I haven't thought much about it. Think about it now. I stared into the fire for a while. I suppose I'd buy more land, build the ranch up, maybe hire a few hands so I wouldn't have to do everything myself. I gave a small shrug.
Then maybe I'd try to live a quiet life. And me? I looked up. What do you mean? What happens to me when all of this is over?
I studied her across the fire. That'll be your choice. I don't understand. I mean, you'll be free. You can go wherever you want.
Build whatever life you want. Nobody gets to decide that for you anymore. And what if I don't want to leave? My heart kicked hard inside my chest. You don't?
Seiya kept her eyes on mine. I don't know yet. She glanced toward the dark desert beyond the fire. But for the first time in my life, I don't feel like running. Her voice softened.
I feel like staying. I couldn't find the right words, so I said nothing. Neither did she. We simply looked at one another beneath that endless sky while the desert stretched black and silent around us. And somewhere inside that silence, something beautiful began to take root.
Something none neither of us had expected to find. Hope. On the third day, we reached three rocks. The place looked exactly the way it had on the map. Three enormous stone formations, each nearly the size of a house, rose from the open ground and formed a rough triangle across the plane.
This is it, Seiya said as she climbed down from her horse. I dismounted and stared up at the towering rocks. So what now? I need you to look at the map again. We left the horses behind and found a shaded place between two of the formations.
Seiya removed her blouse and turned her back to me. What I saw stopped my breath. The map had changed. Before the markings had seemed still and orderly. Now in the center of her back a new symbol had appeared.
An arrow and it was pointing toward one specific place. "Do you see it?" she asked. "It's showing us the way." I carefully ran my fingertips across the lines. They felt warm beneath my touch. almost too warm, as if something beneath her skin were alive and beating. The arrow points there, I said, indicating one of the huge rocks.
Then that's where we go. We walked toward the formation. Once we drew close, I noticed something most men would have passed without ever seeing. A narrow crack almost invisible between the stones. There, I said.
Seiya stepped forward and reached into the opening. Her fingers closed around something. She pulled out a small object. It was an old leather pouch dried hard by time and cracked along the edges. She opened it carefully.
Inside was a yellowed sheet of paper covered in writing. Old Spanish. Can you read it? She asked. I took the page from her and read the words aloud.