Wheeling Gull Isle mouhai

ava was quick, watchful. observant. heda watched the girl's efforts, offering an encouraging word or two.
ava at last pulled not a shell or organism from the tidepool, but a stone, a glittering seawater sort of quartz. heda made as if to wipe some of the muck away, revealing more scintillation. 
"we can't eat this," she told the small girl, "but look what god's showed you. look how pretty it is." the stone reminded her, somehow, of air-bubbles along the perimeter of ice floes. "i think you're meant to keep it, ava."