Chapter Text
“So how was school?” Dad asked me as I crushed two small white pills into powder with a mortar and pestle.
“Fine,” I said. School wasn't the problem. Alien invaders were the problem. Well, okay, my grades were slipping a bit, but that was to be expected. “Have you decided about the raccoon yet?”
“Yes. We'll release him on Friday.”
“Alright.”
Silence, but for the sound of my dad's pen and my mortar. In the old days, I'd fill the silence with chatter about school and life and stuff. But recently, my life was all fighting aliens. And he could be one of them. It was safer to play the stereotypical sullen, silent teenager than to risk letting anything slip. Let him think we were drifting apart. Let any alien that might be in his brain think it was normal.
I tipped the powder into a small bowl of mince, stirred it into the meat and carried it over to one of the cages. We had a wolf, again. Infected injuries from barbed wire. I gave it the food.
And of course, there was the matter of the other alien we had stashed in the woods.
I didn't go to visit Ax all that often. I lived too close to him and I didn't want to draw attention by disappearing into the forest all the time. I didn't visit Tobias all that much, either; he had his own little meadow, but he could safely come by the farm if he needed anything. I was worried, though. Ax had set up an old television and cobbled a computer together from what he called 'primitive human parts', which seemed to keep him amused and out of trouble, and he hadn't reported any problems with malnutrition or poisons, but still. He was a blue alien centaur living close to humans. I wanted to trust Tobias to look out for him, but it still seemed to be asking for trouble.
“Need any, um, homework help?” Dad asked, trying to fill the silence.
“No, I'm fine.” I marked the wolf's medication off the chart and started counting out pills for a large snowy owl.
“Your new study group helping, huh?”
I was careful not to allow myself to pause or jump. Study group. The Animorphs. “Yeah.”
“That's good. It's... good, Cassie. You should have friends. Just remember that your mum and I love you, okay?”
“I know, Dad. I love you too.”
I reached into the owl's cage and neatly tipped its head back to force a pill down its throat. Night birds. Did we need night birds? Maybe. We each already had two bird morphs except Ax, and without knowing whether there was a limit on morphs we didn't want to double up on skills too much. But a nightsight and flight combo was bound to come in handy eventually. I'd talk to the others about it. What we really needed was andalite morphs, to press home our cover as andalite warriors. But the only andalite we had was Ax. We couldn't all be Ax.
Visser Three's host... that would be a great morph. We could confuse the hell out of his soldiers. But the chances of getting close enough to acquire him without blowing our cover was nearly nonexistent. Besides, it would be a little hard to get consent, and the concept of morphing another sentient being without consent was... uncomfortable.
I finished up my chores and headed inside. I had homework to do. I couldn't let my grades slip too much. It’s hard to fight aliens when grounded.
If I’d realised just how much trouble we were about to get into, how little free time we were about to have to keep up with things like that, I probably would’ve put more effort into that homework.