Tessa's POV:

I stretched as I contemplated actually getting up and moving. Soranto made the decision for me when he picked me up and carried me inside. Snorting faintly, I gazed up at him with a faintly accusing expression.

"Sorry," he apologized, "but we have to rush a bit this morning. We have to drop Maria off at school and then go find your folks before they come looking for me. I'm still surprised your mother didn't attack me last night..."

I smirked and climbed up his shirt to sit on his shoulder pad.

"Go get ready."

The bathroom was the first place on my agenda, before Soranto or Maria decided they needed to use it. I finished and had a minute or so to relax under the big heat lamp.

Soranto came out in his armor and went to pick up my harness. Mischievously, I rolled upside down on the sand to make his task harder. Without even pausing, he simply picked me up, turned me right-side up, and set me down. By the time my feet touched the sand, he had somehow managed to get my harness on me.

I turned my head and stared at the harness, trying to figure out how he had accomplished such a feat in just a few seconds. He chuckled as he tucked the cleaning kit and a few other supplies into his belt pouches.

Shaking myself off, my scales chimed musically before I flew the short distance to his shoulder.

"That's the sound you were talking about?" Maria asked, looking over at me. "That was really neat."

"Yes, it is," he replied, glancing towards the windows by the front door. "The shuttle is here. Let's go."

We left the house and got into the shuttle. The driverless shuttle kept to the street instead of gaining altitude. The scenery showed that we were going the opposite way that we did when going to Taureen's.

We passed several small parks and a lot of buildings before finally coming to a stop. The building was big and had lots of younger Kymari around, so I assumed it was the school.

"Have fun," Soranto told her as he gave her a hug.

"I will!" She returned the hug, before stretching up to gently pet me. I touched my nose to her hand in response.

With a grin, she ducked out of the door and jogged towards some people who were waving at her. The door slid closed, and Soranto entered another destination. I rustled my wings, wishing the trip was shorter. I really wanted to see Mom, Dad, and Dirk again. Taureen and Aeria, too.

I craned my neck as the house came into view. When the shuttle came to a stop, we got out and walked up to the front door. I grinned as Soranto rang the doorbell.

"Come in."

As the door opened, I stared intently at Soranto. Thankfully, he took the hint.

"Go on."

I jumped forward and sped towards the living room with a loud whistle. Mom, Dad, and Dirk were already in the air, and we flew around each other in a complex greeting.

"How was she the rest of the evening?" Aeria asked Soranto.

"It took a while, but she relaxed. Her morning dance was unusual; otherwise, things seem back to normal."

"All the fire lizards danced in a similar fashion today," Aeria said, "so it isn't as unusual as we might originally assume."

Taureen changed the topic. "Are you still ready to try a solo training run, or do you want to postpone the attempt?"

"Let's try it. If she gets too unsettled, I'll let you know and we can meet up."

I landed on the end table, rubbing my side along Mom's folded wings. Dad landed beside me and nuzzled my neck. Dirk flopped down under the heat lamp and sprawled out to steal the warmest spot.

"Tran had to stop by the barracks, so he is going to be a few minutes late. As soon as Drae and Sipar arrive, you can head over to the training area. They have the secondary rooms set up for you."

"Please tell me that Banrai didn't have a hand in it this time."

"No, he's been offworld for the last week, so it should just be the usual arrangement."

"Oh, good. He was kind of miffed that I bypassed so many of his traps last time." He checked his wrist comm. "My guards are here, so let's see how far I get. Tessa, shoulder."

I promptly flew over to his shoulder, glancing back at my family. "I'll see you at the park this afternoon."

Dirk yawned. "Just like a regular day after all."

Mom narrowed her eyes at him and swatted him with her tail. He yipped and scooted out of her range. As we went around the corner, I lost sight of them. It was a bit disappointing, but I had been able to visit with them for about ten minutes. It didn't help that we had arrived later than usual.

The side guards walked on either side of Soranto as we began the customary walk to the barracks with the special training areas.

       As we entered the room, I sniffed the air and growled a warning. The guards already had their weapons out, so we continued until we came to a junction. They paused just long enough to let me point the way.

"I can see the difference quite clearly now," Sipar commented. "She isn't nearly as agitated as she was in the room with the sicora."

"The reactions seem pretty consistent depending on what we are tracking," Soranto replied, "although some fire lizards can go a bit overboard if they haven't found a crawler or sicora for several days."

"I heard something about the handlers coming here every four or five days to keep their companions from getting frustrated if they didn't locate anything."

"The fire lizards tend to get a bit restless if they don't find anything. The training room helps take the edge off and encourages them to remain alert."

Sipar nodded, still walking ahead of us as a foreguard. If I wasn't able to see Drae following behind us, I would have forgotten that the guy was there. I still hadn't heard him utter a single word. If any of the wild dragonets ever expressed an interest in tracking sicora, but didn't want to be bothered with idle chat, I had found the perfect Kymari for them.

We stopped at another junction, and I flew past all of the doors. Hovering in front of one, I stared pointedly down it.

"Tessa, shoulder."

I banked in a tight circle to land on Soranto's shoulder pad, staring at the proper doorway. The strengthening smell made a growl rattle through my chest. We were getting close.

The hallway widened out and had crates stacked along one wall. I levelled a look of disgust at the crates; I highly doubted a real cargo ship would stack things like this in a hallway. Admittedly, it was pretty impressive how they kept redesigning these rooms to create new training situations for us.

I didn't even need my nose to tell me that the crawler was oh-so-conveniently hiding among those crates somewhere. My claws flexed as I growled deeper, still glaring at the crates.

"Stop," Soranto commanded quietly.

My growl cut off in confusion, although both Sipar and Drae stopped in their tracks. Soranto walked forward and went down on one knee as he examined something on the side of one of the crates.

"Stand along this wall behind me. Someone forgot to disarm this trap before we came in here, and I'd rather not have it go off with Tessa in the room."

Both guards moved behind him, and Soranto pulled out his belt knife as he pried the rectangular silver label off the crate. When it fell out, I saw that it had wires attached. Soranto disconnected the wires and twisted a couple of them together before putting the silver plate back in its place.

Sipar scowled. "They forgot to disarm a major trap?"

"I'm not sure they knew about this one. This is something Banrai originally set up for the group training that never ended up happening. It requires at least two people to set it off, so none of the other solo trainees would have triggered it. The fire lizards haven't been in this section for a while, so we are the first lucky group to come across it."

Soranto stood back up and examined the other crates.

"Are you sure that thing is deactivated?"

"Positive."

Sipar took the lead again, going more slowly this time. My eyes went back to the silver square. I would have assumed it was just a label, not an actual piece of metal that was part of a trap.

With a zapping noise, a bolt of blue energy whizzed through my line of sight, making me jump. The bolt struck something that was jumping out from between the crates. The charred crawler landed on the floor, the hide partially peeling from whatever it was attached to.

"Looks like we found the crawler. Nice shot," Soranto told Drae, who merely nodded.

The next set of doors were the heavy airlock ones that separated the training rooms from the rest of the barracks. It had taken us almost until lunchtime to get through the long training course.

I rearranged my wings and laid down; the rest of the day would just be walking around the city until we went to the main park.