Chapter 50 — The Last Seed Keeper

By the end of the second day of following Mr. Nam Khoi's directions, the rocky mountains finally gave way to the familiar flatness of Dong Tro, and as Khe Mien stood on the last edge of the mountain range looking down at the cracked ash land stretching to the horizon, she felt a mixture of relief and new fear — because now, there were no more cliffs to hide in, no more ravines to escape to, just an empty space where anyone, including pursuers from the Stone Arch, could see them from far away.

“We need to move more at night from here,” she said to Diem Quynh and Kien, who were resting on a low ledge before starting the final descent to flat land. "During the day, we seek shelter, just like what we learned on the road to Salt Dome. We survived it once, we can do it again, even without Bach Lam or Ngan The Binh to lead the way."

Diem Quynh nodded, but her eyes, as she looked down at the vast Dong Tro stretching to the dusty horizon, carried a new worry, a worry that she didn't need to put into words because Khe Mien was feeling the same thing. "How far do you think we are from the Green Dome?" she asked.

"Far away," Khe Mien admitted. "There would have been many more days, if it weren't for Ngan The Binh leading the way through the shortcuts he knew by heart. We would have had to go in a slower, more careful way."

They began to descend as the sunlight began to lean toward the west, taking advantage of the last hours of daylight to find a safe shelter before night completely fell. The ground under their feet gradually changed from stone to the familiar layer of ash, softer but also dustier, each step leaving a clear mark that Khe Mien knew she needed to erase or hide if possible, a skill she had learned from Ngan The Binh in the first weeks of the journey.

On the way, they passed through a strip of cracked ground where old tire tracks had been carved deep into the hard ash — evidence of some trading caravan that had passed through here long ago, perhaps many months ago, now remaining only as a faint scar on the surface of the dead land. Diem Quynh, despite being tired, still couldn't help her habit of observing techniques, bending down to examine the depth of the tire tracks.

"The wheels are heavy, carrying a lot of cargo," she commented, standing up and brushing her hands off. "Perhaps a mining caravan from Stone Arch, or a larger trade caravan traveling between multiple Arches. If we follow this trail far enough, perhaps it will lead to a more familiar route."

"We don't have the strength to risk taking a route that might be crowded with people," Khe Mien replied, although she appreciated Diem Quynh's observation. "At least not now, when we don't know who's looking for us."

In the afternoon, the heat of Dong Tro began to burn again after the cooler days in the mountains, and the three had to stop and seek shade under a rocky outcrop, waiting for the hottest hour of the day to pass before moving on. Kien, lying on the soft ash ground, looking up at the empty cloudless sky, spoke up to break the tired silence that had enveloped the group for many hours.

"I miss the Green Dome," he said softly, his voice carrying a homesickness that he had tried to suppress throughout the long journey. "I miss the smell of damp soil in the Central Nursery, miss the sound of the mealtime bell. I didn't think I would miss little things like that."

"I remember too," Khe Mien said, a sad smile crossing her lips. "But I think, when we return, I will appreciate those little things more than ever, in a way I never knew before I left."

That night, they set up a temporary camp in a hollow hole in the ground, not daring to light a fire to avoid attracting attention, sharing what little dry food they had left in silence, each person immersed in their own thoughts about what was ahead and what was left behind.

The next morning, when dawn had just appeared, Kien, who was standing guard in his shift while the two women were still sleeping, suddenly shook Khe Mien awake, his voice shaking with both excitement and fear. "Sister," he whispered urgently, "there's smoke. Over there, to the east."

Khe Mien jumped up immediately, rubbed his eyes and looked in the direction he pointed, and indeed, a thin column of smoke was rising from a point perhaps only a few miles away, against the sky still dyed the pale pink of dawn.

"It could be anyone," Diem Quynh said, having woken up and standing next to them, her voice trying to stay calm even though it was clear her heart was beating just as fast. “Another merchant group, a Stone Dome patrol, or…”

She didn't finish her sentence, but there was no need — all three understood the name hanging in the air, the fragile hope that none of them dared to say out loud for fear it would vanish as soon as the name was called.

“We can't run there blindly,” Khe Mien said, trying to suppress the strong urge to immediately rush toward the smoke column. “If it is someone from the Stone Arch, we will find ourselves in a trap. We need to approach carefully, observe before revealing ourselves.”

The three cleared camp quickly, moving in a careful detour, keeping a safe distance while gradually getting closer to the source of the smoke column, hiding behind low mounds and rock formations scattered across the surface of Dong Tro. When they got close enough to get a better look over a high mound, Khe Mien held her breath, her heart pounding in her chest as she tried to make out the shadowy shapes moving around the small fire in the distance—two figures, one tall and achingly familiar, the other shorter with the slow gait characteristic of age and experience.

"Is that..." Diem Quynh whispered, her voice choked with hope and not daring to believe it was true.

Khe Mien didn't answer right away, her eyes were glued to the two figures in the distance, trying to filter out every smallest detail through the misty morning air, her heart suspended between the fear that this was just an illusion created by longing for too long, and a ray of hope burning more intensely than anything she had ever felt since the night of separation in the heart of Vom Da mountain.

One of the two figures bent down to pick up something, then stood up straight in a posture so familiar that it made Khe Mien's breath catch in his throat - the way he stood, his legs shoulder-width apart, one hand on his hip while the other hand covered his eyes and looked towards the horizon, exactly the same posture Bach Lam often had when he observed the terrain before deciding on a direction.

"It's him," she whispered, her voice shaking uncontrollably. "It's Bach Lam."

But as soon as that hope flared up, another fear immediately crept in — if it was really Bach Lam and Ngan The Binh, was there anyone else watching them, was this a trap set up to lure those hiding out from hiding. She signaled Kien and Diem Quynh to stay in position, and crawled low herself a short distance to more closely observe the area around the fire, looking for any signs of an ambush.

Nothing. There were only two human figures, a familiar, worn-out luggage bag, and an empty space where no other figures could be seen lurking in her sight.

"I think we should come closer, cautiously, but closer," Diem Quynh said, her voice also trembling with uncontrollable rising hope.

Khe Mien nodded, standing up slowly behind the mound, her eyes never leaving the two figures in the distance, and in that moment, in the still morning of Dong Tro stretching endlessly around them, she felt her entire body tremble with an emotion too great to name — not quite joy, not quite relief, but something deeper than both, the feeling of someone who has just dared to believe again after having prepared herself for the worst. most.

"Let's go," she said to Kien and Diem Quynh, her voice now steadier, leading the way out of her hiding place, across the open space between them and the small fire, each step quickening into an uncontrollable running pace as the distance between them and those two familiar figures narrowed little by little under the rising morning sunlight in the Dong Tro sky.