I yawned as we left yet another building. No trade ships required an inspection today, so Taureen was patrolling the city with Tran and Vick in tow, as per usual. Needless to say, it was a slow day.

“Tasha?” I heard a groggy mindvoice.

“Tom, glad to hear you again. How is Serena holding up?”

I got a watery mental picture of the scarlet dragonet blinking sleepily at Tom with her chest and sides in one solid cast. “She is awake, but she still can’t mindspeak.”

“From your picture, I assume that you two aren’t being separated by anything?”

He sighed in relief. “No, and I’m grateful for that. We are in some sort of large glass cage, though.”

“It’s probably to keep her from trying to move and injuring herself further. Once I was mostly mobile, the cage door was left open. I highly suspect that Alec will follow the pattern that Taureen did.”

He snorted mentally. “Well, you are wrong on some accounts then. This overgrown green-skinned behemoth is already insisting that I take food from his hands. He leaves common stuff in a bowl but holds the good stuff.”

I was amused at his indignation, although I had a pretty good suspicion as to what Tom would do for his injured mate. I impishly inquired, “Did you go over to get some of it?”

I could feel his embarrassment. “Somehow that guy got his hands on sunburst berries, and you know how much Serena loves those...”

With Serena injured, Tom would do his best to care for her as much as he could – even if it included approaching an alien for delicacies to ensure that she ate. I chuckled. “Oh, I know. I remember the first time Taureen showed me some. He still uses them occasionally in training.”

With a sigh, he changed the topic. “How long have we been incommunicado? The cage was covered for some time, and with the drugs, I completely lost track of time.”

“Four days.”

He grumbled. “I still have a few words to exchange with you about tricking me into eating that fruit.”

I kept my voice innocent. “That was good fruit, wasn’t it? Even better than sunburst berries.”

He was indignant. “That guy carried me around for almost two solid days while I was limp like a rag doll.”

“Been there, done that. I know how you feel,” I replied compassionately. “I assume Serena was within sight?”

He sighed. “Yes, and he put me beside her if he wasn’t holding me.”

I glanced down as Taureen’s radio summoned him to the East Wall. A crawler had been spotted outside the wall, and they wanted to locate it before it got into the city.

“Well, duty calls. I have a crawler to track down. Talk to you later.”

I felt his mental hiss at the thought of a crawler. Even halfway drugged, the mere thought of a crawler or sicora was enough to get our blood boiling. He reluctantly let the mindlink drop, although he was probably having a hard time maintaining the link.

Taureen got into a shuttle that rose into the air before heading towards the area that we had been summoned to.

~

I flew low above the ground as I tested the air. I finally found the scent trail again and banked to follow it. This crawler had a love of going under plants that even I wouldn’t go under. It made tracking it fun, to say the least.

Taureen stuck close by, and I was actually grateful for it since we were outside the wall. I remembered all too clearly some of the creatures that roamed around out here. Some of them had been responsible for the death of several of my dragonet friends before we moved into the central park.

I growled as the scent got stronger. I couldn’t help it; the scent of these things riled me up. A dozen fighters ranged around us with sharp eyes scanning the greenery while giving us space to work. Rather, giving me room to work while Taureen follows... Then again, Taureen did most of the walking until we found something, then it was my turn to work for my keep.

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In the end, we were teammates. We had different roles but the same goals. Those goals involved killing as many crawlers and sicora as we could possibly locate.

Almost instinctively, I twisted my head around and spat a fireball at the crawler that was dropping out of a tree above an unsuspecting Kymari. The fireball managed to knock it off course, and it missed its target. The Kymari was quick on his feet and dodged the falling attacker as his comrades fired their energy weapons at it. By the time it hit the ground, the disgusting creature was dead.

I flew back to land on Taureen’s shoulder, although I didn’t lay down like I usually did since the crawler’s scent still had me unsettled and unable to relax.

Vick shook his head unhappily. “There shouldn’t be any crawlers out here. More crawlers keep appearing as well. The guards on the wall have killed several during the last month.”

That news made me twitch an ear tuft in surprise. I thought that most crawlers and sicora originated as hitchhikers in spaceships carrying cargo, hence the reason that I had been inspecting so many of them.

Taureen grumbled faintly, “I’m beginning to wonder if there might be a female sicora trying to set up a hive in the forest somewhere. That would account for the increasing numbers of crawlers.”

“Almost all sicora are sterile, so it isn’t likely. Although I truly hope that there isn’t a female on this planet, or we are going to have to act fast before she gets that hive established.”

The man leading the guards was listening to the conversation and commented, “I will bring that idea to the Elders. Such a situation is a possibility with the pattern we are seeing.”

As we began walking back, I listened intently to their discussion of a female possibly setting up a hive. Apparently, they were a bit like insects that had one queen in a nest. Nests were slow to get started, but hard to kill once they got going.

Sicora nests were even worse since the creatures were extremely difficult to kill, and energy weapons had minimal effect on them. The only sure way to kill them was to remove their head, which was why the guards all carried the sharp-edged spears.

The wind shifted, causing me to spin my head around and hiss as I halfway flared my wings in reaction to the odor. The guards immediately had their weapons out as they faced the direction I was looking. When nothing obvious appeared, one of the guards cautiously went forward with his energy weapon ready.

I snarled as a black form jumped out of the shadows from where it had been hidden in ambush. The guard fired his energy weapon, but the sicora hit him with enough force to knock him to the ground while biting at his neck. The energy blasts from the other guards finally knocked the creature off, and one of the guards raced in and swung his weapon to decapitate the head from the body.

The fallen guard struggled to sit up before falling back to the ground, gasping for breath. His green skin was rapidly losing color, and his breath rattled in his lungs. Several of his comrades kneeled by him as the venom quickly took effect. There was no antidote for sicora venom, so all they could do was give comfort him during the last few minutes. Taureen closed his eyes in grief; he had probably known and trained with that guard for longer than I had been alive.

I turned my head away from the swiftly dying fighter in sadness. It was the only reason I saw it coming since the wind wasn’t in my favor. I stiffened in reaction as renewed rage rolled over me. Another adult sicora was charging, and it had its eyes locked on Taureen as its teeth were bared in a silent snarl.

Not if I have anything to say about it. With a scream of fury, I launched off of Taureen’s shoulder as it leapt at his back. I opened my jaws as searing flame burst forth in a blast of intense fire. The sicora tried to swerve mid-jump to avoid the fire aimed at its face.

I banked sharply and did a mid-air roll to avoid colliding with it. I glanced over, and relief flooded me as Taureen managed to evade the deadly creature’s jump. The fighters were just starting to react to its unexpected presence. It spun around, crouching as it prepared to launch itself at Taureen once again.

With a complicated spin, I landed on its shoulder and bit the side of its neck hard before jumping back into the safety of the sky. The bite startled it, and Taureen once more evaded its wild leap in its distraction.

Its claws sank into the ground, creating long furrows in the dirt as it tried to recover from its leap. Before it could jump again, half a dozen energy blasts hit it. It rolled with the force of the impacts, and I blinked in disbelief as it once more tried to get back onto its feet.

The sicora’s one side was a bloody and charred mess from the energy blasts. I could see its ribs, but it was as if they had protected the major organs. It stumbled and started going into seizures before more energy blasts ripped through the air and struck it. A guard ran into the fray to behead the creature.

I chittered in agitation at the close call as I circled the clearing before once more landing on Taureen’s shoulder. Now I see why they consider an adult sicora a serious threat. They are very difficult to kill, even with energy weapons, and a single bite can kill within minutes. Not to mention that they attack without provocation.

Taureen lifted a hand to pet my shoulder in an attempt to calm me down. I glanced around, but the other guards were still on high alert in case another sicora was nearby.

Vick came over. “Is she okay?”

“Thankfully, it didn’t manage to catch her.”

Vick sighed in relief. “I’m grateful that she saw that thing coming. It probably could have killed several of us if she hadn’t gone after it. It’s a pity that we can’t use flamethrowers without putting one another at risk. Her tactics worked very well.”

Taureen narrowed his eyes at Vick. “They may have worked, but I think we will have to be more careful in the future. We can’t put her at risk by letting her go after sicora.”

Vick inclined his head in agreement. We waited for a shuttle to arrive to pick up their deceased comrade before we continued walking back to the city. Taureen clipped the leash onto my harness, and the guards’ weapons remained in their hands until we reached the walls.