Author's Note

This chapter is short just to show a lot of the conflict that is going on. I am sorry for taking so long to post I am just super tired with college and work. But without any more from me I now say sit back and enjoy this brief but important chapter of Spirit of The Mountain.

Canto 4: Some answers but more questions.

She continues to kiss me, even going as far as to put her arms around my neck and then sigh contentedly. My mind is racing at close to the speed of light as I do nothing but let her sweet lips linger on mine. It has nothing to do with the fact that she is actually doing the action, but all to do with the fact that I had plainly not expected it. My heart starts to race and I feel my body start to grow hot starting at the point of contact. This fire spreads through my body until it feels like there is molten lava churning within me and I start to feel my body relax into her. But, it seems that I am not the only one who can sense this fire as she quickly opens her eyes as she smiles slightly and then releases me from her warm lips, returning her hands to the rock. The entire expanse of the vast forest now seems to be alive with increased animal chatter and even the small river seems to have increased its pace.

"So...you must be a son of Mazama right?" She asks me in a warm voice, causing my insides to recoil at what she had just asked me.

"Y-yes and you must be the daughter of The Nature Spirit." I say in confusion, causing her to giggle once more and for a few butterflies to land in her hair.

"That is correct, how strange it must be." She says calmly. "To have a nature spirit daughter fall for the son of a destruction spirit." She finishes saying turning back to look at the animals across the stream.

"WHAT?!" My mind is instantly thrown into more confusion that it had previously been in and all matter of logic sailed right out of the window as I tried to wrap my mind around how what was happening was even remotely possible. "This cannot be happening right now!" I think to myself as I look through the vast expanse of trees to a rather distant rock right at the base of the volcano and notice that it appears that the strange light from early dawn had caused it to glow a bright orange color, as if it was superheated and I try to focus on that rock, giving me a distraction from look at The Daughter beside me. "How is this even possible, I need answers now!" I think to myself, completely oblivious to whatever else was going on around me, just wanting to try and keep my mind from being torn apart from question.

"My love, are you alright?" The Daughter asks me in a worried tone as she leans her head against my shoulder and gently runs her fingers along my jaw line, causing me to recoil and fall off the rock onto my back. The world becomes a haze as I feel my head come into contact with a small rock and I quickly sit up and place a hand to the back of my head. I wince at the immediate pain but sense that nothing was seriously wrong and so give The Daughter a small smile.

"Yea, takes a lot more than that to break me!" I state in a confident but not overly confident voice, causing The Daughter to giggle slightly.

"I guess it would be hard considering how much "breaking" your mother does." She states plainly, causing me to raise an eyebrow.

"Oh I get it, destruction and breaking very funny." I say in a humoristic sarcastic tone as suddenly I notice all the animals around us start to scamper away and for The Daughter to grow a worried look on her face. "Hey..." I start to say as I notice that my surroundings start to come alive with the sounds of eerie sounding whispers, sending my mind into a panic. "Where is it going to come from, how big is it?" I start to ask myself as the loud whispers quickly grow in intensity.

"Is something the matter my love?" The Daughter questions me softly and I break my concentration for half a second to look at her, my face full of alarm.

"There is a earthquake coming." I state plainly, causing her eyes to grow wide in panic.

"I must go then and protect the animals, keep safe and be careful." She says and in a flash she and the animals that were lining the rim of the small river are gone, leaving me now with only whispers and even more questions. However, those questions are temporarily put on hold as I hear a loud bang come from somewhere up on a neighboring hill and then the ground all around starts to groan and shake violently.

"SHIT!" I quickly role over onto my stomach and with a hard flap of my wings I am hovering off the ground, safe from any of the violently shaking earth. However, that piece is quickly shattered as I hear the loud snapping of roots being torn from the ground and which is followed the loud sound of something plummeting towards the earth. In the very brief second that it takes for me to register what exactly is going on, I on instinct look towards the source of the noise and find a massive redwood tree is barreling down on me at full force, its massive man crushing trunk just seconds away from knocking me out of the sky and sending me into the Great Beyond. But to me this is not easy to avoid and I whip hard to the right and the massive tree barrels just inches away from body down onto the ground below with a massive BOOM. However, this is the least of my worries as suddenly the entire whole of the surroundings now grow deathly silent, not even the sounding of wind is slipping by. The only sound I can hear is the subtle flapping of my wings and I quickly start looking around the sky and forest floor...nothing besides some of the fallen remnants of redwood trees and some twisted ground. But yet...I know something else is coming, but I don't know what it may be. "What is going on? More earthquakes?!"

This silence goes on for another good hour, me staying alert and ready for more activity as my skilled eyes trace the ground for any signs of more tremors and from time to time I would look up to Mt. Mazama to see if there was any sort of change in the majestic crater. The carter however has remained the same minus a few small ejections of massive quantities of gas which I make sure to take note of. For a brief second my mind actually considers flying to take a quick look into the crater to see if mother was stirring but for another reason something tells me if she is angry then me going could trigger a FWE or Full Wakeup Event and that is the last thing I need to do right now. Seattle I imagine judging by the strength of the quake is probably gonna be a little shaken up and with the buildings and other things ponies are gonna be in trouble.

_"Oh shit what about the mares!"_ I think to myself in horror...now taking flight and then quickly making my way to the stop that is closest to me and that would be the humble abode of Sweet Apple Acres.