"Hey, Marco? You need to remember that you're just a lowly seagull right now, which is practically a pigeon, and I'm a hawk," Tobias said. "You want to keep grinding my nerves, I'll be glad to show you the difference when it comes to aerial combat."
"Dolphin rodeo. I'm just saying it has possibilities^
We flew across the beach and the surfline and out over sparkling blue water. It was a warm day and the water was calm. We weren't getting the kind of big, plump thermals Tobias liked for flying, but we weren't dealing with totally dead air, either.
Almost immediately, we spotted Royan Island. It was a dark, lumpy silhouette on the horizon. It took another thirty minutes of hard flying to reach the island.
There wasn't much of a beach there, which I guess is why the island had never become a tourist destination. It was pine trees gnarled by exposure to ocean winds, and tall grass with sprinkles of wildflowers.
At one end of the island was a mansion surrounded by smaller buildings.
A dock extended out into a small, protected inlet. There was a bloated motor yacht moored there. Behind it was a sleek, fast cigarette boat.
"So that's Mr. Royan's house, I guess?" Rachel asked.
"No. The original Royan was a bootlegger back in the twenties. According to the guidebook, the house is owned by the Marquez family now. Whoever they are."
"Let's land as far from the house as we can get," Jake said.
We landed in a stand of trees that lined a driftwood-strewn beach. I saw a couple of old beer cans and soda cans covered by grass. It didn't look like anyone had been there recently.
We all came out of morph. All except Tobias, who stayed up to fly cover.
"There are people in the house," he reported. "A guard posted on the roof. Another guard down at the dock. Both are carrying concealed weapons."
He flew back to rejoin us. He landed on a rotting driftwood log and began preening his feathers.
"Very useful, having your hawk's eyes," I said.
"Don't try to make up," he said, but not angrily. "Dolphin rodeo, huh?"
"Guards don't mean anything," Rachel said. "Whoever owns that house is mega-rich. They can afford to be careful."
"According to Erek, what we're looking for is underwater," Jake said.
"May as well get going. See what is down there. If anything."
"Okay. Let's morph. Everyone to dolphin. Except Ax, of course, who will be doing his shark morph." Jake looked at Ax. Then at Ax's hooves. "We need to get rid of those hoof marks in the sand. A Yeerk might possibly recognize them as Andalite."
"Yes, Prince Jake."
"Just Jake," Jake said tolerantly.
We waded out into the water till we were up to our waists. It was cold.
I felt sand rush between my toes, pulled by the current. Tobias came down and landed on Rachel's shoulder.
"Let's do it," Rachel said impatiently.
"Let's get fishical, fishical," I sang.
Rachel groaned. "Olivia Newton-John? Have you been listening to dinosaur-rock radio again?"
"How about you? You actually know who sang that song."
"My mom controls the radio in the car," Rachel said with a shudder. "And she wonders why I don't go places with her."
"Is there any chance we could just do what we came here to do?" Jake asked impatiently.
"Anyway, dolphins aren't fish," Cassie said. "Mammals."
"0h, everyone shut up and let's get this over with!" Tobias yelled.
I winked at Cassie. "Tense. Very tense. Too many high-caffeine mice."
I had morphed dolphin before, so I knew what to expect. But even knowing what to expect doesn't keep morphing from being extremely weird.
I focused my mind on the dolphin. And almost immediately I lost my legs.
They seemed to be stuck together. As if someone had Krazy-Glued my thighs and calves. I waved my arms wildly, trying to keep my balance.
But then my feet began to wither up and it was all over.
SPLASH! I went down, facefirst, into the water. I opened my eyes underwater and looked back at my body. Like I said, every morph is different. And for some reason, this time I was morphing from my feet upward. The lower half of my body was already almost pure dolphin.
"Good grief, I'm a mermaid!" I said. Although since I was trying to talk underwater, all anyone else heard was "Bloop bleep bloym bl blomblay!"
What had been my feet had become a furled scroll of gray rubber. As I watched, the scroll unfurled to become a tail. Gray rubber moved up my body like a tide. But it was happening too slowly to keep me from needing air.
With awkward human arms, I windmilled my arms to bring my head above water. As I did, I noticed the bizarre sight of a red-tailed hawk with its feathers melting into gray skin. As Tobias's beak suddenly expanded outward into a dolphin snout, I slipped back under the water.
My arms were shriveling. My fingers stuck together, then grew a sheath of the same gray rubber flesh to form a flipper.
I felt a little tingle at the back of my neck and realized that as I lay facedown in the sea, I could breathe through my newly formed blowhole.
Suddenly, my eyes changed and the silty, stinging saltwater became clearer, almost like swimming pool water. I could see the others. They were almost totally dolphin. Only here and there were a few lingering bits of humanness. Jake's flippers still had pink fingers sticking out of them. Cassie still had a human mouth. As I watched, it bulged out and split into the usual toothy dolphin grin. Of course, Tobias didn't show lingering humanity. His last fading traces were pure red-taiclass="underline" He had reddish feathers sticking out of his dolphin tail.
But within seconds those final traces were gone and we were a normal pod of dolphins. All except Ax, that is.
We had rescued Ax from the submerged Dome of the wrecked Dome ship.
He'd been down there for a while, so he'd acquired a morph that seemed useful to him. The morph of a shark.
I felt the dolphin consciousness bubbling up within my own. Dolphins are just about the coolest animal minds I've ever experienced. They may be the original party animals. Life is one big game to them. They like to eat fish, and they like to play.