Translation:The High Mountains/52

That day was the best of them all. They had never loved Phanis as much as today when they found him.

They are inseparable today. They all went together to see the water gush up from the rock; they went down to the plane trees altogether. Each one would have given his life for the others.

It was afternoon when they decided to go back.

—Tell us, Phanis, asked Andreas, did you go up on a rock yesterday?

—Yes, said Phanis, and he showed him the rock.

Everyone turned around and surveyed this strange summit; they were afraid. So that's the Moor's Rock! They looked at it closely right up to the point.

—You went right up to the top? asked Andreas.

—No, I stopped further down. I couldn't climb up it.

Andreas then said:

—We're all going to climb it together.

—Andreas! said Costakis terrified.

—You're remembering old Charmaine's talk and you're afraid, said Andreas. But tell me, has Phanis been to the Moor's rock? And yet he is here with us. Nothing happened to him. We're not going to let ourselves be intimidated like the old people.

—And what if something happens to us?

—There are five of us, said Andreas.

Everyone followed. They climbed up the rock with great difficulty; they were out of breath and stopped twice to get their breath back.

When they got to the rocks, they had to walk all around to find a way through, so closely packed were the enormous stones that encircled the rock. One could have said that they had been set like that deliberately to block the way.

Oaks were growing between them. Wild birds with hooked beaks flew overhead coming out of the holes.

—Let's go back, said Costakis, we can't get by.

Costakis is afraid of ghosts. He remembers old Charmaine's words as if he were hearing them now. He remembers the old man near the mill, who made the sign of the cross because of the Moor's rock.

And while he was walking, he's thinking: “What are we looking for here? It seems haunted! The water gap all around, the unexplored hills, the huge stones which guard the Moor. The Moor must be up there, on the point; he must be sleeping... he's going to hear us as we're coming up... he'll spring up. He'll catch us, throw us to the bottom of I don't know which dark cave. For years and years...”

—Let's go back, said Costakis, we can't get by.

—We 'll get through, said Andreas.

Costakis kept quiet. Since they came to live in the forest, he was interested in Andréas's comments. But today he finds them superior. Today Andreas's word is like an order. Who was it who found Phanis?

Costakis follows.

Andreas found a crevasse filled with little shrubs between two large stones. First of all he tested it carefully with his stick, put his foot in, climbed up onto a bigger stone, and from there jumped down.

—Come on, come on, he cried, you can get through here.

He climbed up again onto the stone and helped the others. They clambered up one after the other. From there they move on more freely towards the point.

But at the point once again they saw several tall stones. These were very different. They were black...

—This really must be the Moor's cave! He must be sitting on the summit so he can see all around him. We're idiots! What are we looking for up here? thought two or three of the young travellers. If they were able to, they'd turn back; now they felt terrified. Their little hearts beat wildly, like a hare's.

They don't want to move forward. They walk with difficulty. At each instant, they expect to see a stone slowly straightening up.

When they arrived nearer and met up at the point, there was nothing. The stones here were stones like all the others. They looked at them carefully, they listened to them, but they remained just stones.

Then where's the Moor?

Instead of seeing the Moor, the children saw from up high a breath-taking scene.

Right down at the bottom, very, very far away, the vast wide sea waited for the sun, Phanis's sun.

The sun went down on the water, it enlarged and reddened. The mountains had red summits. The clouds shone with light.

Are they tiny clouds which float up there in the air or cherubs? Nobody knows.

The sun expanded more, totally red, it touched the water. And after having contemplated the whole creation for an instant, it sank.

Phanis got lost for this moment of beauty.