To fly high and free…to climb to the highest heights and watch the world go by, that was her goal. Truly it was. She didn’t care that there was no one with her. She didn’t care that the mountain goats and little rock creatures laughed at her. She didn’t even care that the rocks and scraggly mountain trees scorned her. Contentment in pursuing her goal…to reach the top of that mountain, was all she cared about.

–

Then one morning partway up the mountain, her contentment was shaken. Clouds had closed in and the air had been so moist, she was damp minutes after. And with the clouds all about her and the dreadful dampness and haunting obscurity surrounding her, she began to wonder. Was there a mountain peak after all? What if all this work had been for nothing? What if when she completed this hard uphill climb, there was no mountaintop to stand tall on?

–

She paused, sinking down on one of the scornful rocks. She cupped her chin in her palms, trying to think and reason, but the thick fog around her seemed to have clouded her mind. She couldn’t make sense of it all.

–

Then out of the fog, like a ghost emerging from the graveyard, a figure approached. Any other time she would have recognized him, but now in this darkness, he looked like a stranger. She began to tremble as he came nearer.

–

“Who are you.”

–

“I’m the one who brought this fog.”

–

“This fog that has caused me so much trouble?”

–

“Yes.”

–

“Why?”

–

The man just shook his head, gently took her hand and pulled her to her feet. Together, they both started to pick their way through the fog together back up the mountain.