No Man Had Ever Returned

Originally posted on March 6, 2020.

While most of the tallest mountains had long been scaled by great mountaineers in the past, several of the most dangerous peaks still remained to be conquered. Edgar Potts had traveled to a remote section of the Earth to climb a mountain where the locals told tales of how no man has ever returned from the summit. This was just the sort of challenge Edgar was looking for! He assembled a small team of locals and began to ascend. It took several weeks to get near the top -- much easier than Edgar actually expected -- but with literally steps to go, his team stopped in their tracks. They refused to go to the top with Edgar. He tried insisting, hoping they would share in his glory, but they all held back.

About an hour later, Edgar returned to his team. He sat down on a block of ice stunned. It was another hour before he spoke. He described stepping onto the summit, feeling the warmth of the sun shining on him, then he felt a burning and he realized his body was changing. There was nothing he could do as he transformed from male into female.

The rest of his team rolled their eyes. They had tried to warn him from the beginning. No man had, in fact, ever returned from the summit. The gods had transformed every single last one into women as soon as they dared get that close to the heavens. Edgar may have been an outsider, but he was no exception to the rule and the magic of the land.