The Departure (Animorphs)

infobox Book |
name = The Departure
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Cassie morphing into a butterfly.
author = K. A. Applegate
illustrator =
cover_artist = David B. Mattingly
country = United States
language = English
series = "Animorphs" #19
genre = Science Fiction
publisher = Scholastic
pub_date = July 1998
english_pub_date =
media_type = Print (Paperback)
pages = 159
isbn = 0-590-49451-1
preceded_by = In the Time of Dinosaurs
followed_by = The Discovery

"The Departure" is the nineteenth book in the "Animorphs" series, written by K.A. Applegate. It is narrated by Cassie and Jake, who narrates several chapters towards the end of the story.

Plot Summary

The Animorphs attack the Hork-Bajir bodyguards at a Sharing meeting. The very second Jake ordered his team to break off, Cassie tore the throat out of a Hork-Bajir. Cassie, ridden with guilt, runs away. She senses someone watching her, but doesn't pay much attention. She demorphs, and has a nightmare (a scene from Megamorphs #2). She wakes up, and begins scrubbing her teeth and gums until they bleed. The next day, Cassie meets the others at her barn. She explicitly declares that she's fed up with all the violence, and quits being an Animorph. The others are disgusted with her scrupulous behaviour, and brand her a hypocrite. Marco makes a sarcastic remark about Cassie "going back to playing with her animals". Cassie then tells them that her father lost the much-needed funding to keep the Rehabilitation Clinic open. A distraught Cassie goes on a horse ride to calm her nerves.

Cassie suddenly spots a girl being chased by an angry bear. Cassie pursues them, but is knocked off her horse, and falls into the icy river. When she wakes up, she realizes she'd been saved by the little girl. The girl introduces herself, calling herself Karen. Karen tries to force Cassie to reveal her true identity. Cassie laughs and pretends the girl is mistaken. Soon it is apparent that the girl is a Controller, Aftran 942, watching her own father, the president of UniBank. It also becomes apparent that Cassie had killed Aftran 942's brother. They're both lost in the forest, and Cassie knows that a leopard that escaped from a private zoo is lurking about. During their time together, Cassie reveals her identity when she fends off an attack by the leopard.

Cassie begins to discuss the morality of enslaving another creature, while Aftran defends the Yeerk's right to experience life as a human or an Andalite does. Cassie tries to turn Aftran against her own people. Aftran tells Cassie that to preserve the freedom of one species, she must surrender her own. Karen presents Cassie with the following scenario: if she were Karen, would she stay in the Yeerk Pool forever? Cassie is uncertain. She allows Aftran to enter her brain, thus freeing Karen - and putting the life of the planet at stake. Cassie convinces Afran that what the Yeerks are doing is wrong. In return, however, Aftran compels Cassie to morph to a caterpillar, and to live life as a helpless worm. Cassie reluctantly agrees, and morphs, staying beyond the two-hour limit.

Jake and the others soon find Aftran back in Karen's body, and Cassie now a caterpillar. The Animorphs are enraged, and are more than willing to kill the Controller in revenge for Cassie, and to keep their identities a secret. Jake hears her out, though, and lets her live. Cassie spins a cocoon, and stays dormant for a couple of days. Cassie emerges as a butterfly, and the Animorphs are overjoyed, but saddened, as well, certain that Cassie would spend the rest of her brief life as an insect. Ax is puzzled, explaining that Cassie's process is a natural form of metamorphosis, and that she is able to morph back to her old self. Cassie does so, and is willing to be an Animorph once more. Aftran keeps her promise, freeing Karen, and the Yeerk establishes the Yeerk Peace Movement; Karen compels her father to fund Cassie's father's Wildlife Clinic.

Morphs

Other morphings: At the beginning of the story, the Animorphs use "various morphs" to spy upon a meeting of The Sharing.

Cover art

*Although the front cover depicts her doing so, Cassie never actually morphs "into" the butterfly; she morphs into a caterpillar, which metamorphoses into a butterfly, and then demorphs back to human.
*The front cover quote is, "There's always room for a little change...."
*The inside front cover quote is, "Float like a butterfly...."
*This book marks the first in the regular series in which more than one Animorph narrates. Jake narrates for part of the story, near the end, due to Cassie being trapped as a caterpillar in a chrysalis.