After making his way back to his house so that he could let his parents know he was doing all right, not that that kind of news really seemed to phase them one way or the other, Tommy made his way up to his room. Slipping out the window after putting the clothes that he wasn't going to be needing up for the night, Tommy quickly morphed back into the eagle he'd started thinking of as his own, and made his way to Cassie's house as quickly as his new wings would carry him. Looking around as he flew, Tommy found himself amazed all over again at the clarity of the eagle's vision.

Cassie had talked about things like that, back when he and the other Animorphs – it was getting easier to think of the six of them as a group now that they had a name, but Tommy couldn't help wondering just what he and Tobias would end up having to do, once Jake and the others had rescued Jake's brother and could move on with their lives – had been acquiring new, stronger animal forms to use in their battle against the Yeerks and their forces. She'd talked about the way that, even though it had been alien technology that had allowed the six of them to actually change forms, the ancient people who'd lived in the Americas before them had also called upon the spirits of various animals to protect them.

Not to protect them from an alien invasion, of course, but to help them find the strength and courage to face whatever it was that they had needed to face.

None of the others had really been interested, and Marco in particular had been a bit more sarcastic than usual, but Tommy had found himself listening for more than just the sake of hearing about what the people who had lived here before believed. It was the way Cassie had told the story that let him know that she thought a lot about things, and a lot about people, too. She was kind, compassionate, generous, and understanding; Tommy made up his mind right then and there that, even if she chose not to fight against the Yeerks after they'd rescued Jake's brother, he'd look out for her as best as he could.

Even though it was starting to seem like Marco was the only one who actually wanted to walk away from all that they were gearing up to fight.

Looking down again, as he came within sight of the barn where he and the other Animorphs had met not so long ago, Tommy felt a chill run the length of his morphed spine as he caught a glimpse of a police car making its way steadily up the road to Cassie's house. He didn't know if it was that same cop that he and the other Animorphs had encountered back when they'd still been re-centering themselves after everything that had happened at the construction site, but in any case he knew it was better to be safe than sorry.

Especially given what they were all facing.

(Cassie! Cassie, if you can hear me, there's a police car coming up to your house,) he said, even as he circled over that same house, keeping an eye on the progress of the car.

(Tommy?)

He breathed out as close as he could get to a sigh of relief in his current shape; at least whoever was coming wouldn't be able to find Cassie in her current form. (Where are you?) he asked. (You're not still in your house right now, right?)

(I'm a horse,) she answered quickly. (Here, I'll toss my head so you can tell which one.)

Once he was able to get a bead on just where Cassie actually was, he thanked her for the information, even as he continued to keep an eye out for what that cop was doing. A look in through the window told him that it was the same exact cop who'd come out to Cassie's house the first time, asking about things that had made it more than obvious to anyone paying attention that he was one of the Yeerk-enslaved humans who they were going to have to watch out for.

(He's getting really close to your house, Cassie,) Tommy informed her, deciding then and there that he'd go down there and help her out. (I'll be there in just a second.)

Folding his wings and falling from the sky, Tommy felt that same, ecstatic rush that he'd felt every single time he'd done that same kind of thing; even just landing in the tree outside his bedroom window when he needed to get back home was more exciting than it had ever really been when he was human. Opening his wings again, catching the air under them before he could get too close to the ground, Tommy concentrated on his human body as he swept in low over the long grass. His legs shot out under him, and he crouched to lessen the impact as he fell from the sky with wings that were too small to support what he was becoming.

Once he'd made it back into his human form, Tommy noticed the frantic expression on Cassie's face as she ran over to him, a coat draped over her left arm and a pair of boots in that same hand. She gave them to him quickly, urging him to put them on before the cop that had already been approaching the pair of them made it close enough to see more than the vague outlines of their respective silhouettes.