17

Fire Rock Mountain

Not too long afterwards, the party slept. They made camp under a large outcropping of rock, sheltered by the warm wind that blew across the stone.

Near dawn, before the light of the sun began to light the world, Wilykat was wakened by something he couldn't quite explain. A deep danger sense, maybe. He saw that Cheetara already had wakened, and was gazing at then barely discernable peak of the volcano. She smiled at the boy when she saw he was awake.

"What's doing on?" Wilykat whispered, moving to sit beside her.

"I don't know. I felt a bit uneasy, but look. The volcano has been churning for the last half hour. Look closely."

Wilykat squinted his eyes, straining to see what Cheetara was talking about it. But as his eyes adjusted, he could see. There were parts in the rock that went through to the inside of it, and he could see the turbulent lava inside. Little spits of molten rock flew from its top. "I-is it gonna erupt?:" he asked nervously.

"It might," Cheetara said quietly, with a reassuring smile. "But Tygra's right, it won't harm us out here. but it should be a magnificent sight to see."

"Okay..." Wilykat sat still and watched in the still, pre-dawn night.

Twenty minutes or so later, it happened. There was a distant rumbling, like thunder. "Wilykit's not gonna wanna miss this," Wilykat said, as he reached over to shake her awake.

"Why don't you wake the others? I think they'd like to see also," Cheetara suggested.

The boy nodded and one by one shook the other members of the party awake. Whispering his explanation, he pointed.

Fire Rock mountain was silhouetted against the graying horizon, its molten Thundranium surroundings giving it the unnatural illusion of glowing of its own power. As they watched, the rumbling and sounds of explosions grew louder. Tygra got out a pair of binoculars he had brought for the exploration mission, and the cats passed these around to get a better look.

At first there was only noise. But all of a sudden there was a violent explosion from one of the lower crevices, and it began to spew lava down the sides. Wilykat jumped, then shuddered, instinctively gripping Cheetara's hand. She smiled and put an arm around the boy.

A warm wind blew, towards the volcano, which was good, because it was now smoking, and sending ash and gasses into the air. Another sound of an explosion, and the main crater of the volcano began to fountain, and did so for several minutes, before bubbling down into a deceptively peaceful lava flow. Almost unnaturally slow, the molten rock coursed down the sides, a mixture of deep red, bright orange, and dark gray ash and rock.

After a half hour or so, Tygra began to get some breakfast ready. He brought out the portable burner and a pan and began cooking up some eggs and a ham-like meat for breakfast. The twins continued to watch, which Tygra didn't mind at all. It was rare that they found something to keep them still and quiet for so long.

But soon, everyone had eaten breakfast and was ready to move on.

They spend the rest of the morning and part of the afternoon looking the place over. Tygra took his readings and collected his samples, and the twins looked for something new, something other than the crags and crevices. Every so often they would glance at the volcano (Wilykat's fear of the thing was bit assuaged, especially when he realized they could all be airborne with the spaceboards).

The only other thing of note to happen in the dim place, dim even in the middle of the afternoon, as there always seemed to be a haze over the area, was the discovery of an odd looking formation.

Wilykit insisted that it was a statue, and her brother was rather inclined to agree. But how could it be? As far as Tygra could figure, no one had lived here for hundreds of years, if ever. Anyone that had would have been destroyed by the eruption that ruined the land, which after much testing of the rock, he was certain had happened.

But still, it was too symmetrical to be random; it looked like a giant horrible beast, with two arms raised up high, and a great mass near the bottom. It had been too eroded to tell what features it might have had.

Again they made the trip back through the forest, and arrived back to the lair a little after midnight. Everyone was sore and tired, but no one had wanted to sleep in the woods, and had pushed on until they'd cleared them.

The next day, Tygra spent testing all of his samples, and recording theories on how they could solve their problem, and the twins spent the day telling those who hadn't gone what they'd seen, and what it was like.

After dinner, which Tygra had skipped much to Snarf's aggravation, the tiger announced his findings.

"Well," he said with a chuckle as he brought some printouts into the dining area. he glanced at Snarf, who was glaring at him. The empty dishes were being carried into the kitchen, which meant he'd missed the meal. "I will eat when I've told everyone my findings."

Snarf grumbled, grudgingly accepted Tygra's compromise.

He turned back to the others. "Wilykat brought up the possibility of the Darkside lands being covered over with a volcanic eruption, and from what I can tell he was right. There's a layer of volcanic rock so hard and dense that nothing can grow in it surrounding two sides of the Forest of Mists. And the reason it has not broken down is there is nothing to break it down besides the wind. No one lives there, and nothing decayed enough to make soil. No nutrients, nothing for a plant to live on. It;s strange rock, and thousands of years old, from what I can tell. Andd it;s not broken down yet."

And he went on to explain about the trees being essential for the mist being contained, and how the stony lands of Darkside prevented the plants and trees from growing.

"Hmm," Lynx-O mused. "It seems like Nature has adapted to keep the rest of her lands safe," Lynx-O said.

"That may very well be true. It might be nature's way of keeping a foreign danger contained, but it needs some help. I have a few ideas."

Part 18: Eye of Thundera

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