"This...this is it then, you think?" Abner asked as he stared, open-mouthed, at the spiraling mountain that had suddenly appeared in the distance, when only a few minutes prior there had been no such thing in the horizon.
"Look at how high it goes," Bumpty said, looking upwards. "It goes beyond the clouds. I've never seen anything like it; it goes so high, but the shape of it and the way it spirals makes it look like it was man-made."
The two could only stand there. They had been following Herringway's map for the past five days, each day growing more and more hopeless when they saw no mountain in the distance. And now that they finally did see Mount Quaffle, the impossibility of the situation beared its weight on them from all sides: how were they supposed to scale something like that?
"Well," Bumpty said, gaining the confidence in his voice back. "Before we start worrying about how to climb it, we should probably make our way to the mountain itself, my dear boy." Abner nodded, and continued to lead the way, folding up Herringway's map and putting it in his pocket.
Though it seemed they were still many miles away from Mount Quaffle, the two made it to the base of the mountain in what seemed like just a few short hours. Looking all around, however, they could find no path that they were supposed to follow, or even jutting rocks to climb; as Bumpty had said, the perfect formation of the mountain could not have been possible in the rough and inaccurate hands of mother nature. Even in deciding to walk around the base of the mountain, the two could find no possible way to begin their journey.
"Perhaps Herringway forgot to tell us something?" Bumpty thought aloud as the duo slumped down in the snow, completely clueless as to how they were supposed to surmount this obstacle.
"No, I don't think so," Abner said slowly. "There has to be something we're missing. Maybe...maybe there's some kind of...magic word we need to say to get through?"
"A magic word?" Bumpty asked incredulously. "My dear boy, I don't know..."
But Abner had already started saying every magic word he could think of.
"Abra! Cadabra! Alakazam! Machop! Hocus Pocus! Sarah Jessica Parker! Open sesame! Mr. Cooper! Sim sala bim! Johhny Quest! Hurm...David Blaine! Jesus Christ! Please? Um...what's the dwarvish word for friend?"
"'The dwarvish word for friend'!?" Bumpty looked blankly at Abner and then started laughing harder than he had laughed in a long time. "My dear boy, I can't say that I'm much well versed in how to speak dwarvish. Ahhh, dwarvish; that just seals this who-" Bumpty stopped mid-sentence, as there was suddenly a blindingly bright light that had appeared before the both of them, along with what sounded like some kind of singing, though for all they knew it could have just been the howl of the wind. As the light faded, the singing grew strong, until sitting before them there was a seal singing the most beautiful song that either of them had ever heard.
There used to be a graying tower alone on the sea.
You became the light on the dark side of me.
Love remained a drug that's the high and not the pill.
But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and
The light that you shine can be seen.
You became the light on the dark side of me.
Love remained a drug that's the high and not the pill.
But did you know,
That when it snows,
My eyes become large and
The light that you shine can be seen.
As the seal finished its wonderful tune, both Abner and Bumpty could only stand in place, transfixed and craving more. Though neither said anything aloud, they both felt that the song was coming, not from a seemingly magical teleporting seal, but from within their own hearts; that this most wonderful of wonders had been lying dormant in their soul, waiting to burst forth and shower the world in its greatness, and this seal was the catalyst to start it all.
"You who have come here out of your own selflessness," the seal said in a deep, reassuring voice that reminded Abner of warm butter, and who wished for nothing more than to bathe in the dulcet tones of this mystical seal. "That which you seek can indeed be found on this mountain, but you will have to battle your own inner demons to obtain that goal. Keep both your hearts and your minds pure, and you will surely succeed."
And with that, the bright light returned, and when it dissipated once more, the seal was gone, though in its place was a stone archway, under which there was a path leading up the mountain.
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