Free The Legend of the Phantom by Jacob Nelson

in gleaming gold color. It appeared from a distance to be a tall building made of gold.
    “Could that be the Golden City?” Kit asked his companions.
    “I do not know, my friend, but I suggest that if it is, it would be wisest to approach during the daylight,” replied Caribo very practically.
    “I agree with Caribo, Kit,” intoned Miya, “I would not like to have to fight or run from another group in the dark. It is better for us to wait until morning light.”
    “Well, then,” decided Kit, “we will just make camp here.”
    The following morning Kit was awake before first light despite his anticipation of seeing the golden city ahead. His curiosity led him to climb a nearby hill.
    When Miya awoke she searched for him, and found him sitting on the top of the hill that separated them from the view of the ‘city’. But a ‘city’ it was not. It wasn’t even man-made. In front of them stood a tall stone tower. As she approached he heard her and stood up, only glancing back briefly to see who it was.
    “I guess the light from the setting sun made it look like a golden city,” stated Miya, walking over to him.
    “I think so too,” replied Kit, staring at the incredible sight of so many natural monuments.
    “Are you disappointed in not finding your golden city, Kit?” asked Miya, wrapping her arms around him from behind.
    The touch caught him off guard, and he started to turn. Then thinking better of it, he placed his own strong arms over her own, holding them to him. “No,” he replied, “I am instead grateful; for this is much more incredible than man could ever dream of.”
    Catching one of her arms in his he quickly slid her out and around so that he could pull her into him. There he held her in a strong embrace; while the morning light cast their shadows back toward camp.
    He could hear her heart beat rapidly against his chest. She started to raise her chin and he began to lean to meet her lips. As the two of them were in motion to kiss, a voice boomed out, “Kit, Miya, where are you?”
    The tension was lost and both found each other with huge smiles. Miya giggled.
    “Over here, Caribo,” called out Kit, then sighing to himself, he promised to Miya, “ …and later we pick up where we left off.”
    Caribo found them silhouetted against a backdrop of tall flat topped mountains. “Mesas,” said Kit to him, referring to the flat-top mountains around him. “That’s the Spanish word for table. They look like tables to me.”
    The trio stood in awe as they looked out across the plains at the various sized mesas. 
    The mesa they had seen the night before was not the closest one nor was it the biggest. It just happened to be the one that the sun had caught with its rays. They decided to climb it as they wished to see the surrounding area better, to give themselves an idea of what terrain they still had to cross. As they approached the mesa, Caribo spotted an eagle overhead. “That is a good sign,” he said.
    “What shall we call this place?” Kit asked to no one in particular. Miya had at that very moment spotted the eagle’s nest about two-thirds of the way up the side of the tower of rock. “Eyrie” she called out, pointing; that being the term for ‘eagle nest’ in her language.  Kit, entirely having missed the point, instead assumed that she was answering his question.
    “Eyrie,” repeated Kit.
    “Yes, eyrie,” repeated Miya, thinking he was trying to learn the word.
    “I like it,” said Kit. “What do you think Caribo?”
    Caribo just chuckled. “Call it whatever you want to, but I plan to climb it.”
    So Kit called the place, Eyrie , much to Caribo and Miya’s amusement.
    Miya opted to stay on the grou nd. She saw no reason for climbing the rock, only to have to climb back down. Instead, she settled herself against a small outcropping of rock a way off from the pillar while still in its shadow, where she could watch the boys climb.
    The pair was about half-way up the Eyrie