Cassie is in the mall probably because she's searching for Rachel. And while her best friend may love the mall, Cassie doesn't. I am laughing over this line:
The mall. Yuck.
Which is just...a perfect way to quickly summarize Cassie's feelings on the mall.
Cassie isn't bothered just by the fact that she's at the mall, but she is bothered by the reasoning behind why Jake gave her this assignment. She agrees that she would know where to look for Rachel better than the others, but she wonders if Jake's reasons are sexist. For those about to get their panties in a bunch, the word 'sexist' is used in the book itself.
She remarks that the more deadly assignment isn't something Jake would tell Rachel not to and Cassie doesn't want special treatment because she is a girl. Then she feels bad because she's happy about not having to go in the woods.
I like that she isn't all 'I am woman, hear me roar and I'm not afraid of anything'. She fully admits that she's human and that she has weaknesses.
Cassie blames telling Jake about the dream for the reason she got an easier assignment. She ends with agreeing that she would know where Rachel would go better than the others.
Cassie had tried other places and had left the mall for the last place to check.
I am not a shopper. To me, shopping is something you do when you have to. For Rachel, it is an art form. If she wasn't at home, she should be here.
She thinks she sees Rachel and the person turns not to be her best friend. Then she sees someone she does recognize...Chapman!
Cassie wants to follow him but knows that morphing in a crowded mall isn't exactly the smartest thing to do. Interesting that part of her wants to follow Chapman just to prove to herself that she's brave. She ends up making the decision to follow him before she consciously makes the decision.
She decides on housefly morph and hopes that he stays in the bookstore long enough for her to morph and come back.
Cassie goes to morph in the employee bathroom and restates about needing to concentrate to morph. Not in those exact terms, but she remarks that it's harder for her to morph now as she's nervous. Her heart's pounding.
I love this line:
I felt giddy. I wasn't afraid. Not too afraid, anyway. Even Rachel would have been impressed.
'Even Rachel would have been impressed' should be what everyone aspires to.
After Cassie finishes her fly morph she heads out for Chapman.
Chapter 18
Ax begins the chapter still being carried by the dust beast. The view he's able to glimpse through the dust beast surprised him. He's still in the Earth's atmosphere, though he's really high up at the moment. Seeing the Blade ship doesn't surprise Ax as he had already guessed who controlled the dust beast.
The Blade ship had dropped its cloak and I wonder if it's because cloaking wouldn't allow the dust beast in or if it's purely to spook Ax.
The dust beast drops Ax and he finds himself on the Blade ship surrounded by Hork-Bajir warriors. He recounts how the species had once been peaceful but now they are all enslaved by the Yeerks.
And of course Visser Three has to make an introduction by gloating. Ax had guessed that he was the one in control of the dust beast so the Visser's appearance doesn't surprise him.
The sight of him filled me with loathing. My brother's killer! The creature I knew I had to destroy. If I didn't, I would never have the honor of being a true warrior.
This brings up some points. There is the usual 'Visser Three is an asshole' and 'he killed my brother'. But there is some Andalite lore revealed. It seems that Ax is honor bond to kill the Visser. This can be guessed at by the 'true warrior' part.
Ax would've attacked the Visser before but he had been with the Animorphs so he didn't want to risk them. Now he can't hide behind that reasoning. Ax, you shouldn't feel ashamed about being scared at this moment. It's Visser Three for fuck's sake!
For those of you who want to learn fictional alien languages: veleek is pet in the Yeerk language.
Again people online have been wondering how long the Yeerks speculated the Animorphs were humans: previously we had some dialogue between Controllers of the downsides of telling Visser Three that the bandits might be humans and now we have confirmation that some Controllers have told the Visser that the bandits were most likely humans.
Visser Three dismisses the rumors by stating that Ax is an Andalite. Not like humans and Andalites could team up. Nope? Only me. Okay.
Ax does the only thing he can at this point.
[Yeerk filth!] I cried suddenly. [My uncles will destroy you!]
After that threat Visser gloats while admitting that the Animorphs have caused some damage. As he's ranting, Ax thinks that Elfangor would've been brave enough to fight the Visser right then and there.
I am really loathing Andalite's view on courage and honor right about now. Ax is under this grand delusion that his older brother would attack the Visser right now instead of realizing that Elfangor would play it smart. He would want to come out alive, not die for some stupid honor.
Visser Three, in response to Ax, says that the Veleek isn't a Controller and that there aren't any sexual organs in the creature. The creature senses life-form energies of any kind and each dust particle will come together when it does.
It took a little while but the Visser figured out how to program it to make it pick up morphing energy. The Visser compliments Ax for figuring it out as he is an Andalite. No, dumbass, anyone who has gotten this far in the book could've figured it out by your statements.
Ax disses the Visser by saying only a Yeerk would be cruel enough to do what the Visser had done to the Veleek.
Visser makes another jab at the Andalite species before asking Ax how many others are in his group. Does the Controller not remember being attacked or does he think that the Animorphs rotate who goes out in battle each time?
Ax is brave and refuses to tell the Visser anything. But Visser Three remarks that the Veleek will never tire and eventually he'll have all the bandits.
As Ax is led away to a cell he is ashamed that he didn't try to strike out at his brother's killer. I now want to slap some sense into him.
Chapter 19
Cassie starts off this chapter having fun in fly morph. I love how the fly morph is gross to do but fun to be in. Really shows off how disgusting morphing is compared to how fun being an animal can be.
Tobias on his best day couldn't come close to the maneuvers a fly can do.
Hope Tobias doesn't hear you say that to him.
Ellimist bless the dog poo on Chapman's shoe. That's how Cassie decides to track him. As he's just standing around, Cassie decides to fly around him for a little bit to keep the fly brain active. Without anything going on it grows bored. Flying around Chapman she is able to tell that it is indeed him.
When nothing happens, Cassie feels stupid as she's supposed to be looking for Rachel. And just looking at Chapman in a bookstore isn't accomplishing that goal.
Finally a man and a woman go over to talk to Chapman.
Besides fly sight, Cassie points out another problem with using the fly morph to spy.
Understanding speech is difficult, with the hearing flies have available. Fortunately, I had been a fly before. So I knew how to translate the vibrations the fly felt into "sound."
So you can't just become a fly and spy. You actually have to practice and learn how the morph works. Luckily Cassie has done fly morph before and so is able to spy on the Controllers. She flies after them as the trio walks around the mall. She finds it extremely hard to hear them in the loud chaos that is the mall.
Cassie risks landing on Chapman's collar so that she can hear the conversation.
The woman Controller complains about the mall as their meeting place. Chapman reveals that Visser One has spies in their ranks and that the Visser had previously freed the Animorphs (whom they call Andalite bandits) from Visser Three.
Yeerk Politics, folks!
Jake would've spent a chapter pondering what the heck a Veleek was.
The man and woman Controllers are responsible for manipulating the news! Awesome!
When the man Controller says that Chapman should tell Visser Three that the Veleek isn't a good idea, the high ranking Controller goes ballistic. Chapman points out that telling the Visser during a Kandrona shortage is a sure fire way to die.
After that outburst Chapman tells the woman, after she complains about the Veleek, that she better hope the creature finds the bandits as if it doesn't attention will be turned back to the Controllers. And if the Controllers don't can't catch the bandits then Visser Three could be demoted. Chapman tells the woman she should kill herself if that happens as that would be the better scenario.
Conversation then turns to what stories to run in the media.
And the purpose of this chapter is purely so that Cassie can learn the same basic information that Ax did in the previous chapter.
Chapter 20
Rachel says that if she had been human that the pain would've been too much. But the bear was able to hold on much better.
Rachel finds a stream to wash her stumps in. She doesn't know that morphing heals your injuries so she's freaked out that when she becomes human again that she won't have her arms. She also isn't aware of how she morphed.
As she thinks about Ax calling her Rachel, she demorphs and lays down in preparation for extreme pain.
I focused on becoming human again. But all the time, I braced myself for pain beyond endurance.
Kids, say good-bye to happiness!
Rachel notices that her scrapes from walking through the woods earlier have gone. She also remembers the word 'alien' and knows that Ax is an alien and that Yeerks are probably another kind of alien.
Rachel remembers the night Elfangor crashed, but can't remember things in detail. When she gets frustrated she reminds herself that she knows her name, powers, and that she has some enemies. But she doesn't find that reassuring.
She thinks of morphing bear to find civilization, as she thinks that's where information would be, but then decides not to. She decides to follow the stream. She got lucky with the dust beast not attacking her once, no need to cheat death another time.
You mattered.
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