Lost Change

Chapter 78

We spent most of the day working on various bits of training. 'Stay' was just as frustrating and annoying as it had been before, and I only managed to do it a few times. Ivy got to eat a lot of sunburst berry and shia fruit slices while we worked on that, but Trenil and Minna ultimately called it quits.

They moved on to other training, but it was mostly just various methods of tracking. The goal seemed to be to get me to focus on the scent and avoid distractions. Trenil stood over the disk a few times and pretended to try and shoo me away, and other times the disk was hidden back in the city itself. One time Minna did something that caused the disk to emit a horrid scent in addition to the scent of ktari.

I earned half a shia fruit for leading them to the disk that time, but all the same, I hoped to never have to do that particular trick again.

But aside from that, we mostly just walked around the city. We went into a few of the buildings - during one visit in particular Minna spent a lot of time talking with a worker and filling out paperwork, after which I learned she had purchased the house we had been looking at - but most of them were uneventful.

Near the middle of the afternoon they took us to the market. The scent of shia fruit was still clear in the air as we approached it, and I fidgeted on Minna's shoulder while she walked, but I managed to keep from trying to fly after the scent. I glanced at Ivy and saw that she was lounging on Trenil's shoulder with a very unconcerned air... but after a few times of looking at her I noticed that she was sneaking her own peeks in the direction of the fruits. She was just as interested and excited as I was, but was just pretending not to be.

"Show off." I grumbled at her and sniffed the air again.

"I don't know what you're talking about." The sour note of a lie was blatant in her words. "You should try and relax. You're just going to make Minna think you've smelled something interesting if you act all agitated like that."

I waited for Minna to be distracted by some of the trinkets on display on a counter and shot a glare at the green dragonet. She returned my glare with a slight smirk but didn't move. She seemed to be doing her best to not look in the direction of the shia fruit.

"Hello there!" I perked my ear tufts as I heard a familiar voice and glanced towards the sound. The musician waved at us from the opposite side of the market and started towards us.

I whistled a greeting back to him as Minna lifted her own hand in a wave, and I saw Ivy's ear tufts perk from out of the corner of my eye. "Who's that? Someone you know?"

"You could say that." I pointedly kept from looking back at her as I fanned out my wings and sat up a little straighter. "You shouldn't look so excited; you'll make Trenil think you smell something interesting."

"Meanie. Who is it?" Ivy sat up on Trenil's shoulder and watched me, then looked back at the approaching Kymari. "Other than Terron and Trenil, I didn't know you knew any other male Kymari."

"I actually don't know his name. But he's been here every time I've come to the market. He plays music for the shoppers."

"Oh! Minna mentioned that in her reports. He's the one you sing with?"

I glanced back at the other dragonet. "...just how much of those reports does Trenil let you listen to?"

A short giggle of a laugh was the only answer Ivy sent through the mindlink.

"Hello again." Minna smiled as the musician came to a stop near us. "Trenil, this is the musician I mentioned."

"A pleasure to see you here, as always." The musician dipped his head towards Minna, then to me, before turning towards Trenil and Ivy. "I see Nate has a friend today. Will I have the pleasure of her singing as well?"