A Visit On The Mountain

"Hello" Jacques said to the nothingness engulfing him. He'd set up camp for the night a few hours ago before the sunlight was all used up for the day. He was completely alone as he'd wanted. He'd planned this climb for years and here he was in the freezing cold. Alone. If something happened to him on this trip no one could help him. Exactly as he wanted. He was terrified but in his heart he knew that he needed to do this on his own. He needed to prove to himself he could. He remember his mum's trembling lower lip as she bravely tried to keep herself from bursting into tears when they parted at the airport and he blamed himself for being a sort of person who would risk his own life which was the most precious thing to his mother. She had carried him into this world and he here was in the dark and the cold, willing to throw it all away because he simply had to. He felt stupid at times. But he was halfway up the mountain and he couldn't turn back. Turning back would be facing defeat. He put his lips against his tin mug full of hot tea. His friends had given him the mug for the trip and it had the words "Bad Mothafucka" written in cursive on it. He smiled at the memory of spending time with his friends and laughed a little to himself over a funny incident which had happened during his goodbye party. Suddenly he heard a voice and he jumped, spilling some of the tea on himself. "What's so funny?" the small, shrill voice had asked. "Who's there?" Jacques asked and started to fumble for his knife. "Oh, it's just plain old me. No need to find your knife for that." the voice answered. Jacques heart was beating fast. "I can hear your heart. There's no need to be scared. I'm just here for a chat. It gets quite lonely up here." Jacques stared at the canvas of the tent with big eyes. Adrenaline was rushing through his body, preparing him for fight or flight. A silhuette of a tiny hunchbacked creature showed itself against the tent's canvas. The creature made its way to the front of the tent. "Can I come in?" Jacques was too terrified to speak. "Maybe I'll wait." the creature answered and sat down and leaned its back against the front of the tent. "I'm Slieg, by the way:" the creature said. "And you are Jacques." it continued. "How... how do you know my name?" Jacques asked. His breathing was almost as fast as his heartbeat. "Oh, I know everybody who passes through these mountains that you humans have named the Alps. This is sort of my garden, you see, Jacques. Wouldn't you know who you let into your garden?" Slieg asked and chuckled. "It's not many people I actually visit though. Better to visit loners like you. If you tell about me to others, they'll just think you mad. Absolutely mad!" Slieg laughed. "What.. what are you?" Jacques stuttered. "From the way your heart is still beating fast I'm not sure you're ready to see me. I'm not too ugly or anything. I'm just different from anything you've ever seen." Slieg answered and continued "And with the way your hearting is working, I'd might give you a heart attack showing you my face, so let's wait to tomorrow with that. I don't usually like to hurt my humans." Jacques forced himself to breathe more controlled to try and gather his thoughts. "Theeere we go." Slieg said. "Nice deep breaths. Inhala, exhala. Inhala, exhala. Now the knife won't help you one bit, Jacques. So don't grab that. I know you're thinking you're either going insane or that you won't get any rest, but I promise you, I'm your friend for now, you can go to sleep. I simply wanted to introduce myself." Jacques let go of the knife he'd fished out of his bag. "I'll leave now and see you tomorrow!" Slieg said and stood up. His voice was further away when he said: "Sleep tight! Don't let the mountain creatures bite!" His giggles disappeared somewhere in the darkness and Jacques was left panick-stricken in the darkness all alone wondering whether he had lost his mind or if the mountain itself was no longer the most dangerous thing on this climb.