Wow! Is it really me? Uh, yeah. Anyway, I, SirGecko, am back to post the 16th chapter. You kept your end of my proposed deal, so now it's my turn to keep mine. So, I give you this speedy update.
Thanks to all the reviewers. Your support is greatly appreciated.
Now, I have TWO important authors notes to take care of:
a. I originally said that I'd be going down to California this weekend. Nope, change of plans. Since this would normally be a turnaround trip, because of that damn curse called school, we decided that the trip would not be worth it. So, I'll be heading down sometime around Thanksgiving, by which point, I will hopefully be finished with this story (provided Writer's Block doesn't ail me, like it is right now ^_^).
b. Thanks to darchi (I can't remember the spelling, sorry) for correcting me about a major error in the previous chapter. I will explain it. I'd said that Solaris ahd taken Garet's Giant Axe with him to cut down some wood, and leave behind the Sol Blade for Garet's defense. Well, in the fight scene with the assailants, I had used the Giant Axe instead of the Sol Blade (for the wepon stolen off of Garet), which was my mistake. I have corrected it, and in doing so, feel less stupid. Thanks for pointing this out to me, sir!
Now, this is chapter 16. It's about 7 pages long, so it's just a little under average. Sorry for all of you who like long chapters, but there aren't any that I have typed up after this -_-. I apologize . . .
As you read from 15, they've got a little problem on thier hands now, with the disappearance of the Mars Star . . . and, about the assailants. Acachi has already submitted her guess, anyone else mind letting me know who they think the assailants are? You won't find out for some time (sorry), but on the plus side, you WILL find out. Just be patient while I rack my brain for ideas, to get out of my Writer's Block. I've got one brewing, but I have to figure it out still . . .
Okay, I think I've rambled on enough. On with chapter 16!
Chapter 16: Hellfire
The impact of this simple statement made everybody literally recoil with shock and horror. Garet looked less shocked now, and more apologetic. He even, Isaac noticed, looked close to tears, and he had seen Garet cry only once before.
"I should have checked for it before he even left the clearing," he said shakily. "I didn't though. It's gone, and I know that the kidnappers took it."
"Yeah, otherwise we would have noticed it on the ground," said Mia.
"The man must have taken it when he fell on me," mumbled Garet. "I know that's when they got it. And it's all my fault . . ."
"Relax, man!" said Ivan reassuringly. "How could you have known?"
"It's, as you have said to me so often, common sense!" said Garet. "If I had the common sense to check for it, this wouldn't have happened."
This left Ivan at a loss for words. It was true that he often poked fun at Garet, but he had always meant it in a joking fashion. He didn't know Garet took it somewhat seriously . . . but they both had a point. If Garet did have more common sense, than this wouldn't have happened. But Garet was right in the fact that he didn't expect it.
"Well, there's nothing we can do about it now," said Lunora. "If we go after the assailants, it will only deter us from the task at hand. And that is to get to the Mars Lighthouse and stop Karst and Agatio."
"But, we need to find the star, don't we?" said Garet. "I'll find it alone if I have to. It was my responsibility . . . my fault . . ." and this time, Isaac did see a solitary tear leak out of Garet's right eye. Isaac took his sleeve and wiped it away.
"Don't beat yourself up," he said reassuringly. "We're not blaming you in the slightest. I probably, under the circumstances, wouldn't have checked for it either. We were both worried about our own safety, and that comes first. So, don't kill yourself over it. You were right."
Garet sniffed. "Well, you have a point . . ."
"Of course he has a point!" said Solaris. He looked at Garet. "Now, I want you to stop worrying. We'll be fine. The Star will be fine. The only problem we'll have is if it's carried to the Mars Lighthouse."
"This means, that this is where we have to assume the worst," said Isaac. "So, we all know the worst. It will be taken to the Mars Lighthouse, where it will be used to light the beacon. With that in mind . . ."
"What if the assailants were Karst and Agatio?" said Ivan. "And they described themselves in the third person somewhat, to make us believe that it's not them!"
"No, that's not it," said Garet, sighing and straightening up. "The voices, though muffled, were definitely different from that of Karst's and Agatio's."
"Well, we can pretty well guess that the star is on its way to the Mars Lighthouse," said Lunora.
"Oh, no!" said Mia. They will be far ahead of us by now!"
"We've gotta move!" said Solaris, jumping. "You okay, Garet?"
"Fine," said Garet, now looking ashamed of himself for making such a scene. "I just want to get this all over with, and go back to our regular lives."
"Don't we all?" said Isaac.
"But, we mustn't think of those things now, for they will distract us," said Mia. "Let's go! Before we see the light of the beacon from within the forest!"
*******
When somebody stated that the forest was large, they truly understated its proportions. This forest wasn't large at all. It was gigantic. Almost an hour's walking, and everything still looked the same. However, they could walk without the light of a lantern, because the little daylight that filtered through the dense foliage was enough to light their way.
Garet stared at the tress, which all looked the same to him, with an irritated expression on his face. He had contributed to the loss of the Mars Star . . . but then he thought of the encouraging words of his companions. It brought the smallest of smiles to his lips.
"What's the bet that we're gonna get out of this forest and we'll see our ship in the distance?" said Ivan.
"Oh relax," said Lunora, shaking him playfully. "We're not going to see the ship."
"But you're right, Ivan," said Solaris. "It looks awfully familiar."
"That's because it looks as though nothing changes, the greenery is so thick," said Isaac. "This is getting old."
"Look up above, and you'll notice a difference," said Mia.
Everybody stopped, and looked up. The trees were just as green, and just as ordinary-looking as the others. Nobody could see anything.
"What's there to see?" said Ivan. "The trees all look-"
"It's not the trees, though," said Mia, nodding again at the tops of the trees. "Look closer."
Isaac looked, and then noticed the difference, too. "They're thinning out," he said. "I can actually see the sky now. Looks gloomy."
"But that means that we're reaching the end of the forest!" said Lunora excitedly. "Let's go!"
They all quickened their pace. Occasionally, they glanced up at the trees to see any difference. There was, surprisingly, none. But that didn't dampen their spirits. They pressed on. But then, Solaris looked up and pointed as well.
"Another difference," he said, stopping the group in their tracks. "Look at the trees this time."
Everybody looked, and this time, the difference was staring them in the face. The foliage was no longer green, but yellow. It was dying, but nobody knew why. So, they all decided to proceed without little regard to the decaying trees.
Another thing soon disturbed the usual noises of the forest. It was a low, ominous rumbling sound. It sounded oddly like fire to everybody. Then, the path sloped downward, and they could see the next ½ mile of the path.
"Holy Hell!" shouted Isaac, who was in front. "Oh, Venus. Oh, Venus . . ."
"What is it?" asked Garet urgently. "What do you see?"
"Look!" said Isaac in a high-pitched voice. "Look at the far end of the path!"
"Oh my!" said Mia. "Mercury . . . the forest is on fire!"
It was true. The trees, the towering trees on either side of the path, were being licked and incinerated by angry flames. Every so often, you could hear the crack of a branch as a burning limb crashed to the forest floor. Smouldering and burning branches and logs were strewn across the forest path.
"How are we gonna get past that?" asked Ivan.
"Well, we should leave our stuff here," said Lunora. "That way, we don't have to haul it."
"What if it burns, though?" asked Garet.
"Then it burns, buddy," said Solaris. "I'd rather have this burn than us, because we were weighted down with this. Take only what you need: a few potions, weapons, armor, the necessities. We'll have to go through it, by the path. Running through the foliage would be a death trap."
Everybody else nodded, and dropped their bags to the forest floor with a soft *flump!*, and got ready to proceed. Isaac guided them forward once one of the logs blew out.
They ran the whole way to the wall of flame and the burning wood on the path, adrenaline rushing in all of them. It didn't take them long to reach the burning embers. Mia rushed forward and, taking some of Garet's fire Djinn, cast Deluge on the embers, putting them out, and letting off a huge cloud of steam. Then, everyone clambered quickly over the logs of fallen trees, and the larger branches. They caught quite a scare when a tree branch, leaves aflame, smashed to the ground mere inches from Ivan.
Soon, they saw that their progress was going to be severely hampered. Of course, they should have known that the same was true for the rest of the path. And it was. Charred trees and huge branches littered the path, greatly slowing down progress. But these tree limbs were smoking instead of burning. Mia was kept quite busy casting Deluge on the limbs so they would be safe to touch.
"I'm getting sick of this," said Ivan disgustedly. "Tempest!"
He cast tempest on the logs strewn all over the path. The Tempest was strong enough to move the logs out of the way of the path, and it totally blew the branches back into the forest.
"Good call, Ivan," said Lunora. "Now, we'll be able to move quicker."
Everyone proceeded at a jogging pace. Mia was slightly tired from all the Psynergy she used, so she lagged behind slightly. Nobody even had their weapons out, for they knew that the fire would have scared all the monsters away.
"Look at the trees now," said Isaac. "Very ominous-looking, I think."
Everybody agreed with him on that one. The trees were not aflame, just black, charred, twisted figures protruding from the ground. Stumps with jagged edges form where the upper part of the tree snapped off were all over the place. You could clearly see the sky now, and the clouds had turned black. Lightning struck every so often, illuminating everything in the brightest light.
"At last!" shouted Lunora. "There's the end of the forest right there!"
"Thank Mars!" said Garet. "I thought this forest would never end."
"Now that I think about it, I'm not sure I want it to end," said Solaris. "I don't like the looks of that sky."
Everybody looked at the sky over by the forest exit. If evil ever reigned throughout Weyard, everybody was sure that this is where they would start. The sky had red in it mixed in with the black. Red-orange lightning bolts struck every few seconds. And the sound of thunder was deafening. And another sound. It sounded like the very ground was longing to throw something up, but couldn't. TI was the sound of volcanoes erupting.
"Well, we've got to get this over with," said Mia. "No matter how much we hate it. You're right. I have a bad feeling about this."
"What about the lava plateau?" said Garet. "How are we gonna climb that?"
"Oh, dammit!" cursed Solaris. "I forgot the rope."
"Well, that's okay," said Isaac. "We've all got gloves, we can climb the better parts of the plateau."
"Well, that's a good option if you want to commit suicide," said Lunora casually. Isaac, Garet, Ivan, and Mia turned their heads sharply to face Lunora.
"What do you mean?" asked Ivan.
"Well, naturally, if it's a lava plateau, the rock is going to be extremely hot," explained Lunora. "Even with gloves on, the heat will just burn right through them, straight to your fingers. You'll let go of the rock, fall and get your head split open, bleed profusely and . . . need I go on?"
"You're forgetting something, Lunora," said Mia.
"What's that?" she asked, interested.
"There's a Mercury Adept traveling with you!" said Mia, grinning.
Lunora smiled. "I should have known. Well, since you're so powerful, I don't think cooling off a column of rocks should trouble you much."
"Not a problem," said Mia. "But, I'm getting hot in all these clothes. Let's move quickly, shall we?"
They all continued down the path, and soon they came to the end of the forest path. The tree shells here were still on fire here, and ash was raining down on them like snow. And the lava plateau rose out of the ground before them, little more than 50 feet high. Everybody felt their breath taken away.
It looked as though the plateau were moving itself. Rivers, and streams of lava wound their way around the base at the top, they assumed, since lava spilled over the sides like waterfalls. And, by the looks of lava clusters suspended for a fraction of a second in midair, there were several small active volcanoes on the top, too, which proved the fact that there were volcanoes.
"Mars," said Garet. "I've never seen anything so amazing as this."
"Oh, it's so hot," said Mia, sweat already dripping down her face. Hers was not the only sweat.
However, Garet seemed to be not taking nearly as much notice of the heat as the others were. He was a Mars Adept, after all, and heat did not bother him very much. He was looking around, mouth agape, looking at the streaming lava, which was bubbling and boiling with such intensity that it could be felt in waves of searing heat by the others.
"Look!" said Solaris suddenly. "Look at the center!"
"What?" asked Lunora. "Oh!"
There, in what they assumed to be the center of the plateau, they could see the top of the Mars Lighthouse, blood red in stone, from what they could tell. The beacon had not been lit, which to them was an enormous relief. That either meant that Karst and Agatio hadn't reached the top yet, or it meant that the star wasn't even in their possession, and they were just waiting for Isaac and company.
"Where do you think the safest place to climb the plateau is, Solaris?" asked Mia.
Solaris had been scanning the rock the whole time, and he pointed to a shelf of jagged, but vertical rock. "There," he said. "That's where the best support is."
"Don't touch anything until I have cooled it off!" said Mia warningly to the others. "You don't mind if I take the lead, do you Isaac?"
"Why would I mind? I'd like to keep my fingers, thank you very much," said Isaac. This made Mia laugh, and kiss his gloved hand.
She moved to the front of the group, and cast Deluge on the column of rock that they were going to climb. A sizzling could soon be heard followed by a great, billowing cloud of steam. Mia chanced the touch, but before she did, she cast one more Deluge on it, just to be safe. Another considerably smaller cloud of steam followed. After nodding to indicate that it was safe to touch, the others approached.
Isaac retook the lead and tested out the protrusions of rock. It supported his weight with ease and slowly, he climbed the vertical incline of rock. As soon as they could, the others followed suit. Once Isaac reached the top of the plateau, he assisted the rest in getting on it too. Once they were all on the top half of the plateau, they got a good look at it.
Rivers of lava flowed everywhere, blood-red lightning struck from blood-red clouds, and it was hotter than the fiery pits of Hell. The rivers themselves were wide, and rather swift. If anyone stumbled, it would be their last. So they had to be careful. Small volcanoes erupted here and there, spurting lava which added to the rivers. In most cases, the lava rivers' sources were the volcanoes.
This time as well, they were able to catch a full glimpse of the Mars Lighthouse. It was glowing fiery red not only from the stone it was built form, but also from the reflections of light from the lava and occasional flashes of lightning. It looked truly frightening to everyone, even Garet.
"I don't think this is going to be easy," said Garet tensely.
"This is what I imagine Hell to look like," said Solaris, shaking his head as an explosion sounded from one of the volcanoes, sending a column of lava into the air.
"Well, how in the Hell are we gonna get over there?" said Isaac. "I don't see a direct path!"
"I can see a path to the Mars Lighthouse, but it will be tricky," said Ivan. "It's not direct, either."
He started to instruct and point with his finger. The path included following the coast of several rivers, crossing hot spots for lightning strikes, and even around a volcano. But nobody else suggested an alternative path, so they decided to follow Ivan's course.
It was slow, but safe work. Everyone walked very slowly so they wouldn't lose their footing and perish in one of the lava rivers. The only true scare is when Garet stumbled, and Solaris saved his life by grabbing him by the waist before he fell face-first into a puddle of flaming lava.
"I'm burning up," said Ivan, wiping his forehead, sending a few bullets of sweat from his hand and forehead onto the ground. They evaporated before even making contact with the stone. "I'm swimming in my own heat . . ."
"Mia, can you cast something over our heads?" asked Lunora, her normally flowing, silver hair slick with sweat, with some of it stuck to her face in long bands.
"Good idea," said Mia, and she cast Drench on the party, which cooled them off significantly. Refreshed, they pressed onward.
"Good God," said Isaac as they neared the volcano. "I never thought I'd get to see a volcano this close. I haven't seen anything like it since Mt. Aleph erupted. And it was never this hot . . ."
"Excuse me for saying so," said Solaris, "but does this path take us right next to the volcano?"
"Oh, yeah," said Ivan. "That's the tricky part. We have to time our movements. If we do that, we should be okay."
"Can't you cast Deluge over the top of the volcano, Mia?" asked Garet.
"No, my water will evaporate before it even touches the volcano, since it is so hot," said Mia, "and secondly, I am in the realm of Mars. My power is severely weakened."
"Well, we have no choice but to continue," said Isaac.
The group proceeded, and got as close as they could to the volcano without being in range of the erupting lava coming form its cone. Isaac looked at the volcano, and then scanned the ground. Most unfortunately, much of the little spurts of lava seemed to land right in their path . . .
"Okay, I think I can time this thing," said Isaac. "When I say go, go. When I say stop, stop. Alright. Is everybody ready?" Everyone nodded. "Okay . . . GO!"
They all ran forward just as the lava cleared away from the path they were going to take. Suddenly, Isaac could hear a rumbling coming form within the volcano. It was going to spurt again.
"Stop!" he shouted.
The lava spurted from the cone of the volcano, and just as it was about to land, Isaac shouted for them to go. The lava barely missed Mia, splattering at her feet, but luckily missing any parts of her body. So, they were able to make it past the volcano unscathed. A turn to the right, and they would stop right in front of the Mars Lighthouse.
"Good calls, Isaac!" said Solaris. "Good calls."
"Now, from what I'm looking at, the path from here is simple," said Mia. All we do is turn right, follow the lava river, and we come to a stop at the front door of the lighthouse?"
"That's right," said Ivan. "Let's get away from this volcano. It's unpredictable."
And sure enough, no sooner then they had moved away from the spot they were standing, a lava bomb came soaring out of the volcano, exploding in the exact spot where Lunora stood. It was a funny thing to know how Mother Nature was always so close. They knew it was only a matter of time before she hit . . .
They all made a right, and followed the bank of a lava river. It wove around jagged rocks that stuck out of the ground, and meandered all over the place before turning left just before the Mars Lighthouse. Naturally, the group stayed straight on that course, and soon came to a stop in front of the lighthouse.
"We passed the trials of fire. Now we meet the king," said Solaris.
"Huh?" asked Garet.
"It's a metaphor Garet, you- should know that there is no king in the lighthouse," said Ivan, catching himself before he called Garet an idiot.
"Oh, okay then," said Garet, and he walked up the stone steps of the lighthouse.
They started to climb the stone steps of the Mars Lighthouse. The steps were as cold as the steps of the Jupiter Lighthouse, and yet that was strange. All of the other rock had been hot to the touch. Now that they all thought about it, they were surprised that their boots weren't burned through. But, this stone seemed to resist the heat.
As soon as Garet climbed the steps, the door opened. Everybody followed suit, and they were hit with a blast of air so hot that it singed their eyebrows slightly. Heat radiated form inside the lighthouse like it did from the sun on a scorching summer day. Mia handed Garet back some of his Fire Djinn, and Torch, Scorch, and Forge joined him while Fizz, Tonic and Dew went back to Mia.
"Ladies and Gentleman, I give you the Mars Lighthouse," said Solaris. "The hottest and most fierce of them all."
"Well, isn't that great?" said Garet sarcastically. "I think we're gonna be hampered by the heat. It always makes me sluggish . . ."
"Yeah, and you're the Mars Adept!" said Mia. "You think you're going to be hot? I'm a Mercury Adept, for the Gods' sake!"
"Well, we can't do much about it," said Lunora.
"Mia, we'll be needing you to cool all of us off," said Ivan expectantly.
"I can only do so much, so I'll have to ration my psynergy," said Mia. "Wait. I brought a few Psy Crystals with me, so I think we'll be alright."
"Good. Well, let's get this over and done with," said Isaac. "The less amount of time we spend in here, the better. It's gonna be like an inferno, I can tell already . . ."
*********************
No cliffhanger this time (now, all of you who don't like them start cheering now, unless you want an icicle lodged in your hand . . . yes, my ice gecko is pretty pissed off for no apparant reason. I've locked him in a steel case so he doesn't kill anybody.
Anyway, let's strike up that old patented SirGecko deal. The more reviews I get, the faster I update. So, all who want chapter 17 sharpish, REVIEW! And you'll have 17.
~SirGecko~