Always Me - Chapter 5
Chapter 5
** The Red Mountain**
Skippy and I set out preparing for our journey. He taught me how to make orange fruit edible, which involved us mashing them into a bowl he had and cooking them under a fire. We baked them into little bricks that we folded up into a piece of fabric.
He showed me the things he kept inside of the many bags he had, most of them were dried and prepared fruits and herbs. There was a primitive first aid kit, but he said that he'd been around long enough to find his own first aid in the natural surroundings.
He soaked up the last of the puddle that existed in the grove and collected it in large metal canisters that he kept separate in a large back pack. He showed me how to make a hat to protect my head form the sun out of the feathery leaves from the tree and that the scales of the trees made excellent digging tools.
We worked hard and I eagerly learned from him until the sun hit the horizon. He stopped what we were doing and made me watch the sunset. He said that there was no more magical time of day on earth where someone can feel connected to every other living thing than when the sun was disappearing. He told me that he had watched the sun set every night since he was my age, and said that it helps him to relax and keep a well balanced state of mind.
He told me a story he had of when he had reached the ocean and heard the call from across the sea. He walked the beach until he found a local fisherman pulling his boat ashore. He asked him where he could find a boat of his own, and the fisherman said he could have his if he helped fix his lager one. He spent the next four days patching up a large hole in the hull of the boat, and was rewarded just as the fisherman said. He bartered some of his rare dried herbs for a fishing rod and set off on his way. He prattled until there was no more land and the waves got big. He fished when he was hungry, and ate whatever he caught raw. He told me that he had sailed on the small boat for months until he found a large sailboat floating alone in the sea.
He said he climbed aboard hoping to find someone that would barter with him again, but discovered that the entire ship was empty. When he went to the cabin, there was nothing but a note stabbed to the wheel with a rusty dagger. He pulled out an old piece of weathered parchment and handed it to me. I unfolded it and looked at the long scribbled words I couldn't read. Pirates, he told me. I looked wide-eyed over the paper and saw at the bottom that it had been signed with a skull and crossbones. I squealed with glee knowing that I was holding a genuine pirate artifact. It was like I was in one of the old story books I used to read.
He continued to say that since there was no one to look after the boat he took it and sailed across the ocean. He found a secret compartment that the raiders had not discovered that was filled with rubies the size of grapes, and more pearls that someone could wear. He said he'd show me, but he had already traded them all away long ago. He said that he had made his new home on the ship fishing and sailing until he saw the thin line of land in the distance. He followed the call and went for the uninhabited shore. But, he forgot to look out for the reef, and with a bone shattering crack, the ocean flowed into the boat. He said that he rushed to grab his precious bags and dumped them in the little boat he had been dragging behind him, but he only had time to grab one of the bags of rubies and pearls.
As he watched the mast sink below the water, he rowed his way to the shore, and placed his feet on ground for the first time in a year. He hauled the boat up to the dense jungle that lined the beach and started off towards the call again.
As he finished his story, the last sliver of sun disappeared and the red glow of the sky was all that was left.
I asked him to tell another story, but he just smiled and patted my head telling me "another time maybe. Now, we need to go. We have a long walk ahead of us."
With that, we packed up the last of the bags until they were full to busting, and slung them over our backs. I got the two lightest ones, which I didn't complain about.
With a look back to make sure we didn't forget anything, we set off into the darkening dessert towards the dark red shape in the distance.
Skippy told me that traveling by night was the best option because we didn't have the sun on us, but that since the hunters of the dessert come out then, we had to be extra alert. He warned me of a crab like creature that likes to silently stalk its prey for miles and when the time is right, it runs and tackles the poor creature with its many long, pointy legs. He told me that the best way to save yourself from the creature is to make sure you spot it before it finds the time. If they sense that you know they are there, they hide and go find new prey.
He talked more about the many creatures in the dessert that he had encountered over the years, and my imagination loved creating the images of them in my head. As he kept on listing off these bizarre and deadly things, I said that I was amazed that I had never seen a single living thing out here yet.
"That's because they are all smart, and the only time they want to be seen is when they have already got you in their grip. But, maybe we will see something tonight. I have a pretty good eye for them."
I shivered in excitement of the thought of seeing some of these monsters, but then realized that it was half from the rapidly dropping temperature. The ground was still warm, but as a breeze started to pick up, the air cooled quickly.
Skippy noticed and said, "This dessert boarders a large green sea. It's a mile deep and cold as anything else around. The wind blows across it and then sends all that cold here. I don't have any tricks to keep you warm, but just try to imagine yourself in a warm place, and maybe your mind will trick you."
I started thinking of the warm summer days at home, but I could feel the wicked feelings start to come, so I quickly changed to thoughts of the hot dessert during the day. It ended up proving to be enough distraction that I forgot how cold I was.
I kept staring at the dark outline of the mountain against the black sky. I looked up as the stars began to shine. With no trees in my way and no lights around, I could see the night sky in its total glory.
I stopped and stared with my mouth wide open as my eyes got lost in the endlessness of it all. It was unreal. Skippy noticed that I stopped and looked up too.
"It's it amazing? And to think it's always has been up there, and you haven't even seen it in eight years." There was a long pause as we both looked into the mesmerizing heavens. "Think how many others are looking at those same stars right now. Every single one of them is different, and every single one has a star out there for themselves. Each one is getting lost in that vastness in ways no one has words to describe, and they've been doing it since the first conscious thought was made. Isn't it truly amazing?"
All I could do is nod slowly. I felt like I didn't exist anymore; that I was simply a single witness of this huge thing that I had not known existed five minutes ago. I got lost in those stars, and I didn't want to ever come back.
But Skippy brought me back and grounded me as he took my hand and pulled me forward. I walked staring up at the sky. I tripped over something, but nothing could keep me from gazing at those twinkling lights that were so very far away and so close at the same time.
We walked a bit further until I felt Skippy let go of my hand. I just stood there transfixed as I had been, until I heard him scraping at the ground. I reluctantly looked down to see him hunched over and digging a shallow hole. I got down on my knees next to him and he looked up as he put a finger to his lips. I could barely make his outline out since it had gotten so dark.
He continued to dig into the ground until he paused. He looked intently at the little hole he had just dug for a minute, and then shoved his paw into it. Just as quickly, he pulled something out. It was a large thick leech-like creature that glowed a bright blue. He handed it over to me saying that it was safe as he shrugged a bag off and dug around until he pulled out a jar with a string tied around it. He opened it and motioned for me to put the worm into the jar.
I watched the glowing blob crawl around in my hand before rolling it off my palm and into the jar. He placed it down and moved a few feet over and repeated the process until the jar was half fun with the pulsating, squishy, glowing creatures. With a firm tightening of the lid, he handed me the jar. I held it up and watched the poor creature move against the glass. It was letting off a fair amount of light for a group of worms.
I looked up at Skippy, whose face was now lit well from the glow, and he told me not to worry, and that we'd be releasing them in the morning.
I smiled and we continued walking. My attention was now split between the jar and the night sky. I'm sure I looked ridiculous staring at the two, but I figured no one but Skippy was there to see it, so it didn't make a difference.
After a while, the glimmer of the glowing jar had faded in my mind, and I had seen all that the stoic stars had to give me for the night, so I returned to my normal boredom and bagged Skippy for another story.
With a bit of whining, and a fair bit more coming back from me, he finally agreed and he started telling me of the time he crossed a mountain, since he found it appropriate for the situation.
He said he started out on his journey when he heard the call from over the mountain just like now. He reached the foothills of an enormous mountain whose point was masked with clouds. He started to walk and found a small hut nestled amongst the rocks. There was smoke coming from the chimney so he went to investigate. As he got to the cabin, no one was home, but knowing that a fire meant someone must be coming soon, he sat down on a nearby rock and meditated.
As he silently sat there minding his own business, he felt something hit him in the back of the head. He opened his eyes and looked around, but as he did, he felt something else hit him in the back of the head. He glimpsed down to see the small rock rolling away. He looked around but didn't see anyone, and nothing hit him for a while. Thinking that he might have been going mad, he returned to his meditation. But he soon felt several rocks hitting him in the back of the head, only this time, he was prepared and turned in time to see two little heads disappear behind a pile of wood. He slowly crept up on the pile and saw two little kids in thick jackets run away and around the hut. He followed and found the two young leopards clinging to a larger older female who looked startled by the stranger.
He said that he tried to communicate with her, but she didn't seem to understand any of the languages he had picked up through his travels. He said he pointed to the mountain top and she nodded. She invited him inside the cabin and gave him a cup of soup that had been stewing over the fire.
She sat in a chair watching him enjoy the first warm food he had had in a great long time as the two kids sat in front of the fire doing the same thing. The room was completely silent other than the crackling of the fire until the sounds of heavy footsteps came to the door. It opened and a large male leopard stepped in. He stopped when he and Skippy met eyes, and the leopard's wife said something in their language. The leopard took a few steps closer and said something to Skippy. Skippy shook his head that he didn't understand and tried to see if they male knew any common languages. After five tried he reacted to one. He discussed his need to get over the mountain, and the leopard said that his eldest son could take him over starting in the morning, but they wouldn't take any small amount of payment. He said he held out two of the rubies and the family's eyes got wide.
Skippy told me about how the son had come in a few minutes later and agreed and the next morning he gave them one of the jewels, and said the other would be rewarded when he reached the other side safely. The family agreed and said their goodbyes, and the two of them started up the ill used path.
They walked the whole day making their way up the steep and loose rocks, the air getting colder as they did. Skippy said that he hadn't brought enough clothing on the journey and had to make a makeshift poncho out of the scrap bits of fabric he had in his bags when the wind got too much to handle. At night, they set up a small tent made of a thick fabric that only blocked the wind enough to get a few hours of sleep. They would wake when the sun had lit the mountain enough to see the ground and not stop until they started to trip in the darkness of the night.
The leopard was a natural, but Skippy said that he was not fairing too well. The high altitude was not doing much for his lungs, and the relentless cold would chill though his poncho and fur. When they had walked high enough for there to be snow on the ground, he didn't think he was going to be able to make it any further and thought about turning back. But, his guide didn't speak any of the common languages, so he didn't know how to tell him to do so. So, he toughed it out and followed that siren of a call.
They reached the pass of the mountain between two tall peeks. Skippy said that they were so high that they could almost touch the clouds as they passed. The snow was a foot deep and the air was so thin that he started seeing things. As they passed through the long stretch of snow, the wind started to pick up and within a matter of minutes, there was a blizzard. The leopard ran into a small cave off to the side of the field, and Skippy quickly followed.
He said that once they climbed through the small opening, we discovered that the cave was actually quite large. They looked deep into the cave, but the darkness hid anything too far in. They crawled inside and sat down waiting for the storm to calm. They waited in the damp, cold, dark cave looking at each other in the dim light, not being able to communicate. Skippy said that he felt a tickle in his throat, and he tried to hold it back, but the cough was eminent, and it burst forth loudly.
The sound echoed deep into the cave, resonating early against the sharp walls. But, instead of slowly ending like a normal echo, this one came back and started getting louder like an angry hell worthy roar. Skippy said that the color of his guide's face disappeared, and he looked like he had seen a ghost. They looked at each other to see if the other had heard the same thing. But they didn't need to for long because a second roar quickly followed.
He said that the guide shot out of that cave quicker than a bullet. He dove after him yelling and holding the ruby out to remind him, but the leopard just looked back, paused, and continued running until he disappeared in the storm. Skippy slipped the ruby back into his pocket and looked down the dark cave trying to figure out what to do. His skimpy fabric wouldn't hold up against the storm, but there was obviously something else in that cave, and it didn't sound too happy.
Skippy said that he eventually came to the conclusion that he should find the creature before it found him. So he crawled further into the cave. The ground was hard and pointy, and slippery in some places from ice. His eyes slowly adjusted to the lack of light, and where there was none, he relied on a single match to see where he was going. The further in he went, the taller the cave got. He said that some parts were the size of grand ballrooms and covered in blue and green crystals. He would have taken a few, but decided that he better not risk angering whatever called the cave home. Deeper and deeper he went, and the warmer it got too. He said that it got warm enough that he had to take his poncho off.
He entered another ballroom and saw two openings. He listened carefully as he looked around the room holding a match. He said the ceiling glistened like it was covered in glitter, and he failed to notice the match getting dangerously low to his fingers. With a silent yelp he dropped the match and was bathed in the darkness. Sucking on his singed paw, he noticed a soft glow coming from one of the entrances.
He softly stepped closer to the glow and down the narrower passage way. He got to the point where he could see the source of the glow. It was some sort of crudely fashioned lamp using an organic luminescent light. He stepped even more cautiously towards the lamp and heard a grunt from the beast.
He said his heart nearly stopped, but the call pulled him closer. When he got to where the wall ended, he peeked around the corner as slowly as he could. What he saw made his blood run cold. He couldn't believe it, it was...
"Aww, come on!" I yelled in protest to Skippy stopping his story.
But he just grinned at me and hummed a little tune.
"Please?" I begged. I needed to know what was behind that corner.
"Well... nah, it wasn't anything special, it would ruin an already bad story. I'd better not say."
"PLEASE?" I yelled.
"Well..."
He peeked around the corner and his eyes fell upon a large fuzzy, muscular mass facing the opposite direction. The torso was easily twice the size of his, he said, and it must have stood eight feet tall. It was a yeti. Its long scraggily white fur dangled in tangled locks as it mumbled to itself. He said that there was so much adrenaline pumping through his body at that moment of seeing the mythical creature that he could have ran clean down the mountain without stopping once. But instead, the call kept him there, and we watched silently. The mass moved, and he froze. As it moved off to the side, it revealed two smaller white fuzzy heads under layers of furs.
The yeti was a mother. Skippy said that he watched the beast care for her two children and grumble some sort of lullaby to them until they were fast asleep. He said he would have stayed longer to watch, but he knew that babies meant there must have been two of them, and he didn't want to see the male version first hand. So he quickly tiptoed his way out of the cave, past the giant glistening ballrooms, and through the narrow passages until he saw the familiar glint of daylight. He walked up to the snowed in entrance and started digging his way out. There was another foot of fresh snow on the ground, and he stomped through it and straight down the passage.
He said that it took him another two days to make it down the mountain, and sleeping in a shelter made of the branches of two bushes and whatever he could find in his bags. When he reached the bottom of the mountain, he looked at the endless valley before him and listened for the call to tell him what direction to start walking in. And he started walking.
My eyes must have been the size of dinner plates as I excitedly asked him if he really saw a yeti.
"Well, of course I did. But I don't have any proof, so no one believes me. But I have a feeling that yetis aren't too photogenic anyways. Nobody just believes anymore. That's the problem with the world today; so many people have seen so much, but they can't say anything because the overwhelming doubt keeps them quiet. But you believe me right?"
I nodded enthusiastically as we walked along the cold desert ground.
"Ha, good kid. Keep that spirit up, and the faith alive, and you'll never grow old."
I pondered what he meant by that last comment as we silently walked along. The mountain was getting larger each time I looked at it.
We walked a while longer, talking about silly little things and I told a few small stories from my much duller life, but he was amused the same amount as if they had been as adventurous as his. We took small breaks to rest when we got tired, and we took a little break for water and to eat, but we kept moving for most of the night.
The stories slowly dwindled to silence as we both were wearing down from the journey. I was walking on backup power as I stumbled along trying to not fall asleep, when I felt a tap on my shoulder. I sprung awake and looked around. Skippy was looking off into the distance and he held a finger up to his muzzle and pointed off into the night. Across the dark distance I saw something scurrying along. As I focused more, I discovered that it was actually a large crab like creature tiptoeing across our path. It was one of the creatures he had told me about. We silently watched the monster crawl in a zigzag, stalking some other critter. It seemed not to have noticed us as it continued on its way.
The crab monster wandered off into the dark distance and we continued on our way.
A few more hours past and the first rays of dawn spread across the dry desert floor. Skippy stopped and we took another break. He kept his promise and released the glowing worms back to the ground. I watched them crawl and disappear in the dirt.
"They will colonize and create a new home here now," he said as the last one disappeared beneath the surface.
I looked over at the sunrise and watched the slowly moving glowing orb appear over the flat horizon. The mountain lit up a brilliant maroon; it was so close.
I looked excitedly at Skippy and said enthusiastically "Let's go, it can't be more than a few more hours away!"
But Skippy just looked at the glowing mountain and shook his head. I asked him why.
"Well, kid, that sun is going to get hot soon, and while it may be only a few hours to that mountain, I'm guessing that whatever it is you are looking for is somewhere on the top, and by the time we reach it, that sun will be beating us down hard. So, we'll wait and rest and move again when the sun goes down."
I looked at my feet disappointed that we'd have to wait longer but I soon got over it as we gathered our things again and started looking for an oasis to stay in. We looked through a few that we passed and finally found one that Skippy agreed with. We unpacked our things and had a little snack of the prepared fruit.
Skippy yawned and stretched as he leaned back into the curve of one of the trees. I tried to do the same, but I couldn't find a comfortable position. The pointy scales of the tree didn't agree with my spine, and I tossed and turned against the trunk until I heard a loud clearing of a throat. I looked up at Skippy who was glaring at me.
I shifted again and he sighed as he stood up and gathered a bunch of leaves from the trees and dumped them on the ground. He picked up one of the empty backpacks and folded it and placed it down as a pillow. With another grunt he went back to his tree and settled down for the night.
I said a quiet "thank "as I crawled over to the makeshift bed and nestled down into it. It was significantly more comfortable than the tree and I was quickly off to sleep and dreaming of what was on top of the mountain.