My legs scream at me after hiking all day, and my scarf is soaked with sweat, but I force myself further up the rocky slope. It’s steep, and I stumble more than once, pushing myself to my feet again and continuing my climb up the black volcano. I’ve never done anything so physical in my life, but now, there’s no time for doubt or fatigue. I reach the top, coming around a spire of dark rock, and the impossible comes into view. An enormous humanoid figure made entirely of storm clouds stands tall over the caldera, two yellow eyes like stars in its face pointed down towards its feet. And there between its feet, standing at the edge of the wide, round pit, I see a little girl, her pink t-shirt covered in soot. “Rebecca!” I run forward. The cloud-man turns, and suddenly his foot comes down in front of me, blocking my path with swirling gray. “You must not interfere,” he rumbles in a voice like thunder. A few days ago, I wouldn’t have believed any of this. I would have been shocked into silence. But I’ve seen so many impossible things, now, and if this creature thinks he can scare me, he’s dead wrong. “I’ll interfere as much as I want!” I shout over the raging winds. “That’s my daughter!” I walk straight through its foot. The ever-shifting clouds tug at my clothes and hair, but I come through to the other side, eyes streaming, just as Rebecca leans forward over the edge of the pit, preparing to jump. Rushing forward, I grab her arms and pull her back. We both tumble backwards to the rocky ground. “Momma?” she gasps. “I’m here. It’s me.” She’s trembling. I take my scarf from my neck and wrap it around hers. “I’ve got you. This ends now.” “No, no, you don’t understand!” The cloud-man looms over us. “Foolish mortal. You must know by now. There must be a sacrifice. And the chosen hero must make it.” “Says who?” I shout. “Says you? She’s ten years old! She should be at home with a book, not getting ready to throw herself into a volcano!” “Momma,” Rebecca tugs her arms out of my grasp. “I have to do this.” “No you don’t!” “The world is ending! The monsters are here. Look!” She points down into the pit at the volcano’s heart, and I look. There’s no lava there. At first my eyes register it as a storm, near-black and constantly shifting. But the more I look, the more I make out the individual creatures making up the mass. I can see their tails, their claws, their teeth. “If we don’t feed them, they’ll destroy the world,” my daughter says. “They’ll bring about a thousand years of terror.” “So I’ve heard,” I say. My hands are trembling. I hate this. I hate everything about this. She puts her hands over mine, smiling at me with teary eyes. “It’s okay, Momma. I’ve made my choice. I’m ready to die, to save the world.” “No.” I hug her. “Oh, no, sweetheart, no. That’s not your choice to make. It’s not yours. And it’s not his,” I add, scowling up at the figure in the clouds. “Whatever he is; I don’t care. You’re a child. And I’m your mother. It’s my job to protect you, not the other way around. It’s my job to give you a world worth living in.” “But it is my job.” Her eyes flicker to the storm raging in the pit. “It’s destiny. The monsters won’t leave until they have the hero’s blood. My blood.” She says it with a mature certainty that breaks my heart. My little girl! But no matter how many impossible things I’ve seen, there are some things that nothing can change. “We’re family. Your blood is my blood.” I kiss her forehead, wrapping the scarf more snugly around her shoulders. “Just get home safe. That’s all I ask.” Her eyes widen with realization. “No, Momma, please -” “I love you,” I say, and I shove her further away from the edge, using the momentum to throw myself into the pit.