"Is he always like that?" Trenil remarked with a calm tone as we passed another group of strangers.

"Like what?" Minna tilted her head to glance at me, and I just blinked back at her. We were just walking through the city, and I was bored.

"Relaxed. Unconcerned." Trenil pointed at another group of Kymari they were walking towards. "Ivy has gotten better around strangers, but I can still feel her tense up a little every time we pass somebody. But he doesn't seem to be bothered by them; I haven't even seen him move to a different shoulder to get further away."

"Oh. Yes, I've noticed that about him. He can get overwhelmed around large groups, which I think is a result of him living alone for so long, but other than that he's fine. He never even growled when he met Arlia and Terron. I don't think he would have let them touch him then, but he wasn't aggressive or trying to hide from them."

"Interesting. That means it is possible to get them used to being around us on a general level. Some technique we haven't figured out yet that can help make them more comfortable, even if it's just a matter of raising them when they are young."

"Maybe." Minna sounded doubtful. "Though it might not be worth doing even if we do learn what it is. Have the archaeologists found anything else out about them?"

"Nothing. They thought they were onto something about a week ago when they found references to a flying animal that was known for making a lot of noise during the sunrise... but they ultimately learned that only the male of that species does it. And apparently the noise of those 'chickens' is quite unpleasant; most of the references are of people losing sleep and getting annoyed by them 'crowing'. It's hard to imagine anyone describing the dance of the fire lizards in such a way."

"Ivy, quick, cluck like a chicken."

"Ha. Ha. It's a good thing Trenil's holding on to the leash; I almost fell off his shoulder from laughing at that one."

"Some species have strange tastes when it comes to art. Still, I agree that doesn't sound like them."

Trenil nodded. "Yes. I'm beginning to think we won't find any help in what survived. With any luck it will just be a case of raising them around Kymari from a young age, and not any special training or conditioning that they need."

We passed by another group of Kymari. This time I watched Ivy, and I saw her fidget and shift slightly away from them.

"I still have trouble believing how comfortable he is. I know what your notes said, but... even Tasha still hisses at people. But him, nothing." Trenil watched me carefully, and I could tell he was thinking about something.

I tilted my head in response to Trenil's examination and thought back at Ivy. "Would it make him feel better if I just attacked somebody? I don't get what the big deal is."

"He's just not sure what to make of it. He knows a lot of our problems around Kymari come from how we were treated by humans in that lab, even if he doesn't know all the details, so he's not used to one of us not being terrified of them. He'll get used to it eventually. Your cover story of being kept as a pet is a good one."

"At the very least it will save you a lot of trouble. With all the cargo ships directed to our city for inspection, you'll probably be working mostly with passenger ships. Ivy does well enough with the small crew of a freighter, but I would not want to trap her on a ship full of people boarding and disembarking. Nate, on the other hand... I wonder. Do you mind if I try something?" Trenil paused in the street and moved Ivy's leash to his other hand.

"Of course." Minna moved to the side of the street away from the other pedestrians and looked back at Trenil. "What do I need to do?"

"You're fine." Trenil held up his gloved hand in a fist. "Nate, to fist."

"Don't!" Ivy's tone sounded panicked. I blinked in surprise, but I stayed put on Minna's shoulder.

Trenil watched me for a second or two, then tried again. "Nate, come here." I just stared at him for another moment... then leaned back and nudged at an itchy spot on my wing. When I looked back at Trenil he was lowering his hand. "I guess he's the same in that respect too."

"So why did I do that again? Or... not do that?" I glanced at Ivy as the two Kymari started walking again.

"It's better if they think we won't respond to anyone but our handlers."

"Oh." I settled back down on Minna's shoulder and watched a male Kymari armed with one of their deadly looking spears pass by us. "What happens if they do think that?"

"I... don't know." There was a very faint sour note to Ivy's comment, as if to suggest that she did know - or at least, had an idea - but for the most part it rang true. "But it would let them put somebody else in charge of taking you to find sicora. Minna's very young, and Kymari don't really like the idea of women being too exposed to danger; they might try and have somebody else take over as your handler during sicora patrols if they thought it would work."

"Oh." I thought back to the things Elder Naishi had said and privately had my doubts that anybody but Minna would ever be allowed to touch me, but it made a certain amount of sense. Though... "Could that maybe be a good thing, though? If it means she won't get hurt?

Ivy was quiet for a moment after that. I glanced over at her and saw she was staring off at the Kymari in the distance. She seemed... sad, almost. Her ear tufts had dropped to her neck and her gaze wasn't really focused on anyone in particular. We walked for a few more moments before she finally responded in a quiet tone. "I wouldn't suggest risking it."

I wasn't sure what that meant... but it was obviously something Ivy wasn't comfortable talking about. I gave a slight nod of my head and turned my attention back to the random pedestrians in the street. "Okay."

We walked for a few more minutes before Trenil spoke up again. "Well. It doesn't look like he's going to try calling for help from anybody, and I'm not sure he needs much training to get used to being around us. Do you want to head to a park? We can spend time on tracking instead?"

"Was that why we were walking around everywhere? To see if I would try and get somebody to help me out of the harness?" I tried not to grin in amusement.

Ivy sounded sullen when she answered. "Yes. I told Trenil you probably wouldn't do it if too many people were around, but he still wanted to make sure."

"You're just mad you didn't get a chance to hit me for doing it."

The green dragonet's ear tufts twitched ominously. "Yet. I haven't gotten a chance to hit you, yet. The day is early still!"

A bit of my amusement at Ivy's sulking faded with that thought - she was probably right.

"What are you even looking for down there?" I tilted my head from my perch on a tree branch and watched Ivy wiggle into the thick underbrush. The two Kymari had brought us to the park to fly around in, and we had explored through it while they had gone off to do something else. The park was vaguely familiar, and was probably one Minna had brought me to before.

"I dunno. Sometimes there are interesting berries in here. I won't know until I look." The green dragonet disappeared in the foliage. Her scales really did a good job of blending in with the leaves.

Whereas my silver-gray color meant I usually stood out like a sore thumb unless I stuck near the branches and trunk of the tree. Or... a bruised scale? A chipped claw? What would the saying need to be, now that we didn't exactly have thumbs anymore?

"What's the dragonet equivalent of 'sore thumb'? And did you find anything?"

"I... what?" Ivy poked her head back out from under the bush and stared up at me. "It'd be a sore finger."

"No, the expression. 'Sticks out like a sore thumb'. Do we have something we should say instead? 'Sticks out like a chipped claw', something like that, so Kymari don't wonder why we have expressions about thumbs?" I held up my hand and wiggled the simple thumb on it.

"I don't know. Just... don't use that expression with them if you're worried about it." She ducked back into the bush and dug around some more. "And no, it doesn't look like there's anything in here." Ivy was quiet for a moment, then dirt started flying out of the bush.

"Now what are you doing?" I glided down and landed to the side of the bush, avoiding another clump of dirt.

"Digging a hole. And before you ask, just to do it." More dirt went flying out. "It's fun."

That... was actually true. Something about the dragonet body liked digging holes. I had done a lot of that with Susie, even beyond just hollowing out dens. There was just something satisfying about moving dirt around with your hands. And the lower layers of dirt tended to be cooler, which was a plus during the hotter summer months.

I crawled under the branches of the shrub and helped her dig.

After a few minutes we had a nice shady hollow, with the prickly thorns of the bush serving as protection against any predators. Or at least, any predators that lacked the scales we had. I had to admit that it was actually a fairly clever idea.

We relaxed for a bit before I began to smell that strange scent that was in Minna's disk. I lifted my head and sniffed the air to try and tell where it was coming from. Ivy noticed and lifted her head to sniff with me. "What is it?"

"This smell Minna's been using to train me to track with. She must have put the disk out somewhere." I sniffed again, then looked in the direction the smell was coming from.

Ivy sniffed the air again, then wrinkled her nose up. "Ktari."

"...bless you?"

The green dragonet rolled her eyes at me. "That's what you're smelling. Ktari." She sent me an image of a funny looking brown reptile. "They get on ships about as much as sicora do, but aren't nearly as dangerous. Just annoying." She paused to sniff again, then shook her head. "Probably a good thing to start teaching you tracking on. Noticeable enough to follow, without setting off all our instincts the way a sicora does."

"The disk thing can also smell like shia fruit too. She's used that to try teaching me 'stay'."

"Ouch. That must be fun."

"No kidding. I think the whole point of that part is to get me to listen to Minna instead of my instincts. I... don't think that's going to work as well as she's hoping."

Ivy snorted. "Probably not. It's the best any of us can do to not dive into the fray when a sicora's near; she won't be able to train you out of that. It's just too strong an impulse."

"If it's anything like the urge to go after a shia fruit, I'm sure you're right. But at least she hasn't decided to work on 'stay' by holding actual treats out of reach and making me wait to eat it." I paused and sniffed one more time. "So should we go and find where they hid that?"

"That's probably what they're hoping we'll do." Ivy slipped out of the little hollow we had dug and stretched out her wings. "Race you!" She flapped once, then jumped in the air and tore after the scent.

"Hey! Cheater!" I squirmed out from under the bush and chased after her, and the two of us raced towards the scent disk.

Ivy had a head start on me... but I was faster. I think living on my own for so long had meant I got a lot more in the way of exercise than the rest of the dragonets, just from having no one but myself to rely on for protection. Susie had helped a lot, but I had to protect her from threats too, so it evened out. I caught up with Ivy as we both shot into a small clearing where the scent was stronger. Minna and Trenil were both in the clearing and exchanged a knowing grin when they saw us.

We quickly circled around the area, juking up to avoid their heads as we each searched to find the source of the scent before the other one did. Where is it, where is ittt... THERE!

We both wheeled towards one side of the clearing at the same time. I dove towards the small pile of leaves and rocks, flapping my wings as hard as I could to get there first, even as Ivy did the same.

Ivy reached the hiding place just as I did. We each landed hastily and turned back to the two Kymari to chirp out in unison, "Found it!"

Trenil and Minna both broke out into laughter. Trenil recovered first and reached into a pocket for one of the small tubes of treats. "Good job Ivy, and you too Nate. It looks like you've taught him to track just as well as Ivy can."

I saw Minna beam with pride at Trenil's words. She held up her hand and looked towards us. "Nate, come back."

I smiled to myself. Now you're just showing off. I hopped away from Ivy, then stretched my wings out and flew up to perch on her hand. Minna seemed to look a little prouder and reached into a pocket for her own vial of treats. "He has been really quick about picking things up. I thought it would take time to train him, but you were right. Ever since he came back he's been learning one thing after another. It's like he's decided to cooperate with me and wants to learn." She popped open the vial and pulled out a sunburst berry sliver for me. I happily accepted it and gave a half flap of my wings in thanks. "Or at least, wants to get as many sunburst berries and shia fruits as he can. It wouldn't surprise me if he thinks he's just found a way to game the system."

Trenil smiled as he called Ivy back to him for a similar treat. "Probably. They're all very clever creatures. And they all love treats." He glanced at Ivy for a moment, then grinned. "They also tend to learn tricks from each other pretty well, too. Maybe Ivy can help to demonstrate some of the more complicated ones. Do you want to try and work on 'stay'?"

I narrowed my eyes at Ivy in a glare. "You jerk. You told Trenil to do that on purpose, didn't you?"

"Nope!" Ivy's response had the sour note that made it clear she was lying her tail off.

"Sure. I've actually been kind of worried about that one. I've tried it a little with the disk, and he has gotten better, but he still has a lot of trouble staying still when there's food around." Minna shifted me to her shoulder, then walked over to retrieve the scent disk from its hiding place. "How should we start?"

"Ivy's picked it up pretty well. We'll just get some treats, and show him that Ivy gets to eat more when she waits. I'm sure he'll pick it up before long."

I sent an exaggerated sense of exasperation to the other dragonet. "Siiiiiigh."