Текст книги "Animorphs - 13 - The Change"

Автор книги: Katherine Alice Applegate

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"Hey! Rachel has already morphed Jara. Hey, are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Yeah," I said. "At least I think I am. When I was flying I saw a deep ravine. We should still be

able to reach it! It should be perfect. But we'll need Marco in gorilla morph."

"We will? You lost me there, dude," Jake said. "But, okay. If you say so, Tobias. Marco in gorilla morph. What else?"

"And we need someone to acquire and morph Ket," I said.

"l'll do it," Jake said without hesitation.

"No, Jake. Not this time," I said. "l'll do it."

No one said anything for a good thirty seconds. They just stared. They stared with wolf eyes and bear eyes and tiger eyes and all four An-dalite eyes. They were trying to decide if I was crazy.

"You will?" Rachel asked. "you will?"

"Yeah. I will. I'll morph Ket. I'll morph a Hork-Bajir."

Then Rachel clicked. "The Ellimist? That's what he did for you? I thought he was going to make you human again." There was an edge of anger in her tone. Of outrage.

"Ellimists," Ax practically spit the word. "Never trust them."

"0h, no," Cassie whispered. "That's it? He gave you back the power to morph? But not. . ."

"No," I said as evenly as I could. "Looks like I'm a full member of the team again. I can morph. But I guess ... I mean, it looks like I'll still be a hawk. I'll be keeping my wings."

J. quickly told them the details of my plan. I had to stick to business.

There was no time for feeling sorry for myself. And I sure didn't want them feeling sorry for me.

No time for pity. No time for anger, either. There was nothing I could do to the Ellimist. Nothing I could do.

"0kay, Cassie? We need you to stay in wolf morph. Ax, watch Cassie's back and try to stay out of view. Marco? You know your part, right?"

"Yeah, I got it," he said nervously. He was temporarily human. In between morphs.

Marco's part of the plan was one of the most difficult. And if he failed, Rachel and I were dead. "No problem, right?" I said to Marco.

"Yeah. No problem. Just make sure one of you is a few seconds behind the other. I'll need sometime."

"l know my role," Jake said. He was just coming out of his tiger morph.

"Up in the air."

"My old job," I said.

"Yeah. Let's hope I do it as well as you always did," Jake said.

"Cassie, Ax. Let's move it. Marco, quit worrying. It's just like catching a pass with your eyes closed. No big deal for Mighty Marco."

Marco laughed. "That's it, flatter me. Now I know we're dead. But don't worry, I'll be there."

I fluttered over to stand on Ket Halpak's shoulder. (It isn't easy to find a place to sit on a Hork-Bajir.) I dug my talons in just a bit to the dark, leathery skin. And I began to acquire the Hork-Bajir's DNA.

All around I could hear the sounds of enemies closing in. I heard the FWOMP-FWOMP-FWOMP of the helicopters. And now that they were getting closer, my hawk hearing could even detect the faint TSEEEW! TSEEEW! of the Dracon beams.

Sometimes there would come a loud crack, almost like sudden thunder. It was the sound of a tree exploding as the Dracon beam turned the tree sap to steam in a split second.

And there was the roar of the fire itself.

But I shut all of that out of my mind. All I had to focus on was acquiring the Hork-Bajir. Ket Halpak went slightly limp. I could feel the muscles relaxing.

At last, I flew away to a bare spot on the forest floor. The others were all watching me, even while they did their own morphs. I think they halfway suspected I was nuts. They halfway wondered if I'd just made it up about being able to morph.

I closed my eyes and held the image of the Hork-Bajir in my mind. And then, very quickly, I began to feel the changes.

I sprouted up from the pine needles and dead leaves. I rocketed up and up so fast I couldn't help but yell.

"Yah! Whoa! Whoa!"

"Hey! He is morphing," Marco said.

"l guess that's something, at least," Rachel said bitterly.

I ignored her angry tone. I couldn't listen to her anger because it would just make me mad, too. A predator is never angry, just hungry.

Anger only gets in the way.

Up and up I grew. And as I grew, my wings grew with me. It's funny the way morphing works. It's never totally logical. It's never exactly the same twice, either.

And it is always, always gross. Even as I was

morphing, I was watching the others undergo changes. It was a scene out of some lunatic's darkest nightmare. Bodies melted. Weird appendages grew suddenly, here and there. Teeth appeared before there was a mouth to hold them. Fur grew like one of those time-lapse videos of mold, just shooting out of the skin. Big humans tottered unsteadily on tiny doglike legs.

If you just happened to wander in and saw the spectacle of four kids and a bird all melting and mutating and squirming as two giant aliens watched, you'd definitely think you were insane. You'd want to see a psychiatrist. After you stopped screaming.

I could feel the changes happening in my own body. Not that they were painful. They weren't. But I could still feel things going on. And I could hear them.

My insides were reorganizing totally. Hork-Bajir have at least two hearts, maybe more. So entire new hearts were forming inside of me. And from the hearts, new arteries and veins had to sprout and spread throughout my body.

I had to go from having a digestive system designed to handle big chunks of raw mouse to a digestive system built for tree bark.

I could hear a gurgling sound as internal organs shifted and stretched and were pushed aside to make room for totally new organs. I could

hear a stretching, grinding sound as big, thick, solid bones replaced my hollow bird bones.

And on the outside I saw my wings grow till they were huge. Then, with amazing speed, the feathers melted into hard, leathery skin. There was a snap as the joints in my wings changed direction to bend the way a Hork-Bajir arm bends.

Then out came the blades.

SHWOOP! Blades at my wrists.

SHWOOP! Blades at my elbows.

SHWOOP! The forward-swept horn blades on my snake head.

"Hey, Tobias," Marco said. "You kept the same feet."

It was a joke. But it was true, too. There wasn't much difference between my hawk talons and the feet of the Hork-Bajir. Except that they were maybe a hundred times bigger.

Somehow that made me feel good. I liked the look of those big, ripping talons. I liked thinking about what they would do to a Taxxon.

Cassie and Ax took off at a run. They had a lot of distance to cover very fast. Fortunately, a wolf can run almost flat-out all day long. And there's no doubt about how fast an Andalite can move. No doubt. Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak left with them.

Marco was in his huge, powerful gorilla morph

and getting ready to leave, too. "See you guys later. I hope," he said.

"Be there!" Rachel growled. She pointed a dangerous Hork-Bajir hand at him.

"0kay, I'll be there. But don't be too long or I may decide to take a nap," Marco joked as he lumbered off through the trees.

Jake was perched on a branch just over my head. A peregrine falcon, the fastest thing in the air. He spread his wings and took off, leaving me and Rachel alone.

Rachel had morphed into a mirror image of me. We were a fine pair of Hork-Bajir.

"Ready?" I asked her.

She peered at me from behind alien eyes. "You okay, Tobias?"

"Sure. Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, you haven't exactly had a great day," she said.

I laughed grimly. "l'm a freak of nature, Rachel. Any day I stay alive is a good day for me."

high above the treetops Jake flew in his swift peregrine falcon morph, calling down directions to Rachel and me.

It was weird. It almost felt like Jake had taken over my role or something. Like he was pretending to be me. Normally, I'd be the one up there riding the wind.

"0kay, not far now," Jake said. "You're almost there. You guys know which direction to go after the Yeerks catch your trail, right?"

"Yeah, we know, we know, Mother," Rachel said. "What are we? ldiots?" Then to me she said, "We do know, right?"

"l'm pretty sure. I mean, it's harder to keep track of where things are when you're down on

the ground. Just trees and bushes everywhere. You can't see the horizon, you can't see the sun."

The forest was impossible for a Hork-Bajir trying to be quiet. I mean, we could have slashed our way through the brambles and thorn thickets, but that would have attracted too much attention too soon.

So we tried to hurry, but without making too much noise. And let me tell you – Hork-Bajir bodies are not built for quiet.

"That's why you have me up here," Jake said cheerfully. "To guide you.

Don't sweat it. I can see the ravine. I can see that Cassie and Ax and the two Hork-Bajir are getting into position. And I see Marco. Heck, with these falcon eyes I can practically see Marco's fleas."

"Easy for you to be cocky," I muttered. "You're up there safe."

"Do you see the line of fire?" Rachel asked Jake. "Because I sure do smell it."

"Yeah," Jake admitted. "ln fact, the fire forms a semicircle around you.

The Taxxons and friends are the other half of the circle. The only way open is the ravine. So we're just going to get one chance."

"Wonderful," I said.

"0kay, you guys. A big, fat pair of Taxxons are just on the other side of that pile of rocks."

"What pile of rocks?" Rachel asked.

"0h . . . well, I can see that it's a pile of rocks from up here.

From where you are it probably just looks like a thick tangle of weeds and thorns."

"Cool," Rachel said calmly. "l guess it's time."

"Yep. Ladies first."

"No, no. After you. I insist."

We pushed our way through the bushes and climbed to the top of what did turn out to be a pile of rock boulders. At the top we stopped and stared.

Just twenty feet away were two Taxxons. Two vile, disgusting Taxxons.

Allies, not just slaves, of the Yeerks. A species that ate its own when given half a chance.

I don't know if it was the hawk in me that was angered by the sight of the two humongous worms marching through a decent forest, or the human side of me that just didn't like gigantic worms, period, or some deep instinct of the Hork-Bajir mind. But I was suddenly filled with hatred and rage.

The anger hit me like a baseball bat alongside the head. It was sudden and ferocious. The plan was to run from the Taxxons. But all of a sudden, I didn't want to run.

I wanted to see what my Hork-Bajir blades would do. I wanted to hurt the Taxxons.

"Let'stake 'em," I said.

Rachel turned her snake head toward me. "What? That's not the plan, Tobias!"

"They shouldn't be here. Look at them! Look at them, slithering through the forest like they own it! They shouldn't be here. This isn't their place, it's ours. It's mine!"

"Tobias, calm down. It makes me mad, too. But we have to stick with the plan."

"No. We don't," I said. "l'm tired of plans."

Rachel grabbed my shoulder. I almost spun around and slashed at her.

That's how mad I was. My arm actually came up as if I were going to strike.

But Rachel didn't back away. "Look, Tobias. You're mad. But it's not the time or place. The person you're mad at is beyond your reach. You can't get back at the Ellimist for betraying you."

Somehow her words penetrated the black rage that had swallowed me up.

No, I couldn't get back at the Ellimist. And it was him I was furious with. Wasn't it? Rachel was right. She had to be right.

It was the Ellimist's fault.

"Stick to the plan, Tobias. Don't get us all killed because you're mad at the Ellimist."

"Yeah. You're right. The plan."

Rachel released my shoulder. I stared down at the Taxxons. They had frozen on seeing us. They

knew they were no match for a couple of desperate Hork-Bajir.

But then, through the woods, shadowy figures appeared. Hork-Bajir warriors. Hork-Bajir-Controllers.

"Ssssrrrreyyyaa ssseewwwitt!" the Taxxons shrilled in their own hissing language.

From the trees a dozen Hork-Bajir suddenly broke at full run.

"0utta here!" Rachel yelled.

"Right behind you!"

We bolted. And we no longer had to worry about being too obvious. The Hork-Bajir were after us, and we had to use maximum speed to escape.

"The plan seems to be working so far," Jake called down.

"Yeah. They're on us," Rachel said.

We ran through the bushes like only Hork-Bajir can run. Our arms slashed the air, again and again, quick as striking snakes. We destroyed bushes and saplings like a pair of out-of-control, nuclear-powered lawn mowers.

SLASH!SLASH!SLASH!SLASH!

But there was one big problem with doing what we were doing. See, we were slowed down a little by having to cut our way through. And the Hork-Bajir behind us could just follow our trail.

"They're gaining on you!" Jake said.

"Yeah, we noticed. How far to the ravine?"

"Too far! You won't make it this way."

"Well, find a way!" I yelled. I could see the pursuing Hork-Bajir. Their horn blades were bobbing above the undergrowth. They were not far behind us. Not far, as in pretty soon I'd be smelling their bad breath.

"!...! can't tell what anything is from up here," Jake cried. "lt's like reading a map or something. What should I be looking for?"

"We need to go at an angle," I said. "Look for a gully or ditch that runs across our path. The deeper the better."

"0h. Nothing! Wait. Maybe that's a gully. There's a little stream running down it."

"Just tell us left or right!" I yelled.

"0kay. Left! No! No! I was thinking my left. Go right! Okay, ten more steps . . ."

The Hork-Bajir were on us. In seconds they'd have us in clear view.

"There!" Jake yelled.

"Yeah!" I said. We hit a tiny, shallow stream. It was almost hidden by overhanging vines and drooping branches. "This way, Rachel."

I crouched as low as my massive, stiff Hork-Bajir body could go, and I ran bent over along the stream. Rachel was inches behind me.

"0w!" she yelped.

"What?"

"Your tail caught me in the neck. Never mind! Run! Run!"

Behind us I could hear the noise of the pursuing Hork-Bajir grow louder, then slowly more distant.

"AII right!" Jake said. "You lost them. Now you have to cut left to get back toward the ravine."

Up and out of the gully we leaped. Back on dry ground we found some nice, open country beneath very tall trees.

"0h, man, this isn't good," Jake said.

"What? Tell me."

"The fire is sweeping right down the lip of the ravine from the north!

And the Yeerks are closing the gap from the south!"

"What do we do?" I asked.

"Look, there's no way around this, Tobias. There's a line of Hork-Bajir now between you two and the ravine. You have to go through them."

"Hope you haven't lost all that anger," Rachel said to me. "Looks like we fight, after

On our left, fire!

On our right, the front ranks of Taxxons!

Straight ahead, a ravine a hundred feet deep. It was like it had been cut with a knife. Like someone had slashed the earth and made a cut so deep you could throw a skyscraper down it.

The ravine was narrow, no more than forty feet across. At the bottom, I knew, was a rushing stream. In spring it would swell with the melting ice from the mountains.

But now the stream was narrow, leaving wide sandy banks on either side.

"You're only about fifteen, twenty seconds away from the ravine!" Jake called down. "But there are more bad guys getting in the way. I'm

pretty sure I count six. Two Taxxons and four Hork-Bajir warriors."

"0h, man," I muttered.

Fifteen seconds, Jake had said. I counted in my head as I ran. One . . .

two . . . three . , . four. . .

"HeeeRRRROWWRRR!"

A Hork-Bajir warrior leaped at me, a blur of dark green-black leather skin and flashing blades. Then more of them. They were everywhere!

"Rachel! Behind you!"

SLASH! A wrist blade drew a line of blood across my chest.

SLASH! I fought back, hacking at my attacker with all my speed and strength.

"AHHHH!" The pain came out of nowhere! A Hork-Bajir had jumped up from the deep grass and hit me from behind. I could feel my entire left side starting to go numb.

SLASH!

SLASH!

SLASH! My wrist blades and elbow blades ripped into Hork-Bajir flesh. I went a little crazy, I think, because I didn't even know what I was doing anymore. I was on automatic. I was a slashing, ripping, tearing machine.

But I was getting hurt at the same time. I was outnumbered. There were three Hork-Bajir on

me. Two on Rachel. There had been three on her, too, but she'd taken one of them out of the fight.

SLASH! SLASH! SLASH! My entire world was nothing but blow and counterblow. A wrist blade cut toward my head, and I blocked it. I swiped upward with my knee, and then jerked my talons back to catch the thigh of the Hork-Bajir behind me.

Every move happened in a split second. In the time it would take a human to blink his eyes once, I would block two thrusts and throw three of my own.

Then . . . WHAM! I was on my back in the dirt. My left leg had stopped working! Two Hork-Bajir now stood over me. One raised his ripping talon, ready to bring it down on my chest!

I lay back helpless, staring up at the blue sky.

Suddenly, a flash of pale gray, coming down like a rock! Like an arrow fired from a cloud it came, wings tucked back, dropping at more than a hundred miles an hour.

A peregrine falcon. The fastest thing in the air.

Jake!

At the last second, his wings opened, he took the shock of the air and he swept his talons forward, all in one fluid movement.

Even in pain, lying there a second away from

death, I thought I had never seen anything so perfect in my life.

In a split second Jake was gone, and the larger Hork-Bajir was screaming and holding his eyes.

I was ready. I swept my leg left to right and knocked the Hork-Bajir off his feet. I was up and hobbling on my one good leg before he hit the ground.

I ran to Rachel and helped knock her last Hork-Bajir foe to the ground.

"Ready to go?"

"Been ready," Rachel said.

Although my one leg was almost useless, I could still use my tail for balance and hobble at a pretty good speed. Rachel soon pulled out ahead of me. But that was okay. That was the plan.

"Jake?" I said. "That was one sweet save back there. Would it be wrong for me to say I love you, man?"

"Hah-HAH! That was fun! Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah, that was a rush!" Jake exulted.

Rachel and I ran toward the lip of the ravine. And now I could actually feel the heat of the fire approaching. The wind shifted and I gagged on thick black smoke. I lost sight of Rachel.

When the smoke cleared, I was face-to-face with a Taxxon. "You're lucky I'm in a hurry, or

you'd be worm hash," I said, and brushed past the huge centipede.

"Rachel! Ten feet to your left," Jake instructed. "Yeah! Yeah! Right there between the two saplings!"

I looked forward just in time to see Rachel leap out into the air. Out into the emptiness she went . . . and then disappeared. She fell from sight.

My hearts stopped beating. Both of them. I felt my throat clutch tight.

It was a hundred feet to the bottom of that ravine. Not even a Hork-Bajir could survive that kind of fall.

Now it was my turn. I ran for the ravine lip.

"0h, man!" Jake cried. "0n your left! In front of you! I didn't see them all in the smoke! Tobias, it's him!"

A thick wall of smoke swirled around me, then blew away. It was like some horrible magic trick. One minute, there was the ravine. The next second, there stood three Hork-Bajir. And one Andalite.

One Andalite who was no Andalite at all.

Visser Three stood on the very lip of the ravine. Right in my path.

Hork-Bajir are fast. But the tail of an Andalite is faster. I couldn't win a fight against Visser Three and three Hork-Bajir. No way.

But then it suddenly occurred to me ...

I grinned. At least as much as a Hork-Bajir can grin. I looked Visser Three right in his main eyes.

"Ket Halpak free!" I yelled, using my Hork-Bajir voice.

And I charged straight at him, running flat-out, ignoring the searing pain from my injured leg.

Visser Three watched me calmly for a couple of seconds. Then it occurred to him, too. Just like it had to me. See, he might get me with his tail, and even kill me before I could get to the ravine, but my momentum would certainly carry me forward.

And I would knock Visser Three off the edge, too.

At the last second, Visser Three dodged nimbly out of my way.

"Ket Halpak and Jara Hamee freeeeeeee!" I shouted defiantly as I jumped off the edge of the ravine.

I fell.

The floor of the ravine was a long, long, long way down.

I saw a brutish, massive arm shoot out. A fist the size of a Virginia baked ham grabbed my leg,

I stopped falling. I slammed into the ravine wall. And the massive arm yanked me back up-

ward. Right up into the shallow cave in the ravine wall.

No Earth animal could possibly have caught a falling, seven-foot-tall Hork-Bajir in midair. No animal except a gorilla.

"Nice catch," I said to Marco.

He hauled me up into the cave and bodily shoved me back to where Rachel was waiting quietly.

We huddled there. Waiting. Silent. We were just a few feet down below the lip of the ravine.

Because of the overhang, I could look down and see the floor of the ravine. Down there, on the sand, lay the crumpled forms of two very dead-looking Hork-Bajir. A pair of hungry wolves were already tearing at their "dead" flesh.

Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak lay still as Cassie and Jake, who had to fly down to the ravine and morph from falcon to human to wolf, pretended to begin devouring them. Fortunately, Hork-Bajir can stand a lot of pain.

And they heal quickly. Because I'll tell you what – if I didn't know the truth, even I would have thought that two dead Hork-Bajir were about to become wolf chow.

I held my breath. Would the Yeerks be fooled? Would Visser Three believe that Rachel and I had fallen to our deaths?

I heard cruel laughter in my head. "Fools," Visser Three sneered. "No one escapes the Yeerk

empire. Certainly not a pair of idiot Hork-Bajir. Look at them down there, all of you! That's what awaits anyone who tries to escape the Yeerks!" He laughed a terrible laugh. "The wolves will give them both the burial they deserve."

We waited till Visser Three and the rest of the Yeerks – human, Hork-Bajir, and Taxxons – left.

Then we crawled back up onto the lip of the ravine. We morphed back, and once we were all together again, we headed off across the land the Yeerks had burned. We knew we had to be quick. The Forest Service firefighters would be showing up soon. Even though the fire had mostly just burned itself out.

We found the valley. The lovely little valley the Ellimist had shown me.

I knew what to look for. Otherwise I'd never have noticed it.

I was a good puppet for the Ellimist. I had done my job well. Not that I regretted that part of it. I could never be sorry for helping anyone escape Yeerk slavery.

But I was once more a red-tailed hawk. And so I would remain.

The entrance to the valley was so narrow the Hork-Bajir could barely fit between the rock walls. It was like some amazing bandit hideout from an old Western movie.

Jake said, "You know, I wonder if this valley even existed before."

"You think maybe the Ellimist created it?" I asked.

Jake shrugged. "Could be. It's awfully convenient."

I let it drop. I didn't really want to discuss the Ellimist. He'd lied to me. He hadn't given me back my humanity. This was a good moment for the Hork-Bajir. I wasn't going to spoil it by being selfish.

While the others squeezed through the narrow gap in the rocks, I caught a beautiful warm up-draft and went up and over.

Even from the air you might not notice the valley unless you were really looking for it. From high up it just looks like a particularly dense ribbon of trees. Not until I dropped down through

the branches did I see the shallow lake surrounded by sandy shores.

Trees of every type and description were there. Berry bushes ringed a small, sunny meadow. The meadow I'd seen in my mind.

To tell you the truth, that little meadow would have been heaven for a red-tailed hawk. A sweet territory for a bird of prey.

I flew back to meet the others as they came into the valley. They were all standing around gaping.

"It's beautiful," Cassie breathed.

"Are we there?" Jara Hamee asked me.

"Yes. This is the place."

"Good place," Ket Halpak said. "Good place for kawatnoj."

"What?" Jake asked, puzzled.

"l heard them use that word before. Jara Hamee, what does kawatnoj mean?"

Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak laughed their strange Hork-Bajir laugh.

"Kawatnoj small Hork-Bajir. Small Jara Hamee, small Ket Halpak."

"Children," Rachel translated. "They're going to have little baby Hork-Bajir."

"They will be the first Hork-Bajir born into freedom in a very long time," Ax said. "The El-limist did not lie. The valley exists."

"No. He didn't lie," I said. "Not about this, any way. "

"Well. Let's just take our clothes off," Marco said briskly. "You know the rules – in the Garden of Eden you don't wear clothes. Rachel, you can start."

"Garden of Eden?" Jara Hamee echoed. "That is this place?"

"Not unless you want to change your name to Adam," Marco said. "I was just joking, big guy. But look, I have to know. How do you tell a male Hork-Bajir from a female?"

Jara Hamee looked puzzled. "Male? Female? What meaning?"

"Go ahead, Marco, explain," Cassie teased.

But Ket Halpak understood. "Jara Hamee and Ket Halpak different. Jara Hamee have three here." She pointed at her horn blades. "Ket have two."

"That's the only difference?" Marco asked.

"Other difference, too," Ket Halpak said primly. "But only for Hork-Bajir to know."

That got a laugh, even from Ax, which just puzzled the Hork-Bajir even more.

Everyone stayed for a little while, then they all left. Ail but the two Hork-Bajir and me. I stayed to help the Hork-Bajir survey their new home. I found caves where they could spend cold

nights, and explained to them that they could never leave the valley.

Not until Earth was rid of the Yeerks.

Then I flew home. Home to my own meadow. My own territory.

The Hork-Bajir had their Eden. The others all had their homes. I had my meadow.

me next day was Sunday. Not that it mattered to me.

Rachel came to my meadow to see me. But I avoided her. I flew away and left her yelling, "Tobias! Tobias, where are you?" into the woods.

I'm sorry, but I knew why she was there. She'd come to tell me it would all be okay. She'd come to make sure I didn't feel too bad. And knowing Rachel, she'd help me curse and blame the Ellimist.

But I didn't want pity. Not even Rachel's pity. I was dealing with things. But I was barely dealing. And I felt like if someone was nice to me I'd totally fall apart.

I'm a predator. A raptor. A hawk. I didn't want anyone feeling sorry for me.

Throughout the day I went about my routine. I went back to mapping out the entrances to the Yeerk pool. I watched the known Controllers come and go.

And I was fine. Until the sun set and night fell. I went to my favorite perch in the old oak tree. And I watched the foxes and raccoons and owls and other night creatures do their work.

Ax came by looking for me. I didn't want to talk to him, either, but he knew I was there.

"Hey, Ax-man," I said.

"Hello, Tobias. How are you?"

"Same as ever. And I really don't want to talk about it," I said bluntly. I guess Ax took the hint. He stayed for just a few more seconds, then made an excuse to take off.

I knew I was just feeling sorry for myself. But too bad. I had reason to feel sorry for myself.

So this is gonna be it, I told myself bitterly. This is your life. No home. No bed. No school. Nothing human.

I formed a picture in my mind of human life. I saw warm golden light and a TV and couches and beds and tables. Food that came in boxes and cans.

Books and magazines. Games. Stuff.

And I saw my parents. At least, the way I remembered my parents – from photographs. I'd

been too young when they'd left to really be able to remember them.

But I used to have pictures of them.

That was the life I would never have again. Human life.

But you know, even as I was wallowing in self-pity, I knew I was being dishonest. Maybe that warm, fuzzy, golden life was how some people lived. But it wasn't how I had lived. Not really.

Okay, I thought. Okay, so maybe my life as a human sucked, too. That doesn't mean I want to spend the rest of my life as a bird.

And yet I had another memory, more recent. I saw myself the way I had appeared when the El-limist had taken me into the turquoise mist. I saw myself half-bird, half-human.

No! I said to myself. I shook off the image. Just an Ellimist trick.

I tried to stop thinking. I needed sleep. That's all. I just needed a good night's sleep. I'd be fine in the morning.

I closed my eyes and tried to turn off the busy human mind that lived alongside the hawk's simpler intelligence.

I closed my eyes . . . and when I opened them again, I was not in my tree.

I was in a room. In a house.

It was night, but I could see blue numbers glowing from an alarm clock.

And I could see

someone lying in a narrow, disheveled bed. There was a sleeping, tousled dirty-blond head lying on the pillow.

A cold chill swept through me.

I knew this room. This bed. I knew the person lying there, tossing and turning with sad dreams.

I fluttered to the nightstand. The noise of my wings woke the sleeper.

He blinked the sleep from his eyes and stared at me. "A bird?" he said.

"lt's just a dream," I told him. My heart was beating so fast I thought it would explode. But at the same time I felt a weird calm. Like I knew what was going to happen. Like it had all happened already.

Then I saw the calendar. It was a Star Trek calendar. I guess that's funny. The date was the day before I had walked through the construction site with Jake and Marco and Cassie and Rachel.

"A dream?" The sleeper sat up in his bed. He peered at me and I saw a troubled expression in his eyes. "I know you, don't I?"

"Kind of," I said. "And I know you. ... Tobias^

"How do you know my name?"

"l can't tell you that. But listen, Tobias, I . . ." What could I say?

What could I possibly say to my old self? I couldn't tell him everything would be all right. I didn't know that. I couldn't tell him what was about to happen to him. No sane person would believe it.

Besides, I had forgotten this dream. Hadn't I?

"Tobias," I said. "Walk home with Jake. Walk through the construction site."

"What?"

I just laughed a little sadly. Why had I told him to do that? Why had I sent him to the construction site? It was there that everything had begun. It was there that I had started down the path that led to my being trapped as a hawk.