THEM MOUNTAINS ARE TREASURES

[sidhe_faerie]

Character: Byrdie (original character)

A/N: This is a conversation with an old mountain woman.

Prompt: (musewrite prompt set 2 photo c)

Word count: 251

 THEM MOUNTAINS ARE TREASURES.

It’s beautiful isn’t it? Those mountains over there are treasures. I hope they don’t disappear. How does a mountain disappear? Well they get exploded.

The polite people call it ‘Mountain Top Removal’. Daddy called it ‘Strip Mining’. That’s what they do. They strip off the top of the mountain to get to the seam of coal inside. They take all the dirt and shale and pour it into the hollers. It changes the land and not always for the good.

Didn’t you ever wonder why that pretty golf course up north is so flat? That was a strip mine. It sure was. That’s what they call ‘reclaiming’. I don’t care what they say mountains are treasures and can’t be reclaimed as a golf course. 

A mountain is more than a pile of rocks and dirt. It’s a living thing. It has creatures on it and springs coming out of it. Things grow on it.

Haven’t you ever wondered why we don’t get the bad storms from the ocean? The mountains block them. They keep us from harm. Both sides. We don’t get all those tornadoes either.

But no one cares about all that anymore. They just want cheap coal. They say it’s safer than underground mines. Either way it still costs us our treasures.

Remember what they look like because someday they may all be gone. That will be a sad day indeed.

Well I know you have to go so I won’t keep you. I’m sure I’ll see you around.