Chapter 37

Note: IT'S DONE! FINALLY! After 3/4ths of a year this is it, the final chapter. I'll put all the mushy thank you stuff at the end, so for now just enjoy the ending.

But there is one thing I want to say. I know that I miscalculated the flight time between Yellowstone and California, by a lot. Being from Pennsylvania means that I've never been in that general area and I thought that Yellowstone was a bit farther south and a bit farther west than it really is. To make the trip in one 12hr day Tobias would have to fly somewhere around 60mph which is just not possible. I originally meant to check the numbers on this before I posted it in a previous chapter, but I never got around to it. So, instead of going back and fixing it I decided to write this little blob of text and keep the time frame the same.

-----------------------------

I had a good night's sleep and woke up feeling ready to go. On the way back to my field last night I had seen a squirrel scurrying up to the trunk of a tree. He didn't see me until it was too late and he was already in my talons. He gave me a much needed meal before bedtime, but I had to restrain myself from eating him entirely. I wanted to save about half of him to eat before I left. That meant I had to fly back to my field holding whatever was left of him tantalizingly close in my talons. I couldn't have gotten home sooner if I tried.

Once I made it back I stored what was left of the squirrel in the opening of a tree. Not exactly the safest place, but it was all I could come up with in the almost non existent light. To my relief I found him there the next morning almost undisturbed. I ate whatever else I could of him and took off while the sun was still climbing over the horizon.

I wanted the trip to be as quick as possible, so I decided to do most of the flying in my seagull morph. This way I could basically fly all day without having to stop and rest except to morph. And since I was basically flying over wooded land the entire time the morph helped me keep my mind off of my hunger for most of the trip.

I tried to keep my mind free of any serious thoughts. I just tried to enjoy the flying. The feel of the air moving over your body, the freedom I had to do anything I wanted to in the air, and, most of all, the amazing views I had of the countryside from way up here. I've seen pictures on postcards and all that stuff before, but nothing compared to flying over a sweeping forest with rolling hills while the sunlight danced over everything creating it's own vibrant blend of shadows and accents. That's what I would miss the most when it was my time to go. I hoped that they still have things like this in the afterlife…

I made very good time. I was way more optimistic than I should've been before I left and I had hoped to make it there in one day. As time went on though, I realized that there was no way that was going to happen. And as the sun started to go down the reality began to set in that I was going to have to spend another night in foreign territory.

That wasn't the only thing to set in though. Although my seagull morph had been doing a good job suppressing my hunger throughout the day, when the sun started to set it began to get almost intolerable. I decided to demorph to hawk and see if I could catch something for my dinner before the light got too dim.

I was passing by a small city when I got an idea. There was plenty of life small enough for me to eat in the city, so I decided to give it a shot and see what I could come up with.

I was hoping to catch a rat or maybe even a small stray cat or something, but the moment I actually flew into where the big buildings were I quickly knew what I was going to try for. The area was swarming with pidgins.

I never really liked going after other birds. It was more of a personal thing than a biological one though since hawks sometimes do eat other birds. It's just that I had been burned going after other birds quite a few times, and I had eventually stopped doing it altogether for that reason. But, on the other hand, I wasn't a falcon either. I usually preferred small fuzzy animals to other birds any day. I was simply too big to gain enough speed to be truly effective at catching birds off guard. They'd either have to be preoccupied with something or just really stupid for them not to notice me. And there was something else I hated about birds. They usually had six directions to escape from me, not just the four that prey on the ground had.

But nevertheless, I tried to find a single pidgin that was far away from the others. The last thing I wanted was a swarm of family pecking at me and ripping my feathers out because I had killed one of their own. It wasn't easy, but eventually I found one leaving a group to go off in another direction. Now was my chance to strike. I waited until he was a decent distance away before I dove. I don't think it ever even knew what hit it. I squeezed it tightly in my talons and I was out of there before anyone else could figure out that he was missing.

I perched on one of the nearby rooftops and began to chow down. I had originally intended to save some for breakfast tomorrow, but I couldn't restrain myself this time. Also, keeping fresh meat around while I was in someone else's territory was probably not a good idea anyway, so I ate quickly and thoroughly.

I was tempted to spend the night here in the city. A bit noisy perhaps, but it would be relatively safe. But when I looked up at the sun and where it was in the sky I knew that it wasn't going to work like that. There was still too much light left in the day to waste it here. I had to keep going. So, reluctantly, I took off, morphed to seagull, and continued flying again.

Eventually it got to the point where the sun was just about gone making it near impossible to fly any longer. I tried, but I quickly realized that it wasn't the safe thing to do. I even debated morphing to owl and trying to fly on that way, but I was just too tired. I knew I had to stop for the night. The seagull didn't mind the flying much, it was just the constant morphing ever two hours that got to me.

But there was a problem. I had waited so long to finally decide to rest that the sun was completely down by now. To make things worse it was cloudy so none of the stars could shine down to give me at least a little light. I morphed to owl of course, but even it was having trouble seeing very far on a night like this. So all I could do was pick a nearby tree and hope that no one found me during the night.

I avoided the pine trees because of my experience last time and tried to choose an average looking tree in an average looking part of the forest and perch on an average looking branch hoping that no one would look in such an average place. It was all I could do. I found the most average perch I could, went in about 2/3rds of the way to the trunk, demorphed, and quickly dozed off to sleep.

Luckily for me I slept fairly well again. No one had decided to disturb me during the night and I awoke feeling relatively good, albeit still a bit tired from all my morphing the previous day. I gave my feathers a quick ruffle since it was unusually cold this morning and I quickly took off. Judging by the distance I had already traveled, I very roughly estimated that I'd be in my mom's town around noon. I probably would've been if it wasn't for one little thing.

I demorphed to my hawk form when I got close to the two hour limit. Seeing as it turned out to be a very nice day despite the early morning cold I decided to ride the thermals for a bit instead of just mindlessly flapping away as a seagull. I was happily gliding along when all of a sudden I began to feel really dizzy.

It didn't start out too bad at first, but it quickly escalated to the point that I couldn't fly straight anymore. And by then that wasn't the only thing that was wrong with me. I began getting this extremely intense pain in my chest. It eventually got so bad that I had trouble breathing. I was gasping and panting for every breath and each successive one hurt more than the last. And I knew I was in serious trouble when my right wing began to go numb.

I was cruising at a good altitude; I'd say maybe about a hundred feet or so above the treetops when it hit. I wasn't sure how much of that altitude I had managed to kill off before I spiraled out of control, but I knew it wouldn't be enough. I felt the branches tear at my body as I fell through them. Even though I could feel my left wing shatter and my pelvis crack as I tumbled mercilessly through the branches I think they actually saved my life. If I had just hit solid ground dropping from that altitude there would be no way that I could've survived. And even though it would've been extremely painful to receive my injuries normally, I didn't feel much more than a small jolt this time. That's because I was too busy being scared. This was one of the most frightening moments in my life because I knew exactly what was going on. I was dying.

I couldn't now. I wasn't ready. I still had one last thing I that I needed to do...

All of that was running through my mind and it made me start to morph even before I hit the ground. I didn't even realize it at first; Then again, I don't even remember hitting the ground for that matter. The next thing I remember was being half human and half hawk with my pain, dizziness, and nausea slowly receding. I took control of my morphing when I could and tried to complete it as fast as possible.

Once I was fully human I just laid there on the forest floor trying to catch my breath. My heart was still pumping a billion times per second and all the adrenaline was still rushing through my vanes. I wasn't able to breathe fast enough to keep up with my beating heart so my breaths were still sharp and quick. Even though I had only been human for a very short time I began to sweat due to my body's heightened activity level. When I had finally calmed down enough for my mind to re-assume control I was absolutely drenched in sweat.

The first thing I did after I took back control was check to see if my body was doing fine. I moved my right and left arms just to make sure they weren't still broken or numb and I slowly did the same with the rest of my body. After I was sure that everything was fine I decided to go and splash some icy cold water on my face from a stream that I noticed nearby. That helped me to get my mind straight more than anything. But before my face decided to freeze itself off I crawled over to a nearby tree and rested my back against its trunk. My mind needed some time to catch up.

I was almost positive that I was about to die. I mean, it was like nothing I'd ever felt before in my life. It's like my body knew it was time to go, and it tried to shut itself down while my brain was screaming the exact opposite. It's a feeling that I can't really explain all that well. It's just something that you have to experience for yourself to truly know what it feels like.

I have no idea how long I sat next to that stream leaning against that tree. It could've been a few minutes, or it could've been an hour or even more. Eventually though I got my wits about me enough to take one more face plunge into the stream and then got ready to leave. But what if my hawk form was still dying? What if morphing hadn't fixed whatever was wrong? There was only one way to find out.

I focused hard on my hawk self and I slowly began to demorph. I kept waiting for any of the things I had experienced not that long ago to come back, but none of them did. I was so focused on waiting for those that I didn't even notice that I had finished demorphing for a while. I tentatively moved all my body parts to make sure that everything was alright. Once everything turned out fine I gave one last look around my small area and took off once again. I had to see my mom at least one more time and not even a near death experience like that was going to stop me.

The rest of the trip was calm and lucid compared to what I had just been through. I stayed in my seagull morph the rest of the way though just to be sure that whatever had happened to me before wouldn't happen again until I was ready for it.

I reached my mother's town at around one o' clock judging by the sun's position. I thankfully didn't have to ask directions to it since there was a giant sign beside the only road leading into town that had its name written on it in big letters. I could've seen that thing from twenty miles away if I tried, it was huge! I only ended up being about ten miles off course which was really pretty good for a first time flight. Although, to be honest I had seen a few of those "this many miles to this place in this direction" signs which helped me also.

Once I had finally made it to the town itself I took a few laps around it before I decided to land. I knew the name of the town where my mom lived and I was pretty sure I was in the right place, but I didn't know exactly where she lived. I didn't know what her house looked like or what kind of car she drove or any of that stuff. I demorphed to my hawk form to get a closer look at everything, but I still couldn't pinpoint which house was definitely hers. I had a few guesses, but there was no real way to be sure. None of the mail boxes were any help to me either unfortunately. And I didn't want to go knocking on a bunch of stranger's doors and telling them who I was. Who knows what they might do to me since I was probably the biggest celebrity in the entire world right now. For all I knew someone would try and trap me in a bird cage and hold me for ransom. That would be the last thing I needed now.

But I did need to do something. I didn't know which house was hers and I couldn't figure it out by looks alone, so I needed some help. That's when I got an idea. I had seen a small diner on my way into town. They probably had a phone book somewhere that I could use. I could find my mom's name, get her address, and then find her easily. And, if worse came to worse, I could always just ask the guy behind the counter at the diner. It seemed like a small enough town so everyone should know everyone else. I spilled some air from my wings and dove for the dumpster behind the diner.

I had gone over which of my human morphs would be the best and I finally decided to just use my own. If I went in there asking for Loren Fangor as anyone other than myself they would probably think that I was a reporter or something looking for an interview. However, if I went in as myself then they'd probably tell me exactly where she lives, or so I hoped.

I morphed in between the diner and the dumpster (glorious, I know) and tried to act casual as I walked into the diner. It was just past lunch time and I think it was a weekday so the place was basically deserted. All the better.

The guy behind the counter gave me a strange look as I walked in, but I quickly said, "Excuse me, is there a phone I could use?"

"Yeah, sure," he said in a rough old voice and pointed over towards the left wall. There was a single small phone booth halfway embedded into the wall. "You okay?" he added with some concern, "anything I could help you with?"

"No," I said as I calmly made my way over, "no thanks, I'm good for now." He continued to give me a funny look as I went over and sat down in the tiny booth.

I quickly realized that my original plan wasn't going to work. I searched high and low, but there was no sign of a phonebook anywhere. And, as an afterthought, I realized that she probably wouldn't be listed in the phone book anyway. Otherwise there'd be people calling her all day and night, especially now.

Defeated, I went back to the man behind the counter and calmly said, "I'm looking for someone in this town, can you help me?"

He looked at me strangely for a while before he finally said, "You're Tobias. Tobias Fangor, right?"

There was no point in hiding it. "Yeah," I said with a small laugh, "yeah I am."

"Well, it's quite an honor to meet you sir," he said as he stuck his hand out for me to shake. I took it and returned his handshake as he continued. "You're looking for Loren I suppose, right?"

"Yeah, I am," I said as I released myself from his handshake. "You wouldn't happen to know where she lives, would you?"

"Of course I do," he replied sounding almost offended. "I know where everyone lives in this town. I guess it's just a byproduct of this town being so small." He gave me a smile which he was probably expecting me to return, but since I had been a hawk for so long I sometimes forget to include subtle little face expressions like that. I quickly noticed though and I forced myself to smile before it became too awkward.

"Loren lives in a small house down on Juniper road. It's the one with the really large garden. It's bigger than the house itself!"

"I knew it!" I said abruptly. "That's the one that I thought was hers, but I wasn't sure. Thanks."

I turned around to leave, but he called out to me, "Oh, Tobias!" I turned around to face him once again. I knew it wasn't going to be that easy. "I'm sure that you want to go see your mom as soon as possible, but I was wondering if you wouldn't mind signing the picture of you hanging up on the wall over there."

I followed his finger as he pointed towards a small wall full of pictures. All the pictures had people in them with a small subtitle saying something. I wasn't able to see many with my weak human eyes, but the one I caught a glimpse of said, "Saved Ronnie Jacobs from his burning home on February 2nd, 1989." I guess it was like a small town wall of fame or something. He went over to take a picture off the wall and he brought it over to where I was standing by the counter.

"It's just that no one really famous has ever been by here, besides your mom of course. You're the first famous person this town has really known. It would mean a lot to me and to the entire town if you signed this picture to signify you were here. I'm sorry I couldn't get a better picture, but this newspaper story is really the only thing I could get my hands on."

"Sure," I said, "no problem." If the worst thing anyone wanted from me was an autograph then I would consider myself lucky.

As I was signing it he began again by saying, "Thanks, this is great. I'm sure you've had a long trip here, so is there anything I could get you to eat perhaps?"

"No," I responded as I finished signing the newspaper article, "no thanks."

"Come on," he insisted, "it's on the house. Whatever you want on the menu is yours."

I really wanted to go see my mom, but I was never one to give up free food.

After about the third full plate of food I think he began to have second thoughts about offering me anything I wanted. He was actually really nice though. While my food cooked and I ate we talked. He had a few questions and I answered them as best I could. Then, he began to tell me about Loren.

She was sort of shy and kept to herself mostly unless there was something going on for charity. She almost always helped out when some charity needed her. That was basically what she did for a living, donate her time to charity. I would've thought that she would've gotten some sort of normal job after the war. I mean, how was she able to pay the bills and everything like that? When she wasn't busy with a charity she was usually at home either in her garden or playing with her dog in her large back yard. She didn't come to the diner much, so that's all he really knew about her.

Being polite, I asked if he would mind me demorphing to eat a bit as a hawk. After assuring him that there's no way I could eat that much more as a hawk, he agreed. Just as I was finishing my morph a few people came in to quite an awkward sight. But Joe (the guy behind the counter) quickly explained to them what was going on and after recovering from their momentary shock they turned out to be very nice people as well. I answered their questions while I ate and after their questions were over I took my last bite of bacon, thanked Joe for everything, and flew on out the door.

I made the flight to my mom's house longer than it had to be. I was trying to burn off some of the food I'd eaten, but mostly it was because I was nervous. I hadn't seen my mom since Rachel's funeral and it was all my own doing.

Everyone had plans during the war for what they would do after it was over, but no one was expecting things to turn out the way they did. I had planned to live out the rest of my life as a human with Rachel while my mom and I grew back the bond that we should've had between us. But after Rachel died, well, to put it simply, I was seriously messed up. I didn't want to talk to anybody; I didn't want to listen to anybody; I just thought that I needed some time on my own to figure things out. But I was wrong. If I had stayed completely isolated from everyone then I would've been dead a long time ago. I probably would've starved myself to death in my field before I came to terms with anything. I was lucky that Toby was one of the last Hork-Bajir to make the trip to Yellowstone or no one would've been able to save me. And ever since the funeral a thought has been continuously hitting me in the back of the head. What about my mom? Where did she go? Is she safe? Should I go see her? She barely even knows me. Could she help me figure a few things out? How could she possibly help me? What about our bond? Would she care that I was missing? What would she think of me? Did she really see me as her son, or just some teenage boy that she barely knew?

I got the answers to the first questions relatively quick through Toby from Cassie. And ever since then I've wanted to go to her so much. I didn't realize it until much later, but I needed her. Even if I had only known her for a few weeks she was still my mom and I was still her son. She was comforting to be around and I needed that comfort badly now. Toby and later on Cassie would help me with some of it, but I needed more than they were willing to give.

I really have wanted to go to her ever since I was mentally stable again (I'm not so sure that I am even today really, but you've got to draw the line somewhere). It's just that something kept holding me back. The uncertainty of what to expect along with the fear that she wouldn't care for me anymore kept me away every time.

After my interview I planned on finally going to see her, but the interview had lasted for far longer than I had thought it would and, to be honest, it slipped my mind after all my past memories invaded my brain. But I swore that one day I would truly get to see her, at least for one last time. And here I was, circling above her house, getting ready to land. I took a really deep breath and dove for a patch of her garden so I could morph in peace.

She wasn't outside, but her car was still in her small driveway. It was a Ford Taurus, nothing fancy. I didn't really expect it to be either. My mom had always been a simple person. Back when she was still blind she had lived in a small house as well and only had the things that she truly needed with her. She told me that her lifestyle wasn't going to change much now that she could see again and I believed her. Now, I could see it with my own two eyes.

I morphed to human quickly in her garden so no one would see me from the road. The garden itself didn't make the greatest cover I've ever seen, but it did it's job. Very nervously I walked up to the front door, took one very large last breath, and rang the doorbell.

I heard a dog begin barking instantly, along with a calm voice telling it to be quiet. I heard the footsteps from inside the house getting louder and louder until eventually the door began to swing open.

"Hi mom," I said after the brief moment of awkward silence between us. I could see her face turn from surprise to confusion and then finally to a smile as she rushed out and gave me a big hug.

I returned it just as vigorously and my mom began to talk into my ear. "Oh, Tobias, I've missed you so much. It's great to see you again. I was afraid that you forgot all about me."

As she slowly pulled away from the hug I said in return, "I'm so sorry mom. I wanted to come sooner, I really did. But if one thing wasn't wrong then something else was. I just couldn't get everything together for long enough to come visit you."

She just smiled and pulled me into another smaller hug. "It's okay," she said calmly, "all that matters is that you're here now."

After she pulled away from me again she said, "Oh, I'm sorry. Come on in Tobias. Make yourself at home." She quickly entered her small house and I followed closely behind.

Although the inside was small it was very cozy. It was big enough to leave you plenty of space to move around, but it was small enough to give it a warm and comfortable feeling. It felt more like a cabin than anything else. It wasn't overly decorated or anything, but there were the various paintings and small little statues around the living room that made it interesting. I didn't gaze intently on any specific one, but from what I saw a lot of the figurines and pictures were of red-tailed hawks. I guess some nice people had sent them to my mom in hopes of them getting to me.

As I took a seat on the small but very comfy couch my mom called out from the connected kitchen, "Did you fly all the way here?" Then, she paused for a second and rephrased her question. "I mean, did use your own wings?"

I kind of laughed as I replied, "Yeah, I did. The trip wasn't that bad, I've had worse."

"You mean you flew all the way from…um…from…" my mom tried to continue. I think she was trying to remember if I ever said where I lived. I had been so careful not to, but I felt secure in telling her now.

"Yellowstone," I calmly filled in.

"You came all the way from Yellowstone?" my mom said sounding surprised, "That's almost seven-hundred miles away! How long did it take you, a week?"

"No," I said, surprised myself at how far it really was, "I made it in a day and change. It was pretty good flying weather though."

"That's absolutely crazy!" my mom replied. I had to agree, that was a lot of distance covered. "You must be starving, or dehydrating, or dying of exhaustion or something."

"Mom," I said with another small laugh, "Quit being such a…a… mom! I'm 19! I can take care of myself. I've been doing it for years."

"I know", she said back with a more sympathetic tone, "I'm sorry. It's just that I've been worrying about you ever since I heard what happened to Rachel. You're my only son Tobias. Even if I don't remember anything apart from the few weeks we spent together, you're still my son. I still care for you just the same. I was worried for a while there that you forgot about me since I hadn't been around for your childhood, but since you're here now I guess you really haven't forgotten about me."

"I could never forget you, mom," I added in quickly. "It's just that, well, I thought that I needed some time on my own to figure things out. But after all these years I still haven't figured out much of anything. I've always wanted to come see you, but I never felt ready. The past month or so made me realize that I was never going to truly be ready, so I decided to come here as soon as I could. But I do have another reason for coming. I have something I need to tell you as well."

She finally finished doing whatever she was doing in the kitchen and came back out to the living room carrying a small mug full of what I could only guess by the smell was tea. She took a seat beside me, took a careful sip of her still steaming tea, and said, "What is it Tobias?"

"Mom, I…I'm…" I tried to say. Why was it so hard? I had done fine with Toby and Cassie, but I just couldn't bring myself to say it now. I also didn't have any trouble telling my life story to the world either, so it wasn't just because my mom was still basically a stranger to me either. Ever since I arrived at her house I've been feeling weird. I just had to grit my teeth and do it.

"Mom," I began again after taking a deep breath, "I'm dying, as a hawk." I didn't see her reaction because I couldn't bring myself to make eye contact with her. I just wanted to get this over with as quick as I could.

"My health has been getting worse and worse every day. I've gotten to the point where I can barely support myself out in the wild. And on the way here I think I just about died. If I hadn't morphed then I think that I truly would've."

"So all of that got me thinking; what am I going to do when my time as a hawk is over? I have a great deal of options, but which one I truly wanted to choose took some time to figure out. And now, I think I've finally decided."

I forced myself to look into my mother's eyes as I said, "Mom, I'm going to stay a hawk. And that means that I've come here to say goodbye."

I expected a lot of different emotions to come through my mom's face, but not many of them did. There was a bit of shock of course, but it was no where near what I had expected. Some confusion showed up as well along with a bit of fear and uncertainty, but for the most part she remained calm and natural.

Neither of us spoke for a while until I finally said, "Mom, I'm sorry. I know that this can't be easy for you to hear, but it's what I want to do. I've been a hawk longer than I've been a self-sufficient human, and I've become more hawk-like than I could've ever thought was possible. I just can't go back to being a human; there are too many painful memories. Almost everything that's gone wrong in my life has happened to my human self. In my hawk form I can escape most of those feelings and just live a simple and happy life. I've lived as a hawk these past seven years and now I want to die as a hawk. I feel like I've done what I was meant to do with my life, and now it's time for me to move on."

It hadn't really hit me until now, but for the first time I began to feel as if I might have made the wrong decision. I mean, what about staying with my mom? I could help her out with all her charity work. I could give all my time to helping others who needed it. That would give me something to live for. That could give me a reason to become human again. I could… I could… No! I couldn't. Sure, it probably seems like a good idea now, but if I became a human nothlit I'd probably have another eighty years or so to regret it. I've always wanted to help anyone I could, but I knew that I wouldn't be able to live my life for eighty more years with everything that had happened in the past few. I could never find anyone else like Rachel, and my mom would only live for so long. I would eventually end up being alone again, and I didn't think I could handle that. If I remained a hawk however I would be with everyone I'd lost soon, including Rachel and Elfangor. My mom, Cassie, and maybe even Toby would probably join me soon enough anyway, so I had to stay a hawk.

But how could I make my mom see that? She couldn't possibly know or understand what I was going through.

"Mom," I began again after another moment of silence, "I'm so sorry. I don't know what to say. It's hard. It's hard to come to a decision like this, and I don't expect you to understand… I mean, I just have to… I… could you…" I couldn't finish what I began to say. I just broke down and started crying in the middle of my sentence. All this time I had thought I was alone in this world, and that's why this was so hard for me. I finally found someone who was still alive and cared for me like no one else would've, and that's what I had needed all along. Even though she probably didn't understand me, she loved me just like any mother should and that's all I ever wanted. And now, I had to try and explain to her why I decided to leave her once and for all? I couldn't do it. I just couldn't. The only thing I could do was cry, and that's what I did.

I was so use to crying alone for the past few years that when I felt her touch my shoulder I rejected her touch at first. But the uneasiness quickly left me and was replaced by a comfort that I hadn't felt since I was with Rachel. All that comfort after such a long drought made me open up like I never had before.

I always had been the tough one according to everyone else. I was supposed to be very emotionally strong. Nothing could faze me. Even after being tortured and losing most of the people close to me I still seemed normal on the outside. Well, that was total bull. Maybe things looked fine on the outside, but inside I was an absolute wreck. It was a miracle that I had been able to survive this long. But now, it wasn't my job to be tough spirited anymore. I could finally let out everything that I had been keeping locked away inside myself, and I didn't waste the opportunity.

I continued crying into my mom's shoulder for I don't know how long. Sometimes I tried to explain something through my tears, but most of the time I just straight up cried. I had started with trying to explain my decision to my mom more completely, but the subject quickly changed to other things that I had done or had seen done in the past. And my mom sat there through the whole thing holding me as tightly as I wanted to be held; sometimes even crying along with me. It was her strength I was feeding off now, and she seemed to have more of it than I ever did.

I wasn't sure how long I sat there and cried. I could've sat there all day if I had the opportunity, but I knew that I had to look out for the bigger picture. Once my mind had returned enough to let me think straight again I slowly and reluctantly demorphed just to make sure I still could. And as the changes began I felt a lot of my human emotion disappearing as my hawk brain began to take control once again. Hawks don't cry and they don't have much of a reason for sadness either, so I took a few minutes in my hawk morph to gather my thoughts back up before I morphed again.

Once I was almost fully human again the first thing that popped out of my mouth was, "Thanks mom, I really needed that. You have no idea how good it feels to get all of that off my chest."

"I'm glad I could help Tobias," my mom said softly as she pulled me into another hug. I resisted the urge to start crying again while she continued. "The only thing I could ever want is for you to be happy. I know that things haven't turned out like either one of us would've liked, but sometimes things happen. It doesn't change the fact that you're my son, and I still care for you just as much as I would've had we been together our entire lives."

"Thanks mom," I said back, still fighting back a few more tears.

"I'm not going to try and pretend I know what's going on with your life," she continued. "We've really only been together a few weeks, but even in that short amount of time I could see that you've had a very turbulent life. And when I heard Rachel was gone I knew that times were going to get even rougher for you. That's why I can't judge your decision personally. You life is too complex for me to wrap my head around and consider everything that went into your decision. If this is what makes you happy, if this is what you truly feel you need to do, then I'll be here whenever you need me."

"Thanks mom," I said again as I struggled in vain to hold the tears back one last time, "that's all I could ask for ask for."

She gave me a few pats on the back as she helped wipe some of my new tears away with a tissue. I had to force myself to get my composure back. I took a few really deep breaths to stop the tears and set my mind straight again.

"Come on Tobias," my mom said as she began to stand up for the first time in what seemed like ages, "I've got something to show you. I think it'll help cheer you up a bit."

She was going to need something really good to do that, but I got up and followed her as she made her way to a dark room in the back of the house.

"What is it?" I asked as I caught up to her at the entrance.

"It's just a little something that I've been collecting over the past four years or so," she said back kind of mischievously. She flipped on the lights and I was amazed to see a giant room (well, compared to the living room at least) filled to the brim with pictures, sculptures, and paintings of mostly red-tailed hawks along with a few group shots of all the Animorphs together.

"Wha…what's all this?" I said in surprise.

"Ever since the war ended and your story came out to the public I've been getting various pieces of art from everybody imaginable. Some of them are from major artists that have been inspired by your story, but most are from normal, everyday people that your story has touched personally. I've tried to keep everything in order, and before it was announced that you were going on one final mission I had a pretty nice display going. After you came back and wrote your book though I received a whole lot more stuff than I really had room for. I took some of my favorite pieces and moved them out to the living room, but there were still just too many to fit nicely in this small room. That's why everything looks like a mess and I'm sorry I couldn't do anything more, but I've tried to keep any sort of documentation that came with the work of art with it. I've also been trying to send thank you letters to everyone who sent something, but that became almost a full time job. I'm just finishing up the last couple to come in, but it seems like I get a new piece almost every day still. I'm surprised that I haven't received a package today yet actually. Anyway, take a look around, enjoy yourself. And read a few of the letters too. Some of them are very heartwarming.

"This is incredible!" I said while still trying to take in the sight. The artwork ranged in quality from a child's finger-painting to a professional artists work. Some of them looked incredibly beautiful and I was amazed that anyone would spend all that time making something that they weren't even sure would ever reach me.

As I was passing by a small table filled with sculptures one particular piece caught my eye. It was a small wooden carving with a circular base of around eight inches and it was no more than a foot high. It was an action shot of a red-tailed hawk diving down towards its prey, a snake in this case, and it had just made contact with its talons. The reason it caught my attention was because the detail was absolutely stunning. It looked as if every feather on the hawk was painstakingly carved out down to each individual barb on each individual feather. But it wasn't just the hawk that had incredible detail, every scale on the snake seemed to be represented as well along with some of the amazing looking grass and twigs on the ground. And besides the carving itself everything was perfect. The hawk looked fierce and it was in the same position it would've been in the wild. It had one of its talons wrapped around under the snake's neck and the other was just about to strike the snake farther back. It was just perfect in every way.

When I lifted it up to take a closer look I saw that there was a piece of paper folded underneath it. I carefully set the piece down and unfolded the piece of paper. It read:

"Dear Tobias, you saved my life. If it wasn't for you and your story I probably wouldn't be able to write this letter. You inspired me to keep going when I was sure there was nowhere left to go. Hearing about all your hardships made me realize that you and me aren't so different really. And since you were able to continue living your life through all of the obstacles that got in your way there's no reason that I couldn't do the same. Let me start at the beginning.

I had a rough childhood too. My father left me when I was too young to remember him and my mother was addicted to heroin while I was growing up. She never paid any attention to me and I was taken away from her by child services when I was nine. I grew up with numerous foster parents after that, but none of them even pretended to be real parents to me.

When I was growing up I always wanted to be a carpenter, but everyone I told always laughed at me. I was determined to do it though. I could just feel like it was my calling and I spent most of my free time carving this and that. When I was eighteen I left everyone and everything behind and tried realize my dream on my own.

Needless to say that it didn't work out so well. I ended up living on the streets most of the time while I tried to find a job somewhere. I was rejected more times that I could count, but there was this one girl about my age who finally accepted me. After I passed a small test to show her my abilities she gave me a job and a place to stay.

Over the next few years we became really good friends and eventually we even started dating. She was only a few years younger than me, but just about everything else about her was different. She'd come from a long line of carpenters in a sort of wealthy and very loving family. We offset each other perfectly and eventually I asked her to marry me. She said yes of course, but sadly it wasn't meant to be.

A few weeks after I proposed to her she didn't show up for work one morning. I didn't think much of it until a few police officers came by the shop. That's when I learned that she'd been raped and murdered last night by a group of thugs.

I was beyond heartbroken, I was emotionally shattered. At first I went on a rampage through the store breaking anything I could get my hands on for no good reason at all. Then, I tried to go out and find the killers myself, but that got me nothing but trouble. It was then that I finally emotionally crashed. I locked myself in my apartment for a good six months and eventually got myself evicted for not paying the rent. I went back to wandering the streets then, just looking for a way to kill myself. She had meant so much to me that I didn't think I could live without her anymore. I had to have attempted suicide at least half a dozen times or so, I lost count. But none of them were successful.

Then, one day I was walking past a store with a bunch of TV's in the storefront window and I stopped to watch for a second. I didn't know it then, but that TV show would change my life. It was a documentary series on the Animorphs and this particular show was all about you. I had only stopped because something had caught my eye, but as I continued to watch more and more I became enthralled in the show. It was like they were telling the story of my own life back to me. And then at the end the narrator said something like, "and to this day his whereabouts are unknown. Many believe that he is still out there somewhere, living an anonymous hawk's life, continuing on despite all that has happened."

That's when it hit me. If you could continue living your life after what you've been through, then there's no reason that I shouldn't do the same. And after seeing that program I decided that I needed to go back to work and finish what me and my girl had started.

And here I am today. The business is running smoothly and the only one I have to thank is you. As a token of my appreciation I decided to carve you a little something. I'll be sending to your mom's house (since I was able to find the address on the internet and she's the closest one to you) so I hope you get it. I didn't have much experience with art carving when I started, but I think it turned out pretty nice. The entire piece is carved out of one solid block of maple. It took me a few weeks to finish, but it was the least I could do to thank you. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did carving it and let's let Rachel (since that was my girlfriend's name as well) live on in both of our hearts.

Your friend, Steve."

I put down the letter and just stared of into space for a moment. Did I really save someone's life, or did he just save his own and give the credit to me?

"I like that one a lot myself," I heard my mom say. It snapped me out of my daze and I turned around to face her standing in the doorway again.

"Are they all like this?" I asked quietly.

"Some are, some aren't," she said back nonchalantly. "I'd say about half of the art is here just because someone decided to base it on you for you courage, strength, loss, etc. Only about one third of the others are stories like that. But it's really amazing how people can look to you when they need someone."

"Yeah," I said back, not really knowing what else to say to that.

"I have one more thing to show you," my mom said as she walked over and handed me a piece of paper, "here."

I took it from here and it took me a bit before I found what she wanted me to see. It looked to be some sort of financial statement or something and when I saw the number that was circled my jaw dropped to the floor.

"Twenty-seven million dollars?!?" I basically shouted out. "Is this all mine?"

"Yep, every last penny," my mom replied calmly, "you've earned it."

"Where'd it all come from?" I said correctly after the fourth time I tried to say it.

"I think most of it came from private donations from former controllers," my mom said back. "The Yeerks targeted rich people in high powered jobs, so some of them were very generous when they were freed. It also includes a few awards from the government and all of your merchandising revenue. That's what's left after the lawyers took their share from all the court cases that were settled. If there hadn't been any lawsuits, then I'd imagine that number would probably be twice as big."

"And I hope you don't mind," she continued, "but I've taken some money out of it as well. It wasn't much, just enough to let me get by month to month along with a few emergency things and some private donations I needed to make."

"No, I don't mind at all," I said still sort of shocked. "In fact, you probably should've taken it all. What am I going to do with twenty-seven million dollars?"

"I don't need that much money," my mom replied with a laugh, "That's too much for me to even wrap my head around. Besides, what am I going to do with it?"

I'd never thought I'd see the day when no one wanted tons of money, but something had to happen to it.

It was then that I had a great idea. I knew exactly what to do with all the money, and I was finally at peace once and for all about my decision to stay a hawk. I knew how I could give help to people who needed it and still be comfortable remaining a hawk.

"I know what we can do with the money," I said quickly to my mom, "We'll give it all to charity."

"That's a great idea," she said back, giving me a hug in the process, "but all of it? That's more than I've ever heard of being given away. Are you sure you don't want to keep some of it. I mean, you've earned it in my respect, and just about the entire world thinks so too. Isn't there something that you've always wanted that you could never have?"

"Well," I said back, "I don't want to give all of it away…"

It was hard to convince my mom to do it, but eventually I got her to keep about one million dollars for herself, just in case she ever needed it. The one thing that I wanted and never really got a chance to do was to personally make my mom happy. I hope that I accomplished at least that much.

The rest of the day was spent figuring out what charities to give to and how much each one gets. I didn't just want to give everything to one of them because there were so many good causes out there. I had a few that I'd been thinking of off the top of my head and my mom had a few that she wanted money to go towards as well. We even called Cassie and asked for her I input, getting a few more in the process.

But I wanted the majority to go towards something personal. Helping to cure cancer was nice, but I didn't really feel a personal connection to the subject. I needed something to make a statement and say that I had to endure this, now I hope that no one else needs to. The first thing that came to mind was something about the forests being cut down for lumber. That takes away a lot of hawk territory as well as countless other animal's habitats, but it just didn't hit me like I wanted it to. I've never had that happen to me before and hawks can adapt to almost any environment anyway. Even if they put a big city where there once was a lush forest, a hawk could live comfortably. Wherever there are a lot of humans there are bound to be a lot of rats and mice and things. And all of the tall buildings and telephone poles and stuff like that make good perching and nesting spots. In fact, a hawk could live pretty well in a city, if they could stand the noise that is. I did give some money towards the cause, but not the majority.

And red-tailed hawks aren't exactly an endangered species or anything like that either. In fact, it's quite the opposite. But I did end up giving a lot to save bald eagles. Even though it was something close to my heart, it still didn't feel like I wanted it to. Rachel was never truly an eagle, so that took away most of the emotion. I wasn't getting anywhere when I tried to look back on my hawk life.

But when I thought back to my human life I instantly came up with the perfect thing. I would give the majority of my money to help abused children.

I stop short of saying that I was abused as a child because I really wasn't. I had food, shelter, and clothing. I was never beaten or molested or anything like that either. It's just that no one cared for me, and that made my life absolutely horrible. I can only imagine what it must be like for kids who aren't cared for so much that they get abused by their parents. It must be an absolute nightmare to have to endure something like that day after day. My life was no picnic, but if you take it into perspective it really wasn't that bad. There are kids around the world that have it worse than I did at my lowest points, but they'll have to endure it every single day. I know how bad my childhood was but I can't even imagine what it must be like for them. I couldn't live with myself if I didn't help them out when I had so much to give. So, after some research to find a decent charity I finally ended up with a charity called Olive Crest (www. olivecrest. org). I decided to give them just under fifteen million dollars, more than half of my total. I wish I could've given more, but there were other charities that needed the money just as bad.

Me and my mom spent the rest of the day choosing and recording what charities to give the money to. When we finally finished it was beyond pitch black outside.

Before I had gotten here I only meant to spend a short time with my mom. I knew that if I stayed too long I might not want to leave. That thought was certainly on my mind now, but I had no other choice than to spend the night at my mom's house. My mom cooked up a small but delicious dinner for the both of us and then we both went off to bed. We were both really tired from doing all that research and paperwork. She offered her own bed to me, but I was more than happy to sleep on the couch. It would've been too small for my mom to completely stretch out on, but it was more than big enough for me. We wished each other a good night and she went off to her bedroom. I was so tired from everything that had happened in the past twenty-four hours that the moment I placed my talons on the soft and comforting couch I almost instantly fell asleep.

I woke up just a little later than usual with the sun already fully up. It would've been very easy to just open the door and fly away now and maybe only leave my mom a goodbye note, but I couldn't do that to her. What would she think of me afterwards? And there was a very good chance that she would never see me again, so I couldn't leave without personally saying goodbye.

I decided to wait for my mom to wake up. I didn't have much to do to kill the time, so I just rested. The good news was that I hadn't died sometime during the night like I thought I might have. That was one of the biggest reasons that I didn't want to stay here overnight. I could only imagine how my mom would've reacted to not only seeing a dead hawk on her couch but knowing that it was her only son at the same time. I couldn't let that happen to her; she didn't deserve it.

Around nine I heard the sounds of the mattress squeaking in my mom's room. I opened my eyes just as she opened the door.

Sleep well? I asked as I began to morph again.

After she realized where my voice had come from she said back, "It wasn't bad, how about you?"

It was nice, I said in response. It's not often that I get to lie on on a comfy couch during the night.

She just laughed as she asked, "You staying for breakfast?"

She made me a large plate of assorted meat along with a little bit of toast and eggs for my human self. (Even though I had chosen to live and die as a bird, I never really had trouble eating eggs.) I dug in as a hawk first and once I had eaten my fill I morphed to human and quickly devoured the rest. It was absolutely delicious.

Once my mom had taken both plates to the sink I decided that it was my time to go. As she came back to the table I stood up and gave her a great big hug. "Thanks for everything mom," I said while I felt the tears start to form again, "but it's time for me to get going. I've got some people waiting for me back home. You know how it is."

That was a lie. Both Toby and Cassie knew that I probably wasn't going to be coming back for one reason or another. I just needed something to help pry myself away from her.

"I understand, Tobias," my mom said back calmly through the hug. But I wasn't finished yet.

"Mom, thanks for everything," I said again as I slowly pulled away. "I've wanted to come here for so long, and now that I finally did it feels great. You gave me support when I needed it, and that's something that no one else could've given me right now. You also made it possible for me to help other people who need it by keeping track of all my money and sending replies to everyone who sent me something extra. And just for that you deserve more than the million dollars I gave to you. But you've done something more than that. Ever since we first met in your little shack you've been doing something else that almost never gets any credit. You've been my mom, and there's nothing I can say or do to thank you for that. And when I needed you to be my mom more than ever you rose to the next level and did what you needed to do perfectly. I know that things haven't turned out like either of us planned, but when it really mattered everything was as perfect as it should've been."

"Wow Tobias," my mom said as she wiped a tear from her eye, "that was beautiful. I mean, what am I supposed to say to that? Come here." And as she finished she rapped me in a strong hug which I gently returned. She started crying a little bit which made me want to start too, but I held it in. This time my mom needed me to be the strong one, and that's just what I was going to do.

But after a brief moment of gentle sobbing, she started to respond. "I'm just glad that I could make you happy. That's all I ever wanted; that's all I ever dreamed and prayed for. I hoped that you were happy wherever you were every day after my accident, even if I couldn't remember as much as your name. When I finally met you and learned what you had went through I was heartbroken."

"I want to tell you something that I've been trying to hide from you. I thought that the lie would make it easier for you to accept me after I had almost no memory of you, but now I think it's time you knew. I never gave them permission to switch custody to my sister, they did it without me even knowing. You see, I was in a coma a good month after the accident before I finally snapped out of it. During that time they had to do something with you since you couldn't live on your own. They ended up giving you to my sister while I recovered and they insisted that you stay there indefinitely. They told me that she would be a better mom for you than I could be now, since they originally weren't expecting me to walk, talk, or carry on many normal human functions ever again just after I woke up. And it was pretty obvious that I was going to be blind the rest of my life, so I saw their point. Even after I got better and got a seeing eye dog and everything like that I still didn't really want to find you. I thought that your aunt would give you a nice home full of everything you needed and that I would just seem like the one who took that all away from you if I tried to take you back. And I was worried that you would never love me since I had basically abandoned you as a baby. If I would had known how she was treating you I would've found you and taken you back in a heartbeat, but given that I couldn't even remember your name I didn't see much of a point in it. I'm so sorry Tobias."

And with that she began to cry again. I gave her a few gentle pats on the back as I said, "Mom, it's not your fault. You can't blame yourself for something like that. And besides, if I had been living my life with you there's a possibility that I would never have gone with Jake to that construction site. And if I wasn't there to help as a hawk on a few of the early missions they all would've been killed or captured. And then, Earth would've been totally invaded by Yeerks now. Everything turned out fine in the end, mom. And if I had to endure a few crummy years of my life to save the entire world, galaxy, and, well, everything else out there than I'd happily do it all over again without thinking twice. You did what you thought was right and it turned out to be the right decision. Don't hurt yourself over that any longer. You'll always be my mom no matter what."

"You're right," she said while wiping another tear away, "and you'll always be my son no matter what." And with that she did something she had never done before. She gave me a kiss.

Without even saying anything I started to demorph. We had said everything we needed to say already, and we both knew what we were going to say to each other after the kiss. The silence said everything.

But I couldn't leave my mom like that. I wanted to give her something to remember me by after I was gone. I knew better than I would've liked to admit that I was never coming back, but my mom would still be here for many more years. I felt that I should leave her with something that said "don't forget me", even though I didn't think that would ever happen. And I knew exactly what to give to her.

Mom, I began when I was almost fully hawk again, I'd love nothing more than to come and visit you again, but I'm running out of time in my life. This is probably going to be the last time that I'll be able to see you and it's also probably the last time that you'll be able to see me. I want you to have something to remember my by even when I'm long gone. And I've got just the thing. I want you to take one of my feathers.

"Tobias," my mom said back sounding apprehensive, "are you sure. I mean, isn't it going to hurt when I pull it out?"

It's not so bad, I lied, it's like pulling a hair out. Yeah, a really big and painful hair maybe...

"Okay," my mom said back still apprehensively, "is there any one you'd like me to take in particular?"

I thought about it for a moment and eventually replied, Yeah, take one of my tail feathers. It'll be extra special since I'm basically named for them. And don't worry about my flying without it either. I've had my tail feathers singed off, ripped out, and otherwise made useless so many times that I've lost count. I could basically fly without them if I needed to. That was another lie, but I really wanted her to have one of them. I needed some way to convince her to do it, and that was it. I turned my back to her and raised my tail feathers up a bit as she reached down to choose one.

"Any one?" she asked cautiously.

Any one, I replied.

I could feel her single out a feather and say, "Alright, on the count of three. One... Two..." And then she gave a quick yank before she ever made it to three.

Mmmmnnnhhhhh, I said out loud in thought-speak as the pain ripped through my tail leaving a burning trail as it went.

"Oh, I'm sorry Tobias," my mom said quickly. "I didn't mean to..."

No, I said back quickly, it's alright. It's not that bad. But as I sat there and waited for the pain to go down I got another idea.

Take another, I said quickly before my mind could fully process what it had just said.

"What?" my mom said back with some obvious confusion, "why?"

I was thinking that if anyone ever found out that I had left one of my feathers with you you'll be absolutely swarmed with scientists wanting to take a DNA sample or something like that. If that ever happens and they end up destroying my feather in the process then you won't have anything left from me. If you have a back-up feather that you never tell anyone about then you'll always have something no matter what everyone else thinks happened to the first one.

"If you're sure," she said apprehensively again.

Go ahead, I said while raising and spreading my tail feathers out one more time, just take one from the other side this time so it'll be easier to fly straight.

"Alright then," my mom said back with a sigh, "on the count of three." She wasn't going to fool me with that one again, or so I thought. Before she even began the countdown she gave a hard yank. This time I let out a loud "TSSEEEEEWW" as the pain rocketed up from my tail towards my lower back.

Once the pain became a dull burning I looked back at my mom holding the two almost identical red-tipped feathers in her hand and said, That one kind of stung a little.

"I'm sorry Tobias," she said back calmly.

That's alright, I said back to her. But now I have to get going. I'm sorry I couldn't stay any longer.

"Even just a brief visit would've been long enough," my mom said back suddenly. "It's great that I got to see you one last time. I'll treasure your feathers for as long as I live."

And with that she bent down and gave me a kiss on the beak; also a first. Then she got up and opened the door.

I waddled on over to the threshold, gave my mom one last look, and then fluttered off.

I only turned back to look a few times as I flew away, and every time it was the same scene. My mom just stood there in the doorway clutching my feathers to her chest in one hand and waving with the other. Even when she was almost out of sight to me, and I had to have been long out of sight for her, she just kept standing there and waving. After she finally got out of sight for me I took one last look at the town and then finally focused completely on my flying. It was time to move on.

I didn't have much of an incentive to go anywhere specific. Of course I was slowly making my way back to Yellowstone, but I didn't really feel a need to go there anymore. But after only a few hours of flying in my hawk body, I knew it wasn't going to matter anymore. I started to feel dizzy once again.

It started just like last time. At first it was just barely noticeable, but it quickly became almost overpowering. I knew what was happening almost immediately, but when the sharp stabbing pain started in my chest then I accepted it. This was going to be it. There would be no morphing out now. It was finally time.

Last time this had happened I clumsily plummeted through the tree tops breaking a few bones in the process. But this time I was ready for it. I was able to lower myself low enough to the ground out on an open field so that when my right wing began to go numb I only tumbled a short distance. And there I lay; one of the worlds greatest heroes, on his back, as a hawk, in the middle of some random field, with no one around to witness it or who knew what even really happened to me. You know how they say just before you die your life flashes before your eyes? Well, that didn't really happen. All I saw was my father's Andalite face surrounded by the faces of all the people I was waiting to meet again.

And as I lay there dying I started to do what any normal person would've done in the same situation. I started to sing.

Mama, take this power away from me.

My right wing went completely numb and my left began to follow.

I can't use it anymore.

The pain in my chest kept intensifying. It felt like someone was drilling a hole into my heart.

It's gettin' dark, too dark to see.

My eyesight was starting to fade with a darkened halo slowly closing in towards the center of the bright blue sky.

I feel like I'm knockin' on heaven's door.

All I could hear is a dull ringing in my ears

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door.

It was becoming hard to breathe. My breaths were coming at sharp and irregular intervals.

Knock, knock, knockin' on heaven's door.

The pain from my chest slowly started expanding to the rest of my body.

Knock, knock..., knockin' on heaven's door.

I could feel my consciousness slipping away...

Knock..., knock..., knockin' on... heaven's... door...

And then... And... then...

THE END

(or is it...?)

(yeah, it probably is.)

(unless there's some sort of overwhelming demand to take the story somewhere, which I don't see how it would be possible...)

You know, when I wrote the first chapter for this story I intended it to go on for somewhere around eight to ten chapters and take a month or two to complete. Boy, was I ever off. It morphed (sorry for the pun) into the third longest story in the Animorphs directory on this website and the longest that's recently been updated with somewhere over 130,000 words! I know that some people have taken years to write their stories and never finish, but I never could do something like that. It's not just that it's hard to get back into the mood after taking a break from a story, but the people reading it would be the ones who suffered the most. And even though I would've liked to get it all up a bit faster, in regards to most other stories on here this went up pretty fast.

But here comes the real nitty-gritty of what I want to say. I would've never done any of this if it wasn't for all of you people reading out there in cyberspace (yes, all three of you). If I didn't have your support then I probably would've stopped somewhere around Chapter 12. I want to thank each and every one of you who submitted a review. Those mean more to me than anything else. If you took the time to write what you thought about something after you could've very easily just closed the page and left it means that you have to be at least slightly interested in what you just read, and that's all that I could ever ask for. I hope you enjoyed my view into what happened after book 54, and if you liked this story I'd suggest that you check out my other works as well.

Speaking about my other works, you may ask yourself, "Hey musicman88, what else do you have planned?" Well, I'm glad you asked. Over the many months I've been writing this story I didn't want to start anything else until this one was finished. I wanted to devote all my limited writing time to this one (and boy have I ever!). But over those many months I've gotten numerous ideas and I should have a steady stream of stories coming out regularly. In fact, I have something very special planned for my next story that I've been working on for a while now. I'm not going to spoil it, so you'll have to stay tuned to find out what it is.

And, well, that's it. I've enjoyed all the comments (both good and bad) about my story up to now and I would like to hear what you think about the ending. All your praise, worship, and hatemail would be appreciated. I hope to see you all at my next story! Peace out!