An Adventure Begins

[Cliffwalker]

By the time the sun had fully risen we were atop the Pass . I paused for a moment to take in the view, the rocky slopes and sharp edged cliffs still mostly hidden beneath the winters last snow. This high it would be weeks yet before the snows really began to melt even though spring would be in full bloom in the foothills and lowlands.
"Well Echo, you ready?" I asked. The tiny Pika tucked securely in his pouch atop my pack whistled an affirmative.  With one last look back down the Eastern side of the mountain,  highlighted by the morning sun, I stepped onto the path down the western side. Excitement shivered through me, today our adventure began, together we would explore the world and see all the places that we had only ever heard of through the tales of passing travelers. 

[Echo]

Echo clung to the edge of his pouch, only his head and front paws visible as he watched the landscape bounce by. Cliffwalker's excitement pushing her into a lope down the familiar path. Echo too was excited he chattered and chuckled quietly to himself, careful to stay secure so as not to be jolted out of his pocket by an unexpected move.  As the tree line drew closer Cliffwalker slowed. Echo quieted. They paused at the edge of the trees. Echo felt Cliffwalker take a deep breath, her tawny gold fur shivered. Echo looked up, even after the time they spent playing in the eastern forest, trees still held a special sort of awe for the tiny Pika. If something that big and strong could grow from a seed as small as his paw.. could he perhaps grow to be big too? Sure he'd never seen or even heard of a big Pika but that didn't mean it couldn't happen. After all the travelers that stopped at the High Mountain Inn often told tales of even stranger things that they insisted were real. Like lakes so big you couldn't see the far shore,  dragons as small as he or as big as the mountains, lands that stretch to the horizons without a hill or valley in sight, tales of things that he couldn't even begin to imagine, but now.. now he had the chance to go and see these things. To explore the world and go where no Pika had gone before. Cliffwalker stepped into the trees,  this was it their adventure had begun.