Trails - Part 1
The afternoon sun shone into the dense expanse of lantana bushes. Two young girls nimbly stepped over the spiky twigs, doubling down where the undergrowth turned into a canopy with an opening, just big enough for a small goat to go through. They had been going on like this for a while. Their legs were scratched, seeds of wild grass clinging on to their dresses, palms itching from having touched undomesticated shrubs. The elder one, a 12-year-old, led the way. Her hair was tied in a long ponytail, beads of sweat accumulated over clearly drawn brows, thin lips slightly parted. The one behind her was younger by around 3 years, with shoulder length hair clipped up to keep it from coming on to her face. She kept looking ahead and back in measured glances, taking in the terrain, the signs and everything else in between, her eyes shining with the excitement of discovering a new trail. Once in a while her sister would make a remark – about the peculiar shape of a bush, or something – a bott