Hunger made the chick ask its dead father for food.
It pressed its beak beneath his, called once, and waited in the place where an answer had always arrived.
Its father's head rested against the carrier hide.
Dark fluid climbed another groove beneath him.
His mate nudged his beak upward. When nothing came, she tried again with enough force to move the whole head. The chick called into the opened space.
Jiang looked away before anyone else.
"The water will reach that cradle on the next rise," Valea said.
His partner struck the saddle wall without turning from her mate.
Hest had already found the higher cradle. It hung above Bellwyrm's back where three old pulse rails met, dry enough that pale shed fibers still moved when the chamber breathed.
"We move him now," Hest said.
"We move all three," Jiang corrected.
A second call ended even sooner.
Its voice ended early. The small body had begun to shiver beneath its loose gray coat, although the chamber air remained warm.
