Chapter 16

A young girl tends to an incubating Moonplume egg in the freezing outskirts of Netheryn while caring for Haedeon, who lies immobilized and sleeping heavily after she found him at the bottom of a crevice with a stolen egg. She has built shelter, moved supplies alone, and resolved to stay with him rather than seek help, fearing he will die if left alone.

The narrator has discovered Haedeon asleep at the bottom of a crevice, unable to move his legs, with a stolen Moonplume egg. When she offered to fetch her parents (Mahmi and Pahpi), Haedeon warned that she would die traveling the sleigh home alone and that his egg would die too. Instead, she built a snow hut to shelter him, made three solo trips to a hatching hut to relocate their belongings, and woke him to explain her plan to help him bond with his egg when it hatches. Haedeon expressed love for her and gratitude that she stowed away on his sleigh, then returned to deep sleep. The narrator now worries constantly that he will not wake, that his breathing will stop. Despite missing her parents, she has decided she will not leave Haedeon behind in the cold and dark, knowing how much he fears solitude and darkness. She must manage the Moonplume egg's incubation alone while keeping vigil over him.