Wheeling Gull Isle The saltwater room.

When at last Luli's tiny body permitted the development of a new sense, she did not take any notice. It happened through the night when a growl of hunger in her belly forced her to wake, and only one of her denim blue eyes had cracked open. Enveloped in warm darkness, the dappled infant drank her fill of mother's milk and slumbered once more.

Hours later, when fresh daylight flooded the mouth of Huā's whelping burrow, the desire to feed roused the seadragon once again. This time, the seal of both stormy eyes had broken, and Luli blinked awkwardly as she shifted to rummage with her snout among her mother's belly furs in search of a teat.