The wind blew through Pera's hair, flakes of snow catching in it and on her face. Her legs stuggled to move, they were going numb. Hugging her arms tightly to herself, she moved forward. Almost instantly, she found a cottage, she could see an old lady knitting by the fire. Warmth. Was her only,thought as she thumped against the door. A frail old woman answered.

"Yes? Oh, poor you! Come on in, out of the cold, there we go." She said as she led Pera through the door. Sitting by the fire, heat began to surround her. She looked up at the woman. 

,Thank you, if I had not found your cottage, I might well have died out there." The woman looked at her, unblinking. Then, as if shaking put of a daze, she spoke looking directly at the fire. 

"I don't get many visitors nowadays anyway, I should be thanking you, young kitsune." Looking behind her, Pera realised that during the storm her tail had come loose of her jacket and her hood had blown away, uncovering her ears. She smiled at the woman. 

"Since I guess I'm staying here for a while... I'm Pera!" She introduced herself to the woman enthusiastically. The woman gave her a soft smile that reminded Pera of her grandmothers. 

"I am Shona, the woman whom dwells on the mountain." Pera remembered a fairy tale about this mountain.

 

Dare not venture upon the mountain old,

Up where dwell the ice and cold,

But more than that live on those heights,

A terrible monster seeking fright.

Many have dared to venture there,

To the cavern that is the monsters lair,

But none so far have returned home,

And lie as nothing but a pile of bones.

 

A shiver went over Pera, she did not know anyone that had ventured up to the cavern, but if this woman lived up here... Was there really a monster?

 "Sh-Shona?" She asked.

"Yes Pera?"

"Does a monster really dwell on this mountain?"

"A monster?" Shona laughed. "I would not refer to myself as that, I am only but a humble witch."

Pera smiled. So the rhyme is true in part, a monster does not live on the mountain, only a witch...