Animorphs Fan Fiction ❯ The Daughter ❯ Meeting ( Chapter 7 )

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<Loren!>

For the second time in as many days, I startled awake to the sound of somebody calling my name.

“What?” I asked, looking wildly around me. I couldn’t see anything at first. Then, as my eyes adjusted, I saw a small lizard on one of the crates.

“Daren?” I asked, warily eyeing the lizard. It nodded. It was extremely weird to watch.

<Yeah, it’s me. I had to morph, and then I had to find you,> he said, sounding relieved.

“How long have you been in morph?” I demanded.

<I’m not sure.>

“Well, demorph, now!” I ordered. I didn’t think I’d been asleep for two hours, but I wasn’t sure.

<Uh, Loren?> he said, sounding embarrassed, <I don’t have my morphing outfit on.>

“Oh,” I said, flushing slightly. “Um, there are a whole bunch of uniforms in the crates. I’ll turn my back, and you can use one of those.”

<Okay.>

I turned my back, and waited for him to demorph. After about seven minutes, he called, “Okay, you can turn around now.”

I turned back around. Daren was wearing one of the greyish uniforms. It was way to big for him. I laughed.

“Great fashion statement,” I teased. He grinned back.

“Hey, according to my dad, excessively big was a fashion statement, once,” he shot back. I gave a mock shudder, and we both laughed. Then we froze, as we heard a noise from outside. We listened in silence for a moment or two, hardly daring to breathe. When we didn’t hear anything, we relaxed.

“Get over here, behind the crate,” I ordered Daren. “You’re right in the
line of sight if the door opens.”

“Yes ma’am, sir!” he replied, throwing me a mock salute. He did as he was told, though. He came at sat beside me.

I felt suddenly uneasy, and I could find no reason why. I pretended to scratch an itch on my leg, and move a little bit away.

“So,” I said, basically trying to fill the silence, “what do we do now?”

“You’re asking me?” he replied, sounding startled. “All the ideas so far have been yours.”

“What, so I’m the fountain of wisdom now? Okay, so, the only way off this planet is a space ship, right?”

“Right.”

“Well,” I continued, “we can’t stow away aboard anything, because they have bio-sensors. Not to mention, the security would probably be way to tough. So the only other option is stealing a ship.”

“What?” Daren nearly shouted.

“It’s not quite as crazy as it sounds. We’d go find a couple of Hork-Bajir, knock’em out, acquire them and just walk into one of the ships. I was paying attention when we were being escorted across the landing field, and they leave the Bug fighters unguarded. If we look like we’ve got a right to be there, I doubt they’ll even think twice about us being there.”

For a moment, Daren looked worried, and almost...calculating, and I got that now-familiar feeling that something was wrong. Then he smiled.

“You’re right, it’ll work,” he agreed. “Are your plans alway this brilliant?” he asked, teasing me. I snorted.

“I don’t know. This is my first time in a life-threatening situation. Maybe I only work good under stress,” I said, letting a bit of sarcasm slide into my voice. He smiled a bit more, but didn’t laugh. He put his hand on my shoulder, and my pulse got a bit faster.

“I don’t think so,” Daren said, quietly. “I think you’re one of the most brilliant, beautiful people alive.”

“Oh,” I said, not knowing what I could possibly say to that. He leaned forwards, and so did I, and we kissed.

And in that moment, all the uneasiness, all the feelings of wrongness solidified, and I knew. I pushed him away from me, as hard as I could. He fell backwards and slid away. I scrambled to my feet and grabbed the dracon
beam, pointing it at him as he got to his feet.

“Loren,” he said, looking confused and hurt, exactly as Daren would have. If it had been Daren. “Loren,” he repeated, “what–“

I glared at him, angry and sad. But very, very sure of myself. “Yeerk,” I spat.