Authors: K. A. Applegate
The Alien (14 page)
“Elfangor broke the law of
Seerow's Kindness
, though, right?” Marco pointed out.
. And I'll be the one who goes down in history as the new example of a fool.>
I saw Rachel make a small smile and shake her head. Marco rolled his eyes. He said, “Man, and I really was getting into disliking you, Ax.”
I was confused. I expected them to be furious. Instead they were each smiling.
Prince Jake nodded. “Yes, we understand, Ax. A long time ago someone tried to be nice and it was a disaster. This Seerow person tried to be a good guy. He hoped all the different people of the galaxy would get along. That we'd all go to the stars together.”
“Ax, you don't stop hoping just because it doesn't always work out,” Cassie said. “You get more careful. You get wiser, maybe. But you keep hoping.”
“Look, Ax,” Prince Jake said, “we don't want you to give us any Andalite technology. We don't want you to break your laws. We just want you to trust us. Tell us the truth. Be one of us.”
“You aren't alone, Ax,” Cassie said softly. “Maybe we aren't your people, but we are your friends.”
“Your boy Seerow wasn't wrong,” Marco said. “He just helped out the wrong species. We aren't the Yeerks. We're
Homo sapiens
, jack. Humans. Andalites want someone to cruise the stars with them? We're the ones. You bring the spaceships. We'll bring the Raisinets and cinnamon buns.”
“No,” Prince Jake said. “Because whatever we learn, you'll learn. We'll do it together. Human and Andalite. Andalite and human.”
“Freedom,” Prince Jake said.
“Freedom,” Rachel said, nodding her head.
“Freedom,” said Marco and Cassie together.
For a few minutes, I said nothing. I guess I felt a little overwhelmed. Then, I realized something that made me laugh.
“What?” Rachel asked.
“The Andalites on your home world may not like that idea,” Rachel said.
“Are you with us?” Prince Jake asked.
“Don't call me âPrince.'”
“All right,” Marco said, rubbing his hands together. “Now that's over with. And now that we are finally all leveling and telling the truth . . . I think we have one very big question for Ax. One huge question that will put our new friendship to the test. One gigantic question.”
Everyone nodded in agreement.
“How, how, HOW do you eat without a mouth?” Marco demanded.
I laughed.
“Morning ritual? What morning ritual?” Rachel asked.
“Yeah, tell us,” Cassie said.
I looked directly at Tobias as I said that. I met his fierce, intense hawk's gaze. I wanted him to understand that I would answer
his
question as well. The question I knew must be burning inside him.
But the question never came. And I heard in my mind an echo of Tobias's words.
Neither I, nor my
shorm
Tobias, is capable of smiling. But just the same, there are times when we look at each other, and understand each other, and smile.
Y
ou'll do it because if you don't, I'll find a way to tell Visser Three who set him up,> I told Eslin, the Yeerk traitor.
I was in the observatory. We were alone, just the two of us. Eslin glared hatefully at me.
“Andalite scum. You couldn't even kill the Visser. What's the matter? Did he scare you too badly?”
It took several minutes for the Z-Space trans-mission to be established. And it took a few moments more before I was connected to the great Lirem again.
I said.
It was kind of nice to see old Lirem's eyes go wide all of a sudden. See, he knew exactly who Alloran was.
What
he was.
Aximili?>
Lirem's eyes narrowed dangerously.
I laughed.
K. A. Applegate's ANIMORPHS series has sold millions of copies worldwide, and alerted the world to the presence of the Yeerks. She is also the author of the bestselling Remnants and Everworld series,
Home of the Brave
, and the Roscoe Riley Rules series.
Clay didn't think he was the right dragon for a Big Heroic Destiny.
Oh, he wanted to be. He wanted to be the great MudWing savior of the dragon world, glorious and brave. He wanted to do all the wonderful things expected of him. He wanted to look at the world, figure out what was broken, and fix it.
But he wasn't a natural-hatched hero. He had no legendary qualities at all. He liked sleeping more than studying, and he kept losing chickens in the caves during hunting practice because he was paying attention to his friends instead of watching for feathers.
He was all right at fighting. But “all right” wasn't going to stop the war and save the dragon tribes. He needed to be extraordinary. He was the biggest dragonet, so he was supposed to be the scary, tough one. The minders wanted him to be
terrifyingly dangerous
.
Clay felt about as dangerous as cauliflower.
“Fight!” his attacker howled, flinging him across the cavern. Clay crashed into the rock wall and scrambled up again, trying to spread his mud-colored wings for balance. Red Âtalons raked at his face and he ducked away. “Come on,” the red dragon snarled. “Stop holding back. Find the killer inside you and let it out.”
“I'm trying!” Clay said. “Maybe if we could stop and talk about it â”
She lunged for him again. “Feint to the left! Roll right! Use your fire!” Clay tried to duck under her wing to attack her from below, but of course he rolled the wrong way. One of her talons smashed him to the ground, and he yelped with pain.
“WHICH LEFT WAS THAT, USELESS?” Kestrel bellowed in his ear. “Are all MudWings this stupid? OR ARE YOU JUST DEAF?”
Well, if you keep that up, I will be soon,
Clay thought. The SkyWing lifted her claws and he wriggled free.
“I don't know about other MudWings,” he protested, licking his sore talons. “Obviously. But perhaps we could try fighting without all the
shouting
and see â” He stopped, hearing the familiar hiss that came before one of Kestrel's fire attacks.
He threw his wings over his head, tucked his long neck in, and rolled into the maze of stalagmites that studded one corner of the cave. Flames blasted the rocks around him, singeing the tip of his tail.
“Coward!” the older dragon bellowed. She smashed one of the rock columns into a shower of sharp black pebbles. Clay covered his eyes and almost immediately felt her stamp down hard on his tail.
“OW!” he yelled. “You said stomping tails was cheating!” He seized the closest stalagmite between his claws and scrabbled up on top of it. From his perch near the roof, he glared down at his guardian.
“I'm your teacher,” Kestrel snarled. “Nothing
I
do is cheating. Get down here and fight like a SkyWing.”
But I'm NOT a SkyWing
, Clay thought rebelliously.
I'm a MudWing! I don't like setting things on fire or flapping around in circles biting at dragon necks.
His teeth still ached from Kestrel's jewel-hard scales.
“Can't I fight one of the others?” he asked. “I'm much better at that.” The other dragonets were his own size (nearly), and they didn't cheat (well, most of the time). He actually
liked
fighting with them.
“Oh, yes? Which opponent would you prefer, the stunted SandWing or the lazy RainWing?” Kestrel said. “Because I'm sure you'll get to choose out on the battlefield.” Her tail glowed like embers as she lashed it back and forth.
“Glory's not lazy,” Clay said loyally. “She's just not built for fighting, that's all. Webs says there's not much to fight about in the rain forest because the RainWings have all the food they want. He says that's why they've stayed out of the war so far, because none of the rival queens want RainWings in their armies anyway. He says â”
“STOP YAMMERING AND GET DOWN HERE!” Kestrel roared. She reared up on her back legs and flared her wings so she suddenly looked three times bigger.
With a yelp of alarm, Clay tried to leap to the next staÂlagmite, but his wings unfurled too slowly and he smacked into the side of it instead. Sparks flew as his claws scraped down the jagged rock. He let out another yowl of pain as Kestrel snaked her head between the columns, seized his tail in her teeth, and yanked him out into the open.