The mountains around Hume
They shook around her whole village. And no one knew why till she decided to see for herself.
Hume was climbing down the window at midnight when the groans started from the forest. It shook the walls along with the creepers she was holding onto. She waited for the tremors to subside before continuing on her path.
For a week, the children and animals had their ears filled with wax while the adults drank until they could barely see straight. The village drowned in darkness. Sometimes, they went for two weeks in the dark. The Priest’s house had caught fire last year. He had left a candle burning.
Hume wanted to see what nobody had.
The elders had heard from theirs that once the flowers bloom in your garden, you don’t step out at night. And it had been a rule since. Never broken. Thus, no one was ever punished for it.
She had tried it the last spring too. But her sister had told their mother. Hume had been locked up in her room with bolts on her windows and drapes weighed down by their dog who hated her.
Her mother had forgotten all about it this year. And her sister had gotten married. Good riddance.
Hume let out an excited squeal as she felt the ground beneath her shake again. She put her hands on her mouth to stop herself from making another sound. But nothing could be heard over the deafening noise anyway.
She ran towards the market. The center had the perfect view of the forest uphill. Her friend had told her that’s where the tremors started.
Hume fell three times, scraping her knees and hands. Her ears started bleeding as she used the walls to support herself while walking. The window of Bakers had fallen in the street. She could see their children in the corner, crying away for their mother. Even the pole that the Priest had erected on the center with the message, ‘KEEP IN’, had fallen down.
She wondered why he even cared to warn people. No one had come out in decades. Even if the roof fell on their head, which had happened more than once to the Hutters.
They preferred to stay surrounded by the barren mountains and lush valleys that shook and rearranged themselves every spring. They didn’t leave. More came to settle in, and adapted to their ways.
Someone had told Hume that the Sun shone in the night, and the ground quaked in fear. But she didn’t believe the old man. There was barely any light from the moon to see clearly. But it did glint off the mountain, changing its shape around the valley. It looked like something was growing from them as it moved this way and that.
Hume gasped as she saw the figures rising all around her. They shook off the trees around them as they climbed further up, leaving holes that had been chalked up to landslides by people.
She lost precious time in getting her bearings. Fear. Then joy. At the thought of telling her friends and family that everyone was wrong. She was ready to go to her home when one of them turned back, and saw her in middle of the valley.
Her scream tore through the village as the mountain charged towards her.