004: The Cursed Mountain

An elf goes to the place where his lover died many years ago. A surprise is waiting for him when he reaches the top. (Fantasy/Love)

    The thunder crashed and the lightning flashed as he made it to the top of the mountain.  There was no rain on this cursed mountain.  Most people had forgotten why the mountain was cursed, and why the only signs of life were the lightning and thunder.  But he remembered.  Almost eight hundred years had passed since he had cursed the mountain.  He hadn’t been back since that day although he had thought about it many times.  That day his lover had been killed defending those who deserved it not.  On that day he had been angry.  No, more than just angry – his rage had been what had caused the curse.  He had killed off everything on the mountain.  Somehow he had lived through it.  To this day he didn’t know how he had survived.  Perhaps it was because he had wanted to die as well.  Maybe it was because his rage was too outwardly focused and he had yet to see that he was guiltier than the people he had destroyed.  Or possibly that was his punishment for his actions.  Either way he had stayed away from the mountain until he felt the time was right.  He had learned and grown as a person.  He had learned what the humans called humanity.  He now understood why his lover had done such a thing to him.  To protect others who couldn’t protect themselves.  He could protect himself and his lover knew that.  His lover hadn’t left him; his lover had made the decision that the villagers needed protecting from the dragon that was to burn down their homes, their farms, and their lives.
Looking about, he saw the spot where his lover had died – a rock where his lover had laid prostate until the end.  His lover had killed the dragon but had also been killed.  Few creatures could survive a dragon’s claw to the stomach, and his lover had not been one of those.  It had been a terrible death – very painful.  That had excited his anger as much as the hatred those ungrateful villagers had for his lover.  He felt lighter the closer he got to the spot and he ran the last few steps.  Falling onto the rock, he began to cry.  In all the years since they had been separated, he had never taken another lover.  He had never felt that anyone else could complete him the way his lover had.  That was one thing that could be truly said about the elves – when they finally found what humans called ‘the one,’ they were faithful until the end, but until that time, they could be as frivolous with their attentions as any human if not more so.
Suddenly, the hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.  Someone was there, but who would dare the lightning and thunder to come here where nothing grew or lived?  Preparing himself mentally, he whipped around.  A blinding light was what awaited him - ten thousand times brighter than the lightning was, he had to guard his eyes with his forearm.
“Who are you?  What are you?” he asked with equal parts defiance and awe.
“Aw, is that anyway to great your long lost lover?” the light replied in a silky voice.  Ripping his arm away from his face, he saw the face of his lover staring back at him.
“But...but how?” he pleaded unable to believe his eyes.
“Magic, of course,” his lover replied with a gentle smile.  “You finally changed enough for me to come back to invite you to spend eternity with me here.”
“What?” he asked as he jumped up.  “Of course I want to be with you.”
“There’s one condition.”
“Anything”
“Rid this place of the curse.  Give it life again, then you can come with me.”
Without a second thought, he caste the most powerful spell he knew.  Life returned to the mountain at the cost of his.  The skies cleared and the trees returned.  From that day forward, the people who live on the mountain have never faced a withered crop, or had to face a spring without the flowers.