It was more than a bit strange, being a wolf with all that entailed, but Tommy tried not to think too much about that kind of thing. He and the others were trying to find out just what the Yeerks were doing in the mountains, and what they might have been able to do about it. Tobias had gone off to scout ahead, since he was even faster in the air than any animal who was stuck on the ground – even a wolf, who never seemed to get tired – and with the eyes that all birds of prey had, he would be able to spot any of the Yeerks' forces that might have been in place.
Some of them were probably going to be there, if only to meet the ship that Tobias had only just managed to spot.
(Is that you guys?) Tobias asked, sounding more than a little rattled.
(Yeah, it's us,) he said, speaking before Marco could say something; probably something sarcastic, given the kind of guy he was. (Is something wrong, Tobias?)
(It's all right,) Tobias said, though he didn't sound particularly convinced of that, himself. (But, we have a problem: there's a lake just a little ways ahead, and it's crawling with Park Rangers who aren't really Park Rangers.)
(Controllers, right,) he said, feeling a bit unsettled, himself.
(How do you know they were Controllers?) Jake asked, looking from Tobias to him and then back again.
(Because real Park Rangers don't carry machine guns, and they definitely don't hang around with Hork-Bajir.)
(Yeah,) Tommy said, shuddering. (It'd be hard to mistake those for anything else.)
As it turned out, the lake they were all approaching seemed to be directly in the path of the Yeerk ship Tobias had just managed to catch sight of. It almost seemed like the Yeerks were going to land near the lake, if not on the lake itself. They had to find out what was going on if they were going to do anything about it, so the six of them all began heading for the lake.
