25 THE EGG

CHAPTER 25 THE EGG As Roz stood in the rain, staring down at those poor, lifeless geese, her sensitive ears detected a faint peeping sound coming from somewhere nearby. She followed the peeps over to a clump of wet leaves on the ground. And when she peeled back the leaves, she discovered a single perfect goose egg sunk in the mud. "Mama! Mama!" peeped a tiny, muffled voice from within the egg. The robot gently cradled the fragile thing in her hand. Without a family, the unhatched gosling inside would surely die. Roz knew that some animals had to die for others to live. That was how the wilderness worked. But would she allow her accident to cause the death of yet another gosling? After a moment, the robot started to walk. Carefully holding the egg, she moved through the forest and away from that sad scene. But she didn't get far

before Fink burst out from the bushes.

"What happened?" The fox panted. "The whole forest was shaking!" "There was an accident," said the robot. "I was climbing those cliffs when the rocks started to fall." "You should be more careful," said Fink as he checked out the robot's new scrapes and dents. "I'll need your help if I ever have more porcupine trouble!" "I will be more careful." "What do you have there?" said Fink, looking up at Roz's hands. "A goose egg." "Oh! I love eggs! Can I eat it?" "No." "Please?" "No." "Why do you want it?" The fox scowled. "I thought you didn't eat food." "You may not have this egg, Fink." The fox sighed. He scratched his chin. And then he started sniffing the breeze. His nose had found the scent of the dead geese. "You can keep your egg!" he said as he trotted toward the cliffs. "I smell something better!"

The robot walked on through the misty forest for a long time, until she was standing beneath a sprawling oak tree. Roz placed the egg on a pad of moss. Then she snatched grass and twigs from the ground and delicately wove them together to make a little nest. She placed the egg inside the nest, placed the nest on her flat shoulder, and climbed up into the branches.