Disclaimer- I do not own Hawksong, or any characters mentioned that were forementioned in the book. I do admire Amelia Atwater-Rhodes, and love the books she writes.

It sounded like some sort of joke.

What do you get when you cross a hawk with a cobra?

Me.

My mother was a Shardae hawk, my father- a Cobraina cobra. The most unlikely couple, yet the happiest in either realm. They told me stories of how they had used to hate each other, and my father especially loved to retell how he had nearly killed Mother in her sleep, before the war had ended. I didn't believe him. They loved each other too much to have been willing to kill. It was evident in the way they moved, touched, gazed at each other. They had only been seventeen when they had wed. My age. I wondered if there was someone out there for me. Someone who would touch me as they touched, with only the purist love.

It wouldn't happen. Not anytime soon, anyway. I was different, a mix, a hawk crossed with a cobra. There was no one for me. No one who could look at me without disgust or awe, or could even hope to be my lover. If I wed an avian, the serpiente people would object. If I loved a serpiente, the avian culture would be outraged at being second best. And I am the only one of my kind, as far as avian records go.

It was a joke, to be forced to live without love. A joke. What do you get when you cross a hawk with a cobra?

Me.