Sacred Freedom (Open for everyone)

[andy]

Andrea was talking a last look around her to make sure that there were no one coming in her direction before she walked down the last bit and turned around just to make sure that she was completely alone before she removed her clothes and was standing in her morphing outfit. A red bicycle shirt and a black bicycle shorts and made a picture in her head of the bald eagle, trying to remember every detail.

The sound her bones made when she turned into the shape of the eagle made her feel shaky and she hoped that would be so used to it that she didn't gave it a thought at all. it was also weird to feel how her teeth disappeared and her fingers melted together before they were cowered with feathers. She was happy none of the other animorphs was around just because she knew she looked gross when she changed but perhaps some training wold help her fix that bit.

Her brain was suddenly filled with the eagles instincts and soon she was in the air, soaring trough the sky with it's eyes fixated on the sea looking after fish it could eat. A movement sown in the blue sea made it dive down before it stretched out it's legs and captured a fish in it's talons and used it's wings to get up in the air again looking for a place to land.

Half way in the meal her human consciousness kicked in and the taste of raw fish filled her mouth, a part of her wanted to just spit it out but in the end the eagle won and she finished the meal. Did sushi taste like this? She had never tasted it and was not sure if she ever would. At least it was not a dead animal or something like that. Andrea shook her head and tried to forget the taste before she looked down on the sea from the place she had landed.

A good thing I'm not scared of heights.

She could feel the strength in the wings when they lifted her off the ground, it was amazing to look on the world trough the eagles eyes. Everything was sharper than normal and it was easier to see details that it would be hard or possible to see in human form. She swooped down and flied over the place where she had hid her things, close enough to see the wristwatch that she had put out just to prevent her being stuck in the shape if she crossed the time limit. That they had remember to tell her but not much more, she still had questions but was not sure who to ask. It didn't seem that the ones she had met knew much more about what was really going on than she did.

It was really tempting to just let the eagle take control so she could stop thinking and worrying for just a moment, it irritated her that she wasn't able to just let go of everything and just live life the way she wished. The wind lifted her higher up and she started to fly away from the sea. As long as she didn't flew to close to the ground she would be safe. The last thing she needed was crashing into something.

[naomi]

Naomi was just getting used to morphing and she was glad to just get out into the air and fly. Her Mullican cockatoo morph was working very well for her. <Woo-hoo! This is fun! Can not believe this.>

Naomi flapped her wings some more. <Though this morph is not built for this weather. Unfortunately, she's getting tired.> She flew next to Andrea absently. <The view is good.>

[andy]

Andrea jumped slightly when she suddenly heard a voice in her head, she was not used to the whole idea of they being able to speak mentally to each other when they were in animal form, she still had much to learn.

<Yeah. It's pretty cool. If a random person came and told me that i would do this I guess I would just have laughed at him.>

She had not been her long but she had already started to like Naomi. She was pretty cool and nice. Sure, the others were not that bad actually it was more herself that was the problem. The eagle turned it's head and looked at it's little friend.

<I can carry you if needed but not sure if it's going to get a panic attack or something if I try. If you want we can find some place to land. The view is amazing.>

She was curious about the difference between her eagle form and Naomi's cockatoo but she was unsure if she would seem stupid if she asked so she didn't.

<You think some of the others are going to show up or are everyone except us busy?>

[naomi]

Naomi flew on and said, <I think I'll be fine for a little longer and then we can land.> She would have smiled if she were human. <Thanks, Andy. For the offer.> The cockatoo seemed a little nervous when Andrea looked at her, but she held the fear down.

Flying forward, Naomi thought for a moment. <I'm not sure. I'm still getting used to...everything. I don't know who's on duty and who isn't. They might decide to come.> After a few minutes of flying, she said, <Why don't we land, and rest for a bit? This cockatoo is not liking me right now.>

Naomi swooped down and landed in a nearby tree. <Found a tree we could rest in, if we don't want to demorph yet. Though we should probably do that soon.>

[Nate]

<<Hey, no girls allowed in the treehouse!>> Came Nate's thought speech voice. He sat perched on an outer branch in his american kestrel morph, suddenly feeling quite small as he glanced over at the cockatoo, and feeling especially tiny compared to the the bald eagle still flying nearby.

<<Kidding,>> he added, almost as an afterthought. He let the kestrel instinctively keep a close eye on the surroundings, head barely flinching even as the branches swayed a little in the breeze. <<So what do you guys think about flying? Pretty freakin awesome huh?>>

[andy]

Andrea listened to what Naomi said, was she ever going to get used to this completely, she was still sure she on morning was going to wake up in her old place and discover that it all only had been a dream. That thought scared her and she tried her best not to think about it, was it something she would rather be without it was her old life.

<Yeah sound like a good idea. By the way, it's not like I don't like to fly around with you. I'm just curious to see what morphs the others have acquired by now. Since I'm the newbie and everything.>

She looked down on the ground to see if she could find a good spot to land, she was not sure if she would try landing on a branch just yet. With her luck she would just crash into the tree.

Just let the bird do it's stuff and everything will be fine. I hope.

It all started good but then her own fear kicked in and gave her a hard landing on the ground. At least there was a bush to soften her fall a little.

<I hate this. You really need to learn me how to land like that.>

After fighting with the bush for a little while she was able to get loose from it. Now her brain was clear enough that she understood that Nate also was around

<Flying is awesome yes but not the landing.>

She silently cursed her own stupidity while she demorfed. It had to be really weird for them to see this. But should she be able to fly again she had no other choice, the eagle had gotten hurt in the landing so she had a reason if any of them asked.

[Nate]

Nate would have visibly winced if he'd had a human face capable of such a thing. Instead, his kestrel morph continued to stare down intently. <<Ouch!! Oh man are you okay??>> He leapt off the branch and hovered for a second before fluttering down to ground level.

He wobbled a few steps toward her as she de-morphed. <<I did the same thing first time I tried out this morph. Don't think about it too much. The more you use the morph you'll learn when to let the animal take control and do it's thing for you. When you're relaxed, the landing is way easier. Actually, makes the flying a lot easier too.>>

When he noted she was okay and de-morphing fine, he lifted off again, flapping back up to a low branch on the tree. The kestrel felt much better having an aerial view of things instead of a ground view.

[naomi]

Naomi said to Andrea, <I understand. I like flying with you, too.> She heard Nate and laughed, <Ha, very funny.I should put that in my book of jokes.> She watched in horror as Andrea hit the ground. <Andy! Are you okay?>

Naomi breathed a sigh of relief. <Yeah, what Nate said.>

[andy]

Andrea grinned and gave both a thumb up just to show that she was ok before she morphed into the eagle again and managed to get up in the air and found a branch that looked safe enough to sit on.

<You two are a pretty couple you know.>

She used a joke just to lighten up the mood and to give her some time to think about what had just happened. She had never been used to anyone care about her and now had both of them done that. Of course it could just be because she was a part of they're team but what if... No she could just forget about it, if she bonded with any of them she would just get hurt. They would leave her in the end. The safest way was to keep them on a distance, for all of them.

[Nate]

<<But she has a better hairdo than me,>> Nate commented. <<I don't th-->>

He froze when the kestrel instincts went on hyper drive noticing something in the grass near the bottom of the tree. Before he could even process it, he was off the branch, flapping down, going into a dive, talons out...

The squirrel shrieked and it snapped Nate back to his senses immediately. He swore in his head. <<Still have to friggin master the hunger some of these animals have... jeez. That's the hardest part!>>

He glanced down at the squirming animal under his talons, and then had a thought. He started demorphing, making sure to keep a foot on the squirrel as he grew again, just hard enough to keep it from running away, but not hard enough to harm it. It skittered and scratched and bit his foot, causing him to nearly pull it away and let it run off, but he stopped his reaction to the sharp tiny pain in time and reached for it once he had his human hands back. He grabbed it gently but firmly, making sure it couldn't bite any of his fingers, and then concentrated, acquiring it's DNA.

"Ahhh there we go... I needed another good city spy morph that didn't involve being in the air or being a kid magnet dog..." he said once he was done. He turned the calmed down, now sleepy squirrel in his hands, double checking to make sure he hadn't harmed it (when he was a kid, he used to shoot squirrels with a bee bee gun. ...but once you've become another animal, you start to have a different perspective on the matter). Once he'd confirmed the squirrel was unharmed physically (it was probably just shaken up), he carried it a ways off, out of the way of the other birds' views and set it down. He wasn't worried about Naomi's cockatoo morph so much as he was Andy's Bald Eagle. If the squirrel had been enough of a draw for his smaller Kestrel morph, it would have been an even easier catch for an eagle. "There you go, fuzzball. Run off before one of us tries to eat you again!"

He quickly started to morph back to the american kestrel.

[naomi]

If Naomi were human, she would have blushed at Andrea's comment. <I'm a big pet bird; he's a small wild bird. I guess it works.> Though her feathers puffed out around her head, to make her appear larger when Nate went flying off. She screeched and flew off the branch.

<Goodness me, Nate. You scared me half to death!> She landed on the ground and started to demorph. After she was done, she stood next to Nate and turned to Andrea. "Maybe you should demorph; just so we have enough time to fly back."

[Nate]

((Guess Andrea's not coming back... ))


<<Good idea,>> Nate agreed, shaking a bit, getting used to his feathers again. <<Maybe we should head back soon. The others will be wondering where we went if we don't.>>

He glanced around at their surroundings, thinking for a moment. <<Then again... there is a lot more to discover around here. Maybe we should all take one more spin around the forest?>>