Lin jogged after a bouncy Ivy toward the fire pit. When Ivy's path began to stray, she followed the younger girl with her eyes. Upon seeing Ivy start chasing a bird, she called out, "Hey Ivy! Remember where we're supposed to be?  There'll be plenty of birds at the fire pit. C'mon girl!"  Now suddenly she was the one giving orders.  The hypocrisy of that struck her.  Was it really that easy to turn into Kyle, bossing somebody else around?  

No, she shook her tangled blonde mane vigorously.  It was all about delivery.  Ivy didn't need to have a Gestapo escort; she needed to be around open-minded people with a hankering for fun.  Lin stopped in her tracks and closed her eyes, concentrating on the flap of the robin's wings as Ivy chased it.  The older girl traced that flapping pattern back, back....there.  The robin's nest was only three trees over in a sizeable willow. [i]Yep,[/i] she reflected mildly as she started out towards her objective.  [i]The past was definitely simpler than the stupid misty future.[/i] 

Lin jogged over to the tree, then scrambled about a  quarter of the way up with adroit footwork.  The sharp white willow bark chafed her bare knees as she held on with three limbs, extending her right arm as far up as she could ahead of her. She didn't want to risk going too high up, so when she finally spotted the nest after a few seconds she wasn't high enough to see anything inside.  Instead, she felt around with her hand and came down with a small-ish, speckled blue robin egg.  She descended the tree carefully, very aware of Ivy's progress bird-chasing as well as the precious cargo.  

Jogging over behind Ivy, not even winded, Lin said, "Hey Ivy, look what I found!  You don't need to chase that bird! I used my power to find its nest! Want to keep this little guy warm while we head down to the fire pit?  Just be careful not to get him too hot or he'll melt!"  She extended her hand toward the younger girl, the beautiful egg resting in the center of her palm.  No matter what Ivy decided, they needed to get a move on so they wouldn't be late.