A New Beginning

Chapter 24

Tessa's POV:

I quickly flipped upside down while flying, preventing Dirk from stealing the long ribbon attached to the back of my harness. It had been longer when we started this game, but the pieces readily tore if someone grabbed them.

Mom and Dad were focused on each other, although Dad had a bit more ribbon left than she did. Dirk was a slow flyer. He didn't have much ribbon left on his harness at all. All of my practice was paying off. Not that it helped if Mom or Dad decided that they wanted a piece of my ribbon.

I was getting better at flying with the ribbon. When it had been longer, it did funny things like trying to slip in front of my wing if I banked too sharply, and having it wrap around my tail if I spun upside down just felt weird.

The backyard was almost too small with all four of us flying around as fast as we could. A few quick wingbeats let me catch up to Dirk. Stretching my neck out, my jaws closed around another section of his ribbon.

A light tug tore it free. We were only allowed to take one section at a time; otherwise, I could have snatched several. He hissed, upset that I had stolen another piece. With a laughing warble, I banked away before he could try to nip me.

Predictably, he gave chase, trying to take my ribbon. With a big beat of my wings, I aimed up while furiously backwinging midair. Dirk shot past below me, not anticipating my sudden stop.

My back foot managed to snag another piece of his ribbon. Folding my wings, I dropped down to gain speed before flying off again as Dirk tried to catch up.

Dirk and I needed a rest long before Mom and Dad did. We rested on the big rock while watching them whip around the backyard. A light tug on my harness made me look back.

"Hey! That's no fair! You can only take pieces of my ribbon when we are flying!"

In retaliation of the unfair theft, my tail snagged a piece of his ribbon. It quickly turned into a wrestling match. Dirk was bigger than me, so by the time we finished, neither of us had any sections of ribbon left on our harnesses.

"Good evening, Taureen. How is it going?"

I looked up to see Soranto and two Kymari I didn't recognize approaching the back gate. Taureen pressed a button on his wrist comm, and the gate clicked. Soranto held it open as the woman and girl walked through.

"It's going well, Soranto. Adeline, Maria, welcome."

The woman replied, "It's been a while since we visited. I brought some salad for supper tonight."

"Thanks," Aeria said as she stood up. "I'll go put that in the kitchen and bring some drinks out."

"I'll come help."

Adeline and Aeria went inside, leaving Soranto and Maria to visit with Taureen. I dug through the Blood Memories, guessing that Maria was about nine or ten years old. It was hard to guess their age.

I hadn't been aware that Soranto had a kid or a wife, although it made sense considering how often he had mentioned those two names.

Taureen went to the side of the house and opened a sliding door that I had never seen them use before. He came back out with three more chairs, setting them down beside the other ones.

I flew over to the open door and landed in front of it, peering inside. It was a long narrow room filled with things like chairs, folding tables, and various tools to trim the trees and grass.

"Tessa, no," Taureen said kindly. "The shed isn't a place you should be playing."

I looked back at him and decided to get a closer look at Maria. I flew over and landed on Taureen's shoulder as I examined the girl sitting beside Soranto. She was watching me with interest as a smile graced her face.