The Great Mountain
By Damon Fillman

The day had finally come. My auburn hair, shiny like the tip of a freshly polished sword, flowed in the wind as I encountered the Great Mountain, and I gazed at the clouds that covered its peak. The sword in my holster was thicker and heavier than my body. My young muscles cramped as the fierce winds disrupted my balance. My bare feet, covered in mud and grass stains, concealed the white pigment of my skin. I looked up at the ascending monster and felt compelled to destroy it.

I glanced forward and witnessed the trail The Elders told me to seek; a dusty path that jig-jagged up the frail rock formations that had cleverly placed gaps for my hands to grasp and my legs to propel from. I looked back at the village while dangling from that first minuscule boulder, which could not compare to the challenges that would arise later in my journey. When I reached a certain point, no more gaps were present but long, grassy vines, which appeared as arteries leading to a heart, hung off a distant ledge that led to a solid surface. Once I stood on the heels of my bare feet, I was greeted by the immensity of the Great Mountain and the sensitive areas I was advised to attack; areas resembling ripe peaches which radiated red steam. These were my targets. Penetrating them would make the mountain crumble.

“Remember,” The Elder told me. “Pierce the Great Mountain’s flesh and never look back. Accomplish this and when you return a throne will be waiting for you.”

Birds with large talons disoriented me, forcing me to my knees on many occasions as they dropped fiercely from the winds that had paved their path in the sky, and gnawed at my head like peasants pick-axing coal. The sores would sporadically bleed and form patches of dried blood that adhered to my young skin. As I walked, the solid surface started to cave in, forming short beams of land that could be crossed, but ceaseless holes leading to the Great Mountain’s insides. A distant howl echoed that sounded like a scream of despair, but I didn’t fall victim to the Great Mountain’s ruse.

I followed an enduring path up the mountain, and crossed the thin passageways to more solid surfaces. My arched, bare feet were caressed by the sandy gravel that slumbered on this path, and the raindrops from the hovering clouds offered them more moisture than they had been accustomed to. At this moment I felt manipulated as my body was at ease. I did not know the Great Mountain’s intentions, but I knew that these luxuries were not reserved for laymen. Perhaps the Great Mountain sensed my humility, but most importantly my potential for greatness, and wanted to share temporary gratitude to a meager young boy who would fall victim to its treachery once more.

I bellowed an agonizing screech to get the Great Mountain’s attention during that moment of tranquility, as if to challenge the Great Mountain to a duel. In response, the Great Mountain released its inner strength and the ground shifted and rumbled. I could feel the Great Mountain’s nerves unchained. A few feet in front of a cracked rock was the first ripe peach. I reached for my holster and used the adrenaline running through my weak arms to raise the sword into the sky and quickly thrust it into the flustering red mist and the weak spot beyond it. A red, liquid substance shot into the sky and crushed back to the surface, covering me in it . Rain plummeted from the distant clouds and trickled downward, following a path through pipe-like crevices towards the village. I took a deep breath and was tempted to declare victory before I leaned over a slippery ledge and screamed to The Elders below. But over the ledge was the backside of the Great Mountain, the side forbidden from the village‘s sight. Peasants prepared explosives at the bottom of it. Quick bursts of flame shot up and a sea of dust followed overhead. This is when I noticed the great, echoed howl from the Great Mountain that I had heard previously.

One of The Elders screamed, “Perfect!” They started to climb up the gap they created with the explosives.

I continued along the path quickly to avoid running into The Elders. They had make it perfectly clear that this was a one-man journey and if I were to witness another person while trekking up the mountain, my throne would be retracted, assuming I succeeded in my task. I decided to rest under a tree twice the size of myself. It was still blooming; the trunks were fresh and moist and it was warm to lean on. It had potential like me to one day become something far greater than its current self.

And it was at this moment my heart began to attenuate and try desperately to break free from my chest cavity.

I remembered that the Elders would share stories to the village after an evening dinner over the fire. They were the only ones allowed to leave the village and were the only ones with stories to share. Outside of the people in our village, the only other faces we had seen were those of the peasants who would be brought in from the Elder’s adventures to serve us, though we never knew what they did exactly.

On a cold night, one of the Elders stood up as the rest of us hovered over the warm fire. He said, “I shall tell you of the sea!” He raised a 3-foot-long sturdy branch and his voice started to get louder and louder, cracking in the process because of old age. “We designed a wooden device that let us float in the endless blue ocean! Imagine a cup of water and inside the cup of water is an insect much smaller than an ant that is floating on a crumb of food. Now imagine that the amount of water inside the cup is endless. This is how our journey started! We witnessed many events on our journey, but none as incredible as the Great Whale!”

“What is a Great Whale!?” one of the young villagers asked.
“A pest,” the Elder replied. “A large creature that tried to harm us and our floating device. Luckily, we had prepared spears to stab the Great Whale until it sunk to the bottom of the ocean!”

The village roared in approval. I clapped my hands as well, feeling like I was a part of a village destined to defeat nature’s beasts.

While I remembered that night, several birds in the sky swooped down at their prey, and I realized that nature doesn’t question or antagonize; it’s not even aware of its formalities, it just acts. And sometimes it must act against a threat.

Suddenly, sounds of footsteps echoed up the path. The young tree started to rustle and a branch fell beside me; it was carved like the spear The Elder described in his story. I picked it up, grasping it tightly while I eagerly awaited The Elders to walk by. I crouched low. To my surprise, all of The Elders from the village were present, trotting slowly using their canes to keep them on foot. The peasants kept a lookout, twisting cautiously with spears in hand. I waited for the perfect moment to strike. As the first Elder stepped on a green leaf that I funneled my vision on, I extended my spear onto the path so that the first Elder would trip and cause the rest to do the same. I jumped out of my crouched position and stabbed The Elder in the throat. Buckets of blood trickled down the pipe-like crevices of the Great Mountain. One of the peasants grabbed me by the shoulder and pinned me on the ground and the others made sure I was incapacitated before they started walking again.

One of The Elders screamed out, “Are you crazy young man! You’ve killed an Elder! Do you know what this means--it means you are no longer eligible to become king! You will die just like the rest of the young boys who shared a similar fate!”

There were too many peasants to defeat on my own. I could do nothing but await a painful death.

“The Great Mountain is retaliating against your attacks!” I yelled. “It is defending itself! It didn’t purposefully attempt to destroy our village like you said! It was aching. It was hurting. The rocks and avalanches that would crash through our village were a result of your actions!”

The Elders seemed displeased with their eyes focused on the Great Mountain. They refused to respond to my plea. One of The Elders ordered a peasant to kill me off. As he raised his spear into the sky I heard the cry of the Great Mountain reverberate as if we were in a hollow cave. The Great Mountain began to shake and all of The Elders fumbled to the ground, losing their balancing canes in the process. The peasants fled into the woods hoping to avoid the Great Mountain’s rage.

Once free from restraint, I picked up the spear that the young tree dropped for me. The ground became difficult to walk on. I would get up, then fall sloppily back on the ground. But my young muscles, once cramped, became tight and strong. My knees were particularly formidable against the Great Mountain’s rumble. Knowing this, I stabbed each frail Elder with my spear. They all moaned louder than a newborn child. After the moans ceased, the rumble stopped and I placed the spear next to the young tree.

“Thank you,” I said. “You have shown me more wisdom than the eldest of my species. You will prosper. I will make sure of it.”

I approached the peak of the Great Mountain. We now had a kinship for which I never had experienced with another human being. I rested at the peak for two days and the Great Mountain accommodated to my needs. Edible plants grew expediently around me with colors bright and imaginative, not brown and washed-out like our village. While I looked down from this enormous peak, the villagers appeared as small ants floating on a crumb of food. At the peak, I was still the ruler of the village. But the Great Mountain never produced excessively. It gave me just enough food to survive and the rain only alleviated my thirst when I was in dire need of it. When the nights approached, the moon appeared exaggeratedly lustrous and anthropomorphic with cheerful craters as eyes that catered to my occasional depression and loneliness. With this perfectly balanced system that the Great Mountain produced naturally, I closed my eyes every night thinking that I would risk my life repeatedly in order to sit on a throne such as this; one that is not blanketed in gold that has been prospected by peasants, but one for which the Great Mountain has spent generations preparing for a worthy king.