Tales Of The Sazi 05 - Moon's Fury by C.t. Adams . Cathy Clamp Page B

of a spiky agerita bush so she could check them out later.
    Losing the tail feathers in the gusting wind was enough to throw the owl off balance, but now it knew it was being pursued and put extra effort into gaining altitude. A hard flap made it and the screaming girl rise by a dozen feet, and there was no way Will could get back in time. Looking around, she saw one hope. It was tricky and Adam or Will might wind up scraping her off the cliff later, but it was all there was time for. She turned around and raced back the way she came, nearly running into Adam as he arrived.
    "Cara, wha—”
    She spun around and got her bearings and then ran back toward the cliff, throwing an answer over her shoulder. "No time to explain. But be ready when I bring down the bird!”
    She was pleased he didn't ask any more questions. He just nodded and followed her. The girl was doing her best to pry open the owl's talons, using pressure points near the center of the foot as she might do to a chicken. And it was working—the bird almost let go and had to readjust its grip in mid-flight…giving Cara the split second she needed.
    Pushing herself to run faster than she had in years, she streaked toward an old, weathered mesquite tree, growing from the ground at the angle of the constant winds near the bluff. She clawed her way up the trunk of the tree, forcing her way through the spiked branches, which ripped into her skin with brute force. The tip of the tree loomed before the bird was in position. But like a motorcycle on a ramp she couldn't stop. She jumped forward the last few feet, landing hard on the branch. It bowed under her weight and then, as she'd hoped, sprung up again like a diving board at the pool. Digging her feet into open air, she hurtled forward, searching for the bird. It took every ounce of her concentration to ignore the fast approaching cliff face, but it was worth the effort. The owl was too busy trying to rise away from Adam's powerful leaps from below to notice her attack from the air. She slammed into the bird with enough force to send all three of them careening toward the rock wall.
    "Catch the girl!" She screamed the words without seeing if Adam was in a position to do so, but she prayed he was. While a five-story drop might shatter her bones or the owl's, they would heal. It could easily kill the human. She tumbled through the air, clinging to the back of the bird with teeth and claws, trying desperately to avoid the owl's snapping beak and powerful wings as it tried to unseat her. Her stomach lurched as they abruptly dropped toward the ground and it took her a moment to realize that Adam was standing on a tall rock, only his back legs still touching. He'd managed to grab hold of one of the gloves on the bird's talons with his teeth. He was pulling with all his might, steadily dragging them toward the ground, while trying to avoid injuring the girl held in the other talon. But the owl wasn't to be denied that easily. It relaxed both feet and the gloves dropped off, causing Adam and the girl to tumble off the boulder to the ground.
    Cara bit at the owl in a frenzy, but couldn't get through the thick layer of feathers to do any serious damage to the huge Sazi bird. And then they started to rise again. Without the extra weight of the girl, she realized it would be child's play for the owl to fly up and scrape her off against an overhang. Apparently, Adam thought of the same thing. "Jump! It's going to slam you into the cliff.”
    She wished it could have been a graceful, intentional leap, but she didn't know how. Her gymnastics coach had never anticipated a need for her to dismount an owl while in wolf form. All she could do was let go and allow gravity to take over. She slid off the bird's back and tumbled once before getting her bearings again. Adam leaped out of the way, and they both winced in unison when she hit the rock and the shock crumpled one leg with an audible snap.
    A fast-moving shadow and a whoosh of air