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<Books 40-42>
- “Loyalty is all there is.” ~ Tobias, Book #40 pg. 83
- <He means he is surprised that we normal, healthy warriors risked our lives for a mere vecol.> He pause. Turned a stalk eye to me and added, <Or, as Marco says, someone who is “differently abled.”>
<Jeez, can’t we just get over this issue, please?> Rachel said. <It’s not like it’s Mertil’s fault he got injured. Or that he has an allergy or something. Man, I can name a few people I know who are perfectly healthy and a total waste of oxygen. In my opinion.>
<I’m down with that,> I murmered.
Mertil and Gafinilan remained silent.
<Ax,> Jake said. <You consider Gafinilan a hero of Andalite culture. Right?>
Ax nodded. One of his favorite adopted human gestures.
<Maybe the fact that he’s able to overlook physical imperfection is one of the reasons he’s a hero. What do you think?>
<Prince Jake, I think the reason Gafinilan is able to overlook his friend’s deformities is because he sees through the eyes of friendship. This is exceptional behavior. Under ordinary circumstances, in general Andalite society, it is simply not natural to show concern for a vecol.>
<So, friendship isn’t natural?> Rachel snapped. <It’s abnormal?>
<What is “normal,” anyway?> Cassie asked, rhetorically.
<The norm. The standard. The average,> I said.
Tobias glared. <Okay, I’m getting a complex over here. I’m a nothlit. A freak. Whatever. My best friend is an alien with blue fur. My girlfriend is human—when she isn’t in morph. How about we don’t talk about “normal” anymore. Or “average” or “natural.” Please.>
More weird silence. I, for one, was dying to hear what would happen next.
<Mertil-Iscar-Elmand,> Ax said. Respectfully. <It has been an honor to meet you. I will always remember you as you were.>
Well, it was a start.
[Page 124]
- “I’d decided a while back to give up analyzing what was happening to me and why. I’d figured that sanity depended on accepting the reality I saw, this dream or nightmare or vision. But that didn’t mean there weren’t times when all I wanted were answers—definite concrete answers.” ~ Jake, Book #41 pg. 119
- “Every choice is yours. Always has been. You were and are free.” ~ Tobias, Book #41 pg. 124
- “Ha-ha. And, free this month only, a bonus ha!” ~ Marco, Book #42 pg. 34
- “If I’m going to kick, I don’t want to go staring at the ceiling of my bedroom.” ~ Marco, Book #42 pg. 54
- <Maybe we should try to channel the Helmacron personality,> Tobias suggested. <They aren’t afraid of being small.>
<Maybe they think small is scary,> Cassie said.
<Then they’re going to be terrified of us.>
<Now what?>
<Let’s try to reason with them first,> Jake said.
<Oh, yeah.> I laughed. <That will work.>
<We don’t want them shooting Dracon beams if we can avoid it,> Jake said. <And Tobias, watch those blades.>
We marched forward until we were standing right beneath the Helmacrons. They paid us zero attention.
Jake addressed them. <Surrender now! Surrender, and we’ll let you live as our defiled beasts of burden. Resist us and—and we’ll sneeze in your general direction!>
<Very original,> Tobias whispered.
<You call that reasoning?>
<Reasoning Helmacron-style,> Jake explained.
[Page 63]
- <Perhaps our basic assumption is incorrect.>
<What assumption?> Tobias said. <You go into an airless environment, you suffocate. Where’s the big debate?>
<The bloodstream isn’t airless,> Cassie said. <Blood contains oxygen. The main purpose of blood is to carry oxygen around the body.>
“Yeah, but you’d have to be a fish to breathe it,” Jake argued.
<You’d need specialized lungs.>
“How do we know the Helmacrons aren’t fish?” I asked, knowing in a flash that we’d royally screwed up. “The Helmacron home world could be an aquarium somewhere in Iowa for all we know.”
<They walk on dry ground,> Tobias said.
“Maybe they’re, you know, those animals that can live in water and on land,” I suggested. “Like frogs. Or turtles.”
<Amphibians,> Cassie said.
<Or maybe they do not breathe at all,> Ax said.
“How can you be alive and not breathe?” I argued.
Ax blinked his main eyes at me. <Trees are alive and they do not actually breathe.>
“If Helmacrons don’t breathe, why do they have noses?” Jake.
<It is possible the organ has another use,> Ax said. <Although it is hard to imagine what it would be.>
“This from a boy who eats with his feet,” I said dryly.
[Page 88]
- <We’ve got to swim,> Jake said.
<Fine,> I agreed. <But which way?>
<Toward the heart,> Cassie said.
<Which is—?> I asked.
<Above the liver,> Cassie said.
<Who said you were directionally challenged?>
About a dozen tunnels went up to the left and up to the right. One tunnel seemed to go straight up.
<Eenie, meenie, minie, moe?> Ax said.
<You really have been on Earth too long,> I told him. <You’ll never fit in on the Andalite home world now.>
<I would miss Saturday morning cartoons,> Ax said.
[Page 102]
- “The treacherous aliens have severed my limb! But I shall still hobble on to victory!” ~ A Helmacron, Book #42 pg. 125
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All pictures and books copyrighted by Scholastic, Inc. Books by K.A. Applegate, and pictures by David B. Mattingly.