Tessa's POV:
I followed Mom through the forest somewhat uneasily. I had never gone this far before, and certainly not when it was this dark. Everything was vaguely familiar, though, courtesy of my evening talks with Abby.
The deep shadows in the park weren't what was making me nervous – it was the prospect of seeing the entire flock at once. I hadn't even met a third of them yet. All of them were likely in a clearing ahead, waiting for the Morning Song to begin.
Finally, I would get to see for myself why so many bonded dragonets liked to sing with the wild flock in the morning. Mom slowed down, and I could see glints of color ahead. I snorted faintly as we passed several Kymari sitting in a tree.
"Why are there Kymari in a tree?" Dirk asked, equally as perplexed as me.
Dad glanced at them. "They like to watch. There are usually about fifty or so that turn up every day."
I wasn't sure I liked the thought of spectators during my first day with the flock, but it wasn't as if I could do anything about it. My attention was quickly captured by the numerous red, blue, purple, green, gold, and silver dragonets scattered around the clearing.
Many of them looked over as we entered the clearing, although the brightening horizon drew their gaze back quickly enough. My ear tufts perked up when I saw Serena and Tom. A closer inspection revealed that four other dragonets also wore harnesses.
Abby flew to greet me. "You made it!"
"Just in time, too!"
"Let's land on the grass by the other fledglings. It won't be long. I can already feel the call building."
Mom and Dad had already perched on a tree branch, so I followed Abby. Dirk came with us, more at ease since we knew all of the fledglings fairly well. Glen was noticeably absent, as was his father, who was remaining close to the burrow.
We fell silent as we focused on the sun that was beginning to peek over the horizon. Seconds before the light rippled, some dragonets spread their wings and took to the air. There was barely enough time for me to realize that not everyone could take off at the same moment – then the Morning Song's call suddenly strengthened.
At its beckoning, I jumped into the air along with the others. With so many dragonets taking flight, even our normally silent wingbeats were producing enough sound to be heard. It didn't matter, though – our voices immediately drowned out the faint noise.
A handful of clouds were accented in bright pink against the dark blue sky, creating a contrast that we had to somehow bring out in our song and dance. The dragonets quickly converged on the center of the clearing, turning it into a three-dimensional dancefloor.
It was almost too much to take in.
Not only was the Morning Song filling me with its usual joy and happiness that made me just want to focus on flying and singing, but now I had to also watch out for nearly a hundred and fifty other fliers in the same area. The effect of being so close to this many dragonets while they were singing was something my mind couldn't wrap itself around.
I joined the swirling mass – somehow avoiding dozens of potential collisions – as I added my own dance and song to the joyous celebration. The air around my scales shifted from close passes, but I was too caught up in the Song to really notice.
Before I knew it, the Morning Song was coming to an end. As always, I was sad to see it go. This time, the ending was more noticeable since the group effort had amplified the Song's effects.
It took me a few seconds to spot Mom and Dad among the crowd that was rapidly dispersing into the trees.
"See you tomorrow, Abby!"
"Tomorrow? What about tonight?"
"It's supposed to rain most of the afternoon and evening."
"Ugh. I guess that means another boring afternoon in the burrows. I'm going to stash some fruit so I don't have to get wet later. You may have a heat lamp, but I don't have any way to warm back up. No one likes to cuddle when you're cold, either."
"Yeah, Dirk objects too. Although he squawks pretty good if you can catch him by surprise."
Her mirth rolled across the mindlink. "I'll have to keep that in mind in case I ever catch him sunbathing."
She flew over to her mother, and both of them disappeared into the canopy as they went in search of breakfast.
Mom and Dad waited just long enough to make sure that Dirk and I were following before they flew towards the trees. The direction they chose confused me – this wasn't the way back to the meadow where we left Taureen and Aeria.
Movement ahead made me squeak as I realized why we were going this way. "They followed us?"
Mom glanced back at me in amusement. "They always watch our Morning Song. Are you really that surprised that they followed us out here?"
My ear tufts went back in embarrassment – it hadn't even occurred to me that Taureen and Aeria would follow us through the trees. They had likely followed our tracking devices, but how they had covered so much distance so quickly was a riddle for another day.
Instead of landing on their shoulders, we flew near them as they began jogging back to the main walking trails. We headed back home to have some breakfast and get ready for the rest of the day.
I was certain of one thing, though – I wanted to come back another day to sing with the flock.
The rain began falling not long after lunchtime. From the darkness of the clouds, it wasn't going anywhere any time soon. I rustled my wings unhappily when the wind blew a few cold drops past Aeria's umbrella.
This open section of the sidewalk had nothing to stop the wind or the rain. The guards' armor must have been waterproof and warm since they didn't seem overly bothered by the wet stuff falling out of the sky. Dad didn't seem to mind the rain, although even his wings were folded tighter to his body than usual.
It was a relief when the training building came into view. I waited impatiently as we went inside and walked through the hallways to reach the airlock doors.
The doors slid open, and I took a deep breath. Nothing stood out. My eyes scanned the empty corridors as we walked through them. Despite my best attempts, I couldn't smell anything out of place. No hint of sicora or crawler. Not even a nebulous whiff of a ktari.
We rounded corner after corner as the suspense built, but I couldn't figure out what was here. I began focusing on my eyes and ears as well as my nose – not that it helped any. The next corridor was quite strange, with odd symbols on the walls and weird spinning decorations hanging from the ceiling at various heights.
A quick glance at Dad showed that he didn't know what to make of it either. The corridor only got stranger as we went farther. A couple of the decorative twirlers above flashed with bright lights, and some were larger than I was. Without any wind, I wasn't sure how they were moving.
Twice, I spotted lone weapons just lying on the floor. A loud boom echoed from behind us, making me and Dad jump. Dad's ears pinned back as he growled faintly, looking back to try and find the source of the noise. I looked around nervously, but didn't see anything.
Aeria and the guards glanced around suspiciously, but kept walking. A faint whirring noise grew louder, and turned out to originate from another rapidly rotating wind decoration. I tilted my head, trying to figure out how it was moving when the air was still. If nothing else, it needed fixing to stop the annoying sound.
Another boom from behind us made me jump and whine slightly, unsure of what was going on.
"Easy," Aeria reassured me, reaching up to stroke my shoulders.
The wary looks the guards exchanged did nothing to reassure me. Another boom rocked the air and the floor, forcing Aeria to sidestep to keep her balance. I whistled a high-pitched alarm call, although all three Kymari had already spotted the faint wisps of smoke curling around the corner we had just passed.
"Let's get moving!" Rhay said, his eyes fixated on the smoke as he motioned the other two ahead of him.
They took off at a quick jog, which was much faster than I had anticipated. Dad and I dug our claws into the stiff shoulder pads to hang on.
We reached another airlock, and it slid open to reveal a forest. I blinked in complete shock. If it wasn't for the ceiling far above us, I would have assumed that we had just walked into the scariest forest I had ever seen. Twisted trees and thick leaves restricted us to a narrow trail littered with twigs and leaves. The damp smell of leaf mold and greenery filled the air.
"I vote that we never allow Banrai to set up the training room again," Sadria muttered, holding her weapons at the ready.
"He does have a habit of going overboard," Rhay replied, equally as on edge. "Although, I suspect that the chance to catch us off-guard was a challenge he probably couldn't resist."
Their conversation and level of alertness did nothing to calm my nerves. Dad's head kept turning as he tried to keep an eye on as much of the greenery as he could. Strange bird calls and noises echoed through the trees. My Blood Memories couldn't identify most of them, and the few they could were things that likely weren't on this planet.
Sound recordings. That realization helped slow down my heartrate, although I wasn't about to relax. Especially if it made two Kymari guards wary when the training session was supposedly designed for me.
Branches occasionally rattled in the distance, although the thick greenery hid any possible cause from sight. The Kymari cautiously walked down the pathway with Sadria leading the way.
The shrub in front of her rustled as something launched out at her. Even as I screeched, her phaser fired several shots as the small furry creature exited the bushes. The force of the blasts knocked it sideways, sending it skidding through the rotting leaves on the ground. From this angle, I could see that it was another hide put onto a mount.
My claws dug into Aeria's shoulder pad as I chittered in slight agitation. I was more than happy to track sicora and crawlers – but I had not signed up to be ambushed by hidden creatures! And forests did not belong on spaceships! Especially creepy ones.
Dad growled faintly, his wings half-unfolded in case he had to take to the air quickly. The Kymari resolutely kept going deeper into the foreign swamp-like jungle.
A quiet rustle made me look overhead and screech as something dropped down. Aeria jumped to the side, nimbly avoiding it as I held onto her shoulder with a tight grip. A fireball struck it as Dad took to the air, too uneasy to remain a stationary target. He circled the group with quick wingbeats and unpredictable sideslips in case something else popped out at us.
Aeria didn't call him back, knowing that his reactions in the air would beat her evasive maneuvers. My flying skills still weren't nearly as good as any of the adults, so I anxiously remained where I was.
We kept going. Twice more, Sadria took care of ambushing 'animals'. Nothing else dropped down from above, although deep mud puddles appeared on the trail that the Kymari had to avoid.
I had never been so glad to see a door before.
Dad landed beside me, although he eyed up the door suspiciously. As it began to open up, I tensed, ready for almost anything.
The familiar spaceship corridors were a welcome sight. Although that didn't prevent me from growling as I picked up the smell of a crawler.
It took us less than five minutes of normal guiding to locate the crawler and let the guards dispatch the fake creature. We checked the rest of the corridors and rooms, just in case.
As we left the final airlock door, Rhay glanced at us and commented, "They certainly did well."
"Yes," Aeria agreed. "Even Keegan has never been through a training session like that."
Sadria commented, "It wouldn't surprise me if the trainers put most of the trainees through that course just for amusement's sake. I almost had to do a double take when I saw the hidden pitfall trap."
"Did you see the two air cannons?" Rhay asked.
My eyes went wide. Pitfall trap? Air cannons? Apparently, I had missed more than a few things in the last room.
"Yeah, I saw them," Aeria replied somewhat dryly. "If they had fired those cannons near the fire lizards, I would have been having some words with them."
"They wouldn't dare," Rhay said. "I'm positive that this particular setup is meant for any guards who want some additional training. The fire lizards just got the privilege of going first."
Aeria glanced back at the airlock. "I will have to see if I can leave Keegan with Taureen and try the course. I've been getting a bit slack in my own training lately."
"I know Taureen would love to try it," Rhay replied. "With the two youngsters to distract Tasha, he can probably slip out for an hour without her noticing. The training area in your basement is good, but it only holds the basics. Nothing like this."
Aeria nodded slowly. "I'll mention it to him tonight. He will probably come early in the morning since Tasha usually sleeps until the sun is about to rise. Let's walk around the west district for an hour. By the time we finish that, our shift will be over."
"Sounds good. The rain isn't letting up any, and that area has a lot of sheltered walkways."
I shook myself off and looked up at Dad, kind of surprised that he was still beside me. Normally, he preferred to have more room and went to Aeria's other shoulder.
He nudged me with his nose. "I guess your mother isn't going to have to worry about you wanting to become an adventurous explorer, huh?"
I snorted at the joke. "Not likely. Please tell me that you don't normally see a forest like that on a patrol."
"I have never seen any forest like that anywhere. The forest outside the wall is quite similar to the deepest parts of the main park, and the few times we helped track lingering sicora or crawlers out there, at least six guards came along."
I sighed in relief, glad to know that I would likely never see a forest like that outside of a training area. A chilly wind blew through the opening door, announcing that both the wind and rain had waited for our return. I folded my wings tighter and leaned against Dad, using him as a windbreaker.
There was only an hour left of our shift, but it was going to feel much longer unless Aeria found more sheltered places to walk. As I was getting older, the rain bothered me less, but I doubted that I would ever really like the cold wet stuff. In the meantime, I just had to put up with it.