The Cloudstep Rungs
Nell
“A palm-sized girl, about 12cm tall, with a round hat, a striped shawl, and seed dust on her cheeks.”
Nell is a tiny bird-keeper who fits in a child's palm and talks to the nesting birds as if they are nosy neighbors. She is cheerful and bold, but she hates feeling left out of a plan and can blurt things before she means to.
2 stories feature Nell
Where you've met them
The Rungs Start Sliding
A whole section of the Cloudstep Rungs begins slipping downward one rung at a time, so anyone crossing the bridge must move quickly before the gap opens wider behind them. The only safe route to the next platform is shrinking while people are still on it.
Mira and the Wobbly Tomato Rungs
Mira spots the first sign that the harvest line on the Cloudstep Rungs has gone wrong, but the trouble is bigger than one tipping basket. As she rushes to help, she has to decide whether to call Tavi, climb higher, or follow the birds who seem to know what happened first.