Avery Rhiannon's Arc

Chapter 14 of 17

With the fracture closed and the cocoon sealed again, Avery faced a quieter fear. The creature breathed, but it had not eaten. She did not know what it ate. Without food, its body could not knit the bone. She carried two cafeteria trays out to the porch and set them side by side. On one she laid greens, berries, soft fruit, and a bowl of water. On the other she added shredded meat, an egg, and seed. Herbivore. Omnivore. A guess split in half. Then she walked to the feeding station Tom kept beyond the clinic, a low metal ring of bowls planted with glowing ferns. She clipped a handful of the living shoots and pressed them into the herbivore tray. If anything here was native to whatever the creature was, it grew there. She set both trays beside the cocoon and waited. For a long time, nothing. Then a bristle stirred. The creature reached, slow and certain, past the meat, past the berries, and closed around a single glowing shoot. It drew the shoot inside. Avery exhaled. She knew, now, what to feed it.