A New Beginning

Chapter 56

Tessa's POV:

Tilting my head, I watched Maria hide a berry under one of several cups and move them in strange patterns. The cups looked the same, and I quickly lost track of which one held the treat.

Once she stopped and sat back, I leaned forward to sniff them and nosed one of the cups over to reveal my reward.

"I think I need to find some airtight ones," Maria murmured, watching me with a grin.

"Very likely. There are some small containers on the second shelf in the kitchen," Adeline commented, halfway watching us while doing something on a computer.

"Thanks!" Maria jumped to her feet and jogged into the kitchen.

As I watched her go, I stretched out and arched my back while flexing my wings. A faint prick of pain in one of my claws made me inspect it more closely. I sighed internally when I saw that the nail was starting to split. I hadn't been sharpening them regularly, and they had grown too long.

In theory, I should have known better. In reality, it had simply slipped my mind. Regardless of the cause, I now had a splitting nail to deal with before it got too much worse. Trying to sharpen it at this point would only make it worse.

The last time this happened, Taureen had trimmed the nail for me and filed it down until I could safely sharpen it. I had no clue how to ask Soranto, and he wouldn't be able to see it. The crack was almost invisible, so small that I could only feel it when I pressed it against something.

That only left one option. I flew to the bathroom and carefully washed my feet before perching in one of the trees. With the teeth on the side of my jaw, I began chewing on the tip of the offending nail, ignoring Maria as she set up the berry game again.

My claw was quite hard, and I had to chew at a certain angle to avoid worsening the split. The sharp edge of my nail grated unpleasantly against my teeth. I was really going to have to decide which tree base in this room was going to become my official scratching post. It would be easier for Soranto to replace just one section instead of having several of them looking shabby.

The piece finally came off, leaving a ragged tip that was going to be fun to sharpen into a point. It would probably take me several days. I ran my tongue over my teeth to try and dislodge the bits of shredded nail fragments. I spat most of them out, but one was stuck between my teeth.

Using a sharp claw, I tried to scratch the piece out. It was really wedged in there, and so small that I couldn't get any kind of grip on it. There was no mirror in this room for me to see what I was doing, nor any dragonet to lend a helping talon. I kept trying to get it out.

Almost nothing was as frustrating as having something small and hard jammed between your teeth. Shaking my head, I took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. No hot flames appeared to help char the trapped annoyance.

Being unable to ask for help was terribly annoying. More and more, I was beginning to see just how much I had taken my ability to speak with Taureen and Aeria for granted. Soranto wasn't even officially my handler yet, so there was no point in asking Mom if I could talk to him earlier. Dad would probably tell me to consider this as a test.

The fragment between my teeth was terribly annoying and impossible to ignore. Growling slightly in frustration, I glided down to Soranto's lap.

There had to be some sort of way to get his help... I just had to figure it out.

Lifting my head, I trilled at him.

He began petting me. "Did you see that Maria has more berries?"