A New Beginning

Chapter 59

Tessa's POV:

My nostrils flared as a growl left my throat as soon as we entered the fourth level of the cargo ship. I sat up and looked around alertly. Part of me despised that smell and was furious it dared to even come near my planet, although a tiny part of me was relieved that I had finally found my first live crawler.

All I had to do now was locate its exact position. The captain glanced back at me as he walked beside Sipar. Behind us, Drae was a silent shadow with a phaser in his hand.

When we reached the first junction, Soranto stopped. I leapt off his shoulder to check each of the doors before hovering in front of one.

"Tessa, shoulder."

I flew back to his shoulder, and we went the way I had indicated. At each junction, I guided them to the strongest smell. The further we went, the worse the smell became. I took a deep breath to make sure that there was only one on this level.

Within ten minutes, my chest constantly vibrated from my continuous faint growl. We had to be getting close. I couldn't believe how much worse the live ones smelled compared to the old hides. Even the dead crawler we had encountered during our first training session had lacked the sharp musk that the live creatures possessed.

No wonder the bonded dragonets had no desire to return to the park when they could hunt down these things and keep them from getting loose on the planet. A hive had appeared once on this planet, and I planned on doing all I could to prevent another one.

My nose led us to a small, dusty storage area with shelves and boxes. Soranto clipped my leash onto me now that we had likely found the source.

"There is no other exit," Sipar said. "Wait out here while I do a quick check."

Leaving the door open, Sipar began investigating each shelf and cautiously checking behind boxes while the rest of us stood outside the door and watched. Using his spear, he shifted boxes on the bottom shelf.

Movement on the top shelf had me hissing and flaring my wings. The instant he heard my hiss, Sipar jumped back towards the door. A glowing ball of blue energy whizzed past us – courtesy of Drae – and struck the emerging crawler.

The boxes above kept shifting as the crawler tried to escape. It was injured, but not dead. Even though I couldn't actually see the creature, my hiss was fierce enough to make Sipar and Soranto glance at me.

Sipar raised his phaser and waited for it to show itself again. The shifting boxes stopped moving in one corner, and the stillness grated on my nerves. Sipar extended his spear and poked the boxes overhead again.

The crawler began crawling up the wall with surprising speed. It wasn't fast enough to avoid the two phaser blasts, though. The charred remains that dropped back onto the shelf didn't have much in common with the pest I had just seen.

My growl trailed off now that it was dead. After a few moments, I shook myself off and sat down, gazing up at the shelf.

"It's dead. Are you okay with having your crew cleaning up that mess?" Sipar asked the captain.

The cat-like creature nodded, its fur still unusually flat in stress. "Yes. I will send someone."

"Then let's continue checking the other levels in case more are hidden."

It took several hours before the ship was declared to be cleared and safe to unload its cargo in the cities. It had been the last ship of the day, and I rearranged my wings uneasily when I realized what our next destination would be.

The sun was shining, so anyone who opened their eyes would know that we would be going to the main park at this time of the day. However, I doubted that very many were aware that Abby hadn't mindlinked me once over the last two days. My attempts to bridge the brewing plot of vengeance had been met with silence.