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TOO LATE, JAZZ realized she could have avoided the deep plunge into the frigid swirling stream She could have hovered before she broke water

However, suddenly she found herself caught up in a human moment

As the rushing strea about She hit a few s river took her downstream

The current was strong, and she was tean to ebb and she felt the current’s pull lighten up, she realized she could jump shift out of the river and find some dry land

She swaain her senses and saw a grassy slope up ahead With so of an effort, she jump shifted, landed on her butt, and stayed there as she recovered from the experience

She knew that she had, somewhere in her new mind, the skill to blink her clothes and shoes dry, but just as she tried concentrating on this, soht her attention

She cocked her head as she watched the water in the in to part “Huh,” she said out loud

She froze in place for a fraction of athat looked much like a prehistoric creature rise partially out of the river Then she saw the little arms and then the talons—it was an oversized prehistoric raptor!

Its pin-like eyes took a sweeping gaze of the surroundings Those eyes were cold, and suddenly its gaze was directly on her It was as though it sh she could hear its tiny brain say ‘food’, just as she watched it take a flying leap

It was no more than ten feet from her

She didn’t wait for more; she jump shifted

However, in her panic, she did not calculate where she was ju to, and she hit a tree with a force that left her on her butt

At her back, she could hear its thunderous cluain It still cah away!

Okay, she told herself, hover—hover high!

She was pleased with herself when she accomplished this and found that she ell out of its reach Then a swooshing sound through the tree tops caught her attention

The next thing she knew, she was dangling in the air, flying, held in the talons of what looked like a prehistoric and a hairless vulture the size of a Cessna plane!

“So not good,” she told no one in particular