I was getting kind of bored. As it turns out, you can walk past only so many talking mushrooms with glowing polka dots on their caps before the novelty wears off. And it was starting to drizzle.

“Tally?”

“Shh.” Tally was walking back and forth with the clicker again, ears twitching as it ticked.

I sighed and leaned backward, tracing patterns into the damp grass with my fingernail. The mountain we’d been steadily approaching cast a shadow over the glade where we’d stopped and the resulting chill was deeply unpleasant. As grateful as I was for the clothes on my back, they weren’t as cozy as my winter coat back home. I felt a little twinge in my chest at the thought.

Not even a day, and I’m already homesick. My face settled into a heavy pout.

“Twenty-six, twenty-seven per ten.” Tally looked up, and I followed her gaze.

On the side of the mountain, forbidding dark clouds were gathered, slowly spinning. Would we have to walk through that? A finger of lightning lit up the great stone, throwing its craggy rocks into sharp relief. Thunder rumbled like an afterthought.

“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me,” I pleaded. I hated storms.

“Fraid so.”

The drizzle around us grew more insistent, combined with the force of a breeze that blew back my hair. It cooled my scalp where the parts were. I watched the clouds coalesce and the sky darken, trying to ignore the stirrings of fear.

“Well. Nothing for it then,” I said.

Climbing a mountain, apparently, was mostly about overcoming a thousand tiny moments of not wanting to move any more. It was almost fun at first, trying to figure out where to place my feet so that the steepness wouldn’t kill me, and fighting the wind. But after a while, it started to feel pointless. Every time I looked up, we seemed to have made no progress.

At some point during our journey, the sun had set, but it was so overcast that I couldn’t make out exactly when the late afternoon had turned into a thrashing night. Streaks of lightning webbed across the sky, and I made the mistake of looking down.

The wet expanse of rock we’d already traversed gazed bleakly back at me. We were far too high off the ground. I stuffed my hand into my mouth to keep from yelling. It tasted like mud. My eyes stung with tears, the salt water rendered invisible by the pounding sheets of rain.

I looked up, squinting, and saw the light brown form of Tally expertly scaling a small face of rock. She was shouting something at the sky.

I wanted to stop. “Tally!” I screamed it, trying to project past the wind. Her head whipped around. “Tally!”

In the next instant, I felt the warm press of fur and the winds quieted a bit. I leaned my head further into her arms.

“Can you go on?” Tally asked me, yelling over the wind. A crack of thunder punctuated her question and I flinched. Tally hugged me tighter, awaiting a reply. I didn’t want to disappoint her, so I said, “I think so- I don’t know.”

The world flashed white for a split second. Completely blank, like a sheet of paper. I gripped her clothes tighter. Tally nodded and lifted me, picking over the sheerest areas with relative ease.

The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

A memory flashed back to me with the next strike of lightning- My mother, carrying me after my broken leg. And then I wanted to stop again.

“Tally,” I started, feeling ashamed. “I wanna…”

“I’ll find a place where we can rest. Don’t worry your little head none.” Tally held me tighter and began looking over the rocks with a purpose. I shivered and nuzzled further into her chest.

I don’t feel much like a brave adventurer.

Lulled into a stupor by the exhaustion and ceaseless noise, I wasn't tracking how many minutes passed, but eventually Tally tapped me on the shoulder. “I see a cave over yonder, hold tight!”

I nodded and did as instructed, keeping a firm grip as I felt Tally bounding over across a flatter section.

Abruptly the sounds of the wind and the rain died down, and I could hear Tally’s labored breathing. I opened my eyes. We were in a small cave with a few hollows in the floor that looked cozy to lie in, and there was some detritus scattered about. Pebbles and… an old strip of leather? It was too dark to see much of anything beyond the first few feet inside. I caught the glimmer of light off a couple of stalactites further in. It was warmer and I finally let go of Tally’s tunic. She immediately set me down on my feet.

“Thank you,” I said awkwardly.

Tally sighed. “Of course. More than welcome.”

Our words echoed off of the stone walls, and it took a second before I noticed another sound joining them.

Tally stiffened. With a quick motion of her claws, a glowing blue sphere materialized around us, woven from complicated-looking runes and the color of cartoon electricity. I resisted the urge to reach out and touch it.

The sound was quiet and melodic. And as I listened, faint strumming wove its way under and throughout. Singing? I strained my ears. For the first time, I noticed a glint of light washing the rocks of a tunnel ahead in a faint orange glow.

“And I know…comin round the hills... know she’ll be...home to me…” Scraps of the song filtered through, fading in and out like a spell. I exchanged a glance with Tally, who made no reply save for the twitch of a whisker. The voice was soft. Male, if I had to guess.

“Tally,” I whispered. What I’d thought was a soft sound reverberated far too loudly.

“Shhh!” The blue sphere flickered out, and Tally slipped off her shoes. I dutifully slipped mine off as well, somewhat confused.

“The moss… she’ll dance…”

Tally dropped to all fours entirely silently, and I was very forcefully reminded how inhuman the woman I’d started to think of as a- a sort of grandmother- actually was. I walked behind her gingerly. The rocks were digging into my feet.

“And I know she’s comin round the hills, know she’ll be comin home to me.” The voice was clearer now as we approached the tunnel, and I was finally able to appreciate how beautiful the music was. The singing was clear and rich, the instrument joining in a lovely harmony. It made me want to come closer and see who was making it. I strained my eyes against the darkness to no avail.

“The sun is high up in the sky, the flitters flap their wings.”

We entered the mouth of the tunnel and cautiously approached the bend. Tally hung back.

“I’ll ask the witch for tarot cards, as she foretells these things.”

But I wanted to see, so I inched forward, holding my hair out of the way, and sneaked as discreet a peek around the bend as I could manage. The firelight was almost blinding after being so long in the dark, but I could see the figure of a man silhouetted against it and holding… something round? I blinked hard and whipped my head back, coming face to face with a fuming Tally. I offered up a small shrug to placate her, and at that, her face softened somewhat.

“But it doesn’t matter, it’s all the same, I know she’s coming back.”

Giving me a reproachful look, Tally went to look for herself. She was back just as quickly, looking nonplussed.

“I know she’ll head on home sure as the morning dawn’ll crack. And I know she’s comin round the hills, comin back, you’ll see. I know she’s comin round the hills, know she’ll be comin home to me.”

We exchanged glances. Tally’s face was unreadable.

“You know, I’d welcome some company. Music is always better when there’s more people to enjoy it.”