A New Beginning

Chapter 46

Tessa's POV:

I yawned as Soranto and Aeria kept walking down the sidewalk. Simply wandering around the city was pretty boring. Even if Soranto hadn't been familiar with most of the streets in this city, the last three weeks certainly would have rectified that.

We had even travelled to some of the other cities several times, just for a change of scene. Our practice runs in the training rooms ran smoothly, even the few times Soranto and I had gone in without Taureen or Aeria.

I couldn't wait until I could go on an actual spaceship and actually check them for real crawlers or sicora, but that was still at least a month away. The Elders were remaining firm about us being at least six months old before we could go on a real patrol.

"When are you coming to the park?" Abby asked, interrupting my rambling thoughts. "You are usually here by now."

"We are on our way. Taureen, Mom, and Dirk will probably get there before I do. Why are you so excited?" Abby almost never contacted me during my working shift. We weren't that much later than usual.

"Uh, I'll tell you when you get here. I'll keep waiting, but it's your fault if I fall asleep."

Considering how excited she sounded, I doubted that she was going to fall asleep. Maybe the Ply-Ball players had arrived early and were holding a small competition or something. It was kind of fun watching them if they didn't know we were spying on them.

Time practically crawled by until we finally reached the park. As I halfway expected, Taureen was already here, although I was surprised to see Dirk trying to steal something out of Tran's pockets as opposed to cuddling with Abby.

I'd seen them cuddling a few times now, and it wasn't exactly a secret among the dragonets that they liked each other.

"I'm here!" I called out to Dirk as I flew closer. "Let's go find Abby and Glen."

He looked up and whistled a welcome before flying over to greet me. After spinning in a few circles, we flew towards the trees where Dad had already disappeared.

"Where are you?" I asked Abby, letting Dirk overhear my question.

"In the clearing with all the ferns." She sent an image along just in case we were uncertain about where she was. Her voice was bland, with no underlying emotions – she must have been blocking them out of the mindlink.

"What's up with Abby?" I asked Dirk privately.

"Maybe she will tell us when we get there."

I gave him an odd look; the worry under his mindvoice and his evasion of the question meant that he knew exactly what was bugging her. If Abby didn't tell us, I could try asking Glen later on. He always knew what was on his sister's mind.

As we entered the clearing, Glen was watching his pacing sister in amusement. The moment she saw us, she flew towards Dirk.

"He agreed! He said yes!"

Her excitement rang through her voice, leaving me thoroughly baffled as I was unintentionally excluded from the greeting. I banked around the green and blue dragonets as I landed beside Glen on a branch.

I gave the silver dragonet a questioning look, but he merely shifted his gaze pointedly back to Abby and an equally excited Dirk. I watched their aerial celebration in awkward silence for a few overly long minutes before clearing my throat.

"Uh, can I ask who said yes to what?"

Somehow, Abby almost managed to freeze mid-air in embarrassment. Beside me, Glen tried to turn his snickering into coughing. I tilted my head, trying to figure out what I was missing.