"Ms. Tickle Mountain." People are born, live and die, in one of the myriad base camps, in the foothills of Ms. Tickle Mountain, rarely venturing beyond earshot of the meal bell.

"In the valley of the most lush oasis, a story is not even allowed to be whispered unless the hearing of it leads directly to where-you-are. The beauty of it, is that if one's story is able to be heard there, the hearing and the destination are one."

No one has ever ascended the heights of this tallest of tallest mountains, because the need to feed, is stronger than the desire for the higher. And you just can't cram a 4-day journey into a 4-hour window, and though many have tried, that many have failed or died.

Why is she called Ms. Tickle? Though she takes many lovers, and could take many more, she loves them all to death, and they are never heard from again, bursting as they do into laughter, doomed - or blessed -forever with chanting the world. And though many are called, few are chosen, and those few always return to the sweet peal music of the meal bell.