Part: 5/5 read part one
Wordcount: 296
Synopsis: Amy returns to the mountain range on her own time.
I returned to the region in summer of two-thousand six. There were several sites of archeological interest in the valley, and I didn’t have much else to do. It’s really a beautiful place in the summer. The scenery kind of made me wish I was a nature or travel photographer instead. I took some time off while I was there to hike and gave myself permission to snap some photographs recreationally, which I hadn’t done in a while.
I was making my way through a narrow winding pathway through a dark stand of conifers when something caught my eye from beyond, through the trees. At first it confused me, so I kept moving toward it. As I got closer to the edge of the trees, it appeared as a bright orange blaze, like a silent fire consuming the clearing.
The trees thinned out and I found I had reached a high slope. The air was cold and bit my face as I emerged from the shelter of the pines. I stopped and gazed in awe. Never in my life had I seen so many poppies.
To this day, no one has been able to translate the scripts we found in the caves of Mt. X. The story of the people who once lived and died there may never be told. But I’m convinced I know something of them no one else does. I met their king one night. There was a blizzard and neither of us could sleep.
I don’t know what happened to him after that. He was driven by a longing for his lost people. Maybe he went to search the world over for them, or maybe he was simply looking for a warmer place to sleep. Whatever his quest, I wish him well.
THE END