Okay, let's get this out of the way. My name is Tobias, and I'm a red-tailed hawk. I used to be a kid, but I stayed in hawk morph for more than two hours, and I got stuck as a hawk. The Andalites have a word for this kind of thing: nothlit. I was stuck as a hawk, but that wasn't the end for me! The Ellimist gave me the ability to morph again, but my default state is still a red-tailed hawk. I got access to my human DNA, so I could become a human again, but if I stay human too long, I'll become a nothlit again. Human, but unable to morph. So, I'm a hawk, but at least I get to fly, right? That's fun. I also get to live outside, not do normal kid stuff for more than two hours at a time, and get a reduced lifespan. That's less fun.

That last part is what had my attention right now. I was in my meadow, hunting for food. There was a plump little squirrel eyeing an acorn on the ground. I could tell he was going to go for it, and when he did, I'd swoop down and grab him. I knew that I was about to shorten his lifespan, but was there anything I could do about my own? Morphing had gotten me into this situation, maybe morphing could get me out? How did it really work, with regards to aging? Does our DNA change as we get older? Are any of us on the team aging? When I look at my friends, the other Animorphs, I can't really tell if they're getting older. We've been in this war for a couple of years now, and it's hard to be sure.

Sometimes, I perch in a tree outside the school, and watch my friends sit in class. I don't have much else to do when we're not on a mission, and my eyes do a great job seeing through the glare on the windows. My friends look like they fit in with the rest of their grade, but maybe they're a little on the young-looking side. Again, I can't really tell. Maybe I'm becoming disconnected with humanity, or maybe we don't age while we're in morph, so they look younger. If I could live most of my life in a different hawk morph instead of my default, aging hawk body, maybe I could keep my own age clock from running so much.

It'd be worth a try.

You know what? I wasn't really that hungry. This squirrel was just going to be boredom-eating anyway. I flew to the next meadow over to pay a visit to the hawk that lives there. I didn't like him, but I respected him enough that it wouldn't bother me to spend a chunk of my life in morph as him. After a few minutes of searching, I found him perched in a tree, focusing on a snack that was running around on the ground. I could sneak up on him, I just had to stay quiet as I…

"TSEEEEER!"

I screeched, of course I did. Can't keep my dumb mouth shut when I'm diving. The hawk turned his head toward me, and started to fly away, but it was too late. POW! I slammed into him, full speed, and we both tumbled to the ground. Feathers went flying, and I got bit a couple of times, but I managed to wrap a talon around his leg, and focused on acquiring him. He relaxed and went limp as he fell into the acquiring trance, and I added his DNA to my internal roster. Marco would have had something clever to say, like this was an action movie, but I was just happy that I had only received the few wounds that I did. I kept my toe on him to keep the trance going, so he would stay calm while I stood up to fly away. I looked really dumb, hopping on one foot with my face in the dirt.

I lifted off, and flapped my wings as fast and hard as I could, but as soon as I took off and looked back, he was right behind me. I had never really challenged him before since he was bigger and faster than me, but I figured I should be able to get away from him with my combination of hawk instinct and human creativity.

I flew high up in the air, and then dove down to lose him in the trees. Things became a blur as I sped up, and then -

WHAM! I slammed into the side of a building. Once the stars cleared from my vision, I could see that it was only part of a building.

Wait, I recognized this place! The construction site where we first met Elfangor! But how did I get here?

I SUPPOSE I COULD HAVE PLACED YOU A LITTLE MORE CAREFULLY, TOBIAS. MY APOLOGIES.

‹Ellimist!› I shouted in surprise.

I'VE BROUGHT YOU HERE TO SEE SOMETHING, the Ellimist continued. PAY ATTENTION.

Dazed, still wounded, and laying on a partially-built wall, I looked around. Nothing was immediately obvious, just a bunch of equipment and rubble. Then, I heard some gravel crunch. There was someone else here! It was a tall man with red hair. I didn't recognize him, but the Ellimist had told me to pay attention, so I took in all the detail about him that I could. He seemed bored and irritated, like he didn't want to be there, which made his surprised gasp stand out all the more.

"Is that...Holy mackerel!" he gasped, "It's part of the Escafil Device!"

He silenced himself quickly, and looked around, a greedy look in his eyes. I guess he didn't see me, but I immediately knew what the small blue shard that he picked up was. A corner of the morphing cube. We had taken it apart before, but we had always thought that the missing corner was a design choice, rather than an actual break. The cube must have gotten chipped when Elfangor's ship was destroyed after he gave us morphing powers.

I took off to follow him, but I was suddenly back in the forest. No word of warning from the Ellimist, but there I was. I looked around, but I didn't see the other hawk. He must have lost track of me when I got pulled to the construction site.

I had to tell the others. I didn't know if the shard could give morphing powers, since it was just a small part of the cube, but it was better to be safe than sorry. We didn't need morph-capable Controllers running around! Since Ax and Marco live in the woods near me, I knew they had been planning to go to the mall. I took off for the mall at top speed.