The Visitor (14 page)

ANIMORPHS
^TM
#03

THE
ENCOUNTER

T
hen I saw her.

I know to human eyes, every hawk looks pretty much alike. But I knew right away it was her—the hawk I had freed from the car dealer.

She, too, was riding the thermal, a thousand yards higher than me. Without even really thinking about it, I adjusted the angle of my wings and soared up toward her.

She saw me, I was sure of that. Hawks don’t miss much of what goes on around them. She knew I was coming toward her, and she waited.

It wasn’t like we were friends. Hawks don’t know what
friend
means. And she certainly did not feel any gratitude toward me for saving her from captivity. Hawks don’t have that sort of emotion, either. In fact, in her mind there may have been no connection between me and her freedom.

Still, I soared up to her. I don’t know why. I really don’t. All we shared was the same outer body. We both had wings. We both had talons. We both had feathers.

Suddenly I was afraid. I was afraid of her. And it was insane, because there I was, floating above an alien spaceship so big it could have been turned into a mall.

But it was the hawk that frightened me.

Or maybe not the hawk herself. Maybe it was the feeling I had, rising up to meet her in the sky.

The feeling of recognition. The feeling of going home. The feeling that I belonged with her.

It hit me in a wave of disgust and horror.

No. NO!

I was Tobias. A human. A human being, not a bird!

I banked sharply away from her.

I was
human
. I was a boy named Tobias. A boy with blond hair that was always a mess. A boy with human friends. Human interests.

But part of me kept saying, “It’s a lie. It’s a lie. You are the hawk. The hawk is you. And Tobias is dead.”

I plummeted toward the ground. I folded my wings back and welcomed the sheer speed. Faster! Faster!

Then, with eyes that Tobias never had, I saw the wolf pack below. And I saw the danger before them.

My four friends stood stock still. They were staring with deadly focus at five other wolves.

The two packs had run into each other. Between them lay a dead rabbit. It was the other pack’s kill. My friends had stumbled into them. Now the two alpha males were locked in a deadly dominance battle. One of those alpha males was Jake. The other was an actual wolf. Jake had human intelligence on his side. But if it came to a fight, the other wolf had more experience. He hadn’t gotten to be the head wolf in his pack by losing fights.

I would have laughed if I could. It was ridiculous! But at least it took my mind off the female hawk. Off the feeling that drew me to her, that called out to me, even while Yeerk ships zipped in a deadly dance through the air.

Then it hit me with a shock: The time! They’d been low on time when they’d left the shore and started back. How much time had elapsed?

I swooped down low. I demanded.

Jake snapped tersely.

what?
> I yelled. boss
wolf. You guys are way low on time!>

Cassie said.

Suddenly the other big male snarled and took a step forward. Instantly Jake bared his teeth still further and stood his ground.

The dead rabbit lay between them, only a few feet from the vicious teeth on either side. I said. No answer. Everyone was so tense they were quivering. At any second this would explode into all-out gang warfare of the wolf variety.

I knew what I should do. But it went against every instinct in the hawk’s brain.

And Tobias the human wasn’t exactly thrilled, either.

I flapped up to gain a little height. I would need the speed. Then I locked my eyes on that rabbit and prayed that I was as fast as I thought I was.

Down I shot. My talons came forward.

“Tseeeeer!”
I screamed.

Zoom!

A wolf on each side.

A dead rabbit.

Thwack!
My talons hit the dead animal and snatched at the fur.

I flapped once, twice. The rabbit came off the ground.

The big wolf lunged. I could feel his teeth rake my tail.

I flapped for all I was worth, scooting along the ground, half-carrying, half-dragging the dead rabbit, with the wolf racing just inches behind me.

Rachel cried.

I yelled.

Fortunately, when he isn’t being an idiot wolf, Jake is quick and decisive.

I dropped the rabbit just as the wolf caught up to me.

SNAP!

Jaws that could kill a moose scissored the air a tenth of an inch from me. I’m telling you, he was close enough for me to count his molars.

I felt the tiniest bit of a breeze. It was enough. I opened my wings and let the breeze lift me up and away.

I said.

I said. Tail feathers grow back.

I caught up with the others. They were moving as fast as wolves can move. Time was running short. I didn’t know exactly how much time. It was one of the continuing problems of morphing. Even if you
could
wear a watch, you wouldn’t want to. A wolf or a hawk with a watch looks slightly suspicious.

I said. I was tired. Very tired, after the long flight here and not one but two close calls involving wolves. The hawk in me just wanted to find a nice branch with a view of an open field and take a rest. But I knew I couldn’t.

I gained a little altitude, not too much. Just enough to spot one of the Park Service trucks. The Controllers were off somewhere, but there was a clock in the dashboard.

I stared at the number in disbelief.

It had to be wrong! It had to be!

I wasn’t tired anymore.

At top speed, I raced back to my friends. I felt sick. I felt like my heart was going to burst.

They had missed the deadline! It was too late. Too late, and they would all be trapped. Like me. Forever.

I screamed as I closed in on them.

Thought-speak is like regular speech. It gets harder to hear the farther away you are.

Maybe the clock in the truck was off. Maybe five minutes one way or the other wouldn’t matter.

There! I saw them. Four wolves moving relentlessly toward the distant city.

I screamed as I shot like a bullet over their heads.

Marco demanded.

That got them going. I landed, exhausted, on a branch.

Cassie was the first to begin the change. Her fur grew short. Her snout flattened into a nose. Long human legs swelled and burst from the thin dog legs.

Her tail sucked back in and disappeared. She was already more than half human by the time the first changes began to appear on the others.

I urged them.

Jake demanded.

I said. It was a lie. According to the clock, they were already seven minutes too late.

Too late.

And yet Cassie was continuing to emerge from her wolf body. Skin was replacing fur. Her leotard covered her legs.

But the others were not so lucky.

I heard Rachel cry in my mind. Her morph was going all wrong. Her human hands appeared at the end of her wolf legs. But nothing else seemed to be changing.

I looked, horrified, at Marco. His normal head emerged with startling suddenness from his wolf body. But the rest of him had not changed. He looked down at himself and cried out in terror. “Helowl. Yipmeahhh!” It was an awful sound, half human, half wolf.

This was worse than I had feared. I figured they could be trapped as wolves, like I had been trapped as a hawk. But they were emerging as half-human freaks of nature.

They were living nightmares.

ANIMORPHS
^TM

THE INVASION
THE VISITOR
THE ENCOUNTER
THE MESSAGE