against slate the only sound. My heartbeat begins to resonate throughout my body, and as we
move deeper into the mountains, I have the strangest sensation that the rhythmic footfalls are
actually the heavy treading of my own heart bounding across the slopes, free of my weighted and
infinitesimal soul. As I ride on, images flickering across my mind, I feel the weight of the rocks
and know I can never truly be free. The ghosts of cooking fires materialize before me, and the tents
from my memory have suddenly erected themselves on all sides. I dismount and make my way
between them, stretching my hand out to caress the lofty material with my fingertips.
I hear laughter. The light, shrill voices of children echo from all around me. I hear their
parents scolding them, telling them to sit still so they can be dressed. I round one of the tents,
but find no one. I peer inside the nearest tent, but it is empty. The next tent, the one that used to
belong to my family, is empty as well. A cloth doll sits on a rug near the edge of the tent, awaiting
the return of its owner.
“Odval!” someone calls, and I can’t help but grin at the small voice.
“Chuluun!” I shout, glancing between the bright tents.
“Odval! Have you seen my doll, Odval?”
“It’s right here, brother,” I call. “Where are you?”
“I’m here! Can’t you see me?”
I make my way around the tent. It takes me an awfully long time to reach the other side; the
lofty white fabric is suddenly billowing more than before. I stop when I reach the opposite end.
The tents have vanished; white sunlight pours, unobstructed, across the top of the slope and
streams down to meet me.
“Odval!” my brother calls again. His little voice resonates in the still air. “Come with me! I
want to go exploring.”
“You can’t,” I say. “It’s dangerous Chuluun, please listen to me!”
“I don’t have to listen to you,” my brother’s voice yells back, and then I see his little body for
the first time, rushing away from me towards the cliffs on my right.
“Come with me or stay here alone!” he shouts.
I scramble up the slope after him, pieces of slate clattering against each other as I move. By
the time I reach the cliff base, Chuluun has already started climbing. He stands precariously on a
ledge high in the rock face.
“Chuluun! Please come down, you’ll hurt yourself!” I yell desperately, gripping a protrusion. I
begin to pull myself up, and I climb higher and higher, until I am just below him. He turns to face
me, grinning with childish innocence.
“Isn’t this fun?” he asks cheerfully.
“This is not
fun.
I order you to come down!” I snap.
Chuluun frowns. “Since when did you become so awful?” He waves one arm wildly about,
teetering for a moment on his ledge, and I shriek, reaching upward to grip his leg.
“Stop it!” I beg. Chuluun kicks my hand away.
“What’s the matter? You’re not afraid are you?” he taunts. Chuluun takes his other hand off
the rock face and balances there, glaring down at me. “See! There’s nothing to worry about!”
“Chuluun, please!” I yell, panic rising in my stomach.
“No!” he yells, turning quickly to face me. He lurches forward. Chuluun’s eyes widen and I
scream, reaching for his leg, reaching up to the sky, bits of dislodged shale hitting my face as I try
desperately to stop what I could see coming, what I saw coming ever since Chuluun first called out
