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peared over the ridge. The trail was rugged enough to make them glad they had new bootsfor traversing rocky streams, and taking them over or around huge chunks of granite that had split off from the face of the canyon. Two and a half hours and four steep miles later they reached a rock shelf several dozen yards long perched between two craggy, brush-covered peaks. The shelf had been scoured flat by aeons of snowmelt and infrequent rainfall until it was as slick and shiny as a ballroom floor. At the back of the shelf where the walls of the canyon narrowed was a pool of greenish water that had been chiseled out of the bedrock by the last in a series of small but perfect waterfalls that stepped down from the high peaks. The overflow from the pool nourished a fringe of tall grasses and cottonwood trees and then spilled over the front edge of the shelf and dropped to the floor of the canyon. |
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It was past noon and the high sun had obliterated all traces of shade and turned the canyon into a kiln. The air was full of sunshine, pollen motes and hungry dragonflies that buzzed around Cyrus's head like a squadron of biplanes from the Red Baron's flying circus. |
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Kyna, who had been bitching about the heat all the way up the trail, took one look at the tranquil pool and began unbuttoning her sweat-encrusted shirt. "This is like a tiny Garden of Eden." |
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"You know," Cyrus said, glancing around, "there are probably other people running around out here." |
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"I don't care," she replied, skinning out of her shorts. "I'm hot. I'm dirty. I'm thirsty. And I'm getting in the water." |
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She stripped down to her panties, casually dropping her odd-looking necklace on top of the pile, and waded out to the middle of the pool. Once there, she lowered herself until the water ringed her neck, then leaned back and let the falling water massage the dust from her hair and the trail aches from her bones. |
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"Ahhh," she purred. "This is Heaven." |
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"It's not. It's just right." |
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