flapping my wings and stretching my cramped muscles.

I would miss this when I became human again. Would the Ellimist give me back my human body and let me keep the morphing power? I hoped so. I'd hate to think I would never fly again.

Below me I spotted an opening. Not even a meadow, really, just a small clearing with tall grass and fallen logs and the telltale burrow openings of rats and voles and other tasty morsels.

But I had to be careful. This clearing probably belonged to someone.

Another hawk, possibly. Not to mention other species.

I had to get in and out fast. Get in, make my kill, and bail.

I swept the ground with my laser-sharp eyes, looking for the tiny movements that would betray a mouse or a rat. Sometimes, when the light is just right and the hunger is sharp, it's almost like I can see right through the ground. Like I can see the mice in their warm burrows.

Maybe that's why I didn't see the danger. Maybe it was because I was totally focused on eating.

I did spot a rat, though. A nice, plump thing, waddling along toward his own breakfast. I dived from up high.

Then I hit a sudden air pocket! It threw me off-balance and I nearly splattered myself into the dirt. I yanked back just in time and lost my rat.

"0h, man!" I complained. "Whatever happened to the good old days, when breakfast was a nice easy bowl of Wheaties?"

Well, it would be that way again soon. As soon as the Ellimist kept his promise to me. A warm bed at night and a nice, easy breakfast in the morning.

Not that that's how it had been when I was human. I hadn't exactly been in a nice, normal family. See, both my folks left a long time ago. After that I just got passed around from one aunt or uncle to another.

When I was stuck in morph and disappeared from the human world, I don't even know if any of them looked for me.

I shoved those thoughts aside. I flapped my wings, ready for takeoff.

But I just cleared the tops of the tall grasses when -

WHAM!

I was hit! It was like someone had thrown a brick at me. I was down, fluttering in the grass, beating my wings in terror.

What hit me? What the ... what the heck was happening?

And only then did I see it poking through the

grass - an intelligent, curious face, tawny fur, four big paws, and a body that might have been three feet long from its nose to the end of the weirdly curved, short tail that gave the beast its name.

Bobcat!

The wind had been knocked out of me, and I practically fell apart when I saw the big cat.

It circled around me, watching me curiously. Wondering if I would fight back. Calm brown and gold eyes surveyed me as I would survey a wounded rat.

The hawk in me wanted to flap its wings and try to scare the cat away.

But the human in me knew I'd have only one chance. I was fast, but the bobcat was like lightning. And it was powerful. It had hit me with one big paw and knocked me silly. A blow that was so graceful it had almost seemed to be slow motion. And yet it was so fast I hadn't had a chance to even think about dodging.

How had I been so careless? How could I have missed a bobcat in the bushes? Now I was going to die because of my carelessness.

I stood on my talons, awkward and helpless on the ground. But as I stood my ground, I closed one talon around a stick. It was a bare twig really, no more than two feet long.

I stared hard at the bobcat. It could already

taste hawk meat. If I moved, it would lunge. If I didn't move, it would still lunge.

One chance . . . one small, desperate chance. I had to hit its eyes before it could sink its teeth into me.

The hawk in my head screamed Fly! Fly! Fly!

But the human in me said no. The hawk couldn't win this fight. Only the human could. I clutched the stick tightly.

Lunge! The bobcat flew at me.

I jerked back, bringing the stick up off the ground.

"Yowwwrrr!" the bobcat howled as the sharp stick poked his left eye.

"0kay, now we can fly!" I flapped and I motored my little taloned feet along the ground and I hauled like I've never hauled before.

But the cat was after me. One step. Two steps, and it had caught up with me! Then it stopped. It turned. I saw it stare. I saw its back fur rise in alarm.

Over the bobcat loomed a shape as big around as a redwood tree. Three rows of tiny, weak claws snapped and clawed at the air. The gigantic centipede head drew back, and I could see two of the red-jelly eye clusters.

Taxxon!

Down came the round red mouth!

Down on the bobcat! And the Taxxon swallowed the cat in a single bite before the shocked animal could figure out what to do.

I was already flapping my way clear of the ground. Thorns and twigs and raspy grass ripped at me, pulling out feathers, but I didn't care about a few feathers right then.

I found a breeze and I thanked Mother Nature for giving me wings. I shot up and up and up till I was at treetop level. Only then did I even look back.

They were crawling across the clearing and through the trees. A dozen of them. Taxxons! Out in daylight. Out where some unlucky hiker could see them.

It was insane! Totally insane!

Behind the Taxxon trackers marched a virtual army of Hork-Bajir warriors. And with the Hork-Bajir were dozens of human-Controllers, all armed to the teeth.

It hit me then with full force. The Yeerks didn't care about being careful. The Yeerks were going to capture the two fugitive Hork-Bajir.

No matter the cost. No matter who died.

It was pure Yeerk ruthlessness unleashed.

This was an army. An entire army against me and two decent, simple, and not-very-bright Hork-Bajir.

And I still hadn't had breakfast.

X was shaking pretty badly by the time I got back up into the blue.

And then the first thing I saw was a peregrine falcon riding high.

Peregrines won't usually mess with hawks, but I wasn't exactly feeling cocky right at that moment. I didn't need any more trouble. I just wanted to get back to my two Hork-Bajir and get us all out of there.

"Tobias? Is that you down there, by any chance?"