And these monstrous claws were all that stopped me from dropping to my death on the rocks below.

I was prey in the clutches of a flying predator. A bird, a beast—I couldn’t tell.

I heard myself make a strangled sound, half sob, half feverish laugh. We were gaining height, and through my streaming eyes I saw we were heading out to sea. I kicked out again in terror, I couldn’t help myself. My boot fell from my foot and spun through the air, hitting the rock below with a bounce. My skull would not bounce.

Stay bricky.

I gripped tight as jolts passed through the beast’s claws in time with the flap of its wings, which sounded like the snap and creak of a ship’s sails. We were now over the sea. If I was dropped, would I have some chance, or would the height make the sea as hard as rock?

A yelp was snatched from my mouth as my captor dived like an arrow, so fast all was a blur and the wind screeched in my ears … then the claws opened, and I was released.

Empty air was all that held me.

I tumbled head over foot, kicking and flailing at nothing, and hit the water so hard I thought the beast had dropped me on the rock after all, like a bird drops a mussel to break the shell. I never thought I would be pleased to be back in the sea, but when it washed around me, I felt a gush of relief. I kicked with all I had and swam to the surface, where I took in a lungful of water as a wave slapped me. I thanked the Lord over and over for the miracle that I was not yet dead.

Body aching, I struck out for shore and crawled onto the black rocks once again, coughing and sucking in heaving breaths before flipping to lie on my back among the uninterested iguanas so I could scan the sky for the beast. No sign. What was it? The wind had dropped to nothing and it had stopped raining, an island storm that ended as suddenly as it started. If only Mr. Darwin and I had waited it out on Albemarle …

I gazed up to see a huge mass hurtling toward me. The beast had returned. Silhouetted against the gray of the sky, I couldn’t make out any details, but its wings were as big as the Beagle’s sails and strangely angular. It was coming for me again. I scrambled to my feet, but it swooped too fast for me to even attempt to run. I saw that its head was shaped like no bird I had ever—

I was grasped once more in those impossible claws and plucked from the rocks. This time I did not hold still, but squirmed and kicked, yelling all the while. It dropped me quickly, from less of a height but farther out to sea.

The next time I crawled out of the sea, it didn’t even wait for me to drag myself ashore but snatched me right out from the breaking waves.