Chapter 413: Somebody Else’s Routine

Chapter 413: Somebody Else’s Routine

He went down to the stable block slowly, his legs still a bit uncertain and his chest full of that quiet, enormous room.

Glitch was standing up when he came in, staring at the door as if he’d been staring at it for a while.

He came across the stall, put his nose against Jin’s chest, right over the Core, and sniffed. Long, deep, suspicious sniffs, like a dog checking a coat that had been somewhere interesting.

"Three," Jin told him. "Same as you."

Glitch pulled back and looked at him.

There was something in the bond that Jin couldn’t name at first. Then he could. It was what Glitch felt when Flicker made a good pass over the sled: grudging, proud attention. Oh. You too, then.

Then the drake nudged his shoulder under Jin’s hand and stayed there until Jin rubbed the familiar ridge above his plating.

Flicker called from the rope perch. When Jin looked up, she stretched her neck toward him, plainly expecting her share. He laughed and went to her. Neither beast had changed this morning. For once, the new reading belonged to him.

Crowe posted the field briefing on Wednesday morning. Jin found Lucian reading it between classes.

Next Tuesday, assigned trios would spend a day in Harrow Reach, north of the city: navigate to a resource site, verify it and return with a sample before the deadline.

Records and field marks together would decide who was eligible for the arena, and in what order they were seeded. The tournament details would be published with the list.

Below that were the trios.

Astor, Hollis, Vasha.

Lucian was three lines further down, with Owen Saddler and a fourth-year from the other practical group whose name Jin didn’t know.

"Split us up," Lucian said, over his shoulder.

"Course they did."

"I’d have split us up." Lucian didn’t sound upset. He sounded like someone already making a list. "Owen’s good on a map. That’s something."

Vasha found them a minute later, already holding a copy of the briefing.

"Petra and I walked the Harrow Reach last year, on a mapping exercise," she said. "Old quarry ground. Lots of up and down." She looked at Jin. "Can your drake climb?"

"Slowly."

"Friday after classes. Yard Four. We’ll walk the beasts together and see who’s slow at what."

She was gone before he could say yes.

"I like her," Lucian said.

On Thursday, Jin returned to the yard for light practice. He still didn’t entirely trust the new reserve.

He walked the triangle first, then worked through a few slow turns with rests between them. His reserve stayed comfortable for longer, but his feet still needed to land where he intended. Once he came out facing too far left and had to reset before bringing the spear round.

He wanted a faster run. The temptation sounded remarkably like his old self at three in the morning, finding one more dungeon to clear.

Instead, he put the spear down while his legs still felt fresh. Brand had given him two light days, and this was the second.

On Friday, after checking that he had recovered cleanly, he practised brief Gravity Press pulses with Lucian. They stopped between sets to compare timing. Jin was still casting steadily at a point when he used to need a longer break, though he caught himself watching the patch instead of Lucian’s next step.

Lucian circled it and tapped his shoulder.

"I was hoping you’d stop doing that," Jin said.

"Then stop letting me." Lucian stepped back, grinning. "You do last longer now. I’ll have to find another excuse for resting."

The walk in Yard Four followed after classes. Vasha’s Ridgerunner went over the training ramp and came back to see why everybody else was so slow. Petra’s badger climbed steadily, but needed coaxing down the steeper side. Glitch took his time turning at the top, while Flicker inspected the route from above.

"We need room on the bends," Jin said, watching Glitch place his outer foot.

Petra added it to her notebook. "And a little longer for descents. I’d rather know that now."

The partly used stone ran out on Friday night, in a short session after dinner.

He put it in the drawer with the other empties and unwrapped one of the two large stones still in the cloth.

That left one untouched beside it, and the two small Thornwatch stones he still hadn’t needed.

Elsa met him at the transit stop on Saturday with Breeze on his lead and her notebook under her arm. There was a strip of tape down its spine now, where it had started to split.

"Pike called," she said, before he’d said hello. "He wants to talk about the hatch."

"The hatch?"

"Not doing it. Talking about it. That’s different."

In the back room, the egg sat in its cold unit, blue-grey and freckled. Elsa put her palm against the glass for a second, then opened the notebook.

Mr. Pike had checked the egg that morning. Its readings remained steady; there was time to prepare properly before choosing a hatch window.

Harlow & Pike could manage the hatch here, with staff watching the readings and the egg brought up slowly. The chick would stay with them for its first weeks.

"But somebody has to be ready to look after it," Pike said. "Not only me. You. The routine has to be yours."

"Here," Elsa said. "With you watching. When it’s ready." She glanced at Jin. "If that’s all right."

"It’s your penguin," he said.

She looked at him a moment longer, checking that he meant it. Then she turned back to Pike. "What’s the routine?"

Tamsin brought out the hatchling tank, filled now, its little panel glowing. She showed Elsa how to read the water temperature on the panel and on the backup thermometer clipped to the side, and what to do when they disagreed.

For the practice water change, Tamsin marked the amount to replace and had Elsa check the prepared water before adding it. Elsa copied the steps, then tried them without looking at the page.

Then she brought out the feed, a grey paste from a tub in the cold room. She demonstrated the assisted feeding method they planned to use for this chick: small measured portions offered with soft tongs, with the amount taken recorded after each feed.

Elsa practised on a rubber dummy with a hinged beak. She got paste on the dummy, the bench, her sleeve and Breeze, who had been sitting very close in case any of it fell.

On the fourth go, most of it went in the beak.

"Good," Tamsin said. "Now write it down."

"I didn’t measure it."

"Then that’s your next thing."

Elsa wrote MEASURE FIRST and underlined it twice.

Jin fetched a cloth for the bench while Elsa tried again. This time she measured the portion first and worked slowly enough to keep most of it off the dummy’s chin.

"You can write that one down," she told Tamsin, pleased with herself.

Tamsin handed her the pen. Elsa took it, smiling, and made the entry herself.

Then Elsa stopped with the tongs in her hand.

"How often? In the first days?"

"Frequent feeds at first," Tamsin said. "We’ll set the schedule from its condition after hatching, and adjust it as it develops."

Elsa looked at the clock. "I’ve got school. I can come before and after, but I can’t do the nights."

"We cover those," Pike said. "The chick will stay here during that early period. Your visits need to fit your lessons too."

"Will it mind? If somebody else keeps feeding it?"

"It’ll have several people caring for it. You can still spend regular time with it."