The LEVELER King ✔

BOOK 3: CHAPTER 6

Surprisingly, Boon was the first one to hatch, as miserable as ever. He wailed so long that Indel had to take him from Nala and pace back and forth, patting his back.

They'd taken nearly one cycle to form.

With Boon's gray body slender and meek, Indel felt fortunate that he knew how to be gentle thanks to Nala's physically fragile state.

Boon struggled to rub his face against his father's throat.

Indel chuckled. "None of that. We have a crane-mare now, so you won't be needing to be so desperate."

Nala stood. "Should I milk it?"

"No. It's not like a sloth. It'll buck when we get close. One of us has to hold it. We'll wait for Crane before trying."

But Crane didn't hatch. Two more months passed.

Indel feared the worst.

Laying on the hay, Boon's small frame tucked between them, Indel stared at the chrysalis and said, "We'll wait two more days."

Nala lay to rest.

"But if there's only one, you will take him back, won't you?"

"The queen's brood is complete. She'll challenge us soon enough," Indel meant to answer directly but he didn't want to think that burying one child would ever benefit them. It was true, he would have to select between the two in time.

Boon cried often, but with milk and some berries, he'd calm again. Tonight, his temperament was good, which was rare as he would usually whine until he fell asleep nearly tucked under Nala's arm.

"He is so like you," Indel said, genuinely pleased. "I'm glad."

"Yes, but who's Crane like?" Nala asked. "You?"

"Perhaps."

When Boon turned over and tried to bite at his brother's chrysalis, they chuckled. Even Indel thought nothing of it, Boon was not the most veracious of attackers. The worst he'd do was latch onto Nala or Indel's neck when they made the mistake of holding him while he was hungry. He still hadn't opened his eyes in the two months he was born.

To see him play with the chrysalis was cute until he took one bite too many and pierced the shell. It cracked.

"Gava!" Nala cursed. "Gava, gava! Can we close it back?"

Indel watched on with a numbness he'd noticed a month before. It hardly mattered anymore with the time running too long.

Boon's pod had been wet inside upon its hatching, Crane's was bone dry, all the nourishment gone.

They waited and when he didn't stir, Nala whispered, "Can we do something?"

"There's nothing to do for him," Indel said.

As was Boon's silly way, he bit into Crane's shoulders.

"He's latched again." Nala groan.

"This child..." Indel growled as he tried to pry him off.

It came as a cough at first, then a wheeze and then a cry as Crane wailed from the pain.

"Help me get him off!" Indel said. "He's really gotten his teeth in."

Nala had to hold Boon's small jaws open with her hands.

Crane still drew in weak breaths as he curled into Indel's hold. He was big and fat as expected, and Indel laughed.

"You've eaten so much it's made you lazy," he teased.

And there they lay, Indel cradling Crane, Boon once again whining in Nala's arms.