The stranger put his bleeding foot toward home.
Black-green water climbed to meet it.
He stopped with one claw over the threshold. The distant rookery called beneath two moons, close enough that individual voices separated from the colony sound. One repeated his rise. Another broke the ending and waited.
The male answered both.
His body leaned toward the white road. The egg remained sealed beneath his brood fold, its weight spread across the foot still planted in Ninebell.
Jiang stayed behind him.
No cord bound the stranger. No human blocked his sides. The opening was low and poisoned, but it was still his choice to test.
His beak descended until its tip touched the black film.
Water spoke with the tiny tap that had come from inside the egg.
The sound came from stone beneath his feet.
His whole body changed. Gold neck feathers rose. His beak struck the false tap, and black droplets leaped onto the snow without freezing.
