A New Beginning

Chapter 30

Tessa's POV:

I sat alertly on Taureen's wrist as I kept one eye on him and one eye on the audience. The dozen children listened avidly to his explanation of the various bond animal species, what they did, why they were treated differently, and how to recognize them by the marks on their harnesses or collars.

He was now coming to the fire lizards. "The fire lizards are a recent addition to the species deemed valuable enough to become bond animals. Does anyone know what the bonded fire lizards do?"

A boy piped up, "They can smell sicora and crawlers."

"Exactly. Every galactic cycle, thousands of cities have to be quarantined inside powerful shields and completely burned down due to sicora and crawler outbreaks. The fire lizards are able to check all of the ships and almost completely eliminate the risk of that happening on this planet."

A girl raised her hand, and when Taureen nodded at her, she asked, "Are fire lizards really only found on this planet?"

"Yes, they are a native species that has only been found in this city so far. As far as we can tell, there are fewer than two hundred of them left. They likely did not fare well when the Votaks invaded and colonized the planet. The Votaks wiped out over half of the animal species before we noticed that they had infiltrated this star system."

I tilted my head as I realized that it was the same white aliens that Mom and Dad had told us about. The Blood Memories knew almost nothing about them, though.

Taureen told the children about how the fire lizard handlers would walk through every incoming ship as well as patrolling around the city. He didn't go into details about what happened when they actually found one of the creatures.

"Are there any more questions before we give a small demonstration?"

He looked around, but none of the eager children raised their hands or spoke. He pulled something out of his pocket and passed it to the teacher.

"There is a piece of crawler skin inside. I will take Tasha and Tessa out of the room while you hide it. Just remove the airtight lid and put the vial somewhere. Knock on the door when you want us to come back inside."

Taureen went through the door and closed it behind him as we waited. I shifted my weight on Taureen's wrist, eager to go back inside. Finding the source of the smell was becoming more and more like a game all the time. One that I really loved.

It seemed to take forever before there was a knock at the door. Taureen opened the door and walked inside. Tran and Vick were still standing along the wall, right where they had been the entire time.

My ear tufts went back as I growled lowly. Mom also growled as she stood up and partially opened her wings in agitation.

If I hadn't known that it was just a piece of skin in the vial, I would have thought that there was one in the room. The scent was much stronger than it had been in the marketplace.

Taureen held his wrist up higher, bringing me closer to his face. "Tessa, go on. Find it."

I leapt into the air, eager to prove my skills.  Also, the sooner I found that vial, the sooner they would put the lid on and contain the smell that made me want to scratch something. A quick circle of the room easily pinpointed the teacher's desk. I hovered above it with some difficulty as I stared at it.

"Tessa, to fist."

I flew back to land on his wrist, turning around to keep the desk in my sight. He walked over and held me in front of each drawer. The second drawer made me hiss at it. He opened up the drawer and held up the small vial for the class to see before putting the lid back on.