The woman sighed.
"Ah."
Everyone froze.
And suddenly, she lowered her staff.
"If you do not possess the power to cross it yourselves..."
The bridge shuddered.
"...why should I provide it?"
The smiles vanished.
The stone roadway cracked from end to end.
A deafening roar filled the canyon.
The bridge collapsed.
All the rocks broke apart and plunged into the darkness below.
The caravan watched in horror as the miracle vanished.
Stone disappeared into the abyss.
The echoes continued for several long moments.
Then there was only silence once more.
The canyon was exactly as it had been before.
The woman stood on the far side, completely unconcerned.
One of the caravan leaders stared at her in disbelief.
"You...!"
He had not the heart to finish the sentence.
The woman tilted her head.
"I crossed."
The answer seemed perfectly reasonable to her.
The woman had not built the bridge to help them.
She had built it because she could.
And she had destroyed it because she could do that as well.
To her, both actions appeared equally unremarkable.
Nobody spoke.
The adults were too shocked, too angry, and too afraid.
The wind howled through the canyon.
The little girl looked from the people around her to the woman standing on the opposite side.
There was no amusement on the woman's face. No pity or guilt, nothing.
As though she could not understand why everyone was upset.
"Why would you do that?" one of the caravaners yelled out.
A murmur spread through the caravan.
"Oh," the woman glanced downward. "I no longer need it."
Several people began shouting at once.
"We did!"
The woman listened quietly, then frowned, and a hard look washed over her face.
"What does it matter to me? I needed one and made it, and then I didn't need it anymore. Your circumstances existed before I arrived and continue after I leave. Why would I become responsible for them merely because I passed through? I haven't given, nor have I taken. You would have needed to go around, and you still need to. I didn't ransack your village, and I didn't make you take up your things to form a caravan to search for a safe place."
The answer only made the situation worse.
The little girl could see the anger settling across their faces.
The woman was not denying it.
She simply did not think it mattered.
The sun was beginning to sink.
"If you think there is a safe place, if that is really what you want, with rich earth and clear water, then take whatever power you have and strive for it. There isn't always someone to come and save you, so you shouldn't expect it. I haven't chosen to be your savior, so why look to me as if I could have been?"
The darkness around her seemed to deepen.
"I could have destroyed you, but no one asks why I didn't."
She turned away. "Do whatever is in your own power to help yourselves. Don't look for it elsewhere."
She left. Her steps barely touched the ground as she seemed to glide, even in the rough terrain.