For hundreds of years the mountain range of Nepitala went untouched by the hands of mankind, its sacred animals free to roam their mountain in peace.
For ions the unforgiving avalanche-prone mountain tops and highlands were left to themselves ...until one fateful day...
Only the most dedicated pilgrim of the day would visit the little known monastery high in the valley where the 12 monks resided, and due to its extreme location and lack of maps it was highly unlikely their number would change...
Logically speaking there was no practical reason for being there, unless you specifically want to get away from people and really like a bedroom view of a close up mountain.
So this combined with the fact that the monks thought they were the very first to colonise the hillside gave the monks no reason to think otherwise...
The week had been a particularly harsh one, an ice cold blanket of snow was slowly sweeping its self across the country despite the fact it was late spring.
The wind had been so severe that it damaged much of the monastery's roof and dislodged most of the shutters that protected the inhabitants from the harshness of the weather that would regularly attempt to force its way inside.
It was for this reason that the moment the weather subsided the monks decided to venture outside and begin the repairs.
Once the repairs were done and all chores were out of the way a young monk decided to take a fateful stroll outside and survey the hillside, as he was leaving the monastery he was reminded of the dangers of the mountain and told not to go to far in case the weather should change unexpectedly.
The advice was good, the last place you want to get lost is a mountain.
But the weather looked good so out the monk ventured in to the snow landscape in front of him, taking with him a bell and a small portion of food as a precautionary measure...
As he passed over a hill and out of view of the monastery the clouds began to separate allowing the fullness of the sun's rays to spread over the mountain below.
The air began to warm and snow slowly began to melt as he strode ever forward.
The wind which had until then been harsh and heavy handed seemed to loose interest, vanishing completely as he lost sight of the now distant monastery,.
It wasn't long before something caught his attention....
Directly before the monk, exactly where it shouldn't be, lay what appeared to be the partially uncovered ruin of some structure,
The monk hurried towards the structure, eager to discover what it was.
It was clear to the monk what had happened... Some how someone had got there long before the monastery, for whatever reason they had abandoned the mountain and the snow had reclaimed the mountain.
Then presumably the storm the night before has uncovered the remains.
The monks continued with haste to eager to investigate the mysterious pillar-like structure.
With in a few moments the young monk was there and digging around the strange artifact with his hands.
It appeared to be a tall stature, the more he dug around it the more the monk started to realise just how large this thing was and just how much snow it was under.
The monk began sweating on the snow-blanketed hillside as he slowly continued to uncover it, noticing the superb life-like features. - of the face.
The monk continued to dig, the stone statue now almost completely free from the tightly packed snow that up until very recently encased it.
As he dug he wondered what the monastery would make of it, he considered how long it much have lay there, and asked who you'd place it there and why?
Many questions crossed his mind as he continued to unearth the lost treasure of the mountain, as he did he felt the warmth of the sun beating down on him and the snow around him.
The monk finished digging, stood up and took a few steps back to marvel at the beauty of the statue before him....
It was unlike anything he had seen before.
The sun continued to shine.
The monk walked around the artifact, as he inspected it more closely he congratulated the long forgotten mason that imagined such a thing and marvelled at the superbly fine detail in its features...
He could see the remaining ice and snow on it melting and running down to the rock beneath
and then the monk noticed something. There was a difference between the ground rock and the rock of the statue ...in fact the statue wasn't made of rock at all.
The statue wasn't a statue it was something all together different.
It wasn't a man, that much was clear. It had the features of a man but wasn't recognisably human.
It stood upright, arms by its side, looking straight forward and stone faced in the direction of a distant mountain peak and the sun that lay behind it. .
Its body a mixture of stone-like leather and fur turned to fossil over time, perfectly preserved since the last moment it seen the light of day.
The monk wondered how it come to be frozen and why it was frozen in that position, as if it had just drifted off in to a daydream and let the world and snow drift over and by.
The young monk was confused, he had heard no stories of such a creature so what was it?
As the monk considered this he looked in to the eyes of the statue and it looked back, the very last thing the monk would have ever expected then happened.
The statue winked.
Now when your a monk, standing on the side of a mountain, having just uncovered a strange stone creature, the last thing you expect is for that creature to wink at you... So the monk assumed his mind was playing tricks with him, all that digging and mountain air going to his head was the assumption so he put the mirage to one side and finished removing the very last of the snow from the unusual creatures feet. This only took a few minutes and after he was done the young monk took a few steps back and looked at the creature smiling.
The creature looked back, sun beating down on it,
A few moments of silence passed before the creature let out a long sigh, then slowly began to crack a smile.
The young monk seeing this and now scared witless stand in frozen terror as the creature begins to twitch and shake off the last of the snow hanging on its shoulders and head.
The creature, oblivious to the monks distress, winks an eye again and politely bows as if to greet to monks.
The monk, frozen by fear & defenceless apart from his food rations and bell quickly reaches down to the snow around him and collects as much as he can before throwing a ball of it at the creature - hitting it squarely in the chest.
The creature reacts in exactly the way animals don't...
It lets out a loud laugh then collects a hand full of snowballs and begins throwing them, obviously expecting some exchange of fire, ducking and diving as it throws as a child might start a water fight.
Seeing there was no danger from this playful creature the monk set aside his fears and joined in the snowball fight.
...The two of them played for some time in the snow on the hillside.
For ions the unforgiving avalanche-prone mountain tops and highlands were left to themselves ...until one fateful day...
Only the most dedicated pilgrim of the day would visit the little known monastery high in the valley where the 12 monks resided, and due to its extreme location and lack of maps it was highly unlikely their number would change...
Logically speaking there was no practical reason for being there, unless you specifically want to get away from people and really like a bedroom view of a close up mountain.
So this combined with the fact that the monks thought they were the very first to colonise the hillside gave the monks no reason to think otherwise...
The week had been a particularly harsh one, an ice cold blanket of snow was slowly sweeping its self across the country despite the fact it was late spring.
The wind had been so severe that it damaged much of the monastery's roof and dislodged most of the shutters that protected the inhabitants from the harshness of the weather that would regularly attempt to force its way inside.
It was for this reason that the moment the weather subsided the monks decided to venture outside and begin the repairs.
Once the repairs were done and all chores were out of the way a young monk decided to take a fateful stroll outside and survey the hillside, as he was leaving the monastery he was reminded of the dangers of the mountain and told not to go to far in case the weather should change unexpectedly.
The advice was good, the last place you want to get lost is a mountain.
But the weather looked good so out the monk ventured in to the snow landscape in front of him, taking with him a bell and a small portion of food as a precautionary measure...
As he passed over a hill and out of view of the monastery the clouds began to separate allowing the fullness of the sun's rays to spread over the mountain below.
The air began to warm and snow slowly began to melt as he strode ever forward.
The wind which had until then been harsh and heavy handed seemed to loose interest, vanishing completely as he lost sight of the now distant monastery,.
It wasn't long before something caught his attention....
Directly before the monk, exactly where it shouldn't be, lay what appeared to be the partially uncovered ruin of some structure,
The monk hurried towards the structure, eager to discover what it was.
It was clear to the monk what had happened... Some how someone had got there long before the monastery, for whatever reason they had abandoned the mountain and the snow had reclaimed the mountain.
Then presumably the storm the night before has uncovered the remains.
The monks continued with haste to eager to investigate the mysterious pillar-like structure.
With in a few moments the young monk was there and digging around the strange artifact with his hands.
It appeared to be a tall stature, the more he dug around it the more the monk started to realise just how large this thing was and just how much snow it was under.
The monk began sweating on the snow-blanketed hillside as he slowly continued to uncover it, noticing the superb life-like features. - of the face.
The monk continued to dig, the stone statue now almost completely free from the tightly packed snow that up until very recently encased it.
As he dug he wondered what the monastery would make of it, he considered how long it much have lay there, and asked who you'd place it there and why?
Many questions crossed his mind as he continued to unearth the lost treasure of the mountain, as he did he felt the warmth of the sun beating down on him and the snow around him.
The monk finished digging, stood up and took a few steps back to marvel at the beauty of the statue before him....
It was unlike anything he had seen before.
The sun continued to shine.
The monk walked around the artifact, as he inspected it more closely he congratulated the long forgotten mason that imagined such a thing and marvelled at the superbly fine detail in its features...
He could see the remaining ice and snow on it melting and running down to the rock beneath
and then the monk noticed something. There was a difference between the ground rock and the rock of the statue ...in fact the statue wasn't made of rock at all.
The statue wasn't a statue it was something all together different.
It wasn't a man, that much was clear. It had the features of a man but wasn't recognisably human.
It stood upright, arms by its side, looking straight forward and stone faced in the direction of a distant mountain peak and the sun that lay behind it. .
Its body a mixture of stone-like leather and fur turned to fossil over time, perfectly preserved since the last moment it seen the light of day.
The monk wondered how it come to be frozen and why it was frozen in that position, as if it had just drifted off in to a daydream and let the world and snow drift over and by.
The young monk was confused, he had heard no stories of such a creature so what was it?
As the monk considered this he looked in to the eyes of the statue and it looked back, the very last thing the monk would have ever expected then happened.
The statue winked.
Now when your a monk, standing on the side of a mountain, having just uncovered a strange stone creature, the last thing you expect is for that creature to wink at you... So the monk assumed his mind was playing tricks with him, all that digging and mountain air going to his head was the assumption so he put the mirage to one side and finished removing the very last of the snow from the unusual creatures feet. This only took a few minutes and after he was done the young monk took a few steps back and looked at the creature smiling.
The creature looked back, sun beating down on it,
A few moments of silence passed before the creature let out a long sigh, then slowly began to crack a smile.
The young monk seeing this and now scared witless stand in frozen terror as the creature begins to twitch and shake off the last of the snow hanging on its shoulders and head.
The creature, oblivious to the monks distress, winks an eye again and politely bows as if to greet to monks.
The monk, frozen by fear & defenceless apart from his food rations and bell quickly reaches down to the snow around him and collects as much as he can before throwing a ball of it at the creature - hitting it squarely in the chest.
The creature reacts in exactly the way animals don't...
It lets out a loud laugh then collects a hand full of snowballs and begins throwing them, obviously expecting some exchange of fire, ducking and diving as it throws as a child might start a water fight.
Seeing there was no danger from this playful creature the monk set aside his fears and joined in the snowball fight.
...The two of them played for some time in the snow on the hillside.
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