Upon Wings Of Change

Chapter 26

I was draped across Taureen's shoulder. The claws on my one hand were tucked under the front end of his shoulder pad to keep me from falling backwards as I laid down on the pad in boredom.

This was the fifth day that I had been dragged along on his endless walking. The same two fighters always accompanied him as well. It was boring. Extremely boring. Walk into this building, walk down this street, walk here, walk there, occasionally stop and talk with someone else who was walking. Boring.

I had no idea what they were patrolling for, since they had not done anything yet. Surely they have to realize that if they split up, they stand a much better chance of stumbling across any trouble, right? This city was only inhabited by Kymari, so I wasn't sure why there were patrols. This race didn't get drunk or steal, neither did they get into any needless fights.

I glanced at a robotic street cleaning machine as it passed us with its faint humming noise. If Taureen was trying to acclimatize me to the regular noises of the city and streets, then he has succeeded past his wildest dreams... After five solid days of walking, nothing really bothered me anymore. The mere sight of street used to make me extremely nervous. Now, it was of no more importance than the grass in the small park that I still got to explore while Taureen held my leash.

Taureen headed into yet another building and walked through several rooms. In the one room, I glanced around at the huge pipes that likely carried water. Taureen entered another area with hundreds of wires. This place almost looked like a small power relay station.

I lifted my head and growled as I got to my feet. I whipped my head around, looking for the crawler that I could smell. All three had turned to look at me the second I had growled. Taureen extended his spear with a flick of the release mechanism; the other two followed suit.

I flared my nostrils as I sniffed the air again while half unfolding my wings as the rage built with the smell of the thing. The smell was quite strong in this room. I hissed as I shifted my weight and lashed my tail in agitation.

Taureen glanced at his comrade. "Lock down the building and get a team in to help search. We need these air shafts purged and closed before we start wandering around."

He nodded and left the room while grabbing his radio. I was getting increasingly restless as the scent in the air fanned my desire to kill the despised eight-legged creature. I leaned forward on the shoulder pad. I wanted to jump to the floor, but the leash was too short.

Taureen looked around while on high alert. He walked towards one wall before turning and slowly walking to the other wall; he kept close to the wall with the door in it. I faced the direction he had come with a hiss; the smell had been stronger over there. The other Kymari had been watching us, and he turned and walked towards that side of the room with his weapons at the ready.

I failed to see what he thought he was going to do since thousands of wires and pipes covered that half of the room. He could walk up and down each of the narrow aisles, but he would be open to ambush. I now knew that the crawlers carried a venom capable of putting even a Kymari in hospital.

He looked down each row, but didn't enter the tight space. That seemed like a wise choice in my opinion. I turned my head as half a dozen people entered the room with weapons and odd equipment. One of them came over to Taureen and said, "The air vents had special covers, and we checked all of the front rooms. If there is anything here, then chances are that it is in this room."

Taureen didn't look surprised. "I suspect that it is in that section of the room."

The man glanced to where he pointed and turned to gesture at several of the others with him. Moments later, sophisticated robots rolled down the aisles while those controlling them watched the video feed.