Kaia Stormweaver's Arc

Chapter 3 of 6

Morning light woke Kaia in her nest of moss. Stan sat by her feet, washing his paws in a puddle. He had stayed. She sat up and remembered the bird. The jeweled hummingbird had led her here, deep into the marsh, and she still wanted it near her home. But wanting was not enough. The bird would not come to empty hands. She crawled out and looked around. Mud, reeds, and tangled roots stretched in every direction. Then she saw it, a few steps off, and stopped breathing. Flowers climbed a leaning trunk in a bright spray of red, purple, and yellow. And the hummingbird was there, dipping its long beak into one bloom after another. It flashed green and blue in the light. Kaia understood at once. The bird did not want her. It wanted the flowers. If she could not bring the bird home, maybe she could bring what it loved. She opened her palm leaf bag. She still carried the flowers she had cut in the cove, but those were dying now, limp and brown at the edges. Dead flowers would not hold a living bird. She needed the vine itself, roots and all. She knelt at the base of the trunk. The vine gripped the bark with fine hairs. She dug her fingers into the mud and worked them under the woody stem. Stan padded over and sniffed the roots. Then he began digging beside her, small paws throwing mud fast. "You're helping," she said, surprised. "Looks like food to me," Stan said. "Guess it's not." Together they loosened the vine. The hummingbird hung above them, unbothered, feeding. Kaia pulled slow and steady so the roots would not snap. A long section came free with a wet tearing sound. She coiled it careful into her bag, blooms and all, then packed damp moss around the roots to keep them alive. The hummingbird lifted away and hovered, watching the flowers vanish into her bag. It followed the bag a few feet, then a few more. Kaia smiled. The plan was working. Where the flowers went, the bird would go. She stood and shouldered the bag. Now she had what she came for. But the good feeling died fast. She turned in a slow circle. Reeds walled her in on all sides. She could not see the cove, or the reef, or any water she recognized. Chasing the vine had pulled her attention from everything else. "Stan," she said. "Which way is out?" Stan looked up at her. He scratched behind one ear. "Not sure," he said. "But I know it's not that way." He nodded toward the deepest reeds. Kaia held her bag close. The hummingbird still hovered near, drawn by the flowers inside. She had won the bird. Now she was lost in the marsh with a raccoon, a coil of roots, and no path home.