*rushes in, gasping for breath* I got here as fast as I could. We went to NC for a week, and that helped some. I was sitting on a patio watching a flock of hawks fly around the valley when I wrote most of this chapter, so that helped too. I didn't want to wait until I was done with MAAM (Much Ado About Meerkats) before I finished this one. Don't worry, things will be picking up again around the next chapter. ^^

Disclaimer: *snort* Purple bunnies... *snore*

~*~

Chapter 5: Hawk Fight

Later that night, Boss was awoken when he felt a light continuously flashing from red to white penetrating through his eyelids. Moaning, he stirred and opened his eyes slowly. It took a while for his vision to focus, but when it finally did, he saw that the storm had ceased, and a soft red-orange glow now illuminated everything. He moaned again and held his head in his paws. Then, after a few seconds, he forced himself up on his legs. At one point, he had to catch himself from falling back down because he was so shaky. He rubbed his neck and groaned, glancing to the side. He saw his yellow helmet that had been carried by the wind, sitting there only a few yards away. Typical.

He walked over and picked it up, then dropped it over his ears. He suddenly perked up, hearing a high-pitched wailing noise of some sort. "…Mom? Dad?" He lifted his nose into the air and sniffed. He furrowed his brow at an unfamiliar scent in the air in the direction of the forest. One he had never smelled before. In order to get a better look, he ran through the grass until he reached the end of the field. Parting the blades, his eyes widened at the sight of a whole part of the forest shrouded in an orange glow - What he didn't know to be fire. He raced from the fields towards the inferno that had once been his home. "Mom!!" he yelled. "Dad!!"

He suddenly stopped just in time to avoid being stepped on by something as it rushed by. He yelped and fell back as he saw a human man rush by. Humans… That was something Boss DID know about, and he was always taught to be extremely careful when you see one. He resumed his run towards the forest, only the stop again when he noticed a couple of large red trucks and a whole herd of humans trying to fight the fire with a long hose.

Panting, he ran through the commotion, constantly having to stop and wind around to avoid being stepped on. When he finally reached the edge of the forest, he raced in to look for his parents. However, he was suddenly slowed when he felt his eyes and chest burning for some reason. He coughed a few times and tried to keep his eyes open. "Mom!! Dad!!" he coughed. He ran through the burning woods until he finally spotted the giant oak tree that he and his parents had lived in, which was now one column of fire. Boss gasped and darted for the burrow, unaware that he could be killed. He would've been killed if a branch hadn't fallen down in his path in front of him and sent him stumbling back. With the immediate instinct to run, he scrambled to his feet and ran as fast as he could back out of burning woods.

Coughing, he stumbled out of the forest. He panted and lumbered on all fours out into the fields, then plopped onto the ground. After a few minutes, he got up and wiped the sweat off his brow. Suddenly, he felt a shadow loom over him from above. He spun around and looked to the sky to see a red-tailed hawk swooping towards him with a screech. Boss gasped and darted off. Panting, he ran as fast as he could across the field. The hawk swooped down at her prey, but the young hamster quickly ducked right in the nick of time. He scrambled off as quickly as possible as the hawk looped around and soared across the moon to make another attempt at catching him. Boss yelled and tried to pick up his pace as the hawk came and hovered right over him. She reached out her feet and managed to hook one of its talons under Boss's scruff.

Boss squirmed as he was slowly lifted off the ground. "Ahh!!" he yelped. "Put me down, you ugly thing!!" he squirmed hard, but the hawk flew higher and higher into the sky. Boss gasped as he watched the ground below him grow farther and farther away. "Ahh!! No!" He tried to squirm. "Let me go!!" He whimpered and struggled as the hawk flew off into the moonlight.

After a while, the hawk had flown far away from the fields of Boss's home, out into a cluster of fields that the young hamster didn't notice at all. He wiggled like crazy, grunting and fussing at the hawk. "Look, featherbrain! You better put me down right now! I'm warning you, you take me back down to the ground now, or you'll regret it!!" But, despite his stunted efforts, he could not threaten the hawk to give in.

The hawk screeched and flew through the night sky. Boss had finally given up complaining and looked around quietly at the surrounding, vacant fields.

Suddenly, a brown blur zipped right by Boss and startled both him and the hawk. Boss screamed as he slipped off of the hawk's talon and hurtled towards the ground.

The intruder, a small, brown, falcon, looped around and dived for Boss with a screech. But just before he nabbed the young hamster, the hawk beat him to it and snatched Boss into her talon. Boss grunted as he was caught. He gasped in panic as the falcon took another shot towards him. The hawk nimbly dodged him, eagerly protecting her midnight snack. She screeched in a threat at the pestering falcon.

The falcon stubbornly continued to try and snatch Boss out of the hawk's grip numerous times. But finally, the falcon took one last dart and made a snatch for him. In her withdrawal, the hawk lost her grip on Boss, and he fell towards the ground with a scream. Both birds of prey made a final nab for him, but their efforts were in vain.

Boss went falling, falling for the ground below for what seemed like a long time. He screamed and shut his eyes tight, waiting to land on the hard ground. But instead, he suddenly felt himself land on something soft and bounce across on it. "Oof!" he grunted and finally bounced to a stop on his belly. Luck being of all lucks, he had landed in the back of a pickup driving on the road in the center of the fields. The whole back of the truck was filled with bundles of hay. He slowly lifted his head up with a groan and shook it in a daze.

He looked around. Then, curiously, he turned and walked over, poking his head over the edge of the truck. He gasped softly when he looked and realized that this thing he had landed in was actually moving. He had no idea where he was at all. He would've tried to have gotten a better look around if it wasn't so late into the night and if he hadn't been so tired. He slowly crawled back down into the truck. Then, he burrowed his way into the bottom of one of the hay bundles and curled up with a tired sigh, finally getting the sleep he had lost that night.

In the morning, Boss was given a rather unpleasant wake-up call with the hay bundle he was sleeping in was suddenly lifted by a human man. Boss woke with a start and yelped as he fell out of the hay and tumbled onto the dirt. He rubbed his head and looked up as the human man walked off with the hay bundle in his arms.

Boss looked around. He couldn't tell exactly where he was, but the air was filled with more scents he was not familiar of. Curious, he crawled over to the edge of the lowered pickup back door. He looked down at the ground below. Then, he leaped down, landing on the dirt with a grunt. But then he quickly had to dodge to the side as the human man was returning to the truck. Looking over his shoulder, Boss wasted no time in running off. But he was interrupted when he suddenly ran into something, instinctively hanging onto it. When, he looked up, he gasped when he noticed he was clinging onto the snout of a sleeping black lab. The dog made a startled snort and opened his eyes, immediately spotting the small rodent on his snout.

"Oops." Boss muttered.

The dog growled and jumped up. Boss yelled, fell off of the dog's snout, and ran off as fast as he could. The dog snarled and barked at him, chasing after him. Boss panted and sprinted underneath a partially uplifted rock. The lab pursued and ran up to the rock. Boss shouted as the large black snout snuck its way under and started sniffing at him. The dog growled.

Suddenly, the dog lifted its head at the human man's whistle. "Duncan!" the man called. "C'mere, boy!"

Altogether, the lab ignored Boss and obediently returned to his master. Boss wasted no time in running away from that place as fast as he could.

Nature was certainly not on his side today.