by Mandy Olina
it!’
The mountain started to shake and shake and at first nothing seemed to happen. Until a giant cliff started swaying threateningly above a crevasse, scratching the clouds above with its tip. In moments, the white clouds angered and turned into a storm. They started shooting lightning bolts at the mountain and called on a strong wind that swept everything in its path to bring down the cliff. The wind blew with such force that it took down the wobbling peak in a mere instant.
The enormous piece of rock crashed and started a domino of falling cliffs, which smashed into the crevasse, one over the other, with thundering sounds, until the whole side of the mountain was bare. The crevasse was topped with rock and the clouds, happy to be left unscratched, ended the rain and brought back the stars.
‘That went well!’ the mountain thought. ‘Alas, it is only the first step. I still have some ground to make come about. That should be a bit easier. I know I’ve got a lot of it…. how do I make it come out, though? I wish I had me some paws. I’d be done already if I did. Creatures with paws dreadfully underestimate their possibilities. Now, let’s see. I think that if I concentrate hard enough, I could just do what I think I can. Shouldn’t be too difficult. Mud flying up in the air, then falling back and covering most of the rock in one thick layer of soil. An earth volcano! That’s what I’m going to be!’
So the mountain concentrated and concentrated until, after three days, a bubbling noise was heard from underneath a canyon.
‘Splendid! Finally! I’m so glad I didn’t give up after the first day! I missed four sunsets already but how gorgeous are the remaining ones going to be! Now just a little more effort and…’
The canyon’s bottom cracked and hot mud started flying into the air. The clouds thought it was raining tar, so they got out of the way and frowned at the silly mountain. Everything was now brown and murky. ‘Gorgeous! This is the liveliest I’ve ever been! So close I am to being green, I can’t wait! Oh, the clouds have gone away. Well, no matter, they’ll be back soon when they see how good I look in my new green cover. I wonder why I didn’t just start doing this before. It’s so much fun. Why has the thought never occurred to me? I’ve been looking at beautiful sunsets for ages now. Maybe… sometimes you just have to grow into things.
Maybe I just grew into becoming green. That’s a bit of a scary thought, though. No, that can’t be right. Had I known I could do this, I would have definitely done it earlier. I’m never going to just wait on things to happen like I did before. I think there is a new age, over me. One where I can be, instead of see, when I can make instead of take. That sounds mighty philosophical, doesn’t it? I wish I had someone to tell it to.
‘Sky… are you out there?! Please answer me, Sky!’
THE MOUNTAIN THAT BUILT A WORLD
PPart III
‘You know, I wish I had your eyes, Sky. Blue and soft and high above everything. I wish you told me about the world. I wish I understood where the beautiful sunsets come from. How small I am. Tall as a mountain, but so tiny compared to the sky. But I am still going to finish what I started. I have plenty of earth now and it has rained all night, and it is time for me to sprout a green cover.’
The mountain thought green as hard as he could and soon enough he started feeling something fuzzy tickling his toes.
‘Oh, it’s started! I will make a mess of green out! And Sky will look at me and know, regardless if she admits or says it, that in this still and changeless world, I made something!’
The grass spread across the mountain and covered all the earth it could find. Then, berry bushes started to appear, at first barely enough of them to feed a baby bird. But more of them grew and grew, until there were no more bushes but berry patches that covered the plateaus and slopes. The mountain opened its eyes, as if awoken from a deep sleep.
‘Red! I made red! And blue and violet! I made all these things! And how fragile they are! How small and feeble they seem with their short, innocent spikes. Just like I may as well be compared to the sky. I had no idea I could do this! What are these beings? Are they animals? Am I just seeing things? Is the sunset just reflecting back into my skin? I am confused. Sky! You must have seen them before. What are they?’
But the sky didn’t answer so the mountain fell asleep wondering. The next day he opened his eyes slowly, as if he was afraid to see what lay before them. What if everything had only been a dream? He could feel a wave of joy growing inside him at the memory of the colors he’d created.
‘If I made this, there might be so many other things I could bring to life! Plants that grow until they touch the sky, flowers that cover everything around them in petals, fruit that sweetens the ground it falls on and maybe even… Animals! And I wouldn’t have to be alone anymore. Ever.
‘But where do I start? Where on earth do I start?! I could just make a bigger plant. See how that works out. Yes! Now…’
So the mountain concentrated on bringing about something like a tree and, indeed, one quickly came about. A white birch tree. Tall and slender, like all birch trees.
‘How gracious this creature is for its height. I must make more of its sort!’ And by the end of the day, the sunset reflected into a white and green field of trees.
‘I feel I’ve done something good today. This is probably the most beautiful arrangement of colors I have ever seen. Sky! I know you’re not going to answer me but I’m sure you feel a little proud. Your clouds aren’t alone anymore. They can rain over someone just as white. Now… it’s already late. And I have so many things to make tomorrow! I’ll be off to sleep now, Sky. Maybe you could say a word to me in the morning. If only one...’
THE MOUNTAIN THAT BUILT A WORLD
PPart IV
‘Sky, I’ve had my green cover for years now. I’ve grown flowers and bushes and trees in every color I could imagine. They have leaves or blades or not even, and they either enjoy the sunlight or they don’t, and they either drink plenty of water or they don’t. And there is so much life running through the green veins of everything I’ve made! I can hear it buzzing as it flows from each and every one of these creatures into all the others.
But how to transform this into a friend, I still don’t know. But I am not giving up either. You know that millions of years ago we both saw a dolphin with wings. I didn’t know where it came from then or where it went or why there was only one that made it this far. Now that everything is green, I will make that happen again. I will have animals roaming these places. So I’ve been trying to remember how I’ve come to know about these creatures. Why I knew about birds and dolphins and not about plants.
‘The only thing I could find, deep inside my memory, is that there used to be animals here before me. When I was a baby, just a stump in the ground. I wasn’t always this big. Once I was just about the size of a tree. I could actually see mountains in the distance and envy them because they were so close to you, Sky. I thought surely you must be friends. Then one day I heard a loud thundering in the bowels of the earth. And it seemed for a while like the whole world was going to crumble.
The ground cracked so deeply I remember I could see the molten rock in the deep gushing towards the surface. That’s when I started to grow. Something pushed me from underneath, higher and higher until I found myself way above the clouds. I started calling out for my friends but there was no one else there. Just me with my cliffs and crevasses and you, Sky. So I was happy for a little while and forgot that I was never supposed to be there.
‘Now I remember that I am not, in fact, a mountain. Just a lucky stump. And I used to have friends and animals roaming all around me and I’m going to make that happen again. I am going to call upon the strongest of the winds to bring me flocks of birds and I will take care of them. And then they will tell the other animals what a paradise they’ve found here and the others will come, and I will hear voices again and my forests will be filled with families and friends and stories.
‘But I need your help to do that, Sky. I can’t call the wind by myself. He is
your friend, he never took that much of a liking to me. I think he sees me as more of an obstacle. Speak to the wind, Sky, please. I will ask you every day until you do.’
Thus the mountain spoke, and afterwards he waited. Days passed and every one of them he would renew his pleading to the sky. Yet nothing happened. For years this went on and the mountain never lost hope. Every morning he would wake up and think that this might be the day, the best of days.
Then, one night, when the mountain was fast asleep, the leaves of the birch trees started rustling. A gentle breeze made its way through the branches. The clouds gathered above into a circle, around the moon, as it shone its light on the tip of the sleeping mountain. And then, as if the whole world had plotted for everything to fall magically into place, a warm wind started to blow, right from the sky, down unto the mountain. And animals began to rain down from between the clouds, by the dozens. Frogs, birds, foxes and wolves, bears and deer, all fast asleep and gently carried down with the force of the wind.
Before the first rays of sunlight had pierced the clouds over the horizon, the mountain’s forests were filled with life that was just waiting to open its eyes and be in all the wondrous ways of being.
Sky, however, never answered. And if she heard him or