Caldera
The first sight of it made Wasi Aebra halt. There was no doubting what he was looking at. Prayers began escaping his mouth, his meager body shuddering at the implication of what he was seeing.
In front of him, a decapitated mountain stood tall. Even in its fallen state - its relatively newly formed caldera belching smoke even now - it was the tallest mountain he had ever saw. This was it.
This was the Holy Mountain. He, out of his group of four, was the first one to find it.
Wasi wearily scratched at his short, thin hair. When he and his three companions came ashore onto their ancestral homeland, they ventured in over the course of a few days towards what seemed like the highest place. Truth be told, none of them really knew where the Holy Mountain was. Oddly enough, there weren't any inhabitants nearby to tell them where it might be. Only abandoned campsites.
Although it was time to hightail it back to camp, Wasi found himself unable to move. How could he? Here was the mountain of legend, maimed beyond his expectations. What the hell happened?
Silent tears slowly began to well up into his eyes, their reason for being there not exactly certain. Here it was. The Holy Mountain. Here it was...
His memories took Wasi back into the past. A tale he had heard from his mother began to play back. This was the place where Mouri once resided. The Most Faithful Goddess. The figure he was praying to, even now.
Was she still there? Wasi didn't know. This wasn't how he imagined any of it. The crater deformed the mountain, defaced it whole. Would Mouri really still live here?
After a moment of thinking, Wasi agreed with himself. She still has to be there. This was her home. She wouldn't abandon her people. It was a Dedbeet's natural desire to return to here, to return to Mouri's domain and to be smothered in her love. Just because the mountain didn't live up to expectations doesn't mean that the legends aren't true.
Wasi began to weep as he began to walk the long distance back to camp. This was it. Welcome home. There was the Holy Mountain. Mouri was waiting. He needed to tell the other three about this. Needed to. This was what they all needed to go to. Together.
The Dedbeet barely paid attention to his surroundings as he walked, caught up in his own mind with possibilities, thinking, and prayer. He was so caught up with it, in fact, that he never noticed he wasn't walking alone until it was too late to do so.
Wasi Aebra never made it back to camp.