Author's Note: I hope this time ffnet doesn't forget about the newest chapter I posted. So if this doesn't make any sense, please read last chapter.

Chapter 42: The Caves of Fire

Guided by another fire giant since the gate guardian couldn't leave his post, Mayura rode Jymir in silence, slowly approaching the mountains where her trial awaited. It took two more days of travel before she could clearly see the entrance to the caves. Mayura looked intrepidly at the colossal red doors in the side of the mountain, determined to do anything she had to do to be with Loki. Jymir, not impressed with his rider from the beginning, was surprised at her calm demeanor and determination. He hadn't pegged her to have even as much courage as she was showing—not that this display altered his opinion about her, he merely admitted to not giving her quite enough credit.

"Well foolish mortal, here are the doors to the Caves of Fire. I, unlike my counterpart still guarding the gate, do not care about your welfare. But since it is my duty to uphold the traditions of our people, I will recite the Warnings of the Caves," the giant boomed. Clearing his throat, he straightened up to his full height and spoke to Mayura with unseeing eyes.

"Unless thou art steadfast, be warned...
the wind of heat will turn thy enthusiasm to sloth.
Unless thou art worthy, be warned...
the flaming tongues of destruction will wither thy courage to cowardice.
Unless thou art true of heart, be warned...
the flickerings of desire will lend thy astray..
These are the Warnings of the Caves of Heat, Flames, and Magma...
thou have been warned."

The fire giant's eyes cleared and he once again looked down at Mayura in disgust. "Your trial now begins," he stated opening the two large wooden doors. Jymir walked past the doors and into a large cavern a good mile in diameter. "Don't get lost in the mazes now," cackled their guide as he slammed the doors shut behind them.

Without the sunlight from the outside, the large cavern to on a orange-yellow glow that seemed to be coming from the walls themselves. Tired from the journey to the caves—they hadn't arrived until sunset—Mayura decided to make camp in the large cavern and start her journey through the mazes of the Caves of Fire after she had had a night's rest.

"Jymir, have you ever been in the Caves of Fire before?" Jymir shook his head. "Oh, well... do you know anything about them?" He shook his head yes this time. "How?" Mayura asked, interested in learning anything that might get her through this particular challenge. Jymir walked over to her from the place he had been eating his evening meal courtesy of the horn of plenty and drew another kanji in the sand. "Story? Oh! You must have heard a lot about these types of adventures and places. Do you know how to get through the caves?" Jymir nodded again writing 'follow the wind.' "Follow the wind? What does that mean?" asked Mayura confused, but Jymir didn't answer—it was her quest after all.

The next morning—Mayura assumed it to be the next morning since she had slept and felt very well rested—Mayura and Jymir started their journey into the Caves of Fire. At the far side of the cavern was a tunnel approximately sixty feet wide and a good five hundred feet tall. The tunnel was probably a bit squishy for a giant child, but for Mayura and Jymir, it felt enormous. The first day of travel wasn't too bad and they made pretty good time through the tunnel. But at the beginning of the second day the tunnel it began split into two three or even four ways every five to ten miles, and by the end of the third day they were totally lost.

Days, weeks, or even months could have passed, and they were still trapped within the winding mazes of the Cave of Heat. On the fourth day of their wanderings, Jymir had stopped and fallen to the ground, his knees collapsing with muscle spasms due to the extra work it took to walk hot shifting sand with the extra weight of his rider. After that, Mayura walked next to Jymir clutching Loki's weapon, Laevatein. The first few days Mayura hadn't understood its name, but she now understood it all too well as the maze's walls continued to bake the air around her. It was always hot, unlike the desert which would cool down in the night; this place just seemed to get hotter and hotter with each passing second. And even though she had a never ending supply of water, she was becoming dehydrated and delusional.

Mayura stumbled. "Pink elephants need to go away... no blue elephants..." she rambled idiotically.

Noticing that his charge had fallen behind, Jymir turned around to see Mayura fighting the sand. I knew I would be babysitting. Jymir sighed. Delusional from dehydration even though she's had plenty of water. He had long forgotten that he himself had had trouble earlier within the cave.

Jymir began to walk toward Mayura as her head snapped up to and focused on him. Her eyes widen into large saucers before she fell back on her butt and desperately tried to get away from whatever the evil creature was. "Stay away! Stay away you evil monster! I'll... I'll trap you!" she screamed lifting up Laevatein with the last ounce of strength she possessed. Smashing it down, Jymir found himself in a mirror prism.

I'm trapped! Wait Mayura no... no don't! Jymir screamed inside his head. Fortunately, Mayura fell to the ground passing out from the heat, Laevatein mere inches away from touching the two dimensional glass commanding it to shatter. Jymir sighed in relief and wondered if his rider would ever regain the consciousness and sanity enough to release him from his prison.

Mayura opened her eyes heavily, her body temperature down due to inactively. "Where, where am I?" She sat herself up and her head spun dizzily. Bracing herself with both hands on the sand, Mayura sat still until the dizzy spell went away. "Jymir? Where are you?" Jymir banged on the glass and heard it crack. "Oh! Jymir, how did you get in there?" Jymir gave her a dirty look. Mayura shook her head. I... I don't remember going to sleep. I don't remember... I trapped a monster in the prism not Jymir. I was sure... but... "Where did the monster go?" Jymir continued to glare at Mayura with an obvious 'get me out' look. Finally catching on that Jymir would want to be let out, Mayura placed her palm on the prism.

Why I ought to... Kuso! This girl is nothing but trouble! I could have died! It's one thing to carry her stupid baka ass around the nine worlds so she can kill herself! It's another thing for her to go around killing me! Jymir turned his head towards the direction they had been traveling to see Mayura walking weakly up ahead using Laevatein as a cane, or more like a crutch. But she had already used much of her strength, tripping over her own two feet down into the hot sand. Or she would have had Jymir not raced to catch her on his back. Shimata! She needs to get away from these heat stones. But even I'm lost in this... wait... what's that smell? Sulfur? But that would come from... magma from the lower caves! If I follow the sulfur smell I'll get to the exist! Now I understand what they meant by follow the wind. Humph... they could have said follow the sulfur smell. Jymir looked over his shoulder at the girl unconscious once again. It looks like I'm doing your quest for you, like I knew I would. Pathetic mortal.

Self-righteously patting himself on the back, Jymir followed the sulfur smell not realizing that without Mayura's accidental help of trapping him within one of Loki's magic prisms he would never he smelled the sulfur, having grown accustomed to its scent in the air.

"Loki-sama, what's wrong?" questioned Yamino worriedly. Loki had abruptly jumped out of his listless reading to stand with his arms resting on the study's desk.

"I felt something. Mayura must have used one of the Veeru Ugokurox spells I gave her," replied Loki pensively.

"Don't worry Loki-sama, I'm sure Mayura-san is fine. You trained her well."

"I hope so Yamino-kun, I hope so," wheezed Loki hit by sudden bout of weakness.

"Loki-sama!"

"Daddy! What's wrong?"

"I'm fine. I just... it was only temporary," scoffed Loki, waving his son's worry away.

Ecchan sailed down to land on Loki's head, bothered by the unusual behavior of her friend and well... surrogate father. Loki had acted a lot more like a father figure since he had found out she was a girl. "Loki-tama! You're burning up!"

"I'm fine, probably just a passing phase because of the long distance magic."

Yamino the ever worry wart, didn't believe his father and rushed over to place his hand against Loki's head. "Loki-sama, you definitely have a fever. Come now, you need to get into bed and rest. That's the best medicine. I'll make some chicken soup, and bring up some aspirin to help reduce that fever."

Yamino lead Loki out of the study and put him into bed. Fenrir knew that his father must have been very sick because he didn't make any excuses or claims that he was well after the first two weak attempts.

It had been days, and Loki didn't show any signs of getting better. In fact, he seemed to get only worse. Yamino, Fenrir, and ecchan had become so worried that they had called Verdandi over in hopes that she would know what was wrong with him. But even she didn't know what to do. Gods rarely got sick, and even when they did, it always tended in be mild, but whatever had gripped Loki was deadly.

As his illness progressed, Loki spent less and less time conscious and more and more time lost within fever induced nightmares. His skin had become pallid and his sleep restless, constantly tossing and turning within his dreams. The only thing Yamino could do was keep Loki's head cool, and hopefully keep him hydrated enough during the short spurts of wakefulness. During the worst of Loki's fits, Fenrir licked his father's cheek, hoping to reassure the unconscious fire god.

Mayura woke up to find herself lying on a cool slap of granite. She felt exhausted and weak, but at least she had broken the fever that had plagued her since the time she had fallen unconscious on Jymir's back a week ago. Jymir had done the best that he could do. He had managed to find the exit in three days time, having made a wrong turn into a dead end only once. When he had finished the maze it had opened up into another large carven, this time made out of dark obsidian walls and cool granite floors. Jymir had decided to stay in this room since it was only moderately warm, something Mayura desperately need and it contained no threats to the wary traveler as it was obviously designed as a resting spot between the Cave of Heat and the next challenge, the Cave of Flames. But without hands, he wasn't able to do anything more for her and hoped that Mayura could pull through on her own.

Jymir woke up at the sounds of Mayura's stirring, and walked over to check up on her. He was glad to see that her eyes were no longer clouded by fever dreams. She had been screaming out the name of his great grand dame in anguish during the worst of her illness lost in the obviously rough experiences in their relationship. "Jymir, how did we get here? Did you bring me out of that maze?" asked Mayura shocked at the surroundings around her. She vaguely remembered this area as the place she had been through the last three days although her memory was very foggy. Jymir nodded his head and pushed the horn of plenty at her, not so subtlety telling her that she needed to eat. "Alright Jymir, I get the idea... I'm starving."

A day later, Mayura was on her feet and ready to start the next stage of her trial, but Jymir adamantly refused to travel with her. And anytime she tried to go around him and start on her own, he would block her way his body. "Jymir... We have to get going. Who knows how many days we were lost in that maze," whined Mayura. Jymir shook his head no and wrote 'sick' in one of the few sand piles obviously tracked into the room by previous quests. "I know I was sick, that's why we have to hurry up." Jymir shook his head again and wrote 'rest'. "I know I should but..." countered Mayura. There were no buts as Jymir stared menacingly down at her.

Mayura and Jymir continued their journey three days after Mayura's fever had broken, and she had to admit that Jymir was right. Her illness had taken a lot out of her and was only now feeling back to her old energetic self. I don't know what would have happened to me if Jymir hadn't stopped me from traveling... nothing good. I promised Loki I would return and I most broke that promise by going recklessly into danger in bad health! Perhaps Heimdall-sama is right. I'm... I'm not worthy to be Loki's wife. I bet all the other goddesses would have gotten through that without a scratch. I'll always be a weakness to him. Saddened by her thoughts, Mayura sniffled before silent tears fell from her cheeks. Jymir noticed his rider's distress but thought it would be better to leave her alone and continue to walk down the endless seaming spiral ramp.

The tears began to shed more freely and one fell down onto the red ribbon Freya had given her and Loki. She said... "This final ribbon is red, symbolizing hope for courage, strength, and passion the two of you will need in order to complete the tests before you." Mayura smiled as she heard Freya's chocked words in her head. "Thank you Freya-sama," whispered Mayura lifting her head towards the sky. With new confidence, Mayura looked ahead to the Cave of Flames.

To LittleGreenWolf: Yes, it's fun to write her ditzy, although she wouldn't be very ditzy much longer in my story. After all, way too many things have happened to her.

To Bibliomaniac: Mayura's just started her quest so only a couple of weeks. And no, her journey is far from over.

To Arysta: Thank you very much.

To Sarit: Thanks for the compliment. I worked a lot on Jymir, trying to make him a dimensional character.

To ruby-dream: Thank you. I hope you like this chapter too!