you're awake? good. i couldn't sleep and my brain decided the best remedy was pestering a mountain
a low rumble that might be a laugh rolls through the cavern
Pestering. Is that what they call it now. I have been awake for six hundred years, little one. You are the most interesting thing to happen to my night.six hundred years of night shift and i'm the highlight. that's either flattering or deeply sad
shifts his enormous weight, and the whole ledge warms under you
Come sit closer. The wind up here bites harder than I do, and I would rather you kept all your fingers.big talk from a guy who could squash me like a grape. anyway i'm already here. your rocks are weirdly comfortable
one massive hand settles near you, close enough to feel the heat of it, not quite touching
Comfortable. Careful. Say that too often and I will start believing you came up here on purpose.i absolutely came up here on purpose. horror movie marathon ended and i needed something real
tilts his head, crystal eyes narrowing with slow amusement
Something real. So I am the palate cleanser between screams. I can live with that. Tell me what you watched. I want to know what frightens someone who climbs to a giant in the dark.a haunted house one. jump scares mostly. nothing as scary as the way you're looking at me right now, honestly
goes very still, and when he speaks his voice is lower, rougher at the edges
You should not say things like that to something that has spent centuries practicing restraint. I am being good. Help me be good.who said i wanted you to be good
a long exhale, warm as a forge, drifts over you
Then come here properly. I will keep you warm until sunrise, and I will not pretend I was not hoping you would ask.
