This is much better. Leareth doesn't have to do anything and is only getting sprayed in the face every third wave or so. He's still ending up swallowing a lot of seawater but that's fine. 

He considers morphing a cockroach as well, right now he's cold and wet and uncomfortable and presumably a cockroach would be fine, but that sounds like so much effort, and it's - probably smart to stay in his own body if there's a chance he won't have the energy to demorph again. 

They get occasional updates from orbit. The battle is just as ugly and messy as Matirin's guess, but it's proceeding. 

A while later, something shadowy moves underneath them. 

Yikes. Nayoki shapes a force-barrier under them. 

:Matirin, I think some local sea life is interested in us. I am going to try to dissuade them: 

<Great>. He is planning a rotation so the Andalites can each demorph, rest and remorph a few at a time rather than have the force-net have to hold them all at the same time; he reorders it so they can have people good with Gifts demorph first.

Something long and sinuous and fast streaks toward Nayoki's underwater mage-barrier, and seems very confused when it bounces off. It tries again. 

A friend joins it. Closer up, the creatures are at least twenty feet long, as thick around as a toddler's waist, with heads that, instead of a single mouth, have a ring of tentacles, each with a creepy anemone-like opening at the end. With the ring of smaller tentacles flung open, they seem to contain a ring of suckers and a deeper ring of teeth. The suckers attempt to latch onto the mage-barrier right underneath Marian's feet. 

Aaaack! 

:I cannot hold the barrier and hit them at the same time: 

One of the morph-less human mages treading water attempts a levinbolt, but he's tired and magic is harder underwater, it doesn't really work enough to injure the creature. It does startle it into releasing the suckers and backing off. 

Another one of them tries wrapping around the bowl-shaped barrier, underwater, and squeezing it. 

Nayoki feeds more energy in. :I can hold this for a few minutes but not forever: she cautions everyone. 

Demorphing Andalites can try to help her once they've finished the demorph and morphed in some Gifts, which should be only a few minutes. 

The mages are still trying out different underwater attacks. Mage-energies shaped into sharp blades of force seem to work better than levinbolts and now one of the creatures is bleeding; its blood is greenish-blue, inky against the very clear water. Fireballs don't work as fire but do produce little underwater bursts of steam, which startle the eel-monster trying to crush their barrier into letting go and chasing after the bubbles. 

More are arriving, though.

The human mages keep trying different attacks, even though they're all very tired, as they wait for the Andalites to be ready to join. 

What kind of stupid animals summon more friends to a fight because it's unexpectedly dangerous? Demorphed-remorphed Andalites, who are tired from the back-to-back morphs but less tired than the poor humans, join in reinforcing the shield and trying to drive them off. 

...also they should attempt communication. 

<Go away> Matirin tells the animals. <We are not food. We prefer not to be enemies.>

They seem to notice the thoughtspeech and react with confusion, but not comprehension. They keep going at the shield, their next strategy is to try ramming it very hard. 

Eventually, after almost ten minutes of everyone straining to hold the shield and the additional weight of a number of Andalites-with-Gifts who can't swim very well, the eel-monsters seem to have had enough of going after unreachable prey and getting stab wounds and scaldings for their trouble. They streak off into the deep water. 

Leareth can kind of tell that something is going on, but he's too bleary to respond. Probably someone will tell him if he's needed. 

:...everything all right?: he eventually asks Matirin. 

<I do not think things are bad in any new and surprising ways>. Perhaps they should keep some Andalites morphed-Gifts around just because the human casters are so incredibly exhausted.

They're so exhausted! They would appreciate that, even though it makes it slightly more work to trade off on holding the force-net that Nayoki has tethered to her dolphin body. 

Nayoki eventually has to demorph and re-morph. 

This makes for a very unpleasant few minutes where Marian is singlehandedly preventing Leareth from drowning and also occasionally giving one of the Andalites a hand staying right side up in the water and keeping their face where the air is, their bodies aren't really built for water. She has the worst foot cramp she's ever had in her life and she's ignoring it and treading water anyway and she isn't sure she's ever been this tired and miserable before. 

And then, it feels like days later to the humans but must be only a few hours, they get a message that the battle in space is approximately over, and shortly later a shuttle descends to try to pick them up. 

- it's sort of unclear how to do this, there's nowhere to land. Does Matirin have any ideas?  

It should be able to hover pretty close and then -  humans can haul themselves up with a tether or something, right? Andalites cannot do this but they can morph roach again.

All the humans except Leareth should be able to haul themselves up and for Leareth, they can tie it around him and have someone go up with him. Nayoki demorphs to human form and goes up first with him. 

Marian makes her pockets and hair available for cockroaches again. She seems to be the least squeamish person here, the Gifted humans don't want to volunteer for this at all. 

It takes a while but eventually everyone is out and the Andalites are set down gently on the floor of the shuttle as it takes off toward orbit. 

Leareth lies on the floor shivering, distantly grateful that at least he's no longer getting constant mouthfuls of water. His stomach is very unhappy with the amount of salt-water he ended up swallowing, and probably morphing would fix that but he's way too tired to try. 

The Andalites demorph and remorph in a rotation; there's not space for them all on the ship if they're not very small.