There had been something else in that report, too. "Hey, Ivy?"

"I didn't do it!" Ivy's reply came back quickly. There was a note of wicked glee to her mindspeech, along with a sour note of some kind that I didn't quite understand.

I tilted my head. I hadn't talked to Ivy that much since she had visited - just the occasional good morning, or a reply to her check ups on how I was doing - but I knew enough to tell that was very odd for her.

"Do... what?"

"Nothing!" Her reply came back just as quickly - and it had that same sour feel to it. Was something wrong with her? Almost as soon as she finished the first thought she sent another - and this time that sour note was gone. "Hi Nate! How are things going?"

"The same. I just overheard the Kymari working on a report?"

"Yep! Trenil told her to do that; all of the bond handlers have to. The Kymari want to know as much about us as they can."

"Uh-huh." I remembered back to the report. "Trenil told her a lot of things, from the sound of it. What's this about a harness?"

"Ooo, did she get that on you already? Show me your reflection, I wanna see how it looks!"

"Wha- no! She hasn't done anything with it, just talked about it arriving. What are you so excited for? Did you help pick it out or something?"

"Maayyyybeeeee! Don't worry, it'll look great on you."

"I am not letting her put me in a harness to be jerked around like an animal! I don't care how great it looks on me!"

"Pfft, good luck with that. All of us have tried our best to get out of it; whatever they make that stuff out of is too thick to cut through with our claws and teeth. And to top it off, they're fireproof too. It's really not that bad though, once you get used to it. Trenil lets me go wherever I want when we're out; the harness is just to make sure I don't get mistaken for a wild dragonet or get too far away from him."

"But I am a wild dragonet! The place I want to go is far away from her!" Great. Just great. Clawproof and fireproof. I was going to have to think up some new way of getting out of it. "I'm not sure why I expect you to be helpful if you picked it out, but do you have any tips for avoiding it?"

The playful voice grew a bit more serious. "Sorry. We all hated the things at first, and each of us did our best to get out of it. Your best bet is to keep her from getting it on you in the first place, which might be doable for a day or two... but she's probably been clued in from the other handlers that it's best to put it on while you're distracted, and it's not easy to keep an eye out forever. Once she gets it on you that first time, you pretty much have no choice but to go to her to get it off, and she won't do that until you've settled down and gotten used to it. Which will just make it easier for her to get it on you next time. I can't even smell mine anymore; it smells too much like me at this point."

I sent back a reply that was more a tangle of grumpy emotion than actual words. Fine. If I couldn't defeat the harness itself, I would just have to defeat the Kymari. How did animals get out of having to wear harnesses? I knew dogs never seemed to mind a leash and a collar, but there probably had to be some reason I had never seen anyone walking their pet bunny around town...

I broke off my train of thought as I heard the Kymari return to the living room and sit back down on the couch. And... what was that smell...

I peeked out through the door and went wide-eyed at what she held in her hand.

"You traitor." I glared out from my den. Past the open door, towards the couch, past the Kymari sitting there, and at the yellow ring of fruit taunting me with its presence.

"Whaaaaat I didn't do anything." The sour quality was back in Ivy's mindspeech, like her thoughts were fruits that had been left out in the sun a little too long. I got it then - she was lying. I wondered if that sense would come through every time somebody used the mindspeech to say something they didn't really believe, or if she was adding the feeling on purpose, as a kind of sarcasm.

I sent her an image of the pineapple slice held in the Kymari's hand.

"Oh heeeey, would you look at that! What a coincidence, didn't you tell me that pineapple was your favorite fruit?"

"You did this. How? You said we can't talk to them!"

"No, I said we aren't supposed to talk to anyone who didn't already know, and that we should wait three months before trusting our handler enough to bring them in on the secret. I never said that I don't talk to Trenil. I've been with him for about seven months now, and been his bond companion for six of those. I talk to Trenil all the time."

I stared harder at the pineapple. "Is this your plan? Bribe me with fruit?"

"Bribe is such a harsh word. I like to think of it more as making the results of your choice clear, and of convincing you."

"Convincing me of what? That pineapples taste just as delicious as they did when I was human?"

"Ha, ha. You're funny."

"What, then? What's the game here?"

The other dragonet's voice went silent for a moment, then came back with a more somber quality. "No games, Nate. This is to convince you of her regret, and of our sincerity."

I stared some more, willing the pineapple to leap out of the Kymari's hand and fly across the room to me... but it remained right where it was. "By using fruit as bait? She's already given me better meals than I managed out on my own; this isn't exactly new."

Ivy's voice continued to hold a sense of patience to it. "You know better than that. That isn't just any fruit. This isn't even sunburst berries. It's what used to be your favorite fruit, a fruit you haven't had a chance to taste in over eight years. We went through a lot of effort to get that for you, Nate. The Kymari haven't really expanded out onto islands yet, and pineapples aren't being farmed the way they once were. When I told Trenil there was another fruit out there that fire lizards liked, and one that you liked especially, he took a vacation day to go explore some of the tropical islands. Used the excuse that he wanted to see if there were any native plants that the Kymari might have overlooked which the fire lizards could eat."

"And before you say that sounds like a vacation, one of the Elders heard about the idea before we left. The Kymari are especially curious about what food we need to survive off of, since they think there's something special we need that only grows in this one area, so they sent a few of their doctors along with us. I had to eat some nasty stuff that they gave me so as to keep up the ruse." Ivy sent an impression of a horrible stomach ache and a few hours of laying on a cool tile floor in misery while a distraught Trenil gently stroked her back for comfort.

"But I managed to clue the Kymari in on some new foods that they hadn't realized were edible. Bananas, coconuts, kiwis, and yes - pineapples. The Kymari are actually really interested in that one; it supposedly reminds them of some food from their home planet. So a lot of them are trying to buy up whatever pineapples can be found, and nobody is really set up yet to properly farm them."

"Trenil hinted to Minna that I had seemed especially excited about finding the pineapple, and suggested that you might like it too." Ivy's voice grew serious again. "And, just because of that, just on the chance that you might enjoy it... she spent what I'm told amounts to a month's wages to get her hands on one. Because she cares about making you happy, and because she feels so bad about Susie that she didn't even hesitate to trade away all that money just for the chance to give you something you might appreciate."

I felt my ear tufts drop as the voice continued. "So... yes, Nate, it's not a game. We're sincere. We want you to be safe, and happy, and we would like it if you wanted to join us. We all hate what happened to you, Minna especially. If she could go back and undo it, she would. But she doesn't know how to do that. All she can think to do is to try and make things better for you now, in the hopes of making things as right as they ever can be."

Ivy's voice grew quiet for another moment while I continued to stare at the pineapple. Why did it have to look so delicious... My mouth was watering when Ivy started speaking again. "What happened to Susie was horrible. Nobody's trying to tell you it wasn't, and we all feel really bad that it happened. But... it's done. There's nothing you can do about it. All you can do now is choose where you go from here."

"You can choose to sit there and keep hating her. She'll assume you just aren't interested in the pineapple, and you'll probably never get to see another slice again. She'll do her best to take care of you while you continue to heal, and then once you're recovered... she'll let you go. You can go back out into the wild, alone, never getting the chance to experience any of the comforts the Kymari have, and you can keep grieving over Susie out there all by yourself."

"Until another eagle gets hungry, at which point you'll have nobody there to save you from becoming lunch."

The green dragonet's tone grew lighter. "Or you can try and let some of the hate go, as justified as it may be, and see if you can work towards one day forgiving her for the horrible wrong she did to you, since she's so clearly repentant of it. You can go over there and enjoy a delicious pineapple and maybe find that you aren't as alone in this world - and in your grief - as you thought." Something changed in Ivy's tone again, as if some distant hurt had entered her thoughts. "You can see if you might be able to like her, and give her reasons to continue liking you. Before it's too late, and you just end up being abandoned."

Ivy's voice took on a flippant air, as if to cover the distant hurt that had been lurking in her last words. "I know which one I would pick, but I'm not the one who has to make this decision. Now, you'll have to excuse me. Trenil just got out the oil for my scales, and if you think a pineapple slice is bribe material, phew, you have no idea..."

The other dragonet's voice faded after I got a decidedly smug impression from her thoughts, and I hissed. I got up, still hissing in annoyance at the meddling green dragonet, and crawled over the blanket. I was still growling when I reached the small 'stepping stool' of a box propped beside the couch. And I was still growling when I jumped onto the cushion of the couch, and when I stepped carefully onto the Kymari's leg, and when I stretched my neck as far as it would go to try and reach the yellow ring of fruit. I felt her shake a little and realized she was trying not to laugh at me - which only made me hiss louder, and sputter at her, too. I managed to grab the pineapple slice in my teeth and I dashed back to the safety of my makeshift den, curling up as far away from the door as I could.

I hissed out my annoyance for a good five minutes more after that, in part because the Kymari had broken out into outright laughter at what should have been my deadly serious growls of menace - which of course only made her laugh even more, to the point where she finally fell over onto the couch in a fit of giggles. But eventually she calmed down, and I finished getting all the annoyed frustration out of my system.

I bit into the pineapple... and was simultaneously thrilled and frustrated.

The pineapple was delicious. Almost as tasty as sunburst berries. Even better than I could ever remember them tasting as a human. This one was fresh, and had none of that vinegar aftertaste that canned or processed pineapple tended to have.

I was definitely going to want more.

I glanced back out into the room, already fairly sure what I would find... and sure enough, the Kymari was already holding up a second pineapple slice.

I took another bite from the ring of fruit and sighed to myself. Why did it have to taste so good...

I made it through four hiss-filled trips, and the discomfort in my leg increased with each trip. I think the Kymari could tell it was hurting me - she began to hold her hand closer to my side of the couch, and her amused grin at my repeated hisses faded to a frown that conveyed worry and uncertainty. I finished off the fourth pineapple ring in the shelter of my den and licked the juice off my claws, then started back for a fifth piece. I hopped the short distance onto the small box, then sprang back up the slightly further distance to the couch.

A jolt of pain went through my leg and caused it to collapse as I tried to push off with it. I yelped and instinctively tried to stretch out my wings to catch myself... but the cast held them firmly in place. I fell from the couch and hit the edge of the box, then fell the rest of the way to the ground.

The floor felt really nice to just lie on for a moment. I saw the Kymari glance over the side of the couch with a grin on her face. "Silly thing. Just sit here, I'm not going to hurt you."

She reached down, picked me up, and dropped me in her lap while I was still trying to catch my breath. I hissed a little and started to get up... but my leg throbbed angrily at me.

The Kymari held the ring of pineapple in front of me.

...fine.

I growled for a few more seconds just on principle, but I had already made up my mind. It wouldn't be the first time I had just sat in the Kymari's lap. Granted, I had been on that sedative those times, but it still counted. Probably. I leaned forward and nibbled cautiously at the ring just in case she tried anything, then bit down and pulled it from her grip. I tried not to think too hard about what kind of line I may or may not have just crossed as I chewed on the delicious pineapple slice.

I pretended not to notice how much the Kymari was smiling as she dangled another slice of pineapple in front of me.

But if you try and pet me, I don't care if your hand is drenched in that sedative stuff; I will bite you.