The Change by K. A. Applegate
Suddenly I noticed something happening to the horse's head. "Look!" I whispered.
There, crawling its way out of the horse's left ear, was a slug. A large, gray slug.
"Is that what I think it is?" Rachel whispered.
"Yeah. I think so."
The gray slug wormed its way out of the horse's head. It plopped heavily on the gravel and grass beneath it. And then it started to writhe away.
I'd seen those slugs before. We both had.
"Yeerk," I whispered. "There was a Yeerk in this horse."
165 Don't miss
We led Loren over to our fighter, and then we carried the second human across. He was unconscious. Bright red blood ran from a cut above his left eye.
«Red blood?» Arbron said. «Red? Yuck.» I was trying to act more mature than Arbron, but to tell you the truth, blood that color creeped me out, too. Still, I didn't think humans looked ugly or anything. Not like the Skrit or Taxxons, which are seriously ugly species. Nor did they look dangerous, like the Hork-Bajir.
Mostly they looked funny. I'd never seen a species that walked on just two legs without even a tail to help with balance. Arbron said what I
166 was thinking. «AII it would take is one little push and they'd fall right over. Earth must be hysterical! Humans falling forward and back, falling all over the place. No wonder they are so primitive. They probably spend all their time just trying to stand up.»
We were almost back to the Dome ship when the second human woke up. We'd left the Skrit Na to try to figure out how to fix their ship. That was their problem.
Hey, no one told them to shoot at us. Right?
"Unh," the human moaned.
He was larger than Loren. Maybe two or three inches larger. His hair was brown, not golden, and it was cut short. His eyes were also brown, not blue like Loren's.
Loren went to him and bent her legs in such a way that she could kneel down beside him. Ar-bron and I exchanged a look of amazement. It had to be hard to kneel like that and not fall.
"Hey, kid, you okay?" Loren asked.
The wounded human opened his eyes and blinked. He stared hard at me. "What happened?"
Loren shrugged. "Now we have a different bunch of aliens. Who'da guessed there were so many people zipping around outer space? Are you okay? That big cockroach popped you pretty good back there."
167 «You have nothing to fear,» I said gently. «You are safe now.»
The human felt his wound and looked at the red blood. He seemed almost as grossed out as I was. But he climbed to his feet. Which involved using his hands, I noticed. Humans seem to have stronger hands than we have.
«l am Elfangor. This is Arbron. We are Andalites. We will return you to your home planet»
The human nodded slowly. "Telepathy. You use telepathy to talk." His gaze traveled to my stalk eyes, back to my face, then to my tail. "That tail is a weapon, isn't it? Is it poisonous or does it just cut?"
I decided right then that I didn't like this human as much as Loren. I didn't like him much at all. «l politely told you my name, human,» I said coldly. «Now, I require your name.»
The human gave me a look that seemed insolent. Although who can really tell what an alien facial expression means?
"My name is Hedrick, actually. But I prefer my last name. Most people call me by my last name: Chapman."
"I think these Andalites are okay," Loren said to Chapman. "At least they're better-looking than the last bunch. And they've promised to -"
168 "Shut up," Chapman snapped. "I'm not interested in the opinion of a kid."
"Kid? Hey, you big jerk, who was it that got the weapon after the ship stopped moving? Me. And who was it that was cringing in the back, begging for mercy? You. And anyway, I'd be surprised if you're even a year older than me."
Chapman's face grew pink. A fascinating thing to watch. He clenched his jaw tightly. "And now it seems your heroics were pointless. We're prisoners again. And I have a feeling we won't be grabbing guns away from these Andalites."
Suddenly, he lunged forward toward the Dra-con beam in my hand! Without even thinking, I whipped my tail forward and pressed the blade against Chapman's throat.
Chapman laughed. "See that? See how fast he was? Couldn't even see that tail move." Again he gave me an insolent look. "What did you say your species is called? Andalites? Well, I have a feeling you guys are a little more dangerous than you pretend to be, despite all your polite talk and promises."
I felt like a fool. Not for the first time that day. The human Chapman had been testing me.
«We need to prepare to dock with the Dome ship,» Arbron reminded me.
I went through the docking procedure, moving the fighter back inside the fighter bay. I con-
169 centrated on my work, but I was upset. I didn't like the human named Chapman. I didn't like his suspicion toward me. After all, we had rescued him from a future as a zoo animal on the Skrit Na home world. He should be grateful.
But maybe that's the way humans are. I've heard there are species that can't handle anyone helping them. They'd rather die than ever be in debt to someone.
But judging by Loren, not all humans were that way.
Not your problem, Elfangor, I told myself. Just turn the humans over to the captain. Not your problem at all.
But I was wrong. The humans were my problem.
In fact, I was about to have lots of problems.
K. A. Applegate, The Change