A New Beginning: Passing The Torch

Chapter 19

Tessa's POV:

Aeria was completely relaxed as she walked down the short hallway and opened another door. This room was full of numerous crates that were packed together to form narrow rows between them. The air was somewhat stagnant and not what I was used to.

We went up and down a few rows before going through yet another door into another room with more crates. I hadn't seen another Kymari since we left the others, which I thought was odd considering how many had been in this building up until this point.

Aeria had barely taken several steps into this room when a hiss issued from my throat. My claws extended, digging into her thick shoulder pads. My head whipped around as my nostrils flared at the faint smell. Danger.

Something was in the room, and it wasn't good.

"Mom! Dad! There's something bad in here!" My words echoed back at me.

"Dirk! Tell Mom and Dad to warn Aeria!" This call also echoed. It wasn't the first time Dirk had blocked the mindlink, but this was certainly the worst time possible.

They couldn't hear me. That meant they also wouldn't be able to warn Aeria. I couldn't just let her walk into danger!

"Aeria! There's danger here!" The words echoed through my mind.

Nothing. She continued walking towards the crates as she had in the last room. Something told me that I should avoid such narrow spaces.

Getting desperate, I half unfurled my wings with a warning screech as I tried again. "Aeria! There's something in this room!"

The smell was almost chokingly strong – we had to leave, now!

"Aeria! There's danger!"

I barely registered that my last call had lacked an echo before a flare of alarm jolted through me when I spotted a shiny black bump emerge from between two of the crates just above us.

With a shriek, I jumped up towards the creature's nose. My claws dug into the black scales on its nose before my feet pushed me to a safer distance. The nose rapidly retreated into the shadows with a chilling silence. Aeria pulled on my leash to bring me back to her.

She caught me and cradled me in her arms as she jogged away from the creature's hiding spot. "Good job!"

We quickly escaped into another room and closed the door behind us. I exhaled in relief before tensing. There was another smell here, and it wasn't much better than what we had just escaped.

I tried warning Aeria again. "There is something bad in this room, too."

There was no echo, but Aeria didn't react to my voice. "Aeria? Can you hear me? There's danger."

She shifted me onto her shoulder, still not replying to my mindvoice. I already knew that Aeria couldn't understand the spoken dragonet language, and my jaws refused to form the sounds of her speech. The inability to communicate was frustrating.

A growl left my throat as I scanned the room. The grating sound of it was quite different from the playful version that she had heard many times before. It was my best way of warning her at the moment.

She glanced at me as she began walking quickly and warily through more rows of crates. I kept glancing around in case this thing tried to sneak up on us. I quickly realized that it was hard to watch for something if you didn't know what you were looking for.

With a faint huff, I concentrated on the Blood Memories. It was hard to pull them up since the smell was so distracting and I was trying to watch for the danger.