I'd forgotten how good hawk hearing is.
"Tobias will keep watch. We'll work something out," Jake said. "We'll save the lousy skunks.
After all, it's not like we have anything else to do. Aside from saving the world."
62 "Thanks, Jake," I said. "And . . . sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I'll be okay now, I think."
He smiled his slow smile. "I'll be okay, too, Cassie. As long as you're around."
From a little ways off to our left I heard Marco make a loud gagging noise. It made me laugh.
I must have been feeling better, to be able to laugh.
63 Chapter Sixteen
Well, this is more than slightly insane," Marco said. It was later that same day, Sunday evening. We were all gathered around the skunks' den.
"We're going to raise little, stinky skunk babies?"
"What's so insane about that?" Rachel asked sharply. Good old Rachel. She thought it was ridiculous, too. But she's my best friend, and always backs me up.
"They're skunks," Marco said, looking from Rachel to Jake to Ax, like he was the only normal person in a mental ward.
"They're cute," Rachel said, glaring at Marco and generally looking like a girl who never used the word "cute."
"Ah. I see. "Cute." Well that certainly explains everything."
Jake cut in. "Cassie can't take them to the clinic or they may get used to humans. They're young. They'll imprint. So we are taking care of these . . . these skunks . . . until mommy skunk can come back from the hospital."
"Are skunks a sacred animal to humans?" Ax asked. "All animals are sacred to Cassie,"
Marco said. "She's Doctor Doolittle and that animal guy who comes on Letterman all rolled into one."
"But you eat some animals," Ax pointed out. "Cows, pigs, sheep, dogs. "
"We don't eat dogs!" I said.
"In some countries they do. I read it in the World Almanac." We had given Ax a World Almanac to help him learn about Earth. Ever since then, he'd become an expert on useless information.
He could tell you the per capita income of Tanzania, or the long jump record at the Olympics.
"Well, we don't eat dogs in this country," Rachel said.
"Do you eat cats?"
"Um . . . excuse me?" Jake interrupted. He rubbed the bridge of his nose. He was obviously getting a headache. I could understand why. "Look, here's the deaclass="underline" We are about three hundred yards from the edge of the Yeerk logging compound. They have sensors, they have guards. Tobias is up top keeping an eye out, so we're safe for now. But we can't get careless.
Cassie, tell them what we want to do."
"Okay, while we're in school tomorrow and the next day, Ax and Tobias will protect the den.
Ax will morph the mother skunk from time to time. Tobias will patrol from above. I'll bring Tobias frozen food so he doesn't have to hunt during that time."
64 "Oooh, Lean Cuisine Frozen Mouse entrees," Marco teased.
"I heard that," Tobias said from somewhere up above the treetops.
"I know," Marco said, grinning smugly.
"Then, after school and through the night, the rest of us will work shifts. I'll do most of the skunk morphing, but in between times we'll have to have Jake and Rachel and Marco to help keep up a patrol."
Marco held up his hand.
"Yes, Marco?" I asked.
"Do we get some "Save the Skunks" T-shirts and bumper stickers?"
"No one has to do this," I said. "Look ... I know it seems stupid."
"Nah, it's not stupid," Marco said. "Let's see, I'm behind in my homework. My dad thinks I've joined a gang because I'm never around. I don't sleep much because every time I try I'm suddenly a termite again and I wake up screaming. I never get to just sit around and watch TV. And, in my spare time, I have to help figure out how we're going to keep the Yeerks from turning some guy named Farrand into a Controller so they can wipe out the forest and hunt down the Bird-boy and the universe's only almanac-reading Andalite. I mean, I knew the middle-school years would be tough, but this is a little much."
Jake gave Marco a long, skeptical look. "So, in other words, you'll be glad to help."
For once, it was Jake who made everyone laugh. Even Marco.
Marco shrugged. "You know, actually it's kind of a relief finding out Cassie is crazy. We know Rachel's nuts. We know I'm crazy. Cassie's been the only sane one for so long.
Welcome to the loony bin, Cassie. Save the skunks! Hug the trees! Let dogs vote!"
The others all laughed. I laughed a little, too. Marco always made fun of my being an environmentalist. Usually it was okay, because I knew what I believed in.
But now his humor cut just a little deeper.
I wasn't saving the whales or the panda or the spotted owl. I was saving a handful of skunks.
There were plenty of skunks in the world. They weren't exactly endangered.
It all went back to the termite queen. A bug. I had killed a bug, and for some reason, that had shaken my deepest faith.
Maybe Marco was right. Maybe I was crazy.
65 Chapter SEVENTEEN
Over the next two days we protected and nurtured a foursome of baby skunks. And as impossible as it seems, it worked. More or less.
Maybe I'm kidding myself, but I think the others started enjoying it, too. Typically, it was Marco who decided, after his first shift guarding the skunks, that the kits needed names.
"Joey, Johnny, Marky, and C.j.," he announced, like it was obvious. "The Ramones. The godfathers of punk rock. They would be honored. The one with the white stripe that kind of goes really wide? That's Joey. Now, Johnny ..."
At first, I was the only one to morph the skunk mother. Then Ax did it. Then the others, one by one. I almost felt jealous.
Right after school three days later, I went to the skunk burrow and found Tobias flying cover above the burrow.
"Hi, Cassie. "
"How's it going, Tobias?"
"Well, we had a little excitement. A hungry badger stopped by to check things out. But I chased him off. "
"So the kits are all right?"
"There are still four of them, if that's what you mean," Tobias answered. "But they won't stay inside. They keep coming out and looking around. Especially Marky. This isn't good.
Especially if they do it at night. "
I morphed into the skunk mother and crawled inside the den. Tobias was right -- the kits were restless. They were growing fast, and they instinctively wanted to go out into the great big world beyond the burrow.
"I think I'm going to take them for a walk," I told Tobias.
"Is that a good idea?"
"Sure. Why not? You should take a break. Stretch your wings. " Tobias was relieved to have an excuse to take off. But as soon as he was gone I started to have doubts about my brilliant idea of taking the kits out for a stroll. How could I keep track of them? What if they wandered off? But then, while I was debating, Marky made a wild dash outside and I had to scamper to catch up to him. As soon as I appeared, though, the kit went meekly to stand behind me. One by one, the other three babies came out. And to my amazement, they lined up like obedient first-graders.
"Okay," I said, although of course the kits couldn't understand me. "Let's take a walk. " I waddled slowly away, took about ten steps, then turned to look back over my shoulder. The four of them were all lined up behind me. I was their mother, as far as they knew. And they were programmed to follow their mother. I waddled off, feeling a little strange but happy.