"Okay, so what's next?"

Slade thought for a minute, remembering what Cassie had done for him after he had been given the morphing power. Then, just as Shara looked like she was about to ask again, Slade decided that he would take her to The Gardens, just like Cassie had done with him. But this time, I have to remember that Shara doesn't know what I know, at least not yet.

"I think we should take a trip to The Gardens, see if we can get you a good combat morph."

"The Gardens?" Shara asked, remembering the times she and her former family would go there to look at all the animals. Her favorites, and Ness' too, had been the large cats. But Shara had also been fond of the butterfly room, and the exotic birds. "Why do you want to go there, Slade?"

"I already told you," Slade said kindly. "We're going to go there to get you a morph that can fight."

"Right. This is all so new to me, I guess what you said kind of slipped my mind," Shara rubbed the back of her neck, feeling a little sheepish. "So, how are we going to get there?"

"Fly," Slade said, as if it was the most ordinary thing in the world. Shara's incredulous look reminded him again that what was completely commonplace for him was still really out of the ordinary for her. "Sorry. I guess have to I keep reminding myself that you haven't been doing this for very long."

"Yeah, you keep working on that, Slade," Shara grinned, as if she found the whole thing funny. "So, what do we do first?"

"Well, first we have to concentrate on the seagull. Form a picture of it in your mind, and focus on that. When we're done with that, I'll tell you what to do next."

"Are you sure you're going to remember this time?" Shara chuckled.

"Yes, I'm sure I'm going to remember this time," Slade retorted, grinning at Shara's good natured ribbing. It was strange, but Slade felt like this was all familiar to him. And, for some reason, when Shara made a joke it wasn't annoying the way it was when Marco did.

"Well then, let's get going, shall we?"

"Okay, just focus on the gull, follow my lead," Slade said, then realized that the last part of what he had just said didn't make much sense. "Okay, scratch that last part."

Slade closed his eyes, concentrating on the bird that he had just acquired. He counted on the fact that Shara was doing the same thing. When he began to hear and feel his bones crunching and twisting into new configurations, Slade listened hard to make sure he wasn't the only one morphing. He wasn't.

As Slade had started morphing before her, it wasn't surprising that he finished before Shara. What would have been surprising to any of the other Animorphs, had they been there, was the fact that Shara had finished morphing just a few seconds after Slade had. Soon, two seagulls stood where a pair of humans had been.

(Wow, this is really different,) Shara said, peering around at all the cages that seemed huge from her new height.

(Yeah, really,) Slade said. (Why don't we get going now?)

(Okay, let's do that,) Shara laughed.

The two seagulls ran out of the barn, flapping their wings to lift themselves into the air. Flapping hard and circling the barn, Slade and Shara rose into the sky. Slade, despite having been to The Gardens just once as far as he knew, was guided by a mix of subconscious memories and his own photographic recall.

It was somewhat of a novel experience for Slade to know exactly where he was going, since he always seemed to be needing someone to lead him to where they wanted him to go. It wasn't really something Slade would let himself think about for long, but it was nice not to have to impose on his allies.

(Shara, are you still with me?)

(Yeah, I'm right with you, Slade.)

(Good.)

After that exchange and reassurance, Slade and Shara flew on in silence.

….

Shara wondered what was going to happen once she arrived at The Gardens. Slade had said something about getting her a morph that could fight. Shara wasn't sure what he had meant by that, but Slade did seem to still have the protectiveness toward her that Ness had had when he was still with her. So Shara decided that she would trust the boy who had once been her brother.

As they flew, Shara found it odd that there seemed to be another presence in with her mind. Separate from her own mind, but somehow not unreachable. Shara wondered what it could possibly be. Probing at the edges of the new mind with her telepathic powers, Shara was a bit surprised to find out that the new mind that was sharing space with her own belonged to the seagull itself. Slade didn't tell me about anything like this, Shara thought to herself. I wonder why?

Then, Shara realized that it must have just been because Slade was so much more used to morphing than she was. It was probably the most mundane of things to him, to have an animal mind cohabitate with his own. So that was no doubt why Slade hadn't mentioned anything about it to her.

As they flew on, Shara couldn't help but notice how the seagull mind in with her own mind kept pointing out various bits of garbage on the street. The most distracting part for Shara was the fact that the seagull wanted nothing more than to stop, land, and feast on these various bits of detritus. After enduring four minutes of these kinds of thoughts, the novelty wore off and Shara used her telepathic power to separate the seagull's mind from her own.

(Shara?)

(What is it, Slade?)

(We're almost there, so get ready to land. Okay?)

(All right, Slade,) Shara acknowledged, as her brother's voice faded from her mind.

It was still a strange experience for Shara, to be flying under her own power like this. But at the same time, somewhere in the back of her mind, in a place that she was sure had never existed before, Shara felt perfectly comfortable with the activity.

When they were finally over The Gardens' airspace, Slade set about finding a good place for them to land. Preferably in the same kind of dark, empty, secluded spot that Cassie had found when she had first taken him to The Gardens. After a bit of searching, Slade found a place that was far enough out of the way that no one was likely to look there at all.

Somewhat ironically, this was the exact place that he and Cassie had landed in when Cassie had brought Slade to get his panther morph.

(All right Shara, I've found a good place,) Slade informed his maybe-sister. (Now if you'll just follow me down, we can get this done.)

(Anywhere you go, I'll follow you down,) Shara singsonged.

(What was that?) Slade asked, having had a brief flash of recognition. There's something about that song…

(Gin Blossoms,) Shara laughed. (Sorry, I just couldn't resist.)

(Yeah well, let's just get this done, okay?) Slade asked, folding his wings and falling though the air in a dive.

(Right behind you, Slade,) Shara called out cheerfully, mimicking Slade's actions. Shara thought diving was fun, and made a mental note to try some more of it when she had the time.