The Hidden World

Chapter Three

Kendra was seriously regretting agreeing to Brendan's plan. Now the egg was coming closer and closer to hatching and Kendra still had no idea what it was or what they were going to do with whatever it was when it hatched.

Brendan thought differently, though. If it's your own idea, you can't help but like it. He thought it was a great plan. He did hide some anxious feelings of his own though, he didn't want his sister rubbing it in if she found out he was nervous. She'd get that I told you so look on her face.

The egg was warm to the touch and had started smoldering slightly. It was glowing orange more than ever. It looked like a red fish and a blue sea compared to the rest of the bird eggs in books and stood out like a sore thumb among the canopy of green. The leaf had kept it hidden for about a week, then had erupted into flames and burnt. They couldn't find another sustainable leaf that would cover it enough so they covered it up with birch bark every night. Which failed because the birch bark burnt too. Kendra had said after the first failed birch back incident she'd recalled reading a Mr. Survival book that had said birch bark was a good fire starter. Then she'd went off into a lecture about the elements of wood but Brendan wasn't really paying attention because the egg had ignited a patch of dry grass and he had to stomp it out.

They had to dig up a circle of dirt all around the egg to stop it from hurting the forest. It smoked through the day but no forest rangers got involved which probably was a good thing. The twins didn't know what a ranger would have to say about a gigantic orange egg in the middle of a clearing.

On a warm Friday afternoon about a two weeks later both twins rushed out into the backyard and ran down the path to the clearing. The egg had been red hot that morning and Brendan and Kendra took this as a sign of it's birthday coming. The egg was, sure enough, bright orange. Brendan leaned forward and placed a finger on the shell, then jumped back.

"It's white hot!" he exclaimed, sucking his finger. Kendra wasn't anxious to come any closer than she had to but she reached out with a end of a stick and prodded the egg gently. Instantly, the stick's tip turned to ash and she withdrew quickly. Both looked at the egg, marveling that it could grow so hot as to induce a chemical change on a stick. The egg wobbled on it's side, cutting dangerously close to the grass on one side of it's dirt circle.

"What now?" Kendra asked in a whisper. Brendan chewed his lip.

"Well it's obviously going to hatch soon, right?"

A sudden tidal wave of panic rose in Kendra's stomach. She hadn't thought this would come so soon, she thought it would never come, in fact. She had wished and hoped it wouldn't, but as all things in the world have to be faced, she was going to have to live with the fact that it had. Now she just had to do something about it. She knew she couldn't hide from it forever so she took a deep breath and turned to her brother.

"Brendan, listen to me. I know I said we shouldn't do this but we are more unprepared as to what is happening than we thought. We. Should. Get. Help."

To her surprise, he actually nodded.

"You said," he told her, "should. You said we should get help. That's not the same thing as will or need."

"Ok," she conceded. "We need help. You happy?"

"No I'm not happy," he said, his voice rising. "You said you agreed with me last week! You said parents do get in the way of things that you might want to do on your own!"
"But what if I don't want to? What if parents should get in the way sometimes?" Kendra challenged, her voice rising to match his.

"So you're saying you'd let a grown-up take over a situation you are perfectly capable of handling yourself?"

"But we aren't!"