Tessa’s POV:

  I sat up with a trill when Soranto and Tkael arrived. Quickly, I flew to the perch above the hallway entrance and waited with a grin. As they passed beneath, I dropped several big leaves on them. Tkael ignored the leaves and kept walking.

  Soranto caught one and began spinning the stem between his fingers, causing the leaf to whirl around in fascinating patterns.

  I swooped down to his shoulder so I could peer at it. He held it up, allowing me to see it easier. My head tilted as the leaf kept dancing in an erratic fashion. I tried to commit it to memory to share with Abby later. I somehow doubted that my own hands would be able to manage this.

  Soranto kept spinning the leaf as he sat down. After a while, I extended my claws and swatted it. The leaf disintegrated into confetti.

  He examined the rather tattered stem. “Now what am I supposed to do with it? Ah, I know.”

  With a quick movement, the stem tickled my belly. I squealed at the unexpected comeback and flared my wings, unintentionally tapping his head. He ignored the light buffet and kept tickling me with his newfound weapon.

  The frayed stem found my toes next, making me dance as I tried to avoid the previously innocent leaf. I slapped his wrist with my tail and managed to snag the stem between my teeth. Instead of tugging it out of his grip, my teeth bit right through the stem.

  I spat the piece out and it bounced off his knee to land on the floor. The little bit left in Soranto’s hand wasn’t enough to be a threat to my sensitive skin. He chuckled, clearly enjoying our little game.

  It abruptly cut off as he tensed up. My head whipped around to follow his gaze. I gawked as Mom glided in our direction and gracefully backwinged onto Soranto’s other shoulder. Her expression was less than impressed.

  She angled her head to stare directly into his face with narrowed eyes. I wasn’t even sure if Soranto dared to breathe. After several very long, tense seconds, she sneezed in his face. With a loud snort, she turned and flew back to the heat lamp. Soranto exhaled heavily as his muscles relaxed.

  He raised a hand to wipe his face. “Well, I didn’t expect that.”

  Tkael was watching Mom. “Neither did I. She didn’t try to injure you, which is kind of surprising considering her usual actions.” He glanced at Taureen. “You didn’t tell her to do that, did you?”

  “No, I was just sitting here,” Taureen replied.

  Tkael furrowed his eyebrows in thought. “She’s never shown any inclination of going near Soranto before. It makes me wonder if it has something to do with how much time Tessa has been spending with him. Her behavior is rubbing off on a few fledglings in the park; perhaps it is also affecting her parents.”

  “I think I’ll retract my wish for Tasha to come to me,” Soranto quietly said. “For a moment, I was worried that she was going to flame me.”

  “It was very deliberate,” Tkael muttered. “I wish someone would manage to track and observe the wild ones. The members of the flock interact a lot, and this is likely one of the interactions that we haven’t managed to observe yet. I’m positive such an intentional action means something.”

  Soranto asked Taureen, “You know her best. What are your thoughts?”

  Taureen gazed at the curled up golden dragonet under the heat lamp. “It’s just a guess, but I would almost say that she finally accepted your presence. She hasn’t hissed or growled at you for over two weeks now.”

  This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

  Soranto blinked in surprise. “You’re right. She hasn’t done more than occasionally glare at me lately.”

  “That’s probably a good thing, since I wanted to ask if you could join us on a few training patrols.”

  “What exactly do you have in mind?”

  “Mostly just accompanying us as we walk around the city and through the training rooms. I’m also wondering if you’d be willing to see if we can get Tessa to sit on your shoulder during these times.”

  Soranto was silent for a moment, and I realized the seriousness of Taureen’s question. For me to sit on his shoulder on training walks would mark him as the one who would likely become my handler. When Soranto nodded, my muscles relaxed.

  “I guess it’s a good thing I got measured for armor. It’ll be at least a week before it’s ready, but I’ll need that time to shift my schedule since this likely won’t be a one-time thing.”

  “You’ll want to stop at the barracks and arrange for as much training as you can,” Aeria advised him. “Once she follows you permanently, it won’t be easy to convince her to sit on the sidelines and sneaking out is often harder than most realize.”

  Soranto scratched his head. “How long did it take Keegan to follow you out of the park? Almost a year, no?”

  “Around that mark,” Taureen replied, “but he was scared of us and anything outside of the park. Tessa doesn’t have that problem.”

  “Tessa has known you almost all her life.” Tkael pointed out. “Once you start joint patrols and she gets used to sitting on your shoulders, I think things will progress faster. I also suspect she’ll bounce back and forth until she truly bonds with you.”

  Taureen nodded. “That’s what we were thinking as well. The wild youngsters are out and about during the day, but they tend to return to their parents at night. It’ll probably be a very slow transition between the two homes.”

  “That would give her time to adapt without any sudden changes,” Soranto said, still fiddling with the tiny piece of stem. “It’ll also give me time for training. And judging by the stack of papers that appeared in the mail a couple of weeks ago, someone thinks I need a lot of it.”

  I listened to their discussion intently. They were speaking as if Soranto had already been selected as a handler, which didn’t bother me. It was a relief to know they were planning on going slowly and were willing to let me set the pace.

  I settled down on Soranto’s shoulder, trying to make heads or tails of exactly what they were discussing. It seemed to be various things that he was going to have to do in preparation for the patrols, as well as arrangements so his schedule could easily flex to match our progress.

  It didn’t take long for me to grow bored of their endless planning. I reached up to grab a mouthful of his short hair in my mouth and gave it a light tug. Having successfully gained his attention, Soranto picked me up and put me on the floor, which was rather unusual.

  He tapped the floor in front of me with a finger, and a glowing red spot appeared. Surprised, I sniffed the strange thing, but it had no scent. Then—all on its own—it moved in a slightly jerky fashion.

  My head jerked back momentarily, then I crouched down as I got ready to pounce. It kept edging away, almost as if it was intentionally taunting me. After all my practice with the Ply-Ball team, that was a mistake. I was much faster now.

  I pounced toward it, but it skittered away. It was much quicker than I had realized. This time, I tried to sneak up behind it. My hand lashed out to pin it, but the glowing red dot suddenly appeared on the back of my hand. It didn’t have any weight!

  I stared at it in confusion, and my Blood Memories surfaced. It was just a laser light. My head turned, and I spotted a small device in Soranto’s hands. That was a bit disappointing, but I could still have fun with it. Glimpses of dragonets chasing it also flickered along the edge of my mind, courtesy of the Blood Memories.

  The dot darted away, and I bounded after it. It was able to change direction with no effort. Dirk flew over to help me, but the light was nimble enough to evade both of us for quite some time.

  To my surprise, both Mom and Dad joined us on the floor. Leading by example, their claws dug into the carpet for traction as they tore after it. Dirk and I tried to copy them and it increased our speed noticeably. It was hard to move our feet that fast though.

  I wished that it was possible to catch it. Unfortunately, that wasn’t an option. It was still fun, although it got kind of boring before too long. I flopped down on the carpet and rolled upside down.

  Dirk took the opportunity to jump on me. He didn’t try to pin me, so it turned into a wrestling match. It took me a bit to get away. He may have been larger and stronger, but I was faster.

  Taureen brought out the cleaning kit, and Mom immediately flew over to him. I grabbed a scouring pad and vial and took them over to Soranto. He may have oiled my scales every evening for quite a few weeks, but surely he needed more practice.

  My eyes drifted shut as Soranto cleaned the scales on my back.