<Andalite babies can walk an hour after they are born. Tail control takes longer, but they're better than this.> Flick. <The tail blade is not sharp or hard when they're new.>

:That's a relief, I would not want to be the mother giving birth to that. Anyway, I'm not comparing you to a newborn, I'm comparing you to you-a-week-ago, which seems like the most relevant comparison here: 

<I am more competent than I was a week ago.>

:You are! Does it feel like other things have changed too? In terms of noticing your preferences, having goals, all that?: 

<I want to defeat the Yeerks. 

And recover enough to return home to my family if they still live.>

:That makes sense. I really want that for you, too. Do you have a sense of how recovered you would need to be, in order to go back to your family?: 

<If I could move normally and respond appropriately to questions, and if I am not needed further in the war effort, I could return home.>

Nod. :Well, we can talk about steps to work toward for moving. Like running that obstacle course, or one of the foals was asking Taver if you could slice thrown apples in midair with your tail, they make the human weapons students do that with swords as an exercise - I know it's silly but it'd delight the foals so much. And you seem to respond fine to questions with me, so I'm guessing you mean something more specific there?: 

<I am worried that I would seem off to people and they would feel uncomfortable, having to interact with that.>

:Mmm. Is it that you sometimes don't know what to say or what would be appropriate, or - more that you just feel off and are worried people can tell?: 

<I don't know what to say, but lots of people come back from the war like that. But if they also know what happened to me, it'll stand out more.>

:If we were talking about humans, I would say that anyone knowing what happened to you would make them more patient with it, and if they were uncomfortable it'd be their problem to deal with. But I don't know what Andalite culture is like around that. Do you think even your family would prefer to wait longer to see you again, rather than have you come home when you still sometimes don't know what to say?: 

<I don't know. I want them to feel like - I came back. Not like a stranger came back who they are supposed to pretend they know.>

:That makes sense. Do you feel like you remember what you were like then - or the person you were to them, anyway, we're often different in different situations: 

<I do not remember very well. But if I were less fragile I would have - more ability to find it. Maybe.>

:I think so. ...And I think it'll help when you see them, when you're ready, it'll bring back some of the same context. Hmm. Would there be records, somewhere? Pictures or videos of your children with you, messages you exchanged when you were deployed, that sort of thing. For humans, looking at those can often help us remember the past more clearly: 

<They would have some. My ship was destroyed.>

:That makes sense. Should I ask Matirin if there's any way to retrieve those at some point so you can have them? I have no idea what the plan is right now for getting in touch with the Andalite home planet but I assume it'll happen eventually: Sigh. :In the meantime, maybe you should tell me what you remember about them. I think it'll help for you to talk about it, and I'm actually really curious: 

<My wife's name is Jahar. When we married sixty of your years ago, by law, Andalites could have two children. We wanted our population to level out at some point and we were terraforming more of our planet and its moons to be suitable but we did not particularly want to either colonize more planets or increase our population density. ....we don't like cities, we like having lots of open land to run in. They have changed that since then. Now Andalites can have one daughter and as many sons as they wish, because of the war. But we did - the thing that used to be how it was done, we had one son and one daughter. We were maybe going to have more later. The war was getting worse. I didn't get very much leave. We sent videos back and forth.>

Melody listens very intently and nods and smiles and asks questions, and watches his tapestry closely. She thinks he seems a little more animated while he's talking about them.

:All right: she says finally, when his answers to questions are getting more hesitant and she suspects he's tired. :So. Our goal is to get you home. I don't know how long that will take, but we'll work toward it. You can practice moving, here where no one has any idea how Andalites normally move and won't notice anything off, and I'm sure you're going to get plenty of practice answering questions, I'm aware the Companions never shut up. Also, I get the sense it's important to you to be contributing, even while you're recovering? And here, you really, really are. The Companions have too many foals to supervise, they're having to make up numbers too because of all the casualties in the war, they're really delighted to have you here. Taver says you're very good with children: 

<I can remain here for a little while longer.> He hasn't figured out the gods thing for Matirin at all yet.

:And the other thing you want is to help end the war. Which - there's something I was going to ask you about. Er, you were in Leareth's head - what did you think of him?: This feels unpleasantly close to sneakily asking one of her patients for information on a different patient who did not give her permission to read their mind, but it's separately relevant for whether the conversation is a good idea on Alloran's end. 

<He is an interesting person. I think he is trustworthy. When Mhalir asked what he would do in this situation he thought that he would not try enslaving five billion people.>

Melody nods, thoughtfully. The fact that Alloran, who reasons about as differently from Leareth as anyone she's met, has literally been in his head and thinks that he's trustworthy, is really some kind of statement. 

:My impression is that he felt both a Yeerk victory on Earth and the Andalite weapon being used to kill everyone would be awful outcomes, worth stopping at almost any cost, and he immediately tried to hand Matirin all of his resources to help. Anyway, he wanted to speak with you. I think he wants your advice on the strategic aspects of the situation on other Yeerk-held planets, and - I have the sense he's trying to wrap his head around what it means, that Mhalir thought they were the same. He thought talking to you would be very valuable, and so I predict that you'll want to help, but also that it might be very stressful given the, er, circumstances of your previous meeting: 

<I want to talk to him.>