Or am I just fooling myself? Yes, I have a home planet. And a home on that planet. And a people like me. But will I ever fit in there again? Have I changed too much, been with humans too long?

I saw the lights of Cassie's home.

Once I had morphed into Prince Jake and gone there for dinner with Cassie's parents. I have Prince Jake's DNA from the time when he became infested by a Yeerk.

It's a treasured memory. Dinner with Cassie, I mean, not morphing Prince Jake. Sometimes when I'm alone in the woods and thinking about home, I find myself thinking about that evening instead.

I ran faster now, no longer concerned with eating, but just wanting to feel the impact of raindrops on my face and my chest. If I could run fast enough, all the drops would hit my face and chest and none would fall down on my back.

I saw a wooden rail fence. Almost too high to jump. But I ran straight at it, kicked, tucked my front legs, and sailed over.

There was a "thump!" as one hoof nicked the top rail.

I landed easily and realized I was panting.

I slowed down and trotted back toward the woods.

I could have beaten him, I told myself.

I could have forced the fight. I could have struck again before he had a chance to get away.

Another part of my mind answered, No, you would have lost. He's taller, bigger. He's more experienced. The Andalite body Visser Three controls used to belong to a great warrior. Visser Three has all of that warrior's skill and experience.

You went tail to tail with Visser Three and let him get away.

I went tail to tail with Visser Three and at least I didn't run away.

You wanted to. You were frightened.

I'd be a fool not to be frightened. But I didn't run. He did.

I realized I'd come to rest, standing beneath a particularly tall pine tree just back from the edge of a meadow. Tobias's meadow.

What's up, Ax-man?"; he called down from the darkness above.

Are you awake?"; all yeah. I have this slight tendency to wake up when big, blue, scorpion-tailed alien centaurs go crashing around in the woods like a herd of ruptured elephants."; Tobias is sometimes harsh when awakened. It is a human characteristic that he has not lost.

I apologize for waking you. How do elephants come to be ruptured?"; Tobias sighed. He floated down to a lower branch, then sailed over to a fallen log.

ally're stewing, aren't you?"; What?"; Stewing. Going over things again and again in your head. Around and around in circles, asking yourself the same questions again and again, then starting it all over again."; How did you know?"; Look, Ax, the first time I saw Visser Three ... and you know when that was ... I cried, I was so scared."; He was an alien. He was unfamiliar to you."; Elfangor was an alien. He was unfamiliar. He didn't scare me. Visser Three did. Not because of what he looked like, but because I could feel something coming from him. Like a dark cloud. Like a smell, almost. This feeling, I don't know any other word for it. Like I was looking at something that needed to be destroyed. He was evil. I felt it. And I had this horrible understanding, this knowledge, that one way or the other, that evil was going to touch me and change me. So I just cried."; I have met Visser Three before,"; I said stonily. I should not have been afraid."; What could you have done?"; I could have forced the fight."; What if you'd lost?"; What if I'd won? It would have been a terrible blow against the Yeerks. I would have avenged Elfangor. I would have done a great service for my people."; Look, Ax, you went up against him. He backed down. Not you."; He was surrounded and outnumbered. He thought each of you was another Andalite warrior ready to demorph and attack. He retreated with honor."; Honor,"; Tobias said derisively.

He's a cold-blooded killer. He's an invader in someone else's land. He's just another gangster. Murderers don't have honor."; I should let you go back to sleep."; Ooookay. You want to drop it, it's dropped."; He looked around, blinking, almost as blind as a human in the darkness. Hard to sleep when it's raining, anyway."; Tobias. The bird that Visser Three morphed? It was an Andalite bird. It's called a kafit bird. From my home planet."; ally're thinking, what? That Visser Three must have been on the Andalite home world in order to acquire it?"; all yes. I am worried that the Abomination has set foot on the Andalite home world."; I felt Tobias grow tense. Now he was beginning to understand. But he said, Sometimes people must take animals off the home world, right? I mean, just the way you can find an African lion in a zoo in America, Europe, wherever. Right?

So, okay, someone totally innocent takes one of these birds off your planet. They get hijacked or whatever. And it ends up in Visser Three's hands."; I wanted to believe it was possible. So I said, all yes, that could be it."; But I didn't believe it. I believed that Visser Three had either been to my world. Or that some ally of his had been there.

Either way it meant only one thing. The Yeerks had begun to reach into the one safe place in the galaxy: my home.

We met at the barn where Cassie and her father care for sick or injured nonhuman animals.

It is called the Wildlife Rehabilitation Clinic. It is a large, dark building made of wood. Within it are numerous cages made of steel wire. And within the cages are the sick animals.

Tobias was high in the rafters. From up there he can see out through a sort of window and can warn us if anyone is approaching.

Everyone else was on the ground level.

Cassie was working, pushing piles of dirty hay with a very large, three-pronged fork. Prince Jake would occasionally lift something out of her way.

Marco and Rachel were just chilling.

That's what humans call it. I believe it refers to the fact that when humans sit very still and do nothing, their body temperature drops. Thus, "chilling."

Someday, when I am old, too old to be a warrior, I will write a book about humans and their strange habits and speech and technology.

For example, did you know that humans invented books before computers? Because of this they believe computers to be superior, despite the very obvious fact that it takes one of their computers as much as thirty seconds to "load" a page, while a book page can be accessed with zero effective delay.

One would almost dismiss humans as a quaint, unimportant, backward race.

Except for two things. First, these are, after all, the creatures who have raised the art of taste to incredible levels. Humans may be technologically primitive, but they have created buttered popcorn, the Snickers bar, chili, and cigarette butts. (although humans themselves become very upset by the idea of eating cigarette butts.) And let us not forget: Humans, for all their faults, have created the cinnamon bun. Some day, after the war, there will be pilgrimages of Andalites streaming to Earth to morph into humans for a day and do nothing but eat cinnamon buns.

Get the extra frosting. It's worth it.

"Ax, are you paying attention?" Marco asked.

I snapped out of my daydream. all yes, of course."; "Because, see, I've said the same thing to you twice now, and you just keep staring off into space like you're a million miles away."

Please tell me a third time and I will pay attention."; "I said, by Visser Three morphing an Andalite bird, maybe he was sending a message. I mean, he still thinks we're all Andalites. He was pretty sure he was chasing an Andalite in morph, right? So he chooses to morph an Andalite bird? That's not a coincidence. That's a message."