Tessa's POV:
We were eating breakfast when the doorbell rang. My head lifted in confusion; no one ever came over in the morning.
To make things even stranger, Taureen just called out, "Come in."
Dirk smirked at me. "If you hadn't fallen asleep last night, you would know that Soranto is going with Aeria today."
I stood up straighter in excitement. Now that he mentioned it, I did kind of remember Soranto saying something like that last night. My stomach grumbled, recalling my attention to my food dish. Breakfast was the most important meal of the day.
"Good morning," Soranto's cheerful voice rang out from the hallway.
"Good morning to you, too," Taureen replied. "Ready for your first day?"
"Not particularly, but I'm willing to give it a try."
"They were oiled earlier and are just eating now, so we have a bit of time to get ready. Your next patrol with us is in three days, correct?"
"Yes."
"If it doesn't bother your family, then try coming over before the sun rises so you can see how our mornings usually go. You'll also get to see Tessa sing. It is much more interesting in person."
"I'm sure I can arrange that."
They continued discussing the usual patrol schedule while I focused on my rapidly emptying food bowl. I ate everything, even the two pieces of kiwi, but I was still hungry. It was very rare for me to manage to empty my bowl, let alone be looking for more.
Looking around, I decided to see if begging might yield some good results as opposed to waiting and seeing what the others didn't finish. I flew over to land on Taureen's shoulder and creeled a hunger cry.
He glanced at my empty bowl. "Looks like she's putting on another growth spurt. Here, why don't you take her into the kitchen and find her some more food while we get ready?" He reached out and tapped Soranto's shoulder pad. "Tessa, jump."
With a hop and wingbeat, I easily landed on Soranto's shoulder. He began walking towards the kitchen and looked at the fruit behind the glass. My mouth began watering as he picked out half of a cantaloupe and began cutting off a thick slice. I leaned forward eagerly, but remained on his shoulder.
He started dicing it up and offered a small piece to me. I happily took it. Piece by piece, the cantaloupe left the counter and magically disappeared into my mouth. I almost managed to eat the entire slice before I lay down on his shoulder and turned my head away from the next offered piece.
He put the rest of the fruit away and cleaned the knife and counter before heading back into the living room. Taureen and Aeria had their armor on and were just getting our harnesses. Taureen passed Soranto my harness.
"Stand up," Soranto coaxed me.
With a long-suffering sigh, I got to my feet. I failed to see why anyone would want to move after they ate. My best naps were done on a full stomach.
It was a bit awkward for him, but he managed to get my harness on while I stood on his shoulder. Once it was on and he finished checking it, I flopped down again. There was no point in going over to the heat lamp since we would be leaving shortly.
Eventually, everyone was ready, and we headed out the door. Our usual four guards were waiting for us. Aeria and her guards entered a shuttle and swiftly took off. Taureen and Soranto chose to walk while Tran and Vick accompanied us.
"We'll go over to the training rooms so you can see how they usually react to sicora and crawlers," Taureen informed Soranto. "This will be the basic area, not the rather unusual setup that Banrai managed to come up with."
"That's a relief. The trainers stuck me through Banrai's creation a dozen times this week. I still have bruises from some of the traps."
"That's more along the lines of regular guard training. Once you complete the standard training, they will ease up. As a handler, you aren't supposed to be getting into fights. They just want you to be able to defend yourself if something unexpected occurs."
"So I've heard. In the meantime, I have the delight of being their main focus. They are finding the chance to turn a civilian into a fighter far too entertaining. My work experience has taught me a few tricks that even managed to catch them by surprise, but it doesn't make up for my lack of practice with weapons."
"You managed to surprise Rodrigo?" Taureen asked, looking interested.
Soranto grinned. "I cut the control cables on most of their traps the second I spotted them. Afterwards, they informed me that I wasn't supposed to steal parts from the traps to jerry-rig a ranged weapon to set off other traps from a safe distance."
Taureen laughed and even Tran and Vick chuckled.
"I don't think that taking their traps apart was exactly what they had in mind for their training exercises," Taureen said in amusement.
"I am – or was – an equipment engineer. I tend to be very creative if I have some time to think, especially if it helps me avoid pain. They can't blame me if I'm being resourceful. Avoiding fights is my goal, not wading into the thick of it."
Vick nodded in approval. "That's a good mentality. It's our job to deal with any trouble. Your job is to help us find the sicora and crawlers, then keep your little friend out of mischief while we take care of them."
"That's the plan, but I'm still learning as much as I can, just in case a sicora tries to ambush me."
The conversation shifted back to his numerous training sessions and what they were focusing on. It wasn't something I was interested in, so I tuned them out. Mom looked equally as bored, although the slightly distant look in her eyes meant that she was likely mindlinking someone.
Abby would be playing in the creek, snacking on fruit, or, more likely, sunbathing right now. So, instead of possibly waking up my friend and giving her another reason to plot revenge, I decided to mindlink Dirk.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm not entirely sure."
He sent me an image of a long dock that looked like it was made out of grey stone. A dozen or so boats floated on the water beside it. I recognized the huge lake as one that bordered another city.
I refrained from rolling my eyes. "You haven't been on one of the ships yet? They rock slightly, but it isn't as bad as what Dad says the human ships used to do. You might even get to see a big fish!"
"A fish? I plan on staying on Aeria's shoulder. I'm not about to go swimming to see what's down there."
"No, silly. Some Kymari go fishing on that dock. One of them showed me a fish they caught – it was bigger than me!"
"Okay, now I'm definitely not going swimming here."
"That's a good plan. Do you want to hear about the crocodiles?"
"No!"
With an evil chuckle, I let the mindlink fade. I had never actually seen a crocodile except in the Aralias Gardens, but Dirk didn't know that. The poor guy was going to be delightfully paranoid all day now.
Lifting my head, I could just see the edge of the training building from here. I stretched my wings before settling down again. Sometimes our walking got boring, and there weren't even many people on the sidewalk to watch this morning.
Thankfully, it didn't take the Kymari long to reach the building. This place always had people inside, and today was no exception. Soranto was getting a few surprised glances, possibly due to me sitting on his shoulder.
I sat up when a set of airlock doors came into sight. When we entered, I took a deep breath, but didn't smell anything unusual. The dull grey hallway was empty, although there might be something in one of the side rooms.
As we came to each side room, Tran opened it up, and we walked just inside to check the air before leaving. Room after room, there was nothing. I began to wonder if I was missing something.
Finally, when one door opened, the smell rolling out made me growl and stand up. Mom also growled from Taureen's shoulder. The stench of a crawler had me pinning my ear tufts back.
Soranto glanced at me before following Taureen through the doorway. I stretched my neck up and could see another corridor past Taureen and Tran. I immediately knew what we would likely be doing.
I waited impatiently until we came to an intersection. The moment the Kymari stopped, Mom and I both jumped into the air to circle the area. We came to a hover in front of one pathway, marking it.
"Tasha, shoulder."
"Tessa, shoulder," Soranto said.
I flew back to him, staring pointedly to where the smell had been the strongest. Our group continued walking.
Taureen paused in front of one door. "I'll do this room first with Tasha, then you can try out the next one."
I rustled my wings, unimpressed that Taureen had basically told us that the next two rooms had crawlers. That took all of the fun out of the training.
Tran opened the door and went through first, followed by Taureen, and then Soranto. Vick brought up the rear and remained by the door when he saw the size of the small room. Crates were stacked against both walls, leaving just enough room between for us to walk.
Taureen and Tran walked slowly down the limited space while Soranto and I waited with Vick. At one point, Mom hissed and turned around. Tran went around Taureen and began checking between the crates and under them until he fired his phaser at something.
Tran fished out the mounted hide with a big scorch mark on it, letting Mom and I see it before dropping it into a bag and sealing it.
Taureen commented, "Your turn."
Somehow, I highly doubted that he was talking to me. This very basic practice was clearly meant for Soranto.
Soranto took the request seriously though. He followed Vick out of the room as Taureen and Tran took up the rear. The smell in the hallway was still too strong for just one crawler, so I growled faintly again to let him know that we weren't done yet. If Taureen was trying to train him, then I was going to have to help, too.
Vick opened up the next door, and I gave a louder growl as the air reached my nose. With Vick's weapons out and at the ready, Soranto walked behind him as we searched this much larger room.
The moment the scent began to fade, I turned around on his shoulder and growled back at the way we had come. It didn't take Vick long to locate, kill, and show us our defeated prize. I really hoped that the other rooms had more interesting setups. This one was almost painfully boring.
The next few rooms also yielded crawlers, most of which I got to track down. We got to cover all of the basics.
"Soranto seems to know what he is doing," I told Mom, kind of surprised that he knew all of the commands and procedures.
"He would have watched the videos from the guards' armor cameras. They wouldn't have let him come if he didn't know what he was supposed to be doing."
"Oh, I guess that makes sen-" Soranto's backward jump interrupted me, and I screeched when I saw something dropping from the ceiling.
It would have almost hit us if Soranto hadn't moved! A fireball struck it, although Vick had already spun around and was firing his phaser at it. As Mom's fire burned out, I got a good look at the strange animal. It wasn't one I had seen before. It had four furry wings, four legs, and a fox-like muzzle with sharp teeth. The Blood Memories told me that it was from a planet in a neighboring star system where it occasionally hitchhiked on spaceships.
Soranto walked forward, peering up at the now-open ventilation grate on the ceiling. "I thought Banrai was being confined to the larger training area? He is the only one in this city who still likes those older Class D remote releases."
"Maybe someone asked him to help set up a few surprises." Taureen shrugged slightly as he gazed down the corridor, likely focusing on the other ventilation grates.
"Let's hope that this was the only one."
Tran snorted slightly. "That isn't Banrai's style."
"I know. Believe me, I know," Soranto replied with a faint frown.
I shifted my weight uneasily, deciding that I preferred things being boring compared to having things jump out of ventilation grates at us.