"What are we doing?"

"Don't get the wrong idea. You need a haircut. You're not going to do it, and despite what he'd tell you, Udo can only manage his own hair. So I'll be doing it."

Harmoni flinched as Ferren's comb tore through a knot. Harmoni's hair hadn't looked bad this morning. That was apparently deceiving.

"Now try to relax," Ferren urged. "This will be easier if you do."

When Harmoni did not relax, Ferren let out a quiet, but still annoyed, sigh. "If you're so worried, let your guard dragon watch me."

Ferren gestured to Fleck with her comb.

He was already watching.

So Harmoni eased back in the chair, and tried to unclench her face.

Surprisingly, it worked. Not right away, but the rhythmic feel of a comb through her hair and sound of snipping scissors did lull her into a relaxed state. She even closed her eyes.

Ferren cut her hair so you could just see the back of her neck. It was less than she was used to, creating an odd feeling when she turned her head. But it felt freeing in the desert sun, and it would be a while before she needed to do that again.

Ferren had styled her hair a bit as well, making the part asymmetrical and pinning a braid to her head. A short braid. Again, not as much hair. It was nice, but made her look more obviously elvish, and not just because it left the pointy ears on display.

Harmoni kept the part, no need to be rude, but she dropped the braid as soon as she thought she could get away with it.

~~~

A few more days passed. It would rain sometimes. Some dragons came for a bath. On her and Fleck’s next days off, they just walked some parts of Xentron city they hadn’t been in yet. With the spa, Udo’s house, the courtyard, and the library all sort of being on one side, Harmoni hadn’t been West very often. Then it was back to work with Udo and Aqua. Maybe they could make back some of the money Evin stole.

So, she’d say it had been about a week and a half when Cooper saw her again.

“Harmoni? Hey Harmoni!”

At the familiar greeting, Harmoni turned away from the library’s front entrance, and saw Cooper running up the road. Moon bounded along on the road beside him, tongue lolling out like a dog. Cooper waved at her, and Harmoni couldn’t help but smile, giving him a much smaller wave in return.

“I’ve got great news,” Cooper exclaimed, screeching to a halt in front of her. “Guess what?”

With how excited he looked, Harmoni decided she’d actually try to guess. She hummed and pursed her lips, looking him up and down.

“Does it have anything to do with the rocket shoes on your shoulders?”

Cooper had his regular sneakers on his feet, but he’d tied the rocket shoes together, and strung them over his shoulders. They looked metal, and must still be heavy, but they certainly hadn't slowed him down, and he’d slimmed them down since she’d last seen them. Two weeks ago now? A little more, she was pretty sure. She’d been at Udo’s home about five weeks. She could see that on his calendar.

And that didn’t count the days before Harmoni had met him.

There hadn’t been many of those.

Anyway, Cooper’s smile grew even wider at her guess. “Yes! They’re actually working now. Moon and I went on a test flight with them. And they steered right and lasted the whole time and we landed without crashing and everything.”

Moon hopped back and forth beneath Cooper. “I’ve got good news as well,” she told Fleck. “You might want to step back.”

Bemused, Fleck stepped to the side, getting a little closer to Harmoni. Moon opened her mouth, and shot ice out of it. Just tiny shards, like knocking icicles off a roof, but still. Fleck stared slack jawed. She was . . . young, to be pulling that off.

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Harmoni smiled. “That’s great. I’m happy for you. Both of you.” She meant it too, even if her enthusiasm seemed a little lackluster.

“I want to show you,” Cooper said.

Harmoni’s smile flickered. “What?”

That statement was genuinely vague, and could mean more than one thing.

“I mean, you don’t have to come if you don’t want to. But I’d like to have a flight with you, if you’ll let me. You can see how well the boots work. And how cool the desert looks from above.”

A dragon could show her the latter, but he and Moon weren’t old enough or big enough for that yet.

“What about Moon? And Fleck?”

“Yeah. I can really only carry one person at a time. Moon’s already gone. But you and Fleck would just have to take turns.”

Moon nodded. “It is pretty cool. Especially for a rider to pull off. You should give it a try if he’s offering,” she told Fleck.

Fleck would be cool with that. But Harmoni should go first.

Well it seemed everyone was making this decision for her.

‘You were going to say yes anyway, weren’t you?’

‘Yes.’ She turned to Cooper, trying to hide the light hearted exasperation she felt. “OK. I’d like to try.”

“Cool!” Cooper fist bumped the air. He quickly crouched down and swapped out his regular shoes for the flying boots, tossing the other pair at Moon, who caught them in her mouth. Then he looked up at Harmoni. “I guess the easiest way for us to both fly is if you grab my back like this is a piggyback. It’s pretty close to what I did for Moon.”

“I rode on his shoulders,” Moon elaborated.

“Or I could try carrying you in my arms. If I rely on my metal one, it should be no problem.”

“I’ll take the first option,” Harmoni said.

She reached her arms over Cooper’s shoulder, clasping them at his chest. She let him grab her ankles, lifting her feet just a little off the ground. She could feel his hair on her cheek. It was a little awkward, but the alternative had sounded even worse.

She could hear the engines on Cooper’s boots start. He jumped, putting a lot of the weight on his metal foot. They shot up, dipped back towards the earth, and then slowly went back into the sky. Cooper adjusted his grip on Harmoni’s legs, and then they were moving, and it was less uncomfortable.

The duo rose above the library, and the two-story buildings beside it. They got higher in the sky, giving Harmoni a clear view of most of the city’s rooftops. The air was warm, wind included, but it wasn’t sweltering.

Cooper leaned forward slightly, sending them past the few buildings in the corner and into the open desert beyond. And he was right. It was an impressive sight.

From the air, you could see far across the desert. The sand rolled out before them, the hills faintly visible. At first, the ground was just the orange-yellow color of most sand. But after the rain they’d had, there were more plants growing in the sand. Harmoni could see the weird green balloon looking plants below. There were also more normal looking cacti, and scraggly grasses. Flowers bloomed off some of the plants, and creatures flew up to them. If Harmoni had to guess from here, the creatures looked like a cross between a bird and a dragonfly.

Up ahead, creatures ran across the open sand. They looked like giant roly-poly bugs.

Cooper turned, and the scenery changed. In this direction, the sands changed colors ahead of them. There was blue sand out here. Rock formations sprouted out of the ground, patterned in red and orange layers that stood out compared to the blue sand. Some of them formed odd shapes, like the arch Cooper was heading for. He lighted down on top of it, and slowly lowered Harmoni’s feet to the ground.

She slid to the ground, and Cooper faced her with a lopsided smile. “So, how was that?”

Harmoni actually let out a short laugh. “It was good.” Aside from the view, it was less terrifying than her usual flights on dragons. Cooper flew slower and closer to the ground, and she was always worried about having a secure enough grip on a dragon. “Thank you.”

“Hey, what are friends for?”

Cooper sat down, legs swinging off the arch they were on. That seemed . . . bold.

Well, Cooper could fly if he fell off.

‘Fair.’

Cooper pulled a bottle of water off his belt. He drank some, before offering it to Harmoni.

Harmoni slowly sat next to him, careful not to fall off. Then she took some of the water.

They sat like that for a little while, enjoying the view and drinking some water. The sun moved across the horizon, but it was still a long ways off from setting. After sitting with nothing bad happening, Harmoni swung her legs in the open air.

Then Cooper let out a sigh, closing his bottle and shoving it back into its pouch. “Well that was fun. But should we head back? Fleck needs to get a turn before it starts raining again.”

Harmoni looked around. The sky was a clear blue, no storm clouds in sight. The ground was still damp. There was less dust near the earth, and puddles in places, but no sign of anything new. But, she did want to give Fleck a turn.

“Yeah. I think Fleck will-”

She paused. As she looked around, she saw something moving across the sand. Something manmade.

“What’s that?”

Cooper leaned forward. Once again, seemed dangerous. She was pretty sure the lens over his left eye zoomed in, like binoculars.

“It looks like one of those sand rovers,” Cooper answered. “Like a snowmobile, but built for sand. But what’s it doing all the way out here?”

The sand rover moved past the stone arch without anyone noticing them. They could still see it, moving in the distance towards the more normal colored sand.

“Is this an unusual place to be?” Harmoni asked.

Cooper frowned, elbows on his knees. “It’s just . . . the nearest town in this direction isn’t close. Like, it’s late in the day to be going there. The nearest thing out here is . . . the abandoned lab.”