The youngest could not have been more than twelve.
The oldest looked perhaps seventeen.
Naelli approached them.
The girls immediately surrounded her.
One touched the bandage at her side.
Another hugged her.
Elias stood several steps away.
He did not know what to do.
Naelli turned.
"These are my sisters."
Elias looked at the six girls.
"Sisters?"
"Not all by blood."
She introduced them one by one.
Mara, the eldest.
Tala, who carried a scar across her eyebrow.
Sani, who rarely spoke.
Luma, whose eyes seemed to notice everything.
Pia, the youngest.
And Naelli.
They had been traveling between settlements when armed men attacked.
Their families had been scattered.
Some had escaped.
Others had not.
The girls had survived by hiding in the desert.
Naelli had gone looking for food and been struck by an arrow.
Elias looked at the six of them.
"You've been alone?"
Mara answered.
"We have been together."
There was a difference.
Elias understood it.
He had spent years alone.
Maybe that was why the sight of them bothered him.
They had nothing.
Yet they still had each other.
That afternoon, Elias discovered that the girls had no safe place to stay.
Their camp had to move.
The men who had attacked them were still nearby.
The nearest town was hostile.
Naelli's people could not risk traveling openly.
Elias thought about his abandoned ranch.
There was almost nothing left there.
But the property still had a spring.
A barn could be rebuilt.
The old house had collapsed, but part of the stone foundation remained.
He looked toward the mountains.
Then toward the girls.
"There's a place."
Naelli frowned.
"Where?"
"My ranch."
"You said you had no ranch."
"I said I lost it."
"What is the difference?"
Elias smiled.
"Hope."
He returned with them two days later.
The sight nearly broke him.
He had not seen the place since leaving.
The roof was gone.
The fences had collapsed.
The well was choked with sand.
His father's old windmill lay broken beside the barn.
For years, Elias had avoided returning because he believed the ranch represented everything he had lost.
Now he saw something else.
A foundation.
A beginning.
The girls immediately began working.
Mara repaired fencing.
Tala cleaned the well.
Sani collected firewood.
Luma explored the surrounding hills.
Pia followed Elias everywhere.
Naelli tried to stop her.
Pia ignored her.
Elias discovered that children asked questions without mercy.
"Why do you live alone?"
"My wife?"
"Do you have children?"
"Why do you talk to your horse?"
"Why is your house broken?"
"Why are you so old?"
Elias finally looked at Naelli.
"Can you make her stop?"