Tessa's POV:

I stretched out as far as I could on the warm sand, revelling in the ability to do so without bumping into someone. The complete silence was strange, as well as a bit eerie, but it was the best sleep I had enjoyed in a very long time. I was kind of sad that Dirk already had dibs on this heat lamp tonight.

With a faint sigh, I got to my feet and flew over to land on the floor by the door. It was only open a crack, and I pulled it open far enough for me to walk through.

The house was still quiet. I was surprised to see that I was the first one awake. I already knew that I would get growled at if I woke someone up, so I decided to go outside and look at the stars. It wasn't something that I usually got up early enough to do.

The sky was still fairly dark, so the moon and stars stood out. I sat on the big piece of driftwood and gazed upwards appreciatively. The air was chilly, but not a breath of wind stirred. Other than a few crickets, the world was silent as the stars glittered overhead. There were no words to describe the experience, so I memorized the peaceful feeling to share later.

The stars faded as the sky slowly became lighter. The sound of the flap quietly opening made me look back to see Dad coming outside. He blinked at me in surprise before flying over to sit beside me.

We waited in silence for the sun to rise. It wasn't long before Mom and Dirk joined us as well. I could feel the sun approaching the horizon, sending out its call even though we couldn't see it yet.

The call's strength grew as the sun peeked above the horizon, and we waited motionlessly for the cue to begin. A ripple of the light had us jumping towards the sky as our voices sang of our joy.

The happiness and hope filled my heart, even as I swerved to miss Dad. My aerobatics didn't interfere with my song. My flying had gotten much better. I barely even had to think about it as I flew in loops around my family.

Joy and gladness danced through my veins, chasing away any other emotions. All that mattered was the song and the important message it wanted us to relay. Another day had begun, full of hope and possibilities – and we were a part of it.

Eventually, as it always did, the sun rose above the horizon and brought the song to an end. We flew over to where Taureen and Aeria sat. They already had several bowls of fruit out, so we enjoyed our breakfast while occasionally trading with each other for our favorite pieces.

"So, how did you find your night alone?" Dad asked.

I swallowed a piece of watermelon and grinned. "It was great. Dirk didn't growl at me once for rolling on his tail."

Dirk snorted. "Maybe that explains why I had a better sleep as well. You move almost as much in your sleep as you do during the day."

I flicked him with my tail and proceeded to ignore him.

"What are we doing today?" I asked Taureen and Aeria.

"You get to come with me today," Taureen replied. "We are going to walk through a few of the busier marketplaces and visit a school to do a small presentation about bond animals."

My ear tufts perked up. "That sounds interesting. Are Aeria, Dad, and Dirk going to the training room?"

"No, the training rooms are currently being cleaned and rearranged, so we won't be able to go there until tomorrow."

That was both exciting and unnerving. I would get to learn new things, but I also wouldn't have any idea about what to expect in the training room. That was what the training sessions were for though; to teach me about the variety of things I might encounter. I couldn't wait to see what the Kymari had managed to dream up this time.

There was never a rush in the mornings. Others may have been heading off to work earlier, but Taureen and Aeria really couldn't do much until those people were at the places we were going. As nice as it was to relax while my scales were oiled and massaged, I was still impatient to get going.

By the time Taureen began walking to where our harnesses hung on the wall, I was already flying over to land on his shoulder. Thankfully, Mom wasn't as slow as Dirk, so we were out of the house before the others.

A shuttle landed at the edge of the road. As Taureen got closer, the door opened to reveal Tran and Vick sitting inside. Somewhat to my surprise, we got into the shuttle. We usually walked wherever we were going, unless it was quite some distance away.

He sat beside the window, so I got to gawk at the city as the shuttle rose above the buildings. The roads below formed a pattern that I hadn't realized existed. There were a lot of small parks, although most were just a couple dozen trees and a few benches. I would have to share the images with Abby later tonight during our usual evening talk.

There were a lot of shuttles coming and going from an area ahead of us. The shuttle dropped down to land smoothly in a marked parking spot on the ground. As we got out, I wasn't sure where to look first. There were so many interesting and different things! Even Mom was looking around in curiosity.

There were hundreds of little areas with tables along the path ahead of us. Each area seemed to have something different. There was a lot of noise, but not nearly as much as I would have expected with so many people present. The clash of smells almost made me want to close my nostrils, although none were unpleasant.

I gazed around as we slowly moved along the path. My eyes widened when I saw people who weren't Kymari. There were other alien races here! One had scales, another had fur and pointed ears, and two had blue skin.

I looked hard as we kept going, although there weren't many other aliens. Only a dozen or so in total, and they were usually selling something at a table.

The variety of things around us was bewildering. Electronics, food, clothing, and almost anything that anyone might possibly need. There was probably more here than in the various stores we had previously visited.

The shiny items kept distracting me, though. I craned my neck to the side as I stared longingly at a table with sparkly round objects that looked somewhat similar to the 'shiny' I had seen as a nestling. Now that I thought about it, I never had seen it again.

Taureen noticed my sudden interest and paused as he followed my gaze. He held his hand up to me, and I stepped onto his glove. To my delight, he walked over and lowered me closer to the table with the grape-sized shiny balls that sparkled in the sunlight.

"Take one," he told me.

My eyes widened in excitement as I quickly tried to find the prettiest one. There were so many to choose from!

With glance up at him, I gingerly stepped off his glove, carefully stepping between the pretty stones and glass balls on the table. The Kymari woman sitting behind the table smiled, likely amused at my indecision and excitement.

Did I want the pretty clear blue one? Maybe a red one that matched my scales almost perfectly? Or one of the clear ones that glittered with rainbow colors? It was so hard to choose! I wasn't sure if there was a color in existence that wasn't present on this table somewhere.

Taureen murmured, "We are trying to get the youngsters well socialized. Would you mind seeing if she will let you pet her?"

"Those Elders are going to drive me crazy with their request for the youngsters to meet five strangers a week..." Mom muttered peevishly.

The woman's smile grew larger with delight as she slowly moved her hand closer. I sniffed it and let her gently stroke my neck and back. I liked the attention, but the glittering objects surrounding me reclaimed my attention.

My eyes skimmed over all of them quickly, trying to see which ones captured my attention the most. I kept looking back at one in particular, a clear one that somehow caught the light to produce glimmers of the rainbow deep inside.

It was almost twice the size of most of the ones near the front of the table. I sat down beside it and put my hand on it as I looked up at Taureen hopefully.

He nodded with a smile. "Sure, you can have that one. Back up."

I took a few steps back, making sure my tail didn't knock or touch anything. The woman picked up the shimmering ball and pulled something out from under the table. I watched in fascination as she attached a small clasp to it and looped a thin piece of leather cording through it.

She held it out towards me, and I trilled a thank-you before taking the cord in my mouth. Wary of the downdraft from my wings knocking something over, I trotted to the edge of the table. Taureen lifted me back up to his shoulder before pulling a small bag out of his belt pouch.

I firmly held onto the leather cord with one hand as I sat on Taureen's shoulder. The pretty stone was much nicer than the old shiny I had once caught.

The woman shook her head. "Only half of the marked price. Having a bond animal choose an item from my table is something that not many can claim."

He thanked her and handed over some strange pieces of what looked like metal. Some sort of money, although even the Blood Memories didn't know much beyond that.

We continued walking, although it was hard to pay attention since I kept getting distracted by my new treasure. I quickly discovered that when Taureen walked, it shifted slightly from side to side on its cord and that made it really catch the light. It was hard to look away from the swirling clear rainbow hints within.

My nostrils flared at an unexpected scent, and my head swung around as a faint growl rumbled in my chest. Taureen glanced at me, and Tran and Vick became more alert. Mom lifted her head and took a deep breath before getting to her feet with a growl of her own.

"Good catch. It was so faint that I didn't even notice it until you growled."

I took another breath, but there were so many scents that it was hard to pick up the smell of the crawler again. It was much harder to detect than it had been in our training sessions.

"Well, this is going to be fun," Tran commented, looking at the fairly busy marketplace. "At least they aren't worked up enough for a sicora."

Taureen clipped a leash onto my harness and held his hand up to Mom. She stepped on, still sniffing the air.

"Go on. Find it."

She launched skyward, flying well above the heads of the people present as she circled in ever-widening loops. Then she backtracked and came to a hover, staring pointedly down at a table that I could barely see past all of the people. I took mental notes of how she had pointed it out.

"Tasha, shoulder," Taureen called out.

She flew back and swooped down to land on his shoulder, her head pointing the way. Most of the people around us had stopped what they were doing as they watched us. Some of them spoke quietly to one another, and I learned that this was the first time that they had seen a fire lizard working since we usually caught everything while it was on the ships.

Tran and Vick had their weapons in their hand, but weren't holding them like they did in our training session, possibly due to the number of people around. We stopped in front of the area Mom had hovered, and Taureen had her step onto his wrist again.

"Is there any chance of a crawler or sicora being in your booth?" Taureen asked the Kymari seller.

"I don't think so. I haven't seen anything, but there had been a crawler on the ship my new fabrics came in on."

Taureen nodded and lifted his wrist higher, telling Mom, "Go on. Find it."

She took off and circled around the small stall, eventually landing on a pile of blankets. Taureen walked closer and checked under the table, although there was nothing underneath besides neatly-stacked empty boxes.

Mom dug down between two of the piles a bit before backing up and tilting her head in confusion. With a snort, she bounded onto another pile of blankets and rooted through it, knocking the pile sideways in the process. It looked a lot like what Dirk and I had once done with a clean pile of laundry.

After a few more checks, she gave up and flew back to Taureen's shoulder. She rustled her wings before sitting down and looking around.

"If there was nothing in the crates you opened, then she is probably just reacting to the lingering scent from the ship," Taureen said.

"The crates weren't airtight, so that is likely it. It's reassuring to know that the fire lizards are checking the ships. I really don't want to find a crawler in my workshop or in my home."

Taureen unclipped my leash as we continued on our way. I glanced back at the lady who was easily restacking the piles that Mom had messed up.

"It was just the scent from before?" I asked Mom.

"Yes. The scent of a live one is much stronger when you are close by. It's better to have several false alarms than to potentially miss something. I just had to dig around to show where the scent trail ended. I'm impressed that you smelled it before I did. Good job!"

I trilled a soft gratitude for the praise. It made me feel like I was glowing inside.