Kalonia warding station six was half a kilometre from the western rim of the Kalonia plateau. Crinomu explained to Asanka the purpose of these particular kinds of stations. 

"Warding stations contain an array of passive sensors which scan the sky for large flying objects and they transmit a focused beam of ultra sound at any large target. It's not as powerful as the somatic shields which protect the area round the dome but even so the warding stations discourage any wandering alegoyle from flying over the plateau. They keep it safe for us (and now for the horses), so we can all roam freely here. The stations don't even need to operate for long or use much power. The alegoyle are quite intelligent and they quickly learn to avoid flying near them."

Beyond the limits of warding station six, though, was a poorly protected hinterland sloping down to cliff tops above the Kalonia gorge and in caves inside those cliffs a small colony of alegoyle had chosen to nest. The stories of how his namesake had been killed by an alegoyle naturally fascinated the boy and so these alegoyle were both interesting and scary to the young Asanka. He spent long hours watching them through a spy glass from behind a rise in the downs near to the warding station and the countless warnings from his mother of the dangers of approaching the nest only increased his curiosity. Eventually Asanka felt he knew enough about the colony hunting patterns to get a little closer. There were only four adults and he could count them out. Whilst they were all flying far over the western downs of Illunon he would explore the forbidden zone at the tip of the Kalonia plateau. Only a few tens of metres from the edge of the cliff Asanka came upon a strange hole in the chalk land. It might have been the sink hole for a stream that had long since dried up or drained down a different course. The bottom looked flat and easy to climb into and there was a tunnel at one end. The boy decided to investigate further.

The natural passageway at the bottom of the hole narrowed and twisted until it became rather awkward for Asanka to push through but already he could see a glimmer of light ahead which suggested that it was not very long. In a few moments the boy broke though onto a rock ledge over looking the gorge. He had reached a kind of linear cave following a fault line in the rock and there in front of him was an assemblage of twigs and grasses cradling three giant eggs. A faint cry disturbed him as he was studying the nest and he looked up. In the blue sky over the far downs an alegoyle was calling on its way back to the roost! Asanka wasted no time on further introspection. Swiftly grabbing one of the eggs as a trophy he scrambled back down the tunnel.

Asanka struggled through the underground tunnel and scrambled onto the top of the plateau managing with difficulty to keep the egg safe and unbroken. It was not particularly heavy and stronger than it looked but it was an awkward size and shape to carry. A long, steep grassy slope now led back up to the safety of warding station six. The boy was more than half way there when he realised that the returning alegoyle had detected his presence. He began to run, clutching his trophy to his chest, his heart and legs pounding and his breathing coming fast and loud. In the sky behind him an angry alegoyle glided on silent wings. 

The chase felt as though it lasted forever but fortunately the boy had a long start because his own progress up the hill was agonisingly slow and the alegoyle was fast. At last though, the defences of the warding station came in sight and only just in time. For many long and anxious seconds as he passed the first of the rim sensors Asanka wondered if the station had done its job or if this time the alegoyle would ignore the ultrasound. Perhaps the theft of the egg had raised it to a level of ire which would drive it on through the station's defences until it grasped him in those killing talons? He crouched panting heavily behind the main generator dome, watching the great sky beast slow, cry out and beat its wings to rise above the painful noise. It seemed to hesitate at the top of the arc and he knew it had a clear sight of him. Then with a loud call of frustration if wheeled around and back to the roost.

When he made it back to the dome, Asanka concealed the egg in a cupboard at the back of his bedroom. He knew he'd be in trouble if his mother or any of the seers found out about his little escapade on the cliff tops, yet he was reluctant to give up his hard won trophy. What he hadn't anticipated though, was that in the warmth of a nearby air vent the egg would hatch. The first thing he knew about it was the high plaintive cry; a sort of "soo, soo, soo, sook" sound. He opened the cupboard door to find the alegoyle chick looking up at him and clearly pleading for food. Unsure what to do, the boy found a bowl and made up a grain mash with warm water. It wasn't the kind of thing an alegoyle chick should be eating he was sure but it was the best he could do.

The secret of the alegoyle chick could not be kept for long and when she found out Orietta was predictably furious with her son. Whilst Crinomu backed her up, he was somewhat more sympathetic and acted as a peacemaker so that gradually her anger cooled. 

"The chick has imprinted on you," he told Asanka when they were alone later. "It thinks you are its mother because you were the first living creature it saw when it hatched from the egg and because you fed it." 

"What can we do now?" the subdued boy asked. "I don't want to kill it!" 

Crinomu thought for a long moment but then he smiled. "There is one possibility but no one has ever tried it before with an alegoyle. In ancient times, royalty used to train hunting birds to work with them. An alegoyle chick is something like one of those hawks. Perhaps the same techniques would work? You could ask Hirrilow if he has any books about it." 

"But even if there was a book and it worked, mom would never let me!" 

"Leave that problem to me!" 

Whatever Crinomu said to Orietta it worked because to Asanka's great surprise she was somehow persuaded that he could keep the chick and try to train it. He called the fledgling alegoyle, "Suak" in a kind of imitation of the burbling satisfied croak it made when it had just been fed. Crinomu helped him construct a tether and a perch and to read the one book they had found concerning the rearing, conditioning and care of hunting birds. 

"To start with, you must teach Suak to fly to your glove and reward him with some meat when he comes to you," Crinomu explained. "The tether will keep him from flying free. Over time you will be able to make the distances between the perch and your arm longer and longer and eventually he will be able to fly without the tether and still come back to you. Then you can begin more advanced training."

"Suak is too small to trigger the automated defences on the plateau," Crinomu said when they felt the alegoyle was ready to fly free, "but I wouldn't take him near those nests where you found his egg. At this age his instinct is to hunt birds, mice and other rodents. When they are young alegoyle behave like traditional birds of prey and it is only as they get older and bigger that they start to hunt larger creatures than any bird could ever do." Asanka learned how to swing a lure, a rope with a tempting parcel of meat at the end which would encourage Suak to swoop and strike. Suak responded well to the training and a bond of trust developed between them. Throughout that summer the threesome were inseparable, Asanka, Suak and Lyr; the boy, the alegoyle and the foal.