I had no answer to give. But as I looked around at the street, at all the humans in their cars, and all the humans lurching along on two legs, it occurred to me just how defenseless I would be without Prince Jake and Marco and the others.
We had reached the bus stop. Suddenly Marco slapped his pants. "Oh, man. I left my money at home. We all pitched in for your book fund. I left it on my desk. Come on."
"Where are we going? Ing? Ing-ahng-ing. That is a very satisfying sound."
"Yeah, everybody loves a good 'ing.' We have to run over to my house. Don't worry, it's just around the corner."
Marco led me down the street. There were houses on both sides. Big, boxy structures with transparent rectangles here and there.
"That is Prince Jake's house," I said. I had spent time in Prince Jake's house.
"No, it's just the same model as his house. This is a subdivision. There are only like five different models of houses. They all look alike. Welcome to the suburbs. But it beats the place I used to live in."
He was correct. There were only five types of house. Although some had more grass, and some had less. Also, some houses were decorated with items that had been placed on the grass.
"What is that decoration?" I asked.
Marco followed the direction of my gaze. Then he rolled his eyes upward. "That's a Big Wheel."
"It is very attractive. Very colorful."
"Uh-huh. I'd love to tell you how it works, but it's the very height of human technology, so it's secret. Primitive races could get hold of Big Wheels, and then who knows what might happen?"
I am still learning about human mouth- sounds. But I am very sure Marco's sound was "sarcasm."
35 "There's my house. My dad is home, working. He sprained his ankle, so he's using his home computer. Don't be weird, okay?"
"No. I will not be weird. Weeeerd. Weeeeer- duh. I will act like a normal human."
"You act like a normal human and you'll win an Oscar," Marco said. He led the way up to his house and opened the door. "Okay, look, you wait right there by that table. Don't go anywhere. If my dad comes in and talks to you, just say 'yes' and 'no.' Got it? Yes and no answers only. I'll run up to my room. I'm gonna call one of the others to meet us at the bookstore. You're already driving me nuts."
I stood by the table. There was a primitive computer on the table. It even had a solid, two-dimensional screen. And a keyboard! An actual keyboard.
I touched the keyboard. It was amazing. Andalite computers once had keyboards, too.
Although ours were very different. And it had been centuries since we'd used them.
On the screen of the computer was a game. The object of the game was to spot the errors in a primitive symbolic language and correct them. Of course, before I could play I had to make sense of the system. But that was simple enough.
Once I understood the system, it was easy to spot the errors. I quickly rewrote it to make sense out of it.
"I win," I said to myself.
"Hello?"
I turned around. It was an older human. He was paler than Marco, but other features were similar.
Marco had warned me to say nothing to his father but "yes" and "no."
"No," I said to Marco's father.
"I'm Marco's dad. Are you a friend of his?"
"Yes."
"What's your name?"
"No," I answered.
"Your name is 'No'?"
"Yes."
"That's an unusual name, isn't it?"
"No."
36 "It's not?"
"Yes."
"Yes, it's not an unusual name?"
"No."
"Now I'm totally confused."
"Yes."
Marco's father stared at me. Then, in a loud voice he yelled, "Hey, Marco? Marco? Would you ... um ... your friend is here. Your friend 'No' is here."
"No," I said.
"Yes, that's what I said."
Marco came running down the stairs. "Whoa!" he cried. "Um, Dad! You met my friend?"
"No?" Marco's father said.
"What?" Marco asked.
Marco's father shook his head. "I must be getting old. I don't understand you kids."
"Yes," I offered.
After that, we went to the bookstore.
37 Chapter SEVEn
Books are an amazing human invention. They allow instant access to information simply by turning pieces of paper. They are much faster to use than computers. Surprisingly, humans invented books before computers. They do many things backward. - From the Earth Diary of
Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthill
It was evening of the next day. I was in the woods. I was reading a book. The book was called the World Almanac. Did you know that twelve percent of households have a dehumidifier? Did you know that a sheep can live for twenty years? Did you know that humans used to believe the sun orbited Earth?
It's a wonderful book.
The book told me many useful things. It took humans only sixty-six years to go from inventing the first flying machine to landing on the moon. It took Andalites almost three times as long.
Humans are a very clever species. Someday, if they survive, they could be one of the great races of the galaxy.
Of course, Andalites will always be greater.
I was standing by the stream, with one hoof in the water, drinking, when my stalk eyes saw a swift shadow falling from the sky.
Tobias opened his wings and shot just over my head. "Ax! Everyone is looking for you. Stay right here. I have to get them."
He had kept most of his speed, so he swiftly disappeared above the trees. But a moment later he was back, with four other large birds of prey following him.
Tobias took a position on a branch. The others landed on the ground. I knew then it was the other Animorphs.
They quickly began to demorph. Prince Jake grew out of a falcon's racing body. Rachel emerged from a huge bald eagle. Cassie and Marco had both acquired osprey morphs, and were now becoming human again.
I felt a tingling of worry. They had obviously been searching for me, and were in a hurry.
"What is the matter?" I asked.
"What's the matter?" Marco demanded. "You're asking what's the matter? I'll tell - " But just at that point, Marco crossed the line from thought-speaking morph back to human.
His human mouth was still a beak, however, so he just squawked.
I watched Cassie as she made the change. Cassie is a natural estreen-. a person with an ability to make morphing almost artistic. On my planet it is an art form. There are professional estreenswho change shape in fantastic, beautiful ways.
38 Cassie was not a professional, but she had the talent. As she morphed, she formed pleasant shapes. For a while she had an enlarged osprey's head, as large as a human head, and vast wings attached to a human body.
When the others morph, they are much less subtle. For them, human parts simply ooze out, while feathers melt away. It is very unappealing. The humans find it frightening and disgusting as well, I believe. And they even recognize that Cassie has a talent for morphing.