Lost Change

Chapter 84

Ivy was not kidding about this stuff...

I lay sprawled in Minna's lap as the calming pleasure of the Kymari's oil seeped into my skin. It was a few hours later. We had kept watch over the crash site for a few hours while the guards and medics took care of everyone and cleaned up the messes. Alec had arrived with Tom and Serena, and the two dragonets had led Minna and I through another sweep of the inside of the ship. They found a crawler cocoon in one of the supply rooms, but other than that there weren't any other sicora to worry about.

I got a few tips from watching the more experienced team do their work, but for the most part they hadn't done much that we hadn't already done.

When we were finished Ketzel had thanked us all for our help, and Minna had brought me home.

She seemed to be wide awake by that point and didn't want to go back to sleep. She also insisted that I was a mess and proceeded to give me a bath. I had just been tracking a sicora through a crashed ship and several yards, so she wasn't entirely wrong.

Terron had come to check on Minna while I was splashing around in the tray of water. She had reassured him everything was okay and said she would tell him more in the morning - and that she would make sure the mess I was making was cleaned up before Loreena woke up. Terron had accepted that and gone back to bed.

I finished the bath and let Minna dry me off with a towel... then I was given an entire shia fruit. I didn't particularly need another reward for tracking down the sicora - knowing it was dead was immensely satisfying to me - but I certainly wasn't about to complain.

And once I had calmed down from that, Minna had brought out the oil and begun rubbing it into my scales. I had promptly slumped into her lap and begun thrumming happily.

She massaged my wings and legs as she worked in the oil, then she brought her hands away to just watch me. She had that same confused look lurking under her expression any time I found the energy to look back up at her. It was hard to pay too much attention to, though. I wasn't quite so overwhelmed by the oil that I was falling asleep, even though it was still the middle of the night, but it was very close.

"It couldn't have been something he was taught to recognize... could it? How would they have done that?" Minna mumbled above me. "How did he know?" Something in the back of my mind told me that was probably important... but the relaxed state brought on by the oil was hard to shake.

"I'm probably just being silly." Minna shook her head and withdrew the tablet from her pocket. "Might as well do this now; I'm behind on it anyways." She tapped the tablet a few times until it made a beep. "Weekly report."

She paused for a minute... then her hand came down to pet my back. "So much has happened since my last report. I didn't think I would actually be making another one of these. The fire lizard's wing healed as we expected, and I released him. We set him free in the park with the other wild fire lizards initially, but they seemed to reject him. We were monitoring his tracker and saw he was in distress, and..." She paused. "No, that's not quite right. We were talking, and Trenil suggested I check again, didn't he?" Minna trailed off for a moment while her hand idly moved over my back.

"Anyways, we noticed he was in distress. We went to him and found him fighting a red fire lizard; he had overexerted his wing and was trying to escape on foot, while the red kept chasing him. We had assumed the flock would provide cover for him so he wouldn't need to depend on his wing as much, but obviously that was wrong. We don't know what led them to fight. It might have been a territorial contest of some kind, or maybe a mating advance that he rebuffed. He does seem to lack a lot of the social tendencies of the other fire lizards, likely due to how he was raised, and may not have realized if a female fire lizard had begun a courtship display. We know there are some species that can become violent if their advances are rejected, and the fire lizards may be one such species. It may even be a common occurrence among the creatures, just not one we have noticed with the others being healthy enough to fly away from a pursuer."

I thought back to that angry scarlet dragonet and tried very hard not to laugh. If she knew the Kymari thought that was the reason for our fight... well. I wouldn't mind seeing the look on her face if she ever learned that.

"I brought him back and continued exercising his wing after that. After four days I released him at the park I had originally rescued him from." She paused for a second and glanced down at me. "This was probably all in Trenil's report. It didn't appear the fire lizard was going to return, so he agreed to do the final report for me." Her hand came up to my neck and stroked tenderly over my ear tufts. "But the fire lizard did return. He came back to my apartment a few days later. He triggered an alarm when he broke in, and a pair of guards investigated and found him on the floor of my bedroom, sitting there like that was where he was supposed to be." I could hear the smile in her voice. "I was given the rank of bond handler the next day."

"We have been training together since then. Trenil was right. It seems like now that he has come to accept me, he is willing and even eager to work with me. I had been concerned about how condensed the training portion of the schedule had seemed when I first saw it, but... he is able to pick them up incredibly quickly. In the few days since he has returned he has learned to come back when called, has learned a seek command to begin tracking and has learned to make a particular vocalization when he does find a scent. I have been able to train him to track ktari on command, and he has had no problem following the scent regardless of where it is hidden. He seems to have the most trouble dealing with commands that run counter to his instincts. 'Stay' is still very hit or miss as to if he will actually follow it, especially if treats are around, though he has gotten better at remaining on my shoulder otherwise. I also believe he has become familiar enough with the harness - or at least convinced enough of its uselessness - to abandon his trick of pretending to be injured and helpless when wearing it. At this rate I expect the full training schedule will be complete within another week or two."

"I will be moving into a permanent house tomorrow, which may delay training. Currently I am staying with my brother, as my lease had ended and all my things were packed up in preparation for leaving this planet. I was concerned about not having things for him, especially the litter tray, but this led to another discovery of the fire lizards. Apparently the humans managed to train this one to use their equivalent of plumbing when he was younger. He seems to have made use of the toilet in the absence of a litter tray, and has also been observed using a sink to perform a ritual of washing his hands with water and soap. Trenil has a recording of the event. The recording also catches the fire lizard teaching the trick to Trenil's fire lizard, Ivy, and we expect the rest of the fire lizards in captivity will be able to learn the trick from her over the next few days."

"You're welcome." I sent the smug comment to Ivy, but it echoed back to me. She must still be asleep.

"Aside from that he continues to behave similarly to the other notes on fire lizards. He really enjoys oilings and becomes incredibly relaxed during them, just like the others do." She paused again, and ran her hand from my neck all the way down to my tail. "He is also able to track sicora, and reacts violently to their presence, just like the other fire lizards do."

"Earlier tonight a passenger liner crashed into the city. The traffic controller witnessed a sicora attacking the pilot, so we were called in to help find it. I was worried, since I hadn't exposed him to any sicora scents before this... but he was able to pick up the scent and track it down. He became increasingly agitated as we got closer, and I had to physically restrain him to prevent him from diving in to attack the creature. Whatever it is about fire lizards that causes their reaction to sicora, it seems to be instinctive, and not a habit the wild flock developed and taught to themselves." She paused in her petting again, and I half-opened one eye to see her watching me with that same contemplative expression. "He calmed instantly upon the sicora's death, just like the other fire lizards tend to do."

She ran her hand over my back a few more times while I relaxed. I almost forgot she was still doing the report before she finally continued. "I had... I have decided to name the fire lizard 'Nate'. He seems to like the name and responds to it readily. It seems to be in keeping with the names of the other fire lizards in captivity, so it feels appropriate."

Minna shifted a little and leaned back to the tablet. "End of weekly report." She tapped a button on the tablet and it made another 'beep'.

Her hand came back to pet me gently, and I thrummed happily in her lap. Hunting the sicora had been terrifying, both in what I had seen it do to its victims and in what it had caused my instincts to do... but... even with that, I think it was obvious.

Life with Minna was turning out to be nice.