The Encounter (Animorphs)

infobox Book |
name = The Encounter
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Tobias morphing into a red-tailed hawk.
author = K. A. Applegate
illustrator =
cover_artist = David B. Mattingly
country = United States
language = English
series = "Animorphs" #3
genre = Science Fiction
publisher = Scholastic
pub_date = August 1996
english_pub_date =
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 157
isbn = 0-590-62979-4
preceded_by = The Visitor
followed_by = The Message

"The Encounter", published in 1996 and written by written by K. A. Applegate, is the third book in the "Animorphs" series. It is narrated by Tobias.

Plot Summary

Tobias and Rachel liberate a caged red-tailed hawk from a car dealership where it is being used as a mascot in advertisements. Later that evening, Tobias sees a shimmering in the air and is perplexed by it. He decides to check it out again the next day, and this time notices a flock of geese seemingly run into an invisible wall in the air. Tobias suspects the anomaly to be a Yeerk ship using optical camouflage and tells the other Animorphs about it. The group morphs into wolves to follow the last known direction of the ship into the mountains. They arrive at a lake guarded by human-Controllers and Hork-Bajir. The ship decloaks over the lake, revealing itself to be a massive logistics ship that collects water and air for the Yeerk Pool ship in orbit. Tobias also sees the hawk that he and Rachel freed, and has an urge to be with her.

The Animorphs return from the mountains and make plans to morph into fish in the lake and get sucked up by the ship so they can disable it from the inside. Tobias heads up to the lake again to scope out potential hiding places, but his hawk instincts overpower him on the way and he kills and eats a rat. Greatly disturbed by the experience, he flies to Rachel's gymnastics exhibition at the mall and tries to commit suicide. He flies around the mall in a panicked state until Marco smashes open a skylight for him to escape. Tobias regresses into his hawk instincts for several days, living in the woods and hunting rodents. His human side only re-emerges when he saves an old man escaping from Hork-Bajir near the mountain lake. He returns to Rachel to talk about what happened, and he decides that he needs to keep fighting the Yeerks to remain human.

The Animorphs revisit the lake and hide in a cave until the Yeerks arrive. They then morph trout, and Tobias carries them to the lake to avoid notice by the Yeerks who have locked down the area. The others are successfully sucked up into the ship, but they discover that the water tank is sealed off inside; they are trapped. They communicate this information to Tobias and ask him to bring the ship down if possible. Meanwhile, Tobias is spotted and identified as an "Andalite bandit." To avoid attacks from Yeerk Bug Fighters and helicopters, he lands on the logistics ship, the one place he can be sure the Yeerks won't risk firing. A Taxxon emerges out onto the deck to kill him, but Tobias kills it and takes its Dracon beam. He fires the beam at the ship's bridge, causing it to fly out of control and crash into another Yeerk ship. A large gash is torn in the side of the ship, and the other Animorphs come pouring out with the water that had been collected. They are able to morph into birds and escape. Tobias again sees the female hawk, but the Yeerks, mistaking her for him, kill her.

Tobias is distressed over the death of the hawk, but realizes that it is this emotion that makes him human, as a true hawk would not care if another hawk had died. Tobias discusses this with Rachel, and begins to accept his newfound balance between being a hawk and a being a human.

Inconsistencies

Tobias states that Marco had previously acquired a bald eagle morph and that he used it during the escape from the Yeerk ship. However, Marco never acquired a bald eagle; his raptor morph is an osprey.

Morphs

Trivia

*The cover model for this book is blond, but dyed his hair brown prior to posing for the cover. Because the model was under contract and had to be used, Applegate changed Tobias' hair color to "dirty blond". A few covers in the series would feature a model with very blond hair.
*This is the first book to feature a cover morph that does not actually occur in the book.
*This is the first book to feature a cover morph that was not acquired in the book. Tobias acquired, and became trapped in his red-tailed hawk morph in the first book, "The Invasion".
*Katherine Applegate spent time at the University of Minnesota Raptor Center studying the birds in order to write this book.
*The front cover quote is, "Now you see them. Now you don't...".
*The inside front cover quote is, "It's a bird. It's a plane. It's Tobias....".