The Sentinels the curse ruled from the underground, down by the shore

Muses nodded, finding sense in what Deirdre spoke. She had known old trees and young trees, and had thought her mountain to be ancient. But there were fires and avalanches and rock slides that would clear whole patches of forest. Unlike the forest beside the coast, the ones she was most familiar with were in a constant state of growth and rebirth. "These trees must be ancient indeed -- as old as the gods, I would think." To have grown so large meant that they had withstood all means of natural disasters. She marveled at the thought, awestruck beneath the dark shadows.

Finally after a while, she spoke again, her tail brushing lightly against the ground. "I think perhaps I feel about my mountains as you feel about your forest." She summarized, not sure how to do her beloved mountains any justice to their beauty if she could only use words to describe them. "The mountains are as beautiful as they are dangerous, capped with snow and ice, rocky at higher altitudes, and covered in evergreen forests closer to the base." With a dreamy sigh, she turned around, rolling onto her back to gaze up at the towering canopy. "Perhaps if there are mountains in these lands, we can travel to see them together sometime." Her invitation was shy, yet simultaneously eager. It would be nothing like showing Deirdre the place where she had been born, but she could not believe any single mountain could possibly be ugly. "We will find rivers of fresh water, crystalline waterfalls, meadows of flowers, and lookouts from which we can observe the world for days around us!" Sighing, she drew her front paws into her chest, briefly closing her eyes for a moment. Her favourite time had been during the colder seasons, surrounded by family.