In a series of doom and gloom. Of brother against brother. Of good and evil being a myth. In this series this chapter starts off with Marco complaining about ugly people being on the beach. It's a very light-hearted way to start the chapter with the previous chapter being full of Tobias not feeling good enough.
Rachel chimes in that if ugly people can't go to the beach, Marco can't. Oh god, I love you two!
Cassie goes over how Marco, Rachel, and Jake are holding up. She points out that her best friend is nervous as she doesn't know how to deal with an internal threat instead of an external enemy. She points out that Jake is hiding his tension, but she can see right through his facade.
And for Marco...
He felt somehow he was responsible for my feeling bad. He wanted to tell me that he didn't blame me. But he'd already told me, and I'd said thanks and still I felt bad. Marco didn't know how to deal with that. So he tried to make everyone laugh.
Marco might try and laugh stuff off. But he does care and he does have his weaknesses.
Cassie reminds everyone that she is the best morpher and the only one that can do her plan. Jake concedes and tells her that she won't be alone.
So why isn't Ax here? He'd have to morph and that would attract the Veleek.
All those who can morph, swim out and all of them start to morph. They morph into a dolphin. In the books they always show that dolphins are perfect. This made it beyond shocking when I got older and found out dolphins will rape. Sorry if I mentioned that fact in the past, but I'm still reeling. Damn life goes ahead to ruin my childhood.
As they are morphing, it's no big surprise when the Veleek shows up. Cassie continues to morph dolphin and she is...in an interesting shape. The oddity of how morphing goes makes it really fun to write Animorphs fics. The sky is the limit!
It turns out that Cassie's assumption Visser Three's attack dog is afraid of water is right.
Cassie finishes morphing to dolphin and feels happy as dolphins are like the dogs of the sea. So even with impending death she is really happy.
Once the Animorphs reach the whale it starts talking to them. While the series is mainly science fiction, it does have some fantasy elements like with the whale. It doesn't really make much sense for whales to actually be understood by our group of heroes.
It's hard to describe the way a whale communicates. The dolphins can hear their thought-speech, but it isn't words, really. More like strange, beautiful pictures that simply appear in your mind.
Now acquiring a human or Hork-Bajir I get for asking permission. I wouldn't want someone to morph me and then find myself being blamed for stuff I didn't do.
As Cassie prepares for the next part of the plan, she says 'so far so good'.
Chapter 42
The chapter starts off with Tobias complaining about how hard it is to fly. He talks about how red-tails like to fly and compares them to geese in the process. It's nice when these animal tidbits are sprinkled in throughout the books.
He then says this gem:
But I couldn't complain. Cassie had a worse job.
Dude, you were just complaining! You can complain because you were just doing so!
The others are doing partial morphs to keep the dust beast from Saturn distracted.
Cassie asks how Tobias is doing and he lies. He says he's doing fine. Truth is he is really straining to gain altitude. To him it's worth the pain as his friend, currently in cockroach morph, needs all the altitude she can get.
Cassie asks Tobias if he thinks the plan will work. Tobias basically says there's a chance that it will. She then asks if he is ever afraid and he says yes. It's always heartbreaking to hear that Tobias has to watch out for all the predators of a red-tailed hawk as well as the Yeerks.
Cassie asks Tobias how he handles being afraid and he says:
[There's only one way to deal with fear: Be afraid. Be afraid, and then go ahead and do what you have to do, anyway.]
I love this line. I like being reassured that there is no shame in fear. There is only shame in having fear control you. To me fear is your body warning you and you need to pay attention to that. Sometimes fear is baseless and sometimes fear can really help you out.
She jokes that she doesn't want her dad finding out what happened to the truck.
Tobias says he can't go any higher and she thanks him for his help. As Cassie demorphs and the Veleek turns its attention towards her, he finds it strange that such a strong person thinks she's a coward.
Chapter 43
The chapter starts off with Cassie falling while in cockroach morph. One of my fears is falling and she says she can't really see so...yeah...I would be screaming so much if I was in her situation. Instead of crying she only focuses on morphing. She is smart enough to realize that's the only thing that matters.
She is very brave.
Upon being human, Cassie is calm enough to look at what is below her. The scene she describes is really beautiful. Nice and poetic. But since she's falling down with a monster from Saturn, I'm just screaming. I'm imagining how loud the wind is and how it must feel pushing against her.
She wonders if she's fully human and decides she must be as she's really exhausted. She forces herself to concentrate as she feels she's morphing too slow.
I focused my mind. But I was so tired. And it was so easy to just fall and fall and fall.
Just as Cassie doesn't think she can complete the morph, she feels the whale's mind. She pleads with it to help her.
In a dream of falling and falling, I reached out to a dark, vast being that I could not define. I reached out for the whale's strength.
And the chapter ends on a cliffhanger. My poor baby, Cassie! No!
Chapter 44
Rachel watches as Cassie demorphs from cockroach. She asks Jake if they should continue doing partial morphs. Her cousin replies that it's all up to Cassie now. I would feel helpless in this situation. If I fought I would want to protect those who stood beside me. And to let someone I cared about die while doing nothing...yeah...not a good feeling at all.
Rachel remarks that Jake could be a real leader one day. This because he can make hard decisions even about people he cares about.
Oh how that will come to bite you in the butt, Rachel.
Rachel yells out that Cassie doesn't have enough time.
None of us had ever done so many morphs in such a short time. It was mind-boggling. It was impossible.
Even though it should be impossible, Cassie is still continuing to morph a whale. Marco had yelled that the Veleek was slowing Cassie's fall and now there is proof. Rachel sees what the boy had been talking about.
As Cassie completed her morph, the Veleek starts to fall! And once she completed the whale morph the dust beast starts to plummet down!
At the last second, the Veleek tried to break free. But it had wrapped itself too tightly around the prey that was no longer prey.
Yes! Cassie did it!
The Veleek breaks apart bit by bit. Very quickly it's destroyed and no longer a danger. Once it's clear that monster is destroyed, attention quickly turns to Cassie. She is falling through the water in whale morph and not answering. Finally the girl makes some movement and yells out in joy.
And once she starts yelling out in joy she has some very excellent lines. She calls the Veleek a 'big bag of wind' and that she's cleaned Visser Three's dog for him. Ha ha! You go, girl!
Jake congratulates her and Marco is surprised that they actually won a battle. Tobias shows concern for Cassie's well being and she reassures him that she's fine. Hey, Jake, Tobias just showed you how to woo a lady. Take note, dude.
Cassie starts singing a humpback whale song and Jake wonders what it means. She admits she has no clue except it's mostly the word hope.
As for this book...this is the first time in the series that we have a book with multiple points of view. Unlike in Allegiant by Veronica Roth, each Animorph is given enough personality to warrant so many points of view. Besides the question of personality, the plot is big enough so that you need multiple points of view to get the scope.
There is Rachel dealing with the loss of her memory. Cassie and Tobias both not feeling like they're really part of the group. Ax dealing with Andalite blah blah blah. Oh, did I forget to mention the Veleek? Because showing multiple points of view helped to showcase how much disaster it could leave in its wake.
The next book in the Animorphs series I will be Re-Reading will be
Animorphs Re-Read
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