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

Animorphs Reborn #1 Chapter 7

"Where are you, Tobias?" I heard Jake calling in the distance.

<I'm heading back towards the ship,> Tobias said, <Meet me there, everyone.>

Tobias never called the ship by her name. It probably brought back too many bad memories, too much grief. I tried to understand, I really did, but I never felt that way towards anyone before, I never had anyone special to me.

"Race you," I said to Jeanne, but she was one step ahead, already running back towards Rachel.

She laughed at me.

I ran after her, but I still lost by a long shot.

Santorelli and Tobias were already back at the ship when we got back, and Jake was emerging from the forest. Santorelli had something small in his hands, he must have taken it from Tobias' talons to prevent Tobias from accidentally hurting it.

"What do we have here?" Jake said, and I thought he was referring to Jeanne and I. Then I remembered that he wasn't me. He wouldn't be looking to tease me, I was glad.

<Come look,> Tobias told him.

Jeanne and I went to look too, it wasn't every day you got to see a new alien.

I was expecting it to be brown, like the rest of the planet, but I was wrong.

It was a bright blue bird. The size of a sparrow. It had a small blue, curved beak, with nostrils at the tip. It also had two pairs of wings, and they looked sort of odd. It was spotted with white feathers, and it had a tail that was a mixture of purple, blue and white. The feathers looked unbelieveably soft. Tobias was morphing into one now, his feathers were shinking, and turning blue. His wings had already shrunk, and it made him look like a very unusual bird.

I took the bird off Santorelli and began acquiring its DNA. It immediately stopped trying to escape my grip. It looked peaceful, and it felt as soft as it looked. It was a pretty bird, but I wasn't sure how good it would be in a battle. At least if we got into a battle it wouldn't matter if we used our old battle morphs.

I passed the bird to Jeanne after I had it's DNA.

Tobias had already finished his morph, and he was flitting around, much more agile than any bird on Earth that I had seen. I saw why the wings looked odd. Because there were two pairs, the outer wing connected to the body backwards. It allowed Tobias to fly in all directions, including backwards. The tail fanned out, making Tobias look even more elegant.

I wolf whistled, and grinned, before starting my own morph.

I started shrinking first this time, morphing was never logical, it didn't have a specific order or anything, and usually looked gross. Santorelli was partway through his morph. He must have started after I took the bird off him.

A few minutes later, and we were all in morph.

Their instincts weren't very strong, they just paid a lot of attention to the strange twisted buds on the plants nearby. I was guessing they got their food from there, because my bird seemed hungry.

The tail fanned out to help me fly in the direction I wanted, any direction I wanted. I liked this bird, it was similar to a fly, but without the grossness. I just had to think about flying in a direction, and I was there. No annoying swerving around.

The bird didn't have much of a sense of smell, but it made up for it with its ears. I could hear everything, and the forest seemed alive now. My eyesight was about as strong as my human eyesight, but I was colour blind. It was hard to realise because of all the brown, but then I saw that Menderash looked brown too, and so did Rachel.

Then I noticed something weird. I could see behind me.

<Woah,> I said, <I have an eye on my back. That is so freaky!>

<Cool, right?> Tobias said. He had tested the morph out already, and he was doing loop-de-loops.

They looked fun.

<Tobias? Where did you find it?> Jake asked.

<It was hanging around one of those buds. I swooped and grabbed it before it flew away.> Tobias replied.

<It didn't notice Tobias,> Santorelli said, <But it probably noticed us and stayed away. Tobias is smaller and more familiar to it.>

I noticed that the mind of the bird was afraid of Menderash, because it hadn't seen a human before. New. Probably dangerous. I was glad the bird wasn't stupid.

<That sounds likely.> Jake agreed. <Okay guys, we have a morph, time to find somewhere to hide the ship. If you see any other animals, stay away. They could be dangerous. Or Kelbrids.>

<Right.> we all agreed.

<We'll split up.> Jake continued, <Marco, you take Tobias and Jeanne to the North. I'll go with Santorelli, South.>

"They probably aren't North or South here," Menderash informed Jake.

<I know that, but we know learnt to navigate with the sun on Earth, so we might as well use it.>

"There are two suns, and one visible moon, from here," Menderash pointed at all three, in the sky.

<Ugh, great.> I complained, <We'll probably get lost.>

<Okay, well, never mind.> Jake sighed. <You go that way Marco,> he flew towards the edge of the clearing, <and I'll go in the opposite direction.>

<Right. Meet back here in an hour?> I asked

<Right.>