My parents made us move to another park to escape the Kymari. We heard they were not ever going to let Tasha go. They were keeping her to hunt for the shadow monsters, the Sicora. Again, the reports were conflicting about how they were treating her.

I was not too fond of the new park, but I had no choice in moving, as I was only six months old. Thankfully, we only stayed a few days before returning to the old park, because the Kymari found us in the new one, too. Since there was always safety in numbers, my parents decided it was better to go back.

I couldn't wait to find a mate and get out on my own. Don't get me wrong; I loved my parents, and they loved me. But they could not see past their own experience in captivity. I wished I could talk to Tasha, but the mindlink didn't seem to reach for me, due to my age and how far away she was. My friends said the Kymari were treating her well. My parents refused to believe that. 

Over the last month, I had watched the aliens, and I saw nothing we should fear. I heard Drake tell the others in the link that the Kymari were protecting us, and the only reason they would keep us in captivity was if we got hurt or abandoned by the flock.

So, why were we so afraid? The Kymari wanted to ensure we were safe and had what we needed. Tasha was like a spy for us, as they talked openly in front of her. We knew everything as it happened!

This was insanity.

*******

"Tasha is free! If you are gold-colored, you need to hide. They are entering the park to look for her!"

I jumped off the rock where I was sunbathing when Drake's call came through the mindlink. I was green, so it wasn’t an issue for me.

"Clover! I want you to come back home now!"

There was my mom, right on cue.

"Can I please hug Tasha first?" I asked.

"Clover! Home! Now!"

I shrugged my scales in annoyance, but I headed to our burrow. I was sure I would be stuck inside until the Kymari found Tasha or stopped searching.

But I heard the dragonets talking to her over the mindlink a little while later.

"Tasha, can you tell us exactly what happened while you were gone? If one of us gets caught, it might be best to know what to expect," one female said.

Others raised their voices, too, asking Tasha to tell her story, so she did. It was so different from what I had been told.

"I woke up to find a cast on my wing,” Tasha began. “I was in a cage with meat and water bowls. I knew the male Kymari taking care of me had drugged the water, but I drank it anyway, as the pain was terrible, and I needed relief. After a few days, he figured out I preferred fruit, and he only gave me that. The drugs stopped after five days. He left the cage door open and let me leave it once the drugs wore off.

"He stayed nearby and would use the food to get me to come closer to him until he was hand feeding me. It was a typical training technique used on animals to train them to obey their masters. Since I could not share our secrets, I went along with it, so he would continue to think I was an animal and talk freely with the other Kymari in front of me. He removed the cage a few days later, and he placed a heat lamp with sand in its spot. I never saw the cage again. He kept the window shade down, and after a week, I became lethargic and depressed without the Morning Song.

"Finally, one morning, he opened the window shade, and I could feel the pull from the sun and rushed to the window. I couldn't fly, but I could sing. After the song, I felt renewed, and he noticed the difference and allowed the window shade to stay open permanently.

"While my handler treated me like an animal, he also took excellent care of me. I had tons of food, Sunburst berries, and this fruit called Shia, which is even better than the berries. He scrubbed and oiled my scales daily, so I was never itchy. He never lost patience with me and was never mean to me. My biggest issue was with the hand feeding. But since I could not communicate that I was a human trapped in this body, I couldn't blame him for treating me that way.

"That continued until the bones healed and the cast came off. He again drugged me for several days while he stretched my wing and got the muscles working. After the drugs stopped, but before I could fly well, a crawler—which is what the Kymari call a Sicora baby—and an adult Sicora got loose in the air vents of the building and came into the area where we were. Once the smell hit me, I immediately attacked. That woke the handler, and he killed the crawler while the adult Sicora got away. He called for others, and they cleared the building and killed any monsters that got in.

"It seems a Sicora bite will kill a Kymari, and a crawler bite will put them in the hospital, so they believed I saved many lives that night. They decided I was too valuable to release after that.

"They declared dragonets endangered and protected, and they promoted the male taking care of me to 'handler for a bonded animal.' He put a harness and leash on me, and he took me to different places and ships to ensure there were no monsters on board. He also took me to a small park to let me roam, and he noted any plants I touched. Then he bought a house with a big fenced-in yard with netting overtop so I could not fly away but could spend time outside. He put any plant I had interacted with inside the yard, as he believed there was a plant in the park that we need to survive. When someone broke the back gate and left it open, I escaped."

The other dragonets then asked her questions, one after another, and she answered them all. I listened with my whole being because I wanted the truth, and she gave it. While the drugging and the cage scared me, the food and the care she received sounded terrific. I remembered the intense anger and fear I felt when the Sicora was in the park and she got hurt. She got to hunt those things and make them dead!

My parents would have grounded me for life for even thinking about it, but I would have loved to trade places with her. Maybe I could sneak out the next day and see if I could find her handler.

Perhaps I could take her place.