Aunril's Arc

Chapter 1 of 3

Aunril pressed his weight against the fence post, testing its hold in the ground. The barrier hummed softly under his touch, a good sign, but seventeen problems still waited. He turned toward the old monolith where his parents' eggs rested in their nest of grasses. He lifted the frame of colored beads from his workspace, counting through each sphere with careful precision. Twelve beads had already shifted to the solved side, but the unsolved row still held too many. His claws clicked against the wire as he moved the bead for the western fence forward. Sixteen now. A sound stopped him cold. High-pitched and rhythmic, coming from the eastern ridge where no sounds should be. Aunril moved toward it, his smaller frame keeping low to the ground. Behind a tumble of rocks, he found the nest — a crude hollow lined with shredded bark and something that glowed faintly blue. Inside the hollow lay three smooth eggs, smaller than his siblings' but whole and warm. The creature that made them stood guard nearby, its body assembled from floating meteor fragments that shifted and crackled with each breath. Two tails lashed the air. Yellow eyes locked onto Aunril without blinking. He backed away slowly, then faster. The creature did not follow. When he reached his workspace, he lifted the bead frame again and moved one sphere back to the unsolved side. Seventeen problems. A new predator, already dug in, already breeding inside the grounds he was supposed to protect.