6

On the high branch of a tree, the Lancaster uniform flutters, accompanied by field boots dangling from the braids. At the other end of the oasis, the princess's clothes were also thrown out. Waiting for the garments to dry, both would be as they came into the world, so Nadjela decreed a temporary separation that would end when she goes and points it out to him.

"What's the protocol for? I won't see anything to scare me" Chester says with his chin up and his hands on his hips. His smile fades as Nadjela turns to leave at an angry pace.

Hours have passed, and she still doesn't understand the source of his annoyance. Squatting in the bushes to urinate, she brings her fingers to her lips and slowly brushes them.

(It didn't count... By heaven and earth, this didn't count)

To avoid overthinking, she repeats the climb up to the branch where her clothes rest, and by touch finds out that they are dry. Already dressed, she slips through the branches with the stealth of a cat, heading in the direction where she knows Chester is. What motivates her to keep silent are the beasts swarming nearby, she convinces herself of them, there are no ulterior motives.

She glimpses the Lancaster's naked torso, his abdomen marked by exercise and by the traces of cuts and projectiles. One arm tattooed with the face of a beast, another in clean. Also the pants on where they go. Nadjela lets out a sigh that, she was almost certain, was not one of disappointment. She lands and travels the rest of the way walking.

Chester was so focused on his work that he didn't even hear her coming. He dips a long branch into the water, pokes at it, lifts it up, and dips it in again. He tries until he catches the dark visor, hooked on the ''V'' of the tip. He retracts, sets the branch aside, and puts on the glasses.

"They work! Good" He lets out a breath of relief. Almost as if he has eyes in the back of his head, he turns to where Nadjela is waiting. "And the signal?"

The princess takes a few seconds to answer.

"You didn't hear, so I came"

"Did you really...?" Chester is skeptical for a few seconds, but then smiles. "I'm more absent-minded than a child"

With the night the sky pales. The opaque surface of the earth's space is once again weathered by the lights of the cosmos and artifice. On the dinner bonfire rests the incomplete body of a cockroach as big as a pit bull. Nadjela sits nearby, in her coppery hands she holds a piece of the cockroach's abdomen, half-eaten inside. It tasted sweet to her, a huge dessert that she left halfway through to avoid overindulging her sweet tooth. With the back of her hand she wipes the white crumbs from her mouth. She turns her attention to Chester and asks him if he's sleepy.

"Sometimes. I have regular naps, when I rest after eating, or even when I walk"

The princess bats her eyes, suspecting that she is being played for a fool. She knows that staying awake often is harmful to the body, mind and spirit. It is not for nothing that the venerable elders recommend juices and substances for good sleep. Chester's face lacks dark circles under his eyes and any sign of tiredness. The princess still insists that he forgets about the vigilance so that they sleep upstairs among the branches.

"Together?" he asks.

Nadjela is startled.

"Not together!" she replies in alarm. Chester looks at her jokingly. Nadjela snorts and shakes her head. He resumes his words, but with a brusque tone. "The hunters in my tribe use that trick to keep themselves safe from predators. If any creature seeks to climb up, you wake up on the spot because the wood creaks or bends....."

(I wish a beast would make you its lunch now, but then I would become its dinner, so it's up to you to endure you)

They look for two trees that are close by, and locate a thick enough branch of each specimen that can comfortably support their legs as they lay their backs against the trunk. The man in the sky sleeps in the shade, and Nadjela wears that comfortable cocoon or sack he lent her. Nadjela feels remorse for the comfort she takes from the swordsman, but avoids complaining because she doesn't want to give it up either.

Four and a half meters above the ground, Nadjela and Chester have a good view of the celestial vault. The princess takes the opportunity to continue telling Chester about her life and her people, about how those colored dots are eggs that, when they hatch and disappear from the firmament, signify a new life, human or animal, that is born on earth.

"As long as there is light there will be hope, because life will prevail," Nadjela says.

Chester also speaks of where he comes from, but the picture he draws is inconsistent with what was preached in La Cuna. He describes the points of white light as giant spheres of gas in constant burning, and the rest of the glows as the flickering of metal sentinels called ''Satellites''. Floating watchers that find out what happens on the planet, and in turn give away a wonderful ether called ''Internet'', with which it is possible to obtain infinite information, communicate with anyone at any time, and a million other activities. Paradoxically, Chester complains that the all-powerful ether does not reach that area. Nadjela, after meditating on it, concludes that those satellites Chester talks about are not as omnipotent as he paints, or that he is actually wrong and demands too much from some eggs in the sky. If this thing called the internet existed, wouldn't La Cuna be aware of it by now? No doubt that being in constant communication and knowing everything would make their lives easier. The burning gas spheres thing, no matter how many times he turns it around, he can't make sense of it, not even in a way. He doubts that the swordsman is a liar, but perhaps the world from the clouds is far from how it looks from the ground.

Beyond personal appreciations, Nadjela is attentive to the swordsman, because much of what he tells takes her imagination to paths never explored. Transports that ply the clouds and beyond; Men and women with metal entrails; A life expectancy that easily exceeds 100 years; The near eradication of all disease and the continual creation of new diseases; Houses that stand alone and are smarter than their occupants; A rectangle that toasts bread and a circle on the ceiling that shrieks when the bread is over-toasted. Chester also talks about giants, calling them ''Armor,'' and assuring that they come in all sizes and shapes, being, beyond infantry and ships, the standard of every battle.

Chester confirms that even flying high there are conflicts. Something of greater gravity, a concept that Nadjela grasps by explanation and warning from the elders, but never by personal experience: War. Hostility that goes beyond a skirmish between a handful of men. Hostility capable of wiping out entire tribes. Chester tells of an orbiting principality and an alliance of nations, which have been in contention for world dominion for dozens of turns.

"Divine War. A war to put an end, forever, to all strife" the man mutters. "That you know nothing of what I speak makes you so fortunate"

Nadjela does not answer. She thinks of the nights and their lights, and of what the horizon hides. The routine in La Cuna promises far less than the excesses of life Chester boasts of, but it is also simpler and more peaceful.

(Simple and peaceful sounds like a good thing)

With that thought Nadjela falls asleep, but her dreams evoke giants ascending on wings of fire in a futuristic wonderscape, all set against a violent background.