Hi! I'm Maria. I can't tell you my last name, because then my enemies could find me, and then I would suffer death- or worse. Yes, there is a fate worse than death. It's becoming a Controller... I bet you didn't think that stuff was real. I didn't either- until I met the Animorphs.
Okay. Here's the story. I was taking a walk on our property (we have 30 acres). So, I'm just walking, right? And I get this sudden urge to climb the fence. I'm thinking 'Yeah, right. That's barbed wire, in case you hadn't noticed.' So then I see this thing that looks like some weird metal barrel. Okay? So I climbed up on top of the barrel thing and jumped over the fence. Now I'm just walking, wondering how I'm gonna get back over the fence, when I see this flash of blue. It's like suddenly a neon sign comes on in my brain, and the sign says 'Andalite!'
Before I knew it I was running, running toward that swatch of blue like I was in Hades and it was the last bus outta there. And then I saw him fully. Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthil. The only surviving Andalite on the planet. And he was running from me. My foot hit a rock, but I was moving too fast to catch myself. I fell. He stopped and looked back, but I guess I must've hit my head, because that was the last thing I saw before my mind spun into darkness...
I stared hard at the human girl. I could not believe what had just happened. She had come running at me- and fallen to the ground. She lay there now, unmoving. She was probably a Controller- and yet I felt strangely attracted to her, like she was my friend. I stood there for a moment, trying to make up my mind what to do. Should I get Prince Jake and the others? Or should I simply run away and hope she forgot about me? I decided to be stupid. I would fetch the others and plead her case. Decision made, I ran off in search of my shorm, Tobias.
<Tobias! Tobias!> I called in thought-speech.
<Ax! What's up, man? I was just having a good meal of tasty mou->
<The Other-Rachel is hurt!> I cried- then paused. OTHER-RACHEL!? What was I talking about? Why had I said that? I had meant to tell him about the girl who had fallen to the ground with no apparent reason.
<She's hurt!> I said again. I reconsidered. She probably was hurt- why else would she lie on the ground like that? And though I didn't know her name, she did look an awful lot like Rachel...
<What are you talking about?> Tobias asked.
<Who's hurt?>
<Get Prince Jake,> I told him, and moved off in the direction of Cassie's house, morphing as I ran...
I was watching T.V. with my family when the doorbell rang. I looked across at my parents. They both had their eyes glued to the T.V. I sighed. "I'll get it."
I walked through the kitchen and opened the door, where I saw, to my surprise, Ax in human morph.
"Philip!" I exclaimed.
"Who is it, honey?" came my mom's voice.
"It's Philip, Jake's cousin," I told her. (We made Philip up when Ax came to school.)
"Oh. Invite him to dinner, sweetie."
"Okay, Mom," I replied, rolling my eyes.
"I must speak to you alone," Ax said. "All-own. Allllloooone. Alone."
I followed him outside. "What are you doing here, Ax?" I asked him.
"The Other-Rachel is hurt," he explained, his Andalite tail beginning to form. "Become a bird and get Rachel." I started to obey.
"But I thought you said Rachel was hurt!> I protested, changing to thought-speech in the middle of my sentence. <No, I said the Other-Rachel is hurt,> he corrected me.
<Who's the Other-Rachel?>
<Please hurry,> he begged, not answering my question. Probably he wouldn't explain until we were all here.
<Fine.> and I flew off in search of Rachel.