My mind was half asleep when my ears picked up the sound of feathered wings. They sounded strong and much different from a dragonets wing beat. I didn’t pay it too much mind as birds of all sizes would tend to pass peacefully right on by rather than pick a fight with our fire breath. 

The warmth that would normally be Dan's presence was absent and I groggily recalled that he had left the burrow early to scout out our kymari candidates. I was more than willing to let him go by himself if it meant I could get a few extra hours of sleep for myself.

I gave a half asleep warning growl to whatever bird was passing by and shifted my weight into a more comfortable position. As I tried drifting back off to sleep, the sound of talons on bark and the smell of a foreign animal awoke my senses.

My eyes instinctively shot open and I clicked fiercely to get a picture of the scene as fast as I could. The bird trying to poke its head into our burrow wasn't native to Earth and I should have noticed that fact the moment its scent hit my nose. 

The bird reached its taloned feet into the entrance and I hissed and swiped at it with my claws as I built up the heat in the back of my throat. The bird screeched its dislike of me and I called out to Dan within our mindlink.

Soon, the heat had reached its peak and I released it in a stream of fire. The bird backed away but seemed only mildly annoyed by my fire as it tried again to grab me with its talons. Thankfully, I didn't have to keep attacking as reinforcements had quickly arrived.

I could feel Dan's mindecho first before everyone else as he shot through the air to attack the intruder. The other two dragonets I didn't know as well, but they were just as quick as Dan in attacking this alien bird to get it away from the tree burrow. No longer having the upper hand, the bird lost interest and fled, only a few tail feathers missing after the fight. 

"I haven’t seen a storm hawk in this area in a while. Actually, not since all those sicora attacks not too long ago." One of the helping dragonets commented.

"Out of every animal in this park, I hate these guys the most." The second one said.

It took me a moment before I was able to recognize the voices and mindechos of these dragonets. John and Evan have been acquaintanced with Dan for a long time now. When he wasn't with me, he was usually going around helping other dragonets, and these two were one of the first he had helped in the beginning years.

"Thanks for coming along, fellas." Dan spoke to the two dragonets.

"Hey, after all you've done for us and our mates, it's the least we could do for you and yours." John said.

I could hear them saying their farewells as I worked at calming myself down. My heart was still trying to beat out of my chest by the time Dan entered the burrow and nuzzled his nose into my cheek.

"Aspen, are you ok? Did the storm hawk get you anywhere?"

I let out a deep breath, "I'm alright. It just surprised me."

"Ya, it's definitely been a while since anything has grown brave enough to attempt attacking one of us." Dan put his wing over me as he leaned into my side, "I won't let anything happen to you though, I promise."

My heart softened and I could feel my body return to its normal pace, "Thank you Dan. I won't let anything happen to you either."

He was silent for a moment and I could feel a hint of sadness in his mindecho along with his mindvoice, "You don't need to try so hard for my sake, love. I don’t want you to worry about a thing."

I chuckled to myself, knowing very well there was no way I couldn't worry. I decided to change the topic, "So what’s the news?"

An image appeared in my mind of the area outside our home. It was still very dark out with the sky barely bright enough to see small details through the trees. The sunrise wouldn't be for another couple hours yet.

"Well there's still time to go back to sleep, if you want or we can go find an early breakfast. After the morning song, we can go find some of the candidates Taureen had suggested. I found a couple of them on patrol already while I was with John and Evan. We might be able to find the other ones right after the morning song, if we're quick."

I hummed in thought before replying back, "That sounds like a decent plan. I don’t think I'll be able to fall back asleep anyway. And my stomach wouldn't mind finding something to eat. I'm thinking apples?"

Dan laughed as he nipped at one of my ear tufts, "I was just thinking about how appetizing an apple would be, right about now."

~~~

The day progressed slowly. It was getting close to mid day and I was completely done with looking at kymari at that point. None of the kymari we had seen so far seemed right for one reason or another so we scratched them off our list and moved on. There were still a number of kymari left on the metaphorical list Taureen had given us through Tasha, but I was ready for an afternoon nap and a scale scrub.

We met Sam and Chris at our usual spot near the stream. She hummed a greeting to me, not bothering to get up from her sunbathing position and I laid next to her.

"Isn't the sun just so nice?" She started the small talk, "I could just lay here all day if the sun would cooperate and stay in one place."

I laughed at her remarks, "Better be careful or some big predator might make you a dragonet jerky snack."

Some awareness popped into Sam's mindecho, "Oh that’s right! Chris told me you were attacked by a storm hawk this morning? Are you alright?"

I bumped her reassuringly with my wing, "I'm alright. A little out of it, but that’s about it."

Sam let out a sigh, "I'm glad you managed to stay safe. With all the attacks and deaths that have happened over the years, it constantly worries me that you might be next."

I could feel her sorrow for all of our lost friends, "Don’t worry, Sam. I've got the best protector in the entire flock watching over me! As your best friend, I'm not going to leave you behind in the land of the living by yourself."

She whacked me with her tail, "You better not! You're the only one I have left besides Chris."

I fell silent as I thought about her words and realized just how right she was. Living in the park was dangerous, especially for me when animals could easily sneak up on me if they came from down wind. Dan couldn’t be by my side all hours of the day and it would be selfish of me to expect that from him.

I reached out to feel Dan’s mindecho and could tell he wasn’t far, likely having his own conversation with Chris. The sun on my back felt almost as nice as his mind’s echo against mine. I could feel his mood shift in and out of emotions throughout the day and it was like watching paint mix and swirl inside a still glass of water.

“Fair warning to anyone near the stream, there are kymari coming your way.” A voice broke into the general mindlink and we all took notice.

“Well, looks like we’ll have to find another spot to sunbathe.” Sam grumbled as she stretched into a standing position.

Soon, everyone in the area made themselves scarce, including Dan and I. However, despite the closing proximity, Dan wanted to stay close in case this was one of the kymari on our list. As soon as we saw they weren’t one of our candidates, we took off.

Dan led us in our flight for a few minutes, eventually stopping to rest on a branch. Dan shared the view with me and I shivered.

“Why are there so many kymari out today?” I chittered my unhappiness. 

My question was answered as Dan shared an image through our mindlink. The kymari seemed to be celebrating and I could feel Dan’s curiosity surrounding the mystery. They were too far away for me to feel their mindechos, however I could still tell how happy they all were. 

The gathering of kymari didn't seem too extravagant yet there were still a number of items that hinted at this being a party. On the glade between the forest and the city, tables full of food and drinks were crowded by multiple kymari; male, female, young, and old, they were all there together. I didn’t spot any elders so I assumed this must be a group full of relatives. There were a handful of kymari in armor that didn’t seem to be directly participating in the party, though they seemed just as happy as the rest of them.

It was subtle at first, but after a few minutes of watching, the mindechos surrounding us increased drastically. With a good number of the flock now also watching in curiosity, the pressure in my chest decreased. The whispers in the general mindlink all consisted of the same cautious curiosity and no one was sure what was going on.

“Look! That's one of the kymari on our list!” Dan jumped up, startling me almost to the point of falling off our branch.

“Which one?” I asked, clicking my tongue.

A new image appeared in my head, “That one. He was very easy to remember because of his hair.”

I was silent in my amazement at the kymati in guard armor. This kymari’s hair really did make him stand out from the others. While most other kymari had their long or medium hair down or partly up, this kymari had his short cut hair styled straight up. His entire head looked like a bed of dull black nails.

“He has quite the spiky head.” I commented, still stunned by his appearance.

Dan laughed, “I was thinking it looked like a porcupine.”

“Eh, Spiky Head rolls off the tongue easier than Porcupine Head.” I retorted back with a chuckle of my own.

“Well, what do you think of Spiky Head? Does he fit the criteria?” Dan’s voice was soft as he turned his full attention to me and what I had to say.

I hummed as I grew distracted by his soothing voice in my mind, “I can’t get a good read on his mindecho from this far away. It’s especially hard with all the other mindechoes around right now.”

Dan hummed and nodded as our link grew silent while we continued watching. The general mindlink was still abuzz with whispers but I focused my attention on a conversation taking place closest to our hiding spot. Spiky Head wasn't close enough to eavesdrop on, so this would have to do for now.

"-and then they tried sabotaging our communications before Cordax figured out where the jamming was coming from and led the way to their surrender." We caught the tail end of what one of the two male kymari was saying.

The second, slightly younger looking kymari, scoffed, "Pathetic cowards. Every single one of them. From everything I've heard so far, they haven't fought us head on even once."

"I suppose that's true," the older kymari chuckled, "But what do you expect such a weak race to do? They were the ones to decide to pick a fight with us. Plus they barely had any adequate technology to be on equal fighting grounds, but without the strength to properly use any of it, it became practically worthless. Being cowardly and avoiding a head on fight was the smartest thing they could do if they wanted any chance at survival."

"Hey, you two!" A female kymari interrupted with a call, "Come get some food before its all gone!"

The conversation now at its end, the two kymari walked off towards the food booths and Dan and I took that as our cue to leave as well. Plenty of other dragonets were still watching the commotion, and I was sure I'd hear about anything interesting in the general mindlink or from Sam, later.

"Glean anything compelling from those two?" Dan asked as we flew further into the park, away from the popular walking trails.

"Well the older one was rather excited," I began as I clicked to carefully follow behind Dan, "the other just seemed annoyed and agitated, though hid it well under his own excitement."

"Sounds like that was some kind of celebration for a war or battle that was won recently, then." Dan pieced together, "And from what we know about the kymari, they believe its most honorable to fight head on. Thats probably what was agitating the younger one."

"That makes sense." I agreed with him.

There was silence for a few minutes as we flew before Dan spoke again, "I am curious what kind of alien would willingly choose to wage war against the kymari, though."

"Stupid ones?" I suggested half jokingly.

Dan warbled in laughter as we came to a cliff without any trees to obstruct the late afternoon sunlight, "Maybe it's stupidity. We don't know the full story and we don't know everything about the kymari either. So maybe it could also be something else?"

I carefully landed on the cliff face next to him, "Or maybe you're just thinking too much into this. It has nothing to do with us."

Dan's mindecho swirled with a deep curiosity I didn't understand, "But what if it did?"

"Then I want nothing to do with it. I'd rather not test how far the kymari's patience will stretch for us." I circled around in the patch of grass I landed on before tucking my legs under me, ready for a nap.

Dan hummed as he pressed his body close against mine, "I guess we'll just have to wait and see."

His mindecho simmered into a steady ripple as inner thoughts died down and emotions faded from the conscious areas of his mind. As soon as I noticed the shift, I averted my own attention to the sounds around us. A number of birds were singing and I could hear the occasional flying insect buzz past my ear.

I could also hear Dan's steady breathing and the faint sound of our scales rubbing against each other. Him being there made me feel safe. He made me feel whole. With all of his curiosity towards the kymari, was it really fair of me to ask him to stay with me like this? Was it fair to expect that he would always be there to protect me when I needed him?

I took a slow deep breath as my thoughts consumed me. I didn't know what the correct answer was supposed to be.

(Quick important note for new readers! Along with all of my editing, this is a completely brand new chapter to help clean up later plot holes. So until the entire book has been revised, this chapter might contradict later chapters! This chapter also includes new plot elements that are not mentioned or included in the later unrevised chapters! Lastly, because this chapter is replacing an old cut chapter, some future chapters may not make any sense at all! Check for stars to read the edited chapters! You’ve been warned!)