The other Animorphs had gone to sleep awhile ago, leaving her and Slade to keep watch over them, since they were the ones with enhanced senses and fighting abilities. With the danger the rest of the Animorphs were all currently in, Shara found that she was – somehow, perversely – more energized than she'd ever been. She had the feeling that it had something to do with what she and Slade had both become.

Still, since their respective transformations had been because of the Radam, Shara wasn't particularly eager to pursue that line of thinking.

(Shara, did you see that?)

(Hmm? What?) she asked, turning her attention back to her brother.

(There was some kind of flash, off in the distance somewhere,) Slade said, and Shara turned to look in the direction that her older brother's gaze was pointed.

There was a heavy rumbling through the ground, and Shara narrowed her eyes slightly as she caught sight of a herd of sauropods. The rumbling was clearly from their panicked stampede, and the sight of the tyrannosaurus – illuminated by another of the flashes that Slade had called her attention to earlier – running after them explained what was happening before she could even mentally articulate the question. She was pleased, at least, that she and the rest of the Animorphs hadn't gone far enough inland to be in danger from either the stampede or the predator.

Settling back down on the soft grasses and leaves that she and the rest of the Animorphs had pulled down and gathered up to sleep on, Shara sighed softly as she turned to look back at the comet again. It was a melancholy sight, particularly since Shara couldn't stop herself from wondering just when and how it was going to turn.

She knew that the K-T Impact had occurred somewhere in Mexico, so that was just one more reason for her to wonder how and when that particular comet was going to crash into the Earth.

Turning to look down at the rest of the Animorphs again, Shara leaned back on her left hand as she took another bite of the last scrap of unsmoked tyrannosaur meat. They'd smoked the rest of the meat, so that it would travel better, and Cassie had carefully packed it away in the bag that she'd sewn from the more supple skin on the tyrannosaur's belly.

Licking the last remaining meat flavor from her fingers, Shara turned back to the sky again. Even to her enhanced vision the stars were starting to fade; sunrise was coming.

Looking back down at the rest of the Animorphs, Shara smiled softly. All of them seemed to be getting the rest they needed, so Shara settled back down in front of the fire, adding more wood from the pile to keep the fire going at least until sunrise. She still wondered about those flashes that she and Slade had seen earlier that night.

They'd almost looked like lightning, but there'd been none of the heaviness in the air that preceded a storm, none of the smell of oncoming rain, and most importantly no thunder.

Slade seemed to have forgotten about it, going back to keeping watch for any dinosaur that might take an interest in the comparatively vulnerable Animorphs, holding the split form of his lancer while he circled the still merrily crackling fire. Shara sighed, scooting a bit further from the fire as the rising sun painted the eastern sky with soft pinks, bright oranges, and blazing yellows.

As the sunlight began hitting the rest of her and Slade's fellow Animorphs, they all started to wake up.

"Well, we made it through the night," Marco said, sitting back up. "Not that we actually have anywhere to go, or anything."

"Maybe we should have Shara, or Slade, or both of them fire those Tekno-bolts of theirs," Rachel said, as she and Cassie put out the fire with handfuls of dirt from the pit they'd scooped out to make it. "Maybe that could get us home."

"We don't know if that would actually help," Jake said, standing up. "And, we don't know what those aliens are that attacked us. We don't know how they came here, or what they want."

"Great, so you want us to investigate actual ancient aliens, instead of trying to get back home," Marco said, rolling his eyes. "You know, we don't have to find out everything about what goes on in the world."

"We didn't have to go and investigate that crashed submarine, either," Rachel said, smirking slightly.

Marco groaned. "I knew I should have just left well enough alone. I knew it when I saw that stupid sub on the news, so why didn't I just not say anything?"

"Do you think you could start now?" Rachel asked, smirk widening slightly.

"Funny, Xena," Marco groused, rolling his eyes. "Very funny."