A New Beginning

Chapter 23

Tessa's POV:

I flew silently up behind the Kymari, who were still sitting on the benches and visiting. Abby was right behind me, carrying a flower of her own.

"We can both fit on Sadria's shoulder."

"Sounds good to me. Which one is Sadria?"

I sent her the mental image, although considering I was aiming right for her, it wasn't much of a guess.

Just before we reached them, I trilled a greeting whistle so I didn't startle them too badly. They were fighters. They jumped slightly, but just glanced back at us.

I landed on Sadria's shoulder and promptly began stuffing the flower stem into a gap near the front of her neck. Abby touched down very nervously on the edge of her armor before tentatively tucking her flower into a joint along Sadria's shoulder blade.

"Well, this is unusual," Sadria commented calmly, not looking directly at us.

It took me only moments to have the flower securely in place where it pointed towards Sadria's face.

"Tessa, treat," Taureen quietly said.

My ear tufts perked up when I saw that he was holding two sunburst berries. I immediately flew over to land on his wrist guard.

"Abby! He has sunburst berries! Come get one!"

I gleefully began nibbling on mine, trying to make it last. The green fledgling was shaking as she landed beside me on Taureen's outstretched wrist to get the last berry. Her eyes were wide and her ear tufts were back as they quivered. I realized that she was much more scared of my friends than I was of the forest.

"Come on," I told her. "Let's go find a quiet place to eat these."

Her relief flooded the mindlink like a strong wave. Spreading my wings, I jumped up and flew towards the trees with a happy whistle. Just for fun, I did a barrel roll, although Abby quickly passed me as she took the lead, hurrying back to the concealing trees.

We found a big tree and landed there to leisurely nibble on the delicious berries.

"Where did he get them?" Abby asked. "Dad gave me and Glen one of these berries once."

I shrugged. "I'm not sure, but I usually get one every day."

Her longing and jealousy came through the mindlink.

"Mom and Dad will probably bring me back here another day, so we can always try it again."

"Maybe. Let's go find Glen and Dirk."

I nodded and dropped down from the branch as we went to locate the duo.

It wasn't hard to find them. They were still in the clearing with the adults.

"Hey, Glen," Abby began excitedly. "I just had a sunburst berry!"

His head whipped around to stare at us incredulously. "Where did you find one?"

"Tasha's handler had two, one for me and one for Tessa." Her excitement showed through clearly, but the nervousness she had felt landing on his wrist also came through.

Mia, the green dragonet who had been curious about my harness, sat up with her ears pinned back. "What? You went near the Kymari? They could have kidnapped you and put you in a cage!"

A rude snort sounded as Mom lifted her head. "That is a lie, Mia, and you know it. Unless she was seriously injured, they wouldn't even consider taking her from the park. Quit trying to scare them."