Upon Wings Of Change

Chapter 25

I woke up suddenly. I felt the urge to snarl and was on edge, although I didn't know why. The room was dark, although a bit of light was shining in from the window. I kept my head low as I looked across the room. Nothing was moving though.

I took a deep breath and dug my claws into the sand. What is that smell? I couldn't place it, yet, I was sure I had smelled it before. My eyes widened in recognition, it was the smell that Drake had shared with me.

Was it in the room? That shouldn't be possible, I hadn't been able to get out despite numerous attempts lately. I crouched low and moved to the edge of the table inspecting the room carefully.

A faint clatter made me turn my head sharply. One of the large air vents near the floor had fallen into the room. How did that fall into the room? I pulled on it earlier, and it didn't come out. My thoughts were stopped by the sight of something crawling out of the opening.

I narrowed my eyes at the dark grey creature; it had eight legs and resembled a mutant spider. It wasn't quite twice my size, but it was more heavily built and would weigh much more than I did.

My blood boiled at the sight of it. The blood memories now offered their insight; if a sicora was a butterfly, then this crawler was the caterpillar. The crawler would get close to a food source before cocooning to metamorphosize into the sicora. But a sicora was an evil bloodthirsty thing more interested in attacking any living thing around it and couldn't really be compared to a butterfly.

This crawler would turn into a sicora. Not if I have any say in the matter. I silently took flight as I gained altitude while gathering my fire. The crawler seemed to know exactly where it was going and was heading straight for Taureen's open door.

I folded my wings back and dropped down with a battle scream before I loosed an intense stream of fire as I passed over it. My wing felt the strain of the move as I traded height for speed. I could hear Taureen jumping out of bed with the reflexes of the fighter that he was.

I quickly banked around to fly between Taureen's door and the creature before loosing another blast of fire. The detestable eight-legged thing gave an odd high-pitched squeal as it tried to scramble backward; it seemed to detest fire as much as the sicora did.

My wing trembled and threatened to give out from the intense aerial maneuvers I had been doing. I landed on the floor with a hiss as I faced it; I was quick on my feet if I wanted to be. Like a mongoose and a snake, I darted forward to nip at one of its legs. Hopefully my saliva would have the same effect on the crawler as it did on its bigger brother. Its blood was disgusting and tasted almost as bad as the sicora's blood had.

It tried to strike at me with sharp claws on its front legs, and I skipped backwards with ease. I didn't have time to begin another move before a spear slammed it to the floor, pinning it like a beetle. I flinched at the weapon's appearance and glanced behind me.

I hadn't even noticed that Taureen had appeared in his doorway. He must sleep with some of those weapons, considering it had only been about twenty seconds since I had started the attack. I turned my focus back to the crawler, but its legs were already curling up in death.

Taureen stepped forward as he came up beside me and looked down at me, obviously checking me for injuries. A familiar scent hit my nose, and I turned my head swiftly towards the air vent. I launched forward into a swift flight with a scream as I spat a fireball at the small sicora peering out of the air vent.

With a hiss, it took off down the air vent and out of my sight. My wing hurt from the swift take-off and rapid flight. I landed several feet from the open vent, hissing fiercely, almost hoping that it would come back so I could attack it again.