When Small One woke up the next morning, it took a few tries to jab Bold One awake with her snout. Bold One purred and stretched her legs out, claws extending. She looked around sleepily for a moment and blinked. Small One spotted the exact moment when she remembered that Clever One wasn't with them anymore, and her face fell. Small One licked behind Bold One's ears and crooned softly. The pair sat like that for a while, musing on their absent friend, before Small One decided it was time to get a move on. She stood up and stretched her wings, soaking up the morning sunlight. Bold One quickly stood up too, her eye lingering on the spot where Clever One would have been.
Small One took a deep drink from the river, then looked around, scanning the plains for any sign of where to go next. That reminded her, she needed to see if Bold One knew where the place she had hatched was. Chittering to Bold One, the initial answer wasn't very encouraging. The firemane sat back onto her haunches, humming to herself with her eye closed in concentration. After a long pause, she finally, rather haltingly, suggested that she would probably know it when she saw it, and that it had been very far away from the tower. Small One sighed. That wasn't very helpful. Still, it was their only real idea of where to go, so she gestured for her companion to lead the way, and they took off.
Bold One clearly wasn't too sure of where she was going. She would fly steadily in one direction, then suddenly pause for a moment and look around, before veering off in another random direction. Small One's patience was growing thin by the time they landed for the night and seemed not to have gotten anywhere. Bold One's apologetic meows took the edge off of Small One's ire, but she was starting to regret this decision just a bit. At this point, though, it was too late to change her mind. Bold One's confused attempts at finding her former home had left them so turned around that she doubted she could find Clever One again even if she tried. So they were just going to have to live with their choices.
By the third day of confused wandering, Small One was at least pleased to find that they weren't flying in circles above the plains anymore. They were well on their way to the hazy mountains in the distance, though it was doubtful if Bold One had actually remembered where to go, or if she was just making hopeful guesses. Small One had taken to admiring the land below in search of anything which might make a meal, regardless of how small or insignificant it may be. The pangs of hunger never quite faded, even when she dove down on unsuspecting pack hunters or snatched feathered things from the air. This part of the world had been ravaged too, and large wyverns seemed not to have deemed it worth returning to yet. No dragons, either. At the very least, the vegetation was returning and smaller creatures were making use of it.
By the end of a week's wandering, Small One had come to the conclusion that Bold One truly had no idea where she was going. At the very least, they'd flown over a verdant grassland where a small herd of slow-moving, unarmoured prey with club tails were peacefully grazing. The slow, timid grazers didn't put up any kind of a fight, and the herd's alpha male made the first proper meal Small One and Bold One had eaten since leaving the desert. Now that she wasn't constantly being plagued by gnawing hunger, Small One could focus a little better on examining their surroundings to see if she could spot something that might possibly be a volcano.
It was another few days before Bold One finally gave a proud cry and took off at speed towards a peculiar looking mountain, a cone of black rock where smoke rose up into the air. The ominous red glow coming from the mountain's peak set Small One on edge, and thin orange rivulets trickled down the sides and pooled at the base. Was that a volcano? Bold One seemed to think so. Following her friend, Small One forced her tired wings to carry her at full speed just to catch up with Bold One. The sight of home seemed to have gotten Bold One fired up, if the way she was screeching was anything to go by.
When they finally reached the volcano, Small One found herself in awe of how unapproachable it seemed. The rock was blackened and the air was choked with ash and sulcus, and the intense heat washed over Small One even as she hovered outside. When she felt that burning air, she knew instantly that even if he had come with them, Clever One wouldn't have survived here. The entire surrounding area was blanketed with ash and smothered beneath encrusted lava flows, but somehow there was still vegetation thriving near the base of the volcano. When she stared at the glowing lava, Small One could swear she saw large shapes moving through it as easily as if it was water. In the distance, a wyvern roared. In spite of all the fire and brimstone, this was the liveliest place Small One had seen in years. The crumbled remains of what used to be a stone death-prey nest lay forlornly a short distance away. By the looks of things, it had been smashed to pieces long ago, and now the local plants had claimed it, along with a group of red pack hunters with black spots.
Bold One ignored all of this and eagerly dove straight into a cave entrance near the volcano's base, and Small One followed. As soon as she was inside, Small One gasped at the heat. It was an intense, dry heat that seemed to sap all the moisture from her mouth as soon as she took a breath. The desert seemed cold by comparison. And yet, she felt rather comfortable inside of the impossibly hot volcano. For one thing, there was no sun to work its way into her black scales and teach her a new meaning of the word 'hot'. There was also no annoying sand to get stuck in her talons or blow into her eyes. The burning ground and flowing magma would take some getting used to, but she felt confident she could manage it.
The volcano's interior was an impossible maze of twisting lava tunnels and open caves, with pools of magma collecting in seemingly random places. The caves were dimly lit, with only the magma to illuminate the way. Despite the fact that there was no soil to be found within the volcano, Small One spotted a few tiny plants stubbornly clinging to life. She clambered over a pile of pale grey rocks to go take a closer look at a shrivelled looking weed growing in a corner near a lava pool. Calling it a weed was a bit generous. It was thin and withered-looking, with brown leaves that looked curled and wrinkled. A rumbling noise, like falling stones, caught Small One's attention, causing her to turn her head and look.
Nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary, aside from the fact that Bold One was rolling around in a patch of stones that were so hot they were glowing. Still, something about the scene felt off to Small One. She knew she had heard a sound, but the surrounding area was completely flat and featureless, with absolutely nothing to break up the terrain save a few little clusters of glowing pebbles. Then it hit her. What had happened to the pile of rocks she climbed over? She hadn't been paying too much attention to them, but she had noticed that they were oddly pale compared to the rest of the reddish-black stone in the cave. She crooned at Bold One, hoping her friend knew something about the vanishing rocks, but Bold One just looked at her blankly and went back to playing in the hot stones.
Sniffing the spot where she thought the rocks had been, Small One managed to detect the faintest hint of a scent, but it was so slight she wasn't even sure it was a real smell. She blinked a few times and glanced around. Had she just imagined the pile of rocks? But she distinctly remembered climbing over them to go look at the plant. She shook her head to stop it from spinning. The vanishing rocks had her curious now, curious to see what other secrets the volcano held. She strode over to the entrance to a hardened lava tunnel, admiring the intricate patterns in the rock. Just before she stepped into the tunnel, she chirped at Bold One. Bold One quickly flipped herself upright and stepped towards Small One, but she froze and flicked her ears towards the nearby magma pool, turning to glare at it with her one eye.
Small One focused her gaze on the pool as well. She hadn't heard whatever Bold One had, but she trusted her friend not to make a fuss over nothing. The surface of the lava seemed to be moving in odd patterns, and Small One's heart skipped a beat when a monster's fin just barely breached the surface. She set herself in an aggressive stance, ready for anything as a tail emerged from the lava and twist led for a moment before going back down. Small One's breath held in her throat. Whatever that thing was, it was big, and it was getting closer.
Is Bold One able to find the volcano? (Intelligence = 9)
Bold One rolls a 12 (required 11). Success.
Today's the 50th chapter! I didn't think I'd get this far with this story, to be honest, since I'm notorious for not finishing what I start. But I'm proud of myself for sticking to this story, and I've only missed one day so far! This story is the longest one I've written, now. It passed that benchmark a while ago, though, back when we hit the 30k mark. At this point, we're about halfway through the story, I'd wager. Remember way back at the very beginning when I said I had about three milestones I wanted to hit before the ending? We've already passed one, and the second will be coming up fairly soon.
Despite the dips in quality that happen when I'm not in the mood or not feeling my best, I enjoy writing this story and seeing what all of you have to say each day. I don't think I'd have been able to keep it up without all of you readers, so thank you. I read every review and take what you all say into consideration, so never hesitate to tell me if you think something needs remedying or if you have a question.
