Tessa's POV:

I yawned as Soranto and Aeria kept walking down the sidewalk. Simply wandering around the city was pretty boring. Even if Soranto hadn't been familiar with most of the streets in this city, the last three weeks certainly would have rectified that.

We had even travelled to some of the other cities several times, just for a change of scene. Our practice runs in the training rooms ran smoothly, even the few times Soranto and I had gone in without Taureen or Aeria.

I couldn't wait until I could go on an actual spaceship and actually check them for real crawlers or sicora, but that was still at least a month away. The Elders were remaining firm about us being at least six months old before we could go on a real patrol.

"When are you coming to the park?" Abby asked, interrupting my rambling thoughts. "You are usually here by now."

"We are on our way. Taureen, Mom, and Dirk will probably get there before I do. Why are you so excited?" Abby almost never contacted me during my working shift. We weren't that much later than usual.

"Uh, I'll tell you when you get here. I'll keep waiting, but it's your fault if I fall asleep."

Considering how excited she sounded, I doubted that she was going to fall asleep. Maybe the Ply-Ball players had arrived early and were holding a small competition or something. It was kind of fun watching them if they didn't know we were spying on them.

Time practically crawled by until we finally reached the park. As I halfway expected, Taureen was already here, although I was surprised to see Dirk trying to steal something out of Tran's pockets as opposed to cuddling with Abby.

I'd seen them cuddling a few times now, and it wasn't exactly a secret among the dragonets that they liked each other.

"I'm here!" I called out to Dirk as I flew closer. "Let's go find Abby and Glen."

He looked up and whistled a welcome before flying over to greet me. After spinning in a few circles, we flew towards the trees where Dad had already disappeared.

"Where are you?" I asked Abby, letting Dirk overhear my question.

"In the clearing with all the ferns." She sent an image along just in case we were uncertain about where she was. Her voice was bland, with no underlying emotions – she must have been blocking them out of the mindlink.

"What's up with Abby?" I asked Dirk privately.

"Maybe she will tell us when we get there."

I gave him an odd look; the worry under his mindvoice and his evasion of the question meant that he knew exactly what was bugging her. If Abby didn't tell us, I could try asking Glen later on. He always knew what was on his sister's mind.

As we entered the clearing, Glen was watching his pacing sister in amusement. The moment she saw us, she flew towards Dirk.

"He agreed! He said yes!"

Her excitement rang through her voice, leaving me thoroughly baffled as I was unintentionally excluded from the greeting. I banked around the green and blue dragonets as I landed beside Glen on a branch.

I gave the silver dragonet a questioning look, but he merely shifted his gaze pointedly back to Abby and an equally excited Dirk. I watched their aerial celebration in awkward silence for a few overly long minutes before clearing my throat.

"Uh, can I ask who said yes to what?"

Somehow, Abby almost managed to freeze mid-air in embarrassment. Beside me, Glen tried to turn his snickering into coughing. I tilted my head, trying to figure out what I was missing.

Dirk landed on a branch across from us, and Abby followed, looking somewhat flustered.

When Abby didn't start talking, Dirk began trying to explain, "Well, um, remember how I didn't want to be alone, but I wanted to track crawlers?"

"Yes," I replied slowly, wondering if my guess was lining up with whatever was actually going on.

"Dad gave me permission to join you guys as long as I think about it for a month!" Abby interrupted, suddenly finding her voice.

"Wow! I thought you had to wait until your first birthday. How did you talk him into that?"

"I had to beg a lot, but he knows that I've been thinking about it for a couple of months now. In the end, he just wants me to be happy."

"Of course," Glen drawled, "Dad also knows that it will take her at least a few months to work up the courage to follow the Kymari when they get close to the streets."

With a quick movement, Abby pulled an unripe fruit off the tree and threw it at her brother. He merely snickered as the hand-sized missile didn't even come close to his silver scales.

"But at least he won't object to her trying," I interjected, trying to break up the looming race and wrestling match. "Are you planning on following Taureen and Aeria, or are you considering another Kymari?"

Abby replied, "For now, Taureen and Aeria since I'll be able to talk with them while I try to get used to living in a house. Dirk and I are still discussing it, but we both like Tran."

"Tran is always so calm," Dirk said. "I've started hanging around him a bit more lately as a subtle hint. I don't plan on doing much until Abby is comfortable among the Kymari, though. We can go slowly. There isn't any reason to rush things."

She looked relieved, yet excited. "Just don't tell the others. My Dad is telling Keegan and Tasha, but I don't want the others to find out. Mia will become a pain in the rump the day she hears about it, and I would prefer to delay that as long as possible."

"Consider my lips sealed," I reassured her.

She looked at Dirk. "What do you want to do for the rest of the day?"

"Why don't we go see if the Ply-Ball players have arrived yet, play with them for a while, wash up in the creek, and go hang around the Kymari?"

That sounded like a typical afternoon when most of the other fledglings were on the far side of the park. Considering I hadn't seen or heard from anyone else yet, they probably weren't nearby right now.

"Sure! Let's go!" Abby said, promptly taking off, leaving the rest of us to catch up.

Luck was with us, and the Ply-Ball group was already practicing. Abby was much more at ease around them now, and she was just as daring as I was when it came to stealing the ball. Glen preferred to fly above and swoop in and steal it when they tried to pass it.

After an hour or so, Abby flopped down in the grass while panting. "Okay, I say we quit while we're ahead."

I was also out of breath. "Fine by me. The water is going to feel cold when I'm this warm, though."

"If it's too cold for you to walk into, then I can give you a push," she offered, getting to her feet and slowly gliding towards the trees.

With a goodbye whistle to the players, I followed her. Dirk and Glen abandoned the ball when they saw us leaving. When we reached the creek, I made sure to stay well out of splashing range of the green dragonet as I slowly entered the cool water.

Abby didn't even seem that interested in splashing me, and I kind of suspected that she was distracted by our upcoming visit to the Kymari. We normally visited them every day, but this was the first time she was going to do so when she knew she wanted to eventually follow us out of the park one day.

She asked, "What are you going to try and stick in Soranto's pockets this time?"

"Nothing," I replied before dipping my head under the water momentarily.

"Nothing? That isn't like you. He's going to feel unloved."

I grinned at her. "Sometimes it is just nice to enjoy their company. Besides, he started threatening to replace his belt pouches with ones I can't get into if I try to stick another caterpillar or grasshopper inside."

"I thought he wasn't aware we were intelligent?"

"That's the beauty of it – he's not."

"When do you plan to tell him?"

"Mom made me promise to wait until he's been my official handler for at least three months."

"When does he officially become your handler?"

"I'm not sure. I think it's when I completely move into his home, which won't be for a while."

"You'll probably manage that before I leave the park. It's scary and exciting – and the combination of those two emotions should not be allowed to exist."

I snickered and rolled in the wet sand along the water's edge, managing to get sand underneath my harness.

Walking out of the water, Abby shook the water from her scales. "The suspense is killing me. Let's go visit the Kymari. I just need to find a halfway decent flower to stick in Tran's armor."

"Sure. By the time you find a flower, I should be able to get most of the sand out of my harness."

She quickly flew off in search of a flower.