The Change (Animorphs)

infobox Book |
name = The Change
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Tobias morphs from a (red-tailed hawk) into a human
author = K. A. Applegate
illustrator =
cover_artist = David B. Mattingly
country = United States
language = English
series = Animorphs #13
genre = Science fiction novel
publisher = Scholastic
release_date = November 1997
english_release_date =
media_type = Print
pages = 162 pp
isbn = 0-590-49418-X
preceded_by = The Reaction
followed_by = The Unknown "The Change" is the thirteenth book in the Animorphs series, written by K.A. Applegate. It is narrated by Tobias.

Plot summary

Tobias takes Rachel on a tour, to show her the Yeerk pool entrance that he had discovered. Soon, though, he finds he is not where he was heading; they suddenly are flying over the forest, without warning. He turns and turns but cannot get to the spot he wants to go to. They try to fly away but discover that they are still in the same spot. A pair of Hork-Bajir come up from a secret hatch in the woods. The two aliens are promptly pursued by human-Controllers on dirtbikes and jeeps, bristling with shotguns and automatic rifles. Tobias and Rachel decide to help the supposed fugitives. They lead one to safety, but the other trips over and falls into a ditch. The first Hork-Bajir screams for his wife yelling it in his language, but the animorphs do not understand, he tells them then that she is his wife. The animorphs tell him to run or he might die, and the Hork-Bajir runs for his life. Tobias then leads him to a cave for the time being.

The other Animorphs suspect a Yeerk trap to lure the freedom fighters, but they return to the cave the Hork-Bajir is hiding in. He calls himself Jara-Hamee. But Ax isn't convinced he's not a Controller, so Jara pulls his head open. Horrified, but seeing no Yeerk, the Animorphs have some peace of mind. But just then controllers had found out where they were. The team concocts a plan. In order to help Jara-Hamee escape, Rachel morphs him. Tobias is worried about the one he loves, and so he hitches a ride on one of her forehead blades. However, the human-hawk slaps into a branch, is knocked off, and finds himself in a Swainson's hawk's clearing, where another Hork-Bajir is cornered by a group of human-Controllers and Visser Three himself. The Visser calls this Hork-Bajir Ket Halpak. Tobias provides a distraction by drawing out an aggressive Swainson's hawk, and rakes the Visser's stalk eyes, allowing Ket Halpak to escape.

With Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak reunited, the Animorphs now need to decide where to hide them. Tobias suggests a hidden valley with fresh streams, a meadow and tall trees. But he'd never seen the place in his life, even though the images are clear in his mind. Tobias now suspects foul play - and that someone or something is manipulating him.

During the night while he is guarding the Hork-Bajir along with Ax, Tobais suddenly has visions of tracker Taxxons hunting. He doesn't know exactly but he has a feeling that they are tracking him. To avoid the Taxxons picking up the Hork-Bajir scent, Tobias and Ax take the Hork-Bajir and retreat further toward the mountains. While riding on the Hork-Bajir, Jara Hamee tells Tobias that a voice in his head told him to escape from the Yeerk Pool and that "it" would send a guide while he was trapped in the Yeerk Pool. Frustrated about being used, Tobias stops everyone and demands to find out what is happening. He yells in his head and asks who is manipulating him. Tobias then finds himself in another plane, and sees himself as both human and hawk. And then he encounters the Ellimist, who explains that while his species does not interfere with other peoples' lives, he wishes to save the Hork-Bajir. He also learns that when he could not get anywhere earlier and the images in his head were all the Ellimist's doing. Frustrated, Tobias wants to be made human in return for his efforts. The Ellimist says that he knows what Tobias wants but asks Tobias if he himself really knows what he wants.

Tobias and the Animorphs take the Hork-Bajir to the mountains, pursued by Yeerks in Dracon beam-wielding helicopters, Hork-Bajir and Taxxons. Tobias, out hunting breakfast, is caught in the helicopter's rotor vacuum, and breaks his wing. He is immediately discovered by a raccoon, who prepares to eat him. At that moment, the Ellimist makes Tobias able to morph again, but does not return him to human form. Tobias is enraged, accusing the omniscient being for not keeping his promise. Tobias escapes by morphing the raccoon, and rejoins the others.

The animorphs realize that the Yeerks will not give up until the Hork-Bajir are dead because if two escaped safely, others would try. Tobias comes up with a plan. He morphs Ket Halpek and, together with Rachel, go over to the ravine. Rachel yells "Jara Hamee Free!!!!", convincing Visser Three that he is the Hork-Bajir. The two animorphs jump over the ravine and are caught by Marco, in gorilla morph, in a small cave right below the top of the ravine that is not visible from the top. At the bottom, the real Ket Halpek and Jara Hamee are pretending to be dead, while Cassie and Ax are in wolf morph pretending to eat them. Visser Three is convinced that they are dead and the Yeerks give up searching. They take the Hork-Bajir to the valley which is mysteriously difficult to locate from a distance unless you knew it was there.

The human-hawk Tobias has his morphing power back. He thinks about what the Ellimist had said, and laments that maybe he didn't want to be a human again. Tobias falls asleep, and wakes up in his old bedroom---the Ellimist apparently having sent him back in time to the night before he first met Elfangor. The "past" Tobias (human) wakes up, and the "present" Tobias (hawk) acquires his DNA before the past version falls back asleep. He also tells him to go to the construction site with Jake. As a result, he can morph his own human body for up to two hours at a time (or, as later books will point out, stay in human form forever---the Ellimist, in this way, was giving him a choice.) The next day, he shows up at school for Rachel's Packard Foundation Outstanding Student award ceremony, as a human, to Rachel's amazement.

Contributions to the Series' Story Arc

*Tobias once again receives the ability to morph.
*Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak are introduced
*The Hork-Bajir colony is established.

Morphs

Trivia

*A picture of illustrator David B. Mattingly's cat, "Orson", can be seen in the first-page illustration of this book, standing in for Tobias' own cat, his first-ever morph, "Dude".
*Applegate chose a red-tailed hawk as the morph Tobias would become trapped in due to the bird's ubiquity across America. She "liked thinking that kids driving with their folks across Kansas or wherever would daydream about seeing Tobias," according to the Anibase Animorphs book database.
*This is "not" the fifth book to feature a cover morph that was not acquired in the book, as Tobias is in fact morphing from his new hawk body into his old human self, which he acquires and morphs at the end of "The Change".
*The cover quote is, "Be afraid...."