Animorphs Reborn #1 The Sanctuary (Sequel to Animorphs #54)

Animorphs Reborn #1 Chapter 5

Menderash adjusted the hologram surrounding the Rachel to look like the brown plants surrounding us. Now that we were actually on the planet, it was easy to see the plants weren't dead, they just lacked any colour. The whole planet was brown. It seemed so dull and lifeless.

The other Animorphs were looking around in wonder, too. They also hadn't seen anything like it, but it was strange that life did exist on such a boring planet. I wanted to say something, but the new Animorphs are way too serious. Way too grown up. We were older now, but it just made the notion of searching for Ax even more horrible than I first thought. Jake was returning to his old self more and more, but only when it was just me and him. It was like he needed to pretend to be really mature for the new Animorphs. And Tobias. I was hoping that just because Santorelli and Jeanne were older than us, they wouldn't drag us down to their level of seriousness. I mean, sure, it's dangerous and all, but why make it more tense than you have to?

Menderash was inspecting the damage to the wing from the outside. That reminded me of our cabin, we needed to inspect the damage.

"Jake, we should check our cabin," I told him, "We don't know what the interior damage is."

"Right." Jake smiled at me. It was a grim smile.

We boarded Rachel and turned down the hallway to our cabin. Jake was leading.

The inside of Rachel was largely grey, but the grey had a slight tint of purple, so it didn't seem too bland. Our cabin was right down the end of the wing, and it had been sealed off from the hallway and the other cabins. Jake stopped at the door, and stared at it for a few seconds.

"Earth to Captain Jake." I said, breaking into his trance.

We didn't know what the damage would be, we didn't know what to expect.

"Hold on," Jake said, motioning me to stop.

He waited at the door for a few seconds more, placing the palm of his hand on the metal. He was probably trying to get ready for whatever we would find.

Jake's hand moved from the door to the keypad. We had locks on all the doors, requiring a long security number to unlock it. It was the security to Yeerks put on the ship, I guess they were afraid we would morph into them back on Earth. Jake pulled the handle.

The cabin looked new. As in, the same state as it was when we first set eyes on it. The only difference was a small hole, about the size of a golf ball a couple feet above the head of Jake's bed.

All our stuff was gone. Anything that had not been built into the ship wasn't there anymore. I guess we were lucky we left anything of sentimental value at home. That was aside from our family pictures. We brought one each. There were identical copies of the pictures we lost back on Earth, but we didn't know when we would see them again.

It was the only big loss.

"Oh, man! No more blankets!" I said to Jake. I didn't really care, but he was shaken from losing his family picture. It was his only link home. He knew that I didn't care, he knew me as well as he has always done, I was still same old Marco. Sometimes it seemed like I was the only Origimorph left, the changes in the others make them seem like completely different people.

Jake had a serious look on his face. Slightly troubled. "Come on." he said sternly, not in the mood for my jokes.

"I'll stay here, I want to see if I can find anything." I said to him.

"Suit yourself," he said as he was leaving.

I didn't like how he acted now, not as happy, but it was getting better. He was becoming more happy.

I knelt down on the floor, to look under the beds. There was nothing under mine. Nothing under Jake's. No, wait, there was something. A piece of paper it looked like. I grabbed at it, my arm not quite not long enough to reach it. I needed a morph.

I focused on a duck's DNA. Morphing is never a pretty thing to watch, or even listen to. It didn't hurt, for which I was glad. My arms started to flatten out, into the shape of a wing first. Feathers hadn't started sprouted out of my skin yet, which made it look even more disgusting. The sound of creaking bones as they rearranged shape wasn't nice to hear either. I could feel my feet flattening and my toes webbing together.

Oops. I had forgotten to take my shoes off. Oh well, at least this was a small morph, it wouldn't destroy them.

The ground started rushing up to meet me, the same time my face hardened and pushed out. Still no feathers. I was a 2 foot tall human shaped like a duck. I was glad there were no mirrors in our cabin.

Finally, the feathers pushed out of my skin, in random splotches, until I was fully covered.

Now, I was short enough to get under Jake's bed, and I could use my bill to get the paper without damaging it.

I waddled under the bed, ducking my head a little so I didn't hit it. I laughed in my head, I was a ducking duck. I reached the paper, and noticed it wasn't just paper. It was a photo.

My mallard eyes weren't designed for seeing in the dark, so I gripped a corner of the photo in my bill, and tried to tug at it lightly, to get it loose without tearing it.

At first it didn't want to move, but after a few tries I had loosened it, and it slipped out. I carried it over to the middle of the cabin, and set it on the floor, getting it on the floor the right way up was difficult, but I managed it.

After I got it on the floor, I looked to see what was in the photo.

<Cassie...>