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 Taureen today.”

  I stood up straighter in excitement. Now that he mentioned it, I vaguely remembered Soranto saying something like that. My stomach grumbled, and I turned back to my food dish before Dirk stole more. Breakfast was the most important meal of the day after all!

  “Good morning,” Soranto’s cheerful voice rang out from the hallway.

  “Good morning. Ready for your first day?” Taureen asked.

  “Not particularly, but I’m willing to give it a try.”

  “We already oiled them, and they’re currently eating, so we have a bit of time to get ready. When is your next patrol with us?”

  “In three days.”

  “If it doesn’t bother your family, then try coming over before the sun rises so you can see our morning routine. You’ll also get to see Tessa sing. It is much more interesting in person.”

  “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 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 left behind. I flew over to land on Taureen’s shoulder with a hunger creel.

  He glanced at my empty bowl. “Looks like she’s putting on another growth spurt. Mind getting her more fruit while I get ready?” He reached out and tapped Soranto’s shoulder pad. “Tessa, jump.”

  With a hop and wingbeat, I landed on Soranto’s shoulder. He went into the kitchen and looked at the fruit behind the glass. My mouth began watering as he picked out a cantaloupe and cut a thick slice off. I leaned forward eagerly, but remained on his shoulder.

  He started dicing it up and offered me a small piece. 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 sprawled across his shoulder and turned my head away from the next offered piece.

  After putting the rest of the fruit away and cleaning the knife and counter, he returned to 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 since I was on his shoulder, but he managed to get my harness on.

  Eventually, everyone was ready, and we headed out the door. Outside, our usual four guards were waiting for us. Aeria and her guards entered a shuttle and left. Soranto accompanied Taureen, Tran, and Vick.

  “We’ll go to the training rooms so you can see how they 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 forced me through Banrai’s creation a dozen times this week. I still have bruises from some of the traps.”

  “That was closer to regular guard training. Once you complete the standard sessions, it’ll taper off. 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’re finding the chance to turn a civilian into a fighter far too entertaining. My work experience gave 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 before they went off. Afterward, they informed me that I wasn’t supposed to steal parts from the traps to jerry-rig a ranged weapon to trigger 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.

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  Soranto shrugged. “I’ve been an equipment engineer for over a century. I tend to be very creative if I have some time to think. 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 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, although unexpected things can happen, like a sicora ambush, which is why I’m spending several hours a day at the barracks.”

  When they began discussing his training sessions, I yawned. Mom looked equally as bored, although the distant look in her eyes meant she was likely mindlinking someone.

  Abby would probably be 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. A dozen or so boats floated on the water beside it.

  I refrained from rolling my eyes. “You haven’t been on one of the ships yet? They rock slightly, but Dad says the human ships were worse. You might 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 fish from 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. The only time I’d seen a crocodile was in the Aralias Gardens, but Dirk didn’t know that. The poor guy was going to be delightfully paranoid all day.

  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 the sidewalks were unusually empty this morning.

  Thankfully, it didn’t take the Kymari long to reach the training building. This place always had people inside, and today was no exception. Soranto was getting a few surprised glances when they spotted me on his shoulder.

  I sat up when a set of airlock doors came into sight. As they opened, I took a deep breath but didn’t smell anything unusual in the dull grey hallway.

  We stopped in front of each side room while Tran opened the door. Soranto and Taureen took a couple of steps inside so Mom and I could check the air. Room after room, there was nothing. I began to wonder if I was missing something.

  Finally, a door opened and the putrid smell of a crawler rolled out, this doorway leading to a corridor. My ear tufts flattened as I growled and stood up. Mom reacted in the same fashion. Soranto glanced at me while following Taureen.

  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 the next one.”

  I rustled my wings, unimpressed that Taureen had basically told us the next two rooms had crawlers. The surprise and anticipation were the best parts of the training.

  Tran opened the door and went through first, followed by Taureen and Soranto. Vick brought up the rear but remained by the door when he saw how small the room was. Crates were stacked against the side 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 came back and began checking between the crates and under them until he fired his phaser at something.

  Tran fished out the scorched hide, letting Mom and me see it before dropping it into a bag and sealing it.

  “Your turn,” Taureen commented. I highly doubted he was talking to me since this 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 to let him know we weren’t done yet. If Taureen was trying to train him, I’d help too.

  Vick opened 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 the large room.

  The moment the scent began to fade, I turned around on his shoulder and growled at the air behind us. 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 tracked down while Soranto covered all the basic situations.

  “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 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.

  A fireball struck it, although Vick was already spinning around and firing his phaser. The object might have hit us if Soranto hadn’t moved!

  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 it was a pest on several planets and occasionally hitchhiked on spaceships.

  Soranto walked forward and peered 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 checking where other ventilation grates were.

  “Let’s hope that this was the only one.”

  Tran snorted. “That isn’t Banrai’s style.”

  “I know. Believe me, I know,” Soranto replied while scanning the rest of the ceiling.

  I shifted my weight uneasily as I decided that I preferred boring rooms instead of having things jump out of ventilation grates.