I kept looking at the bottom of the mountain. Ulen was sleeping near me. I lightly shook him to wake him. "Hey, wake up buddy," I said. His eyes opened and yawned. Ulen was always either sleeping or resting. I always worried about him. It was night time. Moon shining upon the mountain. "Yeah?" he asked. "We have to go back, to the cave," I told him. "Oh yeah, okay, let me just fully wake up." he said. He blinked for a long time but eventually he fully woke up. "Come on, let's start walking down," I commanded. I started walking on a downward trail. He quickly followed me.

I never thought of riding Ulen. He was usually so tired that I didn't think he could do it for more than ten minutes. I scratched his purple ears. Ulen made a purr like nose. "So, your one-year anniversary coming up, do want to celebrate?" he asked. It has been one year? It seemed so far away from that day that I joined him. "Maybe," I responded. "Do you miss them?" he asked. He was talking about my parents. I ran away from them before coming to the mountain. I have a feeling Ryan and Cyrus, the other mountain guardian caretakers, did too.

"Of course, I miss them," I said, "I lived with them for sixteen years." "Was it all bad?" he asked. "Of course not, that's why I lived with them for sixteen years." I answered. "Did you love them?" he questioned. "Yeah, I loved them," I said, "I might still love them." Tears started flowing up in my eyes. Ulen saw my tearful eyes and jumped on to me. He hugged me and a wrapped my arms around his arms since that was the only part of him connected to my body.

Eventually we stopped hugging and started walking. We walked in silence. The tears in my eyes dried up. We reached the middle of the mountain. I went right so; we could go to cave. I saw Ryan and Cyrus washing their clothes in the lake. I assumed they were naked so I didn't stare too long. I can't believe they are okay with being naked in front of each other. I heard Ryan saying hi to me. I ignored him. I know it's probably mean to ignore me but I'd be saying hi to a naked boy washing his clothes in the lake.

I continued my walk to the cave. I came to the cave. The cave was as dark as the night sky. It even had blue rocks like stars. I hit one of the rocks four times and then a bright blue flooded the cave. Five doors appeared. I went to the door with a diagonal purple line on it. I opened that door to a room full of cabinets with a blanket and pillow on the floor. It looked like a small cabin. I fell to the floor and Ulen snuggled next to me. "Are you hungry?" I asked. "No," he responded.

I closed my eyes. Ulen's soft fur being my blanket. "You don't want to go to the pillow?" he asked. "Sure, but I'm lazy right know and just want to sleep." I responded. Ulen walked away and got my pillow. Then he got my blanket. He didn't exactly lay the blanket correctly on my body enough to cover my legs. I grabbed the blanket and maneuvered it to cover my legs and feet. I closed my eyes again. There was no sound around me. Ulen eventually purred. Then no sound again. Eventually at some point in time I started sleeping.

I woke sometime in the morning. I looked at Ulen. He was still sleeping. I went outside to get some breakfast. I was going to make a salad for me and a cooked bird for Ulen. Now, I am going to go kill a bird. It took me some time for me to find a small little bird. I jumped onto my bird and closed my eyes. I turned my head and then heard the little bird gasping for air. I am not proud of killing birds but I need Ulen to survive. I grabbed the bird in my hands. I put it in my jean pocket.

I gather some berries, mints, and herbs. I put those in my pockets. I went to the cave. I did the same routine as before. I went and saw one of the doors in the middle opened. I went to the door and saw Cyrus getting a bunch of books. "What are you doing Cyrus?" I asked. "That's the first time you asked about me." he jokingly answered, "My mountain guardian is not feeling so well." "Yours too, huh?" I asked. "Yeah," he said. "Even with that I would never imagine reading so many books." I stated. "I guess that's why I'm smarter," Cyrus jokingly said. He walked outside and I followed. "Yeah, I guess," I chuckled. "Could you help me with my door for me?" he asked. I nodded and went to open the door.

As soon as I touched it, I went flying. I slammed on the cave wall. "What the heck!?" he exclaimed. I got relaxed a bit, I didn't want Cyrus to see me as weak so I just said, "Huh, guess we can't open each other's door." "I guess we can't," he restated. I got up. He let down his books and opened his door. "Thanks," he said, even though I didn't do nothing. "You're welcome, now I have to go guard the mountain." I said and then waved goodbye. He waved back. I walked out of the cave. Talking to Cyrus was weird.

He talked like a fifteen-year-old but through the mouth of an eleven-year-old. He was my little brother but at the same time he had such a charming personality. I went back to Ulen. The room was exactly how I left it before. Ulen was sleeping so I made our breakfast. I got out the bird from my pocket and started a fire. I put a pan over the fire and started cutting the bird with my bare hands. As you assumed it was hard to cut a bird with your bare hands. I tried for many minutes to cut the bird. I was finally able to rip it open a little. After that my hand were filled and stained with the bright red blood of it.

I took out the eyes and the beak. I also took out some of the skeleton and the organs. Finally, I was done taking out the bird and I put it on the pan. I grabbed another pan and quickly went outside to get some lake water. It was heavy but I was able to carry it to the room. I started another fire and put the pan on it. I paid attention to the bird while I waited for the water to bubble. I moved the bird a little on the pan. The bird moved slowly on the pan. I moved it backwards, forwards, to the side, and to the other side. All that time I saw a did little bird swivel around the pan that I gutted out. Don't think this isn't hard for me to witness let alone touched. I looked at Ulen. He was still sleeping like a cat.

I continued to cook. The smell of the stew wafted into my nose. I slowly woke Ulen up. At first, I started by gently touching his ears. Since Ulen was still sleeping, I poked him in the nose. "What," he groaned. "Breakfast or more truly lunch is almost ready." I told him. "Oh, god I'm sleeping more and more." he said, "Did you talk to Cyrus?" "Yeah," I answered. "Why don't you talk to Ryan?" he asked. "Ryan doesn't seem like he wants to talk to me. He seems so interested to talk to a girl from the nearby village." I responded. I went back to finishing up the meal. I added some spice to the stew and bird. I grabbed some plates from a cabinet. I remember getting these plates somewhere in the peak of the mountain. Probably some hikers died or something.

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I served half the bird in a plate and some stew in another plate. I gave to Ulen to eat. "You know," he starts, "I wish I've gotten to get to know Ren and Wilson." "Why?" I questioned. He'd never talked about Ren or Wilson before. He's usually referred to them as the other guardians. "Maybe we could have raised you kids better." he answered. "You've raised me well enough." I told him. "Yes, but I want to get to know Cyrus and Ryan better and work with them." he said. "Why? You're telling me all these things but you aren't telling me why. Why are talking so cryptic?" I asked. "Promise me, before I die, you'll get to know and work with Cyrus and Ryan." he said. "Ok," I said confused beyond believe, "I promise."

I wanted to stop the conversation so I said, "Let's eat." We ate in silence. I was so confused. We finished eating and decided to go to another peak of the mountain. We walked in silence. His voice still rang in my head. The word why, repeated in my head. Sometimes I would look to Ulen. I stopped for a moment and saw the view for there. The trees were standing tall and a peak of the mountain was hidden underneath a layer of fog. It looked so ominous that must be why it looked so pretty. I returned to walking and we continued on our walk. We walked for at least an hour.

We got on top of the mountain. We sat down. "Did you think about it?" he asked. He asked me yesterday what I thought was a good metaphor for love. "Yes, but I've never been in love." "You didn't love your parents and you don't love me. That's what I get out of your answer." he said. "I love them, I love you." I remarked. "Then you have loved, now tell me what is a good metaphor for love." he commanded. Ulen was like a philosophy teacher only I lived with him. "For the cynical love is a dagger and for the optimistic love is a shield." "Explain further," he commanded. "For the cynical, love can be wielded far or up close, it protects you but also draws blood. For the optimistic love protects you and has to be used up-close." I explained.

Sometimes I hated this. I hated these philosophy lessons from a purple coyote who talked. "What is your idea of love?" he asked. "Love is dagger, the optimistic are short sided." "You must hate me for talking to you about this stuff," he told me, "But I do it to get to know you." I did hate this but I didn't hate him. "I don't hate you; this is very tiring." I told him. "Do you want to rest?" he asked. "No, it's fine," I told him. "What do you think is the meaning of life.?" he questioned. "Could you ask me a simpler questioned?" I asked back. As you can guess 'What is the meaning of life,' is a tough questioned for a seventeen-year-old to answer.

Even though that, it also a tough question to answer because you have to reflect on your entire life to answer that question correctly. "How long do you think it would take you to answer?" he asked. "Maybe a day," I answered. "Well, what is a question you think you can answer quickly?" he asked. "I don't know," I started, "Um..., what is the most important period in your life." I could immediately think of an answer to that. It was the easiest answer for me. "Okay, then, answer that question," he commanded. "The period of me running away from home." I answered. "That's an easy answer." he said. "Well, you did ask." I remarked back. "Fair enough," he said. I smiled a little and looked at him. He smiled back.

"Can we rest a little?" I asked. "Like a nap?" he asked back. "Yeah," I answered. "Okay," he remarked. Ulen closed and his eyes and rested his head. I did the same thing. Whenever I close my eyes, it looks like a calypso. Especially I see pink and blue. It's so weird. I somewhat tried to go to sleep. You know I usually can't remember my dreams. Whenever I do, they're so weird. When I first ran away, I had dreams about my parents but I pushed them all down. I rested for some time and then I saw the sun setting. I woke up Ulen and told him that I was getting dinner ready.

I saw Cyrus walking lost in his thoughts. "Hey," I greeted seemingly surprising him. "Hi," he greeted back, "Where's Ulen?" "He's on top of the mountain. I went down to grab dinner." I answered, "Do you want to have dinner with us?" "Sure, and I might have to grab dinner for Ren." I responded. "Okay, so I have to double our dinner, okay," I stated. "I'll help," he said. "Do you know how to cook?" I asked. "Sort of," I responded. "Kay," he said, "Follow me so we can get the ingredients." We walked downward.

"What do you think other humans see when they look at us?' he questioned. What, nothing? What is he thinking? "They don't see anything," I responded confused. "But we still are around, they must see something even if it's light reflecting off of us." he stated. "If they do see that, then they don't care enough to question it." I stated. "Do you want to go back to your family?" Cyrus asked. "No, and my parents don't know why." I responded. Cyrus looked at me as if he was interpreting my answer. "Okay, do want to talk about it?" I questioned. "No," I answered kind of angrily, "Do you want to go back to your family?" "I left them in poverty. They lost a breadwinner and this isn't better but I feel so appreciated." he answered with guilt in his voice. "I feel like you should go back." I told him. "This my life now, he's my family," he said. "He's my family too," I stated.

"Did you have any siblings?" Cyrus asked. "No," I responded, "Did you?" "Yeah, a lot of sisters." he responded. We stopped talking and collected the ingredients. The ingredients we got were mainly herbs. He seemed to only recognized a few ingredients. We also got some carrots, radishes, and onions. I wondered what meals Cyrus ate since this process seemed unfamiliar to him. We went the top of the mountain and saw Ulen sitting under a tree. "Hey, Ulen," I greeted. Ulen turned around. "What is Cyrus doing here?" Ulen asked. "He's here to have dinner for us and to get food for Ren." I answered. There was a small pot over a stack of wood. "Wait here, I'm going to wash the ingredients, Cyrus, you start the fire." I instructed.

I went down to the river. I carefully washed the ingredients. It was quite relaxing to do nothing but wash the ingredients. I filled the pot with some water and then went back. Cyrus went to help me, by grabbing the pot from him. "Be careful," I instructed. "I will," he remarked. We went over to the open fire. We sat down and started the process. I started breaking the vegetables with my hands. "You don't have a knife?" he asked. I shook my head gently. "I think Ryan has one." he stated. 'How good for him.' I thought. Not wanting to be rude I said, "I'll ask him later." I was done breaking the ingredients and put them in the pot. With a spoon in my pocket, I started stirring the stew counter clock wise.

Do you "miss the modern world?" he asked. "Yeah, I miss modern convinces," I responded, "Do you miss the modern world?" "Yeah, I miss modern fashion." he answered. I nodded and asked, "Do you just want to make conversation so this isn't awkward?" "Yeah," he remarked and nodded. "Kay," I stated. I finished the stew and grabbed two plates. I filled them with stew. I put a spoon in one of them and gave the other to Ulen. I gave the rest of the stew that was in the pot to Cyrus. "Here you go. For you and Ren. Give me back the pot when you're done." I spoke. "Thanks," he said, "I will." he went downhill. Ulen and I had dinner on top of the mountain. Once we were finished, we went downhill. We went back to the cave, did the steps. went to our room, and went to bed.