A New Beginning

Chapter 36

Tessa's POV:

I yawned, enjoying the heat of the sun on my outstretched wings. Abby was fast asleep beside me on the same rock.

Scratching my ear tuft, I asked Dirk, "Feel like seeing if the Ply-Ball group is there yet?"

"Sure."

"Abby, do you want to come?"

She moved her head under her wing as she uttered a faint, sleepy groan. Apparently, she wasn't in the mood for Ply-Ball at the moment. She had played with us the last four days, and her legs were a bit sore from the amount of running she had been doing. Thankfully, she had finally relaxed enough to allow all six players on the field without panicking.

Getting to my feet, I shook out my wings before taking to the air. I circled the clearing as Dirk warmed up his muscles before also taking flight. We headed over to the clearing where the team showed up almost every day.

A couple of the usual bystanders were waiting beside a bench, which meant that the others were likely on their way. Dirk and I landed in the tree above them to wait.

"Oh, look. They're here already."

"I wonder how long they will hang around. The game on Ferdac went longer than expected, so their space shuttle is just landing. It's going to take them at least ten minutes to get here from the space port, even if they take a shuttle."

"There, I sent them a message letting them know that their friends are waiting."

"Darcy is almost here, and she has a spare ball. We can probably keep these two entertained long enough for the team to get here."

It wasn't more than a minute or so before a teenager was jogging in our direction. Considering she was carrying a ball, I assumed that this was Darcy.

"Nice to see you, Darcy. Want to kick that ball into the field? We might as well play with these two while we wait for the others."

"Sure." She turned around and kicked the ball out onto the grass.

Dirk dove after it, more than ready to score the first goal. Our skills had really improved, although it was too bad that the ball was far too large for us to pick up. I flew after him and landed in the grass near him.

The two women and young man moved to intercept Dirk's path. Since I was faster, I stole the ball from Dirk and tried to dart ahead of them. We had already decided that until they tried to train us to pass the ball, that we would just steal it. Passing it wasn't exactly easy for us anyway; it was just too big.

They humored us and let both Dirk and I score several goals before the Ply-Ball team arrived.

"Better hurry up! You're already losing by five goals!" the one called out with a big grin.

Rasha replied, "That's your score. Not ours. The score gets reset when we actually arrive."

"Well, considering that Dirk is about to get another goal, you're already behind."

Shaking his head, he jogged onto the field towards us. He wasn't close enough to beat Dirk to the stone, so he didn't hurry. With a loud whistle, Dirk rolled the ball onto the rock.

Rasha reclaimed the ball and began tossing it from hand to hand as he waited for his other friends to get onto the field. Dirk and I flew around him in circles, waiting for him to kick it.

Once his friends had closed half of the distance, he turned the other way and kicked it clear across the field. Dirk and I swooped down and glided right above the grass as we flew after it. Rasha jogged after us, secure in the knowledge that he could intercept us as we brought the ball back.