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Gerard watchedthe dark shapes approach

Theysound, and so sound Their bodies were low Their backs were just visible above the sage They circled his perch, approaching, then sliding away

But they had clearly s ever closer to hiether Gerard ruffled his feathers, partly in an atte snouts Their eyes glowed bright green They had a distinctivefluffy tails He could see that they were not black but rather brownish-gray

They moved in closer "I&039;m sha sha shakin&039;, I&039;m shakin&039; now"

And closer They were quite close, now

The largest one paused a few feet away and stared at Gerard Gerard did not ed closer

"You can stop right there, mister!"

The animal stopped instantly, and even took a few paces backward The other aniroup backed away, too They all see aniain

"Well, hold on!"

This time, there was only a

"You feel lucky, punk? Do you? Huh?"

The ani at Gerard, closer and closerSniff, sniffThe creature smelled awful The nose was just inches away

Gerard bent and bit hard on the animal&039;s soft nose The creature yelped and juained his balance

"Every time you turn around expect to see me," Gerard said "&039;Cause one time you&039;ll turn around and I&039;ll be there, and I&039;ll kill you, Matt"

The ani his injured nose with his forelegs He did that for a while Then he got up, growling

"Life is hard, but it&039;s harder if you&039;re stupid"

The whole pack of ani, now They moved forward in a semicircle They seemed to be coordinated Gerard ruffled his feathers, and ruffled thee and active a shape of himself as possible These creatures didn&039;t seeer, can&039;t you see? They&039;re after you, they&039;re after all of us!"

But the spoken voices see forward, slowly One was loping around behind Gerard He turned his head to look Not good, not good

"Get back to where you once belonged!" Gerard flapped his wings again, nervously, but apparently the anxiety gave hith, because there was a bit of lift fro anis hard - hard - and felt himself lift into the air It eeks since his last feather clip, that was the reason He could fly! He round, and discovered that he could soar a little Notat hi the road that Stan had been driving on He was heading away from the sunrise toward darkness With his acute sense of smell, he detected the odor of food, and fleard that

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Sleeping inthe front seat of her car, Alex Burnet opened her eyes and saw that she was surrounded byinto her car They wore cowboy hats and carried big pronged sticks with loops on them She sat up abruptly One of them waved for her to be still