They fell into the inferno, grappling with each other in mortal battle. Jara's hair whipped around Thunderchilds face as she locked her hands around his throat. He grimaced and snarled before punching her in the face, around them were steep stone walls lit with the glow of the lava furnace they were falling down into.
He kneed her in the stomach and forced her to break her death grasp, then moved back in to try and grab a hold of her a second time. This time he noticed something different about her, she seemed more subdued than violent.
"Jara!" he yelled over the whistle of rushing wind.
She looked up at him and smiled, not the cruel, sadistic smile Thunderchild was now used to seeing from her, but a real genuine heartfelt smile which took him back to the days when they had been together on Terra.
"Yissan! It's me! I'm back!" she yelled.
Thunderchild grabbed a hold of her arms and they briefly embraced.
"I'm so, so sorry!" she sobbed.
"Save it for later Jara!" replied Thunderchild as he manoeuvred himself towards the edge of the fissures wall, the heat from the lava was becoming unbearable, and Thunderchild knew that it was merely a matter of minutes, possibly even seconds, before it killed him and Jara. He reached his hand out to the wall and managed to grasp a ledge and hold onto it.
They both swung and collided with the fissure edge heavily, Jara almost slipping out of his grasp.
"Hold on Jara!" he yelled, trying to clamber up onto the ledge, the heat burning away at him, he could swear that the ragged remains of his clothing were on fire.
"I can't Yissan! I can't live with what I've done!" came the reply.
Thunderchild frowned and looked down at her, just about seeing her from the glare of the lava flows below, she looked extremely sad.
"Jara, don't be stupid! We're both going to live dammit! I haven't come all this way to lose you at the last minute! Not now that you've come back!"
"Please Yissan, it wasn't me, please believe me…I wouldn't have done what I did…I was possessed!" she sobbed, tears rolling from her eyes and evaporating on her face.
"I believe you Jara!"
She looked down at the lava and back up at him, a sudden lurch brought his attention back to his hand gripping for dear life on the rocky outcrop, the area around his hand was starting to give way, he had to act and now.
"Remember me as I was Yissan!" shouted Jara, bringing his attention back down to her. They locked eyes and she smiled at him as she opened her hand and let go of his. Falling backwards into the glaring light as if in slow motion.
"Goodbye!" she yelled as she plummeted away from him.
"Jara! No!" yelled Thunderchild as he hung, powerless to save her from her fate, powerless even to save himself as the rock ledge crumbled even more. Now he wasn't sure he even wanted to save himself, not now…perhaps it was best to fade into the darkness.
Before he could make such a decision, the ledge collapsed, making it for him.
The temperature soared as he fell down into the depths of Terra, the brightness of his surroundings increasing until all he could see was white.
"Good…bye…" he croaked as he felt the fires engulf him.
He felt only one regret, that he had never been able to live his life with Domino or Jara, that he had had to leave her so soon after meeting her again.
How cruel is life that it robs us of such joys. He thought, closing his eyes.
With a heavy impact he landed on something hard, winding him and forcing his eyes open. Instead of seeing the fiery hell-like crevasse which he had been plummeting through, he found himself in the middle of a forest, a very familiar forest in fact as he looked around and saw the crystals growing in the trees.
"What the…?" he slowly said, sitting up gently and looking around more.
There was a gentle glowing light in the trees to his left and so he decided to stand up and walk towards it.
Is this it? Is this what lies beyond? He wondered.
Something landed on the ground behind him and trilled, making him jump as the silence surrounding him was broken.
Turning around slowly he saw a black cat staring back at him, looking at him intently it quirked its head to one side and meowed. Thunderchild smiled and bent down to make a fuss of the animal, picking it up after a while to fuss it in his arms.
"What are you doing all the way out here?" he asked
The cat trilled again in response as he walked towards the light again.
"Well, yes, I guess we're both lost aren't we?" he said with a gentle laugh.
The cat began struggling so he put it back down on the floor, immediately it ran onwards through the trees towards the glowing light, stopping every now and then to look back and meow at him. It was as though the cat was leading him on.
"Ok…you lead then." Said Thunderchild with a smile.
He felt by his side but Draconus was absent, but he doubted that he would encounter many monsters in the Twilight Forest, and if he did he was sure Reiganna could help.
Eventually he came to a clearing but even before he saw the occupants of the clearing, he could hear their voices.
"I don't know what happened." Said Reiganna.
"THEY WERE DESTINED TO FIGHT EACH OTHER…BUT THERE IS SOMETHING MORE." Intoned a heavy voice which sent shivers down Thunderchilds spine, he knew that voice from experience on the Discworld.
It was Death.
"But the crystal is safe…order has been restored." Said Reiganna.
"AT LEAST WE HAVE THAT ASSURANCE, IF ONLY THINGS WERE THAT SIMPLE."
"I know…but how was I to know that he would live?"
Thunderchild chose this moment to enter the clearing, the black cat that had been leading him trotted over to Death and began rubbing itself around his cloak.
"Thunderchild…you're…here?" said Reiganna, raising an eyebrow.
"I know…why, shouldn't I be?" he said
Death shifted his scythe uneasily.
"YOU'VE PRESENTED ME WITH QUITE A PROBLEM YISSAN GOJENTA…NOT ONLY ARE YOU NOT ACTUALLY FROM THE DISCWORLD, BUT YOU'RE NOT EVEN DEAD."
Thunderchild stared at him.
"What do you mean not dead? I just fell into the middle of a planet, how can I not be dead!"
Reiganna sat down on a log, the cat ran across to her and began rubbing around her ankles, she reached down and tickled it behind its ears which made the cat purr even louder and rub her hand. She went to say something but was interrupted by the arrival of a woman with short brown hair wearing a loose fitting cloak walked into the clearing.
"MARIAH GOJENTA." greeted Death, prompting a nod from the woman.
"Mum!" yelled Thunderchild as he ran into her arms.
"Yissan…you're so grown up now. You've exceeded my greatest expectations and stopped the fiends plans…you saved Gaia and Terra my son, thank you."
"It's ok Mum, I did what I could," said Thunderchild, then he stood back from his embrace and stared at her "What are you doing here, anyway?"
Mariah bowed her head.
"I came over from the spirit realm with Death, to see you, I knew that you'd end up here, the place that your father spoke about. It's…bigger than I imagined it."
Reiganna frowned.
"Wait a minute, Thunderchilds dad spoke of the Twilight Forest?"
Mariah nodded
"Yes, he said of a planet to which all worlds are connected, where he came from originally."
Reiganna breathed out harshly and raised both her eyebrows.
"You mean Thunderchild is a descendant of the original inhabitants of the Twilight Forest!"
"I guess so…"
Reiganna went silent and looked at Thunderchild with a new found sense of respect.
"He has to live," she said after a while "He can replace me as guardian of the forest."
"What! Hell no! You're doing a great job Reiganna!" said Thunderchild hastily.
Death groaned, making Thunderchild raise an eyebrow.
"LOOK, HOW ABOUT WE LET HIM CHOOSE, ALTHOUGH BE SURE," he said, staring with his blue lit eyes at Thunderchild "I DON'T GIVE MANY PEOPLE THIS OPTION…IF ANY."
"I know, I know…"
"AND YOU'RE NOT CHEATING ME…NO-ONE CHEATS ME, WELL…EXCEPT MAYBE AT CRIPPLE MR ONION, BUT NEVERTHELESS…"
"I know, I understand."
They all looked at him, even the cat.
"So Yissan…what will it be? Guardian of the Twilight Forest or a member of the spirit realm?" said Reiganna, indicating herself and Mariah.
Thunderchild leant back against a tree trunk and thought long and hard, but to him the decision was simple.
"I choose neither."
"WHAT?"
"What do you mean 'neither'?" asked Reiganna, looking confused.
Mariah Gojenta smiled and looped her hair around her finger as Thunderchild always remembered her doing when he was a child.
"I think he chooses the third option."
"THERE IS NO 'THIRD OPTION'." Protested Death.
"There is," insisted Thunderchild "I wish not to be the guardian of the Twilight Forest but guardian of something far more precious and valuable."
He outlined his request, and after a lengthy talk and some persuasion from Mariah he was granted his wish and left them.
"KEEP YOUR EYES ON HIM…HE IS A STRANGE ONE." Said Death as he clicked his fingers to summon his horse, known to him as Binky.
Both him and Mariah mounted Binky and cantered off into the stars of the Twilight Forest, leaving Reiganna alone with the cat.
"Oh Nikita…what a strange world we live in." she said.