Tales and Stories

Chapter 7 - Mountains and Stars

 

She looked up to see if her story might have attracted some roaming clouds of rain. But apart from a few thin wisps of moisture the sky remained crystal clear and was now tinted the phosphorescent blue that precedes the rising of the moon.

“Lou, are you feeling okay?” Baba Gene asked, “That almost sounded like a happy ending.”

She shrugged in acknowledgement.

“I know. It must be something about this place. It gives me the creeps. Make another chillum.”

“With pleasure.” Baba Gene raised back his head and turned his thin, bare torso to face the mouth of the cave. His long smooth fingers crumbled the stick of charas and gazed out at the sky. The night was into its first stride now and the moon had surely cleared the horizon, though the mountains still kept it hidden. As the light richened he cared not that the dhuni now but smouldered.

“Many thousands are the nights that I have spent sat in this cave watching the dance of the moon and stars upon night’s dark stage. With a sack of dal and rice stored at the back and glacier fresh water running not five minutes walk from here, I rarely had need to stir from my seat of stone.”

“And how are your haemmeroids?” Gypsy Lou asked with mock concern.

“Hence the deer skin.” Baba Gene confided, revealing for a moment his insulation from the cold of the mountain. “But such discomforts bother me not when I live amongst such magnificence as this valley.” He paused a moment before reflecting. “It is a fine night for dragons.”

“Dragons?” Kifkef cried, coming to life again.

“Oh please.” Gypsy Lou implored, turning her attention to her toe nails.

“Yes.” Baba gene nodded earnestly. “Things that are long-forgotten or ignored often enter the stuff of legend - Yet they may be as true as you or I. Who can truly say they have explored the cracks and caverns of even one of these accessible valleys? And yet there are high places where no one has ever set foot and returned.

The Story of the Friend of Dragons