Horns of the Mountain

“All contestants ready??? On your mark! Get, set! Goooooooooooooo!!!!”

A loud bell rings as the crowd erupts into loud cheers from the sidelines, watching as the competitors in the ice-breaking competition jump into the cold river with pickaxes in hand.

The sunlight creeping over the mountains dawns over them, casting a sweet orange light over the small pieces of ice that float down, as the contestants begin smashing through them.

The ten of them fiercely work their way down the river, breaking every piece of ice they see, while referees run along through the grass, counting each contestant’s progress as they go.

“22! 23! 24! 25! Nicolas is in the lead with—wait no 26 pieces of ice broken!!!” the announcer shouts through a battery-powered microphone, “but following closely behind him is Leo with 24 pieces! Looks like it’s going to be a close one again this year!”

“Go, go, go Nico!” Marco shouts as he jumps up and down from the sidelines next to me.

“Wow, you really want Nicolas to win huh Marco?” I ask as I watch one of the competitors collapse in the river from exhaustion.

“OOOOHHH! And it looks like Diego is out of the competition! Let’s give him a round of applause for his efforts!”

Another surge of loud cheers and clapping erupts from the crowd as one of the referees helps him out of the river.

“I think Nico has a good chance of winning this year,” Marco says, still clapping his hands, “you don’t know this but Nico and Leo are actually rivals. During the ice-breaking competition 2 years ago, Leo beat Nico by one whole ice block! Since then Nico has been practicing everyday, swearing that he’ll beat him next time, so I really want him to win!”

Another contestant collapses in the river, this time, a muscular woman.

“OOOOHHH! Let’s give it up for Elena everyone!”

The crowd cheers again and again as more and more competitors begin collapsing from exhaustion as the competition drags on, until there are only three of them left.

“With one minute left in the competition, Leo and Nicolas are neck and neck for first place! As for how they’re not tired yet, I have no idea! Our third contestant, Angel in the back looks like he’s about to collapse, but let’s keep cheering him on!”

“One more ice! One more ice! One more ice!” the crowd chants, encouraging him, as he summons the last of strength to smash one floating past him, before collapsing as the crowd lets out a loud roar of support.

“Fifteen seconds left ladies and gentlemen, let’s give a countdown on ten! Are. You. Ready!?!?”

“TEN! NINE! EIGHT! SEVEN! SIX! FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO! ONE!”

The crowd gasps as they fall silent.

“LADIES AND GENTLEMEN—for the first time in the history of Desmarra—WE HAVE A TIE WITH 142 PIECES OF ICE BROKEN BY EACH CONTESTANT!”

“That’s a new record I think!” someone says through the silence.

“That’s a new record everyone! Let’s give them a cheer!” someone adds before the crowd erupts once more into another chant.

“NICO! LEO! NICO! LEO!”

After a few minutes of chanting while the referees help the two rivals out of the river, the announcer walks up to them and asks, “so? As the first people to tie in an ice-breaking competition, what do you suppose we do?”

The two of them looked at each other and give an understanding nod.

Nicolas then takes the microphone from the announcer’s hand and says, “as the proud holders of the new ice-breaking record and being the first to tie in this event, we would like to nominate who we believe has been the hardest working this year for our village to pick the horn blower in our stead.”

He then points through the crowd and straight towards me.

“Lily, if you would like to do honors?”

All eyes lay on me and I stood there shocked from the turn of events, as the announcer grabs the microphone and runs up to me.

“I… I would like to nominate Marco as this year’s horn blower,” I said, completing the sentence with confidence as everyone turns to look at him.

For a moment, there was a quick silence, but then everyone erupts into yet another cheer as they chant his name.

Looks like Mateo will complete more than just one promise, I thought watching Marco’s wide smile with my own.

                                                                          -ˋˏ ༻❁✿❀༺ ˎˊ-

“Are you ready?” I ask Marco as the little boy gives me a nervous nod.

After a full day of festivities, it was now time for the event that everyone was anticipating the most. The horn was a massive contraption, but contrary to how it looked it was actually quite easy to use.

After all, it had to be that way since children were mainly the ones being picked to blow it, and the sound had to be loud enough to echo across the mountains. The instrument had been carefully constructed with various tubes and pipes carved out of stone with the purpose of creating as much sound as possible with even the simplest breath of air. It was placed on a large platform with a few stairs leading up to it, and was facing the east where the moon rose.

“It’s time,” Leo says as he gives Marco a pat on the back.

Typically the city mayor was the one who initiated the ceremony, but since he was dead, the villagers decided that one of the winners should be the one to hold it in his stead, and Leo was the one who was chosen.

“You’ve got this,” I said, giving Marco a gentle supportive push—an action that I learned from Iris.

Marco makes his way up to the platform where the horn was and waits for Leo to give his speech.

The entire village was quiet and the clouds had fortunately opened up in the skies, unveiling a beautiful sea of stars under the moon; a sight so beautiful I was inspired to take a picture. The only source of light in the village came from the few lanterns that were strung around the place and a large bonfire that had been constructed in preparation of an afterparty.

Standing on the podium, Leo whispers to Marco, “remember, when the clock strikes ten, you blow the horn.”

And with a nod from Marco, he commences his speech.

“Over the last year we have each faced many hardships; war… death… starvation… and murder. In our confusion we began to fight one another for trivial reasons, forgetting the wishes and the importance of acknowledging the ones we lost. On the surface, we harbored hatred for each other, but deep down inside we only harbored the shared desire to grieve—to grieve for our loved ones—to grieve for our regrets—and to grieve for our past mistakes. So I say let the horns of the mountains mark the beginning of our renewal! Let the horns of the mountains mark the beginning of spring! And let the horns of the mountains give the unfortunate souls peace after death!”

Then, as the clock strikes ten, Marco takes a deep breath and gives a gentle, yet powerful, blow into the horn.

The sound that came out was a low, but powerful hum that resounded through the night sky, echoing across the mountains—and to everyone’s surprise, one by one we began to hear more and more horns being blown from all across the mountain cities.

The harmonization of the hundreds of horns being blown shakes everyone to the core as a powerful realization dawns on them; “there are other survivors, all of whom desire to mourn.”

As the sound continues to echo, Marco tries his best to keep blowing, but I realize that despite the brave front he had put up, he had started crying.

And it was only when I had turned to look at everyone else crying in the village, that I realized that tears had already been streaming down my own cheeks ever since the initial hum of the horn.

I turn to look at the tall monument in the village, brushing the tears from my eyes.

Iris, wherever you are now, I hope you know that the horns of the mountain have blown for you today.

And for the first time since it was announced, for just a moment, it felt like the world wasn’t ending.

                                                                          -ˋˏ ༻❁✿❀༺ ˎˊ-

“Looks like everything got resolved,” Mr. Ramos said, finally being able to stand next to his food wagon in peace, “thanks to you.”

I looked around at the village which had slowly begun to clean up and reconstruct itself. The people were talking to each other again, and flowers were being planted once more.

“Well… not everything,” I said, “I’m sure there are still grudges being held in the village, and that they’ll face more hardships along the way, but it’s not my job to fix them anymore. I’ll have to trust that they’ll be able to resolve them on their own.”

“Haha, that’s a fair way to look at it,” he said before giving me a worried look, “are you sure you’ll be safe walking down the mountains alone? I can still give you a ride to the next distribution checkpoint closest to the Wisteria Forest.”

I shook my head.

“I’ll be fine, Mr. Ramos, I’ve traveled the world by foot alone before,” I assured him, “and I’ve spent longer time in this village than I had originally planned to. The fastest route to the Wisteria Forest is taking a shortcut through the forest valleys which don’t have roads built into them.”

“Which is why we are giving you this Lily,” a voice says from behind me as I turn around to see Marco with Nicolas holding a bike, “we heard about your goal to reach the places where your comrades have died, so we decided to commission our finest craftsman as a thank you for helping us restore our city. Hopefully with this you’ll be able to reach where you want to be faster.”

I smile as I squat down to give Marco a big hug.

“Thank you guys so much,” I said, “and I’ll miss you little guy, stay out of trouble unlike your father now okay?”

“My father was a troublemaker?”

“Heheh, one of the biggest ones,” I replied, “but if you didn’t know that then maybe he turned out to be a better man after all.”

Nicolas gives him a pat on the head, and says, “how about I tell you a little more about him later on? When your father first moved to the city, I was the first one to employ him ya know?”

Marco’s eyes lit up and excitedly said, “yes please!”

I stood up, brushing the dust away from my wings and said, “well, I have to get going now. Take care of Marco for me.”

Nicolas smiled and said, “we will. Have a safe journey Lily.”

And as everyone says their goodbyes, I strap my gun around my bag and ride off down the mountains.