She was tired of the prospectors. Occasionally they’d come to visit her and ask her for information about the area, though she wasn’t sure exactly what they were looking to find. Other times they’d trade with her for one of her sheep, and once they invited her to share a meal. But they’d mostly left her alone. That had changed since she’d shown them the rocks that she brought down from the old cave she sometimes sheltered in if she was caught up on the pass.
Until they’d seen the rocks, the prospectors themselves did not seem to want to be there either. From what little language they had in common, she’d gathered that they found it cold and inhospitable. Which was not short of the truth. She had a good touch with the sheep, and she was more prosperous than some, but even when her husband and daughter had still been alive, it had been a difficult place to live. The prospectors made things easier in some ways—they’d given her a knife and a new jacket that she was quite happy with—but mostly they’d been an annoyance. They liked to play loud music at their camp, and they used explosives in some of their attempts to find whatever it was they were looking for. They were friendly but disruptive, and she would not be sad to see them leave.
Today, however, they were paying her. They seemed to have no concept of how much to offer, and for what they had been willing to pay, she would happily lead them wherever they wanted to go for as long as they wanted. And so she was taking them up the pass to help them find the old cave, to show them where she’d gotten the rocks. She wasn’t sure why they were so excited about the rocks. There wasn’t any gold or silver in them. But really, she didn’t care. What she cared about was that they were paying her handsomely.
Despite being older than most of the men—she was nearly forty, and the men seemed much younger, though most of them were older than her husband had been when he died—she kept outpacing them. Every few minutes she would stop and wait for the prospectors to keep up. They carried small packs filled with electronic gear, shovels and picks, and other tools, but she didn’t think the bags were so heavy. She carried one of the packs herself. They told her, best they could, that they were having trouble breathing so high up in the mountains, so she slowed down and took breaks for them to catch their breath.
By the time they reached the cave, it was late morning. The sky was still clear. The lead prospector, a man named Dennis, had told her the weather would be good all day, that they would have nothing to worry about. He had put her in front of his computer and showed her a map full of colors and said there was no snow coming until the next day. She was not so certain. She’d lived there long enough that she had respect for the suddenness with which the sky could burst. If they got stuck in a storm, it would be a difficult descent. They wouldn’t have a choice, however. None of the men carried the kind of gear that would see them through the night. They were idiots.
She had no trouble leading them to the cave. A few times every year she ended up seeking shelter in it, guiding her sheep in there with her when the weather caught her out too far from home. It was large enough for the entire flock, and the entrance was narrow with a jutted lip that held the wind at bay. The cave was normally dark, but that had never bothered her. She would spend the nights huddled close enough to the entrance that she could see the stars, but far enough back so that she was sheltered from the wind and the snow.
It was different with the prospectors. The cave had high ceilings—the half-dozen men could stand easily—and they all had powerful lights that they splayed along the walls and the floor. She’d never seen the cave lit up like this. One of the men shined his light on the floor along the wall and picked up a rock similar to what she’d shown them the day before. They murmured excitedly, and Dennis took the rock and looked at it. He brought it over to her. “You weren’t kidding,” he said then nodded at her. “This could be very good. If we find more, we’ll pay extra.” He rubbed his fingers together in case she didn’t understand, but she knew what it meant: more money for her, but also that the prospectors weren’t leaving.