Rune of Oldfyre

Chapter Thirty-Five: Mount Totallyharmless

We ate breakfast and packed our stuff back into the sled. May and I hopped onto Molly and we headed east towards the other end of the mountain and closer to New Qurat, where I could finally rid myself of this rune.

Unfortunately our journey was cut short by a small problem we should have checked before staying the night. The passage out on the eastern side of the mountain had crumbled into ruin centuries ago. We had to turn back and actually go up the mountain.

Yippie!

We back peddled out of the temple, back through the cloister, back through the winding labyrinth, and back through the main hall with all the ball grasping old dudes. We spent most of the day trying to find our way out. We spent the next day trying to find the path that led up and around the mountain.

The path was an extremely laborious hike. Snow had begun to fall the previous night and became a thick layer of impeding white. We crawled up the mountain at a pitiful pace. Though, looking past all the hardship, I began to think that we had become real adventurers. I felt like our group could handle anything.

"It's so fucking cold!" Allister complained for the fourth second time that day.

"We're on a mountain." I said, "It's supposed to be cold, stop complaining."

"Oh," he said, "I'm sorry that you have all the necessary functioning to maintain homeostasis. Some of us don't have that privilege. I fell like my arms are going to freeze and fall off."

"Maybe you shouldn't have gotten shot with an arrow." I called back at him.

"Fuck off," he said to me, "and it was a crossbow."

This exchange reoccured several more times, with different wording, throughout the day. We set up camp that evening on one of the many tiny peaks within the mountain range. In the distance I could see the peak with the gazebo where May and I ''watched the sun set" the other night.

The top of the world was a peaceful place. Each and every star, tiny pin pricks in the sky, were visible. The stars, galaxies and the universe itself arrayed into an elegant cinema for us to watch. The only lights for hundreds of miles was our fire and the moon.

We sat close to the fire, Al practically on it, letting it protect us from the night. We were so close now. Tomorrow, we'd start the trek down the mountain. We would then only have a quick, relatively flat journey south east until we reached New Qurat.

During our arduous climb up Mt. Totallyharmless, May had actually started to enchant things. She had been afraid to for so long. But the boredom of sitting in a sled or on a giant dog quickly overcame that fear. Unfortunately we had very little for her to actually enchant. We ended up with dozens of pens that could be used to make quick light if needed and feathers that make you speak in Morgan Freeman's voice if held. She was good at it, we just didn't have anything.

"It so fucking cold." Allister repeated, this time in Morgan Freeman's voice, as we began our descent down the mountain in the morning.

Mt. Totallyharmless was given its name when the first two explorers to climb it reached its peak. They looked down at the mountain they completed climbing, a barren and cold rock. They expected wizards or demons or giant amazonian women. They were very displeased to find nothing. One of them looked out and then told the other "Well this place appears to be totally harmless."

When the sun ascended, I could feel the new day rising up east horizon. The clearity of the sky allowed the big ball of plasma to offer its rays as a gentle warming. I could make a comment about the light hitting May's eyes, giving off a brilliant purple shine. But I've probably explained this aspect of her in every way available to the common language. So I'll restate it in Valeic: A tua'ván amaethïst delvin ut soc'rates solen. Don't judge me, that's romantic shit right there.