Chapter 38

The narrator and her dragon Líri hunt a bhar in a mountain gully, successfully killing it and beginning to feed. While eating, the narrator senses Kaan bathing nearby at a spring and is drawn to him, charging toward him while Líri grudgingly allows her to leave the kill site under Rygun's watchful presence above.

The chapter opens with the narrator and Líri hunting in a wide gully between mountains, tracking a large male bhar through the trees. They coordinate a diving attack, striking with lethal force and killing the creature swiftly. After landing, they begin to feed on the fresh kill, with Líri securing the carcass and the narrator reflecting on how her savage urges have become her primary drive over the past twenty-three phases—replacing thought, feeling, and memory with the simplicity of hunting, feeding, and scouting. While eating, the narrator becomes aware of being watched. She hears singing and discovers Kaan bathing at a nearby spring, his scent and presence triggering a ravenous thrill in her. She charges toward him across the meadow, offering the strip of meat as a gift. Líri growls in warning, and Rygun's deeper growl sounds from the mountains above, but Líri ultimately submits and returns to feeding on the kill, allowing the narrator to move into Kaan's space.