A New Beginning

Chapter 45

Tessa's POV:

From Taureen's shoulder, I eagerly watched Soranto's home get larger as we walked towards it. It was pretty easy to recognize the large house and fancy, formal front yard. The subtle swirling on the walls seemed much more elaborate than most of the homes I had seen – and I had seen a lot during our walks.

Taureen waved his hand in front of the doorbell, and it chimed.

Soranto opened up the door with a smile. "You know you don't have to ring the doorbell, right?"

"That is what I keep telling you and Tkael, and you two still do it every time."

Soranto shrugged. "Old habits and courtesies die hard. Besides, it gives Tasha and Keegan some warning that company is about to invade their domain. Come inside. Dinner will be ready shortly."

Soranto opened the door further, and Taureen stepped inside before suddenly freezing in his tracks as he stared at the living room. Aeria squeezed through the door behind him and also paused. Adeline grinned at their reaction from where she stood in the kitchen door. Maria stood beside her mother with a wide smile.

If I hadn't seen the outside of the house, I certainly wouldn't have recognized the living room. The walls and windows were the same, but that was about it. Gone was the massive and mostly empty layout. In its place, something that seemed like a dragonet's paradise had emerged.

The left and right walls had fake trees and branches climbing up the entire height of the wall as they formed arches over the doors. The branches and leaves created perches and places to curl up everywhere. Some of the little leaf cubbies had faint red illumination inside, while a couple had a blue tinge emerging from within.

On the left side of the room, one spot lacked the trees; instead, it took on a sandstone cliff theme. The shelf with the sand tray had been transformed into what looked like a real overhanging sandy cliff ledge. I didn't see the tray that held the sand, but judging by how thick the shelf had become, there was probably a deep indentation as opposed to a raised tray.

A tiny trickle of water ran down the wall from branches near the ceiling. It filled up the matching water bowl beside the shelf before continuing down the sandstone-themed wall to a tiny pond on the floor.

I gazed around the room with wide eyes, marvelling that there were even perches in front of every window, as well as end tables with sunken sand trays beside all of the chairs.

Aeria eventually commented to Adeline in a stunned voice, "This is different."

Adeline laughed and gestured to the room. "I've been looking for an excuse to redecorate for years. This is much more my style. My family can't even complain that it isn't proper since Tessa is bonding with Soranto."

Soranto chuckled, clearly pleased with what he and his wife had managed to accomplish. Taureen finally exhaled slowly and seemed to unfreeze. He took a few more steps inside, slowly running his gaze around the room.

"When you mentioned doing a few renovations over the last week," Taureen slowly said, "this was not what I had assumed."

"I know," Soranto replied smugly. "We wanted it to be a surprise, and judging by your expression, I can safely assume that we succeeded."

"Indeed."

Taureen's dry voice was completely at odds with his intrigued and curious expression as he continued to survey the room from where he stood. I didn't know where to look first, but I really wanted to go investigate every little spot.

I trilled an inquiry, and Taureen said, "Go on."

Neither Mom nor I wasted a single moment as we both flew straight towards the trees. The branches didn't stick out far from the wall, not much more than Taureen's wall perches did. I landed on one, surprised to find that it felt just like a real tree branch, and not a dead branch or piece of driftwood.