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branches on a cushion of air. But she was only human, and the only way down from these houses was to climb.
    She got onto her hands and knees and crawled backward to the edge of the platform. The hardest part was pushing her legs out into thin air. You couldn’t see the ground so far below. One slip and that was the end of her.
    She dangled by the waist and kicked with her legs until her foot hit the tree trunk under the platform. She pawed the bark with her foot until she found the first foothold. Then she lowered the rest of her body over the side. The rest was easy—or at least easier. It took her over an hour to climb down that enormous tree. She jumped down to the ground an hour later with sweat running down her forehead.
    Nothing but giant tree trunks surrounded her on all sides. The forest creatures scurried and sailed from branch to branch, but she had no way to hunt them. The Avitras didn’t kill animals, so no one else in the village would have any way to hunt them, either. They would shun her if they knew she even thought of hunting them.
    She started walking. She had to find something to feed Menlo. She couldn’t go back to Aquilla’s house empty-handed. Her frustration was nothing compared to what he was going through. For all she knew, Aquilla was there breaking his bones right now.
    She shook that idea out of her head. She had to concentrate. Fresh meat was out of the question. The only fruit in the forest grew at the very tops of the trees around the village. That wouldn’t keep Menlo going for long. She had to find something—but what?
    She sat down to rest on the bank of a stream. She splashed water on her face, but the cold didn’t solve her problem. She cradled her head in her hand in despair. All her noble ideas came down to this. As much as she wanted to help Menlo, she couldn’t do the first thing. She was helpless.
    While she sat there feeling sorry for herself, a line of bubbles rose out of the water from the muddy depths. She stared at it. Then she almost burst out laughing. It was so simple, yet so perfect. She jumped up and splashed through the water.
    She went down on her knees in the mud and thrust her arm up to the shoulder into the water. She burrowed into the mud with her hand, down to the bottom where those bubbles came from.
    All at once, her hand struck something hard, and her heart soared. Something sharp bit into her finger, and she gritted her teeth, but she only burrowed further into the stream bed where the skidhopper made its nest.
    The sharp beak bit and pecked, but she didn’t quit until she found what she was hunting for. She brought three eggs to the surface and transferred them to her other hand before diving for more. She didn’t stop until she retrieved all ten eggs.
    The wind chilled her saturated clothing on the way back to the village, but she was too elated to care. She made a pouch for the eggs by tying the ends of her shirt together so she could scale the tree with both hands. They bumped against her back as she climbed, and she smiled to herself. The wind thrashed through the canopy when she hauled herself onto the platform, and she shivered. Now she had another problem—delivering the eggs to Menlo without getting caught.
    A lamp burned in the window in anticipation of evening. Penelope Ann would be preparing the evening meal for Aquilla. How could Anna get into the store room without being seen? Just then, Penelope Ann came out of the house and caught sight of Anna. She smiled and waved, but she was too far away to notice Anna’s dripping wet clothes. Anna held down her excitement and waved back.
    Penelope Ann set off over another bridge to another platform on the other side, on her way to the neighboring house. She left her own house, with its golden square of light beaming through the window. Penelope Ann would never leave if Aquilla was home. The coast was clear.

Chapter 6
    Anna cupped her bundle of eggs with one hand to steady them as she hurried over