The Looming Mountain
By: Elijah Ryne
In the distance, from the loud and neat city, looms a mountain with a forest protecting the looming mountain from the city. Behind, on the other side of the mountain, lies a massive flat plain with trees surrounding numerous lakes and ponds. The plain is split by a river in the distance. There in the massive plains, lying under a tree that hangs by the edge of a lake, is a girl. This girl has lost her family. She was separated from them not too long ago. She can not remember why or how. In fact, she can not remember their names or faces. Yet, she does know that she has been separated from them for at least two weeks. She does not need to worry about food, for she has never, to her knowledge, needed to eat. She is currently humming to the tune of a bird not too far off, with a mind free of worry. The birds' tune was seemingly random, was sometimes fast and elaborate, and sometimes slow and brutal. The bird, after a couple of hours, decided to stop singing. This has been her routine for as long as she can remember. Now, though, she has grown quite bored with this tree and the bird that had been singing from it. She decided to leave her tree to see what the area around her looked like. It was mostly flat, she found, and with the exception of a couple of trees and a small stream, she could see the looming mountain unobstructed. With nothing left to do and a yearning to go home, she decided to try to find her family even though she couldn’t remember their faces. While walking slowly towards a mountain she could see in the distance, she heard the sound of thunder. Quickly, she scanned for shelter and noticed a clump of trees next to a pond. She hurries to the shelter of a tall and winding willow tree that has been drinking from the pond for all its life. There, near its roots, she sees that there is a hollow big enough for her to crawl into. She runs to it, but on her way to the hollow, a sharp rock cuts through the sole of her right shoe. She continued unperturbed because it did not cut her foot, but her shoe was now utterly broken and useless. She continued to the willow’s hollow where she slept until the morning next.
Surprised by a feeling she has never felt before, she wakes up. Her stomach growls. Confused, she continues her journey to find her family. As she continues her trek, the blue sky slowly starts to turn grey. She does not notice because her stomach feels hollow and painful. Her legs are tired and she is confused because she has never felt hunger before. The yellow green grass started to cut her right foot. Surprised, she notices a gash in her shoe and gets rid of it. She had been wondering why walking felt tiresome, which was weird for the girl. She continues walking towards the mountain with a strange limp and a constant growing pain in her stomach. She notices that the sun was setting and decides to rest on a smooth boulder twice her size, and there she slept until the morning next. When she woke up, she noticed that she had lost her left shoe, and that she was at the foot of the mountain. Partially excited and partially exhausted, she starts to climb up the mountain until she finds an old, smooth path that was calming for her aggravated feet.
After walking on the path, she realized that this was going around the mountain. She was awestruck and confused about why she did not think about going around the mountain. That is when she noticed someone cooking something not too far off. She recognized the scent as something she had eaten beforehand, back when she did not need to eat. She found an old man cooking something in an old pot. He looked too feeble to walk. He was sitting next to a fire on a red rock. Strangely, the sight of another person calmed the girl. Like that of a familiar face. She at first thought that she knew him, but a second look at his face took all of this away. The smell of food felt old and boring, akin to something you have eaten too much of. The old man looked toughened by age. He looked like he came from a place of pain and hardship. For some reason, this made her immensely sad. When she decided to turn back, the old man noticed that someone had been watching him. He called out to her. His voice was both shaky and like iron, both kind and stern, yet even though the girl recognized the voice, the words he spoke were entirely alien to her. He soon realized that she could not understand him and pointed at the stew and a bowl as if asking if she wanted any. She was confused though, for she had never seen this object that he pointed at. Surprised by her confusion over what a bowl was, he served her a bowl of stew and gave her a spoon. The girl could not understand why this stranger was helping her. She took the bowl with both hands and forgot the spoon. She tried to pick items from the stew with her hand only to get burned. The old man chuckled because she was like a child eating for the first time, even though she looked like she was old enough to understand this. He gave her the spoon. She was confused about what to do with this device. Seeing her confusion, the old man mimed bringing another spoon to an imaginary bowl and scooping up food. When she tried this, the food was hot and burned her mouth. He again mimed eating with a spoon in his hand, and this time he took a deep inhale and a long exhale before blowing on the spoon. She copied his motion and realized the stew did not burn her hand, and she was able to eat it. Amazed, she started humming a tune. The old man did not recognize the tune, but she did. She did not realize that she was humming at first, but then she heard the song of the bird from the tree coming from her mouth. She continued like this until her bowl was empty. She stood up and started to walk away. That was when the old man realized she had no shoes and rushed to her. He gave her some food in a bag. He showed her that it belonged on her back, and he gave her his sandals. She wanted to thank him, but in an instant, he was gone. She looked for him until nightfall. She took up camp where the old man had, and sat on the red rock, and there she slept until the morning next.
She woke up feeling like she had fallen asleep on a block of ice. She decided to eat a little bit of her food and continued to go through the mountain. So she started again around the mountain. Leaving pebbles behind her so she did not get disorientated, she stopped when she saw in the distance a town. She realized that she had seen this place before. Excited, she continued down the side of the mountain and towards the town. She thought that this may be where she had grown up. On her way, she had fond thoughts of the old man, the bird, the hollow, and even the itchy grass, storm, and night. She decided that she was going to tell her family about her adventure. Hurrying, she realized that she had to cross a stream. The stream went up to her stomach and she had to wade through it. After four minutes, she crossed the stream and hurried to the town. All the while, with a smile on her face, she was almost home. She knew it. She ran the last half kilometer to the town through the forest. She found her family and told them of her journey. She was thrilled to be with her family again. That was until she asked about her father. Her family told her that he was severely injured in a car accident and died two days ago. In tears, she rushed to her bed where she slept. Slept till the morning next.
