Prologue

That’s right, me and my 7 other friends. We’re only kids, but we’ve done a lot of damage to the Yeerks. Well, first I better tell you what a Yeerks is. A Yeerk is a parasitic slug that crawls through your ear canal and into your brain. They wrap themselves around your brain, sinking into the little cracks and crevices. Completely controlling you. A human that has a Yeerk in his or her head is what we call a controller.

The Yeerks have a few species of aliens that I know about other than humans that are controllers. Including the Hork-Bajir, Taxxons, Gedds, and even a few Leerans.

There is only Andalite controller, and his name is Visser 3. Since he is an Andalite he has the power to morph. But unlike us he has deadly morphs from all around the galaxy.

Now you’re wondering how a handful of kids are fighting the Yeerks. Well we’re not helpless, we also have to power to morph. Well, at least most of us, I don’t have it, but I still fight in my own way. Oh yeah, I almost forgot, our little group isn’t completely human.

There’s Jake, the undecided leader of the Animorphs. Marco, the joker and he’s Jake’s best friend. Rachel, or as Marco likes to call her, Xena, Warrior Princess. Cassie, the tree hugger/animal lover. Tobias, the bird boy, nothlit. Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill, our resident Andalite, we call him Ax for short. Anna, the Navarazzi and newest member of the Animorphs. other than me of course. and last of all, me. I’m human, or at least I thought I was until a few weeks ago.

"Hi" I said.

"Hi. You’re new around here right?" he asked.

"Yeah. I just moved here a few days ago" I answered.

"I thought so. You’re in my math class right? Michael isn’t it?" he asked.

"Yeah. You’re.....?" I asked him

"Jake" He reminded me.

"Yeah, now I remember. Sorry I’m not very good at remembering names too well" I told him " Since I don’t have very many friends here, I’m thinking of joining The Sharing."

Jake looked uncomfortable at the mention of joining the Sharing, like he didn’t want me to join.

BRRRRRRIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG

"Well that’s the bell, I gotta get to class" I told Jake.

"OK. Me and some friends are hanging out after school wanna come?" he asked me.

"Um.. OK, it’ll be better than unpacking my stuff for the day" I said. "Where at?" I asked.

"At my house. Were just going to go to a friends barn or take a walk in the woods or something." he said. Then Jake gave me a piece of paper with directions to his house.

Then he left off with another friend, and at that moment I got a strange feeling that there was more to him than he showed.

Jake’s house wasn’t too far away, about a half mile. When I got home and told my mom that I was going out to hang with my new friends. She told me it was good that I was getting new friends and then told me not to stay out late and all that motherly stuff. Then I left.

Since it was fairly close to Jake’s house, I walked. I was about two blocks there when I saw a cat, and for no reason that I knew, I started chasing after it, trying to eat it.

I caught it and was about to bite its head off when I realized what I was doing. I was horrified.

"AAHHH!! What am I doing?!" I asked myself.

That’s when the freaky stuff started happening. I was looking at the cat to make sure it was OK, when I noticed my hands weren’t normal at all. Where my knuckles were, there were 6 inch long, bony spikes sticking out. Right out of my knuckles!

And at the tips of my fingers, there were claws sticking out of my fingers. It looked as if my fingers had burst open and there were scaly claws there.

"AAAHHH!!!" I screamed. I was wondering how it happened when the spikes slid slowly back into my knuckles and it looked like they were never there. The same thing happened with my claws.

I continued to Jake’s house still scared about what just happened and wondering what it was that made me do that, and how did I run fast enough to catch the cat, which at the time was going 20 mph?

"Is Jake home?" I asked.

Yeah, he’s upstairs with Marco, Rachel, Cassie and Philip" Jake’s brother said. "JAKE, SOMEONE’S AT THE DOOR ASKING FOR YOU!!" He yelled upstairs.

Jake came down about a minute later. "Oh, hi Michael, come on up" Jake told me.

I was still a little freaked out about what happened on the way here, and I wasn’t in the best of moods.

"Who are you?" a short, black hared, Hispanic boy yelled at me "and while were at it, what’s wrong with your haircut. It looks like there’s a porcupine sitting on your head."

"Yeah Jake. I thought we were going to go... you know." A supermodle looking girl said.

I don’t like being humiliated in front of friends. and new friends at that. also the reason that I had just grown claws and spikes wasn’t helping my anger. I got angry, but I told everyone in my own little way. Without me telling them.

"This is......what the?" Jake was explaining when he got cut off.

"How are you doing that?" Supermodel asked me. Everyone was staring at me. A black girl with no sense of clothing was looking at me, eyes wide. A girl with cat eyes had her eyes narrowing on me. A boy that looked strangely like a mix between the black girl, the Hispanic guy, the supermodel, and Jake, was looking at me like he wasn’t sure of what I was. And a boy with messy hair and dreamy eyes look was staring at me alarmed.

"Doing what?" I asked.

"Here. Look in the mirror" the Hispanic boy told me to do. He handed me a mirror from one of Jake’s desk drawers.

I looked in the mirror and saw something just about as weird and scary as what happened with my hands, and I knew why everyone was looking at me strangely.

"I’m Rachel" supermodel said "and we honestly don’t have a clue"

"I think I might" cat-eyes said. "Remember what happened to me. Well the same thing’s happening to him. Well....almost the same thing. His anger towards Marco is triggering his eyes to become different. Except this is much, much different then what happens to Navarazzi’s. By the way I’m Anna"

"And I’m Michael, now please try to tell me what’s going on here" I said impatiently and scared.

"Look it’s going away" the dreamy kid said.

Suddenly I felt a tingle in my mouth, and right over my eye teeth there was something sharp. I looked at the mirror again, this time opening my mouth.

I almost dropped the mirror, but my hand was frozen at what I saw. In my mouth, right over my eyeteeth, I had fangs. Not fangs like a vampire, I mean fangs like a snake. Just then I saw a small drop of what I think was venom drip from my right fang. I fainted right on Jake’s bed at the sight of venom.

I woke up lying on Jake’s bed with a cold cloth on my forehead. I arose suddenly and reached for the mirror. I guess my movement of just getting up and grabbing for the mirror startled my new friends.

I looked at my reflection in the mirror. My eyes were their normal brown color. Then I looked in my mouth. No fangs.

"It must’ve been a dream" I mumbled so no one could overhear. Unfortunately Jake did. "Nope it wasn’t a dream" he told me. "By the way, what are you Michael?"

"What do you mean? Am I human? I thought I was" I answered shakily.

"I better introduce us" Hispanic boy said "This is Cassie" he was pointing to the black girl. "This is Tobias" he said pointing to the dreamy eyed kid. "This is Ax" he pointed to the weird looking mix of the four. "I’m Marco. And these are Rachel, and Anna. I think you’ve already met." he said.
"You’d better leave" Jake told me strictly "one of us will find you and talk to you in a few days. Now go"

I was so freaked out from growing claws and spikes to having my eyes go nuts and growing fangs that I barely heard anything Jake said. I left four seconds after Jake told me to. I was running all the way home, and when I got there I said hi to my mom, ran into my room and crawled under the covers. This was too weird. Humans aren’t supposed to grow claws and fangs. I started trying to sleep, make sure it was all a dream, but I just kept thinking

What was wrong with me? Peoples eyes didn’t change to demon eyes. People didn’t grow claws and fangs. So what was going on with me?

I decided to take a walk in the woods away from everyone. Away from civilization, and one important thing I was trying to stay away from were the little creatures that were in the woods such as chipmunks and squirrels.

Then I heard Marco’s voice and jumped into a bush that was nearby.

"So what do you think that guy was? I mean that same thing happened to Anna, but her eyes glowed red and occasionally white. But this guys eyes just changed the pupils and color. And Anna didn’t grow fangs"

Then I "heard" something that I didn’t really hear.

<Actually Marco, Michael’s eyes did glow a very dim, red, glow. But you must have missed it.>

"But the same thing happened to Michael that happened to Anna. His eyes changed after Marco got him angry." Jake’s voice this time.

"We know he isn’t a human, that’s for sure. but he couldn’t be Chee or Navarazzi. Navarazzi would’ve noticed if it’s eyes glowed." It was Rachel this time.

"You know. I remember this exact same discussion when we talked about Anna" Marco said.

<Hey guys. Find out who and what that Michael kid is yet?> this sounded like Tobias, but sounded isn’t the right word.

"Hi Tobias. Nope not yet" Jake said.

Well I thought. This isn’t too odd. five kids, a hawk, and a alien are talking about me.

Wait a second. A alien?!

I was sick about them talking about me like I was a animal in the zoo, and what to do with me. I jumped out of my hiding place and ran strait for the alien.

But it’s times like this that I’m stupid to not notice the important stuff. Such as the deadly tail.

I ran right at the big blue alien when he brought his tail up for me to see. I would’ve thought it was cool, except for the one tiny fact that it was at my jugular, ready to take my head off and perhaps, if I was really unlucky, using my skull as an ashtray.

<Prince Jake, what shall I do now?> the alien asked "prince" Jake.

Before Jake could say anything, I decided to speak.

"It’s not very polite for people to talk about if you should remove my head from my shoulders or let me go. Actually it is one of the least polite things to discuss. Now I’d like to go if you don’t mind, so if you remove my head or let me go, you’d better do it soon. Because I do not enjoy being held in one of the least comfortable positions on earth by a big blue centaur with extra eyes and a scorpion tail, discussing whether he should make me say hello to my dead relatives and having me discuss my sins to St.Peter. So you better make a choice fast before I accidentally fall over onto your tail and saying good bye to the good old planet with the fluffy white clouds" I said.

<Well I believe he is not a Yeerk. If he was a Yeerk, he would’ve known what I am> the alien said to Jake.

"Oh I know what you are. You’re a big, blue centaur alien with a tail that can give major ouchies, that is going to wipe me out of existence in a little while if you don’t let me go. And it doesn’t matter if my mom doesn’t really care about what I do anymore. And it doesn’t help that my aunt is acting all weird, just like my mom. Their telling me to join the Sharing and...."

"What?! Your mom is trying to make you join the sharing?!"

"What?" I asked.

"I’m sorry to tell you this Michael, but your relatives are controllers" Jake said with sadness in his voice.

"Well we know that his mom, sister, and aunt are controllers." This was the first time Anna had talked this entire time.

I was breathing hard because I was angry and I couldn’t breath very well anyway.

<Hey, look!> It was Tobias.

"What?" Jake asked.

<Look at his eyes. They’re changing again. Oh, that’s not good. His fangs are growing again.> Tobias was telling everyone.

"OK, that does it. What are you?!" Marco forced me to say.

"I’m not telling you anything until you get this big, mutant horses tail out of the way of my throat" I ordered.

They told the alien to let me go.

"OK, now tell us what you are" Jake demanded of me.

"First of all, who’s the talking bird, and what I really want to know is who is the alien?" I said.

<I am Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill> the alien said.

<And I’m Tobias. Remember me?" the bird said.

I was confused. Wasn’t Tobias that kid that had dreamy eyes? Like I said. I was confused. And what was weird was that I was so caught up in thinking who these people were, I forgot about my eyes.

"Hi everyone. Now can I go home and get back to sleep? I mean this is all a dream, right?" I said to everyone.

"Sorry, it’s not a dream. But once again. I would like to know what you are" Jake said sternly.

"I thought I was human, and my name is Michael" I said frightened.

<Human eyes do not change color immediately, and humans do not grow fangs> Aximili said.

"And humans don’t have claws and grow spikes like..... what’s his name? Wolverine?" Cassie asked.

"Claws and spikes?" Jake asked. He looked confused.

I looked at my hands and saw claws and spikes. I yelped. I thought that I would’ve been use to the claws, but it was only the second time it happened. My life was going downhill, now it just got worse. Actual people seeing me change. But these weren’t normal, everyday kids. These kids were just plain weird. What was wrong with them, making friends with an alien and a hawk? These kids were freaky.

But these kids were right about one thing. I was definitely not human.

We were walking through the woods, while they told me their story. How Elfangor’s fighter crashed at the construction site where they were. How they morphed to dolphins and rescued Ax from the bottom of the sea, right before the Yeerk forces found him. How Tobias got trapped as a hawk while attacking the Yeerk pool. Everything.

They also told me about the different aliens that were on earth. Yeerks, Hork-Bajir, Taxxons, Gedds, Leerans, Ellemist, Pemelites, Skrit Na, Navarazzi, and all the other aliens that they knew of.

"So, you going to join our little resistance?" asked Jake.

I was going to say yes when a voice in my head started talking.

Join them, if you don’t, they might lose, or they might kill you for knowing too much.

Then another voice came. No, do not join them. They’ve been handling it well enough on their own. You don’t need to help. Besides, you might get killed. But on the other hand, it could help them a little. But I wouldn’t recommend joining them.

Don’t, there’s a good chance of getting killed. I mean, think about how big the Yeerk empire is. How will you defeat that?

I shook my head a little. The voices seemed a little anxious to see what I choose.

I was about to say no, but then I looked at everyone. One by one.

I looked at Rachel’s, strong, confident eyes. Tobias’s Hawk eyes, which didn’t show anything about what he thought now. I looked in Cassie’s eyes, her anxios eyes. I looked at Marco, he looked like he was about to make a joke about it all. I looked in Anna’s strange, catlike eyes. I looked in Jake’s determined eyes, they were looking at me curiously. And last of all, I looked at Ax’s eyes. They were a weird green emerald color. But he showed no emotion that I could name.

"Well I’d better get ready to fight, because I have a feeling that I’m going to be with you.. Um, people, for a long time. Because as long as there’s a Yeerk left on earth, I’m not going to stop fighting.

Ax looked at me, impressed.I think. If you can read Andalite face emotions. Jake was nodding at me. Cassie was smiling at me, like there was something in me that she recognized. Rachel was grinning in admiration or something. Tobias was Tobias and just stared, but it almost looked like he was smiling. If hawks could smile. Anna looked like she was trying to figure something out about me. Marco was Marco.

"Oh, just perfect. First we had Xena. Then we got Gabrielle. Now what? Hercules? Pu-lease." Marco joked.

"Just ignore Marco. He’ll eventually leave you alone" Rachel told me.

"Yeah, but not likely" Anna said.

"Hey! Nobody can ignore me for long" Marco teased. "I’m too funny and cute to be ignored."

"Right Marco, you can dream" Rachel said

Jake and Marco were walking a little behind talking about something about a Yeerk pool and Tom.

I was walking with Anna. Cassie and Ax were ahead getting to Cassie’s house. Cassie was going to try to get her parents to feed us all. Which would be pretty hard to explain to her parents why she was having 7 friends over for dinner.

But I was hungry. I seemed to have acquired a slower metabolism. But I was still very hungry.

Every few sentences with Anna, I would see a small animal like a squirrel or chipmunk. I mostly ignored them, but every now and then I would see one and go chasing after it with a sudden burst of speed. Then when I caught it I would see what I was doing and let it go. It seemed almost normal to me now. So I didn’t scream like I did when I did it first time.

"When did this start happening?" Anna asked me.

"Right before I came over to Jake’s house." I replied.

Right then I saw a squirrel and took after it like mad. As soon as I caught it, I had a feeling that something was close by. I looked up and I saw two pairs of green lights coming towards me.

"Oh man" I groaned

I dropped the squirrel and ran back to the others. The thing was still following me. When I got to the others I told them what I saw.

Jake went ahead to find Cassie and Ax. The rest of us just watched it land.

As soon as it landed a ramp opened and about 200 snakelike creatures ran out at us. Just then Jake got back with Cassie and Ax.

The snakelike creatures were strange. They were all different in ways. For instance. Some of the creatures had horns on their heads, some had wings, some had just a really long spiked tail. But all of them had one thing in common. They all had spiked knuckles like mine. and all had eyes like mine. Well, almost. Some had green pupils, purple pupils, blue pupils, yellow pupils, and all other colors.

"Man does this look familiar" Marco said.

"Everybody go into morph!" I yelled. My watch went off to tell me it was 7:00.

Right then one of the creatures grabbed Tobias and knocked him out. It carried him to the ship. Then another one grabbed me. My claws and spikes came out. I looked at them and got ready. As soon as the creatures head got in range I attacked. The creature fell. Lifeless.

Then two more came up and put a weapon to my chest. I saw it fire and then I blacked out.

When I stood up I looked around the room. And there on a table next to me, was Tobias. Still in human form. I was looking around the room then it hit me like a hammer. you can only stay in morph for two hours at a time. I checked my watch. It said 8:58.

"Tobias, demorph!!" I practically screamed.

"Huh? What?" Tobias said when he woke up.

"Tobias, demorph!" I yelled.

"How long have I been in morph?!" He asked me alarmed.

"You have two minutes." I told him. He started demorphing.

<I’m glad that you woke me up. I don’t want to be stuck in a human body like I was as a hawk> Tobias mentioned to me.

Yeah that wouldn’t be good. The Ellemist probably wouldn’t save you this time. I thought. I sort of sent it to Tobias, but I didn’t think it would reach him.

<What?! Did you just send thought speak to me??> Tobias asked surprised.

"What? Let me try again" I said. Do you hear this?

<Yeah, I heard that> Tobias said <We were right, you’re not human. Humans cant use thought speak>

"Yeah, I guess you’re right" I replied grimly.

Tobias came and perched on my shoulder. I guess there wasn’t enough room for flying in this room. <Where to now?> Tobias asked.

"Like I know" I said sarcastically.

All of a sudden a door in the room opened like the ones on Star Wars. One of those snakelike creatures walked in. This one had wings, and a long, spiked tail that looked like a stegasaurus . And what I noticed about it was it had the same color eyes as me. Blood red. Although it’s eye color was a little lighter red. There was something that I recognized about this particular snakething.

Hello Michael. Did you enjoy your time on earth? the alien asked me.

"Thought speak? does your whole species do that?" I asked.

No. Not thought speak. Tele-speech. Much like the Navarazzi’s. We can also shift like the Navarazzi’s. We can also talk in normal speech. We are allies of the Navarazzi's. We share technology and planets.

"What do you mean, did I like my stay on earth?" I asked confused.

I mean did you enjoy your stay on earth? He seemed impatient.

"I have no clue what you’re talking about. You’re insane." I said

I will show you then.

"Show me what?!" I was furious because I didn’t know enough.

The snakething seemed to look at Tobias for the first time. Then he looked at the other steel bed.

Where is the other one?

<Hi. I’m the other one> Tobias said.

Oh. You are an Andalite. We thought you were one of us because you were in human morph.

"What are you talking about?" I asked.

We use shifter technology to pass as humans on earth. We put human DNA into your bloodstream and you can become human when you want. But after a while the Maheek instincts will emerge beneath the human mind. And the shift will be reversible.

I just stood there. Shocked at what he was saying.

"So what are you saying?" I asked.

I am saying that you are a Maheek. That is why your eyes are like that. That is the sign of anger when your eyes are like that when you are a human.

" WHAT?!?" I screamed "This is not real. In a few minutes I'm going to wake up. I don't believe what you're saying."

I could tell. In the doorway it was dark and now I saw light green beams of light wherever I pointed my eyes. It looked like a laser was coming out of my eyes.

"I don't believe this. What you're telling me isn't true." I yelled

Then perhaps I will have to show you.

<I guess I'll just watch> Tobias said. It sounded as if he was confused by what we were saying.

The alien pulled out a small 7 inch cylinder with a small red slit at the end.

"What are you going to do with that?" I asked.

Do not be alarmed. I will merely show you that I am not lying.

"You're not sticking that anywhere near me!" I yelled.

But as I said that the alien put the cylinder on my forehead. I felt a small shock and then it was gone. I had a whole bunch of information packed into my head right then, but I didn’t notice it at the moment.

"So? What happened?" I asked.

<Michael! Look at your hands. and your legs.> Tobias sounded surprised.

I looked down at my hands. They were covered in light blue scales and had claws and spikes. The scales were covering my arms. Then I looked at my legs. They were covered in the same colored scales and my feet were turning into Tyrannosaurus feet. Only smaller. My shoes split open.It was like a slow morph. <Whoa!> Tobias jumped off my shoulder just as wings popped out of my shoulder blades. Huge blue wings like bat wings.

<That looks kind of cool.> Tobias said once he clamed down. <You look like some weird, blue, scaly, angel.>

I looked up at my wings and thought the same thing.

I was looking at my wings when a tail came sprooting out from my spine. At the end of the tail there was a tail blade that looked exactly like an Andalite’s. My pants were completely destroyed.

Just then my mouth and nose just pushed foreword. It looked like a huge zit was growing on the front of my face. Soon after the skin turned the scaly shade of blue. My arms got big and I felt a lot of muscle power there. My shirt ripped in half. I thought I was fully Maheek when three blades raked foreword out of my skull. Schloop, Schloop, Schloop.

<Hey. You look like a Hork-Bajir mixed with an Andalite a Navarazzi and a snake. With wings, no blades and no beak. Plus you're about a foot taller and blue.> Tobias said.

"Boy Marco's really going to get jealous. He thought I was tall before, well compared to him." I said with a smile "Now he's going to think he's really short."

Tobias laughed.

Now do you believe me? The Maheek asked.

"I guess. But this is still strange" I said.

Well it will not be for long. We’re taking you back to our home planet.

"WHAT?!?" I screeched and growled at the same time.

It is necessary. You will not be able to keep your human form for all the time on earth. And sometimes you will change without making yourself.

Let's see what we can learn about us first. Then leave. I told the voices.

"I have two other voices in my head. What are they? I asked the Maheek

Well one of them is your human self. And the other one is your Maheek self. He said. Exactly like the Navarazzi’s. It happens the first time you shift.

"Well, what's my Maheek name. And while were at it. What's your name?" I asked.

Your name is Mikili-Ackerdi-Sarahli-Terrangol-Sharamus-Folchoh-BioTest-13. And mine is Chalfanka-Nogoldo-Chickima-Halmii-Shalmge-Teevel-BioTest-4. He said.

"Whoa! That's a mouthful." I said.

<You said it.> Tobias said.

"Well you see Chalfanka. I'm not leaving earth. So that means that I'm not going to the homeworld" I said plainly.

I'm afraid you have no choice. We must take you. He replied.

"Well then. No offense. But were not going to go whether you like it or not." I said.

Right after that, I picked him up and threw him against the far wall. Not very hard. But hard enough to knock him out.

We ran down the hallway. Well, I ran. Tobias perched on my shoulder and watched my back.

Which way? I asked Tobias

<Um, try left> Tobias suggested.

I pulled a hard left and saw the exit.

Unfortunately that isn't the only thing I saw.

There were about 80 Maheek warriors standing there waiting.

Chapter 14

You're right. Tobias, do you have any morphs that would be able to take one of those things down? I asked.

<I have a Hork-Bajir morph. That's about the only thing that I have for taking one of these guys. Is it good enough?> Tobias asked.

That's fine. It'll have to do. I said.

Hey you guys. Get ready to fight, because this is going to get brutal soon. I said.

<What? Where did that come from?> Rachel asked.

It's me, Michael. Don't ask how I'm doing this. I'll tell you later. I responded.

<Michael? Where are you?> Jake asked.

Tele-speech? How are you using tele-speech? Anna asked.

I'll tell you later. Just attack the closest Maheek to you when I say. I replied.

I got a little closer to the horde. Tobias followed me. I was about three feet from the nearest Maheek.

Ready..... Go!! I yelled in tele-speech.

All hell broke loose right then. I reached for my target and slammed his head through the steel plated ship. Literally through.

I saw Tobias slice his target's spine in half. His guy fell to the ground instantly.

As I was cutting a warriors stomach open with my spikes I caught a glimpse of three Maheek jump on Rachel. I saw her throw one 4 feet into the ground. Jake jumped onto a warrior and rip out his throat.

Two more warriors jumped me and clawed my stomach. I grabbed both of them and introduced them to each other. The hard way. As in crushing each others skulls against each other.

I looked at my stomach and saw a 8 inch gash across it. And it hurt.

"AAAAARRRRR!!" I yelled

I was in pain, and I decided to it out on someone. By throwing the closest alien into the ship. But I "Accidentally" missed and put the imprint of a Maheek into the ramp coming out of the ship.

A little ways away I saw a gorilla punch a Maheek back 20 feet. And a wolf rip off a Maheek's arm. It wasn't a pretty sight.

Ax was cutting up Maheek left and right.

Another Maheek came up behind me but I saw it in the reflection of the ship metal. I turned around, pulled up my arm, and brought my knuckle spikes up into it's chin. The alien fell like a weight.

Another one came up in front of me. I jumped up right as it was slicing the air with it’s spikes. I decided to try the divebomber technique. Three seconds after it looked up I plunged down and turned around at the last second and brought my Andalite tail into it’s face. It seemed that it attracted a few more Maheek and they came over to attack. I picked up one and threw him into another. The last two came over again. One of them slashed at me but I grabbed his arm and introduced it to his face. While the other one attacked me from behind. I was slashed at the back at least five times before I could turn around and hit him in the jaw. Right after I did that I brought my spikes into the Maheek’s eyes.

I threw the Maheek warrior away fromm me and saw Rachel getting attacked by five different Maheek, so I went to help her out. As soon as I got there, there were only three left. I came over and was about to punch one into the nearest boulder when Anna grabbed me and was about to send my head flying.

Anna. Stop! I yelled

Oh, sorry about that. She said while putting me down.

As soon as she put me down I saw another one come up behind her. I grabbed it by the neck and threw it into the nearest tree.

There were only 12 Maheek warriors left. They looked at each other and then looked at us. I guess they decided they wanted to live. They ran into the ship and closed the ramp.

Everyone was tired. I was tired mostly because I was losing blood. So I thought I'd ask Anna how to change back to human form.

"Um, Anna. I'm wondering how you change back to human form. Because I'm losing blood and am starting to feel like I’m going to pass out." I said painfully.

Just then I fell to the ground face first. I started getting tired.

"Just do the same thing that everyone does when they morph to an animal. Picture your human form and you'll start to change." Anna answered.

I pictured my human form in my mind and I felt the changes begin. First the spikes came back into my knuckles. Then the horns on my head came back into my skin. Then I noticed something that I didn't before. My fangs slid back into my gums. As they came back in, A little drop of a thin liquid came off my eyeteeth. I then realized that I had venom sacks above my fangs. Then my tail shlooped back into my spine. Then my feet changed from T-rex feet to human feet. I was completely human, except for the fact that my skin was still scaly and blue.

"Hey. It's snakeman." Marco joked about me. But he seemed tired as everybody else.

Then last of all my skin changed. I was fully human.

"I better get home. Or I'm going to be in more trouble than I already am." I said as I was getting up off the ground.

"Yeah." Jake said.

They were all looking at me like I owed them an explanation.

"I'll explain what happened tomorrow. Not tonight. I’m too tired" I told them.

They all seemed to agree with that. So we all said our good bye's and went our separate ways.

About 10:30 I saw Anna hunting about 70 feet away. She was stalking a deer. I waited until she was done with her breakfast then I started walking again.

I guess that she saw me because she walked up to me.

What’s up? She asked.

"I’m looking for a cave that’s big enough to hold me in it. Along with a few other things." I said.

Then Ax came up and asked me what I was doing. I told him the same thing.

"This is taking too long to be searching from the ground." I said. "I’m going to fly, it’ll help more."

I started to change. I was sure not to change too much. I wanted to be able to fly faster.

The only part that I changed was I made my wings come out of my shoulder blades and my eyes change. My Maheek eyes were fairly good. They were almost as good as hawk eyes. Tobias told me about hawk eyes and how well they see.

"That looks cool. You look like a blue winged angel. But how did you just get the wings to come out and the eyes to change?" Anna asked.

<He is an estreen. An estreen is someone that is good at morphing. Like Cassie. Although this is a talent for shifting technology I guess.> Ax said.

I tried out my wings to see if they would carry me. Surely enough, they did. Quite well actually. I was fast because I weighed so little compared to my Maheek body. And I could see a small cave about two miles away. At least all I saw of it was a small portion.

"Now all you need is a halo and a white outfit." Anna joked.

I laughed.

Come on everybody, let’s go flying. I think I see a cave about two miles away. I said.

I was just above the cave and I saw the entrance to it. It was about 10 feet high and 15 feet wide.

Hey everybody, there it is. I’m going to go check it out. I said.

before I could do anything, Ax tucked his wings back and went into a steep dive. I thought it looked cool, so I thought why not try it. I tucked my wings back into my sides like Ax and did a flip in midair and went into a very steep, very fast dive. I opened my wings five feet before I would’ve hit the ground and swooped gracefully into the cave and landed.

Whoa! That looked cool and weird at the same time. A human flying into a cave like a hawk. Anna said.

I looked around and all I saw was a squirrel. I went in a little farther and it was dark with shadows and I couldn’t see very well. I wondered if someway I could make my eyes glow green like I did in the spaceship.

I searched my memory for something. I found how to do it and I tried.

My eyes lit up and I looked around. I saw Ax just coming out of his harrier morph. I started looking around the cave checking for where I could put my stuff.

It was a fairly large cave and went back about 30 feet. It was about 15 feet tall.

It would do.

Tobias was in the rafters, watching out for anybody that was coming near the barn. Marco was laying on a bale of hay. Cassie was giving meds and stuff to animals. Rachel was helping Cassie. Anna was in human form and was sitting on a empty cage. Jake hadn’t showed up yet. Neither had Ax.

Marco stood up. "So? Tell us what happened last night and why were you one of those creatures?" Marco said.

"You mean the Maheek? I’ll tell you when everyone’s here." I said.

Marco just laid back on his bale of hay .

<Jake’s coming down the street and I see Ax running through the meadow towards the barn.> Tobias announced. <They should be here in about three minutes.>

"Thanks Tobias" Cassie said.

Cassie removed and put a new bandage on a skunk while we were waiting for Jake and Ax.

Ax came into the barn in human morph. "Where is prince Jake? Ja. Ka. Jah-kah." Ax asked. Andalites don't have mouths. So in human form, Ax likes to play with sounds. Also they can’t taste with a mouth so just a word of advice. Don’t get in between Ax and a Cinabon.

"He's not here yet. But he better get here soon because Michael won't tell us what happened last night until everyone's here." Marco said.

We all just waited for the next two minutes for Jake to get there. When he got there Marco got right to the point.

"OK. Everyone's here so tell us what happened last night, before I leave." Marco said.

"Whoa. That's a lot to take into your head in one night." Marco said.

"I remember the same thing happening to me. Learning I was Navarazzi in one night wasn't an easy thing to hear." Anna said.

"Oh yeah. I remember Chalfanka telling me something about Maheek and Navarazzi living on the same planet and sharing technology." I said. "We also have our human mind and our Navarazzi or Maheek mind."

"That's strange. I didn't know about the Maheek until you told me. I especially didn't expect to know that we have the same voices in our heads." Anna said. "I'm going to try to shift to my will like you can."

"What? Is he like Cassie with the special morphing capability?" Jake asked.

"I want to see how you can shift." Cassie said. "I want to see how good you are at it."

"OK. But not here. In the woods or at my cave." I said.

They all seemed to agree with that. We decided to meet in two hours because Jake had chores, Marco was doing something with his dad, and Tobias was hungry.

I decided to get my cave started on it's way to being nice and cozy for the weekends.

I went to my house and since my mom wasn't home it was easier to get the stuff I needed. I grabbed a small refrigerator that I was going to have to explain to my mom where it went. Which I wasn't looking forward to. I pulled a air mattress out of under my bed which I kept for camping trips and stuff. I grabbed a stereo and put it all in a large suitcase I use on month long trips. I had to bring it all out to the cave but it was a long ways away. So I decided to shift to Maheek and fly there.

On the way there I saw a red-tailed hawk soaring the thermals.

Hey Tobias. Is that you? I called to the hawk.

<Yeah. What are you doing with the suitcase?> He asked.

I'm setting up my cave. I have a few things I need that I don't want to explain to my mom in particular.

<OK. Need any help? Because Anna's hunting just a mile away and I can morph to human or Hork-Bajir.>

No thanks. But could you tell me where were meeting in the woods? <Yeah. Just about a mile in back of Cassie's barn. It's the safest place we can think of.>

OK. Well I'll see you there.

I flew off to my cave and got my bag unpacked. I set up my mattress on a small bed-like rock near the back of the cave. And my refrigerator I set up in the back. I thought to myself that I would need a lot more stuff to hold things. Like a dresser.

Tobias came over as I was trying out my bed for comfort.

<It's about 15 minutes until we're supposed to meet. You almost ready?> Tobias asked.

"I'm ready. Let's go" I said.

As we walked out of the cave I thought to get some defense in case some animal tried to take it.

We flew off and got to the place about five minutes late. Everyone was waiting.

"OK. Let's see how well you shift." Cassie said.

I pictured the form I wanted to become in my mind. The changes started almost suddenly. The first changes to happen was my wings disappeared. Then my horns and spikes came back in. My scales went away. My face became normal. I was completely human except for the one fact I wanted to leave out of the change. I still had my Andalite tail. Luckily shifting didn't affect clothing.

"Whoa. You were right Anna. He is good." Rachel said.

I became fully human then started my new changes. I had the changes that happened the first time happen again. My eyes turned black with red pupils and I grew full Maheek wings.

"That's the same change you did earlier today" Anna said.

I tested my wings. "Yeah I like it."

I lifted off the ground and started flying.

Hey. Anybody want to join me? I called down.

In about three minutes everybody was in the air and we were all flying and having fun.

I was having fun and then I wanted to ask everybody a question.

I just have one question. When do we get to hurt some Yeerks? I asked.

Everybody started laughing. And after a while I started laughing too.

<What did I tell you. We now have a Hercules along with a Xena and a Gabrielle.> Marco joked.

Everyone laughed. And those few words meant one thing to me. I was part of the team.