-----I just turned fourteen. My name is Austen Isthill. That last name was my dad's... but no one knows what happened to him. Or his brother, my uncle who everyone said just disappeared one day.
-----Al. Uncle Al. Al Fangor, to be exact. I have always wondered why my dad and uncle have different last names.
-----Anyway, as I was walking through that rusty, creaky old construction site, I saw a glow. Some unknown force was drawing me to that glow. Then I realized: it was underground! I was seeing right through the ground! A huge voice that filled the air spoke to me.
-----AUSTEN ISTHILL, RETRIEVE THE TIME MATRIX.
-----What? How had that voice come to me? It was like telepathy, only deeper; instead of just popping into my head it seemed to affect the very air around me. What had it said? The Time Matrix? Suddenly, without knowing how, I knew. The Time Matrix was the glow I had seen underground. That big circular ten-foot diameter glow.
-----But how had this creature known my name?
-----THE ANDALITES CALL ME "ELLIMIST," YOUNG ONE. THEY BELIEVE I AM ALL-POWERFUL. THIS IS NOT TRUE, BUT I HAVE POWERS FAR BEYOND ANY RACE. LET ME SHOW MYSELF IN A FORM YOU WILL UNDERSTAND.
-----Suddenly, a blue coloring I had not noticed in the air dissolved and swirled into a human form.
-----"Austen, your father was uncle to one who plays an important role in the time line of the galaxy. Your cousin, Tobias, now needs your help."
-----Somehow when the creature spoke in a normal voice it was even odder that when he used his mighty soundless voice.
-----"Wh—" I choked. "What do y-you want me to do?"
-----"Do not be afraid, little one. Just uncover the Time Matrix, place your hands upon it, and think the name ‘Tobias.' I will take you to him."
-----The Ellimist dissolved, just as I was about to speak.
-----The strange thing was that I was not frightened. My thin blond hair that touched my shoulders whipped around my head as I began to scoop up hand fulls of dirt with my bare hands. I dug and dug, and dug some more, about a foot deep when I realized I was getting nowhere near the Matrix, and that I had to get home soon or my mom was going to kill me.
-----My spindly body flung around the block to my house. My hands mere smudged with dirt, so I washed them quickly before my mom could see. I had a serious problem now. How was I supposed to get to this Time Matrix of the Ellimist's? I splashed some cool water on my face and glanced in the mirror. As my brown eyes blinked, I swear I saw another image in the mirror. It was that of a young boy, around my age, with tangled blonde hair and brown eyes just like mine. I shook it off and wriggled into my covers, immediately falling sound asleep.
-----The next morning I told my mom I was going for a walk. It would be easier to see the construction sight during the day time, not to mention a bit less creepy. I couldn't see the glow anymore, but I could see the foot deep hole where my hands had been busy. I placed my hands on my hips, staring down at it, contemplating. Then I glanced around and with a burst of Eureka I grabbed the rusty garden shovel and began to dig more.
-----It was going much faster. But was it enough? For all I knew, the Matrix could be at least twenty feet deep.
-----All of a sudden, a guy around eighteen years old appeared. His hands were shoved in his pocket. He was on his way to the mall, I assumed. I paid him no mind at first. But then he stopped at the construction site and looked around. He looked as if he were searching for clues to something.
----- I couldn't help but say, "Hey, kid? You looking for something?"
-----He mumbled for a second, then looked at me like maybe I was familiar to him. He squinted at me.
----- "Hi," he said in a dazed voice, trying to figure me out or something.
----- "Um, hi," I said. I extended my hand. "Austen Isthill."
----- "Isthill?" he said, his dark eyes brightening. "Your last name is Isthill?"
----- He seemed confused for a second, then took my hand and shook it slowly.
-----"Jake," he said.
-----"Any last name?" I kidded.
-----"Nope," he said. "Just Jake."
-----It was my turn to be confused, but I said nothing.
-----"So," I tried again. "What are you doing out here?"
-----"Well..." he hesitated, seeming to fumble with his words. "Well, what are you doing here?"
-----"It'd sound crazy," I admitted.
-----"Try me," he challenged. "I'll bet you I've seen or heard at least 100 things crazier."
-----"Well... last night," I began. I told the whole story, but I wouldn't remember the name the Ellimist had given me.
-----Jake seemed amazed.
-----"Oh my gosh..." he said.
-----"Told you you'd think it was crazy."
-----"No, no, it's not that. Are you saying... an Ellimist spoke to you?"
-----"You know about those Ellimist folk?"
-----"Do I," said Jake, with an exasperated look.
-----"Well... tell me," I said eagerly, but he ignored my request.
-----"Look, let me help you dig for this Time Matrix of yours."
-----And he did. We dug until noon rolled around. By then we were sweating mad. The hole had reached about five or six feet deep; three or four in diameter. We were getting close... a certain energy vibrated from the hole, and it got stronger as we dug. It seemed to almost suck me in.
-----"Look, I gotta go," said Jake, glancing at his watch in horror.
-----"Meet me later?" I said, but he didn't hear as he ran off. I was on my own now.
-----I stepped a little ways into the hole, poking the shovel as far as it could go. The power was reaching intensity...
-----It pulled me down. I slipped. The good new is that when I hit bottom, I felt something hard. The Time Matrix! It was exposed!
-----GOOD, LITTLE ONE, came the booming voice again. I smiled in response as I joyfully placed my hands upon the exposed area of glowing white globe.
The name came to me, although obviously not naturally.
-----"Tobias," I thought. Good. The Ellimist had refreshed my memory. But where had he been when I was speaking to the one named Jake?
-----Suddenly, with no sense of movement, I was there. My mind was muddled for a second, and it that time period I didn't know where "there" was. Then I realized: I was in a forest. I looked to my right. In the distance through the trees I saw civilization— a farm. I looked to my left. The forest grew denser. I looked up. There, in a tree directly above me, sat a hawk. He was light brown with fierce golden eyes and a pretty red tail.
-----"Cool," I said. "A bird."
-----But then it occurred to me:
-----"Where's Tobias?" Saying this aloud, for some reason, the hawk turned
its head and looked at me in a human like manner. He seemed to hesitate.
-----Then I heard a voice.
-----Although "heard" was not necessarily the correct term. It was like telepathy; I heard it in my head, though it was different from the way the Ellimist spoke to me.
-----<I... I'm Tobias,> said the silent voice. It took me a while to realize that it was the bird who spoke.
-----"You? You're me cousin? You're a bird!"
-----<I don't know if I'm your cousin,> he said as if I were crazy, <but I'm not exactly a bird either. It's just... the body I was trapped in,> he ended lamely, clearly not wanting to say too much.
-----"But you are Tobias, right?"
-----<Right,> he said slowly. <Who are you?>
-----"Austen Isthill," I said.
-----<Say... Isthill?> he seemed as awed as Jake had. <Why... oh my gosh! You're Ax's kid! After he became a nothlit human, and went forward in time... oh my gosh... he married your mother!>
-----"What are you talking about?" I was completely confused.
-----<You're here to help, right?>
-----"Um, right. So I've been told."
-----<Who told you?>
-----So I told the story again.
-----<I knew this would have to do with the Ellimist! Wait ‘til Jake hears!>
-----"I believe your friend Jake already knows," I said, perking up at the name Jake, watching the confusion set on his face. "Now, tell me how a bird can be related to a human."
-----<I won't tell you,> he said stubbornly. <I'll show you.>
-----And he flew down from the perch.
-----He began to change.
-----<Now, stay calm,> he warned me as it happened.
-----That was almost impossible.
-----It was a horrifying sight. You see, his feathers began to melt together like wax. They turned from golden brown to pinkish, like human skin. His beak softened and turned small and pink, like a human mouth. His eyes transformed from gold to deep earthen brown like my own. The fathers atop his head grew longer and thin to form clumps of blond hair, also like mine. His talons split and grew to form human feet at the end of two stalks: legs. His wings melded to form an arm, with five fingers at the end of each. There, standing in from of me where a bird once stood, was a human boy about my age, looking very similar to me with blond hair and brown eyes and a dweebish look with a shaky smile.
-----"See," he said in a human voice. "But DNA doesn't grow if it's just a morph. I'm still just a little kid, while all my fellow Animorphs are in college."
-----He added, sadly, "I'm not exactly human anymore. I got trapped in the body of a hawk."
-----Then he started to tell a very long story, including a blue centaur-like scorpion-tailed creature he said gave him powers to change into any animal he touched, and who was also his father, and dangerous-looking razor blades and redwood sized centipedes both infested by gray slugs called yeerks, who infested brains and took over bodies. He told of how there was a two hour limit to morphing, and how he had gotten stuck fighting the yeerks, and how he had fought them many, many other times, and how another one of the creatures he called an Andalite was his friend and my father, who had gone forward in time after he also had gotten stuck in morph, in human morph, and who had married a girl and then had me.
-----I thought he was insane.
-----But he had "morphed" right in front of me. I had to believe him. He had given me proof.
-----"Tobias," I said, "you may be crazy. But if you're crazy, so am I. I believe you, cousin Tobias. And I'm happy to help."
-----"Where's the Time Matrix?" he said.
-----I HAVE TAKEN IT INTO SAFE KEEPING.
-----The Ellimist!
-----TOBIAS, WE MEET AGAIN. USE ELFANGOR'S DNA THAT YOU WERE GIVEN. FIGHT VISSER THREE. SAVE EARTH, TOBIAS.
-----AUSTEN. YOU PLAY A ROLE IN THIS GAME TOO. YOU AND ONLY YOU HAVE MY PERMISSION TO ENABLE THE TIME MATRIX. USE IT LOGICALLY.
-----The Time Matrix appeared in front of them.
-----GO TO YOUR FRIENDS, TOBIAS. MORPH TO ELFANGOR. VISSER THREE IS WAITING.
-----AUSTEN, YOUR PURPOSE IS TO BE DISCOVERED.
-----With that, the Ellimist was gone.
-----Tobias ran. As he ran, he morphed. In a minute he was gone as well. I was alone.
-----Okay, Tobias needs to take over the story now.
-----Hello friends. You know who I am... Tobias, the Bird-boy. I was heading off, morphing to hawk as I ran, and then quickly morphing to Andalite as I flew. I was extremely exhausted. Morphing is tiring. I finished morphing at Cassie's barn. She ran the Clinic now, her parents retiring and her being old enough to take care of it.
-----"Hi, Tobias," she said in the voice of a near grown woman. Her hair was in a ponytail. She had grown it all the way to the length of her shoulders.
-----Eighteen year old Rachel, on the other hand, who just showed up, had cut hers to the length of her chin. Like anything on Rachel, it fits her.
-----Next Jake showed up. He had a light beard and mustache, unlike clean-shaven Marco, who was still always late.
-----I had not changed physically at all.
-----"Tobias," said Marco. "You're doing Elfangor. Why?"
-----<The last fight, Marco,> I said solemnly.
-----Rachel smiled.
-----"Tobias, I'll be there, you know that. Come on, let's do it!"
-----<This is my fight, Rachel. Ax could not avenge Elfangor's death. Now I must. Alone.>
-----"I understand," she said, muttering, "darn."
-----"Rachel hasn't changed a bit," teased Marco.
-----"Neither has Marco," said Jake.
----- He and Cassie kissed. They had been dating for over a year now.
-----<Bid me farewell,> I said. Rachel threw her arms around my human-like torso I possessed as an Andalite.
-----"Tobias... you shouldn't do this alone."
-----"I'm not alone," I said. She looked puzzled. "I'll explain later," I confirmed. She nodded.
-----Then I disappeared from their sight.
-----I came to find myself right in front of Visser Three at the construction site I knew too well. We were standing in a large ring surrounded by Hork Bajir and Taxxons, dracon beams leveled.
-----<I have been waiting, Tobias the Animorph,> he said.
-----<What you have been waiting for,> I sneered, <is the promotion you never got. And never will.<
-----<We shall see about that. Is that arrogance trait from that body of Elfangor's you've got?>
-----<Sorry Visser, but this is plain old Tobias. You killed Elfangor, my father. Now I shall avenge that death.>
-----<Shut up and let's go tail to tail, my friend,> he sneered.
----- He was scared. I could feel it. His words were all an act to try to give him the upper hand of confidence.
It didn't work. I was scared already.
Fwap! I struck with my powerful Andalite tail blade. The Visser blocked it narrowly. He struck. I jumped to the side as he barely sliced the edge of my finger.
-----<Ouch,> I said, then struck my own blow.
----- Square in the upper appendage. Half of the Visser's arm was gone! Not a pretty sight. He bellowed in pain. That's when I realized what I had done.
-----<You're helpless,> I said. <I don't kill helpless victims. So I'll leave you here you die of blood loss.>
----- Tssew! Dracon beams fired from all directions. I ducked. They started to close in on me. When they were close enough, with one mighty FWAP! Of my tail, I spun around 360 degrees and left all of the creatures wondering why their head was over there and their feet were across the clearing. I morphed back to hawk as I walked away, holding, my Andalite tail so high any decent Andalite would have thought I saved the world. And I had.
-----Okay, back to me. It's Austen again. I waited forever at the glowing Time Matrix, and it started to get dark. I was about to check the Indiglo on my watch when suddenly with Matrix pulled me to it. I understood.
Placing my hands on the luminous globe, I thought Tobias. I caught him in mid-morph.
----- "Ugh. Hi Tobias. I'm guessing you're coming out of Andalite morph?"
-----<Yeah,> he said. <Pretty, isn't it?>
-----"So... did you save the world?"
-----<I don't know. I killed the Visser. There's still millions of Controllers out there.>
----- "Mm? Well, we'll kill ‘em all, right?"
-----He started morphing to human.
----- <No... then we'd be killing the host as well. We'd have lost just as much.>
-----"Well... what then?"
-----Suddenly, a woman walked up to him.
----- "Are you the one who killed Visser Three?" she said. "I'm a yeerk. I... I don't hate you. I thank you. Thank you for freeing us from his evil enchantment."
----- "What are you talking about?" said Tobias as he formed a mouth.
----- "The Visser... he had us all under his spell. He made us evil. You broke the spell for us. Now, in return, we will give you back your planet. We shall leave all of our human hosts and return to the yeerk pool. We will let you see us exiting the ear, as proof. We don't want to become evil again. And..."
----- "And?"
-----"There could be another like Visser Three. If there is, I want your planet to be safe. I wish there was a way you could... send us to our home planet."
----- "Can you not fly there?"
----- "Not without Visser Three at the helm."
-----"Then what are we supposed to do?"
-----"I know what we're supposed to do," I said. "All yeerks, meet us at the yeerk pool. Pronto. Pass this on with thought speak to everyone, okay?"
----- She nodded. The yeerk spoke openly to the public in thought speak:
-----<All yeerks, to the yeerk pool. Pass this on. I repeat, all yeerks to
the Sulp Niar pool.>
----- We met them there. The huge, sludgy yeerk pool was packed to the brim with yeerks, after all the hosts emptied their brains.
----- The Time Matrix appeared in front of me. With one great push, I rolled it right into the pool.
----- "All yeerks, touch the big pretty white globe and think about your home planet. I'll make sure you get there."
----- I placed my hands on the Matrix as millions of yeerks stretched and shrunk as to all fit on the globe. I could only fit two fingers.
----- I closed my eyes. The yeerks thought. I thought. I thought the words "Yeerk Home Planet," while they thought images of their home.
----- We were there. The yeerks slipped off the Matrix and slid into the yeerk pool on their home planet.
----- I got several <thank you>'s in my head. Then I was gone. The Ellimist spoke to both Tobias and me as I appeared next to him.
----- YOU BOTH HAVE DONE YOUR JOB WELL. YOU SAVED EARTH, MY FRIENDS. OH, BUT NOT ONLY THAT, YOU HAVE DONE A LOT MORE. YOU HAVE CAPTURED ONE OF THE MANY PIECES OF THE DARK FORCE WE ELLIMISTS PLAY AGAINST. AUSTEN, GO BACK TO YOUR HOME. I HAVE ENSURED YOUR PARENTS WILL NOT BE WORRIED.
----- TOBIAS. STAY YOUR HUMAN FORM UNTIL I RETURN.
----- The Ellimist was gone. Tobias went back to his friends, the Animorphs.
----- It's Tobias again.
----- I looked at myself.
-----I was much taller. I had a shaven beard and mustache. My hair was slightly longer.
----- I tried my voice:
-----"I'm... older." My voice was that of a near man's. "I'm older!"
-----Rachel hugged me and pecked me on the cheek.
-----"Tobias! You're older!"
-----I explained every single part of the battle and Austen, etcetera. At that point, all five of us Animorphs felt something draining from them. We staggered a bit, and then tingled for a minute and suddenly we all felt more normal than they had ever been.
-----YOUR JOB IS DONE, ANIMORPHS, said the Ellimist. We all knew what he meant. -----Jake tried to morph. He couldn't, and announced this.
----- "Tobias," said Rachel, eyes sparkling. "Now we're how we're supposed to be."
----- "Won't you miss the thrill, Xena?" I said, using Marco's nickname for Rachel. In response she flashed her beautiful white smile, and tilted her head. We shared a kiss to close our days as the Animorphs, defenders of planet Earth.