Steffie pointed behind me, and I bent my neck to see what she was pointing at.

A colorful box was resting on the ground beside Steffie's van. It had a pretty yellow string wrapped around it, tied into a bow at the top, and the whole thing seemed to be covered in shiny polkadots. I hopped quickly over to it and picked it up – something rattled inside when I moved it, but it felt very light. I shook it a little more in case the rattling sound would give me any clue as to what was inside it, but it didn't sound like anything I could recognize.

I felt a little bad ruining the pretty bow, but I carefully unraveled it and removed the string from around the box... then I turned the box over in my hands in confusion. The whole thing was perfectly smooth, with no bumps or gaps to open it with. I frowned and looked back up at Steffie. "Um... how do I open it?"

Steffie giggled a little, then reached up to tear a piece of the paper off the box. "Tear the wrapping off first. You can make a mess of it; that's part of the birthday tradition." She waved the piece of shiny paper in her hand, then dropped it to the ground.

"Oh." I fumbled a few times before I got a claw into the tear Steffie had made, then I pulled on the paper. The paper didn't come off cleanly, and I had to spin the box around a few times, but I eventually managed to pull enough of the paper off to find the flaps on top of the box. It was held shut by tape, but a careful swipe of my claw broke it open, and I opened the box to stare at... something?

"Thank you!" I blinked at the curious coil sitting in the box, then looked back up at Steffie. "Uhm... but what is it?"

Steffie reached into the box and pulled the coil out. "It's a headset! I had it made special for you. This bit here..." Steffie unwound the coil into a long string, then brought it up to my head. I felt a bit of a tug at my horns while she did something with the coil – when I looked as far out of the corner of my eye as I could, I could just barely see Steffie's hand, and it looked like she was winding the coil back along the length of my horn – then I felt something else press against the scales on the side of my head. I twitched at the ticklish feeling and tried to hold still while Steffie brushed against the frills at my neck, but she pulled her hand back before it got too annoying, and instead reached for her purse to dig out a mirror. "Here, look."

I blinked at the mirror, then tilted my head to get a closer look. The black coil had been wound around my horn. I shook my head a few times, but it didn't shift or fall off my horn. A thinner piece of metal seemed to stick out of the top of the coil, pointing out from my horn no matter how I moved my head, and a small circle of something fuzzy was stuck to the scales right in front of my ear.

"This is so that we can talk while you're flying. The part that wraps around your horn is an antenna, and the part by your ear is a speaker and a microphone. The microphone should cancel out the sound of any wind – they tested it by pointing super powerful fans right at the microphone – which makes sure I only hear your voice when you talk to me. And the speaker..." Steffie grinned and reached back into her purse one more time, putting the mirror away as she brought her phone out. She tapped on the phone a few times until it made a faint 'beep' sound, then held it up to her mouth and pressed the button. "Should be loud enough for you to hear me over any wind, but not too loud?"

My eyes went wide as I heard a 'wobbly' echo of Steffie's voice right in my ear.

"Woah..." I stood up and spread my wings out, already imagining the possibilities as I stared at the phone in Steffie's hand. The word 'Woah' came out of it, with the same wobbly sound to them, just like Steffie's words had come out of the speaker by my ear.

This was great! The only bad thing about flying was that I couldn't talk to Steffie when I was up in the air. But now I would be able to! She could tell me anything I needed to hear, and I could tell her about all the neat things I saw from the air without worrying about forgetting any of them by the time I landed. I started bouncing in excitement, dancing in place among the torn wrapping paper scattered on the ground. "This is so neat!! Fank you, fank you!"

My voice echoed from Steffie's phone again. I could already picture how much easier this would make everything – I would be able to fly even further around the Arboretum if I wanted to, since I wouldn't have to always keep an eye on Steffie. She could just tell me when it was time to come back, no matter where in the Arboretum I was, or I could tell her where I saw pretty flowers or trees!

Steffie smiled at my dancing. "You're welcome, Joy! We might need to do some testing with it later – the rock in our home could cause some trouble with the signal if you're at one of the far edges – but you should be able to talk to me anywhere in the Arboretum otherwise. So this present comes with a few rules that you need to remember."

She paused and got her serious, 'this is important' look, so I stopped dancing and looked back at her, folding my wings back against my sides and meeting her gaze to make sure I didn't get distracted.

Steffie continued once I was still. "Any time that you go outside, you need to make sure you are wearing this. We'll practice having you put it on later, but it's very important you always have it on you. My phone-" Steffie waved her hand, tilting the phone and drawing my attention back to it. "-has a way of telling me where your headset is. So if we get separated, or if you get lost, then I'll still be able to find you and guide you back to me." She paused and looked back at me.

I nodded and reached up to tap my horn. My claw missed the coil – I couldn't actually see my horns, and Steffie had put the mirror away – but I think I made the point. "Always haf this outside."

Steffie smiled as she nodded, then her face went back to her 'this is important' look. "Second, if you're flying but stop hearing from me – if you ask me something and don't hear me answer – then you need to come straight back to me. If you aren't sure where I am then I want you to come down to the ground and start walking towards home. Nobody's really used phones quite like this before, or made headsets with antennas that wrap around horns, so it could end up having problems. If it does, then I'll need you to come back so I can fix it for you, and to make sure you don't need any help."

I winced. It would be a horrible feeling if I tried to talk to Steffie but then didn't hear back from her. And I hated the thought of her being in that same situation and feeling that about me. I looked back up at her and nodded enthusiastically. "Land and walk home if I don't hear you."

My friend nodded again, then gave my head another gentle pat. "That's right. Those are all the annoying rules you need to worry about – now for the fun part. As long as you follow those rules, you can go flying any time you want. You won't have to wait on me if I'm busy with something else – even if I'm still asleep in the morning! The workers have all agreed that you've been good this past year and that they trust you, so they don't mind if you go flying on your own, so long as I can reach you on the headset if they do need me to tell you something. Our door will treat it the same as a keycard and open if you just hold the headset up to the door, so you can always come outside and play any time you want to."

I stared up at Steffie with widening eyes. "Weally???"

Steffie's smile grew brighter as she nodded at me. "Uh-huh! You've been very responsible, and you've earned it. I trust you not to hurt any of the plants here or to get into any trouble with the workers, and they've all agreed that they trust you, too. You can come out and play, on the ground or in the air, any time you like."

It was all I could do to keep from dancing in place – and after a few seconds I gave up on even trying, and started to dance around Steffie instead. This was the best day ever! Birthdays really were a special day!

Steffie giggled at me as I bounded around her, then gave another wave of the phone in her hand. "We still need to test out how well this works while you're up in the air. Are you up for playing with some balloons?"

I grinned and flared my wings out at my sides.

Best.

Day.

Ever.

"Can you still hear me okay?"

I banked to one side as Steffie's voice filled my ear. She was just barely visible between some of the trees down on the ground. I was high up in the air – not so high that I had to worry about hitting the glass canopy, but still a good way up – and I gave an extra showy beat of my wings as I waved a hand in her direction. "Uh-huh!"

"Good!" The breeze of my flight took away some of Steffie's voice compared to when I had been on the ground, but I could still make her words out easily enough. She had been making adjustments for the past few minutes so that she was loud enough to hear, but not so loud that her voice hurt, and we seemed to be at a comfortable 'volume level' now. "I think these settings should be good. Jean's going to help me with the balloons, so I'll be ready to start soon. Do you want to fly around some more first?"

A grin spread over my face as I angled my wings to dip downwards, then rose upwards to do a loop in the air. I was ready to play with the balloons, but it was so neat to have the option! I didn't have to go all the way back down to the ground to change plans; this headset let me work everything out with Steffie right then and there. "I'm weady for the balloons!"

There was a hint of laughter in Steffie's voice when she answered back. "Okay. Go get ready!"

I looped through the air again and flew towards the glass of the canopy. At random points I could spot dark bands that ran up the length of the glass. Steffie said they were called 'beams', and that somehow they held the glass together and kept it from falling down on us... but all I knew was that they came with some pretty good perches. At various points along the 'beams' were larger pieces of flat metal that Steffie called 'plates' – even though they didn't look anything like what we ate dinner off of – and they were just wide enough and just far enough away from the glass for me to fit onto. As I got closer I made out one of the plates, and I looped in the air to rise into a climb, following the curve of the glass and the beams as I came closer and closer...

A feeling inside of me told me it was time to begin slowing down for the landing, and I flapped my wings backwards a few times to slow my approach even as I reached out with my hands and feet. There was a jarring sensation as I came down on the plate, and I moved my legs in a run as the plate kept racing by beneath me. I tucked my wings in at my sides and ducked my head to avoid bumping it on the glass that was now just above me, rapidly slowing down as I climbed up the bend of the plate... then I was at a stop.

I fanned my wings out briefly in satisfaction, proud of myself for not tripping this time. My wing bumped against the beam beside me before I pulled it back, but I didn't care. I was already having so much fun today – and we hadn't even started playing yet!

Back on the ground below me the trees looked the same as always, but I kept an expectant watch on them anyway. Any minute now Steffie would be letting go of balloons from beneath one of those trees. That was the game – the balloons would start to float upwards to the canopy, and I had to catch as many of them as I could before they reached the glass. I still had to pick them up if any got past me and hit the canopy – the workers in the Arboretum would get upset if we just left the balloons there – but it was much more fun to catch them before they reached it. And I would get points for catching them that way, too.

I wasn't really sure what points were, but Steffie always smiled and seemed excited when she told me how many points I had gotten, so I wanted to get as many of them as I could.

I was getting really good at this game. The last time we had played I had caught all the balloons before they could reach the glass – and I hadn't bumped into the canopy that much. At this rate I was sure it was only a matter of time before I caught all the balloons without hitting the canopy at all. Which was good, because the canopy was dum-

A flicker of motion among the trees caught my attention, and I stretched my neck out to squint at the movement. Sometimes Steffie would try and keep the game interesting by distracting me with fake balloon launches, so I had to make sure before I wasted time flying off in the wrong direction... but after a second or two I caught sight of a multi-colored mass rising up from the trees.

I grinned and leaned over the side of the plate, falling off it and diving through the air. I spread out my wings and angled down towards the rising balloons, flapping my wings to push me through the air even faster. The balloons started to drift apart as they rose upwards, but four of them stayed clumped together – two red balloons, a pretty yellow balloon, and a purple balloon. I swooped towards the clump and flapped my wings harder as the distance between us shrank, then stopped flapping and twisted to one side so that my wings were stretching up towards the canopy and down towards the ground. The remaining space vanished as my momentum carried me along, and I stretched one hand out towards the long dangling strings...

"Gotcha!" I grinned triumphantly as my outstretched claws closed around all four strings. I leveled back out and snapped my wings to spin in a quick turn, passing the strings to my right hand as I began climbing again. The balloons began to trail behind and beneath me, safely out of reach of my tail with the length of the string, but I still glanced back to make sure my tail was well away from them. The strings were thick enough that they wouldn't fray as they rubbed against the scales on my belly – that had been a problem a few times and had caused caught balloons to cheat and go flying away again, so Steffie had replaced all the strings with thicker ones that tickled a little but which otherwise stayed intact during the game – but I knew from past experience that the spikes on my tail could easily pop a balloon if they hit one. Steffie let it go if I popped one balloon, but I would start to lose points if I popped more than that, so I had to be careful not to smack the caught balloons while I was changing directions.

Three quick flaps of my wings were all it took to reach a pair of balloons clumped to my left – another pretty yellow balloon and a green one – and I rolled to grab their strings as I sped past. I leveled back out and passed the newly-caught strings off to my right hand to keep them out of my way, making sure to keep my tail spikes safely away from the balloons as they bobbed behind me. Six points already! I started to look for another easy set of balloons to grab... then frowned.

There were a lot less balloons around me than I had expected.

Usually Steffie would send up twenty or so, sometimes even thirty... but I already had six, and I could only spot four more balloons. They had each drifted apart and were all by themselves now, meaning I couldn't snatch more than one up at a time, but even still, it wouldn't be any trouble at all to catch them before they reached the canopy still well above me.

I angled after the last yellow balloon and rolled as I snatched it out of the air, still trying to figure out why Steffie had used so few balloons while I passed my newest catch over to the cluster of caught balloons in my right hand... then I caught another flicker of movement in the distance as a second clump of balloons began rising up from the trees on the far side of the Arboretum.

"That's not faiw!!" I squawked as I flew past the next balloon, missing the string in my surprise. I growled and took another look at the other two balloons near me, but they had both drifted away – none were in convenient reach, so I looped through the air to go back for the blue balloon I had just missed. My loop took frustratingly longer than one usually did, now that I had seven uncooperative balloons tugging and bouncing around behind me.

"Sorry sweetie, but I have to keep things interesting." Steffie's voice came from my headset, and I jerked my head in surprise. With all my focus on the balloons I had forgotten she could hear me. I almost missed the string again, but my hand managed to snatch the blue balloon up just before I flew out of reach. "You're getting too good at catching them all at once – and this way Jean gets to play with us, too."

"Hmph." I passed my recent catch to my right hand, grouping all eight of the balloons I had caught in my off-hand, then angled towards the last two balloons and flapped my wings to help me climb after them. "Could have told me fiwst."

"First. And it's your birthday, sweetie." I could just hear the smile Steffie was wearing as she replied. "It's supposed to be a day of surprises!"

"Furst." I grumbled some more as I snatched another balloon out of the air – these last two were both purple – then banked towards the last balloon and snatched it up, too. I had all ten of the balloons from this group clutched in my right hand... but I was already about halfway up to the canopy. There wasn't much time left before the balloons would hit the glass and mark the end of the game – and I had only caught half the balloons!

I angled my wings into a dive, tearing across the Arboretum. I was going to lose a little bit of time on climbing back into the air to reach wherever the balloons drifted up to, but I was much, much faster in a dive, and that was my only hope of reaching that side of the Arboretum before the balloons hit the glass. Especially with the balloons I was already carrying tugging against me and slowing me down. The wind flew over my scales as I beat my wings faster and faster, trees racing along beneath me...

My wings burned as I snapped them down and began climbing again. I was still a good way from the balloons, but I needed to start climbing to meet them. I started to pant against the effort, forcing my body higher and higher into the air. Flying this fast was hard, especially with the balloons dragging behind me, and I was starting to get a headache. But I was almost... there!

"HA!" I called out in triumph as I rolled and snatched a pretty yellow balloon up in my claws. I banked into a turn, frantically searching for another balloon to grab... then I felt a new pain in my wing as my next beat caused it to slap into something hard. "Yipe!!"

"Joy? Are you okay?" Steffie's voice came from the headset as I tumbled through the air. I threw my wings out wide to stop my tumbling, thankfully not hitting anything this time, and managed to turn my dive back into a steady flight.

I sulked and glided along in silence for a few seconds, angling away from the arch of the canopy, before finally answering back. "Yes. It's just that the canopy is dumb." I glanced over at the wing that had slammed into the glass just to be sure, but aside from having a few balloon strings tangled around it from the tumbling I had just gone through, my wing looked the same as it always did. I gave it a tiny half-flap just to be sure, moving it slowly to keep the balloon strings from tangling any worse, but it didn't hurt or have any trouble moving, at least not beyond what the tangled strings were causing. And I wasn't having any trouble gliding on the wing. Even if it did feel a little tingly. "My wing just stings a wittle, but I think I can still fly fine."

"Aw. We'll get some ice ready for when you land. Grab the rest of the balloons and meet us at the house."

"'Kay." My sulking grew worse as I glanced back up at the canopy and counted nine balloons bouncing against the glass. I spent an awkward moment freeing my wings from the strings that had tangled around them, gathering all the caught balloons back into my right hand, then angled back up to grab the balloons I had missed. It was much easier to catch them when I wasn't darting about in a hurry, and I collected all nine remaining balloons without bumping into the canopy again. I glided along in a sulk, all twenty balloons drifting beside me for a moment... then I sighed and angled my wings again, arcing downwards and back towards the flower pattern that marked our home.

Steffie and Jean were both waiting as I reached the clearing between the cliff wall and the start of the trees. I backwinged a few times to slow down as I aimed for a spot away from the two cars, then caught myself in a run as I landed and slowed down. I felt a surge of pride at managing the landing without tripping... but that vanished almost immediately as I heard a loud popping behind me.

My wings sagged against my sides as I looked back over my shoulder and saw pieces of blue and red balloons clinging to the spikes of my tail. That meant I had popped two balloons – or at least two balloons, since some of them had been the same colors – which meant I had definitely lost points. As if it wasn't bad enough that I had embarrassed myself by forgetting to keep track of the spikes on my tail.

"Aw." Steffie walked up to me and rested one hand on my head before scratching a little at my scales. "That happened on the ground, so we won't count it. How many did you manage to catch?"

I felt a little better at knowing that the popped balloons wouldn't count against me this time, and from Steffie petting my head, but I still sulked a little as I held one hand up to her. "Only elefen. I don't like this change. It's too hard."

Steffie took the eleven strings of the balloons I had caught in time, then sat down on the ground to hug my neck in her arm. "Aw, don't think like that, Joy. You did great! Jean didn't think you would even get to the second group in time; she was just telling me how surprised she was at how fast you were flying. Catching one from the second group on your first try, without even knowing it was about to happen? That's really impressive!"

I held out my left hand, which was still clutching the nine balloons I had missed – at least one of which was now stuck on my tail spikes – and passed them back to Steffie, who gathered them all into one hand. "Weally?" I looked back up into the sky and tried to remember how far apart the two groups had been. I had been moving really fast, hadn't I?

"Uh-huh! You've gotten a lot better at flying since we started this game, and you're only going to keep getting better. Don't feel bad that you didn't get them all this time." She nodded as she squeezed my neck a little tighter in the hug. "You just need a little more practice, and soon you'll be catching all of the balloons again."

I spread my wings out a little and let my tail swish from side to side, already imagining how good it would feel if – when – I managed to catch all the balloons, even with them being spread out all over the Arboretum. If Steffie thought I could do it, then I was sure I would manage it one day. And that would be a really good feeling.

"Jean has some ice for you to put on your wing while I blow up some replacement balloons." Steffie let go of my neck, leaning back to tug one of the torn balloons off a tail spike. "Then we can try again, and you can show us how many balloons you can catch when you're expecting this. Okay?"

I nodded and lifted my head higher, already feeling better. "Okay!"

We played more rounds of the balloon game for what had to be hours – the sun had moved far across the sky by the time I landed and collapsed into the grass and dirt in utter weariness. I had reached a record of thirteen balloons caught in a single round, but exhaustion had finally caught up with me. I hadn't managed to catch up with the second group before they reached the canopy in the round before, and this time I only had eight strings clutched in my right hand. I was too tired to even catch all the balloons in the first group now. My wings burned from all the twisting and flapping I had pushed them through, and I was still panting hard for air even though I had come to rest on the ground... but I had a smile on my face all the same.

Playing with Steffie and Doctor Jean had been so much fun.

Steffie walked over and took the balloons from me, then scratched my head. "I think it's time for a break. I'll put these away and spend a little time with Jean – why don't you just rest for now?"

"'Kay." I let my wings flop to the ground beside me as I sprawled out right where I had landed. I would have been much more comfortable inside, on the cool rock that served as my bed instead of outside under the sun, not to mention how much safer it felt to sleep inside... but it would be way too much effort to get up and walk that far. And Steffie was here to protect me, so any worries about being safe were just silly. A bit of rest sounded like the best idea ever right now...

Flashes of light flickered around the large room. People moved around the room, getting better angles for their pictures, then lighting up the room with the glare of more flashes.

There was a horrible sense of... helplessness. Of trying to move, but being stopped. Of trying to speak, of needing to speak, through a strange, unfamiliar mouth that nevertheless seemed familiar, but of something stuck inside to silence any words.

A bunch of flashes lit up the room all at once as someone asked a question. Most of the flashes seemed pointed at the lady sitting in the witness stand.

"Of course he murdered them. I knew that even before the DNA evidence."

The nearby man in the fancy suit rolled his eyes. "Objection, speculation."

"Sustained."

The far away man in the fancy suit sighed and looked back at the lady in the witness stand. "Can you tell us why you believe the defendant, Mitchell Donnelly, is the killer?"

"You mean other than his initials being carved in all the victims? Well, for one, he's a creep." The lady in the stand glanced up before making a disgusted face. "He hit on everybody at the office; told us all he liked our smiles, brought flowers for a different woman each day, that sort of thing. At least until we complained to HR about it. He got real sulky after they told him to cut it out. And then there was Trish."

"Trishia Connors?"

"Yes. We went to the police after she disappeared; we all knew he murdered her."

"Objection."

"Why do you think he murdered Trishia?"

The lady sighed and shook her head. "Look, what Trishia did was mean, I'm not saying otherwise. But she didn't deserve that."

"Please explain to the jury. What was it that Trishia did?"

"It was just a stupid prank. She pretended to ask Mitchell on a date. Told him she'd meet him at the Silver Goose for drinks after work one night, even though she didn't plan on actually showing up. She even made a video of it, I think."

"The prosecution would like to introduce Exhibit E at this time, and show the video in question."

The man in black robes at the front of the room nodded, and the far away man in the fancy suit pushed a button on his desk. A screen on the far side of the room lit up, and the other people in the room all leaned forward to watch.

A large restaurant appeared on the screen, with a woman standing in the center of the picture. She glanced over her shoulder before looking forward and rolling her eyes. "So there's this total loser at my job; I told him I'd meet him at 6 for drinks. It was bad enough he actually thought I'd waste an evening on him, but look at this! It's 9, and he- Hey! Watch where you're going, mister!"

The woman glared to the side as somebody bumped into her. The man glared back at her. "Maybe don't stand right in the doorway and block everyone's way if you're worried about getting bumped into. And it's doctor."

"Ugh. Screw you, mister." The woman rolled her eyes, and the screen tilted to focus back on her. "Anyways, this guy is still here waiting on me, three hours later. How pathetic do you have to be?" A derisive sound followed, and the camera angle changed as the woman adjusted the phone. "Somebody has to teach him a lesson. It'd be a public service."

The camera approached the bar, and a hand reached back into view to grab a drink from one of the customers. The customer started to turn with an annoyed "Hey, that's not yours!", but the drink was already moving. The customer had barely started speaking before the glass was upended over another person.

Laughter came from the screen even as the drenched man began sputtering and turning. The camera angle changed to show the woman again, laughing at the man across from her. "Oh come on Mitchell, wise up already. You didn't really think I'd be interested in someone like you, did you? Just do us all a favor and quit already, and move back wherever you came from. We'll all be better off." The woman rolled her eyes again, then turned and started walking away.

The screen froze, then went dark. The people in the room looked back to the lady in the witness stand. "Trish posted that online that night. The next day Mitchell was a terror at work – yelled at all of us, clenched his fists like he wanted to strangle her every time he saw Trish, had all of the patients complaining he was being too rough with the cleanings. The doctor finally talked with him after he trashed the employee lounge, then sent him home for the week."

Another shrug from the lady in the witness stand. "And... yeah, Trish was a jerk about it, sure. Kept laughing and making jokes about him to the rest of us, gloating about how many views her video was getting. And sure, we laughed at her jokes too, because he had scared us, and we were relieved he had left. Maybe that was too much, I don't know. But... then we went home at the end of the day. And that was the last time we saw Trish, until the police told us they had found her body. With all the carvings and evidence on it." The lady on the witness stand grew quiet for a moment before glaring once again. "There's no way that just happens by coincidence. So yeah. I know he killed her."