Tessa’s POV:

  I trilled a greeting as I landed beside Mom, who was lounging along the creek bank in the park.

  “I found a dead ktari! It was almost exactly like our lessons, although I didn’t know what it was until I pulled it out.”

  “Good job! You found more than I did today.”

  “Did you know that Soranto has a heater in his shoulder pad?”

  She gave me an odd look. “A heater?”

  “Yeah! He controls it with his wrist comm, and it heats up. He had blueberries too.”

  “A heated shoulder pad… I may have to ask Taureen about investing in one of those, although I suspect it is something Soranto built.”

  “Tessa! You’re here early!” Abby called out in excitement. “I hear you got to go on a real spaceship! What was it like?”

  “A lot like our training,” I told the green dragonet as she landed beside us.

  “Can you show me some images?”

  “Sure.” I let both Mom and Abby see the long hallways, bridge, control panels, and hidden rooms. The dried out ktari was also added since I really didn’t have much to show. Soranto had spent several hours in the one room, and it only took a few seconds to show it and how the heat had radiated up out of his shoulder pad.

  “Is that a ktari?” Abby asked.

  “Yeah, but it was a dead one from a past fumigation. The cleaning machines usually find them, but they don’t fit under those machines.”

  “That is cool… When is Dirk showing up?”

  “Why don’t you ask him?”

  “Because he gets tired of me asking every ten minutes.”

  I turned my gaze to Mom, hoping she’d know since he was with Dad. If Dirk was tired of Abby asking, he wouldn’t want me pestering him as well.

  “They’re just leaving the barracks, so it will take them some time to walk here,” she told us.

  “Let’s go visit the Kymari,” Abby suggested. “I’m going to find it easier one of these days.”

  I took to the air. “You’ve been doing really well. You even visited Tran, Taureen, and Aeria several times when we weren’t with you.”

  “Taureen and Aeria had sunburst berries…” she sheepishly admitted as we flew side by side.

  “It still counts.”

  Only Soranto, Taureen, Tran, and Vick were in the meadow, so Abby didn’t even have many spectators.

  I landed on Soranto’s shoulder while Abby found it easier to approach Taureen. As I lay down, Soranto reached up to scratch me behind the ears.

  Reaching into his belt pouch, Taureen pulled out a sunburst berry and a small vial. Abby spotted the berry and promptly jumped down onto the bench beside him to claim it. While she was chewing, he put some oil on his finger and slowly rubbed it between her shoulder blades.

  She flinched at the first touch and chewed harder on the berry to distract herself. Then she paused and looked back.

  “What’s on his fingers?” she asked me.

  “It’s oil. It relieves itching and gets rid of dry skin.”

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  She tilted her head, peering at Taureen’s finger. “It… it feels good.”

  “I told you about the cleaning and oiling. Several times.”

  “I thought you were exaggerating.”

  I snorted faintly and laid on Soranto’s shoulders. “Do you still think it’s an exaggeration?”

  “No.”

  As Taureen’s finger reached the base of her wing, she hesitated, then gingerly unfolded it to let him continue. An occasional tremble flowed through her muscles, reminding me that this was the first time a Kymari had actually touched her. Mom must have told Taureen that Abby was trying to get over her fears.

  Taureen almost finished oiling her wing before Abby reached her limits and glided away to land on the grass. With a mischievous trill, I flew over and landed near her. Grabbing a mouthful of grass in my mouth, I ripped it free and flung it at her before bounding away.

  With a shrill whistle, she tore after me. I darted behind the Kymari’s legs and weaved between their feet as I evaded the green dragonet who wasn’t quite as brave as I was.

  A flash of blue dove out of the sky, forcing me to hide under the bench.

  “Hey! Two against one isn’t fair!” I protested.

  “I’m not sure why Abby was chasing you,” Dirk admitted, pulling out of his dive to circle the bench, “but I’m sure you deserved it.”

  Abby took advantage of me being cornered and pounced on me. Rolling upside down, I kicked with my hind legs, trying to break free. Something grabbed my ankle and pulled me out from under the bench.

  I whacked Dirk with my tail, forcing him to relinquish his hold on my leg. It was too late though. He loved wrestling and quickly pinned my shoulders and right wing on the grass with his weight. Abby sat on my other wing as she playfully chewed on my neck and arm.

  “What did you do this time?” Dad asked.

  “I don’t know! Help me!”

  With a surge of amusement across the mindlink, he kept flying to the trees, probably going to find Mom.

  “Traitor!” I called out. “I’m your favorite daughter!”

  “You’re my only daughter, so that award was handed out by default,” he replied serenely. “I’m sure you’ll manage just fine without my help.”

  “Hey! That’s not fair!”

  “Then consider it this way: Dirk is my favorite son as well. It would be terrible to interrupt the game and deprive him of his fun.”

  “Argh!”

  Wiggling as best I could, I finally managed to snag Dirk’s ear tuft between my teeth and tugged on it.

  “Hey! That’s attached!” he protested.

  “And so is my wing, you brute! Get off!” I pulled his ear tuft to the side.

  Wincing, Dirk was dragged along with his ear tuft. “Ow, ow, ow…”

  With a quick twist of my body, I freed myself and let go of Dirk’s ear tuft as I jumped into the air. I sped off toward the trees where they would have an even harder time catching me.

  By now, the Ply-Ball players should have arrived. A flash of silver ahead of me was also going in the same direction I was.

  “Going to join the game?” I asked Glen.

  He glanced back over his shoulder, surprised to see me catching up. “Yes. I thought you were with Abby?”

  “She’s probably cuddling with Dirk by now…”

  “Ugh. Again? At least she isn’t filling my ears about ‘Dirk this’ or ‘Dirk that’. I’m beginning to think that he is all she thinks about, other than the Kymari.”

  I snickered and flipped upside down before righting myself.

  “Laugh it up,” he said, “but one day, Dirk will start quoting poetry about her eye color to you, and then you shall know my pain.”

  “Poetry involves deep thought, and that isn’t like Dirk. He may nap under a heat lamp and daydream, but that’s about it.”

  “If he ever starts, don’t come to me for sympathy.”

  “I’ll just raise my mind shields for a while. No sense listening to something I might not be able to forget.”

  We reached the edge of the trees and saw the Ply-Ball players already trying to claim the ball from two other fledglings who had been joining us lately.

  “Last one to the ball is a rotten egg!” I proclaimed as I picked up speed.

  Swooping in from the side, I knocked the ball away from the Kymari who had just stolen it from the purple dragonet. My speed carried me past it, but Glen was already darting after it.

  “Hey, Tessa,” Rasha greeted me as I flew past him. “Nice to see you.”

  I trilled a welcome as I swerved to the side and landed in the grass, cutting off an approaching Kymari.

  Digging my claws into the short grass, I darted the other way to block the Kymari’s attempt to sneak behind me. On the other side, the purple and green fledglings were pretending to be roadblocks as they delayed two other Kymari. More players ranged farther around us, some already positioning themselves ahead so we would have to detour around them.

  When we tried to sneak between two of them, one stole the ball. The purple dragonet slapped it away with his tail, allowing me to claim it. The Kymari closed in, and space was at a premium, although I knew they’d never step on us.

  The ball flew sideways as someone nudged it with their toe, and three dragonets raced after it. We crowded around the ball as a purple dragonet managed to push it the last little distance to the rock.

  With a triumphant whistle, the purple scored our first point. We bounced around in a short victory dance before taking to the air and giving the Kymari plenty of room to kick the ball across the meadow. If we were even remotely close, they wouldn’t kick it in case we tried to intercept it.

  We circled above in anticipation. It was going to be a lot harder to get the next point now that we had scored once.