A New Beginning

Chapter 21

"Your mom may not have visited the main park since you hatched, but before that, we all used to go there every day. We still get to see and visit our friends and family. That is a thought for the future though. You have barely fledged, and you are still young. No Kymari would even consider taking you from your Mom before you two were ready. You have months to think about your options."

My muscles relaxed both from the heat of the sun and with relief. I was just over a month old, so there was lots of time to think.

I had pretty much made up my mind, though. One day, I was going to become a planet protector.

I just had to figure out this training thing and then pick a handler. That was going to be a big decision, but it sounded like I was going to be meeting lots of Kymari. Choosing the right one was important. No one had said it out loud, but every bit of information I heard highlighted how significant the choice was.

I yawned before letting the sun's heat lull me to sleep. Alec, Serena, and Tom were scheduled to start their shift around lunchtime, so it wouldn't be long before we left. They might as well get the chance to relax before leaving.

*           *          *

       I stretched out before happily bounding towards Aeria to let her put my harness on, eager to go for our afternoon outing. I grinned when Aeria had to adjust the straps to get my harness on this time. They had felt a bit snug when we left Alec's earlier. My big lunch probably hadn't helped either.

Taureen and Aeria were both wearing some sort of light armor and their heavier shoulder pads again. These were the same ones they wore whenever we left the house. I flew up to Aeria shoulder and let her put the leash on.

Turning back, I saw that Dirk was lazing underneath the heat lamp. I whistled impatiently at him.

"Hurry up, lazybones! You're never going to see a crawler if you don't leave the house!"

He grumbled, but got up and walked towards where Taureen was waiting. Dirk was hoping to see a crawler in real life since he hadn't seen the one in the testing room. A sicora, on the other hand, was something he didn't want to see again.

I didn't really want to see one either, but I was kind of hoping to go back to that room now that I knew it was just a test. Things had moved too quickly, and I had been too scared to really stop and think. I wanted to try it again now that I knew what was happening.

Taureen and Aeria went out the front door, and just like the last two days, their guards were waiting for them. Tran and Vick walked beside Taureen, while Rhay and Sadria kept close to Aeria.

We hadn't gone on a real patrol yet, but we were getting to go to small parks where our leashes were taken off. I was excited and couldn't wait to see where we were going to go today.

As we approached the sidewalk, a shuttle settled nearby. When half of the guards went inside, I realized that we were going in as well. My ear tufts perked up – I had never been in a shuttle before!

The inside of the shuttle was much more boring than I had expected. Pale grey walls, ten seats, and some windows. Taureen entered a code on a screen, and the shuttle lifted off the ground to head to our destination. Wherever it might be.

The handful of windows let us see outside as we rose slightly and skimmed above the road. This shuttle didn't fly above the buildings like many of them did. The city went past for some time before the shuttle began slowing down. The numerous trees beside the sidewalk were likely the edge of another park, but this one looked bigger than the previous places we had visited.