A New Beginning: Passing The Torch

Chapter 48

Tessa's POV:

I blinked drowsily as the lights in the main room slowly brightened. It was still fairly dark in my sleeping place, although the change in lighting had woken me. It took me a second or two to remember exactly where I was.

I had slept really hard. This little hollow made me feel more secure than just being on a table top, and I hadn't woken up during the night even once, which was unusual. Getting up seemed like too much work so I pushed my head between two of the leaves that stuck up to form a wall. Soranto noticed me right away.

"Good morning."

His voice was far too cheerful and animated for this time of the morning. Now I knew what Dirk felt like when I greeted him in the morning. I gave a sleepy whistle before pulling my head back inside to try and wake up at a more leisurely pace.

It wasn't too long before I woke up enough to ease out of the opening and stand on the branch in front. I stretched my back and wings as I looked around. I could hear Adeline and Soranto talking in the kitchen, so I knew she was awake as well.

The sky was starting to get lighter, but it wasn't quite time for the Morning Song yet. The faint trickle of water made me lick my lips and glide over to the sandstone shelf to get a drink from the water bowl. The water was just as good as it always was. Mom had managed to talk Taureen into installing a nearly identical water freshening system for our water bowl at home, so we got to drink similar water there as well.

I quickly went into the bathroom and nudged the door mostly closed, hoping that no one would enter while I was inside. Luck was with me, and I managed to do my business, wash my hands, and leave the bathroom before anyone entered the living room.

I sprawled out under the middle of the heat lamp, still not fully awake. As I scratched my ear tuft, I decided to see if Mom and Dad were awake, although I knew they probably were.

"Good morning," I called out to them.

Mom immediately replied, "Good morning. How was your sleepover?"

"It was nice. I slept in one of the heated branch nooks. It was really cozy once I put some sand in it. I had an even better sleep than I did in the back room."

"That's good. Anything interesting happen yet?"

"Not really. I just got up. I cuddled with Soranto before bed, though."

"Soranto will be bringing you back on his way to work, so we will get to see each other soon."

"Okay, see you later!"

I stretched my arms out and flexed my claws deep into the sand. What should I do while waiting for the sun to rise? The way my nails slid through the sand with little resistance made me wonder just how deep this sand tray was.

Moving to a cooler section of the sand, I began digging, making sure that the sand remained on the shelf. And I dug and dug deeper. How deep was this thing? At this rate, I was going to fall out from the underside of the shelf...

Right before I thought I was bending the rules of physics, I found the bottom. It must have been resting on the bottom edge of the shelf to go down so far. The hole I had dug was probably half as deep as I was tall. That gave me a different idea, though.

With a quick glance at the open kitchen door, I began shifting the sand around again. A few minutes later, I exhaled and rested my chin on the sand as I waited for someone to enter the room.

Not long after, Soranto entered the room and paused when he caught sight of just my head and half of my neck sticking out of the sand. The sand around me was pretty flat too, with no discernable hump to indicate exactly where my body was.