Naellili hunted with a skill that startled him every single time, bringing in rabbit and quail for supper without ever seeming to work hard at it. One afternoon, she showed him how to read a set of tracks he'd walked past a hundred times without noticing, pointing out the difference between a deer moving unhurried and one running scared. And he found himself laughing at how much of his own land he'd never actually learned to see. In the evenings, they sat by the fire and talked for hours. She told him about her people, about the sacred hills where her tribe made their home, about traditions passed down through more generations than either of them could count.
Wyatt listened the way a man listens to something he never expected to find so fascinating. My father believes I should marry soon. Her eyes stayed on the thick scatter of stars overhead one night. There are three warriors from Allied bands who've already asked for my hand. something twisted sharp and unwelcome in Wyatt's chest, though he had no earthly right to feel it. What is it you want?
She sat quiet a long moment. I want to choose my own road. My father raised me to think for myself, to stand strong on my own terms. But some traditions don't bend easily, even for a chief's daughter. Understand that well enough?
Her dark eyes turned on him. And you, Wyatt? Why does a man like you live so alone? You could have a wife. Children never found the right person.
He admitted it plainly. And after what happened to my mother, I suppose I was afraid of building something that could just as easily get torn apart again. Living in fear isn't living. It's only existing. The words landed somewhere deep and true. and Wyatt sat with them a long while after she'd gone quiet, turning them over slow in his mind like a stone in his palm.
On the fourth morning they agreed it was time. Wyatt packed provisions enough for two days travel toward Apache land, and Duke well rested now, stood ready at the rail. "You sure about this? " Naellili asked as they mounted up. "My father can be a formidable man to stand before promise to bring you home safe. mean to keep that promise. The ride carried them through redwalled canyons and stands of tall pine, the air turning cooler and thinner the higher they climbed.
And Naellili guided the way with the easy certainty of someone reading a map only she could see, naming every bend and outcrop as home ground, pointing out a spring hidden behind a fall of rock, a ridge where her father had once taken her hunting as a girl. They camped one more night beneath open sky, and Wyatt noticed she'd gone quieter than usual, thoughtful in a way that worried him some. Something wrong. Glad to be going home, her words came slow, but sad, too. And not seeing you after this, his heart lurched hard in his chest.
He'd been circling near enough the same thought all day without finding the nerve to say it out loud. Fire light caught in her eyes when she looked over at him. These days with you were different, Wyatt. You treated me as an equal, not a prize, not property. You respected me.
You made that easy. Something sad lingered behind her smile. Wish our worlds weren't so far apart. He wanted badly to say something that might close that distance. But the right words never came, and they simply sat together in the quiet two people from different worlds who'd found something worth keeping and had no idea yet how to hold on to it.