He looked dead.
I jumped up and ran to him.
"Rachel, Cassie seems okay, and nine-one-one can't help Tobias," Jake said.
Rachel replaced the receiver and ran over to Tobias.
"He's not dead," I said. I could feel him breathing. Then, just as suddenly as I had, he woke up. His enormous brown hawk's eyes opened, instantly fierce.
His first reaction was pure hawk. He hopped up and flared. Hawks flare just the way cats do when they're trying to intimidate someone. They hunch their shoulders and fluff up their feathers to make themselves look bigger than they are.
"Everybody stand still," I said quickly. "It's okay, Tobias, you were just out for a minute there."
He quickly gained control over the hawk instincts. "That was strange," he said.
13 "It happened to me, too," I said. "I passed out. And then I had the dream again. Only this time I could hear an actual voice. Or at least I heard thought-speech."
"Me, too," Tobias confirmed.
"Okay, now this is getting weird," Rachel said. "Because at the same time I thought I kind of felt something."
"Yeah," Jake agreed. Marco nodded.
"l know this sounds crazy, but ... but it's like someone is sending out a distress signal. Like they are calling for help."
"Only this someone is in the water, or under the water, or something," I said. "Seeing that video, seeing that writing, it was like suddenly the message grew stronger."
"Or it may have just been a coincidence," Jake said. "This isn't a dream. I don't know what it is, but it isn't a dream. Even I halfway saw something. This is some kind of a communication.
"
"Well, this is all very interesting," Marco said, "but so what? I mean, are we getting some kind of psychic message from the Little Mermaid? What are we supposed to do about it?"
Jake looked closely at me. "Cassie? Was the voice in your dream a human voice?"
I was startled by the question. I hadn't really thought about it. I actually laughed. "When you asked me, the first thing that popped into my head was no, it isn't human." I laughed again.
"But that doesn't make any sense."
"It's not human," Tobias said suddenly. "l understand the meaning of what it's saying, but it's not human. It's not 'speaking' in words, really."
"So what is it?" Rachel asked. "Yeerk?"
I let my mind drift back to the dream. I tried to hear the sound in my head again. "No, not Yeerk. It reminds me of something ... of some one."
"The Andalite," Tobias blurted.
I snapped my fingers. "Yes! That's it! It re minds me of the Andalite. When he first thought-spoke to us. That's what it's like."
"The Andalite," Marco muttered. He looked away. I knew he was remembering. We all were.
We had been walking home from the mall at night. Walking through a big abandoned construction site, when the Andalite ship had ap peared above us.
It landed, and out came the Andalite prince, fatally wounded in a battle with the Yeerks some where in space.
14 He was the one who had warned us of the Yeerks - the parasite species that inhabited the brains of other creatures and enslaved them, making them Controllers. It was the Andalite who had warned us, and who, in desperation, had given us the great and terrible weapon - the power to morph.
We had been hiding, cringing in terror, when the Yeerks caught up with the Andalite. When Visser Three himself, the Yeerk leader, had murdered im.
I shuddered at the terrible memory of the An- dalite's last, despairing ry.
"Yes," I whispered. "Tobias is right. It's an Andalite. That's who is alling to us from the sea.
An Andalite."
For a few minutes no one said anything.
Then Rachel said, "He died trying to save us." She looked defiantly at Marco. "I know that doesn't mean anything to you. But the Andalite died trying to save Earth."
Marco nodded. "I know. And you're wrong, Rachel. That means plenty to me."
"Yeah? Well, if there's some Andalite calling for help, I'm going to try and help him," Rachel said.
I looked over at Jake and we shared this look, like "Oh, big surprise, Rachel is ready to go." I hid my smile and Jake kept a straight face.
"Tobias?" Jake asked. "What do you say?"
"l don't know if I should have a vote. I'm the one person here who isn't going to be much help dealing with water. Besides, you guys all know how I'd vote." Of all of us, it was Tobias who had stayed longest at the Andalite's side, even as the Andalite ordered him to get to safety. Something really deep had gone on between the Andalite prince and Tobias.
It was my turn. "I can't just ignore someone crying out for help, if that's what this is."
We all looked at Marco. I could see Rachel getting angry, like she was ready to jump all over Marco if, as usual, he disagreed.
Marco just grinned. "I really hate to do this. I really hate to disappoint you all." Then he grew serious. "But I was there at the construction site, same as all of you. I was there when Visser Three - " Suddenly his voice choked. "What I mean is, if there's an Andalite who needs any thing, I'm there."
15 Chapter 5
You do realize that if we're down here at the beach because of that news story, some Controllers are probably down here, too?" Marco asked for about the tenth time.
"Yes, Marco," Jake said patiently. "But maybe Cassie and Tobias can get some feeling from being down here, closer to the sea."
"So let me get this straight - we are now making decisions based on Tobias and Cassie's dreams, right?" Marco said. "And yet my dreams are totally ignored. The fact that I once dreamed about staying home and watching TV in total safety, that means nothing, right?"
"Right," Jake said flatly.
We were at the beach. The same beach where the guy on the news had found what we now believed was a piece of an Andalite ship. It was night, with a sliver of moon that painted ripples of silver across the black water. A salt breeze blew off the water, making me feel peaceful and yet a little overwhelmed, intimidated, the way the ocean always makes me feel.
There is nothing as big as the ocean. It's like this entirely different planet, full of strange plants and fantastic animals. Valleys and mountains and caves and broad, flat plains, all hidden from our sight.
All I could see was the surface. All I could feel was the barest edge of the ocean, rushing over my toes as each wave crashed ashore.
But I could sense it out there. I could sense how vast it was, and how tiny I was.
"How about my dream of living long enough to get a driver's license?"
Jake gave Marco an exasperated look. "Marco, you can turn into a bird and fly. You could do it right now. Why would you care about driving a car a few years from now?"
"The babes," Marco said instantly. "Duh. You can't pick up girls when you're a bird." He glanced overhead, where we could see just the hint of dark wings against the canopy of stars.
"No offense, Tobias. The wings are great, but I'm thinking of something bright red with about four hundred horsepower."