Disclaimer: I don't own Animorphs blah blah blah property of the all-powerful K.A. Applegate yadda yadda yadda poor high school student, so don't sue me!

Author's Note:  Hey everyone, thanks so much for the reviews!  To tell you the truth, I really wasn't expecting any, so I was very pleasantly surprised! ^_^  Well, the more you review, the quicker I seem to write, so here's Chapter 3, and hopefully my little plot twist is at least a teeny bit of a surprise for you.  Ja ne!   P.S.- For those of you that didn't get the hint the first two times, I LOVE REVIEWS!!! J

Chapter 3:  Desperation

            Are we there yet?  Are we there yet?  Are we there yet?  Are we there—

            Marco!  Shut up!  A large bald eagle swooped down suddenly and raked its talons towards the smaller osprey flying below, which banked sharply to avoid the attack. 

            Whoa!  Back off Xena!  I was just trying to lighten the mood, grumbled Marco.

Sheesh, no one around here can take a joke anymore.

            No offense, Marco came Cassie's quiet interjection.  But I don't think that this is exactly the time to be joking around.  Turning her attention back to the ground below her, she reached out to Tobias with her private thoughtspeak.  Are we getting any closer?

            We should be there any time now if I'm thinking of the right spot he responded tersely.

            Tobias, are you okay?  You sound a bit tense, she queried, concerned for the shy boy.

            No, not really.  I just can't get Elfangor's face out of my mind.  At the end… it was so horrible… I can't let that happen again.  I can't let another Andalite die, not all alone like that.

            You can't keep blaming yourself, you know.  There was nothing we could do.  We were all scared and helpless against an enemy that we knew almost nothing about.  But in her heart, Cassie knew that her quiet comrade would never allow the guilt to leave him.  He had shared some kind of connection to the blue-furred alien, one that none of the others present that night would ever be able to comprehend.

            Ah!  Tobias' exclamation broke through her train of thought.  There it is!  Right down there.  You see it?  At his excited tone, the others broke of their individual searches and flew in close to the red-tailed hawk.  It's straight ahead about a hundred yards out.  See the gap in the treetops?  That's it.  Follow me, and watch the trees when you go to land, they can seem to pop up almost out of nowhere.

            Heedless of his own warning, Tobias folded his wings against his feathered body and dropped like a stone in his haste, the others close on his tail feathers.  As they neared the ground Tobias suddenly banked hard away from the area of dirt he was heading for with a cry of Turn! Now!  He managed to swing his hawk body in a tight circle and land safely a few feet away.  Jake, who had been following closely behind the other boy, was not as lucky.  The young leader tried to veer off, but he was too close to the ground when the warning came. 

            Jake was surprised to feel himself slam into a soft mass before he tumbled beak over tail to come to a stop a short distance from where he had hit.  The others managed to swerve away at the last moment and landed around the clearing as Tobias awkwardly hopped towards a small, brownish rumpled heap.

            Man, that must have been what            I hit.  What is it, Tobias? Jake asked as he began to demorph.  All of the others except for Rachel, who had alighted on an overhanging branch to stand watch, followed suit as Tobias nosed the bundle with his beak.

            It's a bird.  Some kind of hawk if I'm not mistaken.  Cassie, can you come take a look?

            Cassie, by now fully demorphed, walked over and knelt down beside the unmoving form as Tobias alighted on a more comfortable perch near Rachel.  After examining the bird, which lay in a tumbled heap on its stomach, eyes closed, she announced, "It looks like it might be a marsh hawk, but that's odd, there's no marshes around here."  She shook her head and reached out to touch the bird's wing when its eyes suddenly sprang open and it began to pant through its open beak, breaths coming fast and ragged.

I didn't think you'd—attack me when you found me. came that same pained voice.

Cassie jumped back quickly from the bird as the other members of the group jerked in surprise.  Ax, still wary about the previous thoughtspeak contact, stepped forward and anxiously arched his bladed tail over his head.  I still don't like this, Prince Jake. he said, turning to face the young boy.  Even if the creature knows our names, it could still be a trap. 

            "I know Ax.  My instincts tell me that this is all a ruse just to lure us all out into the open.  But there's something that just keeps telling me to trust… "  At this point, he broke off and looked down at the grounded bird at his feet.  "I don't mean to be rude, but what is your name?  It'd make things much easier if we knew what to call you instead of just assuming—"

            The raspy voice cut him off as the bird's body twitched in a sudden series of spasms.  Later!  I need—help.  Ugh… my right wing—there's some kind of projectile lodged in the bones… I can't demorph with it buried in a major joint and… I can't hang on much longer… 

            Cassie was suddenly all business as she once again kneeled down near the fallen raptor.  "I don't see how something lodged in your bone could be causing you so much pain," she said as she gingerly began to turn the bird onto its back so she could get a look at its right wing.  "I know it would be painful, but it's nothing that would ki—"  She let out a horrified gasp at the sight that greeted her as she moved the hawk's left wing away from where it had been covering the rest of its body.

            The bird's tan, dark cream-colored breast had been torn to shreds.  The once-smooth feathers had been ripped away and the flesh underneath now lay in tattered, bloody strips, crimson blood dripping steadily from the open wounds.  The dark-skinned girl was shocked.  There's no way that all of this damage came from a bullet.  "But…how?" she asked, shaken. 

Some kind of small creature—brown and black face, ugh, attacked me…fled just before you came…

Raccoon, thought Cassie ruefully.  "Jake, umm, I need some strips of cloth or something to press on the wound.  We need to stop this bleeding."

            There's no time, interjected the tortured voice.  Don't worry about the wound, just remove the bullet.  If you, argh, get that out I can demorph… and the wound will heal.  Hurry!

            Realizing the truth of those words, Cassie turned her attention to the hawk's shattered wing.  "Okay, I'm going to need some help with this.  Jake, come here," she said as the tall boy complied with her request.  "Alright, I want you to put one hand near the shoulder and the other on the other side of the joint and hold it down."  Looking towards the bird, she cautioned, "This is going to hurt, so just bear with me, okay?"

            Never mind about the pain— just hurry, it's getting harder to stay awake… came the acknowledgement, the voice much quieter and seemingly more distant.

            "Just stay awake, don't fade out on me now," she said, a sense of urgency creeping into her voice.  Cassie turned back to her patient's smaller wound.  "If only I had a pocket knife or something to pry it out with…"  She turned suddenly to face Tobias, her eyes focusing on his sharp, curved beak.  "Tobias."

            Say no more, Cass, just show me where it is and leave the rest to me, he said, swooping down next to the other hawk. 

            "Thanks," said Cassie, smilingly gratefully at her friend.  "Okay, see that small grey lump?  That's it.  What I need you to do is try to pull it out without disrupting the bones any more than they are if you can."

            Alright, here we go, he said as he ducked his head down towards the bone.  After a couple misses, he managed to hook his beak around the slug and as he gave it a sharp tug, he could feel it grind against the bone on either side.  Instead of making any show of pain, the other hawk remained limp and unmoving.

            "Hurry Tobias, he's losing too much blood!" Cassie exclaimed urgently.

            Tobias put all his strength into his next jerk and, mercifully, the metal ball came loose, sending him tumbling backwards in the dirt.

            Knowing that she still had to set the bone in place before the injured creature could demorph, Cassie skillfully began snapping the shattered, hollow fragments back together.

            Cassie!  He's almost gone! came Rachel's warning.  The hawk's eyes indeed were beginning to fade, his breaths becoming shallower and less frequent. 

            "Hold on, hold on!" the girl shouted, snapping the final shard back into place.  "There!  Demorph!"

            Nothing happened.

            "Come on, come on…" muttered Jake.  Marco and Ax looked on in silence while Rachel and Tobias fixed their sharp glares on the still unmoving form as Cassie began to frantically check for a heartbeat.

            Wait, there! came Tobias's hopeful cry.  The brown mass began to slowly grow as the creature demorphed from its ruined body.  Soft feathers melted and gave way not to blue fur, but smooth, tan flesh…

            This is wrong, this is very wrong…

            The group watched the remainder of the changes with rapt attention.  When the transformation was complete, stunned silence filled the clearing as the six stared down at what the hawk had demorphed to.

            A young human girl.