That Day

Sasha always wondered what was on the other side of the mountain. It was told to her from a very young age that the mountain was cursed, and whoever got on it was cursed for eternity. Nobody in her village knew what was on the other side. It has been that way for generations. Every day when she has time to spare, she would go to the hilltop and look at the big mountain. Her wild imagination always told her there was something more on the other side. Some part of her has always wanted to believe that the villagers were wrong. 

One day she was sitting on the hilltop as always and saw something strange, something she had never seen before, someone was riding down the mountain. The same mountain her villagers told was unclimbable. The same mountain she had dreamt of climbing her whole life. She saw that the man was going to crash, she ran towards the valley. By the time she reached the man, he was unconscious. He was a blonde and tall man with sharp features but in a skinny frame. It was clearly visible that he had been starving for days. She rushed to the river nearby and fetched some water and woke him up. ''Where...where am I?'' He asked. “Who are you?'' He asked worriedly. ''Relax, I'll go get some help, here drink this,'' she said, offering the water. She rushed to her house and told her parents everything that happened. Her dad, Victor, asked her to take him there. She nodded and led him straight to the man. ''What is this place? Where am I?'' The man said. ''We will talk about it all after you get some rest, okay? Can you walk?'' The stranger nodded his head. ''Alright, come with us then'' said Viktor. ''Sasha, signal me if anyone's coming this way, you know what will happen if the villagers see him, don't you?'' ''Yes papa I know,” she said cautiously. 

After taking him home, they gave him food and a place to rest. The man went straight to sleep after food. It was evident that he was tired. ''Sasha, Elena, no one should be suspicious of anything; you both should take care of it. Our villagers can't stand a stranger in town, let alone a stranger from the other side of the mountain.'' They both nodded. 

Victor was lost in thoughts under the clear sky when Elena walked towards him. ''Victor, why did you have to bring that man home? You could have at least thought of Sasha before bringing him in. We will be going to prison for what we just did. You know how crazy our villagers are about this, don't you?'' Elena said. Victor just looked at the sky in silence. ''Victor? Are you listening to me? ''Elena asked again. ''What should I have done, Elena? Should I have left him there to die? After all, he's a human being. I couldn't do that.'' He said. ''Well, what are you going to do about him once he's fine? What then? She asked. Victor said nothing. "Well, that's what I thought,'' Elena said as she marched off to the house. He didn't sit there thinking about what he was going to do with that stranger and how it was all going to turn out in the end, he was just enjoying the beauty of the starry night sky.

The next morning the stranger was already awake when Sasha brought him food.“You are the one that saved me; I don’t know how to thank you. I’m Alex, by the way, and what is this place? Nobody knows people live on this side of the mountain."He said.“Can you tell me what the other sides of the mountain look like? Nobody from our village has ever been there.”Sasha asked innocently.“So are you telling me you’ve been in this village your whole life?”She nodded. ''Well, you can go anywhere you want on the other side of the mountain. I have gone to so many places, and it was my dream to climb this mountain. It was all good until the thunderstorm last week. I lost everything and was starving for days until I made a ride for myself the other day. If not for you, I would have been dead already. Thank you again for saving my life.”Sasha offered the food she brought and smiled on her way out, she rushed to her dad, ''Papa, that man talked to me, and he said there’s so much more on the other side of the mountain. ''See, I was right this whole time.”Victor saw the enthusiasm in her eyes. He has always noticed that when she talked about the mountain, but only this time there wasn’t anything he could tell to change her mind. So he just nodded and walked away.

Victor went inside the room Alex was in and locked the door."There’s something you need to know"Alex knew it was something serious from the looks of Victor’s face, so he nodded.“This village has a belief that anyone who comes from the mountain comes with a curse to destroy this village. So the villagers have never been kind to a stranger from the mountain. You will be hanged to death, and we will be going to prison if anybody gets to know.”Alex was baffled. “Then why did you save me if you were going to eventually kill me? You could have left me out there to die.”Alex sounded annoyed.“No, listen to me, I have an idea for you to escape. You just have to do exactly what I ask you to do. Is that clear?”Victor asked. The stranger nodded.

Victor was kind and provided his guest with everything he needed. Alex stayed there for almost a week until he was all healthy again. They had a hard time hiding him for that long. Alex knew it was about time he left. He went to Victor and said, ''Victor, I can't thank you enough for everything you have done for me. It is time that I leave.’’ Victor nodded.“Well, it is about time, take all the things you need for the journey and take some flares too. If anything goes wrong, light the flare right after the sunset. And remember, stay low, the mountain is dangerous.’’ Alex nodded. 

That day they waited till the sunset for the villagers to get back home. Victor went to the valley with him. ''Goodbye, Victor. I will be forever grateful for what you have done. Wait, is someone coming this way?'' Victor turned back to find a group of people heading his way. “Alex, run. Go away before they get here.” Victor was gathering himself as they approached. Alex was long gone before they got there. ''Victor, what are you doing here?'' The village chief asked. ''I heard some noise, chief. I came down here to look at it. ” Victor replied. ''Adrian here says otherwise, he says you were here with a stranger. '' Adrian nodded to agree with the chief. ''Who was that man, Victor?'' The chief asked. ''I came here alone, and Adrian always gets drunk at this time of the day, so he might have imagined seeing someone else with me''. The chief looked at Adrian for an answer, ''Adrian, do you have anything to say? The chief asked. ''But, chief, I... I'' Adrian was startled. ''Victor, you said you heard some noise, didn’t you? Why don’t we all help you find what that is?’’ The chief said. "" Okay, chief, let it be that way then," Victor said. Everybody started searching the valley, but Victor knew they weren’t going to get to the mountain. “Look, there’s light from the mountain,'' a villager shouted. When everybody looked, they saw nothing. “Where?’’ The chief asked. Victor saw the light too, but he said nothing. Everybody looked around for a while until the chief called it off.“There’s nothing here, you can all go home. "The chief announced. 

On his way home, Victor was thinking how close he was to getting caught. But luck was in his favor. The next day Victor was thinking about his unusual guest. He was worried for Alex, but he knew Alex would signal him if anything went wrong. The whole week Victor looked for any signal for most of the night but saw none. He assumed Alex would reach home safe. Slowly, it was nothing but a story for Victor and his family on how they had an unusual guest in their home for a week. 

Sasha knew she would climb the mountain one day, sitting on the hilltop, she was now thinking of the man she saw gliding down one day and how it changed her life. Now she wasn't dreaming of climbing the mountain, she was planning how and when to climb it. It was just a matter of time before she did it.