I glowered at the world from the back of the transport carrier. Not that I could see the world easily since it was a solid box with several air holes. I crouched in the back corner as I tried to ignore the presence of the harness.

Three days had passed, and all of my attempts to get it off had been unsuccessful. I had no clue where we were heading, although we had just entered a building that smelled like cleaning chemicals with the undertone of a variety of different animals.

Many of the smells were strange, and various voices and sounds reached my ears as Taureen kept walking. Suddenly, most of the noise cut out with the sound of a closing door.

“Put the carrier on the table, and we will get a scan.”

I felt the cage being lifted and carefully placed on something. A whirring noise sounded overhead as well as on both sides as bright white light pouring in every air hole. I crouched down and pinned my ears back in fear. I had never seen anything like this before.

The light and noise disappeared as a woman spoke, “Okay, let’s take a look. Ah, there are the breaks. It looks like both of them are healing well. We can probably remove the cast in two weeks. It will take around two weeks for rehabilitation before we can consider a release attempt.”

My head lifted now that the light was gone; it sounded like I was in a veterinary clinic, or at least, that was my best guess. A minimum of four more weeks? That amount of time sounded like forever. I had already been in his care for three weeks, and I was already itching to fly free.

I had wondered how bad the original damage had been, so learning that there had been two breaks in my wing made me wince. No wonder my wing had hurt so fiercely. The release attempt sounded like it was almost a guarantee from how the woman was speaking. I was almost at the halfway point, and the end was finally in sight. I will be counting down the days...

My appointment ended and the trip back was swift enough. The door on the carrier opened up, and I could see the living room again. I didn’t move, opting to remain in the cave-like shelter. The leash attached to my harness gently tugged, and with a gusty sigh, I got out of the carrier.

He gently picked me up, and I growled lightly at him. He ignored the growl as he had numerous times before. After that encounter with Maria, he seemed to be concentrating on trying to get me used to being handled.

I had made my objections known, and he had obtained several light scratches on his hands and arms despite his quick reflexes. Not that the tiny injuries had done me any good. Each time I managed to land a swipe, he had turned his full attention to me for several hours.

During those times, he had kept me constantly at the edge of slashing him as he worked on desensitizing me to whatever had made me retaliate until I was exhausted. The stress, unease, and general mental state during those long hours were the cause of most of the exhaustion.

I didn’t really want to cause serious harm since that would probably land me in hot water. On two occasions, he hadn’t really expected my reaction, and I had pulled the blows that would have otherwise sent him to the hospital for stitches. Those light scratches that barely broke the skin caused me enough trouble; I wasn’t sure what he would do if I inflicted a larger injury.

As much as the cage would have kept him away from me, I had grown accustomed to having the run of his house. Being in a cage would make it nearly impossible to enjoy the Morning Song, so I had to be on at least semi-decent behavior until I was released.

He placed me on his gloved arm; it looked like a hawking glove, only more lightly built and streamlined, being made from a material similar to my harness. I dug my claws into the glove for balance while he held his arm at his side.

The light and flexible leash was clipped onto a clasp on the front of my harness. At the moment, it was being held by his gloved hand, so I wasn’t able to go anywhere until he gave me more slack. I watched him with annoyance; just because I was putting up with this didn’t mean that I enjoyed it.

He held up his arm to a perch that he had mounted on his wall, and I jumped off. He backed up a step before coming back and raising his arm. “To fist.” To get the lesson over with, and the leash off, I hopped onto his glove. Once I was released into the wild, I was promptly going to forget all of these little commands...

I was rewarded with a strawberry. Not quite what I was after. They may both start with an f, but food and freedom are two very different things. I turned my head as the doorbell rang. Taureen secured the leash in his glove and answered the door personally, much to the surprise of the stranger on the other side.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

I wasn’t sure who was more surprised. Me, at seeing someone other than Taureen’s two friends. Or him, at seeing me on Taureen’s wrist. From the way he was staring at me, I suspected that he might be the more surprised of the two of us.

Taureen greeted him warmly. “Alec, good to see that you found time to come over.”

Alec finally looked at Taureen. “I’m glad I finally made it up here. I hadn’t realized how tame you had gotten your little friend.”

I examined the lightly-built Kymari, not overly impressed with his presence despite his admiring gaze. So, this is Alec. I wonder what he is doing here instead of running around the central park. The answer was rather obvious though; he was here because of me.

Taureen chuckled as he admitted, “I have never had such difficulties with any creature before. She is quite the handful. Since I happen to have her on leash, do you feel like going for a short walk? We can stay in the immediate area; I don’t want to go anywhere near a park with her just yet.”

Alec nodded and stepped back to allow Taureen into the hallway. I looked around with interest and unease. With the exception of this morning’s ride in the carrier, I had never been outside of Taureen’s living room. The long curving hallway had doors spaced out evenly as we walked down it.

They got into what I assumed was an elevator; I waited for the obvious drop but didn’t feel anything. The door opened, and we came out on a different floor. They exited the building and started walking down the street.

I shifted uneasily as my claws gripped Taureen’s wrist tighter. I may have gotten used to things in his apartment but a street had always been something to avoid in the past. I gazed up at the decorative large trees as we passed beneath them, but there was no chance of me flying up and hiding in the branches with a broken wing.

Taureen held his arm by his side and used his other hand to pet my back. “Easy. Calm down.”

Easy for you to say... My heartbeat was rapidly rising, along with my stress level. He offered me a piece of fruit, which I gingerly took it, allowing it to distract me from my growing anxiety.

Alec was watching closely. “It’s interesting to see a fire lizard up close. Despite my best attempts and numerous tactics, I have been unable to get anywhere near a wild one.”

Taureen hummed thoughtfully before replying, “I think I would be having a lot more difficulty if it had been anything other than her wing that had been injured. Her ability to flee has been removed and that has taken a lot of the fight out of her.”

“I’ve been watching for any orphan or rejected fledglings, but they are all accounted for every morning. I have reviewed every video I can find of that weird dance they do in the morning, and it looks like they have never abandoned or lost one yet.”

“Have you tried locating a nest?”

Alec sighed. “We looked high and low, but we were unsuccessful. They are very good at hiding their nest; by the time we even realize that a pair might be nesting, the youngsters show up at the dance with their parents. Other than the nest the sicora disturbed and the one that we accidently stumbled too close to the day after, we have never located a nest.”

“The first time the youngsters join their parents at the morning gathering, they are a decent size. I find it hard to believe that we are unable to find the nest during the weeks that they are in it.”

Despite my growing anxiety, I was slightly amused by their assumption that the nestlings were nest-bound for several weeks. They were overshooting the target by a long shot – it was only about five days until the youngsters could fly well enough to accompany their parents.

Alec snorted. “They hide those nests very well and ensure that they are never followed to it. Lately, about the only time we even get to see any of the fire lizards is when they sing in the morning.”

“I saw your videos. How close are their songs to what this one is doing?”

With a look of puzzlement, Alec responded, “That is the odd part. They all start and stop singing at almost exactly the same time. We have broken out each voice on an analyzer, and each individual is singing a slightly different song each time. There is no true repetition, yet they are all following the same theme as the others every time, even though the theme varies each day. Yours is following the same theme that they are, and I have no clue how she knows what theme they are using.”

Taureen looked surprised, although I failed to understand why. Each sunrise was different, and thus, our songs were different. We were all singing to the same sunrise, which is why we followed the same theme. From what I was hearing, Taureen must be sending Alec a video of my Morning Song every day. Stalker.

I glanced ahead and pulled my ears closer to my head in distress as I saw a group of rowdy adolescent Kymari were approaching on the sidewalk. Taureen glanced up as he felt the pressure from my claws increase even more.

Alec called out to them, “Can you please calm down until we pass? We have a half-tamed animal with us.”

Taureen moved his arm closer to his chest and used his other hand to pet my back. The approaching Kymari immediately and respectfully quieted as they passed us, watching me with curiosity. They were a long distance away before they resumed their antics.

The traffic, people walking by, noise, and simply being on the street had my nerves tightly strung. I wasn’t sure how much more I could take, but I was aware of the leash that was held tightly in Taureen’s hand.

Taureen commented, “Well, that went much better than I had hoped for.”

Looking more closely at our surroundings, I was surprised to notice that we were approaching the doors of a building. Then I realized that they were the doors we had left - we had simply walked around the block.

Once we were back in the room, Taureen unclipped the feather-light leash and sat down. The instant he stopped moving, I jumped off and headed for the heat lamp. I wasn’t cold, but the location and heat were familiar and relaxing. Right now, I just wanted to calm down and relax.

Taureen spoke of what he had noted of my odder habits while Alec commented of his increasingly-rare sightings of the wild group as they cross-compared their observations.