Aurora Peak

Day 18: Aurora Peak
As I walked into the dream-like fields of green, leaving the shed I spent the night in, the wind around me got both significantly stronger and colder. Soon, the rustling of the neatly cut grass turned into the sudden crunching of snow. As the wind grew stronger, the air became sharper; the cold nipped at any unprotected part of my body; my hands and my face especially. Why was it getting so cold?

I continued on, not letting the cold air get in my way. The winds got uncontrollable at times, but it wasn't anything I couldn't manage. As I trudged through the howling gales, the stinging brush, and the uncontrollable amount of snow, I started wondering what actually laid at the end of this.

It didn't take long to figure out, though, as I saw a towering mountain before me, the near-fading sunlight causing it to cast a shadow on everything in sight. The orange behind it quickly turned dark, as the night returned for its shift on the earth.

As the soft glow of the moon comes, aurorae formed around the mountain, trailing behind like a dancer's ribbon, painting itself across the night sky. It seemed that this mountain had something special about it, and that I had to get closer to it as soon as possible.

I took a few moments to breathe, and I thought to myself: it's not as hard as I think it is. I just need to breathe.
I can do this.

I took a few more deep breaths, then I sprinted as fast as I could towards the mountain.