And if you've ever looked at hawk talons, you know they are weapons as much as they are feet. Hawks hunt with their talons, not their beaks.

Jake and I saw Tobias circling high overhead. He was hesitating.

"Might as well get it over with," I called up cheerfully. I was still kind of powered up from the stunt on the roller coaster.

"Fine," Tobias said grimly.

He wheeled, spilled the air from his wings, and down he came. Down like a bullet.

Now, I should mention that this was a Saturday. It was early still, so the place wasn't full, but there were plenty of people around. The dolphin pool was ringed with people in the bleachers and pressed up close to the pool.

But no one was watching the sky. Except for one little kid. One little kid, who pointed upward and in a clear voice that somehow penetrated above all the background noise said, "Mommy! That bird is going to hurt the dolphins!"

"Tseeeeeer!" Tobias screamed in his best red-tailed way.

"Um ... is this stupid?" Cassie asked, way too late.

One of the dolphins shot up out of the water, clear up and out. And Tobias went for him.

"Ooooh!" the crowd gasped.

And Tobias struck. Like he was going after a mouse. Only this was a really big mouse.

Talons raked forward, wings flared to act as air brakes, Tobias struck.

And then, he stuck.

Talons sank into smooth, rubbery dolphin flesh while the dolphin was still arcing through the air. It was a weird aerial ballet: the huge dolphin and the tiny hawk, colliding ten feet

above the water. It would have been beautiful if it hadn't been insane.

"Aaaahhhh!" the crowd murmured.

Down went the dolphin.

"0h, man, I'm stuck!" Tobias cried. "My left talon is -" And then he stopped thought-speaking because the dolphin had fallen back into the water. And Tobias had gone with him.

Pah-LOOOSH!

A huge splash. And now the crowd was on its feet.

"Whoa!"

"Is that part of the show?" someone said.

"No way. Look at the dolphin trainers. They're going nuts!"

This was true. The trainers were going ape. They were racing around the pool trying to get the dolphin's attention, hoping to get it to pull over and let them grab the lunatic bird.

But dolphins like to play. And this was a whole new cool game. I guess Tobias wasn't hurting the dolphin, because the dolphin just grinned his perpetual grin and went tearing through the water.

Up. Down. Up. Down. Flying high, crashing deep. And all the while Tobias kept yelling.

"Aaaahhhh! He's gonna drown me!"

We all yelled helpful advice.

"Hold your breath!"

"Gee, really?! Do you think?! Hold my breath?!" Tobias managed to respond.

"He must be okay," I said. "He's still capable of being sarcastic."

"Let go!" Ax advised.

"Why didn't I think of that?" Tobias answered. "Ahhhh!"

"Start acquiring him!" Rachel said. "lt will put him in a trance."

"l am acquiring him," Tobias said. "Guess what? He's not in a trance.

Ahhhhh!"

"l'm going to help," I said.

"How?" Jake asked.

"Kamikaze!"

I aimed for where I thought Tobias would surface next. I spilled air from my wings, trimmed my tail, and dived.

Suddenly, the dolphin leaped clear of the water. He leaped, in fact, straight toward a hoop that was suspended over the water. It was easy to see that the dolphin would glide effortlessly through the circle. And it was just as easy to see that the hawk on his back would not fit.

"0h. No," Tobias said matter-of-factly.

I rocketed down, a white blur. Tobias was a target, swooping through the air on the back of

the dolphin. I made a last-second adjustment with my tail and . . .

BONK! I hit Tobias hard, knocking him clear of the dolphin. The dolphin shot through the hoop.

"0w!" Tobias yelled.

"0w, yourself, I just saved your life," I said.

Tobias flapped his sodden wings and labored for altitude. "Thanks. Next time find a way to save me that doesn't involve breaking any bones." We flew from The Gardens out toward the ocean. Everyone was in a pretty good mood, with the possible exception of Tobias.

"The dolphin looked okay," Cassie said. "Very superficial cuts. The vets will put some salve on him and give him a preventive antibiotic, I suppose, just to be careful."

"Well, as long as the dolphin is okay," Tobias said. "Because I really, really hope the dolphin is okay."

"Are you going to be sarcastic the rest of the day?" I asked him.

"Yes. I am going to be sarcastic the rest of the day. I nearly drowned.

Now I'm going to go

become the thing that nearly drowned me. I will be sarcastic until further notice."

I guess it's dumb, but, once again, I was kind of glad Tobias was in a bad mood. It distracted me from my own thoughts. If I could keep busy teasing Tobias, I didn't have to think about the fact that I was flying closer to where my mother was.

"You know," I said thoughtfully, "that could be a regular act at The Gardens. Hawk and dolphin. Kind of a dolphin rodeo, if you really think about it."

"Hey, Marco? You need to remember that you're just a lowly seagull right now, which is practically a pigeon, and I'm a hawk," Tobias said. "You want to keep grinding my nerves, I'll be glad to show you the difference when it comes to aerial combat."

"Dolphin rodeo. I'm just saying it has possibilities^

We flew across the beach and the surfline and out over sparkling blue water. It was a warm day and the water was calm. We weren't getting the kind of big, plump thermals Tobias liked for flying, but we weren't dealing with totally dead air, either.