Distant Dreams 2
By: Olivia
Narrator: Estril
Nuttypeanutbuddy@aol.com

    < Estril? Wake up! > Tobias called in the tree above me. I slowly opened my main eyes, my stalk eyes focused on the hawk. < Hello, Tobias. Why did you wake me up? > Tobias' intense stare met mine, making a shiver down my back. < You don't know your own birthday? You're four years old! The gang got your family something they'll like. I have to stop myself from laughing when Ax hears what it is. > I laughed myself. I followed Tobias to Cassie's barn. I opened the barn door. My mother and father stood behind the Animorphs sitting on hay bales. Jake, Cassie, Marco, Rachel, everyone was there. Eric stood beside my mother. They were all smiling. Cassie stepped forward when nobody said anything. " Happy birthday, Estril! Morph human and we can dig into the cake." My family morphed human and joined in the celebration. My mother had a light pink sundress on, my father in a white shirt and shorts. My father got another more adult human morph, same hair, but his completion lightened, he lost more than 3 pounds, shaping up in the torso, and his eyes looked worn out, the youthful glow gone.

    I had red hair on top of my human head, my eyes green, what Tobias called freckles covered the bridge of my nose. A blue shirt and white pants fitted my mood, happy and cheerful. We finished the cake, most of it inside my father; presents were handed one by one to me. A pair of shoes from Rachel, a calculator from Jake, a cup of funny looking water called goo from Marco, an animal book from Cassie, a bottle cap from Tobias, and flashcards with equations from mother and father. Eric was last. He walked up to me and gave me a piece of paper. I looked confused. He told me how to use it. " Read it, but you probably want to glue Ax to that hay bale.” I laughed and read it aloud. " A free meal of 18 Cinnabon cinnamon buns, happy birthday." My father kept staring at me, as if ready to charge me for the paper and my mother smiling. Eric read the date. " It says we have to use it by today." He looked me in the eyes. " Are you sure you want to see your father eat cinnamon buns?" My father broke out laughing, soon we all joined in. We morphed our birds, mine a sea gull. Soon, a bald eagle, two ospreys, a peregrine falcon, a northern harrier, a red tailed hawk, and my mother a crow flew high in the sky. Eric taking a taxi, we made it quickly to the mall. We demorphed behind the mall and made our way inside, my father trying to stop himself from getting over excited. Father and Jake went to get the buns as the gang sat at a small plastic table, barely fitting us all. We were talking about how my father used to eat many cinnamon buns. Cassie noticed I was sitting silently. She turned her attention to me. " Estril, did you know your father has something for eating cinnamon buns? Once, he even ate 12 in one day! He had to get to the hospital to get his stomach pumped!" I laughed, even though I had no idea what it means to get your stomach pumped.

  Father and Jake carried back two trays stacked with cinnamon buns. We each got two, Father done with his before I could get my own. Jake and Mother sat beside me. Mother turned to me. " You know, this was where I met your father." Father looked up from the cardboard box he was licking and frowned. " Do you have to speak of that again?" My mother looked shocked at him. " Why not? She should know, she has a right." My father glared at her, took the shredded remains of his box, and walked out of the mall to demorph and fly home to the scoop. My mother frowned and looked at me. " It's hard times now, hard for your father to have any happiness in life. Hard for the team." I turned to the Animorphs. They all nodded. I guess they were right. Five fights with the Yeerks this week were too much. I promise you, everyone has change one way or another these years I have been around. They have been talking about me, the Yeerks wanting me for some strange reason. I still do not know.

  As our limit of morphing crept upon us, we had to get to our scoop. I found my father watching T.V. I stood beside him, listening to him breathe. He was the first to speak. < I am sorry for my foolish actions. I say you should not know of your past. I still wish I could have never met your mother. Thanks to him, you are here. > I was confused, flabbergasted even. < But, who is 'him'? > My father looked at me with his main eyes, his stalk eyes focused on the T.V. < I... I have already said too much. You must not know. > I sighed and walked out into the nighttime air, looking for Tobias. Maybe he had something about my mother and father.

   I found him sitting in a tree overlooking his meadow. < Tobias? Can I ask you a question? > His stare turned to me, sending the shiver down my back again. < Yep, bring it on. > I turned my gaze to an insect on the ground. < Well, my parents were saying something about how they met, and I wanted to know they got together. > He sighed and turned his head back to his meadow. < I have no clue. I was with Rachel at the mall that day. Maybe Jake will tell you what you want. He'll be at the barn tomorrow, talking with Eric. Hey! Ask Eric, he was the first one to see you and tell us that... Never mind that part. Just ask them. > I thanked him and ran to the scoop to sleep.

   I quietly walked to Cassie's barn in my human morph the next morning. I was about to open the door, but I wanted to hear the conversation first. I pressed my human ear against the door and listened. " Estril is in danger. Visser Three was an army of Hork-Bajir on their way to The Sharing meeting tonight to look for her." Eric! Who was Visser Three? What were Hork-Bajir? The Sharing? Jake responded. " Man, she's so much trouble. We need some way to say we killed her or something. We can have you make a hologram of her dead or something." What? He could just ask me to go away! I was hurt. I sighed and walked away from the door to the human city.

   Car horns! Blinking lights! Humans! I walked alone on a hard gray stone on the sides of the black stone. I learned that the black stone is bad, gray stone is good. Many humans passed me as I walked. All the different humans scared me. I watched the gray stone, looking up at no one. I ran into a man with dark brown hair and smiling eyes. "Are you lost? My name is Victor. Come with me and I will help you.” Beads of water fell from my eyes. I wiped the water away and looked at it, confused what this was. Victor's eyes lost its glow and turned hard and evil. " Andalite! " He grabbed me roughly and a long, black vehicle drove by. It's door opened automatically and Victor threw me inside, sat himself down and told the driver to go. He tied my hands and feet together. The door shut, and instantly, a weird looking object I knew was dangerous was pointed to my head. " Demorph and die, Andalite! " I acted like I did not know my own species." What? What are Andalites?" Victor laughed and told the driver to hurry. I struggled, but I did not demorph. " No, really! What are Andalites? Mother! Father!" His eyes widened and laughed. He let the object down from my head and looked me in the eyes. " You are the Andalite child! Your father is right here, child, sitting next to you, staring you down."

         Later, in Cassie's Barn, they found out Estril is gone 

        < Aximili, what should we do? > Zizih asked her half husband. He was pacing the barn, thinking. Jake and the gang sat on hay bales and watched Ax as he paced. Rachel broke the silence. " I say Visser has her. Maybe Jake can morph Homer and sniff her out?"  Jake shook his head. " I agree that Visser has her. He probably took her to The Sharing meeting to show off." Cassie nodded.” I say we get to the meeting and save her before Ax drills a hole in the dirt!" Ax looked at her, glaring. < What would you did if someone you loved left you? > Zizih stood beside him, holding his weak hand. He jerked his hand of her's and crept into a dark corner.

   Jake shook his head again in shame. " We have to find her if we want Ax back. Now, I say we have two people morph human, Ax and Zizih, go in there and sit down. Ax will bend down and act as if he is tying his shoe and let Cassie and I out of his sleeve. Zizih will do the same and let everyone else out of her's. Roaches will run to the kitchen and look for Estril. One roach will demorph in the storage closet and listen in on conversations. Who volunteers?" Marco raised his hand gingerly. " Yes, I'd like to be killed. One spray of roach killer or two?" Jake glared at him as Rachel held her hand high. Jake nodded, showing that Rachel had the job. “And Ax? When you see Estril, don't make a heroic move or anything. That goes for Zizih, too.” Zizih nodded, a skill she has picked up and Aximili glared, but nodded as well.
                        Estril was thrown in an electrified cage.

   I was worried that the Animorphs would not find me in time. I stared through the electrified bars and saw a light tan ballroom, filled with primitive metal chairs, one hundred at the least. The cage was on a stage, stage lights bearing down on me. A tall doorway across the room, a human food table to my left. Many males were scuttling around in black suits, carrying food that smelt horrible to me, not even glancing up at me. Visser walked out from the side of the stage, grinning. The humans stopped and stared, wanting to know what he would say about me this time. Visser turned his attention to the humans. " WHAT ARE YOU STARING AT? GET BACK TO WORK!" The humans worked faster than before knowing that Visser was on stage. He looked back to me. " Now, are we going to look pretty tonight? I have invited every Controller in this town to see you." I could not bear his remarks any longer. I held my head high; knowing that is what Aximili would do, and spoke to him. < Do not tease me, Yeerk. My mother and father will come and your head will go rolling across this floor. > He laughed at my pitiful attempt to bluff. " Child, you know I'm your father. I explained how your mother and I met and everything. The sad thing was-" I cut him off. < SHUT UP! I do not want to put up with your remarks anymore! You may kill me, but my real father will come and kill you, and he will- AHH! > I gripped the bars with my weak hands, sending 12,000 volts up my arms and into my body. My grip slipped and my arms fell to my sides. I hung my head, feeling that no one will save me. Visser laughed at my pain, walked across the room, and opened the front doors, letting a few humans walk pass him as he went to another room. I felt woozy, about to faint. I fell asleep, letting my mind slip away into darkness.

   " And further more, Yeerk pools will be more pure." Many people clapped and cheered. My main eyes flew open. A dark purple blanket was covering my cage, the air stuffy. Visser was outside my cage, right beside it. I walked around my cage, disoriented, until I bumped my shoulder into the bars. I cried out. " Ah, it seems our guest is awake. Now I may present to you, the biggest discovery any Yeerk has ever found, a real live Andalite child!" The blanket flew up and I saw as many as two hundred Controllers. They all ohhhed and ahhhed at me, pointing and staring, probably wishing to crawl inside my head. Two humans caught my eyes. My mother and father! I glanced around, making sure I did not make them suspicious about the two humans in the third row. My father glanced down at his human shoe and tied it, my mother also doing so five minutes later. I saw five roaches scuttle from my parents to the kitchen door, crawling under the door crack. Visser turned to me. " You have anything to say, Andalite?" I shook my head, not wanting my parents to worry to death. Visser smiled and asked me more questions. " Are your parents, or your mother in the audience? Your father is right here, but where is your mother? Zizih, was it?" The audience looked at the person beside them, aware that maybe the people beside them were my parents. My parents played along, Aximili keeping a sharp glare on his face.


   < No, I do not know any of these monsters you have created. I do not believe that you are my father. > I heard a low growl in the kitchen, a growl of a tiger. Jake! Nobody else heard the growl, so I distracted the Controllers. < My parents will kill all of you! You better get out! They are coming any time! > The Controllers laughed through out my speech until a gorilla bashed down the kitchen door down and a tiger jumped out of the doorway. Controllers ran this way and that. Visser demorphed and laughed as two dozen monsters with blades everywhere one their body surrounded the animals. My mother and father waited until the monsters were not watching them and they demorphed as Visser bragged about how he had them cornered. Mother morphed a strong, powerful lion and Father stayed himself. Mother padded quickly to Visser, quiet as a mouse. She leaped and almost dug her claws in Visser's rump, but at the last moment, his blade met her furry throat. < Zizih! How nice to see you again! I take that the child's fake father is here. > His stalk eyes turned to my father. Aximili glared deeply into Visser's eyes. < Let my family go. > Visser stared at him, an astonished look on his face. He broke out laughing. < Your family? I created the child, I keep it! It will be my next host when she is old enough and this body is ragged. Hork-Bajir, attack the Andalite bandits! I will deal with the other two. > He pulled his tail away from my mother's neck.


   I turned my attention to Jake and the others. They were all slashed up very bad, barely standing the pain. Tobias was dive-bombing the monsters, the others clawing their way through the sea of monsters. Only three lay on the floor, dead. I wanted to help, but I was trapped. I tried to grab the lock and slash it off with my tail, but I got shocked until my arm was nothing but burned skin. I had an idea, but it was only for drastic measures. I kept going after the lock, getting shocked every time. < Argh! > My father cried out, half of his arm cut off by Visser's blade. Now was drastic. I sighed and gathered my courage as I backed up to the other side of the cage. I charged and let my chest hit the bars. < Estril, no! > My parents cried out at the same time, but I did not hear them as 12,000 volts of electricity surged through me, giving me all the power it had, just as I planned. I smelt my skin burn. < AAHHHH! > The pain was intense! The bars flickered and the electricity stayed with me. I yanked the small lock off the door and ran to my mother and father, shaking badly.

   Visser saw me and laughed as I joined my parents. < You are going to let a mere child fight me? Some parents. She should stay with me, where she will never be in battle. > Mother demorphed and we all stood in a line, my father on my right and my mother on my left. Aximili was the first to answer. < If your host's blood runs through her veins, she will give up to nothing. I have taught her everything I know about tail fighting, and she is as strong as your host is. > Aximili smiled with his eyes, keeping the glare on his face. < Maybe even stronger. > Visser looked worried. The others limped and crawled into the kitchen to demorph and remorph, Marco keeping watch. We had to keep Visser busy. My father got the message and charged at Visser, his tail up high above his head and locked into battle with him. I heard the clang of blades connecting and flesh being sliced open.

          The Animorphs changed their plans

   Jake ran a hand through his brown hair, waiting for the others to demorph. " Ok, I say go after Visser if he's still out there, and try to knock a chunk or two out of him. If he runs off, just be glad that we have Estril." They heard a cry of pain from outside telepathically, two to be exact.  That made them finish faster, wanting to protect their friends. Soon, the same animals stood there as four minutes before. Jake headed towards the kitchen door, ready to go back into battle. < Okay, I'll stand watch, Marco. Demorph and remorph. > Marco nodded and walked away from the door, letting Jake watch the bloody battle. Ax was bleeding pretty badly, half of his arm sliced off. Visser was out of breath, breathing heavily, himself cut up from Ax's blade. < Go head Jake, were right behind you. > Jake's tiger head turned to see a bear, a wolf, a gorilla and a red tailed hawk sitting on the bear's shoulder. < Okay, on the count of three, charge. One, two, three. ATTACK! > The Animorphs stampeded out of the kitchen, letting Ax step away from the battle for Zizih to tend to his bloody wounds. Estril stood back from the horror with her parents in the left corner of the ballroom.

   Jake leaped, giving Visser something to focus on as Tobias and Rachel charged. Rachel made no progress as Visser sliced her paw off. Tobias cried out and dive-bombed his stalk eyes, leaving his stalk eyes cut by his talons. Jake was thrown off as Visser dodged to his right, letting Jake fall to the cold, hard floor. Cassie aimed for his legs, speeding by and biting at his legs, ending with her ears sliced of by Visser's tail, Marco trying to grab Visser's tail, letting himself quickly get sliced up. Jake turned to Estril. < Estril, come on! Come help! > Ax looked up from his wounds. < Not to dishonor myself, but she is too young! > Jake and Ax met eyes. < No, Ax. She learned from the best, didn't she? Estril come on! >

                             Estril did not know what to do


    I stood there, wanting to listen to my father and wanting to help Jake. Wait! < Father? Is our tail blade mostly made up of metal? > My father looked at me with a confused look on his face. < Yes, why? > I told Jake what I wanted him to do in privet though-speak. Jake's tiger head nodded at my plan. He turned to Visser. < It is all over Visser! We have a secret weapon. > Visser laughed at our fake bluff. I stood beside Jake, my head and tail held high. < And what is that, Andalite? A swipe of your tiger claws I can easily slice off or the Andalite child? > He kept laughing. He growled and leaped at his face. Visser seemed surprised as Jake leaped a hair from his face before he sliced through Jake's nose. He meowed and fell to the ground, his last words before he fainted. < This is the weapon. > Visser glared down at him as I charged at him, my eyes aimed on his chest. His stalk eyes looked up too late as my blade swung over my shoulder and into his chest, hitting his ribs.

   < Monster! How dare yo- AHHH! > His eyes rolled into his head as the electricity surged through his body. I saw my parents eyes widen and Aximili snap out of his gaze. < Of course! The electricity absorbed in her body and surged to her tail blade! The next thing her blade touched gets shocked with over 10,000 volts of electricity! > I let my tail blade slide out of his body and back over my shoulder, ready for another attack, but Visser just stood there, staring straight at me. Marco stepped closer to him. < Did he buy the farm? > He poked his tail. < DO NOT TOUCH ME! > Marco jumped a foot in the air and ran back to the group. < IT’S ALIVE, I TELL YOU! > Aximili walked over to Visser. He stood face to face to him. < He is stunned, like from a Dracon beam. He can still think and talk, but he cannot move. > He laughed and glared. < I told you she could be stronger than you could, and she proved that. > Visser cried out as we made or exit. < MONSTERS! HOW DARE YOU LEAVE ME! COWARDS! > I turned back to him, my tail blade high over my head. < Call me what you want, but I proved that I am stronger and smarter than you are. > I twitched my tail blade and walked forward to him, just to watch him squirm. A flame of hatred surged through his eyes, but fear did as well. I laughed at myself and turned to the door and walked away from my enemy, letting him curse and wail for help.

 My father met up with me in the meadow behind Cassie's barn. I tried to ignore him, giving him the cold shoulder as Marco called it, but he finally caught me. < Estril, I am very sorry. He... He was right, I am not your father. Visser only made you for a Andalite Controller, he did not have feelings for your mother. > I looked away, wanting to drop the matter. He brushed his palm on my cheek. < Your mother and I did meet at the mall, and I did have feelings for her. She was beautiful, just like you. > His palm dropped from my face. I looked him in his face, amazed at what I saw. His face was twisted in despair and guilt. If he was human, he would be crying a river. I smiled up at him. < I forgive you, Aximili, but I can still call you Father, right? > He laughed and ran away from me, challenging me to a race. < Yes, you may. > I chased him, the both of us laughing.
                                                    The End