Chapter 381: Questions in the Margins

Chapter 381: Questions in the Margins

Glitch was asleep when Jin returned to the stables, with Flicker tucked into her place beside his horn.

He checked their water, left a note confirming when he would be back, and changed out of his dusty trousers. The dressing on his shin caught against the clean fabric.

It looked much more impressive than the scrape beneath it.

Elsa noticed it within three seconds of opening the door.

"What happened?"

"I scraped it."

"Doing what?"

"Getting away from a lizard."

She stared at him.

"The nurse checked it when we got back," he added. "It’s clean. I’m all right."

"Was that the thing you had to catch?"

"No."

"Jin."

"I’ll tell you." He stepped inside before the conversation could become a report delivered in the doorway. "We got the marten. Fourth."

Her expression changed so quickly that he laughed.

"Out of twenty?"

"Out of twenty."

"Mum!"

Elena appeared from the kitchen while Jin was still removing his shoes. Breeze pushed past her, inspected the unfamiliar smells on his pack, and sneezed.

"He caught it," Elsa announced. "They came fourth. He also got chased by a lizard."

"Two," Jin said, then regretted it.

His mother looked at his leg.

"Tea first," she decided. "Then you can explain that."

He told them at the table, with something hot in his hands and the relief of being finished beginning to settle properly.

There had been a marten that knew every hole in a rocky hillside. There had been a boar with a better claim to their bait than they could argue with. By the time he reached the ruined trap, Arthur was smiling into his cup.

"And you left it?" his father asked.

"The box was bent. We kept the carrier and net."

Arthur nodded. "Good."

The smile faded when Jin described the quarry.

"We were checking it before using it," he said. "Something had been going in and out. We saw the signs."

"But not the lizards," Elena said.

"Not until they moved. We backed out, but they followed." Jin turned his cup on the table. "Lucian kept one away from me. I nearly went over on loose stone."

He could still picture the jaws coming past Glitch’s tail.

At home, with Breeze scratching beneath Elsa’s chair, it was easier to admit how close they had looked.

"He’s good up close," Jin continued. "Much better than I am. I could see where I ought to move, but he was already doing it."

"Was he hurt?" his mother asked.

"Scraped his arm. They checked him too."

Arthur asked about the route out, then about the beasts. Jin answered without trying to make the fight sound easier than it had been.

When he finished, Elena put more food on his plate.

"You can practise the moving part somewhere without teeth," she said.

"That’s the plan."

Elsa waited until he had eaten a mouthful before asking how they had finally caught the marten.

He described the cave, the blocked gaps, and the way Flicker had found the animal when he couldn’t pick it out from the rock.

"She was very pleased with herself afterwards."

"She should be," Elsa said immediately.

"She knows."

Arthur leaned forward when Jin mentioned the borrowed mesh.

"Okonkwo’s?"

"We returned it. All the lines too."

"Good. Drivers remember that."

"He counted the fittings while we loaded Glitch."

His father gave a satisfied nod.

The result still felt good when Jin said it again. Two thousand Academy Points each, a difficult assignment completed, and no beast left behind needing serious treatment.

Then he remembered the cloth bag in his pack.

"We found something else."

He cleared a space on the table and opened it carefully over its padded lining.

Ten pale stones caught the kitchen light.

Elsa leaned closer. Arthur became very still.

"Astral Stones?" his father asked.

Jin nodded. "By a seep where we stopped to rest. Ordinary grade, but bigger than the ones I bought."

"Those were expensive," Elsa said.

"These would have been too."

He enjoyed saying that more than he should have.

Breeze put his paws against Jin’s knee and stretched towards the table. Jin closed the bag before the fox could investigate with his mouth.

"Not food."

Breeze lowered himself with an injured expression.

Arthur looked at the tied bag.

"An interior find. Did you declare it?"

"Twenty-two altogether. The Association took two. Ten each for us."

"And you’re keeping yours?"

"For cultivation. I’ll take them to Brand before I change anything."

Elena touched the outside of the bag, feeling one of the rounded shapes through the cloth.

"Then put them somewhere Breeze can’t reach."

Jin glanced at the fox.

"That rules out more places than it used to."

He tucked the bag into his pack and fastened both closures.

Only then did Elsa fetch her notebook.

She had been waiting with visible effort. Jin had noticed her looking towards the couch every time somebody paused, and now he understood why.

The hatchery leaflet was folded inside the cover. Its margins were full. Questions had spread onto two notebook pages, with arrows joining related ones and several lines crossed out.

"I went this morning," she said. "While you were catching it."

"How was the egg?"

"Still quiet. Like before. I could feel it when Pike helped me settle, but I couldn’t tell whether it knew I was there."

"What did he say?"

"Not to keep pushing for a response. The visits are for getting used to the bond too." She frowned at a note. "I wanted to stay longer, but I did the ten minutes."

Jin smiled.

"That sounds harder than writing the questions."

"It was."

Elsa smoothed the edge of the leaflet.

"With Breeze, there was always something happening. Even waiting for him, we had the incubator here. I could look whenever I wanted."

"You’d look at this one all evening."

"Probably." She smiled, then glanced at her notes. "I asked Pike what they check while I’m not there. He showed me its record. Not everything made sense, but he explained the temperature entries."

Jin remembered her watching the transit case all the way to the hatchery. Knowing what happened between visits would matter to her.

"Did that help?"

"Yes. I wrote down the bits I understood."

She turned the book towards him.

There were practical things about food, water, and where the young beast would live. Beside one question about suitable housing, she had written a reminder to ask Aldous whom she should contact for advice.

"I was looking at pools," Elsa said. "Pike told me to start with what it needs when it first hatches, then plan the later stages properly."

"Probably easier than moving us somewhere with a pool."

She looked down.

Jin stared at her.

"Els."

"I hadn’t asked Dad yet."

He laughed, and she elbowed him gently.

"I said I was looking."

Farther down the page, she had written whether wind could help with drying, then added, *Ask before trying.*

Jin tapped the addition.

"Good note."

"Breeze doesn’t like it when I get the direction wrong." She glanced at the fox beneath the table. "He’s very clear about that."

The last page was headed *Hatching*.

Elsa had listed things she remembered from Breeze: the quiet room, waiting, Pike checking without taking over. Beneath those she had written a question about what would be different for a Brinecoat.

"I want to be there again," she said. "But I don’t want to assume it’s all the same because I’ve seen one egg hatch."

Jin read the line twice.

"Ask him that. Just how you said it."

She picked up her pen.

"And what I should have ready beforehand."

"That too."

For a while he held the leaflet flat while she copied a reference from it. From the kitchen came the sound of Arthur and Elena disagreeing quietly over where a dish belonged.

Jin’s legs still ached. His beasts were asleep at the Academy, and his new stones would have to wait for Brand. He was content to sit where he was.

Elsa finished writing and looked up.

"Will you come next Saturday?"

"If my timetable allows. I’ll check."

"I want you to see it now it’s mine."

He felt himself smile.

"I’d like that."

She turned back to the notebook. Jin kept a hand on the loose leaflet as she began another question, so it wouldn’t slide off her knee.