It took about twenty more minutes to finish the last few rooms on the ship. Once we had finished I returned to Minna's shoulder and relaxed while she had a brief conversation with someone from the crew. She led us off the ship once that was done, and we walked a safe distance from the ship. Minna turned to watch it, and a few minutes later the sound of its powerful engines filled the air.

I lowered my ear tufts in annoyance and tried to slink down against Minna's shoulder. The ships were loud, and I did not appreciate how loud they got... but it only lasted a few seconds. And I knew Minna liked watching them take off.

I knew part of her missed being able to fly ships like she had done before she had met me.

But I also knew that she wouldn't trade me for all the ships in the universe.

The ship shuddered on the concrete-like field, then began to ascend upwards into the sky. I leaned over and nudged Minna's chin with my head and chirped at her. She smiled and reached up to pet my back, then whispered softly. "Thanks."

She turned back to the other Kymari after another moment of skygazing. Her father still had that same frown that suggested he wasn't impressed by what he was seeing, but the rest of the Kymari seemed to have the slight bit of upbeatness that came with a job well done. "Okay. Is the supply ship ready for us?"

"It is landing on the far side of the spaceport now. It should be ready when we reach it." Morton tapped the device on his wrist and it made a soft beep. "I sent them an update to let them know we are on the way."

"Thanks." Minna smiled gratefully and clipped the longer leash to my harness, then we began walking across the spaceport. It might have been quicker to go through the buildings themselves, but Minna almost always walked along the outside of the buildings instead. I wasn't sure if that was to give me a break from being around Kymari or because she just liked seeing the different spaceships, but it meant I got a chance to fly around between inspections.

It was nice to just have a moment to glide through the open air.

We arrived at the cargo ship after just a few minutes. It looked much different from the passenger ships I was used to. Those ships had been long and sleek, and looked like some thought had gone into making them look pretty. They had gentle curves and colorful decorations. I could imagine the Kymari being impressed with those ships, and the pilots being proud of their vessels.

The cargo ship, on the other wing, just looked like a giant brick. The guiding philosophy in its design process had obviously been, 'fit as much stuff inside it as possible', with little thought to any other concerns.

I wasn't sure if this was just a unique model, or if all the cargo ships were like this. Either way I was glad the other dragonets dealt with these. Having to look at ships like this one all day seemed like it would get depressing rather quickly.

From her expression, Minna didn't seem that impressed by the ship either. She eyed it dubiously for a moment while Morton called somebody on his wrist device, then she called me back down to swap my leash for the shorter one. I waited on her shoulder while we all filed into the airlock, then waited some more while the outer doors sealed back behind us.

The inner doors opened... and I hissed as the scents of the ship began to reach me. There was a crawler on board. I wasn't sure exactly where on the ship it was yet, but I knew it was somewhere on the ship.

I saw Minna's father turn to look at me when I hissed. "Is he okay?"

Morton and Kilpin both grinned. They had worked with me enough that they knew what it meant. The two younger guards didn't say anything, but Minna nodded. "He's fine. He gets like that when he's smelling something."

Minna's father narrowed his eyes at me. I could tell he still didn't really believe I could actually track down sicora... but I knew that wasn't going to last much longer. "He smells a sicora?"

"He gets a lot more upset when he smells a sicora. This is probably just a crawler." Minna started walking down the corridor, and I glanced down both paths when we reached the intersection. I sniffed the air again to try and tell where the scent was coming from, and when I did I hissed and scampered along Minna's shoulder to stare in that direction. "There might still be a sicora somewhere. It's unlikely, but sometimes he has to be closer before he can smell them."

Minna's father nodded and adjusted his hold on his weapon. "I see."

I was pretty sure he still wasn't convinced... but I put him out of my mind for the moment. There was a crawler to hunt down. I stretched my wings out and pulled them back in, fidgeting in anticipation.

"Okay Nate. Go seek."

I jumped from Minna's shoulder and chased after the scent.

It took a lot longer than I expected - the cargo ship was different than the ships I was used to, and Minna kept me closer to her since she knew a crawler was around - but I eventually tracked the scattered scents to a trail, then followed that trail to a storage room near the center of the ship. I passed some of the crew as I went, but they quickly turned and walked the other way when they saw us.

I stood outside the door the scent led through and hissed at it.

"Good job, Nate. Come here." She held up the hand with the glove and I flew up to it, landing and wrapping my tail around her arm for balance. "Okay."

I hissed again and tried to settle down. This was always the worst part of tracking sicora and crawlers - being dragged away while somebody else got to kill it.

Minna's father looked at us, then at the guards approaching the door. "What are you doing? Aren't you going in?"

Minna just looked back at him blandly. "No. There's a crawler in there."

Kilpin held his hand over the control and started tapping on it. "Minna is still untrained. Even if she was fully trained, the fire lizard is much too valuable to endanger. We don't let her or Nate into the room until we've secured it, and even then, it only happens if we can't find the crawler ourselves. She led us to the room it's hiding in. We can do the rest without putting her in danger."

"Oh." Minna's father seemed to be honestly surprised by that explanation.

I flattened my ears at him in annoyance. Hadn't Minna told him that very thing several times already?

"Besides," Morton continued, taking up a position in front of the door. "Nate will use fire when he attacks a sicora. You're an expert on ship combat, so I don't have to tell you how much we don't want him doing that."

Kilpin tapped one more control and the door slid open. The four guards hurried into the room, and after a moment's hesitation, Minna's father followed them in.

Minna took a few steps down the corridor and waited.

After several long moments of anticipation and boredom, Kilpin called out to us. "We haven't found it. It must be hiding inside one of these shipping crates. Bring him in."

Minna walked into the room, then held me up with her hand. The crawler's scent had been lingering in my nose the entire time I was waiting, and I still had a clear idea of where it had gone. I sniffed once just to be sure, then looked back at Minna and hissed. She nodded. "Go seek."

I took off once more and followed after the crawler.

The room had been organized into seven rows of crates. The smell led to the fourth row, but it got murky after that. I flew up and down that row a few times, dropping to the ground and sniffing at crates as I passed them, until I was certain I had it. I flew in a quick loop before the crate with the crawler's scent, then hovered in the air and stared pointedly at it as I let out a chirp. "Found it!"

"That one." Minna pointed it out to Kilpin, and he nodded.

The other Kymari converged on that crate and began moving it into the aisle where they could open it... and Minna called me back to her shoulder. I hissed in annoyance but landed on her shoulder, and she carried me back out of the room.

It was only a few seconds before I heard the sound of the Kymari spears swinging and impacting the metal flooring... and only a second or two after that before Kilpin called out again. "We got it. It's clear."

Minna brought me back into the room and up to the row of crates. The crate I had singled out had been opened up to expose various shelves inside it, all of them holding various packages with unidentifiable contents. Far more importantly, however, was that a crawler now lay dead on the floor beside the crate. I hissed at it and stared at it for a second as the instinctive agitation at a crawler left me... then I looked back up at Minna and chirped a calm, "Okay."

She fished out the vial of treats from her pocket while her father came over to her. I could smell the crawler's blood on his spear. "What was that about?"

Minna tossed me a tiny pineapple slice as my reward, and I eagerly snatched it out of the air. "They tend to stay agitated until they actually see that the crawler or sicora is dead." She motioned up at me. "I'd rather not leave him that upset for no reason. And it makes it a lot easier to tell if he picks up something else later."

"I... see." Minna's father looked back up at me thoughtfully. "So they really can find crawlers? That wasn't just luck?"

Minna nodded slowly. "This makes for the ninth crawler he's been responsible for hunting down. Along with two adult sicora. And none of the ships I've cleared with him have had any reports of sicora problems afterwards. It's not luck or an accident; they are able to sniff out sicora."

She looked back at the rows of crates around us. "And it's a good thing that fire lizards can, too. I'm sure you can imagine what would have happened if we hadn't caught this crawler, and it got carried into a hospital while it was hiding inside of these supplies. Nate just saved a lot of lives today."

The older Kymari's expression shifted ever so slightly as he watched me. I had a strange impression that he was grudgingly impressed with me now.

"That's enough standing around." Morton walked over to the crate and began closing it back up. "We still have to inspect the rest of the ship; we need to make sure there aren't any others on board."

"Right." Minna nodded and walked up to the crate to help close it back up. It only took them a few seconds before the crate was stowed back in the row they had taken it out from... then Minna nodded up at me. "Go seek."

I jumped into the air and flew back down the corridor.

"Sorry about that." I stirred in the warm sand as Ivy's voice pulled me from my daydream. "We didn't cause you too much trouble, did we?"

The rest of the day had been completely uneventful - I hadn't found any other crawlers, or even any ktari. We had just gone through the rest of the ships and cleared them, then headed back home. The only thing of any note was how the glances from Minna's father had a bit more respect in them now... though I could tell he was still determined to try and separate me from Minna.

At least he had decided to spend the night with Terron again, instead of bothering me and Minna again.

"Nah. We picked up a cargo ship that had some perishable medical supplies, but I think the rest of the ships just decided to wait until you could inspect them. And I caught a crawler on that ship, so I can't complain." The knowledge that we had managed to stop a crawler or sicora was always welcome, and well worth a little boredom or extra walking around. "What about you? Everybody okay down there?"

"Yeah." There was a bit of a sleepy feeling to Ivy's words, but beyond that she sounded fine. "Serena was a little upset since she lost one of her days off since she had been hoping to spend it at the park, but nothing too bad. The tranquilizers have pretty much all worn off now, so we're more or less back to normal."

"Glad to hear it. How'd Keegan take it?"

"I'm sure he would have been furious if it weren't for the sedative! I think he's actually secretly grateful, though. He was able to spend a lot of time with Aeria without having to fight off those memories of being trapped back in the lab or the instincts to run and hide, and I think he'll be able to be a bit more comfortable around her going forward. Plus he knows we can't tease him about not getting the 'full' bond animal experience that the rest of us got." Ivy giggled a little, then she sobered up. "Tasha's mad at all of us though, and I'm sure she'll find some way to make us pay."

"Well, of course. You totally deserve it." I smiled under the heat lamp as I teased the green dragonet. It was nice to hear how happy she was, especially since it hadn't come from too much misfortune on somebody else's behalf. And I was glad that she was okay.

"Absolutely." I felt another sleepy feeling come over the mindlink as Ivy yawned wherever she was at. "By the way, Keegan said to tell you thanks."

I perked my ear tufts in sudden alarm. "Hrm? What did I do? None of that was my idea, I swear."

More laughter came from the mindlink. "No, no, not for this. For the suggestion you had, about sore muscles. Keegan tried it with Aeria after her training class last night, and he said it helped her feel better. So it's not just Minna humoring you; our thrumming really does seem to help with sore muscles. Keegan wanted to make sure I passed on his thanks for giving him that suggestion. He said Aeria was a lot less stiff this morning than she usually was the day after a class."

"Oh." I felt a little bit of embarrassment at the relayed thanks, and a little bit of happiness that I had been able to help someone else out. "I'm glad I could help."

"So did anything else happen? I lost an entire day; fill me in! What did you get up to while we were all out of it?"

I smiled again and wiggled into the warm sand, and happily went back over the day with the green dragonet.