Twenty One

"If you said what I think you just said," Ember said, "then we're close. We're very very close."
"I don't want to leave," Edeline answered. "If I could just sleep standing up then I would. I'd sleep where I'm standing right now."
"You have to look around," Ember told her, and gave her a nudge with her hand. "Look, I'm letting go too."
Ember pushed herself away from the slab, although every nerve in her body seemed to want to return, like a paper clip drawn to a magnet. Edeline also struggled to release herself from the grip of the rock.
"Look around where?" she said sleepily. The heat had been numbing her senses, making her drowsy. She shook her head quickly, trying to awaken.
"Anywhere," Ember replied, taking a step away from the cliff. "But stay on the path," she advised. "We're supposed to stay on the path, but not go, stay right here, but keep on the path and just look around."
"You're babbling," Edeline told her, but did as Ember instructed. The path was lined with the usual trees - always trees everywhere, Edeline thought, and the ground was the usual duff.
"Nothing to see here," Edeline reported. "Branches and leaves and twigs and stones, dust and dirt and oh, what is that?"
"What's what?" Ember asked, turning toward her.
"Over here," Edeline pointed at something that lay snugged on a branch near the trunk of a small sapling pine.
"Looks like a nest," Ember said. "Can you reach it from here, from the path?"
"I don't think so."
Edeline took a step toward it and reached.
"I could get it if I stepped off the path," she told Ember, who again warned her not to do that.
"Well, okay," Edeline said, "then I guess that I won't," and retreated. Just then a very large bird came barreling down from the sky shrieking loud cries as it came. Edeline jumped out of the way as the raven rushed to the little pine tree and danced on the branch, seeming to curse out the women, guarding its brood. The crow flapped its wings and showed them its claws.
"All right," Edeline said, holding up her palms in a show of good faith. "I'm backing away now, okay? You don't have to come scratching my eyes out."
"He's talking to you!" Ember scolded. "Don't you know anything?"
"What?" Edeline turned toward the girl. "What is this? Make fun of the new girl day? Sheesh! It's just a bird protecting its nest."
"Oh really," Ember sighed, "and I suppose birds always give you their eggs."
Edeline turned back to the tree as the raven held out its claw once again. Sure enough, it was clutching a very small egg and hopping up and down the branch toward her. Edeline walked up to the edge of the path once again and stretched out her arm, holding her palm up with her fingers extended. The crow made its way where she was and then, to Edeline's immense disbelief, the bird dropped the egg right into her hand. It hopped back, have another great cry, and then took up into the sky.
Edeline cradled the egg carefully and brought it up to her eyes. The growing darkness made it difficult to see but she could tell it was light blue and speckled. Edeline nearly stopped breathing as too many thoughts rushed into her head. She felt such a surging of love for the thing unlike any sensation she'd ever experienced. This egg was her hope. It was her strength. The egg held the promise of endless fulfillment. She would tend for it, nurture it, care for it, mother it. All of her life from them on would be meant for it. All of these thoughts flashed in her in an instant. In the next instant, everything changed.
Figures dropped out of the trees from all sides. Voices were yelling, Edeline was jostled, knocked to the ground. She tried to hold on to the egg but then she was slapped in the face by a hand she couldn't see coming. Then it was gone. They were gone. Everything was just as it had been before the bird came, except that Edeline was lying on the path, her nose was bleeding, her face was scratched, and the egg had disappeared. She wanted to cry. She did cry. Edeline was weeping like never before and pounding the ground with her fists. Ember stood over her, waiting. She too had felt the power of the egg, but also knew Edeline was a Gatherer, the egg was the ball, and the Smackers had known it was coming. She could still hear the chase through the trees until all the Smackers were gone, Who had the egg now was anyone's guess. It would change hands a thousand more times, Ember thought, and then what?
"The goal!" Ember shouted out loud. "We have to get back to Baudry!"