Writing Exercise: Mountain Ritual

5 Minutes
216 Words
39 Words Per Minute

The altar was unremarkable, considering its purpose. It was plain stone, joined to and rising from the ground in front of the deep, dark hole in the vertical mountainside.

Five figures huddled against the cold winter wind. The gusts howled through the mountain hollow, across the scattered scree and rocks, and cut through their  fur. The material's weight did little to actually keep the chill out, but that was the norm for early winter up in Ranvald's Range.

The hole ahead of the altar seemed to moan in the wind.

Shuffling footsteps heralded the approach of the final member of their group, a wizened old woman standing straight against the scything wind. If any of the other members present felt any less before her, they didn't show it.

With a nod she entered the circle and approached the altar. Atop it she laid a needle-coated bundle of branches, tied loosely with a goat-gut cord.

"Lord of the Mountains," the woman intoned. Her voice rang out clear, despite her apparent age. The branches rested in the slight depression in the surface of the square-cornered altar.

"Lord of the Mountains," the others echoed. In sequence, each presented their own offering and placed it on the stone next to the branches.

In the empty darkness before the hole, something stirred.