Animorphs 2.0

Elfangor's Story

My name is Elfangor. Elfangor-Sirinial-Shamtul. This is my story.

As you can probably tell from my name, I am not human, though I appear to be. I was born on the faraway home of my species; the Andalites. We are, shall we say, different from humans. The most prominent one is that we are much more advanced in technology. We have invented something called the Escafil device, which allows us to change our form. The way it works is that you touch a living organism and "acquire" it's DNA. Once the DNA enters your bloodstream, you can morph into that creature at will. However, there is a drawback. You may not remain in morph for more than two Earth hours. If you do, you will forever be trapped in that morph. You will become what we Andalites call a nothlit. We also have perfected the art of space travel allowing us to roam the galaxies. It was this way that we encountered another species, quite different from us. They were called Yeerks. They are parasites. Looking similar to the earth creatures called slugs, they enter the brain through the ear canal and take control of the host. The Yeerks are blind; they need hosts to see and move around normally. However this takes free will away from their hosts. When the Andalites first came to the Yeerk home world, there was one Andalite who felt sorry for them. This species, which had just started to evolve, could use some help. He gave them the gift of star flight and other technologies. However, this turned out to be a mistake. With their newfound technologies, the Yeerks set off from their home world in search of new species to enslave. And so began the great Yeerk Empire.

They made a deal with the Taxxons, a merciless, cannibalistic, race of ever hungry creatures. Their appearance has the features of a giant centipede, whose upper body stands upright, with four, red, jelly-like eyes, and a round gaping mouth with razor sharp teeth. The Yeerks also took control over the Hork-Bajir, a fairly peaceful race engineered by another species on their home world to harvest bark from trees. They have fierce appearances, looking a lot like walking dinosaurs with added blades. They have blades at the elbows, knees, ankles, and wrists, horns, clawed feet and a spiked tail. Despite all that, the Hork-Bajir are peaceful and prefer to live in their trees harvesting their bark, but then, the Yeerks invaded, forced them off their world and made them into the perfect killing machines. This was the reason for the institution of the law of Seerow's Kindness. Seerow, the Andalite who first gave the Yeerks the technology to fly, did it out of kindness, yet this kindness could have destroyed the Galaxy. So it was decided that no more would an Andalite interfere in the events of another species. Andalite technology would stay Andalite and no one else would be allowed to use it again. I fear the day will soon come in which I will break this law to protect my people. But not the same people who keep it.

Shortly after the Yeerks expanded their empire, the war began. The war between the Yeerks and the Andalites. The Yeerks would search for inhabited world and seek to control them; the Andalites would try, where they could, to stop them. But space is large and who knows to how many planets the Yeerks have been and how many races they've taken. I, Elfangor, was part of this war. I fought in it, made some mistakes, did things I'm not proud of. The biggest mistake I made was allowing one of my own people to become enslaved to the Yeerks. It was my greatest embarrassment. Most told me it was not my fault, that I did all I could to save him, yet nothing helped. I was the one who let that filth enter his ear, who let him take over his body and mind, making him prisoner forever. Soon after this, I went home on leave. I had been awarded the rank of Prince for my efforts in battle; but I did not think I earned it. At home, I found I now had a little brother. Aximili-Esgarrouth-Isthil. He was the only thing that brought me joy anymore. My parents pushed me to rejoin the army, thinking using my newfound rank of Prince would lift my spirits, but they didn't understand that it was the army, the war, which was making me depressed. I was a warrior, not a scientist, I had nothing to do on my home world, and yet I could not return to the war. I would not add to the nightmares that plagued me at night, but Aximili helped me deal with it. He was young, he didn't know war, and he didn't look at his brother with pity, reverence or even contempt. All he saw was his older brother, and when people told him he was a hero, he would say <Of course he is. He's my older brother.> He came home crying once and said that people had told him horrible things about me and what I did. I could not say anything to him and it took a long time for my parents to calm him down and tell him that those people were lying, but still I could not face him for the rest of the day. I did not want him to see through my parents lies by the pain on my face and in my eyes. At night, my parents told me he'd been begging to see me for hours and wouldn't go to sleep until I did, so I finally relented. He still had tears in his eyes, he was still sad.

<Why would people say such mean things about you, Elfangor?>

<Because they don't understand.> I told him. He still was confused, but I would say no more.

<You'll always be my hero, Elfangor.>

<And you'll always be my brother, Aximili.>

I said goodnight to him and left.

It was a few months later that he was accepted into the army as an aristh, a cadet. It was now that my parents pushed me to rejoin the army. Who would protect their son if not his older brother? And here, I agreed with them. I would need to protect him. And not only from being injured, but from being hurt the way I had. To have the war change him into me. Or something worse. I would be there not to fight, but to protect and I was welcomed with open arms back into the army. My rank of Prince granting me respect and command. I kept Aximili away from the worst of things, keeping him slightly by the sidelines. I could see he resented it, wanting the chance to become a great hero like his brother. Yet I could not help but protect him.

And then one day he did the unthinkable: he disobeyed orders. My own brother. I had told him to stay where it was safe and he hadn't. However, in doing so, he had made our mission a success. More than a success, it had been one of the most rewarding and fulfilling missions I'd ever been on. I had no doubt that he deserved to be rewarded for this, yet I could not help wanting him to be punished. At least that way he wouldn't get into trouble. However, officers above my rank agreed with my first line of thinking and decided to promote him and, before I knew it, he was no longer under my command, no longer under my protection. And then, with nothing more to give me purpose, I again became depressed and tired. I wanted no more of this. No more! It just so happened, one of my missions brought me within a few weeks of Earth. I had been in this area of space before. A few years back two humans had been captured by some Skrit Na along with some valuable cargo. My crew and I, at the time, had been charged with retrieving that cargo and although there had been some complications along the way and I ended up growing close with one of the humans. Loren. That was her name. Loren. She'd been there when I had let the Abomination be created, when I let one of my own people be taken. I had managed to take her home, though she wanted to stay. It had been hard to say goodbye. I'd thought about her a lot over the past few years, I missed her. There was something about her, something about humans, which drew me to her. She was so different than anything I'd ever known, yet never had I felt so close to anyone than during the time we'd spent together. And never did I feel as drawn to her as I did now. The weight of battle was hanging on me again and I felt lost. And here she was. Earth was barely a week away. So close. If only I could reach her. Thankfully I was on a solo mission, I flew my ship alone. I spent one night thinking over my options. Then I decided. I could not bear this any longer. I would leave it all behind. I completed my mission and sent the report back to base, then set my plan into motion. My ship crashed into an asteroid and was lost. By this time, I was already on my way to earth. There will never be a going back, I thought. And I was gone.