Chapter 7 : The Hawk

"Now that you've got the power, welcome to the Animorphs. Lets go get your first morph and get some practice in." Jake smiled. "I think we should find you a bird to acquire first. You shouldn't have too much trouble with that. Cassie, what have you got here that flies here? Apart from Max and Tobias of course."

"Um, let me think for a second. There's an osprey with a broken leg, two geese that flew into power lines, a couple of pigeons, a blue jay... Oh! I know!" With that she trotted off towards the back of the barn and came back with a large cage. "This big girl is on loan from another zoo. Mum needs to check that she isn't carrying foreign parasites or something before she takes her to The Gardens bird exhibit." The Gardens is like a huge amusement park and a zoo combined. I once heard that they found someone's wallet in the dolphin tank because a roller coaster does a loop over it.

"Her name's Tess," said Cassie as she pulled the cover off. Inside was a large, tan hawk. "She's an Australian brown goshawk, but she has talons more vicious than a red tail's and a beak that has adapted to tearing muscle from the bone. Although she isn't the biggest bird, she makes up with her hovering ability. They have huge thermals in Australia, and all she has to do is make micro adjustments to her wings and tail. An excellent spotter or fighter either way." The hawk seemed a bit agitated, so I slowly extended my wings a bit. Her head snapped around and fixed her steely gaze on me. She spread her wings as much as the cage would allow, imitating me, and I noticed that my wings had a similar colour to hers. I moved forward and undid the latch on the cage, keeping an eye on her beak. Slowly, I slid my hand through the hatch and on to her back. No one moved, not even the animals. Closing my eyes, I focused on the image of Tess. I imagined her gliding over the red dirt of the Australian outback, eyes scanning the bare ground for the smallest sign of prey. I imagined her tearing a rabbit in half with her beak, blood staining her talons. As I did, she became still and calm, almost like she was asleep.

"That's it. You've acquired her. Now just break contact and it's done. She'll stay like that for a few more seconds, but it doesn't hurt her." Cassie was very reassuring, so I pulled my hand back out of the cage and closed the hatch. Tess shook her head and screeched, annoyed by being touched.

"I'd better put her back down the back now. None of us had a good experience the first time we morphed with the animal there. Jake was attacked by his dog, and I was nearly trampled by my horses." She took Tess to the back of the barn and put the cover back over the cage.

"So what do I do now?" I asked.

< Focus on the mental image of the bird you have acquired, similar to how you acquired it, and the morphing process will begin. > For such an intelligent species, Andalites are not good at making things sound simple.

"Uh, what?" I didn't understand anything of that before 'begin'.

"He means just concentrate on Tess again and the morph will happen." At least Marco could understand him. Then again, these guys had to figure it out on their own. Taking a deep breath, I focused on the DNA of the hawk. Almost immediately, I felt the sensation of falling. It was strange, because everything was getting taller, but my feet were still on the ground. Looking at my feet, I saw the sharp talons of the hawk tear their way out of my sneakers. Great. Now I'd have to get new shoes. And I am not the shopping type. As soon as I stopped shrinking, the bones in my arms dissolved, leaving them floppy and useless, before they drew up into my body. My hair receded back into my scalp like someone was eating it like spaghetti. A feather pattern spread itself across my body from my wings, looking like a faded tattoo, before bursting through my skin into real feathers. My lips hardened and bulged outward into the hooked beak of the hawk. My eyes moved outwards to the sides of my head, and suddenly it was like looking through binoculars. I could feel something bubbling up under my own consciousness, so I focused on keeping it under control. Then it all stopped. I was a hawk, and I finally had a body to match my wings. I opened my beak to say something to the Animorphs, but all that came out was a hoarse, screeching cry that made the smaller animals jump. Tobias seemed to understand what I was trying to do.

< That doesn't work. Try thinking at us. It's called thought speak, and works like E-Mail. Just want your thoughts to be heard by us, and only we will hear it. > I looked at him and thought hard.

<Can you hear me? > I guess it worked, because they all jumped.

"Geez, no need to yell." Marco raised a hand to his ears, then must have realised that I wasn't actually speaking out loud.

"You didn't have any trouble with the hawks instincts, did you? Tobias didn't think you would because you're already part hawk." Remind me to never ask Rachel to put something delicately. She has the bluntness of a butter knife that can't be sharpened. Or a spoon.

< Is that what that was? I had a bit of a feeling for a little while, but it wasn't anything too intense. I guess I have to deal with that every day, me having hawk wings and all. >
I flapped my wings and did a lap of the inside of the barn before perching on the rafter next to Tobias.

< What now? >

It was Rachel who answered. "We go shopping at the Yeerk pool, smash and grab style!" Marco face palmed.