Upon Wings Of Change

Chapter 28

I was confused when Taureen entered a house during our patrol. Other than apartment hallways, we never entered residential buildings. He walked into each room and down every hallway in the six-room house. The house had a faint smell of dust, and it had no personal belongings.

He went out the back door, and I looked around the spacious area. I was quite impressed; the backyard was probably bigger than the house with lots of shrubs and plants. I gazed up at the fence, it enclosed the entire back yard with a steel mesh that had openings the size of my hand.

I saw a perch on the side of the house, showing that the previous owner had likely kept large birds like eagles. Taureen looked at me as I examined the yard. He said, "You will get a chance to fly around in here later. We are moving here in two days."

I had to carefully control my reaction, which was to turn my head and stare at him in shock. Such an action could easily give away the fact that I could understand him. Moving here? That will be quite a step up in the world.

*      *      *

I glanced over as the doorbell rang, but didn't move. Alec and Soranto entered the apartment. Soranto paused as he entered. "Just how did that happen?"

Taureen responded in a dry voice, "I blame it on a training attempt gone wrong."

I glanced down at Taureen in curiosity from where I laid on top of his head. I knew he was not happy about my choice of perch, but he was tolerating it.

Alec shook his head as he sat down. "Just what were you trying to get her to do?"

"Nothing actually; we had recently finished a training session that involved her jumping from my arm to my shoulder and to other objects. Several minutes afterwards, she just decided to fly over and use my head as a perch. Luckily, she hasn't used her claws."

Soranto looked confused. "So why don't you just get her to go onto your fist to get her off?"

Taureen sighed. "She very rarely comes voluntarily unless I have something she really wants. This is the first time she has ever come on her own power without me doing anything to entice her over."

I was somewhat amused. I had actually done it to see if I could annoy him. I hadn't realized how he saw the situation. He thought he was making progress. I suppressed a snicker at the thought.

I had also been curious to see what his hair felt like; it just seemed so different from my old hair. The black strands were straight and as thick as a piece of spaghetti. His hair was so smooth that it was actually slippery. It was soft and almost silky as it slid against my scales.

I stretched out a bit more so that my claws dangled over his forehead as I leaned my head down. I tilted my head innocently to the side as I looked at his face.

"If she bites your nose, you are never going to live that down." I raised my head to regard Soranto. For some reason, he always seemed to expect the worst from me. Although I must admit that I have given him plenty of incentive. He has been scratched more times than all of the rest of them put together with his attempts to pet me.

He watched me warily as he said, "Taureen... I am not liking how that pet of yours is looking at me."

Taureen chuckled, and I leaned to the side, allowing myself to slide towards his shoulder. My hands hit the shoulder pad easily while the rest of my body slid down to rest in the dip between his shoulder and the back of the couch. He sighed in relief when I didn't dig in my claws during my intentional slide.

Alec cleared his throat. "Uh, Taureen. We might have a problem."

Taureen immediately focused on his friend. "What kind of problem?"