Yes! I shouted before I realized I had said
the word out loud.
I turned to see what Cat’s expression
was. I felt relieved when I saw a wide smile on her face. We had done it. We
had made it back home. All we had to do now was avoid the attention of Visser
Three.
“So all we do is fly to your meadow?” Cat
asked.
Yeah. Just look at the sensors and tell me if anything strange pops
up. I told her. Visser Three’s Blade ship might be in orbit and the Yeerks might see
us.
After that everything was silent. Except
for the sounds I made while morphing human and Cat’s anxious breathing,
everything was silent. Flying a Bug fighter as a human was a little different
experience, but I was able to quickly learn to pilot just as well as when I had
been a Hork-Bajir.
I tried to figure out where my meadow was
as we flew around Earth trying to avoid the Yeerks’ attention. Suddenly I
realized something. We couldn’t land in my meadow or close to it. What if the
Yeerks found it there?
Then it would be easy for them to find
both Ax and myself.
“Cat?” I asked.
“Yeah?” She said, distracted by
monitoring the sensors.
“How do you feel about a short flight? I
need to land the Bug fighter a little bit away from my meadow. When the Yeerks
find their missing Bug fighter I don’t want myself or Ax to die.”
“That’d be good.” She replied, still
distracted by the sensors.
We didn’t encounter any problems with the
Yeerks as we entered the Earth’s atmosphere. What we did encounter problems
with was finding where we needed to go. I had to demorph and morph again before
we finally found the right area.
I landed the fighter by the mountain lake
where me and my friends had destroyed a Yeerk ship. One of our earliest
victories.
I demorphed and followed Cat outside. I
spread my wings as I felt Earth’s air and heat. I had never thought I would
return. I was more than eager to start flying, but didn’t try to rush Cat. I
did, however, go onto a low branch of the nearest tree.
“We’re back.” She finally said.
Yeah, we’re back home. I replied.
We’ll have to go to the others as soon as
possible. They’ll need to know I’m fine as I’ve been gone...I don’t know how
long.
Cat nodded nervously.
“Are you sure they’ll...” Cat started and
then stopped.
Don’t worry, it will be fine. And if anyone tries to get to you
they’ll have to go through me first.
This made Cat smile. A few minutes later
and we were flying towards my meadow. The flight was quiet since, I guess, Cat was
still nervous at the thought of meeting the other Animorphs. The only one I was
really worried about was Rachel. She would be mad at me both for nearly getting
lost in space and also for bringing a new girlfriend back.
As we neared the barn, my hawk eyes saw
all of my friends going inside.
Tobias hasn’t been by my scoop recently. I heard Ax say faintly after everyone had entered the barn.
Ax! I shouted loudly, hoping he could hear
me. Tell the others I’m here with a
friend!
After that Ax’s thought-speak became hard
to follow as he was having to explain about what I had just said. Soon two of
my friends, Jake followed closely by Rachel, came out of the barn and looked
into the sky where they saw two identical birds.
I entered the barn in my usual way while
Cat landed.
Cat is going to need some clothes. I said and
Cassie came out with an outfit.
I could hear Rachel, even with all that
was going on, still criticizing Cassie’s lack of fashion sense. Rachel was a
great fighter even though you wouldn’t think that by looking at her. Soon Cat
and the others were in the barn. I started to preen once I saw that Cat was
seated.
“Do you have the box?” Rachel asked
angrily. “You left all of us here thinking you were dead and that the Yeerks
had the box. And now we find out you gave the morphing power to this…girl. What
if she is another David? What if she turns on us like he did?”
“I’m not going to turn on you. I want to
join you.” Cat said. “I was captured by the Skrit Na and Tobias brought me back
home. I’m not going to do anything that endangers him.”
“So because of Birdboy you’re going to
get yourself thrown into insane situations?” Marco asked. “You got back safely
once, but who says you’re going to get out of this alive?”
“I don’t know, but I’m not going to quit
because I’m scared.”
I could see a brief smile on Marco’s
face. A smile that showed that he thought her joining would be a good idea. I
was glad that he would be on her side.
“So how exactly did the two of you meet?
I doubt you encountered the Skrit Na on Earth. You would’ve been back a lot
sooner if you did.” Jake said and then I started to explain.
I watched everyone’s reactions as I told
my story. Not even half-way through I could tell Rachel was having to hold back
a lot of anger. We weren’t in a relationship now and I was growing tired of how
they always ended up working. We’d go apart and then we’d get back together. It
wasn’t a way to live. It hurt to see her realizing what we had was gone and I
hoped she’d understand why one day. I also hoped she wouldn’t take her anger
out on Cat.
“This should be a group decision.” Jake
said. “I vote she joins us. If Tobias trusts her, I trust her.”
“I vote she joins us.” Cassie said. “She
doesn’t appear like David did.”
I vote she joins us. I said
without saying anything afterward. My story should be reason enough.
“I vote she joins us.”Marco said with a
grimace. “I don’t think it’s a good idea, but I agree with Cassie. She doesn’t
look like a David.”
I vote she joins us. Ax said
and turned a stalk eye towards me. If my
shorm trusts her, I trust his judgment.
We all turned to look at Rachel. Her vote
wouldn’t matter at this point. All she could do was show that she hated Cat
because of me.
“I vote she joins us.” Rachel said
slowly. “As much as I want to yell at Tobias right now, he’s a good judge of
character. Especially where relationships are concerned.”
“She’s in then.” Jake said with a smile.
“But later we’ll have to discuss your…outing.”
Yes, Jake. I said as I was
just glad to be done with the meeting.
The others left while Cassie, Cat, and
myself stayed for a little while. We talked and laughed. Cassie was good at
getting Cat acquainted with her new life.
“Do I have time for a flight before it
gets dark?” Cat asked and looked up at me.
“Sure, just come back after it gets dark.
Hawks like Tobias aren’t meant to fly at night.” Cassie said with a small grin.
I’ll wait outside. I said and exited
the barn.
After a few minutes of circling around
the barn Cat came out in her red-tailed hawk morph.
I love you. I told her.
I love you too. Cat replied.
And, with that, we flew towards the
setting sun. I didn’t know what would happen from here. I didn’t know if either
of us would survive or even if our relationship would be long term.
All I cared about now was Cat flying
beside me.
-The End-
Author’s Note: This was a fic for my friend
Cat. I actually tempted her with it so she would join a site. I am not planning
on writing a sequel. If I did, however, it would involve Cat adapting to being
an Animorph and how the Yeerks handle the Bug fighter Tobias stole. I have a
few different ideas of how the latter would go down, but I am not planning on
writing it.
I want to thank you for taking time out of your day to read this.
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