Animorphs Primal: Invasion

Chapter 8

The next day we were meeting at Cassie's barn on the outskirts of town. It was one of the safest places we could meet to discuss things without being overheard. No one would be going out of their way to get to the barn that was in the middle of nowhere. Not unless there was an animal that needed to be taken care of, but that's what the veterinary clinic was for in town.

Jake and Marco had gotten there by car. Cassie was already there. But Tobias and I took the opportunity to morph. It would've been strange to see a cougar and cheetah roaming around town but we had the common sense to do it in the forest near us.

<On your left Danny> Tobias jumped over me and nearly hit me with his hind legs.

<Watch it Tobias, there are too many trees here. You're going to end up getting hurt, and we really can't heal fast as Elfangor can when we demorph> I moved my tail that ended in a stump for proof.

<Oh, yeah. But Elfangor healed completely after morphing several times. And he had the scar from his injury for a short day> He knew this because he spent the whole day yesterday with Elfangor.

<But we still don't know if it works the same way for us. This is the second time I've morphed a cheetah, yet I still have a stubby tail> I would've glared at him if I were able to.

"You guys are late. What were you guys doing?" Marco noticed that we were in morph as we came into the Barn. All the animals inside began to panic and make noise as they took in the sudden scent of two predators.

"Can you guys demorph? You're making the animals panic," Cassie asked.

<We uh, actually can we stay in morph? Clothes don't exactly cooperate with morphing> it was true. Every time we morphed, clothes would get shredded. It wasn't very good economic-wise.

"Fine," she begrudgingly accepted as she began to drape fabric over the animal cages. I doubted that it would do anything to stifle our scent from them, but at least this way their noises would be muffled and wouldn't attract the attention of her parents.

<I have something to tell you guys> I admitted. I cast a quick glance at Elfangor who was laying on the hay <But first, why hasn't my tail healed while one of the morphs I have doesn't have the physical damage of the original animal from which I got the DNA?>

The Andalite Prince looked at the stub of a tail I had.

<That is rather peculiar. Usually, by the time we need to morph another creature, the DNA has repaired it correctly. It might be because of the fact that you are human> Elfangor observed.

I spent the next half hour telling everyone about what I'd seen last night at Chapman's house. They all listened intently as I told the story.

"That's all nice and dandy, but shouldn't you have waited to tell us this once Rachel came?" Marco wondered.

<Actually I sent her to Melissa's, she'll be watching Chapman. It might give us a chance to find out where the Yeerk Pool is because...> It was time to tell Jake the bad news. I didn't want to do this, but I had to. <Tom is a controller>

Jake's expression was an utter shock at first and slowly turned into displeasure.

"I'm not happy about this Jake, but I told you," I didn't know what Marco was talking about, I was lost on that.

<What are you both talking about?> Tobias voiced my confusion.

"Before you guys came, Marco and Jake were arguing about whether or not Tom was a Controller. I thought Tom wasn't a Controller, so what makes you say that?" Cassie explained.

"NO! You don't know Tom like I do. In all the time Tom was living with us, I've never seen him change with anything. He's the same person that I've always known. He isn't some vessel for a brain slug to possess!" he exploded.

I've never seen him this mad. Not since he wasn't able to make the cut on the basketball team.

<I saw his file, Jake>

<If what Daniel saw is true, then we'll need to strike the Pool right now to save your brother Jake before Visser 6 arrives. Which may be in a few months, but preparations for his arrival may null our attempts> Elfangor stood up.

Elfangor's rationality finally made Jake open his eyes to the possible implications this would cause if it were true, which I know it was.

"We're going to need some battle morphs then."