The Warrior and the Mountain

The Warrior and the Mountain

            As a child I went to the mountain to partake of the wisdom therein.  I sought out the grasses, the tress, the stone, and the mud.  I saw all the wonders that dwelled within and without.  It was on the Mountain I learned the ways of the hunter, the warrior, and the lover.

            The years passed and I came of age.  As a young man I left the Mountain and carried its wisdom deep inside.  I traveled many a year and found both fame and fortune.  Riches beyond my wildest dreams, and women…oh, the women.

            Still quite young but wearied and torn by my years on the road I soon longed to return to the Mountain with a woman to call my own.  It was on the Mountain where I made a home and my wife bore my three sons and a girl.  The years were good and the harvest bountiful.  It was on the Mountain I saw my infant sons change into men, warriors, hunters, and lovers by their own rights.  My baby girl found a good strong man and had babies of her own.  They all left the Mountain.

            The years passed and the Mountain remained the same.  Soon all that was had come to pass and I found myself alone.  The one boy returned, my eldest.  I bade him help an old man from his bed.  He held my arm and steadied my gait as I walked out on my Mountain.  We walked until the sun would soon set and he bid me rest at the peak.

            The day grew dim or perhaps just my eyes as I lay there.  I bid my son return to the house for some trinket I had forgotten.  In his absence I surrendered myself whole unto my old friend.  In the end was as in the beginning, there was only the Warrior and the Mountain.