Strike!

My talons raked Visser Three's exposed stalk eyes from behind.

"ARRRRRHHHH!" Visser Three bellowed in pain.

"Now, RUN!" I told the Hork-Bajir.

BLAM! BLAM! BLAM! The shotguns fired.

And we were out of there! Out! Of! There!

The Hork-Bajir bolted. I flapped like my life depended on it. It did.

The Swainson's hawk turned so hard, so fast, I thought he'd been hit.

But then he was hauling his tail feathers outta there, too.

"Andalite filth!" I heard Visser Three scream in my head.

But by then I was out over the trees and the Hork-Bajir was running flat-out below me, and I was just screaming like an idiot from the sheer insane rush of it all.

"Yesss! Yesss! Bird-boy shoots, he scores! Yah-HAH!"

lara Hamee and Ket Halpak were reunited in the shelter of the cave.

We were all exhausted and scared and confused. But we also had that slightly lunatic rush that comes from cheating death.

Marco and Cassie were both fretting about being late getting home. And everyone was getting close to the two-hour morphing limit. But despite all that, it was kind of sweet seeing the two Hork-Bajir together.

They didn't exactly hug. I guess hugging doesn't work all that well when you have blades all over. Ket Halpak did touch the healing wound Jara Hamee had made in his own head.

"Look, we have to get out of here," Rachel

said. She was still in her Hork-Bajir form. "l'll be grounded for the weekend if I don't get home. And I have the feeling we're going to be busy this weekend, so I can't get grounded."

"Your mom wouldn't ground a Packard Foundation Outstanding Student, would she?" I asked.

There was a kind of embarrassed silence. I wasn't supposed to know about Rachel's award.

"lt's not that big a deal," Rachel said. She looked down at the ground.

"What do we do about these guys?" Jake asked. He was still in tiger morph. There were scratches and cuts on his sinuous orange-and-black fur. While I was off rescuing Ket Halpak, there had been a skirmish between the rest of my friends and some Controllers.

No one had been hurt. But once again, I wasn't there when the real fighting started.

"You guys go on home," I told the others. "l'll keep watch over our Hork-Bajir friends here."

"You can't keep watch all night," Rachel protested.

"Hey, I have nothing else to do. I'll take a perch in the tree by the cave entrance. Not a problems

"l will help keep watch, too," Ax chimed in.

"let's, um, go outside and talk about this,"

Jake said. To the Hork-Bajir he said, "Jara and Ket? You have to stay in this cave till we come and get you. Tomorrow some time."

"What will you do with Ket Halpak and Jara Hamee?" Jara asked.

"We really don't know yet," Jake answered honestly.

"We will wait. Here."

"We fellana ... we thank you," Ket said.

Outside it had definitely turned dark now. No stars in the sky yet, but it was just a matter of minutes. Everyone demorphed while Ax and I kept a nervous watch.

"Okay, so what do we do about this?" Jake asked, once everyone but me was normal again.

I kept pace with the others by flitting from branch to branch. I'd let them walk a little way ahead, then fly a few yards ahead of them and wait till they caught up.

"We have two real live aliens," Rachel said. "We could take them to the media. How can you deny there is a Yeerk conspiracy when you see those two?"

"There is already a real, live alien among you," Ax pointed out. "Me.

But I have learned about human society. Humans invent all sorts of things that are not true. I have seen photographs of aliens in human newspapers. Do most people believe them?"

"Those aren't real newspapers," Marco said. "No one with half a brain believes those supermarket tabloids."

"And how do we know which newspapers and which TV networks are already infiltrated by the Yeerks?" Cassie said. "We could end up handing the Hork-Bajir right back to the Yeerks."

"Well, what exactly are we supposed to do with Romeo and Juliet back there?" Marco asked sarcastically. "Rent them an apartment? Buy them a house? Get them jobs? I mean, they are just slightly obvious. You know?

People are probably going to notice them if they start shopping at the mall."

We all laughed. But it was a brief laugh. The truth is, we didn't know what to do.

"Those two may be the only free Hork-Bajir in all the galaxy," Ax said.

"The only two free Hork-Bajir in existences

"Like members of an endangered species," Cassie said thoughtfully. "The last two free Hork-Bajir. Maybe the last hope of their kind."

"Oh, man," Marco groaned. "Cassie, don't start in with the ecology stuff, okay? Those are not a pair of spotted owls or humpback whales back there."

"l must stop here," Ax said. "We are close to the edge of the forest." Everyone stopped. Even though they all were

real anxious to get home to be yelled at by their various parents, no one left.

"What Cassie said may be true," Jake pointed out. "These two are an endangered species. What do you do with an endangered species?"

Cassie shrugged. "You find them a safe, protected environment. And then you hope they have lots of little Hork-Bajir, and somehow the species survives."

"Dm, hello. This is Earth," Marcosaid. "There is no safe place for an alien that looks like a mix of gargoyle and a lawn mower."

"Yes, there is," I said.

Four human heads and one Andalite set of eyes all turned to stare up at me.

"Where?" Rachel asked.

"l know a place. Way up in the mountains. A valley. There are caves and fresh water streams. It's hidden."