"Come on! We're almost at the top! We wouldn't want to be late after we've come this far!" He said

"I don't know if this is such a good idea, though. I mean, I know how beautiful a sunrise is, especially from this mountain, but with the whole thing about humans and monsters escalating so far, I don't know if it was a good idea to come up here together, just, what if someone sees us!" In the world, at this time, there were two main races. There were humans, who were all the same, save small things like hair color and height. And then there were monsters, which there were many different types of, like Thalia, who looked a lot like a human, just with white fur all over and 2 large white horns, while my next door neighbors were literally two skeletons. Over the last few years, there has been a lot of tension building up, and now monsters are starting to get nervous around humans, and it's a whole mess.

"It'll be fine! Just follow my lead and everything will work out." I said, still climbing fast up the steep incline.

"Well, I've always trusted you before so, I guess there's no reason not to now." She replied wearily. She was my best friend even though I was a human, and she was a monster. Though we were just kids, we'd known each other for as long as we could have.

I remember years ago I was maybe 6 years old, and she was probably 7. I had just moved into the village and we just happened to be next door neighbors. We were going to hold a small "party" with just our family as my parent's attempt to liven my spirits after leaving everything. They were going to make my family's specialty homemade cinnamon and butterscotch pie. After a little bit, I realized we had no milk for the pie and the local dairy was already closed. So, we went next door just to see if by chance they had any, and as luck would have it they did.

So, they let us borrow enough milk for the pie and butterscotch sauce and in return, we invited them over. They thought the pie tasted good so, we evidently gave them the recipe and that was the start of the friendships between our families.

After a while, she and I had to go to a sort of religious school, together. During break, there was always this group of human kids that always liked to act tough and intimidating. One day, they backed her into a corner and threatened her. I happened to be passing by and told them not to hurt her. Long story short, I was the one that got the beating but, that doesn't really matter. Anyway, she thanked me and we've been friends ever since. You know, looking back on it, a lot of things had to happen for us to become friends. Well, I guess that's how life goes.

"Just still," She said, "If anyone catches us..."

"Everything will be fine, and we're about to reach the top, too," I yelled back down at her. As we crested the next and last hill, we were greeted by a miraculous look of our town below. However small it may be, compared to places like the capital, it was still our home. It was also one of the few towns left with monsters, and one of the even fewer towns with humans too.

"It's beautiful," she remarked, as the sun started to rise, and indeed it was. The entire sky was a lavender mess, different shades of purple spiraling out from one central point. As the sun slowly peeked its head above the horizon, the violets turned into so many beautiful, bright colors. It looked as if the sky was in a war, with so many shades of amber punching through the clouds like spears of light. Oranges exploded into yellows to create an unsteady fire. The reds mixed with the bright blue of the sky to create a pink stained horizon. Looking out further, the forest of sun stained trees just outside our town were hugging the sky on the horizon until neither could be seen. The green added a magical effect onto the world as the sunlight reflected off it, splashing the sky in a bright magenta color.

"You know, this was worth it," she exclaimed, "It's always beautiful to see a sunrise, Alexander,"

"I told you, Thalia, Everything will work out when I'm around." And for the rest of the sunrise, we sat, legs dangling off the edge of a small cliff, looking out into the horizon.

************************************

"We'd better get down this mountain quickly, before anyone starts to worry about us!" Thalia yelled at me, running quickly down the steep incline.

"We'll get down in time, it was an early sunrise, like it has been the past few days," I replied, calm as ever.

"Well, I hope your right. My parents would kill me if they ever found out," Thalia yelled back to me."

"Don't worry, we get down quick enough and everything will be fine," I calmly replied, this time turning around, while still moving backward down the sea of green trees.

"Don't do that, you're going to fall and get hurt Alexander."

"Hey, it'll be fine, don't worry, when has this ever ended badly for me?"

"Well...Alexander! Behind you!" Thalia yelled, but it was too late. By the time I looked, I had already tripped on a large root and fallen into a hole in the mountain. The hole quickly widened into a massive cavern, the light not even reaching all the dark edges of it.

"Alexander! Are you okay?" Thalia called down, her head casting a shadow into the cave.

"Yeah, I think so, I landed on a bed of flowers."

"Well, this is what you get for going on a dangerous mountain just to see the sunrise!

"We don't have time for this right now, Tali, I think I left a rope near here a few days ago, um... see if you see it to the south of this hole." I had been up here many times before

"Okay, one second," she replied, her head disappearing from the hole once again. This gave me a little more time to look around. The cave looked old, with nothing man made anywhere within. There were a few openings to other cave systems, each going on until they swerved off in some unknown direction. Yet through all of this, there was one thing that caught my eye, a sparkling stone of some sort. I slowly walked towards it and picked it up.

Holding it up, I could see it was a perfectly octagonally shaped bright red crystal. It had have to have been man made for it to be so perfect. I held it up to the light and it shimmered as branches above the hole swayed back and forth in the breeze, casting moving shadows in the cavern. It was like a bright red sun. "What are you?" I asked to myself quietly.

"Here! I got it!" Thalia suddenly said, dropping a rope down the hole. I quickly shoved the mysterious artifact into my pocket and tugged on the rope, it seemed sturdy enough. Using the side of the wall to help, I slowly climbed my way up the rope and out of the hole. Once I got close enough, Thalia reached out her hand and helped me up, and we both sprawled out on the forest floor once I was far enough out.

"We have to get back," Thalia said after a while.

"Yeah," I replied, still tired, but standing up. As Thalia did the same, we started silently walking back, me thinking of the mysterious red crystal.