ANIMORPHS TRAVELS PART TWO: THE MESSAGE

DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANIMORPHS!
Nor do I own any characters (Human or alien) associated with this story, with the exception of Mike and maybe a few original characters that might appear at some point.

CHAPTER 1: A Crazy Month

(MIKE'S POV)

My name is Mike. About a month ago I was an ordinary teenager whose biggest worry in the world was finishing my maths homework. Let me tell you something: a lot can change in a month!

Let me explain. I'd just finished reading the final book in the Animorphs series, my all time favourite books, and woke up the next morning to find that I wasn't in my bedroom. In fact, I wasn't even in my own universe anymore! A near omnipotent being named the Ellimist, a being I once thought to be completely fictional, had transported me to a parallel world where the Yeerks, the Andalites and the Animorphs were all real. The Ellimist told me that he'd made some kind of deal with Crayak, in return for being allowed to bring me to this universe and join the Animorphs on that fateful night when they first met Elfangor in the construction site. He didn't really give me much of a choice in the matter, but I hardly would have objected in any case. The opportunity to become an Animorph? It was a dream come true for me!

I had high hopes when I first arrived, thinking I could change everything for the better. However, after getting involved in the events of the first book and having very little affect on the outcome of our mission to the Yeerk Pool, I began to realise the enormity of the task ahead of me. How could I possibly know which changes would lead to a better outcome for the end of the series? Sure the original ending wasn't perfect, but the Yeerks were still defeated and the galaxy was saved. How was I to know which small changes would result in saving lives and which ones would result in doom for the entire galaxy?

After failing to prevent Tobias from being permanently trapped in morph, I figured that my contribution didn't matter. If I couldn't stop something as simple as that, what chance did I have of stopping major problems later in the series? I ended up telling the other Animorphs the truth about whom I was and where I had come from. It took some convincing before they believed what I was saying, and once they did I assumed that Tobias would hate me for letting him be trapped as a hawk when I could have saved him. However, far from blaming me, Tobias was actually the one who convinced me to keep on fighting. He also reminded me of the former Controller who had been saved solely by my efforts in the Yeerk Pool. A man who would not have been saved without my intervention was now free from Yeerk oppression thanks to me, and that made me feel like I could actually make a difference in this strange, yet familiar world…

It's been a long and crazy month since that first mission and I have done little to change the events described in books two and three of the Animorphs series. The way I saw it, both those books turned out pretty well without my help, so any major intervention on my part could just screw things up.

Knowing what's going to happen certainly has its advantages, although it hasn't helped me much trying to gain the trust of my fellow Animorphs. Rachel in particular has become increasingly frustrated by my refusal to give away information about their future. I imagine that Rachel's attitude towards me is related to the fact that she still holds me responsible for Tobias becoming a Nothlit. I almost felt like telling her that she shouldn't bother hating me for that, as I still hate myself enough for the both of us.

The other Animorphs have been friendlier than Rachel, but I can tell that even they have their suspicions. I don't blame them for not entirely trusting me, I would probably do the same thing in their place, but it is becoming tiresome sticking to the rules the Ellimist gave me when I first arrived here. One of the main rules is that I am unable to give my fellow Animorphs direct information about the future of the series, otherwise I will be erased from this world (along with any changes I have made) and returned home.

So, much to the annoyance of my fellow Animorphs, I allowed Rachel to be almost captured by Visser Three in book two. I allowed us all to be stranded on a giant truck ship in Trout morph. However, in the process we dealt some damage against the Yeerks by taking out a number of Hork-Bajir and Taxxon troops, ramming a Bug Fighter with an earthmover and destroying their main supply ship. True pretty much all that happened without my help, but at least I haven't screwed anything up… yet.

As I was saying, it's been about a month now (give or take) since I first arrived in this universe, and I get the feeling that the events of Animorphs #4: The Message are about to unfold. We had a brief meeting earlier today just make sure that nothing was going on with the Yeerks and Cassie told me that she thinks a wild animal has been sneaking into the barn at night.

"It's probably just a Racoon or a Badger or something," Cassie had explained while we were waiting for Tobias to show up. "But it's causing real problems in the barn. We've already had a few birds taken and we can't figure out how anything is sneaking in."

"I can check it out for you if you want," I volunteered. "It's not like I have to get up early for school or anything." I winked at Marco. The fact that I had no school to go to while in this universe had started to become a running joke between the two of us.

Marco glared back at me.

"I still can't believe Mike gets to–"

"Are you sure Mike?" Cassie asked me, ignoring Marco's attempted comeback. "Whatever animal is doing this seems to be doing it late at night."

"No problem," I insisted. "I've always been quite the night Owl."

"Speaking of Owls, here comes Bird boy!" Marco announced as Tobias fluttered into the barn.

After that we had briefly discussed the lack of recent Yeerk activity before we all headed off home, but later that night I returned to the barn to get ready to scare away Cassie's mysterious bird-killer, which I knew to be a Fox. I had done some thinking in the last few hours about how to go about chasing away the Fox that had been stalking Cassie's barn and decided to go with the simplest method of scaring it away. It was a highly complex plan which involved… scaring the Fox away.

Okay, so maybe it wasn't so complex, but it sure would be effective. The plan was to find a secluded area near the barn to wait for the Fox, then morph the Wolf I had acquired for the previous mission and chase the Fox away. I had no intention of harming the poor Fox, it was only doing what came naturally after all, but I was pretty certain that he wouldn't be sneaking into barns with Wolf security anytime soon!

It took longer than I expected to find a suitable hideout, but I soon found a small number of trees a short distance from the barn. My Harris Hawk eyes may have been incredible during the daylight hours, but at night the Owls were the masters of the air and my Hawk eyes were only a minor improvement on my own Human eyes on this dark night.

As I finished demorphing, I shivered slightly in the darkness. I couldn't wait to have a fur covered body to protect me from the cold. I had to agree with Marco about the clothing problem, the skin tight morphing suits were annoying at the best of times, even in the generally warm climate of this state. I just hoped that the winters here weren't too cold.

I peered into the darkness, squinting as I tried to make out my surroundings. I briefly considered morphing to Jaguar, my normal battle morph. Although the Wolf's eye sight was superior to my own at night, the eyes of the Jaguar were better still and would light up the area around me like a spotlight. However, since the Wolf's sense of smell was better than the Jaguar's and I was bound to smell the Fox long before I saw him, I decided to stick with my original plan and morph the Wolf. Not to mention the fact that if I was unluckily enough to be spotted by someone, a Jaguar would attract a hell of a lot more attention than a Wolf, which could easily be mistaken for a stray dog at this time of night. I closed my eyes and concentrated on the Wolf DNA running through my veins, remembering what it was like the last time I had morphed the Wolf.

During the events of book three, I had acquired a female Wolf from Cassie's barn morphed it several times. As with all new morphs, it was a little overpowering at first; all those new instincts and enhanced senses, but once I got over that it was an extremely fun morph. We had a close call with the time limit the first time we morphed, but I remembered what had happened in the books and saved us all from the terrifying experience of almost becoming trapped as mutated werewolf-like monsters.

I felt a strange itching sensation in my mouth, almost like toothache except it didn't actually hurt. I then realised that my Wolf teeth must be the first thing to grow in this time around (morphing is never the same twice). As my sharpened canines continued to grow, my nose protruded out from my face, bulging into a snout. I felt my ears creep up the side of my head, while at the same time a ripple swept across my skin as fur started to appear all over me. I couldn't see in the poor light, but I knew the Wolf hair was grey.

After another minute or two of bones creaking, body parts changing and organs rearranging themselves, the morph was complete and I was a Wolf. I sniffed the air cautiously and took in so many different scents at once that I was almost overwhelmed by them. Imagine if you had no sense of smell your whole life, and then you could suddenly smell a chocolate cake baking in an oven, a garden full of flowers and an entire perfume store all at once! For me it was a sensory overload, but the Wolf relied on smell just like the Hawk relied on sight, and it had the perfect nose for the job.

I caught scent of all the animals in Cassie's barn nearby. Birds, Deer, Squirrels, even other Wolves. The Wolf's instincts were eager to investigate such a prime source of prey, but I luckily I was used to the Wolf's urges by now and easily managed to keep them under control. I couldn't detect the scent of a Fox so far, but now that I was a Wolf I realised that I'd better move so that I was upwind of the direction the Fox would be coming from, in order to prevent the Fox smelling me before it reached the barn. I stealthily crept over to a better location for my ambush and hid around the side of the barn. Then all I had to do was wait.

I wonder what exactly I can do to change book four? I wondered. It all turned out fine in the end, although they did have a couple of close calls with the Sharks and with Visser Three. Maybe I can do something to change that? I spent about half an hour or so trying to think of what I could do to improve things in the upcoming mission, without much success. Fortunately, I was interrupted by the scent of a wild animal closing in on the barn. It was the Fox!

That poor Fox is never going to see this coming! I laughed silently before making my way towards the Fox. I knew that the Fox would also have a good sense of smell, although the Fox also had the added advantage of better night vision than me. Still, that hardly mattered since no Fox could hope to defeat a Wolf in a fight.

Finally, I came face to face with the Fox. I expected the animal to flee immediately, but instead he simply froze, as if taken off guard by the fact that a Wolf had appeared, seemingly out of nowhere. The Fox then took me by surprise by standing his ground and snarling at me. Perhaps the Fox had mistaken me for a domesticated Dog? Or did he think that a lone Wolf would not attack without help from other members of a pack? Either way, he was dead wrong and about to be taught a lesson about what happens when you mess with a Wolf. I lifted my head up and let loose a deafening howl.

The Fox suddenly decided that there were other prey animals available elsewhere that didn't have Wolf bodyguards. He ran for the forest like, well, like an angry Wolf was chasing him.

Not bad for a night's work, I thought to myself proudly. I scared off the Fox without even lifting a paw and–

A large shadow suddenly passed over me and I heard a thud, like something hitting a nearby a tree. Could there be some other creature out here? Perhaps stalking me like I did with the Fox?

-Cassie is that you?-

I jumped in surprise.

-Tobias? You almost gave me a heart attack!- I yelled back at him, although I was secretly relieved. -What the hell are you doing out here?-

-I could ask you the same thing Mike,- Tobias replied. I could now just about see his Hawk body perched in a tree next to me. -Morphing Wolf and yodelling like an idiot in the middle of the night right next to Cassie's house? Not exactly subtle.-

-Cassie mentioned that something was killing off birds in her barn at night and I volunteered my services as a Guard Wolf. I spotted a Fox trying to sneak in and, well, let's just say that he had a change of heart when he saw me!- I laughed.

-Well I can't argue with anyone who wants to protect birds.- Tobias said.

-So what brings you out here man?- I asked.

-Just out stretching my wings, I can't sleep.- He told me.

-Bad dreams?- I guessed.

It was hard to tell in the dim light, but I could just about see that Tobias was now glaring at me with his fierce Hawk eyes.

-How'd you–? Never mind.- Tobias and the others are still getting used to the fact that I know things I'm not supposed to know about. -Anything I should know?-

-You should talk to Cassie about it,- I advised. -I hear she's good at figuring out dreams.-

-I'll do that,- Tobias nodded. He knew me well enough to realise that I was giving him a cryptic clue about something I wasn't allowed to tell him. As long as I don't directly give anything away about future events, it wasn't against the rules. -You going to demorph already?-

-Will do,- I replied as I started demorphing back to Human. -How about a race back to my place once I'm morphed Hawk?- My house in the woods was very close to Tobias' meadow.

-Deal!- Tobias laughed.