We were closer than we had been the day before. Just a few feet from the edge of the clearing. All of us hunched down behind one large tree trunk. Even Ax, which, in his normal state, is awkward for him.

We huddled close, like some big group hug. When we morphed we would become tiny. And even a few feet between us would seem like a mile.

"Time to go termite," Rachel said. She had her arm around my back.

I was already sick with fear. Afraid for Jake. Afraid for my friends. Afraid of the very thing I was about to become.

45 "Can I just say that this sucks?" I muttered.

"Amen," Marco agreed. We were shoulder to shoulder. My head touched his.

And then, as my very bones rattled and my teeth chattered from fear, I began the process that would dissolve my bones, and melt away my teeth.

Down, down, down.

Falling . . . falling forever. It was like I had jumped off the Empire State Building and was falling. Yet even though I fell, I never quite hit the ground.

I was going from a girl of less than five feet to an insect less than a quarter of an inch long. I was becoming something that could have crawled inside my own ear.

Already the others who had been so close seemed to be a long way off. With my eyes still mostly human, I could see Rachel's face lose its features, and bulge out. I saw the monstrously big mandibles spring like black, sideways tusks from her mouth.

And then, my eyes went dark.

I was blind.

And I was glad.

46 Chapter TWELVE

I couldn't see, but I could feel the antennae as they extruded from my forehead.

I couldn't see, but I could feel the extra set of legs growing from my sides.

I could sense, rather than see, that my head was huge compared to the rest of my body.

I could sense that I had a swollen abdomen.

I could feel the massive pincers where my mouth had been.

I wanted to scream. I wanted to scream so badly, but I no longer had a voice. I no longer had a tongue.

I was less than a quarter of an inch long. I was as long as any two or three letters on this page. Grains of sand were the size of bowling balls to me. With my wildly waving feelers I could sense a huge, long shaft, like a fallen log. It was over my head. I slowly realized that it was a single pine needle.

I waited for the termite's instincts and mind to suddenly surge within my own. But the termite brain -- such as it was -- wasn't saying anything. It was totally silent.

My senses brought me almost nothing. I was blind. I could feel vibrations from sound, but they were vague. The termite's sense of "hearing" was not as good as its relative, the cockroach. I knew. I had been a cockroach.

All I had was a sense of smell. Or something like smell that came from my antennae waving in the air.

"Everyone okay?" I asked shakily. I desperately wanted to talk to someone. Anyone. I needed to know the others were alive.

"Yeah," Rachel answered. "I guess I am okay. It's just that I can't see anything. "

"Termites are blind, except for the queens and kings," I said. I must have sounded much calmer than I felt.

"These are very strange creatures," Ax commented. "I feel no instincts. It's as if they are just a body. A machine."

"Well, let's get these bodies outta here," Marco said. "Sooner or later the Yeerks are going to get tired of chasing Jake around the woods. "

"Which way?" Rachel asked. "Slight problem -- we're totally blind. "

"I . . . maybe I'm crazy, but I get this sense . . . this feeling . . . like something is calling to me," I explained.

"Okay, maybe," Marco said. "I have the same feeling. Like someone yelling from a long way off. "

47 "Let's follow that. Whatever it is," Rachel said. "It's as good a direction as any."

I set out toward the vague, distant voice. I had no idea if the others were going in the same direction. I guess they were all within a few inches of me, but I couldn't tell.

The termite legs were not very strong or very fast. Not as fast as an ant's. I could feel the rocks I was climbing over. Or the grains of dirt, I guess they were. They felt like rocks, anyway. Jagged, sharp-edged crystals, seemingly as big as a human head.

I motored on all six legs, trying hard not to think about anything but moving forward. Just keep moving, I told myself. Don't think about how small and defenseless you are.

"Hey. I feel something," Rachel said. "It's ... I guess it must be the edge of the force field. " At the same time I reached the force field myself. I felt it as a tingling hum that vibrated my tiny body. I could feel the rocks around me vibrating. I could feel the very air around me dancing.

"At least we're going in the right direction," Marco pointed out.

I moved closer to the invisible wall of snapping, humming power. Suddenly I realized my legs were just motoring away but I wasn't going anywhere.

"We will have to dig under it," Ax said. "It will stop at the top layer of dirt. "

"Does someone know how to make these pathetic bodies dig?" Rachel asked snappishly.

I flattened myself down and tried wiggling between two big grains of dirt. It didn't work.

Then I sensed one of those hugely long logs suspended in the air not far away. A pine needle.

I shuffled over toward it. The pine needle was close to the ground, but there was still plenty of room for me beneath it.

"Hey!" I yelled, genuinely excited. "Find a pine needle or something that crosses the line. I think maybe there's no force field directly beneath them."

"Yes," Ax agreed. "The pine needle may cast a shadow in the force field. " I reached up for the pine needle with my antennae and felt my way along beneath it. I could feel the tingly edges of the force field on either side of me. But the pine needle did cast a sort of shadow. And within that shadow, I could squeeze through.

"I'm through!" I said. At the same time, I became aware that the vague, far-off "voice" I'd heard calling to me was much stronger.

For a weird moment I actually thought it was my mother's voice. And I wanted to go toward it.

I moved my six legs and headed across the landscape of dirt boulders. I was sure where I was going now. I could hear the voice in my head. I could hear the call.

48 My termite body seemed to be moving on its own now. It was like I was a passenger in a car that someone else was driving.

"Is everyone through?" I asked.

"Yes," Rachel said.

She sounded distracted to me. Like she was listening to someone else and didn't want me interrupting. But that was okay, because I didn't really want to talk to her, either.

I quickly covered the ground to the building. I didn't see that it was the building, you understand. I just knew. And the terrible thing is, I never even paused to wonder how I knew.

"What are we . . . " Marco's voice. He didn't finish his thought. I didn't care.

"Guys?" Rachel asked. "Um . . . "

The opening was just ahead. I knew it was there. I knew that other soldier termites would be guarding the entrance.

I felt no fear.

I clambered up from the dirt into the tunnel opening. Familiar smells. Smells I knew. Home.

Home. My place. Where I was from, and where I belonged.

I smelled the other soldiers with my antennae. They touched me with their antennae, as I did to them.

We were of the colony.

Thecolony.

49 Chapter THiRTEEN

I raced swiftly down the tunnel. It headed upward at a sharp angle, but the angle meant little to me. I weighed practically nothing. A worker was ahead of me. It extruded a pellet of digested cellulose. Wood pulp. I quickly gobbled it up.