Tessa’s POV:

  It felt like forever before we finally reached the main park. We were a bit later than usual due to someone—possibly Banrai—locking the exit door and forcing us to go back the way we had come. Of course, this had given whoever was watching through the cameras a chance to trigger some of the remaining traps.

  Soranto held his hand in front of me, and I jumped on it in excitement. After stroking my neck a few times, he gave me a small slice of fruit. I happily ate the treat; it was a type that Taureen didn’t buy that often.

  Once I was done, he said, “Go on. Go have some fun.”

  With a happy trill, I took off. Mom was already flying toward the usual dragonet meeting place, so I followed her. With a backward glance and a grin, she flipped upside down and swerved around a tree trunk.

  I immediately gave chase as we darted through the forest. It was very hard to keep up, but at least I wasn’t falling behind.

  When we reached the clearing, Dad flew up to greet us while a dozen others lounged in the sun. I whistled a greeting and let my wings brush against Dad’s.

  “Dirk is with Abby and Glen. They were heading to the fruit trees by the white stone,” Dad told me, sharing an image.

  “Thanks!” I replied, veering off in that direction.

  I gained height and carefully flew through the thicker foliage in case Abby was planning some sort of revenge. Splashing and laughing whistles came from closer to the creek, so I went to investigate.

  Landing on a branch, I peered through the leaves as Glen and four other fledglings played in the water. Abby and Dirk weren’t among them. Perhaps they were still eating. Taking flight again, I continued toward the clearing with the white boulder.

  I kept my wingbeats silent in case they were just waiting for me. I really didn’t need to be the focus of any more ambushes today, although, to be fair, all the traps in the training room had been aimed at Soranto, Taureen, or one of the guards.

  The clearing was empty. I began circling the area since there were a number of fruit trees around here. When I spotted the green and blue dragonets curled up in the grass and cuddling, I blinked and did a double-take.

  Well. This was not what I had expected. No one else was in sight, and they hadn’t noticed me, so I sideslipped behind some leaves and glided away.

  I flew back to the creek to join the other fledglings. Diving down, I changed my angle at the last moment as I skidded across the top of the water. As I had intended, the spray from my landing hit at least five fledglings.

  A purple dragonet energetically splashed me back as I joined the water fight. They soon retired to the sandy banks, spreading their wings to catch the sun.

  I wasn’t ready to relax just yet, but my options were rather limited. It was a pity the Ply-Ball group wouldn’t be back for two more days, and I wasn’t about to check if Dirk and Abby were done cuddling. It also wasn’t wise for me to annoy the adults after yesterday’s stunt.

  That left eating, sunbathing, flying aimlessly through the forest, or tormenting the Kymari. My decision was rather easy. I decided to find some presents for them. Kymari rarely lost things, but it happened occasionally.

  The first thing I grabbed was a leather bag that was almost as big as me, then I flew to where I recalled seeing some Kymari coins on the ground. A pretty stone the size of my hand joined them in the bag.

  After asking another dragonet’s permission, I tucked a few more oddities inside. He even gave me one of his shed scales. We rarely shed them unless they got damaged, so this might be something Soranto hadn’t seen before.

  I continued collecting strange or unusual things until the bag was heavy. Taking a deep breath, I grabbed the edge of the battered sack in my hands and began the long flight to where the handlers usually hung out.

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  My wings were sore by the time I got to the clearing. I didn’t even bother looping around to take them by surprise. Soranto was already extending his hands to take the sack as I started backwinging. I gladly let the heavy thing go and sideslipped to his shoulder.

  I laid down and panted while he opened the sack and peered into it.

  “What’s inside?” Taureen inquired.

  “That’s a very good question,” Soranto murmured as he carefully upended the bag on the bench beside him. The others gathered around for a better look. Soranto picked up part of an eggshell.

  “I’ve only seen a silver color like this on fire lizard eggs,” Soranto said, examining the piece in his hand.

  “It’s the right size and shade,” Taureen confirmed. “Although it doesn’t look fresh. It’s probably from the youngsters that joined the flock several weeks ago.”

  He reached over and pushed a few sparkly pebbles aside to pick up the purple scale. “This is unusual. Look at the crack in this scale. The only time I’ve seen a scale with this much damage was when a tree fell on Serena.”

  “Since no dragonets are missing or notably injured, I’m not too worried,” Soranto said. “Although it might be a good idea to scroll through the recordings and see when it occurred. We might have to keep an eye on it in case of complications. What else is in here…”

  Soranto separated the objects into piles; flowers, pebbles, coins, and lost Kymari things. I grinned as a grasshopper jumped onto Soranto’s leg. It had taken a lot of work to get it to stay inside that bag. He ignored it, much to my disappointment.

  He wasn’t so keen on the four caterpillars and let each one climb onto a flower before passing it to Vick to set in the grass. There wasn’t much left. Just a few shiny seeds and a couple of strange leaves that even my Blood Memories couldn’t identify.

  Soranto picked up a round piece of glass with an elaborate black border. “Did someone set up a video camera in the forest?”

  Aeria replied, “About a year ago, I think. Three cameras were set up, but the dragonets could smell where we left them and tended to avoid the area. Although they tend to migrate from one end of the park to the other quite freely, so we only ever caught glimpses of them.”

  Taureen continued, “One camera had been placed beside one of their favored sunbathing locations, but the youngsters sniffed it out and managed to damage it while playing with it. Several pieces were missing when they recovered it.”

  “Well, we can let them know we found the primary lens,” Soranto commented in amusement.

  My eyes widened slightly in anticipation as I watched him reach for what looked like an unusual snail shell. As he picked it up, the seed pod gave a faint screech and practically exploded, sending eight round seeds flying in all directions. The Kymari jumped, and I shook my head to keep from laughing.

  With the bench now safe, I jumped down, fanning my wings to slow my fall. I grabbed a few of the tiniest pebbles and jumped back up onto Soranto’s shoulder. I tried to jam one into the grooves on the back of his shoulder, but it kept rolling out.

  I tried a different spot but had no better luck. Confused, I tilted my head as I examined the overlapping sections of armor. His armor was different.

  At first glance, it was similar to Taureen’s armor, but there were subtle differences. Soranto’s lacked the grooves where the sections overlapped; instead, it was a lot like Tran’s boots, where the joints were so small that it wasn’t possible to wedge anything between the pieces even though they could move.

  Soranto chuckled as he watched my efforts. “It looks like the upgrade was worth it, I figured it would be a good investment after watching her constantly sticking rocks in other people’s armor.”

  That party pooper! He wasn’t supposed to take my fun away like that! Surely there had to be a weak spot. I began trying to wedge pebbles into every possible groove.

  It took me more than a few minutes, but I eventually discovered that if I sat on the back of the bench and pushed up on his shoulder pad, I could wedge some stones under the edge. I managed to stuff six pebbles in the narrow gap.

  Slight motion from the grass below caught my attention. With a grin, I swooped down to the grass and scooped up a wriggly caterpillar. Flying up and over the bench back, I landed on the seat beside him while keeping the bug hidden in my hand.

  I snuffled through his pockets like I was looking for a treat, I managed to stick the caterpillar into one before letting the flap firmly seal it inside. With that done, I hopped onto his lap and then innocently meandered over to the pile of stuff that had been in the bag.

  I batted at the pouch with my hands a few times, then reclaimed a few of the flowers and put them inside. Grabbing the edge with my teeth, I lifted it as high as I could, barely lifting it off the bench, and walked the few steps over to Taureen.

  In a flash of inspiration, I tried wedging it under his belt, next to one of his belt pouches. Monkey see, monkey do? Or that was what Abby had told me a few times. It seemed like something a smart animal might try, at any rate.

  I tossed the weird leaves off the bench and rolled some of the stones around. Soranto opened up a small container of fruit, and with a happy trill, I jumped up to his wrist to enjoy the snack.

  Today had been fun, even if the training room had a few too many ambushes for my tastes. I couldn’t wait until our next patrol together in three days.

  I wondered how long it would take Soranto to find the caterpillar in his belt pouch.