Author's Note: This is a story I wrote off the following prompt:

PROMPT: (suggestion) Write a day in the life of Tobias in between when he disappears at the end of Book 1 & when he resurfaces to tell Jake that he's been trapped. His first realizations of his Nothlit status.

My name is Tobias. I am not a fighter.

The others had all chosen dangerous battle morphs. Jake was a tiger. Marco was a gorilla. Rachel was an elephant. All of them could do some serious damage.

Except me. I was a red-tailed hawk. "What kind of a morph is that?" Marco had asked. "You think you can take a Taxxon down by turning into a pigeon?"

I didn't say anything. I'd learned by now that if someone gives you a hard time, the best thing to do is nothing. Wait, and eventually they'll leave you alone.

Maybe that's why I hid after the battle.

I fought in the battle. I took down a Hork-Bajir and saved Cassie from infestation. No one could say I was worthless.

Except when it was time to escape. Instead of escaping up the stairs with everyone else, I hid. Behind one of the sheds, where no one would think to look.

I knew I should have morphed back, but my brain wasn't working. The battle was fresh in my mind. We had fought. I had killed. Killed. And yet we still had lost. The other battles--and I knew there would be others--will be the same way. Killing and losing until we died. It was all I could think about.

I don't know how much time I spent there, but I know how long it took.

Too long.