10

The next afternoon they run out of water ahead of schedule, mainly because Nadjela insisted on sharing with the new team member. Chester questions why so much cronyism with the emergency food, when Nadjela never showed mercy for the many other bugs and monsters they scarfed down.

"Is it because she's small and adorable?" he suspects.

Nadjela answers "No!" and turns her head away to hide the blush of being so transparent.

With the little pig Nadjela can have conversations that would be impossible with Chester. Or rather one-sided talks that, while he carries her in his arms, don't leave him with the feeling of talking to a wall.

"There's something wrong with him" Her eyes shift from the animal to Chester's back, who leads the way into the unknown about ten paces ahead. "He looks like a man, and sometimes behaves like one. But he also becomes a child, or someone directly incomprehensible. Is he savior or demon? Wise or foolish?"

The piglet raises its little snout and snores. Nadjela does not know how to interpret those porcine eyes, but the slight reactions are enough to encourage those "chats".

"How fresh the river banks are when the river runs. I would like to be there forever. You'd like that too. But what about him? I'd have to watch him stay away from the deep end"

She moves forward, sweating from the heat and the hammering of guilt.

"Did he notice? I'm sure he didn't. But what if he did? I'm a snake with legs, and terrible lips"

And with the ailment of homesickness.

"I miss daddy. I miss Majani. I miss Gaita and Suri. I even miss Zell... I never thought I'd say that"

But always with a mission that drives her.

"My people need help. If La Cuna continues to decline, it will be the end. We need a hero to lead us to a paradise like no other, where food and water are plentiful, the grass is green, and the invisible, skin-devouring death is kept far away"

She also tells the little pig about a mystery that haunts her like a shadow.

"That voice, the one Chester heard several nights ago, could it be mother...? She would certainly want me to be looked after. Even after what happened, I know she loved me. I know she still loves me"

She thanks the sow for being such a good listener, and the sow nods back in another display of clear intelligence.

They get a place to spend the night. A ledge in the ground, curved downward in such a way that it forms a shelter five feet high and four feet deep. It took them a while to remove the earth that flooded the ledge. Nadjela lacked a sleeping bag due to the hurried escape of the previous morning.

"More was lost in Troy" Chester says.

"Troy?"

"Ancient history. I'll tell you about it later. Or better yet, I'll show you the movie. It's old, but it's watchable"

"You mention those mysterious movies again"

Chester goes out to hunt and collect materials to build a bed, leaving Nadjela with the visor. When the swordsman put it on, the princess was blinded as if it were a blindfold. But a couple of words from Chester is enough for the black to become transparent, and then to occupy before her eyes the handsome profile of Brad Pitt.

(If this isn't magic, I don't know what is!)

Chester returns to the ledge with the scab of a dead tree on one arm, and a decapitated tarantula on the other. Bending down and stepping inside, Chester watches as tears run under the glasses and down the girl's cheeks. He helps her remove the device and asks what's wrong.

"Achilles did not deserve such a fate" she answers, sniffling.

They wait for her to get over the crying before setting up the bonfire.

The piglet shows off her ability to eat anything, and enjoys the spider with them. Chester interrupts the munching when he chokes. Nadjela slaps him hard on the back, leading him to spit out a thick hairball.

Dinner over, Chester uses the tree bark, accompanied by red leaves and blades of parched grass, so that Nadjela does not spend the night on a rock. Lying there, hugging the sow, surrounded by strange shadows, and the howling of beasts in the distance, the princess thinks how strange it is to be in such a situation and not fear for her life. Accompanied by a stranger and an animal, with her clothes and body weather-beaten by dust, satiating her hunger with vermin she would never have dared to eat before. She realizes in disbelief that she is actually enjoying the journey.

(Am I going crazy?)

She doesn't let her thoughts stress her out. Eager to engage in conversation, she pours out all the collected doubts. She asks Chester if it is possible to bring all those wonders he talks about to La Cuna, and solve her people's problems.

"Need money"

"And what is money? Where do I get it?"

"Two centuries ago it was represented by paper. Now it is invisible, and moves through computers or subcutaneous chips. Also in metal... Metal never goes out of fashion"

"Oh, I don't have those"

"Maybe it's for the best. I've known good guys who were driven crazy by money. Or who sold their dreams or their time for a small fraction every Friday, or every two weeks. There are others who feel they are the kings of the world because they have more capital than others, as if their blood would not run the same when you slit their throats"

A few words are enough to cover the concept of money with a terrible fog capable of losing people. Nadjela shrinks with grief, but Chester's next statement enlightens her again.

"I'll see about getting you what they need. I have those nests of vultures known as banks well tamed" he says indifferently, as if such a large favor meant little.

Nadjela, unable to contain her gratitude, goes and wraps him in her thin, coppery arms. Chester receives the embrace with a confused grimace that turns into a faint smile. It takes Nadjela a few seconds to notice his outburst, and she pulls her body away as if Chester's hand, now passing over her upper back, burns her. She apologizes, and evading the swordsman's gaze asks another question.

"And what do you want in return?"

"Your smile is enough for me"

Nadjela returns quickly, her face red, her eyes wild, and her lips parted wordlessly.

Chester throws more twigs on the fire, and adds without looking at her.

"The girls are supposed to be giggly. To have one following me with such a long face worries me"

The girl's blush goes away like a mirage. She turns her back on him, and decides she will never speak to him again. Five minutes later she forgets the promise, and turns her body in the direction of the ledge entrance. Chester is still squatting there, alone, near the fading fire. Nadjela places the sleeping piglet in the corner, and crawls over to him to sit beside him. She brings up the subject of the voice and light that woke him.

"A mother looking to care for her daughter. Could she be yours?" Chester says with his eyes anchored on the campfire.

"It could be" says Nadjela unable to mask the longing. "Mom was exiled when I was little. She may have sent those messages from her current home, and somehow you heard her"

"Exiled?"

Nadjela sighs.

"She was cursed by heaven..."

That's all she says. Chester realizes it would be inappropriate to inquire.

"Wherever she is, I bet she's still thinking of you, Nadjela"

The princess nods, totally speechless. When she lies down on her uncomfortable bed and hugs the little piggy, she falls asleep with a small smile of hope.