Let's Read Animorphs! The Whole Series! Ch-ch-ch-chaaanges

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ANOTHER SCORCHER: Aug 12, 2018

The first two marine reptiles the Animorphs are chased by seem to be plesiosaurs - the neck rising above the water like a giraffe is how they were popularly portrayed but is almost certainly incorrect. Their necks were not nearly that flexible, and more likely they used them to scoop up crustaceans and small fish from the seafloor and reefs. Also, they would not have tried to hunt a pod of dolphins, that prey is just way too big for them.

The later creature is probably some sort of mosasaur or big pliosaur like Liopleurodon, and they were apex predators that would have preyed on dolphin-sized ichthyosaurs so that seems plausible enough.

# ? Mar 8, 2021 19:32

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 18:54

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

ANOTHER SCORCHER posted:

The first two marine reptiles the Animorphs are chased by seem to be plesiosaurs - the neck rising above the water like a giraffe is how they were popularly portrayed but is almost certainly incorrect. Their necks were not nearly that flexible, and more likely they used them to scoop up crustaceans and small fish from the seafloor and reefs. Also, they would not have tried to hunt a pod of dolphins, that prey is just way too big for them.

The later creature is probably some sort of mosasaur or big pliosaur like Liopleurodon, and they were apex predators that would have preyed on dolphin-sized ichthyosaurs so that seems plausible enough.

Even though it doesn't identify these in the text, you're almost certainly right (Well, the animal that ate them wouldn't have been Liopleurodon, for reasons that will soon become obvious, but mosasaur is likely)

# ? Mar 8, 2021 19:53

Tree Bucket: Apr 1, 2016; R.I.P.idura leucophrys

ANOTHER SCORCHER posted:

The first two marine reptiles the Animorphs are chased by seem to be plesiosaurs - the neck rising above the water like a giraffe is how they were popularly portrayed but is almost certainly incorrect. Their necks were not nearly that flexible, and more likely they used them to scoop up crustaceans and small fish from the seafloor and reefs. Also, they would not have tried to hunt a pod of dolphins, that prey is just way too big for them.

The later creature is probably some sort of mosasaur or big pliosaur like Liopleurodon, and they were apex predators that would have preyed on dolphin-sized ichthyosaurs so that seems plausible enough.

-aaaaand now I'm lost in Wikipedia, reading about plesiosaurs.
I very much look forward to this thread becoming "also, talk about Mesozoic beasties" for the next few weeks.

# ? Mar 9, 2021 03:07

FlocksOfMice: Feb 3, 2009

This thread finally gave me an Animorphs dream. I was posing as a controller in the yeerk pool, trying to inconspicuously collect enough... fertilizer, chemicals, and whatever, and pile it up somewhere to suicide-bomb the place. Visser Three ended up finding out and we had a stand-off where I threatened to blow the pile with a dracon beam and kill us both. True to canon, Visser Three was appropriately cowardly and very willing to arrange the situation in a way where he didn't get blown up.

My brain rendered Visser Three without a human torso, nothing like the false lies of the book covers. Teach the controversy.

# ? Mar 9, 2021 03:27

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

WrightOfWay posted:

What kind of self-respecting 90's kids have never seen Jurassic Park? It shouldn't be that hard to figure it out.

In the novel of Jurassic Park, Dr Grant gets sent a photo of the decomposed remains of an escaped compy that bit a girl on a beach in Costa Rica, has the lawyers from the biotech cloning company that funds his paleontology research ringing him up about that photo seeming very concerned, notes that the plans for the "resort" on Isla Nublar include very high fences and moats, is invited down because it would be "right up your alley," and still completely fails to twig what's going on until a dinosaur is right in front of him. Come on dude!

Fuschia tude posted:

Yeah. Again, I wonder whether the non-series books may have been written much earlier than their release dates would suggest, since the mistake in question is pretty fundamental.

I assumed you were all just talking about not being able to morph the dinosaurs again when they get back home, which is less a mistake and more a handwavey way of making everything go back to normal, but now I think it must be something completely different that I've totally forgotten about.

# ? Mar 9, 2021 04:48

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

freebooter posted:

In the novel of Jurassic Park, Dr Grant gets sent a photo of the decomposed remains of an escaped compy that bit a girl on a beach in Costa Rica, has the lawyers from the biotech cloning company that funds his paleontology research ringing him up about that photo seeming very concerned, notes that the plans for the "resort" on Isla Nublar include very high fences and moats, is invited down because it would be "right up your alley," and still completely fails to twig what's going on until a dinosaur is right in front of him. Come on dude!

The difference is, unlike these kids, Dr. Grant has never seen Jurassic Park.

# ? Mar 9, 2021 04:56

Shwoo: Jul 21, 2011

Epicurius posted:

Even though it doesn't identify these in the text, you're almost certainly right (Well, the animal that ate them wouldn't have been Liopleurodon, for reasons that will soon become obvious, but mosasaur is likely)

Doesn't Tobias identify them at the end of chapter eight? He does in my copy.

freebooter posted:

I assumed you were all just talking about not being able to morph the dinosaurs again when they get back home, which is less a mistake and more a handwavey way of making everything go back to normal, but now I think it must be something completely different that I've totally forgotten about.

It's related to Tobias and Rachel's plot, if that narrows it down. It should come up in their next chapter, I think.

# ? Mar 9, 2021 05:07

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Animorphs-Megamorphs 2: In the Time of the Dinosaurs, Chapter 7
Cassie

quote:

Jake jumped up out of that footprint like it was filled with rattlesnakes.

We stared at the footprint.

Then we looked up and stared at the alleyway that something had made through the trees.

Then we stared at the way the leaves had been stripped from a lot of the highest branches of the trees.

�Jake, something ate those leaves,� I pointed out.

�Those trees are like thirty feet tall,� Jake said.

�There are a cluster of these same footprints over there.� Ax pointed about ten feet away. �And all across there it�s as if the sand has been swept. Swe-put. Swep-tuh.�

Jake looked at me. �Cassie, do you know anything that could possibly have this footprint?�

Jake thinks I�m some kind of animal expert. I shook my head. �What it looks like is some very, very large animal came through those woods. It was munching the top leaves of the trees. Like a giraffe would do. Then it hit the water here. It turned around. That�s the cluster of prints there. And it has an insanely long tail. That�s the swept area. Once it was turned around, it went back the way it came.�

�A giraffe?� Jake asked.

�Not a giraffe,� I said.

Jake looked a little confused. We all were, but he�s the one who gets stuck making the decisions.

I felt sorry for him. He�d been right to drag me away from those sea monsters. I should have told him that.

But poor Rachel. Poor Tobias. What was I ever going to do without Rachel? Rachel had been my best friend forever. I couldn�t imagine not seeing her every day.

I realized I was crying. I guess I had been, off and on, since we�d dragged up out of the sea.

I felt Jake�s arm go around my shoulders. �Don�t cry, Cassie. Don�t give up on Rachel and Tobias. You know Rachel. If there�s a way to survive, she�ll find it.�

I wiped my tears. �Yeah. You�re right. And we have to focus here.� He took his arm away and suddenly seemed awkward. I think he expected Marco to make some smirky remark. But Marco has a good heart. He knows when to let things go. Besides, I knew Marco was almost as sad as I was.

�What should we do, Prince Jake?� Ax wondered.

�Have I mentioned don�t call me prince?� Jake said automatically.

�Yes, Prince Jake, you have.�

Jake looked around. �I guess we go that way,� he said, pointing to the forest. �But not along that path. Whatever crushed those trees and made these tracks, we don�t want to run into it. But obviously, wherever we are - some island somewhere, Africa, South America - wherever we are, there have to be people, right? Just not here on the beach. So let�s go find them.�

I found myself looking back at the sea, at the surf that lapped almost peacefully on the coarse dark sand. Was she still alive somehow? Jake was right: If anyone could get swallowed by a whale - or whatever that thing had been - and survive, it was Rachel.

�I caught a glimpse of a clearing way back in the trees,� I said. �Could be a village there.�

Jake led the way into the trees. The sun was shut out by the tall, spreading branches. There were vines hanging down and crawling up the trunks of trees. And huge ferns so big you could hide in them. We struck a stream, maybe fifteen feet across. Both banks of the river were lined by magnolias, dogwoods, and massive fig trees.

�This is not anywhere near being home,� I said. �This is more like tropical vegetation.�

�It�s humid enough, that�s for sure,� Marco complained.

�I wonder if the water�s okay to drink?� Jake asked. Then, with a shrug, he dropped to his knees and dipped his hand in. He brought the water to his mouth and sipped.

�I guess we can always get a bunch of shots for whatever disease is in the water,� I said. I dropped beside him and tasted the water. The humidity hadn�t seemed so bad down by the ocean. But now it was dehydrating me. I was massively thirsty.

�It�s probably okay,� I said. �Usually running water -�

FWOOOSH!

A huge head exploded from the water.

SNAP!

A jaw six feet long slammed shut with a sound like steel on steel. The jaw snapped shut so close to my face that it grazed my nose.

I leaped back. Fell on my butt. Spun, jumped up, and bolted.

�That was one big honkin� crocodile!� Marco yelled as he ran beside me. We stopped beneath a huge tree. Four of us, all panting.

�That wasn�t right,� I gasped.

�Yeah, no kidding,� Marco said.

�No, I mean it was too big. The jaw was too long and thin.�

�I am really not liking this,� Jake muttered. �What were those things in the ocean? What made that footprint? Where on Earth are we that has crocodiles that size? I mean, we�ve seen crocodiles. That was one way, way big croc.�

�Prince Jake, I am going to demorph,� Ax said.

�Have you been in morph too long?� Jake asked with a frown.

�No. But I am frightened,� Ax replied. �I don�t want to have to fight in this weak human body.�

�Yeah, go ahead,� Jake said. �Cassie, I don�t mean to hit you with this, but you know more about animals than any of us. Where the - where on Earth are we?�

�I don�t know,� I admitted. �Giant crocodiles, huge, aggressive whales or whatever, like nothing I�ve ever even heard of, and something big enough to leave a footprint you could turn into a wading pool. I just don�t know.�

�Okay, fine,� he said, obviously frustrated. �Let�s try it another way. Ax, you know more about physics and so on than any of us -�

�More than any human,� Ax said. He was demorphing but was still mostly human.

�Whatever. Just tell me how an explosion could have blown us all the way to, I don�t know, Madagascar or wherever, without killing us.�

�Madagascar?� Marco asked.

�It couldn�t,� Ax said simply.

�Great. Great. That clears everything up just fine. This is nuts.� He sighed. He looked at me and shrugged.

�I don�t know,� I said. �Maybe when we find some people they can tell us where we are.�

We walked on, heading toward the clearing. The forest had become a frightening place to us.

Everything was wrong. Out of place somehow, in some way I couldn�t quite explain. How had the storm and rain suddenly become humid sunlight? How had we gone into the water off a beach fronted by a boardwalk and come out at a beach fronted by forest?

�Maybe it�s all a dream,� Marco said, as if he�d been reading my thoughts. �In which case, I�d like to dream about a nice, ice-cold Coke.� He held out his hand, curved around an imaginary bottle.

�Hmm. So much for the dream theory.�

We were almost to the clearing now. I could see bright, buttery sunlight through the trees. But massive ferns blocked my view of the clearing itself.

�Let�s get out from under these trees,� I said. �We�ll think better in the open. And maybe there will be some people.�

�Too bad they�ll speak Madagascarese,� Marco said.

�Shhh!� I froze.

�What?�

�Shhhh! Listen!� A grunting, snuffling sound to our left. Then the sound of greenery being rustled. Then more snuffling. The sound of� eating?

�Something munching leaves,� I said.

�There�s been way too much munching already,� Marco muttered.

�No, it�s okay,� I said. �If it eats plants, it won�t eat us. Could be a cow. If it�s a cow, maybe it belongs to someone.�

�And if it doesn�t belong to anyone, maybe we can eat it. I�m starving.�

We threaded our way cautiously toward the sound. The closer we got, the more confident I was.

Yes, something was grazing. But did cows eat leaves? No. Deer, maybe?

I pushed aside a fern frond. And there it was.

It was perhaps twenty feet long from head to tail. It stood on four elephantlike legs. It had a long neck that made up a third of its length and was balanced by the long tail of equal length. Along its back were bumpy, bony things, like armor plating that only covered that one area.

For about two minutes I don�t think one of us drew a breath. We just stared.

�I think it�s a baby,� I said.

�A baby?� Marco said. �Cassie, it�s a dinosaur.�

Suddenly.

Crash! Crash! CRASH! CRASH!

From behind us!

�HuuuuRROOOOAAARR!�

The ground shook from the impact of its huge, taloned feet. The blast of its roar shivered the leaves and buckled my knees.

I spun around just in time to see it leap.

It jumped over us like we weren�t even there. Jumped over us with its awful, hawklike talons. It landed with one huge foot on the ground and one holding the side of the �little� dinosaur.

Down came the head. That huge square, familiar head.

The Tyrannosaurus opened its massive jaws and closed them at the base of the baby dinosaur�s neck.

I didn�t know what was happening. My mind was gone. Gone in out-of-control terror.

We ran.

So, I don't think they're in Madigascar....or at least not current day Madigascar.

Chapter 8
Rachel

quote:

I was human! A human gasping for air inside the belly of the creature.

My lungs were screaming and heaving. I was blind. My skin was burning. I was being pummeled, crushed, smashed, beaten.

I was getting mad.

I knew Tobias was there, too, but I had no idea where. He wasn�t thought-speaking.

Morph! I told myself. But already I was weakening. The human body can�t last long without air. I tried to focus. But my head was swirling. I wanted to just give up. Why fight it? I was done for.

Not yet, you�re not done for, Rachel, I told myself. Not yet. I might not survive, but by God, I was going to deal with this creature before I went down.

From far off I could sense the changes occurring. I knew I was growing. But too weak � too weak � no time � no time. And once I dug out I�d find water. Not air.

Air. I needed air. Some nagging part of my brain kept saying, �Lungs!�

I felt like saying, �Yes, I know. I�m suffocating. I know all about my lungs. They hurt. They�re heaving, gasping, crying for air.�

And I swear, as I swirled down into the darkness, there came a voice, clear as a bell in my head. My own voice, but from outside of my own head.

�No, you idiot,� it said. �Not your lungs. Duh.�

It was the weirdest thing. But suddenly I could see myself clearly. I even knew that I was halfway morphed. I had blond hair on my head and coarse brown fur on my face. I was crushed inside the gizzard of the beast. A tiny, crumpled bundle of feathers was pressed against me.

I could see it all. But better than that, I could see what the voice meant. I was enclosed in a cage made up of massive ribs. But right there, just a foot away, was air.

I drew back my massive paw. The paw of a grizzly bear. A paw that could destroy a man with a single, backhanded swipe. I drew that paw back and I extended my wicked, hooked claws, and I thrust that paw straight out. I twisted and pushed. The twist ripped and the power of the thrust dug my paw deep into the creature�s in-sides.

�HREEEEE-UH!�

I heard its scream. It reverberated through the flesh that pressed all around me.

I thrust and twisted.

�HREEEEE-UH!�

Another scream. A spasm that wracked the body so powerfully it almost knocked me out.

But I was not so easily crushed now. I was no longer human. I had finished morphing the grizzly bear. And not even this sea monster could digest a grizzly bear.

With my last ounce of strength, I thrust and twisted.

SHWOOOOOSH!

Air!

Air poured in. I gasped at it. Air!

I had done it. I had ripped a hole out of the gizzard and penetrated the creature�s lungs.

<Tobias! Breathe! There�s air!>

I went back to work, ripping now with both huge paws. Digging downward to avoid the ribs. Suddenly water gushed in. Salt water. Cold and wonderful. I kicked and clawed the opening till it was bigger. Then I tumbled out. I hit bottom. I looked up, dazed and disoriented.

The creature had beached itself. I was in no more than five or six feet of water. I stood up, my huge bear head broke the surface, and I reared up on my hind legs.

Tobias was fluttering weakly in the water. I grabbed him up as gently as I could with bear paws.

I lumbered toward shore and set him down on dry land.

<Tobias, are you okay?>

<Do I look okay?> he asked.

<Well �>

<Busted wing. Feathers a mess. Half my tail feathers ripped out or eaten away by stomach acid. I�m a definite mess. On the other hand, I�m alive.>

<Yeah,> I said. I reared up to my full height and took a look around. I could tell that we had run up into the mouth of a river.

The riverbanks were steep on our side of the river. My pathetically dim bear vision could barely make out some vague shapes moving on the far bank. I sniffed the air. The grizzly sense of smell is excellent. What I smelled was puzzling. <I�m smelling � I don�t know what. It�s like something is missing. Like the air has been scrubbed clean. I smell various trees and plants, but�> I shook my huge head. 

Tobias stood up shakily on his talons. <Car exhaust? The smell of fossil fuels burning? The faint smells of backyard pools and grease-belching fast-food restaurants? The smell of human sweat, perfume, garbage? In other words, all the smells of civilization?>

<Yeah. Exactly. You�re right.> I glared at him. <Too right. How did you know? What�s going on, Tobias?>

<Well, my wings and tail are a mess, but my eyes are still working. I can see what you can�t.>

<You can�t see smells.>

<No. But I can see that small herd over across the river. That small herd of hadrosaurs over there.>

<What is a hadrosaur?> I demanded. I was getting annoyed at the way Tobias sounded. Like he was about to say something important, only he couldn�t quite spit it out.

<Hadrosaurs were a group of duck-billed dinosaurs.>

<Tobias, would you mind making just a little bit of sense? Dinosaurs?>

<Yeah. And let�s see, if I remember my old dinosaur books, those long-necked things in the water were Elasmosauruses and the thing that you just chewed a hole through was probably a Kronosaurus.>

<Yeah. Right.> I waited for him to laugh at his own joke. Only he didn�t laugh. <Dinosaurs?>

<Yeah. Dinosaurs.>

<Oh, man. Tobias, we are gonna need some better morphs.>

Tobias is a hawk. Hawks are dinosaurs. No, but to identify the named animals in the past two chapters (and I defer to people who know more about prehistoric life than I do), Tyrannosaurus Rex probably doesn't need any introduction. Apex predator of the Cretaceous, although there's speculation it spent a bunch of time scavenging as well. Big, pretty scary, and famous.

Hadrosaurs, sometimes called duckbills, because their jaws looked something like a duckbill, were a family of herbivores who lived in the Cretaceous. Some of them had big crests on top of their skull, which some people think they could use to make sounds, either mating calls, threats, or danger calls.

Elasmosaurus was a genus of plesiosaur, which was an aquatic reptile and not a dinosaur, with a long neck. Like Another Scorcher pointed out, people used to think that their necks were flexible, and that they stuck out above the water, but that's generally not widely accepted anymore. They probably ate, as mentioned, crustaceans and small fish.

Kronosaurus is a pliosaur, which is a type of plesiosaur (generally, the rule is, if it has small head and a long neck, it's a plesiosaur. If it has a big head and a short neck, it's a pilosaur. Kronosaurus was big and could have eaten a dolphin...in fact, it's generally thought they mostly fed on smaller plesiosaurs and sea turtles.

In what's probably a KASU, you probably wouldn't have seen a Kronosaurus with these other animals....they lived in the Early Cretaceous and would have been extinct by the time Elasmosaurus, T. Rex and hadrosaurs were around. This is addressed later

Shwoo posted:

Doesn't Tobias identify them at the end of chapter eight? He does in my copy.

He does, as you can see above. I was wrong in saying he didn't identify them, it turns out.

# ? Mar 9, 2021 05:37

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Epicurius posted:

In what's probably a KASU, you probably wouldn't have seen a Kronosaurus with these other animals....they lived in the Early Cretaceous and would have been extinct by the time Elasmosaurus, T. Rex and hadrosaurs were around. This is addressed later

# ? Mar 9, 2021 06:44

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

I remember what the morphing error is now - it's a pretty blatant excuse to just not reunite the separate groups too early.

Unrelated - is this the only book in the entire series that doesn't feature the Yeerks at all? Except maybe the Ellimist Chronicles?

# ? Mar 9, 2021 07:38

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

freebooter posted:

Unrelated - is this the only book in the entire series that doesn't feature the Yeerks at all? Except maybe the Ellimist Chronicles?

Book 26-The Attack doesn't have Yeerks in it, technically, at least.

# ? Mar 9, 2021 17:11

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Epicurius posted:

Book 26-The Attack doesn't have Yeerks in it, technically, at least.

Ah, that's right. And I think that maaaaybe (but I barely remember it) David 2: The Return of David might not either.

# ? Mar 10, 2021 06:12

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Animorphs-Megamorphs 2: In the Time of the Dinosaurs, Chapter 9
Tobias

quote:

I was in pain. I didn�t want to mention it, though. What was the point?

I had very few morphs, unlike the others. We were on land now. A dolphin morph wasn�t any use. The only useful morph I had was my human one.

But somehow a human body seemed pathetically weak in a world of dinosaurs. At least in my own hawk body I could fly away from danger.

Unfortunately, my hawk body was a mess.

<Now what do we do?> Rachel wondered. <What about the others? Do you think they made it?>

 I tried to extend my broken wing. <Ahh!>

<Does it hurt?>

<Not really,> I lied.

High above me the huge bear head looked down at me. <Why don�t you morph to human, then morph back to your bird body? The new hawk body will be constructed from the DNA and should be fine. Just like what happens when we injure a morphed body.>

<Okay.>

It felt weird going human. I�d only done it a few times since the Ellimist had given me back my morphing power.

Now I felt my feathers itching as they melted into flesh. My sight grew dim, my hearing became muddy. I rose up, tall, large, clunky, awkward � human. �At least the pain is gone now,� I said.

�Now to get feathery again.� A few minutes later, I was my normal - okay, my abnormal - self.

Unfortunately �

<Aaaaahh! Oww! It just hurts worse!>

<This makes no sense!> Rachel said, sounding outraged.

I laughed grimly. <Rachel, in case you haven�t noticed, our lives stopped making sense that day we walked through the construction site and had a spaceship land in front of us. Maybe it�s some effect from the time travel - if that�s what�s happened to us. I�ll be sure and ask Ax, if we ever see him again. Or maybe the Ellimist messed me up when he gave me back my powers. It�d be a relief to think that guy is capable of screwing up.>

<Then morph to human. We have to get going. Don�t ask me where.>

<No. I need to heal. That will take time. I have to stay in my own body for it to heal. But first I need you to set my broken wing.>

<What? I�m not Cassie!>

<You�ve seen her do it. So have I.>

<Oh, man,> Rachel moaned. <What am I going to use for bandages?>

<Part of your morphing outfit. That and some twigs.>

<Oh, man,> Rachel said again. 

She began to demorph. The massive shoulders and head, the lumbering haunches, the shaggy fur, the huge, powerful paws, all shrank and melted. Gradually a very beautiful human girl emerged.

Rachel looked down at her morphing outfit. It was a black, one-piece leotard. �Okay, so I go to the bare midriff look,� she said.

She tried to tear a hole in the fabric. �My fingernails are too short.�

<Here. Bend down.> She bent close and I used my beak to make a tear in the fabric.

From that first tear Rachel quickly ripped off three strips of black nylon. �I just have one thing to say, Tobias. Don�t break another wing. I mean, this doesn�t look bad - it could actually be kind of a fashion statement - but any more and we�d be getting embarrassing.�

<Hey, I�m a hawk, remember? I would never even look.>

�Yeah, right.� She gathered up some twigs that had been deposited along the river�s edge. �What do you think? These okay?�

<Should be. Now, look, all you have to do is straighten out my wing. Make sure the bone is lined up straight. Otherwise it�ll heal crooked and I�ll spend the rest of my life flying around in circles.>

Rachel looked alarmed.

<Just a joke, Rachel,> I said. But silently I added, I hope.

She took my broken wing very gently. �I can tell where it�s broken. I�ll straighten it, then put a stick on each side and tie it up, right?�

<Yep. Nothing to it.>

Rachel took a deep breath. �On the count of three. One � two ��

<Aaaahhh!> I yelled, as sharp pain shot up my wing.

�Sorry! Sorry!� she cried.

<Just get it over with!> I yelled.

She held the bone in place with one hand. It hadn�t broken into separate pieces, it had just snapped. But it was agonizing. No matter how she tried, she couldn�t keep from bending the bone slightly.

She grabbed the two sticks with her left hand and managed to line them up against the bone. She transferred the pressure to her left hand and there came a new wave of pain, so severe it made me sick inside.

She quickly wound one strip around my wing.

<Tighter,> I said.

�It�ll hurt you.�

<It�ll hurt worse if my wing doesn�t heal.>

She tightened and I tried not to scream.

The other two strips went on easier. She checked the knots, then sat back and wiped her face with the back of her hand. She was sweating and pale.

�I don�t know how Cassie does things like that,� she said.

<You did great. No training, no experience. Come on, you did great.>

She stood up, and for the first time with decent eyes, looked across the river at the small hadrosaur herd. �Oh, my God. What is this, Jurassic Park?�

<Probably more like Cretaceous Park. I think hadrosaurs were more common in the Cretaceous Period.>
Rachel glared at me. �I�ve known you a long time, Tobias. I don�t remember you ever talking about dinosaurs.�

 I said. <I was staying with my uncle at that point. He liked to drink. He�d sit in his La-Z-Boy and start yelling at the TV and cursing, and then yelling at me if I made any noise. I used to go into my room and sit there, playing dinosaur.>

It's always sad when Tobias talks about his childhood.

quote:

We started to climb up the bank of the river. Or to be more accurate, Rachel started to climb, and I perched like so much dead, useless weight on her shoulder.

It was a struggle to hold on without digging my talons into her skin. I�m sure I hurt her. But Rachel, being Rachel, said nothing.

We reached the top of the bank. We were in a sea of grass that extended alongside the river-bank. Beyond the grass was a line of dark, forbidding trees. Here and there I saw flashes of color: flowers.

And then there was the volcano.

<Flowers,> I said. <Cretaceous Period.>

Yep. There's no evidence of flowering plants before the Cretaceous period. Same with grass.

quote:

�So what�s the difference between Jurassic and Cretaceous?�

<Well, a lot of things. Cretaceous was the last age of dinosaurs. They died out very suddenly at the end of the age, about sixty-five million years ago. I mean, well � sixty-five million years before our own time.>

�So in the Cretaceous Age there�s probably just the leftover dinosaurs. Not like the ones in Jurassic Park.�

<Not exactly,> I said. <See, Jurassic Park was slightly inaccurate. I mean, some of the dinosaurs they showed were actually from this time, from the Cretaceous.>

She looked hard at me. �You�re not going to tell me what I hope you�re not going to tell me, are you?�

<Afraid so. If I�m right and we are in the Cretaceous Period, well then, this is the age of the most relentless, powerful, dangerous, ruthless predator in all of history. This is the age of Tyrannosaurus rex.>

So people talk about Applegate messing up here, and I think even she says she did, so I guess I have to accept it, but it doesn't seem like she did with Tobias not healing when he morphs and morphs back. It's weird, sure, But, as the text points out, it's a weird situation. Tobias is a nothlit who then got his morphing power back because of an Elimist miracle, and they've been zapped back in time 65 million years.It adsto the entire mystery and surrealness of the situation.

Chapter 10
Marco

quote:

CRASH! CRASH! CRASH!
\
The ground shook!

�HrrrrRRROOOOAAAARRR-unh!�

It was so loud it had to be right behind me! I was screaming. I was crying as I ran. It was panic. Pure panic. Leaves slapped my face. Twigs whipped my bare arms.

I glanced back. Through my blurring tears I saw it bounding, leaping, running after us. Forty feet long, from head to tail. Twelve thousand pounds. Seven-inch, serrated-edged teeth. But it was the eyes that were the worst. They were intelligent, eager eyes. Hungry eyes. Eyes that seemed almost to laugh at me, helpless creature that I was.

Could I morph? Morph what? Morph what? There was nothing that could stand against a Tyrannosaurus rex. Nothing! My gorilla morph? The Tyrannosaurus would eat it in two bites.

I saw flashes of the others, all in flat-out panic run. It would have us all. None of us could fight it. Not even Ax, who was pulling ahead of the stumbling humans.

No! Wait! There was a way!

�Get small!� I screamed. �Morph small!� The words tore my throat as I yelled.

Wham!

The root seemed to reach up out of the ground to grab my foot. I hit hard. I sucked air but nothing came. My lungs were emptied. Heart pounding. The others kept running. Didn�t realize I�d fallen.

Roll!

I rolled over just as the impossibly big talon came raking down.

WHAMMM! The tyrannosaur�s foot hit like a dropped safe. I bounced from the impact.

Down came the head, teeth flashing, eyes greedy for my flesh.

I sucked in a breath. Rolled, scrambled, tripped, kicked forward and landed in a fern at the base of a tree. The tree trunk was no more than a foot in diameter.

I pulled myself behind it. No way to hide.

The dinosaur kicked at me with one foot. I dodged.

�Morph, you idiot!� someone yelled at me. I recognized my own voice, but I couldn�t imagine speaking the words.

What? What could I morph? What was small enough?

SCRRRRRAACK! WHAAAMMM! A talon came down and scraped the bark off the tree before it hit. I yanked my leg out a split second before it would have been crushed.

Talon? Yes, huge bird feet. Bird, that was the trick. See if the big, evil creep could fly!

I focused some part of my mind on the image of an osprey. Small, too small for the T-rex to care about. And it could fly.

I felt the changes begin, but the Tyrannosaurus hadn�t gotten to be the biggest flesh-eater in history by being stupid. It came around the tree for me. And now my body was growing clumsy as my hands shrank and my legs thinned.

You have no concept of how powerful that Tyrannosaurus was. You cannot possibly even begin to understand till you�ve cowered beneath it, peeing in your pants, and wanting to dig a hole in the dirt.

I scrambled around the tree. Jaws opened four feet wide and snapped shut an inch from my head.

�Aaaahhhh!� I screamed in sheer terror.

The big lizard dodged the other way and it roared in frustration. He was so close I felt the sound waves. I saw his pebbly-skinned throat vibrate. And worse, I saw into his mouth. A mouth glittering with teeth like butchers� knives and stained with the blood of his last kill.

I scrambled away again, stiff, barely able to move.

CRUNCH!

The Tyrannosaurus chomped its jaws shut on the tree itself. He began to twist and rip the tree, like a dog with a bone. Rending, tearing, bark flying, white wood pulp chewed to chips.

In a few seconds the tree would no longer be between us. And already I was too far morphed to run to another tree.

�Grrr-UNCH! Grrr-UNCH! Scree-EEEE-EEEE-crrUNCH! RrrrOOOAAAARRR!�

The Tyrannosaurus had gone mad with frustration. It was screaming in rage, ripping, grinding, throwing its huge weight back and forth. Shaking the ground. Bruising the air with its insane roar. Just a few seconds more and �

Crrr-SNAP!

The tree fell slowly away, crashing down through layers of vines and ferns. The Tyrannosaurus lunged, mouth open, red tongue lolling, teeth wet with drool.

I tried to leap back. I fell. Rolled. Thrashed, out of control.

Wings! I had wings!

Too late!

The mouth came down over me like some kind of earthmover, like a diesel shovel. A prison of teeth all round me. The jaw bit into the dirt itself. A root! Teeth snagged by a root. I flapped, ran, beat, rolled, scrambled.

Out between the jaws!

Running on osprey talons, running, wings open, flapping.

SNAP! Jaws an inch behind my tail.

Fly, fly, fly you idiot!

Bonk.

I never saw the tree trunk. I hit it head-on. I was stunned, senseless, helpless.

The Tyrannosaurus roared in triumph.

It towered above me, huge, irresistible. Pure destruction. Why had it chased me? I wondered.

Why? I was too small, wasn�t I?

But of course. I�d been in predator morph before. I knew why. Because killing was what it did.

Killing was what it was. It had gone beyond food or hunger now. It simply wanted to do what it did best.

I flapped weakly, too dazed to move.

Down came the head. Down from so far above. Down it came.

A swift movement to my right. What was it?

Fwapp! Fwapp! Fwapp!

An Andalite tail, too fast to be seen, struck three times.

The dinosaur swung its head hard. Ax went flying and rolled twice as he hit the ground.

The T-rex sagged. Tried to roar. And fell.

Human hands snatched me up as six tons of malevolence fell to the ground.

Andalite tailblades are sharp.

# ? Mar 10, 2021 06:22

HisMajestyBOB: Oct 21, 2010; College Slice

Epicurius posted:

So people talk about Applegate messing up here, and I think even she says she did, so I guess I have to accept it, but it doesn't seem like she did with Tobias not healing when he morphs and morphs back. It's weird, sure, But, as the text points out, it's a weird situation. Tobias is a nothlit who then got his morphing power back because of an Elimist miracle, and they've been zapped back in time 65 million years.It adsto the entire mystery and surrealness of the situation.

So I would agree, BUT:

Book 13, Chapter 19 posted:

And just then, the first helicopter swept over me, roaring and ripping up the air. It was like being caught in a tornado. The rotor wash grabbed me and threw me sideways through the air.

FWOMP-FWOMP-FWOMP-FWOMP-FWOMP-FWOMP-FWOMP -

I hit a branch.

SNAP!

I felt a jolt of pain. I flapped my wings, but only my right wing worked.

Then it hit me. The snap I�d heard had been my own bone.

I fell through the branches. WHAP! WHAP! WHAP!

I hit the ground and lay there, fluttering weakly, helpless. Helpless, as only a flightless bird can be helpless.

Panic caught me up and carried me along. No! No! My friends needed me. No! I couldn�t just lie there on the leaves. No!

And then I saw the end coming for me. Not a bobcat. Not a Taxxon or a Hork-Bajir or a Yeerk of any kind.

Just a humble, ordinary, everyday raccoon.

He morphs the raccoon, and then ...

Book 13, Chapter 20 posted:

Wait � was it possible? Could I remorph back into my own body? My red-tailed body? DNA isn�t affected by injuries. If I morphed back to red-tail, I wouldn�t have the broken wing.

Would I?

The others had done it. They had morphed out of injured bodies. Then when they re-morphed, the bodies were whole again.

I had to try. It was so stupid! I�d been left out of so many missions because I couldn�t morph.

Now I could morph and I was totally useless.

I focused. I closed my weak raccoon eyes and focused on a different body. A body with feathers and wings. And slowly I became myself again.

So maybe it wouldn't be a KASU except the exact same thing happened back when Tobias regained his morphing power. So I say it's an example of KASU. But, it definitely doesn't ruin the book.

# ? Mar 10, 2021 06:34

Fuschia tude: Dec 26, 2004; THUNDERDOME LOSER 2019

Epicurius posted:

So people talk about Applegate messing up here, and I think even she says she did, so I guess I have to accept it, but it doesn't seem like she did with Tobias not healing when he morphs and morphs back. It's weird, sure, But, as the text points out, it's a weird situation. Tobias is a nothlit who then got his morphing power back because of an Elimist miracle, and they've been zapped back in time 65 million years.It adsto the entire mystery and surrealness of the situation.

As BOB says, plus as you point out, in the Q&A she said it was a mistake, too. She had written all of these chapters about Tobias's broken wing and how morphing wouldn't heal it, and then realized (too close to deadline to change it all) that it was a nonsense dilemma because morphing heals all your injuries, even in your original form.* So then she shoehorned these couple of lines into this chapter to "explain" it, but it's an rear end pull.

*Actually, what I suspect happened was that Grant wrote it, and Applegate read it right before sending it off and was like "Wait." (Or vice versa.) But in the 90s she had to keep up the kayfabe that these were written by a solo author, for marketing reasons or whatever.

# ? Mar 10, 2021 07:22

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

I think it's mostly because if Tobias could fly then he could (and, habitually, would) just surveil the area and they'd link up with the others straight away, and she wanted a plot point to stop them from being able to reunite too quick. Which feels lazy, I could probably think of one that doesn't screw up the science of the books, but meh.

Re: Tobias loving dinosaurs as a kid, was that really common to the era, or longstanding, or... it just doesn't feel like today's kids are? Like, I subscribed to that Dinosaur magazine (maybe this was a UK/Australia thing) that came with posters and those cool glow-in-the-dark T Rex models that you slowly assembled where you got a piece with every issue, and I know it's not just me who was a big nerd because a lot of the other boys at my primary school loved it too - but that was in the mid to late 90s i.e. right after Jurassic Park. But then, I've read the Jurassic Park novel and I remember in the preface and also maybe in Grant's dialogue, at some point, they talk about how kids are just crazy for dinosaurs. (And come to think of it there was plenty of kid's media before Jurassic Park about Dinosaurs - Land Before Time, We're Back etc.) Why did kids love dinosaurs? And why don't they now (if that's true)?

# ? Mar 10, 2021 07:35

WrightOfWay: Jul 24, 2010

Tobias is definitely the right age to have been super into dinosaurs. Dinosaurs were huge in the late 80's and early 90's. Partially due to movies and media but also because there were a lot of exciting discoveries about them in that era. For instance, Sue, a 90% complete fossilized T-Rex, was discovered in 1990. Dinosaurs definitely aren't as popular today as they were 30 years ago but some kids are still into them. My nephew has some dinosaur toys he loves to play with and my niece was super into them when she was in the 8-10 range a few years ago.

# ? Mar 10, 2021 08:01

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

I mean.... yes, tailblades are sharp....

But it's a loving T-REX. Unless he hamstrung it and severed its spinal column or something i don't see him taking it down like that.

# ? Mar 10, 2021 08:13

GodFish: Oct 10, 2012; We're your first, last, and only line of defense. We live in secret. We exist in shadow.

And we dress in black.

Just acquire the T-Rex Marco, come on.

# ? Mar 10, 2021 09:15

Cythereal: Nov 8, 2009; I love the potoo,
and the potoo loves you.

WrightOfWay posted:

Tobias is definitely the right age to have been super into dinosaurs. Dinosaurs were huge in the late 80's and early 90's. Partially due to movies and media but also because there were a lot of exciting discoveries about them in that era. For instance, Sue, a 90% complete fossilized T-Rex, was discovered in 1990. Dinosaurs definitely aren't as popular today as they were 30 years ago but some kids are still into them. My nephew has some dinosaur toys he loves to play with and my niece was super into them when she was in the 8-10 range a few years ago.

Can confirm, I was basically the same age at the same time as the Animorphs and I was super into dinosaurs as a kid.

# ? Mar 10, 2021 14:10

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Cythereal posted:

Can confirm, I was basically the same age at the same time as the Animorphs and I was super into dinosaurs as a kid.

I'm older than the Animorphs, but I was also really into dinosaurs as a kid.

# ? Mar 10, 2021 14:46

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

the way to fix the screw-up would have been to double down and have one of the kids take a cut to the arm or something and retain it after going in and then out of a morph, instead of making it only tobias. then have ax say something about z-space distortions and extruded mass

# ? Mar 10, 2021 17:37

HisMajestyBOB: Oct 21, 2010; College Slice

Or if they want to keep Tobias from flying, they could have pterosaurs or something threatening nearby.

# ? Mar 10, 2021 17:54

Grammarchist: Jan 28, 2013

freebooter posted:

I think it's mostly because if Tobias could fly then he could (and, habitually, would) just surveil the area and they'd link up with the others straight away, and she wanted a plot point to stop them from being able to reunite too quick. Which feels lazy, I could probably think of one that doesn't screw up the science of the books, but meh.

Re: Tobias loving dinosaurs as a kid, was that really common to the era, or longstanding, or... it just doesn't feel like today's kids are? Like, I subscribed to that Dinosaur magazine (maybe this was a UK/Australia thing) that came with posters and those cool glow-in-the-dark T Rex models that you slowly assembled where you got a piece with every issue, and I know it's not just me who was a big nerd because a lot of the other boys at my primary school loved it too - but that was in the mid to late 90s i.e. right after Jurassic Park. But then, I've read the Jurassic Park novel and I remember in the preface and also maybe in Grant's dialogue, at some point, they talk about how kids are just crazy for dinosaurs. (And come to think of it there was plenty of kid's media before Jurassic Park about Dinosaurs - Land Before Time, We're Back etc.) Why did kids love dinosaurs? And why don't they now (if that's true)?

I was in grade school when these books started running and I was really big into dinosaurs. There were a bunch of new discoveries that ran in educational magazines at the school library, Discovery Channel tended to run series on them, Playskool Dinos and more intricate models were on all the shelves. I honestly think Book Fairs had a lot to do with it as well, because they tended to have a lot of easy-to-digest books about dinosaurs with a lot of pictures.

# ? Mar 10, 2021 18:37

Pwnstar: Dec 9, 2007; Who wants some waffles?

I have a hard time to this day remembering that other people know almost nothing about dinosaurs, when its such a baseline thing to me like the times tables or whatever. The concept that people only know about 3 dinosaurs maybe is very weird to me. Especially if they are freakin' punks who think a pterosaur is a dinosaur.

# ? Mar 10, 2021 19:34

Tree Bucket: Apr 1, 2016; R.I.P.idura leucophrys

I'm not sure of the reasons, but my kids are far, far less into dinosaurs than I was at their age. And kids in general, as far as I can see.

Pwnstar posted:

I have a hard time to this day remembering that other people know almost nothing about dinosaurs, when its such a baseline thing to me like the times tables or whatever. The concept that people only know about 3 dinosaurs maybe is very weird to me. Especially if they are freakin' punks who think a pterosaur is a dinosaur.

Yeah, I still feel surprised every time I discover an intelligent person who doesn't know a whole lot about dinosaurs. Like, everyone gets twitchy at pictures of dimetrodon next to a stegosaurus and a triceratops, right?

# ? Mar 10, 2021 23:28

Shwoo: Jul 21, 2011

I had that Microsoft Dangerous Creatures CD-ROM, and I think the introduction to the section on dinosaurs began "Thought all dinosaurs looked like T-Rex?" I was very offended. I'd be surprised if anyone knew about Tyrannosaurus rex but not sauropods, though.

But I did think that dimetrodons were from the Triassic for a long time. I'm sure the book I had said that was when they were around.

freebooter posted:

Like, I subscribed to that Dinosaur magazine (maybe this was a UK/Australia thing) that came with posters and those cool glow-in-the-dark T Rex models that you slowly assembled where you got a piece with every issue, and I know it's not just me who was a big nerd because a lot of the other boys at my primary school loved it too - but that was in the mid to late 90s i.e. right after Jurassic Park.

I remember that thing! I think my parents stopped buying it after we got all the T-Rex pieces.

# ? Mar 11, 2021 05:04

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Animorphs-Megamorphs 2: In the Time of the Dinosaurs, Chapter 11
Ax

quote:

I wiped my tail blade on some large leaves. Unfortunately, more than my tail was stained.

My human friends were all looking at the big creature. Marco was becoming human again. I was busy trembling.

�Nice work, Ax,� Prince Jake said. He slapped his hand on my shoulder. It is a thing humans do to indicate friendship or congratulations. Sometimes they do it to kill small insects called mosquitoes.

 Marco said, still more osprey than human. <You saved my life, man.>

 I said.

�I can�t believe you took that monster down,� Prince Jake said.

<Prince Jake, please don�t think I can fight and defeat these creatures. This animal was busy chasing Marco. It was distracted. It is not accustomed to being attacked.>

�You�re just being modest,� Cassie said.

<No!> I said, more sharply than I�d intended. <Listen to me: I know my capabilities. In face-to-face, one-on-one combat, that creature would have destroyed me. One-against-one I will lose ninety percent of the time.>

�Oh,� Prince Jake said.

�Yeah, well, you came through big time on this go-round,� Marco said. He held his hands out straight. They were trembling. �I can�t stop shaking.�

�This is insane,� Cassie said. She looked around carefully. Peering cautiously, looking, no doubt, for others of the big creatures.

�What is going on? Why are there dinosaurs here? Where is here?�

<Is there not some place on your planet where this creature lives?>

She shook her head violently. �No. Not in millions of years, anyway. Tens of millions, probably. No, there is no place on Earth where tyrannosaurs just run around in the woods.�

�Yeah, I think we�d have heard about it in school,� Marco said. I believe his tone of voice indicated something the humans call �dry humor.� I have not heard any wet humor, so it is difficult for me to tell the difference.

My immediate terror was fading. A deeper pessimism was setting in. It was easy to see that humans - or Andalites - deprived of the power of civilization were pathetically weak in this environment.

�Some kind of real-life Jurassic Park.� Prince Jake speculated. �Maybe someone actually did it. You know, cloned DNA from old dinosaur bones.�

<That is scientifically possible,> I said. <But I have been feeling a strange distortion in my timekeeping sense. This planet is no longer rotating at the same speed as before. I think the likely explanation is that we have traveled a very, very long way in time.>

Prince Jake raised one eyebrow and looked at me. �Millions of years?�

<Once a Sario Rip - a time-rift - is created, there is no difference between a year and a million years. The energy required is the same. I think I remember the equations � in an equation where t is time, z is Zero-space, w inversely cubed represents the nexus of ->

�Uh-uh,� Marco said, raising his hand. �You saved my life. Don�t undo it by killing me with algebra.�

<I�m not an expert, of course. We studied the Sario effect in school. But I may not have been paying very close attention. Who knew I�d ever need to understand time-rifts?>

�How do we get back?� Cassie asked.



�What? You can�t just whip up a fusion bomb?� Marco said.

<Fusion bomb?> I asked. Then I laughed. I knew I shouldn�t, but you have to admit, it was funny. <A fusion explosive? That�s what it was? I assumed it was a small proton-shift weapon, at least. Fusion is only used in children�s toys. You know, to make the little dolls speak and so on.>

Oh, humans are so delightfully primitive.

quote:

My human friends stared at me. �So the Andalite Toys �R� Us must be a wild place, huh?� Marco said.

�Let�s focus here,� Prince Jake said impatiently. �Rachel and Tobias may have been killed. In any case, there�s nothing we can do about it. We are millions of years in our own past, and there�s nothing we can do about that. We�re in the age of dinosaurs, and none of our morphs can even begin to fight things like �� He jerked his thumb at the massive corpse. �� like that. So the question is: What do we do?�

Prince Jake had summed up the situation very well. We were trapped in an exceedingly dangerous world where we could do almost nothing to defend ourselves.

I turned my stalk eyes toward the Tyrannosaurus�s head. The mouth was partly open. The sight of those teeth made my insides watery all over again. I could see the serration on the back side of the teeth. Like shark teeth, only much, much bigger.

I had a clear mental picture of what would have happened if the creature had turned a little faster to confront me. The jaws closing over the upper half of my body � a violent shake of the head to rip me into easy-to-swallow pieces �

�We adapt,� Cassie said grimly. �That�s what animals have to do in order to survive. Our environment is massively different. No civilization to rely on, surrounded by brutal predators. So we adapt. Or we get eaten.�

�Great. Robinson Crusoe meets Jurassic Park. Look at us. We have nothing,� Marco said. �No homes. No food. No tools. No weapons. We don�t even have shoes!�

�Well, we�re going to have to make all those things,� Prince Jake said. �And we do have one big weapon: We can still morph. Maybe we can�t fight a T-rex, but we can fly, and we can escape.�

�We have food and shoes right here,� Cassie said. She was looking at the dead Tyrannosaurus. �Ax has his tail. We can use the hide to make sandals. Skin from the lower leg there looks pretty tough and thick. We cut out some skin, remove the meat and eat it. Then we use ligaments and tendons to
lace up the sandals.�

I believe Prince Jake and Marco were shocked. Humans are strangely squeamish at times. I can never predict when.

�Wow,� Marco said. �Wow. You�re kind of getting into this, aren�t you, Cassie?�

Cassie walked up to the dinosaur and placed one hand on its leg. She tested the skin with her fingertips. �Look, Marco, my best friend is gone. Tobias is gone. I don�t want any more names added to that list. We need food. There�s no Burger King anywhere nearby, okay? We�re not big or mean enough to be predators in this environment. We�ve moved way down on the food chain. The best we can be is scavengers. Here�s thousands of pounds of protein. We eat some now, and we smoke some for jerky so we can eat later.�

If anything, Prince Jake and Marco appeared even more shocked. And I felt the same. This was an aspect of Cassie I�d never seen. But then, Cassie is more involved than the others in the facts of environment. She had sized up the situation and realized that in this new world she and her fellow
humans were no longer masters.

I began to feel a little better about our chances. Humans may be technologically primitive, not to mention physically weak, what with tottering around on two spindly legs. But if you�re in a situation that requires instant adaptability to change, you should always have a couple of humans along with you.

Cassie looked at me, making eye contact with my main eyes. �Ax, are you okay doing this? Your tail is all we have.�

<Yes. I will do all I can.>

�Okay, then. Jake, maybe you and Marco could gather up any dry sticks and dry grass you can find nearby. We have to work fast. We aren�t the only animals who�ll be after this much meat. Ax? I need you to slice this area of leg into squares, each about one foot square.�

I glanced at Prince Jake.

Prince Jake smiled and shrugged. �Cassie�s the boss on this,� he said. �She has a clue. I don�t. And we all know Marco doesn�t.�

�You got that right,� Marco agreed.

I turned all my eyes on the haunch of the dead creature. I took careful aim and began the work.

Don't mess with Cassie.

Chapter 12
Rachel

quote:

My feet were torn bloody. I was leaving traces of red on the razor-edged saw grass. The legs of my leotard were torn and tattered. It was not a good look. The bare midriff thing, maybe. The fringe look? No.

I was carrying Tobias in my arms. He couldn�t fly. He was too slow at walking. And if I carried him perched on my shoulder, no matter how careful he was, the jerking and wobbling would force him to dig his talons into my skin.

Not fun. Especially not fun because the whole time I was expecting some murderous dinosaur to come ripping out of the woods to our left.

<You doing okay?> Tobias asked.

�Sure. No problem,� I said, trying to sound cheerful. �I could stand a little less humidity, maybe.�

<Yes, it is � unh � damp.>

His groan of pain made me feel guilty for thinking about my own problems. �Tobias, maybe you should morph to human for a while.�

<I�m sorry. You must be getting tired of carrying me.>

�No, no, it�s not that. It�s just that your wing is hurting you. If you were in human morph, there wouldn�t be any pain.�

<I can only stay in morph for two hours, Rachel. Then I have to demorph and I�m right back where I started. Plus I won�t continue healing during that time. Not to mention the fact you�d have to redo my splint. And that wasn�t fun for either of us,>

�You could just stay human. Permanently. There are worse things.�

He didn�t say anything for a while. When he did speak, it wasn�t about morphing. <Can you lift me up for a minute? I think I see something.>

I raised him up high above my head. �What is it?�

<Smoke! I see a column of smoke.>

�Like a forest fire? Or is it that volcano?�

<No, like a campfire!>

I lowered him back down. �Maybe it�s the others. Maybe they made it to shore and started a fire. I mean, there are no humans here, right?�

<Not for another sixty or eighty million years,> Tobias said. <Not even monkeys. Not even our most distant relatives. The only mammals around are early versions of rats and shrews.>

Technically, rodents, so the early version of rats, I guess, haven't evolved yet.

quote:

I smiled. �If Marco were here he�d make some snide remark about you having plenty to eat, at least.�

Tobias laughed. <Yeah. And speaking of which �>

�At least we have water as long as we stay by the river. On the other hand, what if that smoke is from Cassie and Jake? We have to go find out. Besides, the sun�s going down. We could use a fire.�

<You go,> Tobias said. <It looks like it�s about two or three miles away. You could morph to your bald eagle body, fly over, take a look, and come right back for me.>

�Yeah, right. Like I�m going to leave you here in the middle of nowhere, helpless.�

He argued with me a little. Said he�d be okay and so on. But there was no way. We decided to drink our fill from the river. Then we turned away from it toward the smoke. Already it was harder to see in the fading sunlight.

The saw grass gradually gave way to shorter grasses. And the forest that had been on our left the whole time receded. We were walking now across a plain that looked like something you�d expect to see lions roaming. But we were tens of millions of years away from lions.

�Lions I could handle,� I muttered.

<What?>

�Nothing. Just thinking out loud. Oh, man!�

<What?>

�I have to set you down for a second,� I said. I laid him back on the golden, foot-high grass. I began to pick the insects off my feet. Several different species of bugs had been attracted to the cuts on my feet.

<Rachel, why didn�t you tell me your feet looked like that?> Tobias cried.

I shrugged. �Looks worse than it is. Besides, this grass we�re in now isn�t bad.�

<You have to take it easy for a while, Rachel. You�re going to end up as -> He fell silent. He cocked his hawk�s head left, then right.

�What is it?�



In addition to their amazing sense of sight, birds of prey also hear very, very well. I jumped up, grabbed him, and held him high over my head to give him the best possible view. But the truth is, I could see what there was to see well enough. I almost dropped him. Four� no five creatures that looked a little like rhinoceroses. Only instead of one horn, they had two hugely long horns protruding from a thick, scalloped shell around their heads.

�Even I know that dinosaur,� I said. �Those are Triceratops. But they�re just plant-eaters, right?

Not dangerous?�

<No, they aren�t dangerous,> Tobias agreed. <But what you can�t see is the pack of Deinonychus moving in to attack them. They�re dangerous. But I don�t think there are enough of them to go after a Triceratops. The Tri�s can make a run for the river, get their backs to it, and the Deinonychus would be out of luck.>

I didn�t ask how Tobias could size up the situation so well. Probably because he is a predator.

Actually, two kinds of predator: hawk and human. The combination of hawk instincts and human intelligence gives him a lot of insight into the battle for survival.

<Strange. Deinonychus was supposed to have been a smart pack-hunter. But these guys have blown it. Unless �>

He turned his head to look behind us and let out a thought-speak moan.

<Score one for Deinonychus. We�ve screwed up,> he said. <They�re behind us. Coming slowly this way in a pincer action to trap the Triceratops.>

�How big do you think they are?�

<Not big. Maybe five feet tall, ten feet long from nose to tail.>

�Big deal. That�s only about the size of a big kid or a small man.�

<Wrong comparison. That�s about the size of a wolf. We�re talking very fast, very smart wolves.>

They were close enough now that I could see them, even with my sun-strained human eyes. Mansized lizards bounding along on powerful legs. Their pebbly skin was the color of asparagus soup and coffee ice cream, swirled together. Not that I was getting really hungry or anything.

A gust of wind ruffled my hair. The wind blew our scent toward the Deinonychus. I saw one of them stop, raise his head, and turn it toward us.

I felt the eyes searching for me. And I swear I felt the moment when those cold, yellow eyes locked onto me.

�Hroooo! Hroooo!� the dinosaur cried. They broke into a run.

�Uh-oh.� I grabbed Tobias and started to run, the pain in my bloody feet forgotten. Stupid. I might as well have been trying to outrun a wolf.

<The other pack is coming after us, too!> Tobias yelled.

Suddenly it wasn�t the big Triceratops caught in the Deinonychus�s trap. It was a much, much easier prey.

So, people have probably heard of Triceratops. Bony crest, three horns. Rachel is probably making a bad assumption here that just because a triceratops is a herbivore it isn't dangerous. I mean, I don't know if it was or not, but a rhinoceros is a herbivore, and it's pretty dangerous.

Deinonychus is Velociraptor in Jurassic Park. Basically, in 1988, this guy named Gregory Paul wrote a book called "Predatory Dinosaurs of the World". In addition to suggesting that a bunch of dinosaurs were feathered, which is generally accepted now, he decided that Deinonychus and Velociraptor skeletons were really similar, although different sized.....Deinonychus was about 5 feet tall, and Velociraptor was the size of a chicken, but that they were the same animal. So, when he put Deinonychus in his book, he called it Velociraptor. Paleontologists didn't generally accept this, but he published the book. So when Michael Crichton was doing research on Jurassic Park, he used that book, and when he put Velociraptors in the book, they were really Deinonychus. So, that's why the bad guys in Jurassic Park weren't bad tempered chickens. It probably is true that both animals were feathered, though.

# ? Mar 11, 2021 05:15

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

They seem oddly averse to morphing at the moment. I get that Tobias wants his wing to heal but they have no reason to think the others are dead. He has morphs that wouldn't leave him "helpless" while Rachel goes to look for them; or he could go fly and cling to her. And even if they're not going to do that, surely he could just as easily ride on her as a bird if she morphs wolf or horse or bear and saves her feet?

# ? Mar 11, 2021 06:12

Comrade Blyatlov: Aug 4, 2007; should have picked four fingers

Cassie gets grief for being too soft, but you see the cold, hard side of her here. She is every bit as ruthless as Marco when she has to be.

Also Deinonychus was one of my favourite dinos!

# ? Mar 11, 2021 06:17

Jazerus: May 24, 2011

freebooter posted:

They seem oddly averse to morphing at the moment. I get that Tobias wants his wing to heal but they have no reason to think the others are dead. He has morphs that wouldn't leave him "helpless" while Rachel goes to look for them; or he could go fly and cling to her. And even if they're not going to do that, surely he could just as easily ride on her as a bird if she morphs wolf or horse or bear and saves her feet?

KA wanted to write a scene where rachel and tobias make quasi-romantic sacrifices of their own well-being for each other and logic was not going to get in the way. i think all of the kids are pretty spooked and not thinking straight, being, uh, in the time of the dinosaurs and all

except cassie, who is finally having a genuine animal expert moment that isn't "my dad has this thing in the barn and i've been taking care of it"

# ? Mar 11, 2021 07:05

freebooter: Jul 7, 2009

Jazerus posted:

KA wanted to write a scene where rachel and tobias make quasi-romantic sacrifices of their own well-being for each other and logic was not going to get in the way.

Speaking of, gotta say I haven't really been feeling a lot of chemistry between them throughout the series, and having the most beautiful girl in school develop a thing for the outcast nerd feels a bit pandering. Cassie and Jake feels a bit more solid but even then not hugely natural. If I had to guess at who'd develop into a romantic couple without the exposition already explicitly pairing up Rachel/Tobias and Cassie/Jake, it would honestly be Rachel and Marco.

# ? Mar 11, 2021 09:09

Pwnstar: Dec 9, 2007; Who wants some waffles?

Comrade Blyatlov posted:

Cassie gets grief for being too soft, but you see the cold, hard side of her here. She is every bit as ruthless as Marco when she has to be.

Cassie is kind of interesting. Rachel loves violence and is down for whatever and Marco is the most morally flexible which we all know. Cassie is a moralist but is also practical in the terrifying amoral sense, she often comes up with the really hosed up horrible way to save a situation which she really really does not want to do. Then she does it and feels sad.

# ? Mar 11, 2021 15:21

e X: Feb 23, 2013; cool but crude

Cassie�s problem is that she is not particular well written. The authors really struggle to get in the mind set of a character that is an animal rights activist/pacifist and as a result you end up with a very inconsistent character and a narrative that sometimes seems to bend reality to proof their point, because the author can�t think of a natural way.

e X fucked around with this message at 16:11 on Mar 11, 2021

# ? Mar 11, 2021 15:53

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

Applegate has said that, of all the characters, Cassie is the one closest to her in mindset and personality. A lot of that, though, means, that she becomes the authorial voice. I don't think the problem is that she's poorly written, because I don't really think she is. I think the problem a lot of people have with her is that, first, she's usually right in what she does, and second, she comes across sometimes as the member of the group that's there to stop the excitement happening.....it's The Animorphs come up with cool plan and there's going to be a cool fight scene, then Cassie comes across and says, "I dunno. Let's consider the moral implications of the cool plan, and you're reading it and you just want a gorilla to punch Visser Three in the mouth. It's "When do we get to the fireworks factory?!", if you know the Simpsons quote. So, I think that turns people off Cassie.

# ? Mar 11, 2021 16:29

e X: Feb 23, 2013; cool but crude

Epicurius posted:

Applegate has said that, of all the characters, Cassie is the one closest to her in mindset and personality. A lot of that, though, means, that she becomes the authorial voice. I don't think the problem is that she's poorly written, because I don't really think she is. I think the problem a lot of people have with her is that, first, she's usually right in what she does, and second, she comes across sometimes as the member of the group that's there to stop the excitement happening.....it's The Animorphs come up with cool plan and there's going to be a cool fight scene, then Cassie comes across and says, "I dunno. Let's consider the moral implications of the cool plan, and you're reading it and you just want a gorilla to punch Visser Three in the mouth. It's "When do we get to the fireworks factory?!", if you know the Simpsons quote. So, I think that turns people off Cassie.

Admittedly, is harsh and maybe unfair, and probably a bit too broad. But I don�t think it is a fair counter argument to just say I want more brainless action and don�t like character that gets in the way.

Cassie does have good and even great moments throughout the series, but I still maintain that there are a lot of instances where her �moral objections� and not particularly well thought out and a couple of books where she only end up being in the moral right due to author fiat, i.e some extremely unlikely events happen that turn out to make her justify her objections.

# ? Mar 11, 2021 17:04

Strategic Tea: Sep 1, 2012

I think Cassie 's character is consistent in that - she is serious about her ethics and thinks them through fully, which normally just pops up in the story as benign finger wagging and people see her as a softy.

But then an actual dilemma pops up and, because she has already given serious thought to her morality, if she has decided it's right to kill a bitch she'll just do it while the rest of them :catstare:

# ? Mar 11, 2021 17:05

Epicurius: Apr 10, 2010; College Slice

e X posted:

Admittedly, is harsh and maybe unfair, and probably a bit too broad. But I don�t think it is a fair counter argument to just say I want more brainless action and don�t like character that gets in the way.

Cassie does have good and even great moments throughout the series, but I still maintain that there are a lot of instances where her �moral objections� and not particularly well thought out and a couple of books where she only end up being in the moral right due to author fiat, i.e some extremely unlikely events happen that turn out to make her justify her objections.

Sorry. I wasn't referring to you personally with that second reason, obviously. It is something I've seen, though; people criticizing Cassie because her moral objections slow down the pacing of the books. Sometimes, though, you're right, she's right because of authorial fiat, and that can be a problem.

# ? Mar 11, 2021 17:14

e X: Feb 23, 2013; cool but crude

Epicurius posted:

Sorry. I wasn't referring to you personally with that second reason, obviously. It is something I've seen, though; people criticizing Cassie because her moral objections slow down the pacing of the books. Sometimes, though, you're right, she's right because of authorial fiat, and that can be a problem.

I admit that I didn't know that KA actually considered Cassie so close to her own mindset. Maybe it is a ghostwriter problem.

A lot of media had environmentalist/pacifist characters in the '90 and a lot of them share the same problems I think Cassie has, so I always figured it was due to the authors not actually sharing their character's ideals and struggle to get into their heads.

# ? Mar 11, 2021 17:41

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# ? Apr 27, 2024 18:54

OctaviusBeaver: Apr 30, 2009; Say what now?

quote:

<I�m not an expert, of course. We studied the Sario effect in school. But I may not have been paying very close attention. Who knew I�d ever need to understand time-rifts?>

Well they seem to happen roughly 100% of the time that there's a big explosion Ax.

# ? Mar 11, 2021 17:45

The Something Awful Forums > Archives > Comedy Goldmine > Let's Read Animorphs! The Whole Series! Ch-ch-ch-chaaanges

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