I jolted awake, hearing a noise in my bedroom. I looked around, unable to locate a source. The noise repeated, and it proved to be a tapping on my window. I looked through the glass to see the outline of a hawk. I walked over to the window and opened it.
"Come on in, Tobias," I said. I love it when Tobias comes to visit me in the night, but the recent events made me suspect he was here to deliver some bad news. "Is everything okay?"
‹Everything's fine,› he replied, a bit stoically. ‹I'm stressed. You're stressed. Do you want to go flying?›
I was hoping for something a bit more romantic, but it could have been a lot worse. I changed out of my pajamas, then changed out of my human form. The outlines of feathers appeared on my skin, I shrank down toward the floor, and my feet became tough and sharp. I was a bald eagle. I could have gone owl to be able to see better in the dark night, but I wanted to soar through the air with my boyfriend and look at the city lights from above.
We left through my window, and Jake called out to me.
‹Have fun, you two!› he said. ‹But be careful.›
‹Yes, Dad. We'll be back soon,› I said. ‹Just going for a quick flight.›
We flew quietly for a while. Once we were soaring high above my neighborhood, he broke the silence.
‹How are you feeling, Rachel?› he asked.
‹I'm okay, I guess,› I responded. ‹Some guy followed me around today at school.›
‹What did you do?› he asked. ‹Was he cute?›
‹I told him to beat it! Of course!› I laughed. Then I continued, smugly. ‹I happen to have a boyfriend.›
‹Lucky guy,› he replied. I laughed again, and bumped into him playfully.
‹No, we're not there yet!› he said.
Huh, that was weird.
‹Not where yet?› I asked.
‹Oh, nothing,› he said. ‹Sometimes it's hard to keep straight if I'm thinking to myself or thought-speaking. I'll come clean, I've got a surprise for you, and we're not there yet. I'm getting tired, so I'm motivating myself.›
Okay…It sounded reasonable, but I didn't remember any of us doing that before.
I replied, ‹It is a lot harder flying at night, isn't it? Not a lot of…what are they called? Where the warm air rises?›
‹I'm not sure what they're called,› he said. ‹Just 'warm air pockets', maybe?›
That's when I knew something was wrong. Tobias would never pass up a chance to talk about thermals. I turned slightly, inconspicuously, veering toward the woods, near Ax's scoop.
‹Where are we going?› the hawk asked. Okay, I wasn't as inconspicuous as I thought.
‹Oh, just force of habit,› I said. ‹I always fly this way from my house for our team meetings.›
‹Okay,› he said. ‹But then let's go to the surprise.›
‹Sure,› I said. I looked at him more closely. ‹Hey, Tobias. You're looking buff again!›
‹I've been working out lately,› he said. ‹Flying a lot. Do you like it?›
‹Oh, yeah,› I said, gaining a little altitude. ‹You look great,› I quickly positioned myself over him, and grabbed his neck and waist with my talons.
‹What are you doing?› he demanded.
‹I'm ending this, Zenguh!› I yelled at him. I dug my talons in, and bit deep into his upper back. This was going to be embarrassing if I was wrong.
‹How could you, Rachel?› he screamed. ‹It's me, Tobias! I'm a nothlit! I can't heal this!›
Oh, good. I was right. It was definitely Zenguh. I bit into one of his wings and felt the crunch of the bones inside. I did the same to the other one for good measure, but I had to contort my body and reach behind me to do it, and my grip loosened. Zenguh took that opportunity to thrash wildly, and he slipped free.
I watched the mangled hawk fall to the earth below me for a few seconds, then snapped to my senses and dove to follow. I wasn't about to let him get away again. As I suspected he started to morph. His body lengthened and grew several more sets of wings. That must mean the kafit is his outer layer. I reached out again to repeat my earlier maneuver, but I didn't account for his extra mobility from his extra wings. He saw me coming, and flared his wings briefly, and I shot right past him. Now he was above me.
‹I'm going to try your little trick, human,› he sneered. He grabbed me by my neck and waist. ‹The difference is, Rachel, I know you can't morph into another bird to fix this.›
I felt the bones in my wings shatter, and the sound of Zenguh's thought-speak laughter rang through my head.
‹Before I let you go, I have a secret,› he said, leaning his head down near mine. ‹Tobias is dead!›
And he dropped me.
My wings were useless, and weren't even slowing my fall. We were high, but not high enough to give me time to repair my wings. I plummeted toward the ground, growing more sure by the second that I was going to die. I could see that I was falling close to a meadow near Ax's scoop. I clung to one desperate hope, and I screamed.
‹Ax! Aaaaaaax! Help me! I'm falling!›
I fell faster and faster, and was trying to convince myself that I could hear the sound of hooves galloping, when I heard a voice.
‹I'm coming, Rachel!› It was Jake! I saw a dark shape diving toward me through the air. I spread my wings as best I could to buy time. My mind and body were overwhelmed with pain, but I couldn't stop trying. The shape got closer and closer. I could see that it was Jake's peregrine falcon, and it was getting closer fast.
Jake reached out with his talons and grabbed my wings close to my body. The pain almost made me black out, even before he flared his wings. The thing about peregrine falcons, however, is that they aren't known for gaining altitude quickly or carrying heavy loads. They're more famous for being streamlined and falling quickly; useful for catching up to me, but sort of a liability after that.
I could feel Jake slowing us down, but I knew it wouldn't be enough. He was able to redirect me enough to throw me into the leaves of a tree, and I hoped it would slow me down enough to survive.
Jake continued to hold on as we rocketed into the tree. I lost track of my injuries as I collided with branch after branch, but when I finally lay on the rough forest floor, I could no longer feel my legs, and it was really hard to breathe. Jake didn't look as rough as I felt, but if I saw him on the street, I wouldn't even bother trying to rush him to Cassie's wildlife rehabilitation barn.
‹Rachel, are you alive?› Jake asked, barely able to turn his head to me.
‹I think so,› I said. ‹But who knows for how long?›
‹Could I really be so lucky?› Zenguh's voice mocked us. ‹Do I get to scratch two more of the Andalite bandits…and friends, I guess? Off of my list?›
We would never be able to run away or morph into something useful fast enough to survive this.
‹I love you, Rachel,› said Jake.
‹I know,› I said. Going out on a Star Wars reference. Marco would be proud of that.
