A/N: This is my tribute to Tobias, my favorite character in Animorphs. I hope you enjoy and please review. It only takes a few seconds.
Disclaimer: Obviously, I do not own Tobias or Animorphs. Those belong to K.A.A.
"Where have you been?"
"I-" I stuttered. I was standing in the doorway, trying not to meet my uncle's gaze. A loser kid with untidy hair and a notebook of doodles under my arm, a backpack slung over my shoulder. I'd just arrived home from the park where I'd gone after school.
"Well?" my uncle pressed. "There's a load of dishes in that sink and they aren't going to wash themselves, are they?"
"No," I sighed. I kept my gaze down. He was drunk. There were a couple of empty beer cans on the table. A third was in his hand.
I hated it when he was drunk. Which was a lot of the time. At least none of his beer-drinking, Tobias-insulting buddies were there at the time.
When I arrived at the kitchen, I made sure I was out of view and glanced at my notebook. Some of the pages contained notes for history class, but mostly it was just pencil drawings of buildings, cartoons, and my cat Dude. They were pretty good, I guess. My art teacher even wanted me to come and receive an award for one of my drawings. I wasn't allowed to go, of course. I never was.
"I don't hear that sink going!" my uncle shouted from the living room.
I sighed and got to work.
I didn't know at first, but my blue eyes were just being to tear.
I blinked them open and they were yellow. Fierce. A hawk's eyes. I was a red-tailed hawk. The memory filled my mind as I sat on my perch, watching the Hork-bajir and the Taxxons and the humans below. In the cavern of the Yeerk pool.
Screams echoed around in my head, the screams of caged hosts, doomed to a life of slavery.
I would escape that nightmare, but it would always haunt me.
I blinked again.
I was human.
A couple of bullies were shoving my head into a toilet, flushing while they laughed. I kicked and squirmed, but I couldn't get away. My blond hair swirled in the water.
"Hey!" I heard someone yell. "Cut that out."
"Mind your own business," one of the kids spat back.
"Well, I'm making it my business," the newcomer said.
The kids released their hold on me and I came up sputtering. I guess I looked a mess. My kind of long hair hanging over my eyes, sopping wet.
"Get out of here," the kid said. I recognized him. White skin, brown hair, brown eyes. It was Jake. I'd seen him around a few times but never talked to him.
The bullies backed out of the restroom, one of them sporting an ugly scowl.
I looked down at the tiles.
"You okay?" Jake asked.
I nodded stiffly. I was humiliated. But this kid might have just saved me from further humiliation. "Thanks," I grumbled.
I thought of that moment as I flew along in the night. I wasn't that way anymore. Not since that night at the Yeerk pool.
I had stayed in morph for too long. I didn't have a watch, but I didn't need one. I just knew. I could sense it. But I did try to demorph afterwards. You know, just in case Elfangor was wrong and it would work. It didn't. I didn't really expect it to.
Part of me was sad. Sad because of all the things I'd lost. School. Homework. Books. Average human stuff.
All of that was a memory now.
The other part of me was relieved. Nor more uncaring aunt or drunk uncle. No more bullies. No more utter humiliation.
I was a hawk.
Tobias, the boy, was no more.
I was a hawk.
I used to be a human. Tobias.
But now I'm not. Not anymore.
