Twenty-eight more sunrises.

I lingered on the windowsill and watched the early morning sunlight brighten the buildings and streets below. The apartment I was in seemed to be on the fourth floor judging by the windows on buildings across the street, and it gave me a pretty good view. Kymari architecture used lots of gentle curves, and it was rather pleasant to look at in the moments after the Morning Song.

I heard movement behind me and finally glanced away.

Behind me I saw the Kymari standing next to the cage. She must have walked up at some point after I had finished singing - I had been quite sure she had recorded me from the couch - and now she had just closed the door to the cage.

I narrowed my eyes at her and pressed against the window, but I stopped short of hissing. What was she up to? She couldn't have missed that I was still outside the cage. Was she trying to trap me somehow? It was a long jump down to the floor, and I was sure I would hurt my leg and my wings if I tried it, but I could still manage it. And I could still hop back over onto the end table and climb up on top of the cage if I wanted a nap - it was probably warmer up there anyways, what with the heat rising off the lamp. This was just confusing.

She noticed me watching her and smiled. "This will just be a minute, don't worry."

Now it was worrying.

The Kymari turned back to the cage... and simply lifted it up off the table. I squawked in outrage as I saw everything lift into the air - the food, the bowl of sand, the soft blanket, even the tray of red dirt I hadn't had a chance to use yet. She simply lifted it up and carried it away, heading towards the kitchen hallway.

I let out another indignant squawk from the windowsill. This wasn't fair! What was I supposed to do now?! Without the cage, where was I supposed to find food, or find places safe from her? The potential hiding places I had identified earlier now seemed woefully exposed, should it become necessary to use one.

I hopped the short distance back to the end table. The piece of cloth she had used to cover the cage now lay in a pile beside the heat lamp. I considered its potential as cover for all of half a second - it would have been blatantly obvious if I was underneath it.

I was still trying to figure out what to do when the Kymari returned - without the cage. I hissed at her in frustration the second I saw her in the doorway, and I squawked out an angry, "Put it back!"

The Kymari didn't seem to be reconsidering her decision to take the cage. If anything, I thought she might have found my temper tantrum amusing.

She walked up to the end table and set a bowl of food down near me. I hissed and lunged at her hand, fully intending to bite her, but my leg was still weak and she managed to pull her hand away in time. She turned away and headed back into the kitchen, and I...

I stopped. I sniffed again.

I warbled in delight as I realized the bowl was filled to the brim with fresh fruit. Not a single one had been dried out, and they were so perfectly ripe that I could practically taste the juices as I inhaled the sweet aromas.

My stomach informed me I had not eaten yet - I hadn't slept well, so had decided to rest right up to the dawn rather than get up early and eat - and also informed me that I hadn't eaten this well in months, maybe even years. Slices of apples, raspberries, strawberries, an entire orange, and a handful of alien fruits I hadn't seen before but were quite certain would be delicious. The bowl was filled with them.

I dove in.

The Kymari made several trips back and forth from the kitchen while I ate. She got too close to the table I was on a few times, and I had to pause from stuffing my face to hiss up at her, but for the most part she seemed to be rearranging things in the room at large. She put small boxes up against things - beside the couch, or the table in the center of the room, or the windowsill I had been perched on.

A larger box with an opening big enough for me to pass through went beside the plant, and the soft blanket I had curled up with was placed gently inside it. The bowl of sand returned to the end table, and the tray of dirt found its way to the hallway leading to the bedroom. What looked to be a small log ended up propped against the other side of the couch, and a short length of knotted rope was tossed onto the floor by the end table I was eating on.

I eyed over the new additions as I devoured the sunburst berry I had finally uncovered from the bottom of the bowl, yum, and tried to think. The cage was gone... but... the room looked a lot more accessible now. I could use the smaller boxes as stepping stools to get up and down onto furniture, and it looked like the larger box was meant to be a shelter for me to sleep in. I didn't care that much for how out in the open it was, but it was better than nothing. It was probably even better than the cage had been - it was at ground level so I could bolt out of it if I had to, and it was opaque, so the Kymari couldn't stand at the side of it and stare at me. I had a feeling food and other items would remain outside so that I wouldn't be able to hide inside it forever, but it was probably a decent place to sleep in.

I wasn't too crazy about where she had put the tray of dirt that I had been using as a bathroom, but I had a feeling that would end up changing. Either it had some other purpose and I was misusing it, in which case there would probably be some effort made to point me to what I should be using, or else the Kymari would get very tired of walking past that every time she wanted to go to her bedroom.

The log made me flex my claws in anticipation. It had been too long since I had gotten a chance to properly scratch something, and the neglect had probably taken a toll on the sharp nails. The log seemed to be artificial instead of a natural log, so had probably been made specifically with the care of claws in mind.

Though if I was wrong and I ended up shredding something the Kymari had plans for, I didn't think that would be such a bad outcome.

The Kymari finished arranging everything and took a seat back on the couch. She watched me eat for a few minutes, then gradually turned her attention back to something on her tablet.

I glanced at the log again when I finished eating... but with her sitting right there on the couch, I had little interest in it anymore. The idea of a nap was appealing, especially after the first good meal I had eaten in ages... but I also had two hallways that I could reach now.

I carefully stepped down from the end table, making sure the smaller box would hold my weight, then hopped from it to the ground. I took one more look around the living room, glancing up to make sure the Kymari was still distracted. Once I was sure she wasn't watching me, I snuck off to explore the rest of the home.

The first hallway was disappointing. It led to a small dining room that I hadn't realized was back there, and then to the kitchen area I had guessed about. Neither room was handicapped-dragonet accessible, though. I would be able to easily jump up onto the table or explore the high cabinets once I could fly again, but as it was, even the chairs at the table were too high to jump up onto without risking jarring my wings.

I did find one section of the kitchen that was warmer than the rest - probably where an oven or equivalent device was keeping food warm, or where a refrigerator was pushing out all the hot air that threatened the food it was trying to keep cool - but aside from that potential napping spot the rooms were useless to me. There wasn't even anywhere good to hide.

I scurried back to the living room, then ran between the couch and the wall to cross to the other hallway. I took a moment to make my feelings on the sudden rearrangement of my living area explicitly clear in the form of a present I left in the tray of red dirt, then continued my explorations.

Three doorways branched out of the hallway. I had expected there to be a bedroom here, and maybe even a bathroom, though I figured there was a good chance that might have required going through the bedroom first instead of being directly in the hallway. But the third door was a mystery. Maybe a linen closet of some kind? But then why not just put it in the bathroom?

I peeked into the first door and confirmed it was a bathroom. The Kymari bathrooms looked about like what human bathrooms looked like.

I stared longingly at what was obviously a shower and imagined how good it would feel to have hot water sprinkling down on me again. Cold baths in the river might have allowed me to keep my scales clean, but they did not come anywhere close to the simple pleasure a water heater could bring.

I debated trying to figure out how to make the shower work... but ultimately decided against it. The floor was the same tile material that had been in the kitchen, and my claws didn't do too well over it, and the controls for the shower were far too high up the wall to be able to reach. I also didn't know if my cast was waterproof or not - as nice as a shower would be, it wouldn't be worth risking having to spend more time here with her because my wing didn't heal right.

I let out a sad warble and continued on to the next doorway.

A quick peek inside revealed an office of some kind. A bookcase stood at one wall, though I couldn't understand any of the writing on the books it held. Some of the book covers had pictures of the flying shuttles I had seen skimming around when I was out in the park, but beyond that I had no idea what the books were for.

A desk and chair took up another part of the room. The chair was a bit too high to jump up onto without bumping my wing in the cast... but I jumped up on the chair anyway. Even from the ground I had been able to spot papers neatly organized on the desk, several of which looked rather official and important, and I was quite certain they would look much nicer scattered all over the floor.

I paused on top of the desk to admire the mess I had made and chirped happily to myself. "Yep! Much nicer."

The only other thing in the room was some kind of bulky container set against the wall. It had a few shelves around it and what looked to be a clothes hamper, so it probably served as a washing machine and dryer for the Kymari.

I hopped down from the desk, ow, and avoided the mess of papers as I hobbled out of the room. My leg was really hurting now, but I still had one more room to explore. And I really wasn't looking forward to going back into the same room with her. I slipped down the hallway and ducked through the last doorway.

The Kymari's bedroom was pretty much exactly what I expected from a bedroom. A closet on one side, a dresser beside that, a nightstand on the other side of the room, and a nice sized bed in the middle. The bed had obviously not been made this morning, and the sheets were lumped together and half-hanging off the bed. One of the pillows had fallen onto the floor as well.

I got the impression the Kymari wasn't exactly getting the best night's sleep. Good.

Something about the pillow seemed familiar, so I walked over and took a closer look. The pillow itself was unremarkable, but the pillow cover was a blue fabric with an odd design on it. I stared at it for a moment, trying to make sense of the pattern, then blinked when I realized what I was looking at. The pillow was upside down, but when I adjusted for that it was clear - it was the same strange cartoon character on the blanket I had been sleeping with the past few days.

I had assumed the blanket had just been something the Kymari had found randomly or had been planning to get rid of, such as an old towel she no longer used, or maybe even something that had belonged to Lyzel but which the young Kymari had recently outgrown.

But this... the same color, the same design? This suggested it was part of a set, something the Kymari valued enough to continue keeping on her pillow, even though the blanket was clearly much too small for her now. Had the blanket once been her blanket? Maybe of some cartoon she had liked while growing up? Did she have some special memories or attachment to the blanket she had given me?

I... was not quite sure how I felt about that.

I glanced around the room again and checked for hiding places. The closet seemed like it would be promising... but the door to it had been closed, and the handles were too high up to reach. I fidgetted my wings and pressed them against the cast in frustration. Not being able to fly was a huge pain. I was limited to what I could jump up onto, and with my leg still hurting, that pretty much left the living room and whatever was on the floor. Which wasn't much.

It wasn't the same as nothing, though - the gap between the bedframe and the floor was just barely more than the gap underneath the couch... but it was more than that gap. If I pressed down far enough, and wiggled on my belly instead of walking on my feet, then maybe... yesss!

I hissed in satisfaction as I squeezed underneath the bed. It was dark, and it was cool, and it was dusty, and there was only slightly more room after I had cleared the bedframe, and I could smell her scent everywhere in this room... which for some strange reason made me think of those delicious orange berries... but it was out of sight. She wouldn't be able to get me here.

I brushed away some of the dust bunnies and sprawled out on the carpet to nap.

"There you are!" I blinked groggily as a voice broke through my fitful nap. I glanced around... and saw the Kymari lying on the floor and peeking under the bed.

"You need to come out from under there. Want a treat?" Her hand disappeared for a second, then returned with one of the sunburst berries.

I eyed it suspiciously. I could always go for one of those berries... but I was still fairly full from all the good fruit I had crammed down however long ago that had been, and my leg still hurt. I had probably overexerted my leg with all the exploring and those jumps.

Plus she was out there.

I hissed at her and backed further under the bed, stopping when I had reached the middle. There wasn't a perfect spot - the bed was only against one wall, so the Kymari could just walk to the other side and reach at me from there if she wanted to - but I hoped being far enough under the bed would keep the idea from occurring to her.

"Come on, don't be like that. I put a lot of things out for you in the other room. You don't want to hide here in the dark all day, do you?" She tried shaking the berry a little in her hand, as if that would convince me.

When the devious tactic of shaking the shiny object predictably failed to attract me, she sighed and moved the berry somewhere out of sight. "Well. If that's how you want to be..."

She stood up. I stared at her feet for a second in disbelief. Wait, had I won? Was she going to leave me alone now?

That train of thought was derailed as the roof over my head simply lifted away.

I squawked and ran back to the wall. I pressed my back up against it and hissed angrily at the Kymari, who had simply lifted the mattress up over me. Good grief but that wasn't fair - I knew the Kymari were stronger than humans, and the mattress had seemed fairly cheap and flimsy, but still. That had to be cheating.

"Ready to go back? You can hide in your bed if you really want to, but this one is mine." She tilted the mattress and lowered it to the side, putting it between me and the wall.

I growled again and moved up against it. I knew she could just lift it away again, but it made me feel a lot better to have two walls around me.

She just sighed. "If I reach down to grab you, you're just going to scratch and bite me, aren't you."

I saw no reason to suggest there would be any other outcome. I hissed more and backed further into the corner.

"Very well. Negative reinforcement it is." She sighed again and walked out of the room.

What was that supposed to mean?

I calmed down a bit and glanced around. There wasn't anywhere I could easily get to - the closet was still closed, and the only other way out was to the room the Kymari had just gone into. The pillow still lay on the floor, but the blankets had fallen between the wall and the mattress... which... was an idea. I was fairly sure the Kymari would be coming back, and standing out in the open like this was not how I wanted her to find me.

I started clawing my way up the mattress. My leg was still very sore and began throbbing about halfway up, but I managed to make it to the top. The drop down behind the mattress looked a bit further than I wanted to risk, so I paused for a moment to catch my breath and let my leg rest.

The Kymari returned while I was still trying to work up the courage to make the drop. She looked at the mattress and sighed. "First you made a mess of my paperwork, now you clawed up my mattress. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were purposely trying to make my life miserable."

I did my best not to grin at that.

She took a step towards me, and I chittered angrily at her as I hopped along the mattress to get closer to the wall. "No! Go away already, leave me alone!"

She clearly didn't understand me, of course, and kept walking closer. I turned my chitters into hisses as she lifted her hand towards me, but she still didn't stop... so when she was close enough, I reached up and swiped at her with my claws.

"Ow!" She pulled her hand back in shock, and I caught sight of small rows of blood already starting to pool where my claws had landed. "That hurt!"

I just stared at her. Lady, what did you think was going to happen, when you put your hand in reach of a cornered, angry animal?

She clutched her hand for a moment, rubbing at it slightly with her free hand... then she sighed once more.

Her hand shot out impossibly fast. I had barely registered that she had started moving before I felt her grabbing me. Her hand came up underneath me, lifting me off the mattress and trapping my legs against my body. If my wings had been free I could have simply beat them a few times and gotten away, but as it was her clutching hand was working pretty well to hold me in place.

I sputtered and growled at her for about half a second before it sunk in that she was only using one hand. Her other hand was resting calmly at her side, while the hand I had scratched held my legs pinned in place.

Which meant my head was free.

I hissed in excitement and bent my neck down to sink my teeth into the Kymari woman's flesh.

She didn't react at all. I glanced up out of the corner of my eyes in a mixture of disappointment and frustration, and saw she was just staring at me. She almost looked... bored.

"Three... four... five..."

Wha... was she counting? I tried to hiss at her, and tried to shake my head around to remind her that I was not something to just be ignored, and that I was biting her, but... that would just take too much effort... it would be so much easier to just relax, and rest against this warm thing that was wrapped all around my body...

I felt my jaws relax as I sagged into her hand. Oh, you jerk! That is so not fair!!

"Seven... eight... aaaand there we go." The Kymari's free hand came up to steady me, and the world spun - wheeee! - as she turned around. That stupid sedative was already taking more hold of me, and it was hard not to just stare at her finger in utter fascination. Kymari had fingerprints! I hadn't realized that! I could just trace the pattern aaaaaalllllll the way up, and then it looped back around, wheeee, and went aaaallllll the way back down...

The Kymari carried me back into the other room and placed me on the couch. I tried to huff in frustration as the finger vanished, but that just took too much effort, and really, the back of the couch was so neat, too...

I stared at the couch while I heard sounds coming from back in the bedroom. Probably the Kymari cleaning up the mattress and the papers. Eventually she came back and picked me up again, this time to settle me in her lap. "There. You had your fun biting me, so now I'm going to have my fun petting you. For the next few hours at least, until the sedative wears off."

Oh, that is so not fair! I tried to summon the energy to hiss at her... but then I felt her warm hand on my back, gently stroking around the awkward bulk of the cast, and all that came out was a happy thrum.