Four

With the rain came more tears, which only served to irritate Ember even more.
"Look," the girl snapped, "you don't know how lucky you are."
"Lucky?" sniffed Edeline. "Lucky?" she repeated, raising her voice and nearly losing her balance. It would have been a long drop to the ground, but at that moment Edeline didn't care. She was on the verge of just letting it all go. Ember read her thoughts in her eyes.
"It wouldn't do you any good," she snorted and shook her head. "You don't even know what you are, do you? Where have you been? Don't they talk about it anymore out there in the world? No, don't answer, because I know they do. You're not the only new blood to come in lately. We get them regular, a steady stream, but most of them at least have a clue. Most of them didn't have it so easy as you."
"What's so easy?" Edeline shouted, and she turned her back on Ember and began to pick her way down the tree. She'd had enough of the little snot and, without even thinking about it, had decided to make her own way. Ember has tempted to let her go, but there was something she'd wanted to ask.
"Wait up," Ember called, but didn't hesitate and dropped in three huge leaps to the ground, where she waited as Edeline slipped and groped and faltered and slid her way to the bottom. By the time she got down there, her outfit was essentially ruined, torn and smudged in a hundred places. She stood up, looked down at herself and shook with rage and frustration.
"Don't worry about that," Ember chided. "You'll be better off without them. We'll make you something like this," gesturing at her own adornment.
"Great, I get to walk around weating a pile of leaves. What's next I wonder?" Edeline lamented.
"Actually, it's not just a pile of leaves," Ember informed her, patting her skirt. "It's rootless ivy. It's a living thing. Waterproof, comfortable, warm, sort of. Warm in its own way, I guess. You'll see."
"Maybe I will and maybe I won't," Edeline sniffed and looked around for an escape route. She wondered if the girl would ever leave her alone.
"I just want to know one thing," Ember asked, sensing again Edeline's intent.
"What was that crow telling you?" she continued.
"The crow?" Edeline had nearly forgotten about it in all the overwhelming confusion. She had to think hard to remember.
"Something about getting a call from someone, I think," she reported. "Oh, and something else about being a gatherer. I guess that was it."
"Oh, so now she's back in the game," Ember snapped. "Deciding who's who and what's what is she now? We'll see about that! Wait. You said 'getting a call'?"
"Or being called, I forget the exact words."
"The Hidden One has called you to order?"
"Yes!" Edeline jumped. "That's it. That's what the crow said. Do you know what it means?"
"She's calling a new blood? That's weird. Oh well, I guess you'll be coming with me," Ember sighed. "The Hidden One is calling me too."
"I give up," Edeline threw up her hands. "It's all nonsense to me."
"Come on," Ember said, let's at least get you settled a bit, get you out of those rags. I'll explain it some more as we go."
"About me being so lucky?"
"Sure, and other things too," Ember told her. She turned, but this time didn't run off, but walked at a pace Edeline could keep up with. The rain fell steadily but not hard as it dripped through the thick foliage around them. At Ember's insistence, Edeline cast off her shoes and found the going more comfortable in bare feet. The paths were worn smooth and kept free of rocks. Ferns grew in abundance beside them. Edeline began to notice the beauty around her a bit as her tendency to burst into tears started waning.
"You said there were others?" she asked.
"Oh yeah, lots of us here," Ember told her, but looking around Edeline could see no one. Ember laughed, and added,
"Most of us stay up in the trees. Oh, there's some who live under the ground, and still others who live in the caves in the hills over that way." She waved her arm about. Edeline couldn't make out any hills. The whole place seemed utterly flat and had since the moment she'd arrived.
"As for you being lucky," Ember went on. "It used to be when they rounded us up they sent us off to be studied. You don't want to know what happened in there. You see, they were trying to figure us out. They knew there had to be something about us, but nobody knows what it is, even now after so many years. A lot of us never came out. Many of us still bear the marks. Those so-called doctors and scientists did everything they could possibly think of and more. Cut us to pieces. No stone unturned, but nobody knows. The same with the worms."
"The worms?" Edeline wasn't sure what Ember was talking about.
"Sure, the worms. Look, over here. It's what reminded me of them."
Ember stopped and stooped down to the ground where a tangle of worms had gathered in the dirt.
"Watch this," Ember said, and plucking a stem from a plant she reached out and touched the pile of worms with the point of a leaf. Instantly, the worms disengaged from each other and flew off into the air. Edeline gasped.
"Worms can't fly!" she stammered, but she was watching them do precisely that. Wiggling their way up they were flying and Ember pointed out their trail as they turned, like a flock of birds, and headed off in a V shaped pattern.
"Everything like that they just stick in here," Ember snickered. "Don't understand it? Cast it away. Pretend like it just didn't happen. Like they pretend that we're not still here. They don't talk about us anymore out there, do they?"
"Not really," Edeline said. "I mean, I knew that immortals used to go somewhere, but it's not supposed to happen anymore. It's supposed to all be in the past."
"That's what I thought," Ember nodded. "It's what they all say, been saying for a while now, whenever a new blood arrives. They're the only ones they've ever heard of, and most of them don't even believe it. Like you."
"I don't," Edeline agreed.
"But you'll see," Ember said. "Give it time. And boy, do you have plenty of that! But now, here we are, it's my home. Come on up."
Ember had stopped by a large redwood tree. The lowest branch seemed to be at least twenty feet off the ground, but notches were cut in the trunk, serving as hand-holds and foot-holds. Edeline had some trouble getting up. She was not used to climbing up trees, but she made it up to the first branch, then wondered where Ember had gone.
"Keep climbing," Ember called down. She was seventy feet up in the tree, sitting back in a hole she had carved out for herself. Edeline worked her way up and by the time she arrived, Ember was already fashioning a dress from a vine that was growing profusely around her.
"You'll need a lot of padding," Ember advised, "unless you want those boobs hanging out."
"No thank you," Edeline said, a little embarrassed.
"It's just a fact," Ember informed her. "You're a good looking woman and you'll stay just like this, like you have. People around here aren't shy. There's some of them gone pretty wild. You'll have to choose what you want to live like. Don't let anyone else tell you how."
Edeline couldn't begin to imagine what her life held in store for her now. As Ember showed her how to wear the contraption (and she had to go down to the ground to change into it, for fear of losing her balance), she wanted to laugh at herself.
"I've turned into some freak Jungle Woman," she thought. "What would my poor husband say?", and thinking of him, the tears returned to her eyes.
"It's no use," she blurted out loud. "Until I figure this out, I'm not going to cry anymore."