Lost Change

Chapter 92

I jumped off Minna's shoulder and flew in a wide circle around the guards. I hated the thought of it but took in a deep breath, then spent the next few seconds trying not to cough or sneeze. My nose felt like it was burning.

Nothing stood out to me, though. No crawlers or sicora were nearby. Not even a ktari. Other than the strangling scent hanging in the air and the smell of Ilrivians, there wasn't anything of note. It smelled about the same as what I had come to expect of a passenger ship, if a little heavier on the 'recycled' quality I noticed with the air.

I dropped to the ground and made sure to sniff at the doorways, but I still didn't notice anything out of the ordinary. I spent a few more minutes wandering around just in case - that acrid scent made it hard to be certain I wasn't missing anything - but when I was sure it was clear I flew back up to Minna's shoulder and gave her a bored chirp.

Minna led us through the doors at the end of the hallway and had me check the new area. I circled through it and came up just as empty.

During the fourth passage our escorts became impatient. "Is he actually doing anything? We were told they would find sicora; he looks like he's just flying in circles."

Minna nodded slowly. "He is flying in circles. That way he can smell every part of the hallway and get a clear idea of if any sicora have been through here. They are all quite capable of finding any sicora that may be hidden away on your ship."

There was something accusatory in Minna's reply, as if she was suggesting any sicora we found weren't necessarily accidental stowaways.

The alien made a sound somewhere between a snort and a growl, but dropped the subject.

We made it through two more passages before one of the side doors swung open. I banked away from it and flew back to Minna. Four other Ilrivians came through the doorway - behind it was something that looked like a small cafeteria, or a break room - and started down the hallway. They immediately stopped when they saw us and instead began peppering our guide with questions.

I kept from hissing in frustration and settled back down on Minna's shoulder. This was something I had learned in the process of searching passenger ships. Whenever a group of strangers showed up and started making noise, it was better to just go back to Minna and wait. She got nervous otherwise, and it was hard to focus on whatever I was smelling if I was too worried about what a group of large strangers near me were getting up to.

Our guards moved in between Minna and the other Ilrivians while they talked. I noticed that Minna's father managed to end up directly between them and her, while the other guards helped him form a half-circle around us.

The strangers didn't seem to care about the heavily armed Kymari glaring at them and continued questioning our escort about us. I sighed and began rubbing uselessly at my nose again in a vain attempt to try and clear the heavy scent from my nostrils.

It worked just as badly as all the other times I had tried.

Eventually the strangers seemed to be satisfied - or at least had run out of questions they could think of to ask - and they wandered off down the hallway. I waited for Minna to give the go ahead just to be sure, then launched back into the air at her gentle, "Go seek."

We continued on through more passages without finding anything else. I checked in with the other dragonets a few times, but they hadn't found anything either. I soon lost count of how many passages we checked and fell into the boring rhythm of flying around, returning to Minna's shoulder, riding along until we got to a new hallway, and then flying around again.