Tessa's POV:

Tilting my head, I watched Maria hide a berry under one of several cups and move them in strange patterns. The cups looked the same, and I quickly lost track of which one held the treat.

Once she stopped and sat back, I leaned forward to sniff them and nosed one of the cups over to reveal my reward.

"I think I need to find some airtight ones," Maria murmured, watching me with a grin.

"Very likely. There are some small containers on the second shelf in the kitchen," Adeline commented, halfway watching us while doing something on a computer.

"Thanks!" Maria jumped to her feet and jogged into the kitchen.

As I watched her go, I stretched out and arched my back while flexing my wings. A faint prick of pain in one of my claws made me inspect it more closely. I sighed internally when I saw that the nail was starting to split. I hadn't been sharpening them regularly, and they had grown too long.

In theory, I should have known better. In reality, it had simply slipped my mind. Regardless of the cause, I now had a splitting nail to deal with before it got too much worse. Trying to sharpen it at this point would only make it worse.

The last time this happened, Taureen had trimmed the nail for me and filed it down until I could safely sharpen it. I had no clue how to ask Soranto, and he wouldn't be able to see it. The crack was almost invisible, so small that I could only feel it when I pressed it against something.

That only left one option. I flew to the bathroom and carefully washed my feet before perching in one of the trees. With the teeth on the side of my jaw, I began chewing on the tip of the offending nail, ignoring Maria as she set up the berry game again.

My claw was quite hard, and I had to chew at a certain angle to avoid worsening the split. The sharp edge of my nail grated unpleasantly against my teeth. I was really going to have to decide which tree base in this room was going to become my official scratching post. It would be easier for Soranto to replace just one section instead of having several of them looking shabby.

The piece finally came off, leaving a ragged tip that was going to be fun to sharpen into a point. It would probably take me several days. I ran my tongue over my teeth to try and dislodge the bits of shredded nail fragments. I spat most of them out, but one was stuck between my teeth.

Using a sharp claw, I tried to scratch the piece out. It was really wedged in there, and so small that I couldn't get any kind of grip on it. There was no mirror in this room for me to see what I was doing, nor any dragonet to lend a helping talon. I kept trying to get it out.

Almost nothing was as frustrating as having something small and hard jammed between your teeth. Shaking my head, I took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. No hot flames appeared to help char the trapped annoyance.

Being unable to ask for help was terribly annoying. More and more, I was beginning to see just how much I had taken my ability to speak with Taureen and Aeria for granted. Soranto wasn't even officially my handler yet, so there was no point in asking Mom if I could talk to him earlier. Dad would probably tell me to consider this as a test.

The fragment between my teeth was terribly annoying and impossible to ignore. Growling slightly in frustration, I glided down to Soranto's lap.

There had to be some sort of way to get his help... I just had to figure it out.

Lifting my head, I trilled at him.

He began petting me. "Did you see that Maria has more berries?"

Half unfurling my wings in something like a begging pose, I chirped and whistled. With a fond smile, he dug in his belt pouch and offered me a sunburst berry.

Even with the claw fragment stuck between my teeth, I couldn't pass that up. Every bite was aggravating, though, and only reminded me of my problem. Sitting down, I began trying to scratching at my teeth, trying to reach the piece that was causing the discomfort. I paused and shook my head before running my tongue along my teeth. Still no success. My claws came back up to try and get it out.

It didn't take more than a few repetitions before Soranto leaned over for a closer look.

"What are you doing? Here, let me see."

One hand carefully held my head while his other lifted my lips as he inspected my teeth.

Just when I was about to try running my claws over the trapped piece to indicate where it was, he said, "Maria, could you please go into my workshop and bring me the kit with the small tweezers? She's got something stuck between her teeth."

Maria disappeared into the room with impressive speed and soon returned. He picked a rather small pair of tweezers out of the kit and lifted my lip again.

"Easy. Hold still."

With a gentle tug, the fine-tipped tweezers pulled the piece out and relief swept over me. The discomfort was gone! I shook myself off hard, earning a chiming noise from my scales. I trilled a grateful thank-you at Soranto, who was examining the splintered fragment of the nail.

He scratched me behind the ear tufts, and I thrummed my happiness.

"What is that?" Maria inquired.

"Looks like a fragment from one of her claws. She was chewing on one a little while ago."

Picking me up, he turned me upside down and lay me in his lap as he turned his attention to my talons. He pressed the base of several claws, causing them to extend. My long neck made it easy to lift my head and watch what he was doing.

He opened up his cleaning kit and flipped the divider to reveal clippers and files. Perking up my ear tufts, I remained where I was, hoping that he would trim the mess I had made of my nail.

Methodically, he took each nail and trimmed it before using special files that shaved away small layers with each pass. Tilting my head, I tried to figure out how his large hands were able to delicately hold my claws and use the tools so precisely when I knew how strong Kymari were. It was a mystery to me.

By the time he finished, all of my claws were the length they were supposed to be. If I hadn't known that he had done it, it would have been easy to think I had sharpened them on my own. The curve was a bit different, but that was it.

I sighed in relief as I flexed them experimentally. It felt so much better. I was going to have to remember to keep them sharpened and at a proper length. I nudged Soranto's fingers and gave them a small lick as a kiss. He put the tools to the side and gently ran his fingers over the underside of my partially opened wings.

I spread them wider, letting him have a better look at the extraordinarily tiny scales on the wing membrane. His fingers were almost ticklish as they lightly skimmed over the length of my wing. Baring my teeth playfully, I grabbed onto his hand and began mouthing his fingers gently.

"I don't recall you ever trying to eat anyone else's fingers... They are mine. You do know that, right?"

He tried to wiggle his fingers free, only for me to hold on tighter and use my back legs to hang on as well. When he lifted his hand, I dangled upside down, still nibbling on his fingers. He set me back down as he used his other hand to loosen my claws.

Having four feet gave me the advantage when he only had one free hand. This time was even more fun because my claws weren't as sharp as normal, so I didn't have to be quite as careful.

He pulled his free hand away and when it reappeared, it held a long feather. My ears went back as the tickle device came closer. I refused to relinquish my hold and slapped at it with my tail, which, of course, did nothing.

The feather darted in and tickled my sides. With a squeak, I tried to catch it with one hand. He moved it too fast for my extended claws to try and shred my new-found foe.

He used to be an equipment engineer – he was not supposed to be pulling feathers out of his pockets to torment me!

The feather came back again and again. Finally, I accepted the outcome and let go of his hand – just to quickly roll onto my feet and jump at the feather.

My teeth managed to snag the feather and bite down hard before immediately releasing it. As my momentum took me past his hand, I spread my wings and quickly banked sideways to land on his shoulder with a laughing whistle. The poor feather flopped in half pathetically, mortally wounded by my strike.

"You killed it..." Soranto commented sadly, twisting it around idly.

I snorted and posed proudly before gliding down to where Maria sat with six containers and a bag of berries. She held up a berry and put it in one of the containers. After securing the lids on all six, she began shuffling them around.

The cups were moving fast, and it was hard to follow the one holding the berry. When they stopped, I nosed one of the cups and was satisfied when I heard the faint thump as something inside hit the side of the container.

Grabbing the container in my claws, my teeth tugged at the lid. It took me a few attempts to find the proper spot where I was supposed to pull, but I got the lid off.

After a few more rounds, I grew bored and went to sharpen my claws on the base of one of the trees. At first, I dug my claws in tentatively; partially to see if Soranto would object and partially to make sure I didn't get an unexpected hangnail after his trimming.

I dug them in deeper and deeper with each stroke, until I had to brace myself just to pull downwards. The tree base might look like wood, but now that I had my claws sunk into it, I knew it wasn't actually wood. It was a bit softer and didn't have as much resistance. However, it was sharpening my claws more efficiently.

Soranto's wrist comm beeped, and he checked it.

He was silent for a long moment before quietly saying, "Elder Dairno will be stopping at this planet tomorrow for a council meeting, and he is requesting permission to come over and visit us in the evening."

"Did he mention why?" Adeline asked. "Although, I'm pretty sure I know the answer since Tessa has been living with us full-time for several weeks."

"There aren't any additional details, but you are likely correct. The only reason for a visit like this would be to officially declare me a fire lizard handler. There have been no suggestions for improvement or change, so nothing is indicating his lack of confidence or support."

It was a struggle to continue sharpening my claws as if I was unaware of what they were talking about. This was what I had been waiting for. I had absolutely no reservations about having Soranto as my official handler. My ears tufts tilted backwards to listen more intently.

"We'll just have to leave Taureen's place earlier than usual. Does he know?"

"I'm messaging him now. If he didn't before, he will shortly."

"I can't see the Elder not speaking with Taureen and Aeria beforehand, although they probably couldn't say anything and might not have known when he would make his decision."

"Exactly. I'll reply to Elder Dairno and ask what time would work best for him."

Gazing up the tree trunk, I folded my wings tightly and began climbing with my claws. Picking one of the warmer nooks, I curled up to enjoy the heat, hoping it would relax my muscles when all I wanted to do was bounce around in celebration.