We ran. Or I ran, and Loren rode lightly on my back. And we quickly outran the visser’s beasts. Those biological wheels were swift, but not as swift as an Andalite’s hooves.

As for the visser, he chose not to give chase. At least not just then. But I knew I had not seen the end of him.

We left the “Andalite” portion of this new universe and ran through an increasingly strange environment.

The sky overhead was blue, but darkening just a bit.

The woods gave way to a cluttered landscape filled up with manufactured things. The grass under my hooves became a hard, gray-black substance. White stripes lined the middle.

<What is this thing we are on?> I asked.

“It’s a street,” Loren said.

<What does it do?>

“Well, remember that Mustang you were driving around on the Taxxon world? Streets are what Mustangs travel on.”

As soon as she said it I could see how sensible it was. Of course. This way the human “cars” — which is how, Loran informed me, humans commonly refer to these machines — would not damage tasty grass.

On both sides of the street there were cars sitting. Beyond the cars, further back from the street were rectangular boxy structures. They were quite large and decorated with small squares and rectangles of transparent material. The tops were angled and covered in reddish-orange or dark gray scales.

<Are these human creations?>

“Yep. These are houses. That’s what we live in.”

<You live in them? How?>

“Um, well … I mean, you go in through the front door. See? The tall rectangles on the front of each house? You go in through those.”

<Inside.>

“Yes, inside.”

<Ah! Wait! You mean these structures are hollow!>

“Of course they’re hollow. Pretty soon we’ll be to my house. Then I’ll show you. You’ll meet my mom. You can see my room.”

I didn’t know what to say to that. My own home scoop had been empty. My mother and father had not been there. I doubted that Loren’s mother would be in her house. But I wasn’t sure.

<Don’t expect too much,> I warned.

“She’ll be there,” Loren said forcefully. “Next house. The one with the bushes out front.”

I had very little experience understanding the expression of human voices, but I sensed fear in Loren’s voice. Uncertainty.

I stopped before her house. There was a very attractive patch of grass in the front. Obviously, humans grow their own food in neatly cultivated squares in front of each house.

<You must have very hardy grasses to be able to feed whole families and still look so perfect and so green.>

“What?” Loren asked.

She frowned and I let the matter drop. I was sure now that she was worried. She slid from my back.

<I’ll wait while you go inside your hollow house,> I said.

“No. Come with me, Elfangor. Hold my hand.”

I held her hand and she walked up a series of four steps. I wondered about the steps. Were they a way to slow down any approaching enemy, so that no one could charge directly inside the hollow house?

With her free hand Loren twisted a metallic ball. The door opened a little and Loren pushed it open all the way.

She was correct. The house was hollow inside. In fact, now I could see that the outer walls were no more than a few inches thick. But inside the hollowness were other walls, with other doors. It was like a maze!

Lights glowed from the flat covering above us. Other lights were hung on the walls. The floor was covered with a sort of very short, pale tan grass. I tried to taste some of it, but my hooves could not eat it.

“Mom?” Loren said in a loud, quavering voice.

“I’m in here, honey.”

I felt Loren’s hand jerk in surprise. Then she let go of my hand and ran along the strange inedible tan grass and turned out of sight through a rectangular opening.

I followed slowly, unsure of myself. I did not know any human rituals. I knew what I would have said when first meeting an Andalite friend’s parents, but I’d never met a human’s parents.

I heard Loren sob. “Mommy!”

I turned the corner and looked into another of the mazelike rooms. This room had metallic devices against one wall, all rectangular and white. Humans are very partial to rectangles. The floor was smooth here, and slippery for my hooves.

Loren was wrapped in the arms of another human. This new human was also female, as far as I could tell. She had hair the same color as Loren’s, but dark brown eyes. Perhaps that was a sign of age. Perhaps humans have blue eyes till a certain age. Or until they reproduce and have children.

I wanted to ask Loren if my guess was correct, but Loren’s mother was looking at me with her brown eyes.

“Loren, honey, shouldn’t you introduce your friend?”

Loren frowned. She looked at me, then back at her mother. “Mom, this is Elfangor. Don’t be afraid, okay? He’s my friend.”

The human woman smiled. “Now, why would I be afraid? I like meeting your friends. You know that.”

“But … Mom … Elfangor’s not exactly one of my school friends.”

“I like meeting your friends.”

Loren’s face was growing pale. She darted worried eyes at me and back to her mother. “Mom, can’t you tell that Elfangor is not a normal friend from school? Can’t you tell that he’s different?”

“Oh, honey.” The woman laughed. “He’s just an Andalite like any other.”

Loren jumped back like she’d been slapped. I swept the room with my stalk eyes, ready for trouble. I cocked my tail and waited, tense and confined in the narrow room with the slippery floor.

“What do you mean, he’s an Andalite? You don’t know about Andalites! You can’t know about Andalites.”

Loren’s mother made a face. “You know, just because I’m your mother doesn’t mean I’m an antique! I do keep up with things, Miss Modern. Your generation thinks it invented everything. You think you kids invented Andalites? We had Andalites when I was your age, too.”

“How do you know about Andalites?!” Loren yelled. There was water leaking from her eyes. “Oh, God, you’re not real! You’re not real!”

“Now, Loren, if you are going to treat me disrespectfully, I am going to send you to your room.”

“You’re not my mother! You’re not real!”

I placed a hand on Loren’s shoulder. By now I had learned that humans like to be touched when they are upset. <Loren, you’re right. She is not your mother. She’s something you made out of your own thoughts and memories of your mother. She knows about Andalites because you knew about Andalites when you imagined her.>

But Loren did not want to be comforted. She threw off my hand. She turned to me with her face red, and water flowing from her blue eyes. And she screamed. “Get away from me! Get away from me! This is all your fault! Just leave me alone!”

She pushed past me and ran from the hollow house, sobbing loudly.

I was alone with the artificial mockery of a human woman. <I am sorry.>

“Would you like some pop and cookies?” the human woman asked.

<No, thank you,> I said. I wondered what I should do. I didn’t know how to comfort a human girl who is trapped inside a nightmare. <Loren’s mother, can you show me where Loren’s room is?>

“Up the stairs, on the right. But leave the door open a crack. That’s the rule in our house when Loren has Andalites over to play.”