Lost Change

Chapter 68

"Okay! Go seek!" The simple blindfold lifted away from my head and revealed the bright world around me. I sniffed the air a few times to get my bearings... there! I perked my ears at the now-familiar scent and flew off of Minna's shoulder.

I had to admit, this particular bit of training was actually really fun.

Minna had taken us to another park - this one was much smaller than the one Susie and I had lived in, but there was still plenty of space in it - and had pulled a strange disk out of the bag. At first she had simply left the disk on the ground and I had ignored it, but after a few minutes she had tapped a button on her tablet which caused part of the disk to rotate open.

When she did that it exposed something inside that gave off an unfamiliar smell. It wasn't bad, exactly, but it was certainly strange. I came back to the disk to sniff it, and when I did, Minna gave me a slice of a sunburst berry.

That repeated a few times while I figured out the 'trick' I was supposed to be doing. When the disk was 'open' and giving off that smell, I would get a slice of a sunburst berry or a stroke over my back for standing on top of the disk, and I would get an extra treat if I trilled out, 'Found it!'. When the disk was closed, no amount of poking or showing off brought any kind of reward.

Once it had sunk in that the trick was to find the scent, Minna began hiding the disk around the park. It had been blatantly obvious and even boring - I wasn't being let off the leash, so Minna couldn't exactly get out of sight of me - but after a few of those Minna had put a simple hood over my head.

While I was distracted with hissing and flailing to get the thing off, Minna dropped the disk and carried me to a different part of the park. I wasn't too happy about being blinded like that... but tracking down the scent had proven to be a lot more fun. And I had gotten a sliver of shia fruit as my reward that time.

So for the last few hours I had played along with Minna's efforts to get me used to tracking that scent. It was actually a fun game, and before long I had even stopped trying to get the stupid hood off early. It was much more fun to give Minna the time she needed to properly hide the disk, and I could tell it made her happy when I waited for her to give the 'go seek' command.

Seeing Minna happy was almost becoming a form of treat in and of itself. Not as good as a real one obviously - barely on the level of a fresh mango, if even that - but it was still a good feeling. It would have bothered me even just a few days ago... but now I just let myself enjoy it. There was nothing wrong with making a friend happy.

I glided to the ground and sniffed a few times while Minna caught up with me. That was the first of two annoying parts of the game - it would have been much more fun to keep flying towards the scent, but the leash only allowed me to go so far. And, as much as I hated to admit it, it was easier to track scents closer to the ground anyways. I sniffed a few more times even after Minna caught up. I had been a little off in my direction before so I corrected for that, then jumped back up to continue after the scent.

The scent grew stronger before it suddenly changed direction. I landed again and sniffed around, turning in circles to try and track down the smell... then I stopped and looked up. I had been circling around a tree, and the scent was coming from somewhere up above me.

I scampered up the side of the tree, digging my claws into the soft bark, and came to the branch holding the disk. I sat up beside it and looked back down at Minna to trill out proudly. "Found it!"

Minna tossed a sliver of a shia fruit at me, and I snatched it out of the air. I fanned my wings out and ate the fruit happily.

The second annoying part was the other trick Minna kept trying to teach me. As soon as I had finished eating, my Kymari held up her gloved hand and spoke in a firm voice, "To fist."