Chapter 18

A young person waits anxiously outside a snow hut while a silver Moonplume circles overhead, seemingly searching for the egg they've taken. They guard the egg with a borrowed dragonscale dagger while Haedeon remains ill inside, fearing both the mother Moonplume and a nearby pack of doomquills will discover them.

The narrator sits outside a makeshift hatching hut in the snow, keeping vigil over a large silver egg they've stolen. They believe the circling Moonplume above is the egg's mother, drawn to the location by the egg's metallic silver coloring—a shade unlike any Moonplume the narrator has encountered before. The egg has not yet begun to hatch, so the narrator has spent time chipping ice from a nearby pillar to pack around it once the hatching begins. Inside the hut, Haedeon remains unwell and shows no signs of improvement. The narrator is deeply anxious about their situation: they cannot properly hide in the open, and escape back to Arithia feels impossible given Haedeon's condition. Beyond the threat of the mother Moonplume attacking them for raiding her nest, the narrator hears a pack of doomquills nearby, their rattling calls suggesting they may have caught the scent of death or weakness. The narrator has reluctantly taken hold of Haedeon's dragonscale dagger, a weapon they have never wielded and do not wish to use, prepared to fight only if the creatures approach the egg. The egg itself glows like silver light in the snow, bright enough for the narrator to write by. Fear centers not on personal survival but on protecting both the unhatched hatchling and the ailing Haedeon.