by carmen wright
**
“Get off my mountain!” she yelled.
And to make sure he understood perfectly, she glared down at him from over her shoulder, her eyes blue and furious, and drove the heel of one her boots hard onto his hand.
Cullen didn’t want to scream out in pain, and did try his very best not to, but it was the final twist of Lailie’s heel, grinding his fingers into the tiny rock ledge he was clinging to, that did it.
“Owwwwwwwwwwwwwwwch!!”
“What a baby!” she said, laughing.
When Lailie lifted her boot, nothing remained to hold him to the rock, so his fingers slipped away. Luckily he had a good grip with his other hand and the toes of his boots, or he would likely have fallen the 200 or so feet down to the base of the cliff.
He stretched his fingers out, flexing them so the blood flowed through once more, and called up to Lailie’s boots and backside as she continued up without him. “Lailie!”
“Yes, Cullen?” she answered with false sweetness.
“You’re going to pay for that one, I promise you.”
“Oh, that’s what you always say.”
Not ready to trust his hand quite yet, Cullen clung to the side of the mountain known throughout his land as the Finger. The Finger was tall and narrow, shaped just like anyone would guess given its name, with practically sheer rock faces on all sides. The Finger stood at the top of another mountain, known as the Fist, for it’s large round shape and deep crevices cut vertically into the sides. At the foot of the Finger, and on top of the Fist, lay an incredibly beautiful emerald lake, which feed the streams that cut the crevices in the Fist as waterfalls. From the Holy Temple, the Finger on the Fist looked like a giant hand pointing to the heavens. The view determined the location of the temple, and the mountains, lake and falls were all considered sacred. Very few had seen the lake, fewer still had been up on the Finger.
Cullen was glad none of the priests could see the lake today, although they wouldn’t have been surprised. Since the waterfalls had stopped, everyone knew there must be trouble with the lake. But to see the lake, gray and thick, completely without life, they would have certainly been heartbroken.
Which is why he was climbing the Finger. The land was dying without the lake, and the old books said that if anything were to happen to the land, the answer would lie on the top of the Finger.
Of course, Lailie had the same idea. They had been friends since forever, always attempting all sorts of amazing feats of skill, intelligence and raw physical strength. In fact, they started the journey together. But, for some reason, they had been fighting a lot lately.
He couldn’t exactly remember when it started. It wasn’t as if she was doing anything any different then usual. But things would happen. Like just now he had gotten pissed off when he found himself admiring her legs instead of worrying about climbing, and had said something mean to her, and in return she had stomped on his fingers.
Besides all this, there was no way he was going to let her beat him to the top and solve the puzzle. No way she was going to be the one to save the land and be forever remembered.
Cullen decided to forget about following Lailie up the easier route, and instead started around to the backside. It would be more difficult, sure, but then again, he was stronger. He dug in one toe, then reached up with his good hand, then dug in with his second foot, then with his not-so-good hand. His eyes rapidly scanned the rock face, looking for a good hold, thinking only of reaching the top, blocking all else from his mind including the hot sun shining on his head, cruising up the rock like he was in a zone. In fact, he was so much into a zone, he didn’t realize he reached the top until he looked over the edge and into Lailie’s eyes at the exact second she cleared the other edge.
The ledge at the top of the Finger was perhaps twelve feet across, so there was no way Lailie’s spit could have reached Cullen’s face, but that didn’t stop her from trying.
“How did you do that? You jerk!”
Cullen scrambled up and raced Lailie to the center of the ledge where a stone disk balanced on a square-shaped flat-topped rock a foot or so high. Both lunged forward and grabbed the disk.
“It’s mine, Lailie.”
“No, Cullen. It’s mine.”
After a few seconds struggling with the disk, which amazingly wouldn’t budge from the square rock, both gave up. Neither let go. Instead, they glared at each other.
It didn’t take Cullen long to get bored with the whole glaring thing. He conceded the contest. Looking down on the disk, though, he found something much more interesting. Letters. Words. A message.
“Hey, Lailie, look at this.”
She started studying the words as well. “Can you see what it says?”
“My side says ‘A pure heart unlocks the light of life’.”
Lailie looked up from the letters. “My side says ‘A pure heart unlocks the sword of life’.”
Cullen shifted uncomfortably. Just what did that mean anyway? He highly doubted he had a pure heart. And since he and Lailie practically thought exactly the same thoughts, he doubted she had a pure heart either. “Well, what do we do now?”
“Obviously, I’m the one with the pure heart,” she said matter-of-factly. “Once you let go of the disk, I’ll be able to save the world.”
“What! How can you have a pure heart?”
“Just because you don’t have a pure heart doesn’t mean I can’t have one.”
“But you’re just like me!”
“How can I be like you? I have a pure heart!”
“And just how do you know I don’t have a pure heart?”
“Well, for starters, unlike you I’m not doing this for me, I’m doing this for our people. That’s why I am of a pure heart.”
“So, you’re not doing it to be remembered? To be remembered forever and have your name in all the holy books?”
“No.”
“I can’t believe that. It’s a given that if you save our people they’ll be happy about it. It all goes hand in hand.”
“But I would save them even if they wouldn’t be happy about it.”
“You would? You’d do it even if your name was cursed for all time and everyone thought you were evil?”
Cullen studied her face carefully. Waiting. Watching. Was she more pure than he?
Lailie squirmed. Then, she shrugged a little.
“Ah ha!”
“Well, neither would you, Cullen!”
“But at least I can admit it”
“Well, so did I. Just now.”
“Lailie, face it, once you think about it, I’m sure you’ll see that I’m more pure than you are, especially since you’ve got to prove your family’s name and stuff.”
Lailie’s face lit with anger. “I’m not doing any of this to prove my family’s name! This has nothing to do with what my grandfather did! It’s never been about that for me!”
Cullen suddenly felt badly. He knew it was true. He sighed. “So, like I said before, now what? I figure I’m as pure as you. Which may or may not be pure enough to qualify for what this disk thing wants.”
Lailie stared down at the disk, rubbing the round edges through her thumbs. He could see she really wanted this.
Which got him to thinking, so what if she was the one to save the world? She was still his best friend. Maybe that would be close enough. After all, only one person could save the world. Only one with a pure heart. Or perhaps, in this case, when one took into account his earlier thoughts about her legs, the one with the purest heart. So…
Cullen let go of the disk.
Lailie’s eyes went wide; she blinked twice, and smiled. A smile so big it covered her face. Carefully, she began to turn the disk. And this time, it did turn. She gasped, turned some more, until the disk clicked into a new position.
The disk and square stone began pulsing a deep, blood red.
“I can’t let go,” Lailie said, sounding scared.
And now Cullen was scared, too. ‘Try harder!”
“I am trying!” Lailie dug her heels into the ground and tried to stand up. It wasn’t working. The stones looked as though they were lava, all bubbling around.
Cullen sat there on his knees, stunned. On one hand he was scared for Lailie, but on the other hand, boiling rock looked so interesting. And Lailie wasn’t screaming or anything yet. “Is it hot?”
“No, it just, I… I… don’t know what’s happening. I can’t let go.”
“Maybe you’re not supposed to let go.”
“Maybe….” She gasped. “Something’s happening!”
Sure enough, the disk and stone were changing. The rock seemed to be nearly liquid, growing longer and longer until it became a huge sword, still red, still glowing. Lailie stood now, holding the living sword cautiously in front of her.
“It’s the sword of life!” Cullen said. “Like the words on the disk said!”
“Do you think?”
“Yes! Yes! I know it! You did it, Lailie!”
Lailie laughed nervously. “Now what do I do?”
“I don’t know. It didn’t say.”
“Maybe I should point it down to the temple,” she said, swinging the sword around.
“Hey!” Cullen said. “Don’t point it at me!”
But it was a little late for that.
Lailie caught her breath as she tried to stop the arc, but the sword was too heavy. And when it pointed at Cullen, a blast of light surged from the sword straight through his heart.
Lailie screamed, and so did Cullen, until they realized he wasn’t dead. The light then shot out the hilt of the sword and through Lailie’s heart. There they were, the two of them, attached through their hearts by the light from the sword of life, a light that ran from the sun, though a standing Lailie, though the glowing red lava sword, through Cullen who was on his knees, and down into the murky lake at the base of the Finger.
Even though the seconds seemed to stretch on and on, it was over as quickly as it began. The light disappeared and Lailie, in shock, dropped the sword. It shattered into two stone pieces, a square and a disk.
Cullen sat back on his heels, shocked. Neither did much but look at the other for at least two full minutes.
Eventually, Cullen turned and leaned over on his hands to peer over the edge to the lake. It was swirling now, with an intense emerald whirlpool in the center. Even as he watched, the circle became larger and larger.
“I think something’s happening to the lake.”
Lailie spoke from close by. She must have been standing behind his shoulder. “You always were very observant.”
He looked up at her and smiled. “And you’ve always been…” A million things flashed through his mind at that second, but he couldn’t think of which to chose, so he decided to go with “… Lailie.”
This made her laugh. “What should we do about the stone?”
Cullen looked over at the two pieces. “Put them back the way they were?”
“Good idea.” As Lailie went to the stones, Cullen took another look at the lake. It was now completely emerald, and beginning to flow over, feeding the waterfalls. Everything was going to be fine.
“Hey Cullen,” Lailie said, finished with the stones. “You know, the writings gone from the disk now. Isn’t that strange?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe not so strange.”
Lailie looked over at him while tucking some hair behind both her ears with both hands at the exact same time. “Should we get back then?” she asked.
Cullen rolled over onto his back and fidgeted until he found a comfortable spot. He laced his fingers behind his head and closed his eyes, enjoying the sun and happy feelings about saving the world with Lailie, plus a few other nice thoughts just about Lailie.
“Not yet. Okay?”
“Okay,” she said. And she was smiling. He could hear it in her voice.
**
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