The Power of Hope

Insider's Look

Once Delilah changed back into a bird, she left Christen's house and headed north, to Toronto, Canada. "Fitting," she thought, "for the next master of water to live near Niagara Falls. Very fitting indeed." She remembered that the girl she was going to see next, Kayla Strayer, was a very logical, clever, level headed person. "I should probably give her a more gentle approach, so she won't think she's out of her mind," Delilah thought.
Sudenly, a crow flew over Delilah, barely missing her head. She looked up and saw that it had a razor sharp beak and huge sharp claws. "No, it's not a crow," she thought as realization came to her. It was her nemesis Jase Stole. Then, as if on cue, the crow tilted into a dive, straight at Delilah.
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As Stole pulled up he thought to himself, "This one's going to be hard." He tilted into a shallow dive, ready to pull up. The sparrow he thought to be Delilah Embers stopped. He swerved to the right and clipped Embers on the shoulder, but she dodged out of the way so he couldn't do much damage. Embers tried to fly away but Stole was too fast. He dove under the pink-striped sparrow until he was about two and a half feet below her, hoping to catch her by surprise. He tilted upward, but, unfortunately for him, Embers swerved left. In his attempt to catch up with her, he was going to fast to change direction. Embers bit hard him on the wing (because birds don't have any teeth, it was more like a pinch) and twisted, breaking his bone. Pain surged up his wing and into his stomach. He felt like throwing up, so he stopped flapping and fell. Embers started to follow, but apparently thought better of it, for she turned around and headed north. Stole then shimmered olive green and lit up, shining brightly to conceal the transformation. Now human, Stole couldn't feel the pain of his broken wing. (Injuries in animal form stay in animal form. When he was in human form, he didn't have a broken wing, or any broken bone. He would still remember it, though.) He then pulled a leather pouch out of his suite pocket, while he was still falling, and opened it. Just then, the wind shifted and blew him to the right, as if he was gliding to the ground. Once on the ground, his phone rang and the following conversation occurred:

"Did you succeed?"

"No, but she was heading North, to the the next Master of water, no doubt."

"We already suspected that. You failed your mission."

"I confirmed your suspicions, so this mission wasn't a total failure."

"(grunt) Fly back to HQ."

"I can't, Embers broke my left wing."

"You were never a good flyer, Jase Stole. You better get back, fast, or the boss will be mad."

"Ok, but how-"

He was cut off. Even though stole knew Nate O'Brian, the boss' right hand man, loved to have the last word, it still ticked him off. The real question is how does he get back to HQ. A smile, a terrifying smile, curled his lips up. "I know exactly what to do." he thought to himself.