The Mountain Bowl Challenge

Birch gazed up at the craggy wall of rock stretching up into the sky.  Maybe even past the sky, since some of the clouds couldn’t get over the mountains.  
Birch cocked her head, watching as the clouds slowly drifted across the sky. When they hit the peak of the mountain, they billowed apart.  It was like watching really slow, really big snowballs thrown against a rock.  
“Maybe the clouds are just lower today,” she commented, tilting her head again.  “I wonder how high it is.  I bet you could see everything from the top.”  
She glanced behind her, but didn’t see any of her friends.  She must have left them behind.  Although she doubted if any of them had any interest in climbing with her.  
“I’ll go up a little ways.  We’re not in any rush.  And I’ve never been high up.”  
She paced back and forth along the rocky base of the mountains, examining the cliffs and valleys before her.  But it was impossible to see any kind of route.  Eventually she shrugged and made her first leap, to the top of a small boulder.  
With a glance behind her, she shook her head.  That was no good.  She was hardly high at all.  
The minkin’s attention returned to the mountain before her.  She took a step forward and her hoof slipped on some loose rocks.  She tried again, stepping lightly and making sure that her hoof was firmly placed before trusting her weight to it.  In this way she began to climb.  It was slow going, there was no rush.  And it was sort of meditative, picking her way slowly up the jagged edges of rock.  
Occasionally she’d have to make skipping hops to distant boulders, as if she were a tiny mountain goat.  Her hooves clung to the rock, and she had to take some steeper ledges at a canter.  
Then abruptly she found that she was facing open air.  She’d come to the top of a rise.  
Birch turned and gazed out over the lands of Xenith.  Everything looked so small.  It was like looking down a rocky cove into a pond, for the grass made everything look green.  Except for some black spots away to the north.  Everything looked dead there.  
“Wow!” She exclaimed.  “I can see the whole world!  I guess the mountains really must reach the sky.  Am I in the sky now?”  
She looked up, but found that the mountains continued to tower over her.  Judging from the sun, she’d been climbing for a couple hours, and she was still nowhere near the top.  
“Wow,” she said, breathless.  “They really do go on forever.  I guess that’s why the gods live up here.  They can watch everything.”  
Birch stood at the top of the cliff, gazing out over the meadows and forests.  Something bright caught her eye.  She leaned over the cliff, peering straight down.  There were her friends!  They looked like ants, they were so small.  They were wandering around the base of the cliff.  Maybe they were looking for her?  
“Hiiii!” Birch called.  But with the motion, her foot slipped and she felt herself topple forward and the mountain vanished beneath her.  
For a moment she tumbled through the air, bewildered and disoriented.  Then, “Oof!”  
She landed in a heap on something hard.  She stood up, swaying and dizzy.  It took a minute to piece together what had happened.  
She was standing on a small shelf of rock, about five feet across.  She must have fallen off of the top of the cliff.  
Cautiously this time, she edged to the side of the rock and peered over.  
“Wow.  That would have been a really long fall.”  
Birch looked up to see how far she needed to jump to get back to the clifftop.  But the ledge was at least ten feet above her.  And it was an overhang, so there were no footholds for her to use.  Even if she could jump that high, the smallest error would send her tumbling to the ground far below.  
And there was no sort of escape route to either side either.  
Birch sat down, gazing up at the ledge.  
She suddenly felt hungry.  And very thirsty.  It had been a long, hot climb after all.  
There was no water to be seen, but there was a patch of moss growing up against the cliff.  Birch nibbled at it, though it tasted rather dry and gritty.  Then she sat down to consider her situation further.  
“You seem awfully unconcerned for someone stuck in a hopeless situation.”  
Birch turned and found herself facing what looked like a really big beetle.  No, it wasn’t a beetle.  Or a dragon.  It was something in-between.  
“You’re Ju?” Birch asked, cocking her head.  
“You sound uncertain.”  He buzzed in a circle around her.  “Who else do you know who’s as dashingly bright and clever as I?”  
“Dashing-ly,” Birch repeated, sounding out the word slowly, and with concentration.  
Ju stopped and landed in front of her.  He examined the little minkin.  “So, what brings you up here on this fine day?  Were you trying to visit one of the gods?  Me, perhaps?  Or maybe you were trying to get to the outside world.”  
“What is the outside world?”  
Ju stared at her, as if trying to understand what was taking place in the mind of the strange little minkin.  “Well, why are you here then?  
Birch took a minute to think this over.  “I wanted to see if I could get to the sky.”  
Ju fluttered his wings and smirked.  “Well. If the sky is your destination, you may as well jump and take a lift on a cloud.”  
Birch shook her head.  “I don’t think that would work.  Clouds don’t look too solid, and I can’t fly.”  
Ju frowned slightly, then gave a snort of laughter.  “Hey, kid, don’t you understand when someone’s teasing you?”  
Birch smiled.  “Well, I’ve never spoken to you before, and I didn’t want to be impolite.”  
“Impolite, huh?  That’s a strange thing to be thinking about at a time like this.  Speaking of which, how do you intend to get down?”  
“I don’t know.  I was just trying to think of a way.  Like I said, I can’t fly.”  
“I can see that.  But don’t look at me.  You think I can carry you down?  Not a chance!”  
Birch nodded slowly.  “Does that mean I’m stuck here?”  
Ju’s wings fluttered and he was silent for a moment.  “Well, I wouldn’t say that.  What have you noticed about this place?”  
“Well, I don’t think I can jump high enough to get out.  And there’s nothing to either side that I can use as a step.”  
Ju took to the air and flew in a circle over the ledge that Birch was stuck on.  A minute later he landed again.  
“Come over here.”  
Birch joined him at the far edge of the rock.  
“Look up there.”  Ju pointed with his snout.  “Do you see that root sticking out of the cliff?”  
“Oh yeah.  I didn’t notice that.”  It was a twisted knob of wood, perfectly blended with a dark patch of rock.  “But it doesn’t look big enough for me to land on.”  
“You’re probably right.  But you must be a good climber to get all the way up here.  Though I suppose you did fall, or we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”  
“Well, I guess I do a lot of climbing.”  
“Here’s my idea.  Do you think you could jump high and fast enough to bank off of that root, and scramble to the top of the cliff?”  
Birch stared at the root for a long time, and then paced back and forth, examining all the possible angles.  “Yes, I think I can do that.”  
“Are you positive?”  
Birch was silent for another minute.  “Yes.  I could do that.”  
“Well, give it a go then.”  
Birch backed to the far edge of the platform, and stood, taking long breaths.  Then she set her face in a determined expression and charged forward.  
She reached the edge and sprang into the air.  Her forehooves stretched forward and alighted for half a moment on the knob of root.  Her back feet touched down and immediately launched off, springing Birch back the way she had come, but much higher.  
And her feet found rock.  
But just as she began to get her footing, one of the stones beneath her crumbled and her foot slipped.  
But before she could fall again, something gave her a shove from behind, and she tumbled onto solid ground, safely at the top of the cliff.  
“Wow!” Birch exclaimed, getting to her feet.  
Ju laughed.  “Not bad, kid.  I wasn’t sure you could do it.”  
“Thanks for your help.”  
“You’re hardly out of the woods yet.  You still need to get down. Are you sure you don’t want to ride a cloud?”  
“No. I can climb down.”  
“Getting down might not be as easy as getting up.”  
“I’ll be fine.”  
“All righty then.  If you say so.  Although if I may make a suggestion, you might want a better reason next time you come into the mountains.  This isn’t the best way to reach the sky.”  
Birch grinned.  “It has a really nice view though!”  
Ju laughed and took off in a flash of iridescent crimson.  
It was almost dark by the time Birch reached level ground again.  It was a mostly uneventful cimb, until the very end when a shower of pebbles gave way and sent Birch skidding the last twenty feet on a surfboard of rock.  
She tumbled onto the grass in a heap and sat up.  She glanced up at the cliff and then looked around for her friends.  Maybe they’d gone back to the little cove they’d been sharing.  
She trotted away, glancing back at the mountains once more.  
Finally she caught a glimpse of bright color, and grinned.  “Hey, guys!” She called, galloping forward.  “It’s amazing! I went half way to the sky and saw the whole world!”