+ There were almost two hundred people gathered there, and four +hundred animals—camels, horses, mules, and fowl. In the crowd +were women, children, and a number of men with swords at their +belts and rifles slung on their shoulders. The Englishman had +several suitcases filled with books. There was a babble of noise, and +the leader had to repeat himself several times for everyone to +understand what he was saying. +“There are a lot of different people here, and each has his own +God. But the only God I serve is Allah, and in his name I swear that I +will do everything possible once again to win out over the desert. +But I want each and every one of you to swear by the God you +believe in that you will follow my orders no matter what. In the +desert, disobedience means death.” +There was a murmur from the crowd. Each was swearing quietly +to his or her own God. The boy swore to Jesus Christ. The +Englishman said nothing. And the murmur lasted longer than a +simple vow would have. The people were also praying to heaven for +protection. +A long note was sounded on a bugle, and everyone mounted up. +The boy and the Englishman had bought camels, and climbed +uncertainly onto their backs. The boy felt sorry for the Englishman’s +camel, loaded down as he was with the cases of books. +“There’s no such thing as coincidence,” said the Englishman, +picking up the conversation where it had been interrupted in the +warehouse. “I’m here because a friend of mine heard of an Arab +who…” +But the caravan began to move, and it was impossible to hear +what the Englishman was saying. The boy knew what he was about +to describe, though: the mysterious chain that links one thing to +another, the same chain that had caused him to become a shepherd, +that had caused his recurring dream, that had brought him to a city +near Africa, to find a king, and to be robbed in order to meet a +crystal merchant, and… +The closer one gets to realizing his Personal Legend, the more +that Personal Legend becomes his true reason for being, thought the +boy. +The caravan moved toward the east. It traveled during the +morning, halted when the sun was at its strongest, and resumed late +in the afternoon. The boy spoke very little with the Englishman, who +spent most of his time with his books. +The boy observed in silence the progress of the animals and +people across the desert. Now everything was quite different from +how it was that day they had set out: then, there had been confusion +and shouting, the cries of children and the whinnying of animals, all +mixed with the nervous orders of the guides and the merchants. +But, in the desert, there was only the sound of the eternal wind, +and of the hoofbeats of the animals. Even the guides spoke very +little to one another. +“I’ve crossed these sands many times,” said one of the camel +drivers one night. “But the desert is so huge, and the horizons so +distant, that they make a person feel small, and as if he should +remain silent.” +The boy understood intuitively what he meant, even without +ever having set foot in the desert before. Whenever he saw the sea, +or a fire, he fell silent, impressed by their elemental force. +I’ve learned things from the sheep, and I’ve learned things from +crystal, he thought. I can learn something from the desert, too. It +seems old and wise. +The wind never stopped, and the boy remembered the day he +had sat at the fort in Tarifa with this same wind blowing in his face. +It reminded him of the wool from his sheep…his sheep who were +now seeking food and water in the fields of Andalusia, as they +always had. +
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