Jake's obedience regimen is really more of a display of agility than actual obedience, but under LADT rules, responding quickly to commands in an agility contest is an acceptable format for qualifying to remain a drake, at least for one clutch. His nimble, young body is a blue flash in the sky, and Laura puts him through his paces like no other youth his age. On Laura's command, which she gives quietly by hand-signals, Jake makes swift changes of direction. Diving and swooping, sometimes hovering in place almost motionless while being held up by a breeze, Jake puts every bit of faith in his owner, not even looking once in front of him or at anything around him but putting his very life in the hands of his mistress in aerial maneuver combinations that take Laura's collegiate knowledge to know are even possible.
Cody is impressed with the show at first, but after a while, he starts getting bored with seeing nothing but variations on the same stunts. He has to admit that the 11 year old drake is amazingly cute and eager about his training, but even as the little drake flips and spins in the air on command, he still sees nothing worth writing home over, certainly not enough to be worth putting on contract. In time, he almost starts dozing off in the lawn chair that he brought with him.
With that, Laura signals to end the show with Jake still quite a distance off the ground. Jake knows just what to do. His wings furl closed to his sides, and he drops like a bullet with his body arched like a cat, and his little body hits the ground with a sharp thud as he enters a combat roll, stopping crouched at Mistress Laura's side like an obedient hound.
It's that final maneuver that jolts Cody back to full alertness, and he babbles, "Wow! Aren't you afraid he will get hurt dropping from that height? What? Wow! I can't believe he can even do that and live, much less walk away from it like nothing! It's like he jumped off an eight story building! How did you train him to do that?"
"Jake is talented at following simple instructions," Laura admits. She smiles down at her pet and bends down to give him a light pat on his muscular rump. "Go and show Master Cody how sweet you can be, my precious boy."
To Mary's surprise, Jake shows no hesitation about going to snuggle his head in Cody's lap, making adorable, little pet noises as Cody pets vigorously on his head and neck. Giggling, Cody pulls Jake across his knees and gives a few love swats on the little boy's rump before bundling him up and squeezing him like his favorite son. A new love is born.
Mary finds herself feeling jealous of Jake. The little, blue dragon seems so happy with being a pet, and he's so strong. As she kneels on the sandy ground with her hands out in front of her, where she was watching Jake's air show, she starts to let out a long, keening mew.
Suddenly, Laura picks Mary up in her arms. Mary is not sure how she feels about this, and her anger starts to flare the way it did with Cody's mother. Who is this hussy to handle her in such a way? At first, she struggles to get away, making miffed pet sounds, but as her eye catches Cody and Jake, she remembers that Jake was never gay in his past life, at least that she knew of. Mary starts to realize that there are truly no boundaries between humans and their pets.
As Mistress Laura snuggles the little, red anthro dragon girl to her bosom, Mary remembers what it was like to be held by her mother when she was very little, and she remembers how much she liked it and how much she misses it. In the time before Mary felt separated from boys...in the time before Mary wanted to be a princess and felt she was better and prettier than other girls...she just let herself be loved. Mistress Laura's eyes gleam with triumph as Mary finally becomes the submissive pet she wanted to be.
All it took was giving her a chance to let love in.