Under the Mountain

Once, long ago, there were two kingdoms that lay sprawled out on either side of a great mountain, and for many years they lived in peace and harmony with one another. Their trading and diplomatic business was conducted through grand tunnels that ran through the mountain depths, and both kingdoms thrived and prospered.

The rulers of each kingdom, powerful emperors, would often visit one another's cities and celebrate their peaceful existence with festivals and revelries to which all their surrounding allies would attend.

So it was that that the young son of one emperor and the young daughter of the other met on one such occasion and became the closest of friends.

All year long, each would wait with excitement until the next visit to see their friend and they would play and laugh during the festivals; marvelling at the exotic animals that were brought in from far and wide, enjoying the strange and delicious treats from the vendors, and watching in awe during the fireworks displays that lit up the starry night skies.

Soon, as it is oft to happen, the young friendship grew into more as their feelings for each other evolved into love and they would not wait until the next festival, but sneak out into the mountain tunnels to meet one another in secret.

In the multitude of tunnels that snaked through the base of the mountain, they had discovered a hidden chamber midway from each entrance, and there they would meet and be with each other, promising their undying love to one another.

Unfortunately, peace between nations sometimes only last when there is prosperity for both, and soon the dark shadow of famine fell upon the kingdom to the south of the mountain while the kingdom to the north, still prosperous, began to increase their prices for the goods and services they had always provided fairly.

The shadow grew through long months and became the darkness of war between the two kingdoms.

All the while the young lovers continued to meet in secret until her father's spies discovered their clandestine rendezvous and relayed the information to their emperor.

He forbade her from seeing the young prince and in his fury, gave orders to destroy the mountain tunnels, thus cutting his enemies and their young love off forever.

Unaware of the eminent destruction of the tunnels, the young prince stole away from his family's palace and went to meet his adored one in their secret chamber deep within the mass of rock and stone that separated them.

Horrified at the thought of her love being crushed underneath the mountain when her father's army set off their explosive powders, the princess escaped her chambers and fled to the tunnels' entrance.

Perhaps she could get to him before the tunnels were caved-in and they could escape far away to the west or barring that, at least that they could be together for eternity, buried deep in their mountain tomb.

She was within sight of the darkened gates of the tunnels' carved entrance when the massive blast exploded in a fiery flash like flames out of some terrible dragon's gaping maw and she fell to her knees as her heart broke with more force than did the mountain itself.

Weeping for her love she vowed never to leave from where she knelt and that she too, would become as the stone that buried him.

Try as they might, the emperor's guards, alchemists, and even the Emperor himself could not move her, as she had indeed become as immovable as the very stone of the mountain.

And there she remains, still kneeling, alone, all remnants of the two kingdoms eroded away over the millennia, leaving only her stone image, untouched, weeping for her love entombed deep within in the ancient tunnels.

Enwrapping him through the very rock she had become part of, the two lovers embrace forever more, under the mountain.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wvPgndy5frA