Tessa's POV:

I blinked drowsily as the lights in the main room slowly brightened. It was still fairly dark in my sleeping place, although the change in lighting had woken me. It took me a second or two to remember exactly where I was.

I had slept really hard. This little hollow made me feel more secure than just being on a table top, and I hadn't woken up during the night even once, which was unusual. Getting up seemed like too much work so I pushed my head between two of the leaves that stuck up to form a wall. Soranto noticed me right away.

"Good morning."

His voice was far too cheerful and animated for this time of the morning. Now I knew what Dirk felt like when I greeted him in the morning. I gave a sleepy whistle before pulling my head back inside to try and wake up at a more leisurely pace.

It wasn't too long before I woke up enough to ease out of the opening and stand on the branch in front. I stretched my back and wings as I looked around. I could hear Adeline and Soranto talking in the kitchen, so I knew she was awake as well.

The sky was starting to get lighter, but it wasn't quite time for the Morning Song yet. The faint trickle of water made me lick my lips and glide over to the sandstone shelf to get a drink from the water bowl. The water was just as good as it always was. Mom had managed to talk Taureen into installing a nearly identical water freshening system for our water bowl at home, so we got to drink similar water there as well.

I quickly went into the bathroom and nudged the door mostly closed, hoping that no one would enter while I was inside. Luck was with me, and I managed to do my business, wash my hands, and leave the bathroom before anyone entered the living room.

I sprawled out under the middle of the heat lamp, still not fully awake. As I scratched my ear tuft, I decided to see if Mom and Dad were awake, although I knew they probably were.

"Good morning," I called out to them.

Mom immediately replied, "Good morning. How was your sleepover?"

"It was nice. I slept in one of the heated branch nooks. It was really cozy once I put some sand in it. I had an even better sleep than I did in the back room."

"That's good. Anything interesting happen yet?"

"Not really. I just got up. I cuddled with Soranto before bed, though."

"Soranto will be bringing you back on his way to work, so we will get to see each other soon."

"Okay, see you later!"

I stretched my arms out and flexed my claws deep into the sand. What should I do while waiting for the sun to rise? The way my nails slid through the sand with little resistance made me wonder just how deep this sand tray was.

Moving to a cooler section of the sand, I began digging, making sure that the sand remained on the shelf. And I dug and dug deeper. How deep was this thing? At this rate, I was going to fall out from the underside of the shelf...

Right before I thought I was bending the rules of physics, I found the bottom. It must have been resting on the bottom edge of the shelf to go down so far. The hole I had dug was probably half as deep as I was tall. That gave me a different idea, though.

With a quick glance at the open kitchen door, I began shifting the sand around again. A few minutes later, I exhaled and rested my chin on the sand as I waited for someone to enter the room.

Not long after, Soranto entered the room and paused when he caught sight of just my head and half of my neck sticking out of the sand. The sand around me was pretty flat too, with no discernable hump to indicate exactly where my body was.

"Well, that's a new one..." Soranto commented before shaking his head and wandering over.

"What did she do?" Adeline asked as she appeared in the doorway. "Oh. I don't recall seeing any mention of the fire lizards burying themselves."

"Nor do I."

Soranto tilted his head as he examined my handiwork. I lifted my head and trilled innocently at him.

He tapped his wrist comm a few times. "Taureen, have you ever seen the fire lizards bury themselves in sand?"

"No. Why?" Taureen's voice sounded like he knew the answer just because of the question, but was asking anyway.

Soranto did something else with his wrist comm. "I just sent you a picture."

Taureen was silent for a while. "I have never seen that before, but it never occurred to me to have a sand tray deep enough for them to actually bury themselves. The most they have ever done was dig out a bit of a hollow, and they never reached the bottom of the tray on those occasions. Did she sleep like that?"

"No, she slept in one of the nests higher up. She did this just a few minutes ago."

"Did you take a video of it?"

"Unfortunately not. She did it while I was preparing her breakfast in the kitchen."

"I'm curious to see if she makes it a habit."

The way the sand surrounded me was nice and warm, but I doubted that I would do it often. I had sand in places that sand probably shouldn't be.

Soranto glanced out the window before going to sit down. The brightening sky also had my attention, although there was still some time until the song started. I remained where I was until I decided to get up. It was really hard to move your legs or shift your tail when they were buried in sand.

Standing up wasn't too hard, although sand cascaded down my scales as I stepped out of the dip that had appeared beneath me. Bracing my feet, I shook as hard as I could to get the remaining grains of sand out from under the edges of my scales.

I glided in front of the windows before landing on the ground beside the back door. I bunted it with my head before looking back at Soranto, who was already getting up to open it for me. When the door opened, I darted through and flew over to the smooth tree stump that had appeared in the middle of the backyard last week.

Soranto's backyard was about three times the size of Taureen's. The netting was also different. The two trees which had previously blocked my view of the eastern horizon had been removed. Other than a few other plants being swapped out, not much else had changed yet.

I gazed towards where the sun was just beginning to peek over the horizon. The faint call was beginning to stir as it always did, which was reassuring. The sound of the door opening and closing again made me look back. Adeline and Maria had come outside and were sitting together as they watched me. Soranto had a video recorder in his hands, as per Taureen's request.

It only reminded me about how different this song might be. It almost made me nervous, but the sun's call was already strengthening. My eyes went back to the rising sun.

The light shimmered, and I took flight. My fears and reservations had all been for naught – the joy that the Song brought was the same. This time, the dance was simpler since I didn't have to evade other fliers.

It was strange to just hear my voice; yet, I didn't mind it. It meant that more people could hear it, which was strange considering how much I had previously enjoyed the flock's mass event. Either way was good – they were just different.

It was another cloudless morning, so I had my work cut out for me as I tried to show the subtle beauty of it through my dance and song. I was also the only dragonet here, which made it more difficult, but more worthwhile in the end.

As I swooped and swirled around in a small section of the air, the sun glinted off my scales and highlighted my efforts. My voice rose and fell in a sweet melody that seemed simple at first, but the more one listened, the more complex it seemed to become.

The beauty of the Morning Song couldn't be missed, but its depth depended on how much the listeners watched and paid attention. Joy and happiness made every musical note glow, while every shift of our scales and wings emphasized the promise of hope that each new day brought.

And the dragonets got the privilege of showing it to the world.

The call faded as the sun rose higher into the sky and shed its light and warmth on anyone its rays touched. I glided down to land on the stump again, watching the sun climb above the horizon.

My stomach gurgled as it reminded me that it hadn't eaten anything since last night. With food now on my mind, I turned and flew back to my audience.

"She acted just like the wild ones we watched," Maria exclaimed, clearly thrilled with the display she had just seen.

I landed on Soranto's outstretched hand, glad that he was always wearing his wrist guards lately. Leaning forward, I touched my nose to his before pulling back. My gaze moved to the bowl of fruit as I pointedly stared at it.

He took the not-so-subtle hint and offered me a piece. To my glee, a quarter of the bowl seemed to be cantaloupe. I ate each offered piece until I was stuffed. When I turned away from the next piece, Soranto picked up the cleaning kit from the table beside him.

I hopped down onto his lap and laid down. He was going to have his work cut out for him this morning since I could still feel sand between some of my scales. If there had been a pond here, I would have quickly rinsed myself off first.

Soranto began slowly cleaning my scales, taking care around the edges to get all of the grit out. My eyes closed as I relaxed. It felt good to have the sand come out. Almost as good as when Taureen had cleaned the remnants of the mud off.

"I think I'm going to have to refill the sand tray. I can't believe how much sand is coming out from between her scales."

I barely managed to turn my laugh into a sneeze. My chest actually ached as I tried to contain my laughter. It hadn't occurred to me that the hardest part of keeping my secret would be to avoid laughing at him.

Cleaning took much longer than usual, although he took his time as he oiled all of my tiny scarlet scales with meticulous care.

My eyes fluttered open as I realized that I had fallen asleep. There was no need for me to move, though, which was a rare luxury. Soranto seemed content to sit and pet me. Adeline and Maria were no longer outside.

I stretched out my wings and folded them before rolling onto my back. I grabbed Soranto's fingers and gently nibbled on them. With a smirk, he moved his hand closer and brushed his fingers against my belly.

It tickled, and I squeaked as I swatted the offending finger with one hand. My reaction amused him, and he did it again. This time, I grabbed onto the leather of his wrist guard where I didn't have to worry about my claws and pulled myself up.

I wrapped myself around his wrist as I reached over to grab his thumb lightly with my teeth. He twisted his arm upside down so I was right side up. With his other hand, he tickled what he could reach of my belly.

I squeaked and squawked each time he managed to tickle me, although it didn't have any effect on the outcome. I kept catching each guilty finger, although even I could tell that he was letting me catch them. Not that it stopped him.

My tail wrapped around his left wrist in a futile attempt to push his hand down. At least I didn't have to worry about inadvertently pressing buttons on his wrist comm. Like the majority of Kymari technology, it only responded to their touch.

Feeling a bit breathless, I dropped down to his lap. With a chuckle, he picked me up and cradled me against his chest as he carried me inside. He set me down on the warm sand on one of the end tables and went to pick up my harness by the door.

"Tessa, get ready to go."

At the familiar command, I quickly went to the bathroom and got a drink before flying over to land on the end table beside where he now sat. He put my harness on and coaxed me onto his glove before standing up.

One of the side doors opened up as Adeline came out. I quietly whistled a greeting, which made her smile as she came over. The door closed behind her; I had never managed to sneak into that room, although I knew it held Soranto's workshop. Supposedly, it had been reorganized to free up room for his armor and weapons. I hadn't been aware that Adeline did things in there as well.

Adeline brushed her fingers along my back before embracing her husband. Soranto held me away from their embrace as he returned the hug with his free hand. I averted my eyes, somewhat uncomfortable with the display of emotion. It wasn't something I usually saw among the Kymari.

They parted, and Adeline asked, "I assume you're dropping her off with Taureen before taking a shuttle to the city of Civus?"

"Yes, one of the warship's control panels is still giving the crew strange errors, and I'm apparently the only person on this planet who can fix both the hardware and the software on an energy-core battleship."

"They rarely come this far from the borders. The specialty battleships usually have everything they need for repairs or the ability to make it. Our space ports probably weren't aware that they needed to stock them."

"They are certain it's software related, and their primary technician remained with another ship along the border."

"Let me know if you'll be late coming back."

"I will. Maria is still going with her friend after school, correct?"

"Yes, and I will pick her up on my way home."

Soranto nodded before calling out, "Maria, if you want to say goodbye to Tessa, we are about to leave."

"Coming!" Maria quickly came out of her room and stroked my back when she reached us. "Have fun, Tessa. I hope you'll come back tomorrow night!"

With our goodbyes all said, Soranto transferred me onto his shoulder and left the house. A shuttle was waiting along the road, and we got into it. I gazed out of the window, although it didn't take long before I knew we were going to Taureen's house.

My ear tufts perked up as the shuttle door opened, and we approached the house. I partially opened my wings, but remained on Soranto's shoulder. When he rang the doorbell, Taureen's voice invited him in.

Soranto opened the door and went inside, pausing just long enough to tell me, "Go on."

I launched off his shoulder as I headed for the living room. "I'm back! Did you miss me?"

Dirk yawned from beneath the heat lamp. "I missed that peace and quiet. Does that count?"

Mom whacked him with her wing. "Yes, we all missed you."

Soranto entered the room and told Taureen. "It went much better than I had anticipated. I'll swing by the park to talk later this afternoon, if I'm not delayed. I have to see if I can fix an energy-core battleship in Civus."

"I'll be in the usual place."

Soranto nodded and looked at me as I nuzzled Mom beneath the heat lamp. "I'll see you later, Tessa."

I tilted my head and whistled at him. With a parting smile, he turned and left the room. The sound of the door opening and closing seemed far too loud. It felt kind of strange watching him leave. I blinked slowly at the hallway, kind of wishing I could have gone with him.

Dirk pounced on me. I squawked, turning to whack him with my wing, although he had already shot into the air to escape me. With a snort, I took off after him, bent on revenge.