Masters of the Arches Ch. 02

He did try to make her understand that he wanted to go in the direction of the mountain which was toward what he figured was the north -- in relation to the movement of the sun -- but each time she would take his hand and point southward in the direction they were already going. Vincent figured that she wanted to get as far away as possible from the Arons. This was probably why she always seemed to insist also that they should move as fast as possible.

They walked for a couple more hours as she led him on. The ground was still covered with small rocks but the number of trees was increasing now. Later she stopped under a large tree and picked up a fruit from one of the low branches.

It was the first time in his life that Vincent was seeing a fruit like that. It was the size of a grapefruit but it had a hard brown bark that could be peeled away quite easily. He watched her removing the peel completely, then she proceeded to eat the inside.

When she realized that he was not eating, she picked another fruit from the same branch and she offered it to him. He did exactly as she had done and he removed the peel of the fruit. He then took a small bite. It did taste delicious and soon he began to devour the sweet pink interior. The texture was that of an apple but the taste was like nothing he had eaten before.