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My name is Tobias. By now you all know my last name. Yes, I'm that Tobias, the "Animorph."

Jake had us all record our thoughts in journals, just in case the Yeerks killed us all. Our parents would find the journals, and maybe publish them, or something. Now that the war is won, and Earth is free from Yeerk control, we released all the journals written over the years. You can find them all online.

Or what you thought was all of them. But there are more, many more, that we didn't release. Here and there, each of us skimmed over things that happened, things that were far too real. But I'm here to fix the record.

This second entry happens almost exactly the same time as the previous one, the day after we escaped from the construction site. This time, it is Cassie's recollection of her first morph. But Cassie wanted to keep it out of the record, just as I asked to keep my first entry redacted as well.

Chapter 6.6

Hi, it's me, Cassie. This is my first journal entry! Where to start...

Jake said to start from the beginning. I think he's right. These journals are important. I know he told Marco that we're writing everything down so that if we...uh...don't make it, our friends and family will learn the truth.

But that's not why. I don't think. I think Jake wants us to write it all down so that down the road, when this is all over, we'll have a record. We can prove to the world exactly what happened, first hand. Think what would have happened if Anne Frank hadn't written her diary? We'd never know what happened.

Jake volunteered to write the first part, about meeting Prince Elfangor, so I'll start just after that. Part of me doesn't even want to write about it, but I have to. I'm still pretty embarrassed. But it was my first transformation, and that's gotta be important.

We were all pretty shaken by what we had seen, but it was a relief to hear from Jake that everyone had made it out all right. I thought for sure Jake and Rachel were goners after they yelled at that...Hork-Bajir? I know what they were thinking, but that was just stupid. They may be faster than me, but that doesn't mean they have to risk their lives like that.

When I got back home, all I could think about was that Andalite. Prince Elfangor. He had a way of smiling, even though he didn't have a mouth. Just meeting him was the most special event of my life. I just wish it hadn't ended like it did.

But I also kept thinking about his gift to all of us. I felt a warm pleasant feeling when he activated the strange cube that gave us our new powers. But I had to know if it was all real. Something about it all felt like a dream.

I knew what I had to do. I had to find an animal to 'acquire'. Well, that was going to be the least of my problems. I live on a farm, and we have horses, and a cow, and then there is the wildlife rescue center my father runs. I could find skunks and foxes, and hawks and eagles, squirrels and wolves, you name it.

I decided to stick with something a little safer, and went to the pasture. It was far enough from the house that this late at night, my parents wouldn't be wandering about, and we had a bunch of horses. I hate to admit it, but I'd dreamed I was a horse hundreds of times. They are so powerful and majestic. Now I got to see if I could make that dream come true.

There were several horses in the pasture, and I went immediately to my favorite. Leila was dark brown with a thick black mane and tail. She was also the kindest of our mares. I entered the enclosure and walked up to Leila, patting her comfortingly on the back. I had no idea what to do, but I kept my hands on her while concentrating.

I didn't feel anything special, but Leila stopped mincing her feet. Her tail stopped swatting the flies away. It was weird. Her eyes were still open, but her breathing slowed like she was asleep. This was definitely not normal. If I had had any doubts about whether the day before had really happened, they disappeared now.

I stepped away from her. I'd better not change right in front of the horses, I decided, so I jumped the fence into the larger pasture. It was more secluded. The stallions were out there right now, grazing in among the trees, but I couldn't see them from where I was.

After walking a hundred yards or so away from the mares, I settled my nerves and prepared myself. Could it really happen? Was this all real? I was about to find out.

I stood there, concentrating on Leila. I was her. I was running through the field, trotting. No, galloping. The wind was flying through my mane, the sun shining down on me through the clouds. Then I felt it happen.

My face was stretching. It didn't hurt, but when I opened my eyes, I could see my face growing. I almost stopped then and there and ran home, but I kept concentrating. Then I felt my upper body growing, getting heavier. I was going to topple over! This was horrible!

Everything was changing in gross ways. My skin was spurting fur, and I was growing everywhere. Then my clothes exploded! Oops...I didn't know that was going to happen. My arms and legs were still human, but the rest of me was turning into Leila! I was about to topple over from my growing horse body.

I needed horse legs and I needed them now. I concentrated all my thoughts on my legs, and sure enough, my arms started to stretch. The bones within them adjusted as they changed shapes and lengths. I fell onto all fours, my forelegs now strong enough to support my weight.

My skin itched all over from the short fur emerging across my body, so I focused on that next. In seconds, I had a full coat, and I was a lot more comfortable. This wasn't so bad. (Later, Rachel will say that when she morphs, she can't control what morphs when. She thinks I have a gift or something, but I don't think so.)

Soon, I was standing in the field, above my destroyed clothing. My shoes were the worst, completely destroyed. I noticed that though Leila had horse-shoes on, I didn't. I guess I wasn't surprised. Finally the realization stuck me. I was a horse!

Whinnying loudly, I took off across the field. Running came naturally to me, and I knew enough about horses to understand the different gaits, or patterns of running. I switched from a trot to a gallop, the wind blowing through my hair just as I pictured it. It was amazing.

I heard something behind me and swung my head to look. It's not like a human face. My eyes were on either side of my head. So even as I looked back with one eye, I could still see all the way in front of me with the other. It's hard to describe.

I tensed my muscles, ready to run at the first sign of trouble. Wolves? A mountain lion? I knew the odds of either were very low, but that's what I was worried about. Thankfully, it was neither. It was a horse.

One of our stallions had run up to greet me. Blue was young, but too old to be called a colt. He was a pretty blue roan, which really means half of his hair is white, and the other half black. But instead of gray, he looks kind of blue in the sunlight. I always thought he was especially pretty.

I knickered and pushed my nose up against his. We breathed on each other for a minute in greeting, sharing the same air. I didn't even really mean to, it was just instinctive. Still, it was a nice feeling, roaming free with a friendly companion.

Only, he was getting a little too friendly. If you know what I mean? I wasn't a stranger to breeding horses. I'd helped my dad dozens of times. Blue was doing all the normal things. Circling me, sniffing at me. He even nipped my legs!

I sniffed at the air. Everything smelled different. I'm not saying that horses have the most amazing senses of smell in the animal kingdom, but they definitely smell in a different way than people. Even though the odor seemed completely different than what I was used to, I could tell I was in estrus. That means that I was giving off all the signals that I was ready to breed.

Of course, I wasn't ready at all! And what's odd, neither was Leila. I mean, the real Leila. When I 'acquired' her, it was obvious that she wasn't in heat. But the me-version of Leila was. I guess you don't copy everything about the animal when you absorb their DNA.

I'd love to stop the story here. I think I've said all the really important things about my first transformation. But that's not where the story ends, and I promised Jake. So I'm going to tell the whole thing. So here goes.

I knew what Blue was trying to do. I had to get out of there, but I couldn't seem to do it. It's like the Leila part of me wasn't listening. Soon, he was standing right behind me. I looked back at him, trying to transform back to my human form. But I couldn't concentrate.

He was pushing his snout up under my tail. Believe me, I didn't want him to. But I didn't stop him. I was trapped in Leila's instincts. I could tell he was scenting me, trying to smell if I was ready. He would stick his nose up between my legs, and then lift his head, curling his upper lip.

As if that weren't enough, he was breathing on me. Warm air covered my...uh, Leila's vulva, and it was really distracting. Then he touched her. He was literally tasting her. I tried to cover myself with my tail, but whenever I did that, Blue nipped me on the butt! It hurt, but worse, it made me lift my tail again. Just a natural reaction that I couldn't stop.

I swiveled away from him, but he just kept up behind me, sniffing. I thought about kicking him, but I didn't want to hurt him. Besides, I wasn't sure I would be able to convince Leila to kick. I was trapped, and I was beginning to worry that I wasn't going to be able to stop it. If I didn't do something, I was going to be bred.

I could feel myself clenching below my tail, what my dad called 'winking'. That was a bad sign - it meant I was ready. Looking back beneath him, I could see that Blue was ready, too. He stuck his snout up under my tail again, and this time I spread my legs and...

It's just something horses do, okay? When a mare is ready to breed, she goes number 1. The stallion can smell that and see if she's ready. Blue whinnied loudly when he smelled me. He knew I was ready. Well, maybe Leila was, but I was a thirteen-year-old girl! I stood there, embarrassed and scared out of my mind. I tried to run, but it was hopeless. I just planted my feet when Blue mounted.

It was all very sudden. He was behind me, and then he was on me, half his weight resting on my powerful hind legs. His front legs curled around my haunches, holding me in place. I whinnied as he bit my neck to grip me, and then he thrust himself forward. I waited hopelessly for the unavoidable.

Thankfully, the young stallion was inexperienced. His aim was low, and he ended up brushing up against my...Leila's teats. He held me there, and kept pushing. He was just a foot away from his real target, waiting unprotected underneath my raised tail.

I knew that at any moment he might correct himself. I trembled, fearing what would happen. Still my instincts were too powerful. I couldn't leave. I wanted to be right where I was! Thrust after thrust, Blue aimed low. If he had been any of the other stallions, I would have been doomed. But he didn't have enough experience.

Instead, after I felt him rub up against Leila's udder twelve useless times, he released his grip on my neck and neighed loudly. Apparently that was good enough for him, and he was done. A minute later, he pulled himself off of me, snorting. He left me there, standing with my tail raised, unbred. Leila was devastated, but I was so completely relieved.

When he got off of me, I took off, running through the fields. I needed to get some distance so I could concentrate and change back to my old self. My heart was racing, my chest heaving for breath. I had been so close to the unthinkable! I hadn't been able to fight Leila's instincts at all. The only thing that saved me was Blue's inexperience.

I couldn't help but wonder what it would have been like. I'd always been sort of interested when I helped my dad manage the horses. But believe me, I was thanking my lucky stars that I had gotten away. I knew that from then on I'd have to be careful transforming. I quickly morphed back. That's when I realized I had to figure out a way to sneak back into the house naked, without being noticed!