Mitchell automatically grabbed hold of the creature that tackled her figuring if she was going to go over the cliff the least she could do was take it down with her. She felt the creature grab her tightly – almost as if it had the same idea – and then felt them falling.

"Shit!"

Yeah, this landing was going to hurt.

Before she realized what was happening, though, the air pressure around them changed and she felt the creature that she was clutching so tightly change as well. It wasn't gradual. One minute she was grabbing a furry gray creature and the next minute the fur was replaced by feathers and her hold slipped as the body structure of the creature changed instantly and completely. She continued to fall, but saw wings snap out from the creature's sides and slow its fall.

Reaching up desperately, she managed to grab a handful of feathers but that was it. She plummeted, and there was no doubt that Talon wasn't going to be able to fix this one.

A moment later, though, she was roughly grabbed from above, sharp talons grabbing at her Kevlar vest and jerking her downward momentum to a halt. She yelped when one of the talons missed the vest and went through the soft part of her shoulder stabbing clean through, but the grip of the creature never loosened.

Winds buffeted Melony as the great wings flapped furiously, and the ground – which had been getting uncomfortably close – once more started to fade away.

Hold on

To what?

The hand that was connected to the arm that had been pierced by the talon was pretty much useless just then, but with her other hand she tried to reach up and grab something – anything – and managed to get another handful of feathers, this time from one of the great wings as it came close to her on a down-stroke.

There was a startled, pain-filled squawk and she was shaken violently for a moment – jarring the injured shoulder painfully.

Oh, you pissed it off now

No shit...

She wasn't really up for a lot of banter just then. They were in a pretty pickle at the moment, after all. The creature's flight had leveled off and it was obviously carrying her somewhere. If it'd wanted to kill her, it would have simply been a matter of dropping her, after all. Of course, she was fairly certain she didn't want to go wherever it was they were going, so it was a matter of did she want to make it drop her and pretty much guarantee that she was going to be killed, or go wherever it was taking her and hope that she could fight her way free once her feet were on the ground?

In the end, she and Talon decided to wait it out – as long as it didn't go too far. If they found themselves closer to the ground, she'd try to get it to drop her, otherwise she'd fight it once she had her feet on solid ground.

OOOOOOOOOOO

"Oh my-"

Ford ran to the edge of the cliff, followed instantly by the others. They'd all turned around in time to see the pair of combatants go over the cliff – although Ford was the only one who'd been close enough to see Mitchell grab hold of the creature as they went over.

"Colo-"

Sheppard's alarmed call was cut off when they all witnessed what happened next. In mid-fall the creature's body changed. One minute it was a wolfish looking thing and the very next second it was a bird of some sort – a great big ugly bird.

"Sonofabitch!"

"Did you see that!"

"What-"

They could clearly see Colonel Mitchell struggling in the creature's grasp every time the wings moved, and they heard the creature's cry of pain and had to assume that she'd done something to hurt it.

"Get it!"

"No, it'll drop-"

Something heavy crashed into McKay from behind just then, knocking the breath out of him as well as sending him over the cliff as well. Before he had time to even panic about the fall, he had something new to panic about. He felt himself grabbed by the vest he was wearing and immediately found himself in the exact same position Melony was in. Being carried by a great bird to God only knew where.

"Help!"

"McKay!"

Sheppard turned to look behind them, instinct telling him that where there were two there were probably a lot more. Sure enough, another bird was coming right at him, and it plucked him off the edge of the cliff neatly and as easily as Sheppard might have picked a cherry off a tree, grabbing him by the vest as the others had been grabbed

"Shit!"

Ford brought his P-90 up, determined that the damned birds weren't going to get away with everyone without a fight, but he held his fire. If he shot and killed the bird, the Major was as good as dead, since they were already over the edge of the cliff.

Like Sheppard, Ford turned to the direction the birds had come from. Before he'd completed the turn he was bowled over by yet another bird, and saw one attack Teyla at the exact same moment. Luckily, the creature grabbed him by the vest – he wasn't aware that the others had all been grabbed with the same precision – but he only had a moment to be glad for that when he found himself being carried out over open space with a considerable drop underneath him.

He still had a firm hold on his machine gun, and for a moment Lieutenant Ford debated shooting the bird from underneath and making it drop him. Of course, like Mitchell had already figured out, if he did that he was going to plummet to a very messy death. He lowered the P-90, but made sure his grip on it was firm. The minute he thought he'd be able to survive the drop, he was going to shoot himself free. Besides, it wasn't like he had a whole lot of anything else to hold onto.