Oh god I think this is from the Animorphs book where they have to fight another human, not their typical alien enemies. They gave David morphing powers, but he turned/was evil, and so Rachel has to trap him as a rat and leave him out onto some abandoned island or some shit. Those books were brutal.
Idr what books it was cus read them in elementary school but I remember there’s a timer on their power where if they stay as an animal too long they get stuck. I remember this cus at one point they make a long trip so they have to shift back every few hours but get stuck half way.
Also some evil character turned into a bird or falcon or something and forcibly turned a couple characters into flys or something and yeah
These were books that are good to be in an elementary school
Oh yeah, it was a mix of body horror, the brutalities of war, the unconscionable weight of leadership, and happy fun time seagull antics.
The time limit was 2 hours or you got stuck. And that happened in the first book to emphasize "kids, this is real."
Didn't they also casually drop "Tobias could eat him" as a solution?
Cause, y'know, using your friend and ally who's trapped in a birds body and might be having some mental struggles with all that as the executioner is a great one.
Did they? This was probably after the Tobias almost kills himself out of depression but then accepts his hawk body arc, so I can't imagine why they thought it was okay to try and traumatize him again.
I could be misremembering, it's been the better part of 2 decades since I last read one of these, but there's a couple points sticking out in my mind where they at least entertained the idea of using Tobias as an assassin due to his form.
Which always kinda felt fucked up, even as a kid. Like, dude could still be a major badass, even in hawk form, but damn.
For the longest time, they have read too less into it, because of the whole psychological distance thing.
