Pale light seeped into the entrance of the obsidian cave.
Mono turned his head with weary eyes. Leaning against the wall, he took a deep breath in and reached for a small brown bag lying on the ground.
He leaned forward, his movements were stiff and rigid as he brought his hands to the ground and pushed up in order to stand.
Right outside the cave, there was a fresh blanket of snow, it was remarkably chilly.
The snow covered almost everything in sight. There were a few black rocks scattered around, that lied above the snow. They were few and far between.
There were different types of rocks, some resembling gravel, and some resembling smooth obsidian. However, every piece of stone on the mountain was black.
There were several snowflakes dancing in the breeze. The sun was being covered by a layer of white clouds.
As Mono walked outside the cave with his black cloak, it was clear that he resembled the mountain more than the snow.
The snow crunched underfoot, as a trial of footprints ruined the perfect blanket of snow.
—
The snow continued to pile up as Mono walked up a steep slope. As he exhaled, a small cloud formed on the side of his head.
His cloak waved along with the wind, as he continued to march up the mountain. The color white seemed to cover almost everything. The only exception that of small cliffs that had black stone protruding from its edges.
Mono walked towards one of these small cliffs, specifically one with a small rope hanging from the top of the short cliff.
Behind the rope, there was another cave.
Mono walked inside and swiftly grabbed his bag, dropping it on the ground.
Sitting down beside it, he opened the pouch and searched inside.
"That's right…"
Mono took a deep breath in.
"...I ran out of food."
With a shaky exhale, he continued to search.
He pulled out the items held inside, placing them on the obsidian like surface.
There was a short iron pickaxe, a couple clips, a water bottle that could filter water, and an empty jar.
There was nothing to eat, an utter shame.
If only there were an edible pickaxe, or metal clip. It wouldn't even have to taste good, food was food.
Mono shook his head and began to place the items back into the leather bag.
Wait… leather?
Mono paused as he stared at the bag, his stomach growling as drool began to fall from his lips.
He reluctantly dismissed the thought, figuring that it would be too much of a hassle to carry his tools by hand.
After chugging the water bottle for a few seconds… he stuffed everything he had back into the leather bag.
Then he leaned against a wall while remaining seated. Resting for a long while.
He was close, most likely he would remain hungry for the next day. It was bearable. Yet it was also unbearable. It was a contradiction, maybe if bearable and unbearable were both giant spheres, then he would be stuck in the border between them.
If it was anything other than food then it would be completely acceptable. Cold, water, well maybe not water. That is far more important than food.
Food had taste, water had no taste. The truth was that starving wasn't even that bad. It was just the fact that he had nothing to taste, the taste could be good or bad. It was the taste itself that was important.
The prospect of tasting something was like a kindle that ignited a burning passion within Mono's heart.
With his mind fixated on tasting something, his legs didn't seem as heavy and sore, he didn't feel as tired. The planned rest, was overtaken by desire. A desire to have something.
Wiping off some drool from his mouth, Mono excitedly walked back into the dire cold, continuing to walk up the treacherous slope. The snow was much higher now, almost reaching his knee caps.
The snow added resistance, every step through the snow felt heavy. But when one's heart is set on something, the most one could do is slow them down.
The wind hurled powdered snow into the air, crashing into Mono and blinding him for a few seconds.
Some snow flakes flew into his mouth, rapidly melting and turning into a tasteless cold sensation.
As Mono continued to climb up the slope, the mountain continued on with its cold conversation. The wind howled along while traveling across the slope, the snow crackled with a cold ferocity.
The clouds began to fall as dense fog covered the mountain.
After a while, the fog began to turn grey… a very light gray.
It continued to grow darker and darker as time passed.
Mono looked around with a troubled expression underneath his hood. A drop of water fell onto some snow, turning it grey as well.
A wave of heat began to crawl up the mountain, carried along by a strong gust. The wave of heat made Mono's cloak flutter.
More drops of rain began to fall, as the snow began to behave like mush, streams of water began to flow down the snow, before long there were holes in the snow where you could see the black rock of the mountain.
The rock that Mono was walking on behaved like gravel, being built by thousands of grains.
Before long, all the snow was gone. A torrential downpour began to hammer into the mountain as strong gusts only grew. The sound of the wind and rain was deafening.
Mono continued forward, having already removed his white lantern from his waist. There was a bright white light within the black fog.
The pebbles crunched under foot, it felt quite slippery, the mountain was quite steep here. If one were to fall then they may never stop rolling down.
Mono wanted to get to the bottom one day, but that seemed quite painful.
The gust began to blow Mono off track by a few feet, as a large gust hit him from the side, Mono braced into it and stood his ground. Then he continued forward.
Soon another cave came into view, with a brown rope acting like a marker.
Only right outside, there was what seemed to be a man standing by the entrance.
His clothes and skin were obsidian black, and there was black smog leaking from his being. He stared off into the horizon with empty eyes, Mono glanced at him as he walked inside the cave.
The other man, remained outside, once again the sounds reverberated on the walls. As the cave became deafening.