Chapter 10: The Sanctuary of Stone and Fire (still continued)

When he landed, he was now in the underground basement of the temples. He was standing on a red, stone floor. A lava river was running through the middle of the basement. On the floor that Rayman was standing on, there was also a giant, purple plum. Rayman hopped onto it. He wanted to go down the lava river while riding the plum raft, so he fired energy in the opposite direction. The giant plum dropped off the floor, and onto the surface of the lava river, with Rayman still standing on top of it. It floated down the lava river slowly. Rayman kept firing energy backwards, to make the plum continue moving forward, down the lava river. It was a very steep river, and also very lengthy. And, as luck might have it, there were some Yellow Lums down here too! He now had 575 Yellow Lums! There weren't very many Yellow Lums here--just a few; however, Rayman remembered that Globox was taking another path in this area, trying to locate more lums to give Rayman...
At the end of this treacherous, boiling river, there was a small doorway. Rayman went through it, still riding on top of the giant plum. Behind the doorway, there was another long hallway with dark, red bubbling lava flowing down through it, and Rayman kept firing even more energy to propel the giant plum further down through this room. When he finally reached the end of this second hallway, he hopped off the plum and onto the stone floor which was safe to stand on. The indoor lava river ended here, thank goodness.
On the wall in front of Rayman, there were two doorways. A round, wooden wheel-like object on the wall was covering up one of these doorways, and so only one of them was currently accessible. Rayman walked through it.
Through this doorway, Rayman found himself in a huge, pitch-black room containing a very deep, dark pit which seemed bottomless, and some ledges sticking out over this pit, sloping downwards.
There was also a golden Magic Sphere here. It shone brightly in this room of darkness. Rayman wondered where the golden base was, which he was probably supposed to put the sphere onto. Maybe, it would be at the bottom of this area?
He picked it up, and tossed it down to one of the ledges that was floating over the bottomless pit. Then, he glided down onto that ledge where he had thrown the sphere onto. From here, he tossed it over to the next ledge, and then he glided down to that ledge. This kept on going on, until he had got himself and the sphere over to the last ledge. From here, he could see that there was a small opening in the wall which led to a hallway. Rayman tossed the golden sphere over to that hallway, glided into the hallway, and picked up the sphere again and started proceeding down the hallway. He was sure that there would be a magic base somewhere here...
Halfway through this hallway, there was a long, rectangular pool of lava between Rayman and the other end of the hallway. A giant plum was floating in the lava, which Rayman could probably stand on to cross the lava pool, but the plum was way at the other end of the lava pool--too far away for Rayman to jump onto it.
Then, Murfy flew by and said: "Oh, I forgot to tell you, Rayman! If the giant plum is far away from you, you can shoot energy at it, and then it will move towards you."
"Thanks, Murfy!" replied Rayman, smiling. He put down his golden sphere and fired a ball of energy at the giant plum, which caused it to move forwards, just as Murfy had mentioned. After the plum was closer to Rayman, he picked up his golden sphere again and stepped onto the plum. He probably had to carry the sphere across this lava pool, while riding on top of the giant plum. He had to shoot energy from his fists in the opposite direction, now, to make the plum move forward to the other end of the lava pool. However, his hands were full (he was holding the golden sphere), so he couldn't shoot energy from his fists!
Then, Murfy whispered a suggestion in Rayman's ear.
"Oh, yeah!" smiled Rayman. "I should have remembered this!"
When Rayman was standing on top of the giant plum, he tossed his golden sphere into the air, then quickly shot some balls of energy from his fists to make the giant plum move forwards (now that his hands were free), and then he immediately caught the golden sphere as it came back down towards him. He kept doing this, until he got to the other end of the lava pool. And that was the technique he used so he could get his golden sphere to the other end of the lava pool, while riding the giant plum. Murfy followed Rayman across the lava pool, flying above it.
Across this lava pool, Rayman carried his golden sphere through the rest of the hallway. He entered a new room, containing solid floor to walk on. However, there was also another narrow lava river which was flowing through the middle of the room, and out through a tunnel at the end of the room. Rayman could easily glide over this narrow lava river, to the floor on the other side. There was a golden Magic Base on the side of the river that Rayman was on. There was also a blue Magic Base on the other side of this river. Rayman didn't have a blue sphere yet, though, but he assumed that when both bases had spheres on them, this would open up some doorway leading to a guardian, which he would have to fight to get the second mask, just like with the first guardian. There was also a tall, stationary, wooden totem pole in the back of this room. It had a fierce-looking face painted on it. It didn't do anything or help him get further, in any way yet.
Rayman gazed around this huge room. There was also an indoor balcony overhead. Rayman looked up at it, and he saw that the blue Magic Sphere was up here. He couldn't reach it yet, though. It was impossible. There was also a doorway on the other side of the lava river, which was blocked by a round, wooden wheel-shaped object on the wall. Too bad. That doorway might have some stairs behind it, leading up to the indoor balcony, where the blue Magic Sphere was.
"Well...good luck trying to get further here!" buzzed Murfy, flying away. "Hope you can reach the Blue Sphere!"
Rayman didn't have any clue about how to reach that Blue Magic Sphere. However, since Rayman at least had a golden Magic Sphere, he placed it on top of the golden Magic Base, on the side of the lava river that he was on. When this sphere touched the base, something happened. The round, wooden wheel-shaped object on the wall (on the other side of the river) rotated, revealing a doorway that had been hidden behind it.
"Yahoo," said Rayman, walking through it. This probably led up to the indoor balcony, where the Blue Magic Sphere was! That was his prediction.
On the other side of this doorway, there was a tunnel leading...back to the beginning of the temple basement, where Rayman had started. Back to square one. Now he had to go back all the way down this lava river on the giant purple plum AGAIN! He got frustrated and impatient as he did this. Crossly, he fired energy and made the plum move forward, thinking he wasn't going to get anywhere new.
However, when Rayman got to the end of this lava river, he noticed that the other round, wooden wheel-shaped object on the wall here (at the end of the first lava river) had rotated too! Now a different doorway was open here. So Rayman hopped through it.
Behind this doorway, there was a room with a lava pool, and some platforms sticking out of it, which Rayman easily glided across. On the other side of this red-hot pool, there was a purple flying target hanging in mid-air above the ground. When Rayman approached it, it suddenly started flying away from him! It flew through another room up ahead, where there was a slippery brown slide, and it seemed as if Rayman would have to go down this slippery slide to chase after it! He stared at the slide. There were several sharp turns and also, on either side of the slide, lava pools. Rayman had no choice but to hop down this slide. The purple target kept flying further. Rayman chased after it, to see where it was going. Down the slide he slid, hotly pursuing the purple flying target. There was a tight turn, and lava on the right side of the slide. Rayman slowed down to get better control, and he turned left to stay on the slide and avoid the lava on the right. There was another tight turn. Rayman steered himself to the right. He almost fell into the lava on the left, but he didn't. Then, after several more extremely tight turns, the purple flying hook came to a lava gap.
As Rayman came sliding down this slide, and was catching up to the purple target, he noticed he was almost at the end of the slide, and that there was a huge lava gap up ahead!!!!! Rayman was gonna fall into that lava gap! He screamed in fright...but luckily, the purple target was now directly above this lava gap that was up ahead...so quickly, Rayman shot a ball of energy at the flying target, grabbed onto the rope that appeared from it, and swung over the lava gap up ahead. Then, across it, there was another slide, and another purple flying hook! It, too, flew away from Rayman, when he slid towards it. Rayman chased it down the next slide...
...and when he got to the end of the slide, he saw that he had ended up at the indoor balcony where the Blue Magic Sphere was! The purple flying hook had also gone here. Rayman picked up the magic sphere in his hands. He tossed it down to the first floor below the balcony, where the Blue Magic Base was. Then, he glided down from the balcony and landed on the floor below. He picked up the blue sphere again, and placed it on top of the blue base.
Now, both spheres were on both bases. Suddenly, the room shook!
The brown totem pole in the front of the room, woke up. The Magic Spheres on the bases had caused the totem pole to come to life.
"I am UMBER," it spoke, "the Guardian of the Sanctuary of Stone and Fire. You're not gonna get the second mask from me!"
"Oh, yes, I will!" replied Rayman.
"Oh, no, you won't!" roared Umber.
However, Umber wasn't as strong as he looked. It turned out that Rayman was able to defeat Umber very easily... Using the purple flying target that was now overhead, Rayman swung back up to the balcony above him. From here, he glided onto the top of Umber's head. Then, for some reason, Umber started walking forward...with Rayman still standing on Umber's head! Umber walked through the lava river that was flowing through the room and out through another hallway...this hallway led outside...and, when Umber was almost at the end of the lava river, he started to sink. When Umber sank into the lava river, Rayman glided off Umber's head...and onto a patch of grassy land that was outside the temples.
There was a box here. Rayman opened it...and inside it...
THERE WAS POLOKUS' SECOND MASK!!!!!
However, before Rayman could pick it up, Globox suddenly came running by, and he spoke: "Wait, Rayman! Don't leave this area yet! I have to give you some Yellow Lums, which I found in another part of this area..."
"Oh, yeah!" remembered Rayman. "Thanks!"
Globox handed them to Rayman, which brought Rayman's total number of Yellow Lums up to 605!
Then, Rayman picked up the second mask, and he automatically got teleported back to the grassy, night-time lake area where Polokus was still sitting on his pedestal.
"You have found the second mask," spoke Polokus. "Good, Rayman, you're getting closer to your goal! Just two more masks, and I will awaken..."
Then he opened a portal, leading into a new area.
"Be careful, the rest of your quest will be even harder!" he warned Rayman.