Chapter 42

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Tessa's POV:

We were eating breakfast when the doorbell rang. My head lifted in confusion; no one ever came over in the morning.

To make things even stranger, Taureen just called out, "Come in."

Dirk smirked at me. "If you hadn't fallen asleep last night, you would know that Soranto is going with Aeria today."

I stood up straighter in excitement. Now that he mentioned it, I did kind of remember Soranto saying something like that last night. My stomach grumbled, recalling my attention to my food dish. Breakfast was the most important meal of the day.

"Good morning," Soranto's cheerful voice rang out from the hallway.

"Good morning to you, too," Taureen replied. "Ready for your first day?"

"Not particularly, but I'm willing to give it a try."

"They were oiled earlier and are just eating now, so we have a bit of time to get ready. Your next patrol with us is in three days, correct?"

"Yes."

"If it doesn't bother your family, then try coming over before the sun rises so you can see how our mornings usually go. You'll also get to see Tessa sing. It is much more interesting in person."

"I'm sure I can arrange that."

They continued discussing the usual patrol schedule while I focused on my rapidly emptying food bowl. I ate everything, even the two pieces of kiwi, but I was still hungry. It was very rare for me to manage to empty my bowl, let alone be looking for more.

Looking around, I decided to see if begging might yield some good results as opposed to waiting and seeing what the others didn't finish. I flew over to land on Taureen's shoulder and creeled a hunger cry.

He glanced at my empty bowl. "Looks like she's putting on another growth spurt. Here, why don't you take her into the kitchen and find her some more food while we get ready?" He reached out and tapped Soranto's shoulder pad. "Tessa, jump."

With a hop and wingbeat, I easily landed on Soranto's shoulder. He began walking towards the kitchen and looked at the fruit behind the glass. My mouth began watering as he picked out half of a cantaloupe and began cutting off a thick slice. I leaned forward eagerly, but remained on his shoulder.

He started dicing it up and offered a small piece to me. I happily took it. Piece by piece, the cantaloupe left the counter and magically disappeared into my mouth. I almost managed to eat the entire slice before I lay down on his shoulder and turned my head away from the next offered piece.

He put the rest of the fruit away and cleaned the knife and counter before heading back into the living room. Taureen and Aeria had their armor on and were just getting our harnesses. Taureen passed Soranto my harness.

"Stand up," Soranto coaxed me.

With a long-suffering sigh, I got to my feet. I failed to see why anyone would want to move after they ate. My best naps were done on a full stomach.

It was a bit awkward for him, but he managed to get my harness on while I stood on his shoulder. Once it was on and he finished checking it, I flopped down again. There was no point in going over to the heat lamp since we would be leaving shortly.

Eventually, everyone was ready, and we headed out the door. Our usual four guards were waiting for us. Aeria and her guards entered a shuttle and swiftly took off. Taureen and Soranto chose to walk while Tran and Vick accompanied us.

"We'll go over to the training rooms so you can see how they usually react to sicora and crawlers," Taureen informed Soranto. "This will be the basic area, not the rather unusual setup that Banrai managed to come up with."

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"That's a relief. The trainers stuck me through Banrai's creation a dozen times this week. I still have bruises from some of the traps."

"That's more along the lines of regular guard training. Once you complete the standard training, they will ease up. As a handler, you aren't supposed to be getting into fights. They just want you to be able to defend yourself if something unexpected occurs."

"So I've heard. In the meantime, I have the delight of being their main focus. They are finding the chance to turn a civilian into a fighter far too entertaining. My work experience has taught me a few tricks that even managed to catch them by surprise, but it doesn't make up for my lack of practice with weapons."

"You managed to surprise Rodrigo?" Taureen asked, looking interested.

Soranto grinned. "I cut the control cables on most of their traps the second I spotted them. Afterwards, they informed me that I wasn't supposed to steal parts from the traps to jerry-rig a ranged weapon to set off other traps from a safe distance."

Taureen laughed and even Tran and Vick chuckled.

"I don't think that taking their traps apart was exactly what they had in mind for their training exercises," Taureen said in amusement.

"I am – or was – an equipment engineer. I tend to be very creative if I have some time to think, especially if it helps me avoid pain. They can't blame me if I'm being resourceful. Avoiding fights is my goal, not wading into the thick of it."

Vick nodded in approval. "That's a good mentality. It's our job to deal with any trouble. Your job is to help us find the sicora and crawlers, then keep your little friend out of mischief while we take care of them."

"That's the plan, but I'm still learning as much as I can, just in case a sicora tries to ambush me."

The conversation shifted back to his numerous training sessions and what they were focusing on. It wasn't something I was interested in, so I tuned them out. Mom looked equally as bored, although the slightly distant look in her eyes meant that she was likely mindlinking someone.

Abby would be playing in the creek, snacking on fruit, or, more likely, sunbathing right now. So, instead of possibly waking up my friend and giving her another reason to plot revenge, I decided to mindlink Dirk.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm not entirely sure."

He sent me an image of a long dock that looked like it was made out of grey stone. A dozen or so boats floated on the water beside it. I recognized the huge lake as one that bordered another city.

I refrained from rolling my eyes. "You haven't been on one of the ships yet? They rock slightly, but it isn't as bad as what Dad says the human ships used to do. You might even get to see a big fish!"

"A fish? I plan on staying on Aeria's shoulder. I'm not about to go swimming to see what's down there."

"No, silly. Some Kymari go fishing on that dock. One of them showed me a fish they caught – it was bigger than me!"

"Okay, now I'm definitely not going swimming here."

"That's a good plan. Do you want to hear about the crocodiles?"

"No!"

With an evil chuckle, I let the mindlink fade. I had never actually seen a crocodile except in the Aralias Gardens, but Dirk didn't know that. The poor guy was going to be delightfully paranoid all day now.

Lifting my head, I could just see the edge of the training building from here. I stretched my wings before settling down again. Sometimes our walking got boring, and there weren't even many people on the sidewalk to watch this morning.

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