“I’m glad we’ve got Cat with us,” he declared, sitting next to Chalk as they ate their dinner. “I think she’s pretty good at seeing the things we need to avoid. She’s got good eyes, good instincts.” He paused. “I like her a lot better now than I did at first.”

Chalk glanced up at him. “She’s a Freak.”

“Well, she’s our Freak. Anyway, I don’t care what she is. You notice Panther doesn’t seem to care anymore, either, for all his big talk. He’s with her all the time now. Like she’s his girlfriend or something.”

Chalk grimaced. “Not while I’m eating, please.”

They were sitting apart from the others, something they often did. They were comfortable by themselves, sharing conversations that belonged just to them. No one bothered them when they separated themselves like this, either because they all knew that was the way the two liked it or because they didn’t care anyway or some of both.

Chalk finished his meal and hunched down, pulling his knees up against his chest and hugging them. His pale skin looked even paler, reflecting starlight against the night’s deep blackness. “I wish we were back in the city. Back in our home. I don’t like it out here.”

“You’d like it less back in Seattle just about now,” Fixit declared drily.

“Sure, I know that. But I felt better in the city, in the home we built for ourselves. I felt safer.”

Fixit nodded. He didn’t feel particularly safe out here, either. He didn’t like change. He liked things to stay the way they were, and now nothing was the same.

“At least Hawk’s back with us,” he said.

“Hawk’s not Hawk anymore.”

Fixit stared at him. “Sure he is. What are you talking about?”

“Haven’t you been paying attention? Hawk’s changed. He’s not like us anymore. He’s some sort of fairy creature or something now. He’s the savior of mankind. He fell off a wall and nothing happened to him. He was taken to some gardens in a ball of light and brought back again. He touches dying people and animals and makes them well again. How’s that like the Hawk we knew?”

Fixit scowled. “Sometimes you sound like your brain isn’t working.”

Chalk shrugged. “Look in a mirror if you want to see what’s not working.”