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 kept on walking, ignoring the leaves like they didn't exist. Soranto caught one mid-air 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 more closely. 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 grew tired of watching it and extended my claws as I swatted it. The spinning 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 as he focused on tickling me with his newfound weapon.

The frayed ends of the stem found my toes next, causing me to 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. I quickly followed his gaze and also gawked. 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 was daring to breathe. After several very long, tense seconds, she inhaled slowly before sneezing violently in his face.

With a loud snort, she turned and flew back to the heat lamp. Soranto exhaled heavily in relief as his muscles relaxed.

He raised a hand to wipe his face. "Wow. I didn't expect that."

Tkael was watching Mom. "Neither did I. She didn't actually 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 will 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 really wish that 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, "Any ideas? You know her best."

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

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 to accompany us as we walk around the city and through the training rooms. I'm also wondering if you would be open to seeing 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 in training would mark him as the one who would likely become my handler. To my relief, Soranto nodded.

"I guess it's a good thing that I got measured for armor last week. It'll be at least a week before it's ready, but I will probably 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," Tkael advised him. "Once she follows you permanently, it won't be as easy to go if she has to sit on the sidelines."

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."

"It only took Keegan about a dozen attempts once he got to the point of trying to sit on your shoulder as you left the park." Tkael pointed out. "You also didn't take him back to the park for quite a long time. I'm pretty sure Tessa won't back out more than a few times before going with him, although I suspect that she will probably bounce back and forth a bit until she truly bonds with Soranto."

Taureen nodded. "That is 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 will probably be a very slow transition between the two homes."

"That would give her time to adapt without any sudden change," Soranto said. "It will also give me time for training. 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 with intent interest. They were speaking as if it were almost a certainty now, which didn't bother me. It was a bit of 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, and 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, he 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 on my feet now.

I jumped towards 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 had no weight.

I stared at it in confusion, and my Blood Memories surfaced. It was just a laser light. My head turned, and I spotted the 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. Being a light, it was able to change direction with no effort. Dirk flew over to help me. 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 ended up having more success in keeping up with it. It was hard to move our feet that fast, though.

I wished that it was possible to catch it. Unfortunately, that just 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 with a yawn.

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 and evade him. He may have been larger and stronger, but I was faster.

Taureen brought out the cleaning kit, and Mom immediately flew over even as Dad went to Aeria. I took an extra scouring pad and vial over to Soranto. He may have oiled my scales every evening for quite a few weeks, but surely he needed more practice.

Dirk went to sulk under the heat lamp since he had to wait. My eyes drifted shut as Soranto carefully cleaned the scales on my back.