Aunril's Arc

Chapter 3 of 3

Aunril returned to his workspace near the fence and began checking his counts again. The meteor creature's hatchlings were contained for now, but containment was not a solution. He had reduced seventeen problems to sixteen, then back to seventeen when the creature arrived. Now he faced eighteen. The sound reached him during his third circuit of the grounds—a scraping, rhythmic pulse from inside the nest. One of the eggs was moving. Aunril crossed to the clutch and placed his hand against each shell in turn. The fourth egg from the left had turned restless, its spiked ridges vibrating with pressure from within. Hairline cracks had already appeared along the base. Five days. He still had five days before the clutch was scheduled to hatch, but this egg was moving now. If it broke early like he had, the hatchling would emerge into grounds that still had eighteen unsolved problems. He pulled the hourglass from his pack and watched the luminescent grains fall. The device measured time in nest-cycles, and it showed four and a half cycles remaining. The egg did not care about measurements. Aunril built a shelter over the restless egg using curved panels salvaged from an old observation post. The structure was small, just large enough to contain one hatchling, with gaps he could seal quickly if needed. He positioned it directly over the egg without moving the shell itself, then reinforced the base with stones. It would not stop a predator, but it would slow one down long enough for him to respond. He stepped back and counted the problems again. The shelter reduced the immediate risk, but it also created a new task: he would need to monitor this egg separately from the others, splitting his attention across more ground. Eighteen problems became seventeen, then shifted into nineteen. The meteor creature appeared on the ridge above the nest, watching him work. Its hatchlings had tried to leave the crater twice since dawn, and twice Aunril had turned them back without touching them, using only his position to block their path. The creature had not attacked, but it had not retreated either. Aunril looked at the shelter, then at the creature, then at his hourglass. He walked to the crater and placed the hourglass at the edge of the meteor creature's nest. The device would track time for both clutches now. The creature tilted its fragmented head, yellow eyes fixed on the falling grains. Aunril backed away slowly. He had made a choice: shared ground instead of contested ground. The creature settled beside the hourglass, and its hatchlings stopped testing the crater's edge. Problem nineteen collapsed back into eighteen. It was not a solution, but it was a term.