater-than a sneering, thought-speak voice said. The Hork-Bajir stopped trying to free their trapped friend very suddenly. They stepped back. And just watched the struggling Hork-Bajir. I knew that thought-speak voice. We all did. Somehow the sound of it in your brain made you feel afraid. Once the Hork-Bajir stopped struggling, the snake began to change. From the impossibly long snake body, an Andalite grew. An Andalite body, at least. But not a true An-dalite. Because in that Andalite head lived the Yeerk slug who held the rank of Visser Three. It's strange, how two almost identical things can be so totally different. See, Visser Three looked almost exactly like Ax, or any other Andalite. And yet, there was never a moment of doubt when you saw him that this was an evil creature. The four remaining Hork-Bajir and the human-Controller were shaking with terror before the Visser. less-than What are you fools doing8greater-than the Visser asked in deceptively calm tones. He looked at the human-Controller. Visser Three is never very careful about his thought-speak. Thought-speak is like E-mail: You can decide who it goes to. Or you can just blast it out for all to hear. I guess if you're as powerful as Visser Three, you just shout away. The human-Controller turned several shades lighter than his natural color. "We ... we ... we we we were following your orders, Visser. To destroy any animals that don't belong here because they could be the Andalite bandits." less-than And you thought perhaps the trees were An-dalites, as well8greater-than "No ... it was . . . urn . . ." The Visser raked his Andalite tail forward and pressed the blade against the man's throat. less-than Did it occur to you that the Bug fighter is less than a hundred yards from here? Did it occur to you that Dracon beams travel a long way? Did it occur to you that we cannot get back to our own time without that Bug fighter? And did it occur to you that I MIGHT BE IN MORPH and that you might end up shooting me8greater-than The human-Controller sank to his knees. "I didn't... we never... it... it... was them!" He pointed a finger of blame at the Hork-Bajir. I whispered to Ax. less-than What's that about needing the Bug fighter to get back to his own time8greater-than Ax shrugged his monkey shoulders. less-than like don't know. I think . . . maybe we need to exactly recreate the intersection of the two Dracon beams to undo the Sario Rip. I remember something like that from school. greater-than He held up the little disk from the Bug fighter's computer. less-than But they can't fly the Bug fighter without this. greater-than It came to me then, in a flash of insight: I had made a terrible mistake. I had risked Ax's life to get the computer, to make it impossible for the Yeerks to fly the Bug fighter. But now, we knew they'd have to fly the Bug fighter to get us home. You could say we had a bargaining chip. You'd think maybe we could trade Visser Three the computer for a ride home. But I knew better. Once he had the computer, the Visser would just kill us. We were trapped. Trapped, because of my own mist
ake. We had been in monkey morph for almost the two-hour limit. It was time to change and regroup, and hopefully figure out what to do next. We swung away through the trees, far from Visser Three. We scampered down to the ground and began to demorph. Tobias flew up and landed on a fallen tree beside us, since there were no low branches. There was a black, singed area on his tail. "Tobias!" Cassie cried. She rushed over to him as soon as she was human again. less-than l'm fineeagreater-than Tobias said, as Cassie lifted his tail to check for damage. less-than But someone took a shot at me and almost hit me. I guess one of the human-Controllers must have been a birdwatcher. He knew red-tails don't fly in the Amazon. But before they chased me off, I saw them working on our crashed Bug fighter. Three Taxxons crawling all over it, repairing it. And a bunch of Hork-Bajir shooting anything they didn't like. greater-than I told Tobias what we'd overheard Visser Three saying. "They need the Bug fighter to get back to the right time. I don't know why, and Ax doesn't know why." Ax was fully Andalite again. He held up the yellow disk. less-than They cannot fly that Bug fighter without this. I guarantee it. greater-than He was still focusing on that. Not thinking ahead to the fact that we needed the Yeerks to have the stupid computer now. I know it sounds weird, but I was actually mad at Ax for not seeing what an idiot I'd been. I wanted someone just to say, "Jake, you've blown it, man. You're not the leader anymore." It would have been a relief. "Jake!" Rachel hissed. "What?" "Don't move. Don't anyone move a muscle," Rachel said. I moved nothing but my eyes. From the bushes around us, utterly silent, the heads began to rise. Beside each head, a spear, cocked and ready to fly. "I think the local guys have the drop on us," Marco said nervously. I was amazed. It is impossible to sneak up on an Andalite. It is even more impossible to sneak up on a red-tailed hawk. And yet about twelve guys, some older, some younger, all with intense, jet-black eyes and black hair, had done just that. There was no doubt in my mind that if we even twitched, let alone attacked, twelve poison-tipped spears would fly, and the six of us would go down permanently. "Uh . . . Cassie?" Marco whispered. "You're the tree-hugging, save-the-rain-forest, love-the-planet person here. Who are these guys?" "Humans," Cassie said. "Noduh," Marco said. "That's all I know. Humans. Some bunch of people who live here. What am I, an encyclopedia or something?" "I don't think they like us," Rachel said. "But they don't look like they want to kill us." I recognized one of the faces. It was the kid who'd thrown a spear at me before. His alert, black eyes watched me. Rachel was right: They didn't like us. "I wonder if they saw us morph?" I decided to try raising my hands in a gesture of peace. Slowly, slowly, I raised my hands, palm out. No one stabbed a spear in me. That was a good sign. I took a deep breath. Until that moment, I'd forgotten to breathe. "Hello. We ... um, we don't want any trouble," I said. "You got that right," Marco whispered. One of them stepped forward and came right up to face me. He may have been thirty or forty or eighty. I couldn't be sure. But he was definitely the leader of the group. You could tell. He was wearing extremely little. So little I think Rachel and Cassie would have been embarrassed, if they weren't busy being terrified. The man lowered his spear and peered intently into my face. He spoke. But it was no language I knew. "Sorry, I don't speak, um, whatever." The man thought that over for a moment. Then, he pointed a finger at me and said, "Macaco." I guess when I didn't understand that, either, he decided I was an idiot. He launched into an amazingly good pantomime of a monkey. "Oh, monkey? Monkey is macaco?" The man nodded and smiled. Then the smile was gone. He jabbed a finger right in my chest. "Macaco. Tu. Espirito macaco." "Whoa!" Marco said. "Tint's Spanish. Es- pfritu means spirit or soul." "Maybe it's Portuguese," Cassie said. "They speak Portuguese in Brazil. This man is probably the headman of his village. He probably has some dealings with the Brazilians. He must have learned some Portuguese." "Portuguese, Spanish, they're sorta alike," Marco said. "Spanish is all my grandmother speaks. And my mother grew up speaking Spanish." "So you can translate?" Rachel asked. "Well, no. I mean, I know maybe fifty words. But it's easy to figure what he's saying. He's saying Jake is a monkey spirit. Espirito macaco." "So they did see us morph," I said. I nodded at the man. "Yes. Espirito macaco." Yes, I was a monkey spirit. He looked hard at Ax. At his extra stalk eyes and his wicked tail. "Mat. Diabo." "I'm guessing he's calling Ax a devil," Marco said. I shook my head firmly. "No mat.