The First Journey

by K. A. Applegate

  Your sister’s pet hamster. Go to chapter 5.

  Your weird next-door neighbor’s pet ferret. Go to chapter 6.

  It’s not that easy to catch a fly. You open the window of your bedroom and wait by the sill. After about twenty-five minutes of trying to snatch one out of midair and coming up empty, you get smart. You put out a bowl of sugar water and wait. As soon as a fly lands, you snag him.

  In your cupped hands, the fly buzzes furiously, but you concentrate. The fly settles into your palm. When you’re done acquiring the morph, you let it go.

  Marco didn’t say anything about the morph being scary. But it is.

  Suddenly, the ground rushes up at you. You’re shrinking right out of your clothes. At the same time, your bones begin to make this funny crunching noise. It sounds like you’re jumping on Styrofoam.

  A leg grows out of your stomach! Then another leg! You fall facefirst on the carpet. You try to break your fall with your arms, but they are already turning transparent and papery. You hear an odd humming noise, and you realize that it’s your wings, beating.

  You can’t see. Or rather, you can, but you see fractured images. You sense something gray and plump and interesting nearby. Thanks to the sticky pads on your feet, you walk right up a wall toward it.

  Spider! You want it. You want to eat it. Chomp down on that plump, juicy body, and —

  No! your mind screams. Focus. The spider probably has a web. And you don’t want to get caught. You have a mission.

  Your wings beat furiously, as if you aren’t even directing them. Zoom — you’re out the window, buzzing in a blur of green and blue. You head back toward the yard, where your sister’s party is in full swing.

  You land on the picnic table. The kids around you are a blur of colors. You pick up Mom’s voice. She’s talking to her best friend, Emily.

  “Lexie wanted a store-bought ice-cream cake this year,” she is saying. “I’m trying not to feel hurt. I guess she’s growing up.”

  Emily laughs. “Kids. Mine would take a box of macaroni and cheese mix over my pasta any day.”

  Good news! Mom wasn’t being weird. She was just doing what Lexie asked for. Maybe she’s not a Controller!

  Suddenly, a gust of wind sends your wings quivering. What —

  Crash! A fly swatter misses you by inches! Mom is trying to swat you! You buzz up angrily, and she swats the air.

  “Darn flies!” she says.

  Cake! The sugary smell overwhelms you, and you can’t resist. You just want to land for a moment, taste a bit …

  But Mom swats at you again, and the gust throws you off balance. One wing dips into the frosting. You flutter it furiously, trying to get the goop off. It’s making you slow and heavy, and Mom is coming with the fly swatter!

  You zoom upward to escape the swatter. You buzz over the heads of the children, toward the cool shade of the tree, and —

  Zap! You hit a bug zapper. You’re fried!

  Bad morph! Go back to the end of chapter 3 and try again!

  Your hamster heart beats furiously. You’re scared. You’re scared of everything. Everything is bigger Everything wants to eat you. You hide behind what, as a human, you’d consider a large hedge. But it’s only a leaf of a geranium.

  Morphing Hamlet, Lexie’s hamster, was a weird experience. It was like being put through a meat grinder, minus the pain. Not that you’ve ever been put through a meat grinder. But try hearing your bones crunch. It’s not the most pleasant experience.

  But you do like the fur. You groom yourself, liking the glossy feel. But you have work to do. You creep closer to hear what Mom is saying to her friend Emily.

  “I guess I should take a slice of cake to my neighbor,” Mom says with a sigh. “If I don’t, she’ll come over and complain about the noise.”

  Just then, you smell danger. Your heart beats even faster, and you burrow into the dirt to hide. The ground shakes.

  “Excuse me! This noise! Very loud!” your neighbor, Ms. Humphries, calls. A ferret is draped over her neck. The neighborhood kids call her the Ferret Lady.

  Actually, you like ferrets. But as a hamster, you’re terrified.

  “Let me get you a piece of cake, Alice,” your mom says. “It’s Lexie’s birthday.”

  “I can see that,” Ms. Humphries sniffs. But she stays for the cake. “Hmmm. Store bought.”

  “Lexie wanted ice-cream cake,” Mom says.

  “Well, it looks delicious,” Ms. Humphries says, suddenly sounding nice. “Quite a treat. Speaking of treats, perhaps you and your friend would like to come to a meeting tonight. Just neighbors and friends. Good food. Lots of fun.”

  A meeting! Could it be The Sharing? You take a few cautious steps out from your burrow.

  “It sounds lovely,” Mom says, surprised. The Ferret Lady has never issued an invitation before. All she does is complain about noise. “But we’re going to a book group tonight.”

  “My meeting sounds much more fun,” Ms. Humphries says. You creep forward another few inches, straining to hear. You should have picked an animal with better hearing!

  “It’s called —” Ms. Humphries begins.

  But before she can finish, dirt flies and a paw suddenly swipes out. How could you have forgotten that when you see Ms. Humphries, her cat Gingerbread is never far behind?

  Swipe, claw, chomp! You’re dessert.

  Bad choice. Why do you think hamsters stay in cages? Try again.

  You’ve always liked ferrets. And it’s pretty cool being one. You can’t see very well, but your hearing is quite excellent. And you feel so … happy. Playful as a kitten, but friendly, like a dog.

  You leap up on an ottoman, twinkle across the back of a sofa. Being a ferret is fun!

  It wasn’t hard to get the morph. You waited until Ms. Humphries went next door to complain. She left the back door open, and it was easy to slip inside and pick up one of the sleek, furry creatures. It happily curled up next to your chest while you acquired its DNA.

  You shrank rapidly, your body turning sleek and supple. You grew fur and whiskers and tiny claws. As soon as you morphed, you wanted to play with the three other pet ferrets. They were confused to see you, but they came over to sniff you, then chased you around the room.

  The back door slams. Ms. Humphries stumps back in, a ferret draped across her chest. She looks at the ice-cream cake in her hand and shrugs. She dumps it into the kitchen trash can.

  “Empty calories,” she mutters. “Not necessary.”

  Is that a Controller thing to say? Or is the Ferret Lady even weirder than you thought? Everybody likes ice-cream cake!

  You curl up under the sofa so that she won’t notice she has one extra ferret. But she doesn’t pay attention to her pets, anyway. Another ferret brushes against her legs. She doesn’t pick it up, doesn’t coo at it, doesn’t stroke it.

  Weird? Or standard operating procedure?

  The phone rings. Ms. Humphries snatches it up.

  “Yes.”

  A pause. “Yes. I’ll be there. No, I won’t attract attention,” she says, sounding irritable. “No more than usual. This host is apparently an eccentric.”

  This host. She’s a Controller!

  You shrink back under the sofa. You hear a creak above you as she sits. You see her feet in thick-soled loafers. She doesn’t move.

  And doesn’t move.

  What time is it? How long have you been in the morph? You only have two hours! You watch as a shadow moves slowly across the floor. How can you get out of the house without her noticing you?

  The shadow touches the toe of her shoe, and she gets up.

  “Time,” she mutters. She stumps around the room, and you creep forward to watch. She slips into her coat, picks up a nearby canvas tote bag.

  She starts for the door and opens it. You can sneak out! You dart forward, but she suddenly spins around.

  “Ferret Lady,” she murmurs. “Travels with a pet all the time.”

  And before you can move or react,
she reaches down and sweeps you up in one hand. She pops you into the tote bag! She zips it partly shut.

  You can stick your nose out, but that’s all. You’re trapped, and the clock is ticking!

  Ms. Humphries tosses the tote bag in the front seat of the car. You hit your head on the door handle. The car jerks forward. You try to work the zipper with your paws. No go.

  How long do you have left? You can just barely see the car clock. Twenty minutes. Too close for comfort.

  The car stops. Ms. Humphries slings you over her shoulder. You poke your nose out. You’re in the beach parking lot. She’s going to The Sharing meeting! At least the rest of the Animorphs will be there.

  Ms. Humphries plops the bag down on the sand. She trudges off to speak to a knot of people by the volleyball net.

  Ten minutes left. You wiggle your nose through the opening, thrashing your head to widen the gap. The zipper gives a bit. Not much. Not enough.

  You hear Cassie’s voice nearby. And then you remember that you can use thought-speak!

 

  “What?” you hear Cassie say.

  “I didn’t say anything,” someone replies. You realize that Cassie can’t thought-speak back. And she can’t talk out loud, or it will look suspicious.

 

  You hear the scrunch of the sand. You see bare brown toes. Cassie’s concerned face suddenly looms in your vision.

  “Is that you?” she whispers.

 

  Cassie unzips the tote and casually tucks you under her arm. She strolls up toward the dunes.

  “Almost there,” she murmurs.

  She climbs over the dunes and sets you down. She looks around. “Okay. Hurry!”

  You don’t need her to tell you. You concentrate, and you feel your legs getting longer. The fur on your skin grows patchy. Your ears grow rounder. Your tail shrinks.

  Cassie wrinkles her nose. “Ewww. That’s the worst morph I’ve seen so far.”

  “Sorry to disappoint you,” you say, glad to feel that you have a mouth. “I haven’t had much practice.”

  Rachel appears over the dune. “Hurry up, guys,” she says in a low tone. “Jake is going to morph into his dog, Homer.”

  “Dogs and cats and ferrets,” you say, suddenly feeling hopeless. “What a bunch of feeb morphs. How are we going to fight Visser Three with those?”

  Something fierce flashes in Rachel’s eyes. You glimpse something you’ve never before seen in pretty, popular Rachel. The girl is a warrior.

  “You’ve got a point,” Rachel says.

  Things happen way fast after the meeting at the beach. Too fast. Jake morphs into a lizard and spies on Mr. Chapman, the assistant principal. He finds out that one of the entrances to the Yeerk pool is in your very own school. Every Yeerk has to visit the pool every three days in order to soak up Kandrona rays.

  When Jake fills you in, you can’t believe it. The whole thing sounds nuts to you. But since your life has suddenly turned crazy, every word rings true.

  Rachel has taken your complaint about feeb morphs and run with it. The plan is to collect wild creature morphs at The Gardens. Since Cassie’s mother works there, you can get behind the scenes and try to acquire some truly fierce DNA.

  That is, if you don’t get caught.

  * * *

  You meet up with all the others at The Gardens.

  “Okay,” Cassie says, after you get your admission tickets. “Just stay close.”

  You follow her into the main building. It’s been fashioned into a rain forest, with animals in their natural habitats.

  Cassie leads you through an unmarked door. You stop, confused. Suddenly, you’re in Industrial City. Gray walls, concrete floor. After the sights and sounds of the rain forest, the contrast makes you dizzy.

  Cassie points to the doorways. “These lead to the exhibits,” she explains.

  You nod, but you can’t quite imagine opening one and popping in to say hello to a tiger or a grizzly bear.

  “How do you guys feel about gorillas?” Cassie asks.

  You think she’s kidding. But she hands Marco an apple, and before you know it, he’s actually touched this huge gorilla called Big Jim. He acquires his DNA.

  This gives you all courage somehow. One of you came close to a wild creature and survived.

  “I say we head for the big exhibits,” Marco says. “We need firepower.”

  You start to head toward the big creatures. But you hear a whirring sound. A golf cart is headed your way. A security guard!

  “Split up!” Cassie hisses. She takes off with Tobias and Rachel. Jake and Marco are already running.

  You spin around and run back the way you came. You hear the golf cart behind you, and you fake left and go right. The corridors are a maze, but this helps you. Before too long, you’ve lost the guard.

  Now what? You wish Cassie were here to tell you what is behind the doors. You open one cautiously.

  At first, all you see are treetops. The door opens out onto a little ledge, concealed by leaves. It is high above the habitat of the animal, whatever that animal is. You peer down. Something moves at your level and you jump back in alarm.

  A giraffe is almost eye-level with you. It turns velvety brown eyes at you and blinks long eyelashes.

  “Hey there,” you say softly. You shake the tree branch a little. Somewhere you’ve read that giraffes feed on treetops. You don’t think they attack humans — you hope.

  The giraffe takes a delicate step toward you. It passes by you, so close you can smell the dusky fur. You put out a tentative hand and touch its flank.

  The giraffe stops moving. So this is it, this is the trance. So strange that you can put such a large, strong creature to sleep. You close your eyes and concentrate.

  When you’re done, you pat the giraffe gently. “Thanks,” you say.

  You slip back inside the corridor. That encounter went so well that it gives you confidence. You continue down a sloping ramp. When you come to the next door, you open it and slip inside.

  You’re in a savannah. Dry trees, sand. Hot, but a dry heat. You don’t see the animal at first. You hear it.

  ERRRR-UP! EURRR-UP! RRR-UP!

  The cry raises the hair on the back of your neck. It is close to human. The animal is wavering on long front legs. The fur is sandy-colored and coarse. You don’t think you’ve ever seen an uglier animal.

  “She should be down by now,” a voice says. Quickly, you crouch down behind some food bins as the door opens.

  Two white-jacketed workers come in. “Takes a few minutes,” the other one says. “We better wait until she’s completely out.”

  “Are you kidding? I wouldn’t go near a hyena otherwise,” the other man says. He peers into the enclosure. “She’s down.”

  “Okay, let’s go. The vet’s waiting. Oh, darn. I left the stretcher by the elevator.”

  “Well, I’m not staying here alone.”

  The two workers exit. You creep toward the sleeping hyena. Just as you approach, it opens one eye. The look is deadly, like a shark’s. As if your only worth is for food.

  It’s too late to run back now. Instead, you gather your courage and brush your hand along the creature’s side.

  The eye closes. Your touch, combined with the tranquilizers, has made the hyena pass out. You concentrate. As soon as you’re done, you run away. Fast.

  When you close the door behind you, the white-jacketed workers are heading toward you with a stretcher.

  “Hey!” one of them calls.

  “Stop!” the other one says. They toss aside the stretcher.

  They start to run toward you. You could wait and think of a story. But it seems easier just to run.

  You sprint around a corner — straight into a security guard.

  “Whoa,” he says. Two strong hands grip y
our arms. “Where are you going?”

  The workers come up behind you. They’re both out of breath. “Tried to break into the hyena habitat,” one of them says, gasping.

  The grip tightens. “So what’s your name, kid?”

  You think about telling the truth. Well, not the whole truth. But at least saying that you know Cassie’s mom. The only trouble is, that might get Cassie in trouble. And it could bring too much attention to the others. So you say nothing.

  He frowns. “We got reports of vandals in the park. Come along with me.”

  He marches you down the corridor into a small waiting room. There are two policemen there.

  Great. Just what you need.

  “I know you were called about a disturbance by the snack bar,” the security guard says. “But No Name here was caught sneaking into the animal habitats.”

  The taller policeman sighs. Obviously, he doesn’t want the burden of some kid. “Let’s move,” he says.

  They keep you between them as they march you outside to a loading area behind the snack bar. A police van is parked there. On the side of the van are the words k-9 UNIT.

  “Strange thing, for a kid to be sneaking into animal cages,” one of the policemen says.

  “They aren’t cages,” the other one says. “They’re habitats.”

  “Whatever. Sit here.” The taller policeman puts a hand on your shoulder and shoves you down on a bench. “And don’t think about moving. Princie and Gale won’t take it too kindly.”

  Two German shepherds bound out of the police van and sit in front of you. One of the dogs bares its teeth.

  “Stay,” the policemen says, and moves off to go talk on the van radio.

  You’ve got to get away. In just a few hours, you’re supposed to meet the others at school to invade the Yeerk pool. Your only choice is a morph. But what’s the best way to get away from the cops?

  You have to make a choice fast, while their backs are turned. You choose:

  A hyena. Go to chapter 9.

  A K-9 police dog. Go to chapter 10.

  A giraffe. Go to chapter 11.