Lost Change

Chapter 45

Fifteen more sunrises. Halfway through this nightmare.

I tilted my head back and tugged at the strap of the harness with my teeth. That had been annoying during the Morning Song... but aside from that, I hated to admit that I had gotten used to it. Every now and then one of the straps would brush against the casts on my wing and cause me a little pain, but aside from that, it was little more than an irritant.

I had given up my act after a few hours, and had walked around so the two Kymari would get the idea I was finally used to it. I had expected my Kymari to take the thing off at least by dinner... but before leaving, Trenil had suggested simply leaving it on me all night just to make sure I got nice and used to it.

From the way Ivy smirked at me when he said that, I was certain it had really been her idea.

So I had gotten to eat dinner in the blasted thing, then sleep in it, and had just finished singing in it. It was driving me crazy. It had a 'processed' smell of harsh chemicals and heavy machinery that clashed with my own scent and the rest of the scents in the room.

I had crawled out of my den halfway through the night and climbed up into the pot with the dying plant in the hopes that its scent would mask that of the harness, but it had only dulled it slightly. The dirt wasn't very comfortable to sleep on, either.

Stupid Kymari. Stupid harness, stupid distracting dragonets, stupid, stupid, stupid.

The Kymari turned off the recording device and wandered back into her room - probably to change out of her nightwear and into something better suited for the day.

Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid...

I hopped from the windowsill to the end table, then crawled down to the floor. I followed the Kymari into the hallway, though as expected all the doors except the one to the bathroom were still just as firmly shut as they had always been since my 'adventures' in them. I doubted they would have anything that would help get me out of the harness, anyways.

I fell over onto my side and stared up at the bedroom door. It eventually opened, showing that the Kymari had changed outfits like I had expected, and I wailed up at her. "Haaaallllllpppppp..."

She just blinked once and looked down at me... then she giggled at me.

I sighed. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

The Kymari stepped over me and walked back into the living room. I got back to my feet and walked after her, then tried the same thing again on the living room floor.

"Well. You're nothing if not persistent." She watched me for a minute with a grin, then lifted a container of fruit into my field of vision. "It's not that bad. Come get breakfast, then we can go for a walk." She shook the container and the fruit bounced around in it.

My ear tufts perked. Well. Finally getting to go outside might be fun.

She reached for a leash on the table with her other hand.

...but it probably wasn't going to be.

I chewed on the yellow leash for what must have been the millionth time, then snorted around it. The blasted thing was almost as resistant to my teeth as the harness was. The Kymari was walking just a bit too slow, and every so often I would get too far ahead and reach the end of the leash. The sudden tug backwards would be the only clue I had traveled too far ahead.