A New Beginning

Chapter 58

Tessa's POV:

I grumbled faintly as we left the cargo ship. That was the last ship for us to check today, and we had found nothing. Again.

Soranto glanced at me before commenting to Sipar, "Why don't we swing by the barracks and do a quick walk through the training rooms? We still haven't found anything, and she is getting a bit frustrated."

"We finished checking the ships a bit earlier than expected, so there is plenty of time."

"Am I missing something?" I asked Mom. "It's been three days, and I still haven't found anything!"

"It's quite typical, actually. Crawlers may be unfortunately widespread and invasive, but the vermin aren't that common. Daisy found one yesterday, but that was it. No one else has found anything these last three days either."

It was disappointing, to say the least. It was sad to say that my biggest feat on a real spaceship had been when Soranto was fixing it and I had found a dead ktari...

Sipar and Drae got into the shuttle with Soranto. The shuttle didn't go back to the main port, but headed towards the barracks instead.

As we entered the large building, a deep voice behind us murmured, "Banrai redid the primary rooms yesterday, so it may be a wise idea to stick with the secondary ones."

My head whipped around, trying to locate the speaker.

"Thanks, Drae," Soranto replied. "Let's head to the secondary rooms then. I have no desire to see what Banrai set up to celebrate my promotion."

My jaw almost dropped – had Drae just spoken? Despite being with us for several weeks while training and on our recent patrols, I had never heard him speak. At least, until now. This only made me wonder just what Banrai had done to the training rooms this time if it was enough for him to break his silence.

It wasn't long before we appeared at a set of airlock doors. I flicked an ear tuft, unimpressed that I had to come here to have a taste of hunting crawlers and sicora after thoroughly checking nearly a dozen spaceships over the last three days.

Over the next hour, my success at locating two crawlers and a tiny sicora – all of which were hides on mounts – confirmed that there was nothing wrong with my nose. Perhaps I would find a live one tomorrow.

We didn't go through all the rooms, and it wasn't long before we headed towards the main park. It was a bit later than usual, but not enough for anyone to mindlink me and ask where I was.

When we reached the treeline, Soranto held his hand up to me. I jumped onto the glove and half-spread my wings in anticipation.

"Go on. Go have some fun." His arm threw me skywards, and I whistled joyfully as I flew straight up without even a wingbeat to propel me.

Once my momentum slowed, I spread my wings and glided towards the trees. I was tempted to go back for another toss into the air – a game Soranto and I had recently invented – but I only had a limited amount of time to spend with Abby and the other wild dragonets.

"Where are you?" I asked Abby.

She didn't reply, although I knew she had heard me. That meant one of two things.

"Is she trying to ambush me or cuddling with Dirk?" I asked Glen.

He didn't even ask who I was referring to. "Cuddling."

Change of plans, then. "What's everyone else doing?"

"Most are on the far side of the park today. Some are sunbathing nearby. Three are playing chess. I don't know if the Ply-Ball players are here yet. I checked a while ago, but the field was still empty."