She pondered over his whereabouts as she made her way downstairs. He had probably gotten hungry and come down to help himself to some leftover pizza. A smile crept across her face as she recalled his foraging trip that had left her kitchen in a mess yesterday. Hopefully, he hadn’t gotten his head stuck in anything this morning. “Byrd?” she called as her feet hit the carpet. She glanced towards the kitchen, but it was empty.
Turning to her living room, she smiled when she finally found her missing dragon. He was curled up in the corner of the living room. The blanket from his bed was wrapped around him as if he’d been nesting. Kara felt her dragon stretch. It had been a long time since she had allowed herself to nest in anything, and the desire to go over and cuddle up next to Byrd pulled at her.
She started over but stopped when something caught her eye. The cushions on the couch were missing. Shocked, she turned back to look at Byrd and his nest. The blanket covered most of it, but she could just see the edge of a cushion poking out of his nest. Horror filled her as her mind, doing quick mental calculations, determined that Byrd’s nest was wider and flatter than the couch cushions should have been. “Byrd!” Kara gasped as she rushed over and flipped the edge of his nest up.
Byrd raised his head and looked at her sleepily.
What Kara found under his blanket made her want to cry. Yes, the cushions of her couch were making up the padding for his nest, but they weren’t whole anymore. “How could you?” Kara cried as she dropped to her knees next to the pile of torn-up foam and cotton batting. “My couch!”
Byrd just blinked.
Biting back her anger, Kara got up and turned away. The desire to scream welled inside her, but she schooled herself into not crying or yelling as she forced herself to walk away. She needed to stay calm despite what damage he had done. Yelling at Byrd would only upset him, and she needed him to trust her so she could help him. Flying into a rage was not going to do either of them any good. Summoning the patience of a saint, she turned and pinned the little dragon with an angry stare. “I’m not happy, Byrd,” she said as calmly as she could through clenched teeth. “We will talk about this later.”
Turning away from him, she left the little dragon to his own devices. She couldn’t deal with this right now. Maybe after she had a hot shower, she would have her temper well enough under control to explain things to him. Then again, maybe not. She had loved that couch.
Movement and a loud cry woke Noah from his dreams. Turning his head, he found Kara standing over him. Her face was red as a beet, and she looked on the verge of tears.
“How could you?” she cried as she dropped to her knees next to him. Her hands touched the edge of his bed but pulled back with clenched fists. “My couch!”
Noah blinked at her again, not understanding what was going on. What in the world was she talking about? Blinking again, he looked down at the bed he was lying on. It was really comfortable, but it wasn’t the bed he remembered going to sleep on. Movement from Kara had him turning back to her. Her spine was ramrod straight as she turned away. The quiver in her shoulders gave away exactly how mad she was, but Noah didn’t understand why she was pissed.
She took a few steps away before turning and glaring at him.
Noah cringed at the anger in her eyes.
“I’m not happy, Byrd,” she said through clenched teeth. “We will talk about this later.” With a sharp step, she was off and up the stairs before he could say anything.
Unsure what was going on, Noah looked around. This was not the room where he’d gone to bed last night. This was most definitely Kara’s living room, but he didn’t remember coming down. Getting up, he stumbled out of the nest and looked around for what had caused Kara’s outburst. She had mentioned the couch, so he turned to look at it. The cushions were missing. A sinking feeling hit Noah, and he turned to look at the nest he’d just crawled from.
Flipping the covers back, he revealed a mess of shredded batting and foam pieces. “Byrd!” Noah roared. He startled himself when the sound actually echoed in the room. It had been the first time he had been in control since Byrd had taken over his body. He felt the sleepy mind of the dragon stretch as it woke up. “Wake up now, Byrd!” Noah shook his head, rousting the dragon. “Explain this!” Noah’s senses dimmed a little as the dragon woke up and reclaimed their body. Noah tried to hang on, but Byrd had more control in this form.
Byrd rumbled his disgust in being awake.
“Don’t give me that,” Noah snapped. “Explain this mess!”
Looking over the nest he had made, Byrd shrugged. “Comfy.”
Noah bristled at the answer. “What do you mean comfy? We tore up her couch!”
Letting out a jaw-cracking yawn, Byrd shrugged and headed back into the nest. He curled up and draped the end of his tail across his nose.
“Oh no!” Noah snapped at the dragon. “We are not going back to sleep.”
Byrd grumbled and cracked open an eye to glare out at the world.
Noah could feel the dragon’s annoyance, but he wasn’t going to let him get away with this. Misbehaving was one thing, but destruction was something else. “We are going to get up and clean this mess up.”
“Why?” Byrd grumbled and rolled over in the bedding. “Comfy.”
“I don’t care if it’s comfy,” Noah ranted. “We can’t just lie here! Kara is pissed off that we tore up her couch.”
A confused feeling came from the dragon. “Kara’s upset?” Byrd rolled to his stomach and looked over to where Kara had disappeared upstairs. Curiosity rolled through him, and he stood up to go see why she was unhappy.
“No, Byrd.” Noah reached for the dragon, trying to stop him. They both were surprised when they stopped after a few steps.
“Why not?”
“Kara’s upset that we tore up her couch. If we go up now, it would make her more upset,” Noah explained.
Byrd sat down on his haunches. “Why?”
Letting out a sigh, Noah tried to think of a way to explain it. “Do you remember a time someone destroyed something of yours?”
Turning his thoughts inwards, Byrd thought about it.
Noah tracked the dragon’s thoughts as he searched through Raven’s memories. “There!” Noah stopped him at the memory of someone breaking something important to Raven. “Do you remember how that made Raven feel?” Anger filled Noah as Byrd relived the experience. He breathed through the feeling, soothing Byrd as he went.
“Mad,” Byrd finally answered.
“And we just tore up something that was important to Kara,” Noah pointed out gently. “How do you think that made her feel?”
Byrd’s wings dropped as he envisioned Kara feeling the way Raven had. He whimpered in regret.
“It’s all right, Byrd,” Noah calmed the dragon. “Kara’s going to be mad at us for a while, but there is something we can do to help.”