Page 40 of My Big Scaly Alien Naga
“What’s that?”Clare asked, her voice tight.“It looks to me like a dragon.I mean, an alien dragon, but somewhat similar.”
I nodded once, eyes fixed on the hazy image still flickering in my mind.“I have read about dragons from Peritan mythology.The Tyvarin were engineered during the Skarn Rebellions on a planet far away from here – biomechanical sky-beasts, grown in labs and hardwired with tactical systems.They weren’t just weapons.They could think.Learn.Adapt.Cyborgs with wings and the ability to breathe fire.”
I drew in a breath.“The one Ba’quoo showed us isn’t just any Tyvarin.That’s Tyvaron.”
“Like… a name?”
“A designation.The first and only of its class.A prototype designed for high-altitude domination and autonomous combat decisions.Its creators gave it partial sentience.Enough to assess threats, react, even disobey if survival logic dictated.”
Her brows furrowed.“You’re telling me that thing’s smart?”
I nodded grimly.“It was supposed to be a commander-beast.The project was shut down when it turned on its own handlers during testing.They tried to wipe its core.Failed.”
“And the game makers rebuilt it?”
“Brought it here along with the lesser Tyvarin and modified it,” I said.“Probably installed behavioural overrides or some kind of neural dampening.But if the original mind is still in there…”
Clare went very still.“Then it’s not just a monster.”
Ba’quoo’s voice pulsed through our minds again, laced with tension.It descends.There is purpose in its flight.Not hunger.Not rage.Something colder.
I looked up.The light through the crystal ceiling had changed – shadowed now, flickering with movement.
“I think it remembers what it was made for,” I murmured.“But that doesn’t mean it’s beyond saving.”
Clare turned to me, eyes wide.“Wait.That monster is coming to kill us.And you want to save it?How is that supposed to work?”
I didn’t answer.Not yet.Because above us, something changed.
The light filtering through the crystalline veins in the ceiling dimmed, shadows sliding like liquid across the cavern floor.Then came the vibration – low, rhythmic, building from the stone itself like a second heartbeat.
Ba’quoo's feathers rippled and the chii around him scattered.It comes.You must move.This place is not safe.
The faintest tremor rippled through the crates stacked around us.Dust drifted from the high ledges.Somewhere above, something struck the mountain with enough force to make the entire cave shudder.
And then the diamonds in the ceiling – those slivers of light that had let in the morning sun –fractured.
Light speared inward as something enormous passed overhead.Not just wings.Not just mass.But presence.
Tyvaron had found us.
My mind went blank.I acted on instinct.I grabbed Clare around the waist, cradled her against my waist and sped towards the exit as fast as my coils allowed.I knew the chii would be fine.I had to protect my mate.
Drones would be waiting outside, but it was no longer safe in the cave.The ceiling could give in at any moment.If a second Tyvarin landed on the mountain…everything would crumble.I had to hurry.
“I can run!”Clare hissed, struggling against my hold on her.
“I know.But I am faster.”
She muttered something beneath her breath but stopped complaining.She knew I was right.I may not have had legs, but I was bigger, stronger.I ignored the scrape of the diamond shards against my scales as I rushed us to the ledge leading to the tunnel we’d used last night.The gap in the rocks widened at our approach, giving way to freedom.And disaster.
We burst into the open.
The cold air slapped against my skin, sharp with the acrid tang of scorched rock.Clare squinted against the light, her arms instinctively wrapping tighter around me as I halted just short of the cliff’s edge.
And there–spread across the sky like a dark tide–were the others.
Three.No, four.
