Giorgio suddenly quit his lamentations and looked down, for he was quite certain that he had just heard Giancarlo speak. But no, he was wrong. Giancarlo had not spoken. He was giggling! Giorgio realized at once that it had all been a ruse, and his deep remorse of just a moment earlier vanished in a twinkling. Skipping relief entirely, his emotions instantly sprang to outrage.

“How could you do that?” he screamed, pounding his brother on the back. “What kind of person are you?”

Despite the onslaught, Giancarlo howled with laughter.

“That’s what you get!” he shouted back, curling into a ball to protect himself from Giorgio’s punches. “Next time be more careful about what you wish for!”

“Next time I’ll throw you off the cliff myself!” Giorgio screamed in reply, but his anger soon began to abate, and he relented with the punches. Out of breath from the outburst, he gave Giancarlo one last shove. Then he sat back in the dirt and wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of his hand. By now, Giancarlo had also sat up, but Giorgio refused to even look at him.

Despite his opinion that he had been well within his rights, Giancarlo now felt quite guilty at having played such a cruel joke on his brother. He wanted very much to apologize, to set things right, and he was just about to do so when he happened to glance out at a grove of trees far off the side of the trail. There something suddenly caught his eye. It appeared to be the top edge of the roof of a small building, a hovel of some sort, perhaps, that he had never before noticed. His heart began to beat a mile a minute.

“Giorgio, look up there,” he said, poking his brother in the arm.

“Shut up,” groused Giorgio, still refusing to look at him. “You’re going to pay for that someday.”

“Please, Giorgio. Look!”

“No. Look yourself.”

Giancarlo jumped to his feet.

“Giorgio,” he said with a huff. “I’m very sorry I tricked you like that, okay? But please, just take a look.”

“A look at what?” said Giorgio, grudgingly getting to his feet.

“Up there,” said Giancarlo. “You see there?’

“Where?” sighed his brother.

“Look there,” said Giancarlo. “High over that big rock between those two trees. Do you see it?”

Giorgio narrowed his gaze and peered out to where Giancarlo was pointing. For a moment he saw nothing out of the ordinary, but then his eyes opened wide.

“What do you think it is?” said Giancarlo eagerly.

“There’s only one way to tell,” answered Giorgio. “Come on!”