We endured a week of constant patrols as armed and stealthed fighters roamed through the forest, checking for any more sicora. Any Kymari who came to enjoy the park were accompanied by at least one guard. They weren’t taking the appearance of the dead sicora lightly and considered any potential surviving ones a huge threat.

I watched as two heat hazes passed between the trees slowly. This is like a really bad game of hide and go seek. They don’t even realize that we are potential players, and they are failing to find what they are looking for anyways.

Twice now, we had caught the scent of another sicora. We had not seen the detested creature, but we knew that there was at least one more around. Even worse, the Kymari didn’t seem to realize it and had mostly dropped all of their patrols.

I stifled an annoyed growl. They have the weapons and the technology. They should be the ones to find this thing and kill it before it finds either of our groups. I guess that no one ever did claim that life was fair. If they had, I could have called them liars a dozen times by now.

Once the stealthed patrol was out of sight, I shook out my wings and flew the other way. I headed over to an area along the edge of the park. Amanda and her mate just had their first children hatch late last night. I greeted her by gently bunting my nose against her shoulder.

She opened tired eyes to look up at me, blinking as she saw the fruit I was carrying in my mouth. Her mindvoice was tired. “Oh, good. Reinforcements. I was up all night feeding them and keeping an eye out for trouble. Go on in; they are probably hungry again. I will never doubt Drake again when he tells me that nestlings are bottomless pits...”

I chuckled and ducked under the edge of a huge rose bush. The nest was a deep hollow scooped out by the base of the plant. It wasn’t possible to put hatchings in tunnels or similar hiding places. For some reason, they got sick within hours if they went underground.

I tilted my head as I examined the two tiny babies. Their bodies weren’t much bigger than my head. They were curled up around one another to form a gold and silver ball. I used my claws to cut up several small slivers of fruit before cooing gently at them.

I got an immediate reaction as both of them woke up and lifted their heads with creels of hunger. A person would think that they hadn’t eaten in days the way they were begging, although I knew that Amanda had stuffed them full less than an hour ago.

With a chuckle, I started dropping the pieces of fruit into their open maws. I was amused at the sheer amount of food that they managed to put away. No wonder hatchlings could double in size within a few days...

Once sated, they curled back up and went to sleep. I went out to join Amanda as she lay in the short grass beside the rose bush. I glanced up at the clouds wistfully, wishing that the sun would come out from behind the thick clouds. Oh well, perhaps tomorrow. I yawned and scratched an itch at the base of my ear tuft.

“What the...” Amanda’s confused voice made me turn my head.

I blinked as I saw a Kymari child running around on the grassy border between the park and street. I didn’t see an adult in sight either. That was bizarre.

Those who didn’t want to go to the park kept to the streets, and those who wanted to go into the park went into the park – they didn’t hang out along the fringes.

I glanced at Amanda. “If that child gets any closer, I say we grab the hatchlings and run. We can come back in an hour. The Kymari will be gone by then.”

She nodded in agreement, her eyes never straying from the young child scampering back and forth on the grass near the street.

Amanda asked, “Where are the parents? They never leave a child unattended.”

I shrugged cluelessly; I was just as baffled as she was. I glanced to the side and stiffened. I pinned my ear tufts back and bared my teeth with a hiss. Amanda swivelled her head in alarm before snarling as she immediately got to her feet.

A sicora was stalking along the forest line in a crouch. It seemed focused on the Kymari child, but it was much closer to us. It ducked out of sight behind a bush but came back into view before too long. It had gotten even closer to us – and far too close to the hidden nest beside us.

Its proximity could not be tolerated. The normal rage that appeared at the mere sight of the creature was bad enough, but the desire to protect the hatchlings flipped a mental switch. I sprang into the air with a battle scream as I aimed straight for the surprised creature.

Amanda was calling others via the mindlink as I breathed fire at the sicora. It jumped away in surprise, backing into the meadow between the trees and the street. I followed, but it held its ground, slashing out with claws and swinging its tail around in a strike.

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I dodged the tail easily as Amanda and three others arrived. Her mate wasn’t far and was pushing himself to his limits to get here in time. The rest of the flock were too far to arrive any time soon. A mere handful of us would have to keep the creature away from the nest.

We mostly ganged up on the side closest to the nest, leaving the far side mostly unprotected as we slowly forced it backwards, away from the hidden hatchlings. It didn’t appreciate our herding efforts, and each backwards step was reluctant.

We whirled around the much larger creature with blasts of fire. Amanda’s mate arrived and joined the flaming circle in an effort to protect his children. I remembered the last battle and gained altitude before diving onto the back of its neck, biting down hard while it was distracted by the others.

I immediately let go and jumped back into the air, but the sicora instantly reared up as it swiped its claws at me. I shrieked in pain as one of its nails lightly grazed my rear leg. Amanda dove between us, spitting a fireball into its face to distract it as I spun in an evasive maneuver to get out of its range.

The creature screamed in pain as it scrambled backwards. I glanced back at my leg to see that its claw had barely pierced my scales, leaving a slightly bloody gash behind, but nothing more serious.

I did a wing-over as I re-joined the five others who were flaming the creature in an attempt to drive it away from the defenseless hatchlings. It snarled at us and lunged in the direction of the nest, making us scatter to avoid its teeth and claws.

With an enraged shriek, I swerved around it and landed on the middle of its back to bite it again. I dug in my claws and tried to use them to cut into its skin while I landed another bite.

I jumped back into the air as its head swung around to snap at me. I veered wildly to avoid its razor-sharp teeth as adrenaline and fear blasted through me. The fear did not affect the rage or the desire to see this thing dead though.

As I dodged its bite, its tail whipped around. My eyes widened as I strained my wings to avoid it. I tried to spin out of the way, but its tail struck my wing with a glancing blow. A loud snap made me scream as excruciating pain shot through my wing.

The force of the strike threw me backwards into a tree. My head banged against the rough bark, making me see stars. I fell to the base of the tree and lay there, stunned. Between the impact and the radiating waves of pain from my wing, I couldn’t move.

From the corner of my eye, I could see that my wing was bent at an unnatural angle –obviously broken. I watched as another dragonet landed a bite on the sicora. It spun around to try and catch her, but stumbled over its own feet. The other four continued to circle it with flaming attacks that were causing numerous burns.

With a half-strangled screech, it started to go into seizures. All five dragonets continued to dart in and breathe a stream of fire on it before dashing to a safer distance. I flinched as a bolt of blue energy struck the creature. The dragonets scattered with squeals of surprise and fear.

I managed to turn my head slightly and tensed at the sight of five heavily-armed male Kymari guards. The child was nowhere to be seen, likely taken to safety at some point during the fight. The sicora had a bloody wound in its side from the energy weapon, and it no longer moved.

Amanda and her mate swiftly darted under the rose bush and came out the other side, each carrying a hatchling in their mouth. They quickly took off farther into the forest as the other three dragonets flew with them as impromptu guards.

Three of the Kymari watched the dragonets make their escape. Thankfully, they hadn’t pointed their weapons in the direction of the now-vanished dragonets. The other two fighters were surveying the sicora and cautiously began walking towards it. One swung his weapon, and the sicora’s head rolled away from its body as they ensured it was truly dead.

Okay, that is definitely my cue to leave. I was breathing heavily from the fight and the pain, but struggled to my feet. My head was swimming, and I staggered to the side unsteadily, trying to regain my balance.

My wing dragged along the ground painfully, and I tried to lift it up a bit. Pain shot through my wing, and I collapsed back on the ground with a whimper, closing my eyes against the intense pain that made my muscles tremble.

I breathed deeply as I tried to wait out the white-hot waves of pain. When I heard heavy footsteps nearby, I opened up my eyes in worry. I inhaled in alarm as I saw one of the Kymari approaching me. Oh shit.

I hastily staggered to my feet again; he was already closer than I had ever been to any of his race. I tried to shuffle backwards, but didn’t get more than a few steps until my back hit the tree behind and stopped my retreat. He was still focused on me as he closed in.

I started to shake in fear at his proximity; I wasn’t able to fly, and I couldn’t really move well enough at this point to run. My head was weaving a bit from my impact with the tree, still somewhat disoriented and dazed. I panted heavily from the pain of my broken wing, my fear, and the exertion of the fight.

He crouched down in front of me, and I keened in distress as I tried to spot an escape route that I could manage with my injured wing. When he reached out towards me, I hissed while giving a clumsy warning slash. His hand had been a long way from my threatening strike, but he pulled his hand back slowly while he regarded my trembling form.

“Easy.”

In any other situation, I might have found his deep voice calming, but cornered as I was, it had no effect on me. He slowly reached out again, and I watched with wide eyes as his hand approached me.

I pressed my side against the tree behind me, shaking in terror. I tried to shuffle backwards, but stumbled in exhaustion, causing pain to lance through my wing yet again. The pain caused me to cry out as my muscles shuddered in reaction.

He leaned closer and reached out again. My fear peaked, causing my instincts to kick in as I instinctively tried to spread my wings to flee into the safety of the air. Pain shot through my wing at the sudden movement, and I screeched with the intolerable pain. I collapsed back to the ground, unable to move with the excruciating agony. It hurt so bad that my ears started to ring and my vision grew dim.

I felt my body being carefully picked up. Something shifted my wing, and with a strangled cry, I blacked out.