...My name is Tobias. That's my name. But names don't really tell you much, do they?...You'd think that my telling you my name is Tobias would at least tell you that I'm human, wouldn't you?...I was human once. I was born a human. There are human characteristics within me. And I can become a human for two hours at a time. But I am not human...

...I am a red-tailed hawk. A very common species of hawk, nothing exotic. Red-tails tend to live in woods near an open field or meadow. We hunt best that way: by sitting on a tree branch, gazing out across the field, spotting a prey animal, then swooping in quickly for the kill. That's what I do. I live in the trees near a very nice meadow...

...Sometimes I wonder if the truth is that I'm some lunatic. I wonder if in reality I'm a hopeless, raving madman locked in an asylum, merely imagining that I am a hawk. Maybe I'm wearing a straitjacket. Maybe I'm in a padded room in a row of other padded rooms full of nuts who think they're Napoleon or George Washington or a red-tailed hawk. How would I know? Does a madman know he's mad? Does he realize that the delusion isn't real?...

...I sat in my tree and clutched my perch and stared out across the meadow......I spotted the slight movement of grass in the dim pre-dawn light. The rabbit coming out to feed...Hadn't I done enough? Hadn't I paid a high enough price? I could morph to human. Stay human. Eat as a human...

...I had to fight it! If I wanted to be a hawk, I had to destroy the part of me that felt, the part of me that cried for the creatures I killed. No predator could feel for his prey. I could not allow myself to feel the terror I inflicted, feel the pain I caused...