Chapter One
They climbed the sun-baked boulders, carefully avoiding the spiky succulents and cacti nestled in the crevices. Above them spun the summer-hot sun, aflame in a robin-blue sky. A few white clouds scudded across the sky. The wind was hot and dry. Yet they did not seem to mind, bearing their backpacks.
The Mesan landscape was pure desert, dotted with its distinctive land formations that gave its name. When the Navajo nation came and settled, they were struck by the familiarity of this landscape to the one they had left behind on Old Terra. Of course, some parts of Mesa had been terra-formed to make it more hospitable, more so than the first Alliance planet Mars. For the people of Mesa, the place was sacred land. A home. A sanctuary.
"Almost there," Javen Windwalker wiped his brow and stood on the boulder with a sure-footedness born out of years of running through the desert as a boy. He loved Mesa and drank in the sights, renewing that love. He had just returned from spending a semester at Mesa Academy and he was eager to make the most of the vacation. "Just a few more rocks and we reach the slot canyon."
His companion had her distinctive black-and-gold hair tied in a loose ponytail. This time, it was more black than gold. Her face glistened with a mist of perspiration, beads of water on her upper lip. She was laughing though, licking the perspiration away. She had a plain white shirt one with brown khaki shorts. Sensible walking shoes as the aunts had advised her. No use running bare-foot and encountering the less-than-harmonious critters like scorpions or a particularly defensive bug with a nasty disposition.
Somewhere, she was a princess, the first daughter of the Empress, heir apparent to the Phoenix Throne. Here, she was simply Min Feng or Min, as the aunts had taken to calling her, having adopted her in as one of their own. She had dropped all Courtly airs. Mesa did that to many people who visited it and ended up staying for good.
They continued their careful scramble down this time, entering into a valley of shrub-land filled with small trees and a shallow running stream. As they reached the bottom, the boulders rose up beside them like silent sentinels. Javen took some time to show Min Feng a few plants. Wild mulberry grew here and they were ripe, staining their fingers with a vivid purple. Mesquite pods littered the dry earth, crackling beneath their shoes. They followed the stream; it led to a cavern.
"Mind your head," Javen grinned and ducked in confidently, Min Feng following more cautiously. The cavern was low and damp, with hint of moisture. At first they stooped as they walked, admiring the cave art done all over the rock walls. Hand prints. Figures of cattle and antelope. Javen explained that they were not ancient art; it was made by an artist trying to evoke the memories of the past. People still loved the cave art and made pilgrimages to the cavern. "Keep on walking," the young man encouraged his companion.
The cavern soon widened and grew larger. Min Feng straightened her back, only to find that she was surrounded by waves of pink, orange and salmon. Rock waves, curving, flowing around her. A slot canyon! There was the sound of running water in the distance. The place was magical. Warm, silent and pulsating with life. Light lanced through the ceiling, diffusing on the soft earth.
"Follow me," Javen chuckled at the look of wonder on Min Feng's face. She had never seen slot canyons before and definitely not his slot canyon. She had already spent half a year or so on Mesa, mostly in the urban areas, as she followed his Aunt Betta as a merchant apprentice. She had not, however, ventured out into the desert lands.
And there she was, placing her hand on the smoothed rock, touching, remembering. The slot canyon was his personal hiding place, away from his aunts who could be a little intrusive sometimes, when it came to personal stuff. He had always retreated here when he was growing out of his pre-teenage years and rode out the pain of puberty in the gentle warmth of the slot canyon. He wanted to show Min Feng something else.
