Ladies cease to shield their maiden eyes. "It'll do," sighs Bella. "Okay. Ax, let's go in and you and me get each other up to speed on - everything - and then you can sleep in here in your normal form, I hope you were paying attention to how the clothes worked for future reference."

"Yes, Princess - prrrrrrinn-sessss! - Belllllllll-ah."

"Maybe you should just thoughtspeak for efficiency."

"Efficiency or comedy. What a choice."

"It's three in the morning. My appreciation for comedy is a little limited."

"There is that. And where shall we hold this conference?"

"Living room," shrugs Bella, and she pushes through the door into the house. When everyone - except the absent Trouble, who she presumes is off brooding somewhere - is situated comfortably, she summarizes the adventures of the Animorphs to date.

Ax, who communicates mostly by thoughtspeak but occasionally pauses to pronounce things in fascination, answers her questions, explains what he can about the Frolis maneuver and how to perform it, watches a clock with a second hand for one minute and announces that the actual limit on morph time is two hours, four minutes, and thirty-one seconds, but it will begin to be difficult to demorph if one approaches too close to the end of that time. He is also confused about how Bella has been able to conduct so many experiments in such a short time; apparently morphing is more tiring to Andalites than it seems to be for humans.

"I wonder why that is," says Ethan.

"Me too," says Robin, thoughtfully.

"I do not know. Ooooooh. No. Knnnnnnow."

"Yeah, well, I plan to find out."

"Have you got a way to do that in mind?"

"More or less. I mean, I've done all this research on animals, but I haven't really done any on humans yet."

"I look forward to hearing what you find out. Okay. Ax, is there anything you know that we are likely to need to learn in the next twenty-four hours?"

<I cannot think of anything else that seems urgent, Princess Bella.>

"Okay. Do you need anything to be comfy in the garage that doesn't involve knocking down a wall?"

"No. Oooooh."

"Okay. Get some sleep. It's probably safest if you don't come into the main house in Andalite form at all - we don't expect guests yet, but might be surprised."

Off goes Ax.

And to bed go Ethan and Robin, since that seems to be the next logical order of business.

The house is a little crowded; the twins wind up sharing Charlie's bed to let him and Ethan have their bunks and Robin have the air mattress in the master bedroom. (The trouble with the couch is it's nowhere near Andi's protective light-sleeperhood.)

"I slept outside," he says. "Comfier that way. Will people like it if I make French toast, you think?"