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?"
I breathed a huge sigh of relief. It was Jake.
"0h, man, am I glad to hear your voice, Jake," I said. "The woods are full of Taxxons and Hork-Bajir and human-Controllers and anything else the Yeerks can throw at us."
Not to mention hungry bobcats, I added silently.
"Yeah, we noticed," Jake said. "They almost marched right into a couple of guys out fishing in one of the streams. We managed to scare the fishermen off, or they'd be Taxxon meat now."
"We? The others are with you?" I searched the sky. Yes. A bald eagle. An osprey. "l see Rachel and either Cassie or Marco," I said.
"Ax is on the ground. Marco is around somewhere. Oh, there! Above you!" I looked up just in time to see an osprey come ripping down through a wisp of low clouds in a stoop.
"Yee-hah! Tobias!" Marco yelled giddily. "Gotcha!"
"This is so not the time to be messing with me!" I yelled. "l was about one feather away from being kitty food. And I'm hungry and I'm tired and I'm mad."
"Chill, Tobias," Jake said kindly. "You can relax. We're all here to help you now."
I heard Cassie's thought-speak voice coming from fairly far away.
"Tobias, we've been thinking. You know how you seem to keep ending up in just the right place at just the right time?"
"0r just the wrong place, depending on how you look at it," I muttered.
"We're thinking maybe there is some
other. . . power. Some force. Some person interfering with you. Kind of manipulating you."
If it had been anyone but Cassie, I would have probably said something sarcastic. Like "No, duh." But it's impossible to be sarcastic to Cassie. "Yeah, it definitely is someone messing with me," I said. "An old friend of ours."
"Who?"
"it seems the Ellimist is trying to save the Hork-Bajir. Not that he'll admit that"
"Hmm. Ax was right," Cassie said. "He guessed it was the Ellimist." Rachel was close enough now to communicate. "Yeah, and you know how Ax feels about that guy. Or creature. Or whatever the Ellimist is. Ax says to watch your butt. The Ellimist plays games with people."
I thought of the Ellimist's promise to me. To give me what I most wanted. But when I recalled the conversation, I couldn't exactly remember an actual promise.
I felt a chill in my bones. Had the Ellimist really promised to make me human again?
"Are you okay, Tobias?" Rachel asked. I could tell from her tone that it was a private message. Only I could hear it.