The Other Gods

An aging Ulthar scholar convinced that his own learning has earned him the right to look upon earth's gods leads his young disciple up Hatheg-Kla on the one night a year clouds hide its summit from the valley below. His confidence holds until the final ascent, when the gods he expected to find turn out to have their own keepers — the last thing on record from him is a single sentence about falling upward, and the disciple who survives is the only reason any of it is on record at all.