The Change

by K. A. Applegate

  Wolves are very smart animals. They didn't know what the Hork-Bajir were. But they knew for sure they didn't want to mess with them.

  Deer scampered away from us. Owls dismissed us. We were obviously not mice, and that's all the owls cared about. Foxes slunk away. Raccoons froze. Only the forest's most fearless creature ignored us and went on about its business.

  In fact, I had to stop Ket Halpak from stepping on one.

  «Stop! Stop! Nobody move!» I yelled, having seen the warning stripes of this most fearsome animal.

  "Yeerks?" Jara Hamee responded.

  "Taxxons?" Ket Halpak asked fearfully.

  «No. Worse. A skunk. Just let it go on its way. Nobody move a muscle till it's gone.»

  "Hah! Small animal! Not kill Jara Hamee!"

  «No, it won't kill you. It'll just make you wish you were dead.»

  I didn't know how much ground we had covered by the time we finally took a rest. I can't judge distances on the ground very well anymore. All I knew was that the sky was a shade lighter than absolute black. And the Hork-Bajir had

  93 started to stumble a lot. They were beat. And I was starving.

  «Do you need something to eat?» I asked the two Hork-Bajir.

  "We eat," Jara Hamee agreed. Without any delay, he walked over to a tree. A pine of some sort. He drew back and slashed at the tree trunk with his elbow blade.

  SCCCRRAAACK!

  He sliced it straight up, opening about a three-foot gash in the bark. With his wrist blade, he began to slice the bark away in chunks ranging from a few inches long to almost a foot square.

  He tossed slabs of the stripped bark to his mate and took some for himself.

  «That's what you eat?»

  "Yes."

  «ls that how you eat back on your own world?»

  He chewed the bark and seemed to be looking far off. "When Jara Hamee small, Jara Hamee eat from the Kanver. Eat from the Lewhak. Eat from the tali Fit Fit."

  «Are those all trees? I mean, are they like these trees?»

  "Better," Ket Halpak said.

  "Better," Jara Hamee agreed.

  I got the feeling Jara thought he might have

  94 insulted me by dissing Earth trees. "Earth tree good," he added.

  "Earth tree good," Ket Halpak agreed.

  It made me smile inside. There were times when my life was just so utterly insane I could only laugh. A pair of goblins from some far-distant planet were worried they'd hurt my feelings because they didn't like pine bark.

  Then, like a light going off in my head, I realized something. «Jara, Ket? Is that why Hork-Bajir have blades? To strip the bark from trees?»

  Ket Halpak stood up. I was sitting on a rotting log, so she towered above me like a skyscraper. She pointed to her elbow blade. "For straight cut." Indicating her wrist blade, she said, "For taking off."

  Sticking out her knee, she explained, "For down by ground."

  «For the bottom of trees,» I said. «Each of the blades has a special use. Each one is for harvesting tree bark.»

  "Yes."

  She sat back down and took another chunk of bark.

  «They aren't weapons? You don't use them to defend yourselves from enemies? To kill prey?»

  Jara Hamee looked right at me. "Hork-Bajir have no enemy. No prey. Hork-Bajir not kill.

  95 Yeerk kill. Yeerk kill Andaiite. Andalite kill Yeerk. Hork-Bajirdie."

  «You're caught in the middle. But that's why the Yeerks took over your race - the blades. They made you deadly, once the Yeerk evil was in your head. You're the ultimate soldiers. All because you're adapted to eating tree bark.»

  The Hork-Bajir had nothing else to say. They went back to eating.

  «Look, I have to go for a while. I ... um, I have to go get food, too.»

  Ket Halpak held out a chunk of bark. "Our food yours."

  «Thanks. But I need a different food.»

  I didn't tell them what I ate or how I got it.

  You know, it's strange. I never feel guilty about being a predator when I'm with humans. After all, good old Homo sapiens is the king of all predators.

  But these deadly looking Hork-Bajir were not predators at all. Despite their looks, they were no more dangerous than a deer with a large rack of antlers.

  They were just victims. Just a species that had the bad luck to look fearsome. And now they were caught up in a war between Yeerks and the rest of the free species of the galaxy.

  I thought of all the battles we'd had with

  96 Hork-Bajir. They had come close to killing me more than once. I had hated and feared them. Now I just felt sorry for them.

  And I felt sorrier still, because I knew that my friends and I would fight against Hork-Bajir again in the future.

  «l'll be back in half an hour or so,» I said as I took wing. «Don't worry. I won't leave you.»

  97 s I flew up through the trees, I saw the sun just peeking up over the rim of the earth in the east. It instantly lit the treetops with gold. It was a beautiful sight. Golden leaves and dark shadows beneath, and clouds all red on one side and still night-gray on the other.

  It felt good to be up off the ground. It felt good to have air beneath my wings and a cold clean breeze in my face. I'd spent the night clinging to a Hork-Bajir's horns and slogging through the brush. That was no place for a bird. Or even for a human in bird shape.

  The air was still flat, no thermals, no up-drafts, so I had to work hard. But it felt good,

  98 flapping my wings and stretching my cramped muscles.

  I would miss this when I became human again. Would the Ellimist give me back my human body and let me keep the morphing power? I hoped so. I'd hate to think I would never fly again.

  Below me I spotted an opening. Not even a meadow, really, just a small clearing with tall grass and fallen logs and the telltale burrow openings of rats and voles and other tasty morsels.

  But I had to be careful. This clearing probably belonged to someone. Another hawk, possibly. Not to mention other species.

  I had to get in and out fast. Get in, make my kill, and bail.

  I swept the ground with my laser-sharp eyes, looking for the tiny movements that would betray a mouse or a rat. Sometimes, when the light is just right and the hunger is sharp, it's almost like I can see right through the ground. Like I can see the mice in their warm burrows.

  Maybe that's why I didn't see the danger. Maybe it was because I was totally focused on eating.

  I did spot a rat, though. A nice, plump thing, waddling along toward his own breakfast. I dived from up high.

  99 Then I hit a sudden air pocket! It threw me off-balance and I nearly splattered myself into the dirt. I yanked back just in time and lost my rat.

  «0h, man!» I complained. «Whatever happened to the good old days, when breakfast was a nice easy bowl of Wheaties?»

  Well, it would be that way again soon. As soon as the Ellimist kept his promise to me. A warm bed at night and a nice, easy breakfast in the morning.

  Not that that's how it had been when I was human. I hadn't exactly been in a nice, normal family. See, both my folks left a long time ago. After that I just got passed around from one aunt or uncle to another.

  When I was stuck in morph and disappeared from the human world, I don't even know if any of them looked for me.

  I shoved those thoughts aside. I flapped my wings, ready for takeoff. But I just cleared the tops of the tall grasses when -

  WHAM!

  I was hit! It was like someone had thrown a brick at me. I was down, fluttering in the grass, beating my wings in terror.

  What hit me? What the ... what the heck was happening?

  And only then did I see it poking through the

  100 grass - an intelligent, curious face, tawny fur, four big paws, and a body that might have been three feet long from its nose to the end of the weirdly curved, short tail that gave the beast its name.

  Bobcat!

  The wind had been knocked out of me, and I pr
actically fell apart when I saw the big cat.

  It circled around me, watching me curiously. Wondering if I would fight back. Calm brown and gold eyes surveyed me as I would survey a wounded rat.

  The hawk in me wanted to flap its wings and try to scare the cat away. But the human in me knew I'd have only one chance. I was fast, but the bobcat was like lightning. And it was powerful. It had hit me with one big paw and knocked me silly. A blow that was so graceful it had almost seemed to be slow motion. And yet it was so fast I hadn't had a chance to even think about dodging.

  How had I been so careless? How could I have missed a bobcat in the bushes? Now I was going to die because of my carelessness.

  I stood on my talons, awkward and helpless on the ground. But as I stood my ground, I closed one talon around a stick. It was a bare twig really, no more than two feet long.

  I stared hard at the bobcat. It could already

  101 taste hawk meat. If I moved, it would lunge. If I didn't move, it would still lunge.

  One chance . . . one small, desperate chance. I had to hit its eyes before it could sink its teeth into me.

  The hawk in my head screamed Fly! Fly! Fly!

  But the human in me said no. The hawk couldn't win this fight. Only the human could. I clutched the stick tightly.

  Lunge! The bobcat flew at me.

  I jerked back, bringing the stick up off the ground.

  "Yowwwrrr!" the bobcat howled as the sharp stick poked his left eye.

  «0kay, now we can fly!» I flapped and I motored my little taloned feet along the ground and I hauled like I've never hauled before.

  But the cat was after me. One step. Two steps, and it had caught up with me! Then it stopped. It turned. I saw it stare. I saw its back fur rise in alarm.

  Over the bobcat loomed a shape as big around as a redwood tree. Three rows of tiny, weak claws snapped and clawed at the air. The gigantic centipede head drew back, and I could see two of the red-jelly eye clusters.

  Taxxon!

  Down came the round red mouth!

  Down on the bobcat! And the Taxxon swal-

  102 lowed the cat in a single bite before the shocked animal could figure out what to do.

  I was already flapping my way clear of the ground. Thorns and twigs and raspy grass ripped at me, pulling out feathers, but I didn't care about a few feathers right then.

  I found a breeze and I thanked Mother Nature for giving me wings. I shot up and up and up till I was at treetop level. Only then did I even look back.

  They were crawling across the clearing and through the trees. A dozen of them. Taxxons! Out in daylight. Out where some unlucky hiker could see them.

  It was insane! Totally insane!

  Behind the Taxxon trackers marched a virtual army of Hork-Bajir warriors. And with the Hork-Bajir were dozens of human-Controllers, all armed to the teeth.

  It hit me then with full force. The Yeerks didn't care about being careful. The Yeerks were going to capture the two fugitive Hork-Bajir. No matter the cost. No matter who died.

  It was pure Yeerk ruthlessness unleashed.

  This was an army. An entire army against me and two decent, simple, and not-very-bright Hork-Bajir.

  And I still hadn't had breakfast.

  103 X was shaking pretty badly by the time I got back up into the blue. And then the first thing I saw was a peregrine falcon riding high.

  Peregrines won't usually mess with hawks, but I wasn't exactly feeling cocky right at that moment. I didn't need any more trouble. I just wanted to get back to my two Hork-Bajir and get us all out of there.

  «Tobias? Is that you down there, by any chance?»

  I breathed a huge sigh of relief. It was Jake.

  «0h, man, am I glad to hear your voice, Jake,» I said. «The woods are full of Taxxons and Hork-Bajir and human-Controllers and anything else the Yeerks can throw at us.»

  104 Not to mention hungry bobcats, I added silently.

  «Yeah, we noticed,» Jake said. «They almost marched right into a couple of guys out fishing in one of the streams. We managed to scare the fishermen off, or they'd be Taxxon meat now.»

  «We? The others are with you?» I searched the sky. Yes. A bald eagle. An osprey. «l see Rachel and either Cassie or Marco,» I said.

  «Ax is on the ground. Marco is around somewhere. Oh, there! Above you!»

  I looked up just in time to see an osprey come ripping down through a wisp of low clouds in a stoop.

  «Yee-hah! Tobias!» Marco yelled giddily. «Gotcha!»

  «This is so not the time to be messing with me!» I yelled. «l was about one feather away from being kitty food. And I'm hungry and I'm tired and I'm mad.»

  «Chill, Tobias,» Jake said kindly. «You can relax. We're all here to help you now.»

  I heard Cassie's thought-speak voice coming from fairly far away. «Tobias, we've been thinking. You know how you seem to keep ending up in just the right place at just the right time?»

  «0r just the wrong place, depending on how you look at it,» I muttered.

  «We're thinking maybe there is some

  105 other. . . power. Some force. Some person interfering with you. Kind of manipulating you.»

  If it had been anyone but Cassie, I would have probably said something sarcastic. Like «No, duh.» But it's impossible to be sarcastic to Cassie. «Yeah, it definitely is someone messing with me,» I said. «An old friend of ours.»

  «Who?»

  «it seems the Ellimist is trying to save the Hork-Bajir. Not that he'll admit that»

  «Hmm. Ax was right,» Cassie said. «He guessed it was the Ellimist.»

  Rachel was close enough now to communicate. «Yeah, and you know how Ax feels about that guy. Or creature. Or whatever the Ellimist is. Ax says to watch your butt. The Ellimist plays games with people.»

  I thought of the Ellimist's promise to me. To give me what I most wanted. But when I recalled the conversation, I couldn't exactly remember an actual promise.

  I felt a chill in my bones. Had the Ellimist really promised to make me human again?

  «Are you okay, Tobias?» Rachel asked. I could tell from her tone that it was a private message. Only I could hear it.

  «Yeah. I guess so,» I said. «The Ellimist says he'll . . . he'll . . . you know. Make me human again.»

  106 Somehow putting it in actual words didn't sound right. And yet that was what I wanted. To be human again. To live like the others. To eat cold cereal and fried eggs for breakfast instead of hunting and killing. To walk. To spend my nights inside, in a bed. To sit down and watch TV. Or just to sit at all.

  «Tobias, that would be so great!» Rachel said.

  «Yeah. But like Ax said, the Ellimist plays games. And we still have to save the Hork-Bajir without getting wiped out ourselves.»

  In a thought-speak voice Jake and Cassie and Marco could hear, too, I said, «Follow me, guys. I'll take you to our two alien friends.»

  I turned at an angle to the breeze. It was coming up just behind my right wing. It can be hard flying that way if the wind is too strong. You have to keep correcting your direction because the wind will kind of sneak up and push you off-course.

  We flew hard and soon left the Yeerk army behind. I spotted the two Hork-Bajir through the trees. They looked like they were talking. Looking closer, I realized they were holding hands.

  I felt embarrassed, just dropping out of the sky on them. «Hey, you two,» I said. «l'm coming in. Some friends are with me.»

  We landed in the trees. And now we were fac-

  107 ing a serious decision. A life-and-death decision. The others were all close to the two-hour time limit. They needed to demorph.

  But so far we had not revealed our true species to the Hork-Bajir. If they were ever recaptured by the Yeerks, the Yeerks would have access to everything in their heads. Every memory.

  «Jake?» I asked. «What are you guys going to do?»

  «lt's a big gamble, letting these two know what we are,» he answered.
<
br />   «l don't mean to get all CIA about this,» Marco said. «But if they know we're human, they can't ever be captured by the Yeerks. I mean -»

  «l know what you mean,» I interrupted.

  «Probably better to be dead than a Controller, anyway,» Marco said.

  «Easy for you to say,» Rachel said.

  «Let me talk to them. Jara and Ket are my friends,» I said.

  «Hork-Bajir?» Marco crowed. «These two walking Cuisinarts, these two seven-foot-tall lawn mowers, these living razor blades are your friends?»

  I ignored Marco. I looked at Jara Hamee. «Jara Hamee. I need to know something. If the Yeerks capture you -»

  He didn't even let me finish. He flung out a bladed arm, slashing the air. Then, more care-

  108 fully, he pointed at his own head. Right at the scar from the cut he'd made. "No more Yeerk here. Free! Or no Jara Hamee. No Ket Halpak. Only free!"

  "Free or dead," Ket Halpak said harshly.

  «l see why you like them, Tobias,» Rachel said. She fluttered down from the tree. She began to demorph.

  I heard Jake sigh. «Well, I guess we take a chance.»

  Within a few minutes everyone was human again. Except me, of course.

  I guess we surprised the Hork-Bajir. I don't know what they expected us to be, but it wasn't human. The two big aliens just stood and stared. And then, when they realized what Jake and Rachel and Cassie and Marco actually were, they laughed.

  "KeeeRAW! KeeeRAW!"

  At least, I think it was laughter. Who knows how a Hork-Bajir laughs?

  "Human folk!" Ket Halpak said, sounding amazed and possibly gleeful.

  Jara Hamee looked at me. "You human folk?"

  «l used to be,» I said. «l, um, well . . . well, I'm not exactly the same as I used to be. I've changed.»

  "Jara Hamee change, too. Not free. Now free."

  109 That's when Ax came barreling through the woods and leaped right into the middle of our little group. He was carrying a bag. In the bag were shoes for the others. See, when you morph you can morph tight clothing, but shoes just can't be done.

  Ax set the bag down and stared in the way that only an Andalite can stare - in all directions at once.

  «This is very dangerous, letting them see what you are,» Ax said heatedly. «These Hork-Bajir can never be recaptured. They can never be taken alive now!»