Hello, hello, hello, what's happenin' readers?

I hope all of you are having an enjoyable summer, and I hope you enjoy this relaxed special. NOTE: Please read the author notes I've put at the bottom of this special, because there you'll find a big announcement.

Disclaimer: I do not own Jagex, RuneScape, or any of the RuneScape characters. All I own is the plot of this fanfiction and some of the characters in the story. I am not making a financial profit from this story.

Summer Special 2011

I sat in a small chair on a beach in Karamja, my tongue lolling out of my mouth, as lifeless as a plank of wood. My straw hat sat on my head, somewhat shielding it from the glaring sun far above. I sighed, feeling perfectly relaxed. The soft slapping of the gentle waves soothed me, lulling me into a trance-like state. Tranquillity filled me like warm water.

Suddenly, something tugged at my feet and I found myself getting dragged through the sand into the sea. I spluttered, struggling against my attacker. My hat came off my head and began floating away. I forced my way to the surface, gasping for air. I turned to face my attacker, and I found myself faced with Osrie1 laughing heartily. I roared, and I pushed him into the sea and we scuffled for a while before giving up, chuckling. I recovered my hat and I climbed out of the sea, passing a giggling Amy11 as I did so.

As I found my place on my chair again, I considered the year that was passing. The year had been mostly peaceful. Port Sarim felt like home now, and we were friendly with the locals. I hadn't encountered the Noob Exterminators or the Demon Clan since New Year's Day. The Demon Clan had been active in Varrock earlier in the year, but now they'd settled down and nobody had seen or heard anything from them for a while. I'd also heard or seen nothing of James and what remained of Master Samuel's army for a while too. I had no idea what James was concocting right now, if anything.

I stared around me at the beach. The beaches on Karamja were excellent; the water was clean and cool, the sand was fine, and the beaches themselves were vast. Because right now it was summertime, it was especially warm and the sky was particularly clear. The beach was dotted with people sunbathing, relaxing and just generally enjoying themselves and taking advantage of the wonderful weather.

I saw something rolling across the sand. I concentrated on it. It was a stall of some sort, with a large window installed. It was currently on wheels to make it mobile. I recognised it from somewhere… after a minute I recognised it as an ice cream stall that appeared every summer to sell cold, creamy, refreshing treats to anybody who wanted them. I remembered one being in Falador last summer. I dived in my bag to fetch some coins, and I raced towards the cart eagerly.

I arrived, and the overpowering smell of cream, chocolate and fruit swept over me. I peered inside the stall, and I saw the familiar mage doing hand motions to freeze and spin the cream. The man behind the stall smiled politely at me.

"Hello," he grinned. "What can I get you?"

"Could I have a chocolate ice cream please?" I asked. He fetched me my ice cream. I paid for it, and ate it there contently. I shivered as the cold dessert went down my throat. I savoured the sweet taste of the chocolate.

"You don't normally set up a stall on this beach, do you?" I queried between mouthfuls.

"No, we don't," the man replied. "However, these beaches are becoming more popular this summer, so we've decided to send out a mobile stall to the beaches to make some more money here. It's ideal." I nodded, returned the pot, thanked the man, and returned to my chair.

Amy11 and Osrie1 approached me. "We've been wondering…" Amy11 began. "We've been going to Karamja regularly for a while now, but we've never properly explored to see what we can find. We were wondering; would you like to go through the nearby jungle so we can get to the volcano? We can climb to the top (or at least as close as we can to the top) and see the view of Karamja, to see what we can fully explore." I considered it for a second, before deciding it wouldn't do any harm to do some exploring. I nodded, and we left the beach.

We walked up the path from the beach contently, and soon we arrived at a crossroad. One path would lead back to the village, while the other tailed off towards the edge of the jungle. "Does anybody need anything in the village?" I asked. Osrie1 and Amy11 shook their heads, so we followed the path that would take us to the jungle.

Sooner or later, the path finished, and we were on the edge of a colossal collection of gigantic tropical trees. All that could be seen was green; strange and eerie noises could be heard coming from within the jungle's shadowy realms. We looked at each other nervously, before stepping amongst the trees.

At first, walking through the jungle wasn't particularly difficult. The trees were a reasonable distance apart, and we'd encountered no wildlife as of yet. But as we progressed the trees seemed to grow closer together, and greenery began obstructing us. It wasn't long before I was forced to unsheathe Silverlight and use it to cut through the vines. I figured that a machete would be better at that job.

We began encountering wildlife soon after that. We started seeing a large variety of insects crawling around, and we startled several monkeys. Snakes slithered around our feet (much to Amy11's disgust), and the further we progressed, the more violent the snakes became. Several tried snapping at our feet, and some even pounced for our necks. It occurred to us that we couldn't turn back now. We could only keep going.

Our perseverance paid off, and we found ourselves at the base of the famous Karamja volcano. The three of us high-fived each other, and began climbing the large mountain.

As we climbed, we began to notice cracks in the ground. Osrie1 and Amy11 were avoiding the cracks, and I snorted. I could never fully appreciate why people were so paranoid about stepping on cracks. Some people believed that it brought misfortune. In an attempt to show my rebellion to nobody in particular against the idea, I made an effort to step on every crack I saw.

I could see we were nearing the top because we were passing small rivulets of lava, which were growing more and more. The cracks were growing larger, but I persisted in stepping on them. But it wasn't long before I got my foot stuck in one of them. I sighed and chastised myself for persisting with my pointless rebellion. "Hey, wait a second!" I yelled to Amy11 and Osrie1. "I'm stuck!" They turned around, and laughed openly at my situation. I grew red with embarrassment because of my predicament. I struggled to remove my foot, but my attempts at escape only seemed to make the crack wider. My foot sunk deeper, if anything. I decided to stop struggling and wait for my friends to come and assist me after they'd finished laughing at me. But the crack seemed to grow and my foot sunk deeper, until most of my leg was stuck in the crack. "Seriously," I said. "Help me!" Osrie1 and Amy11 saw what was happening and they urgently began tugging at my arms to try and yank me out of the crack. The crack widened suddenly and I slipped through, screaming.

I landed with a thud far below in complete darkness. I rubbed my back, grunting with pain. I couldn't see a thing. I felt around me, and all I could feel was cold, hard rock. "Fire strike!" I yelled. A small ball of flame came from my palm. I muttered a quick hovering spell, and the crackling ball of flame floated there. It was a very useful trick that I liked to use when mining in dark mines.

I inspected my surroundings, and I saw that I was in a long tunnel. I looked up, and I saw a large crack. That was probably the crack I'd fallen through. I made a promise to myself at that very moment to never purposely step on large cracks for no good reason again. I sighed to myself, realising I could only follow the tunnel now and hope that it would lead me back to the surface, since going back up the crack I'd fallen through would be difficult, if not impossible. I reluctantly began my journey down the tunnel.

The tunnel was swelteringly hot, and I soon found myself sweating profusely. I remembered that I was currently inside a volcano, and I was probably going in deeper. I began seeing traces of lava in the rocks surrounding me, and as I went further the traces of lava were becoming more numerous. It wasn't long before veins of lava were everywhere, and my ball of fire wasn't necessary any more because the lava illuminated the tunnel.

I reached a fork in the tunnel, where the tunnel split into three tunnels. I decided to follow the middle tunnel. The tunnel was now splitting up into several, and I had no idea where they all led.

I passed a large pile of rocks. Lava poured from every slight crack in these rocks. This lava wasn't like the rest of the lava; it was blindingly bright. I was distracted by the brightness of this lava. I poked the rock curiously with the tip of my steel sword, and suddenly the pile of rocks started shuddering. I jumped back in shock as massive legs and arms made out of rock and lava sprouted from the pile of rocks. A head appeared from the pile, and two eyes dripping with lava leered at me. I was standing face-to-face with a monster made out of rocks and lava.

The creature lumbered towards me, roaring. I stumbled backwards, startled and, as a reflex movement, I stabbed the creature with Silverlight. It let out a sound so monstrously loud the whole tunnel seemed to shudder. I heard a smashing noise, and I saw two similar-looking creatures run down the tunnel towards us. I noticed some differences between these creatures and the one I just attacked. The two that had just arrived held weapons, and seemed slightly larger than the one I hit.

"JalYt!" one of the creatures bellowed. "How dare you attack a TzHaar-Hur!" I didn't understand much of what the creature said to me, but I could understand that they were very angry about something. I stepped backwards as the three creatures approached me menacingly. I realised that they were much larger and much stronger than me, and I also realised that they were probably going to attack me, so it was unwise to fight them. I turned and I ran down the tunnel while they attempted to give chase.

I tore down the tunnel as fast as my legs could carry me, panting. The creatures were considerably larger than me but they still attempted to chase me. I saw an end to the tunnel in the distance, so I raced towards it, hoping it would take me to an exit of some sort. I ran through, and I saw no exit. Instead, I was now in a large cave.

I was surrounded by dozens of creatures. The place I'd ran into looked a lot like a town of some sort. I was shocked to see that there were humans in here as well, some of which even appeared to be conversing with the creatures! I looked behind me, and I saw the creatures not far behind me, so I ran into the cave and I hoped that they wouldn't spot me.

I needed somebody to explain to me where I was and what these monstrous beings were, so I approached a man wearing rune armour and tapped him on the shoulder. He turned to me and smiled politely.

"Can I help you?" he asked, watching me carefully.

"Yes," I replied. "Could you please explain to me where I am? You see, I was climbing the volcano when I fell through a crack and appeared in a tunnel." I proceeded to explain to him what happened involving the monsters that were chasing me, and he nodded occasionally. When I finished, he seemed slightly amused.

"I can tell you why you were being chased by these creatures. You see, the 'monsters made out of rock and lava' you speak of are called the TzHaar," the man explained. "They're a species that have made a home here. The place you are in is called 'TzHaar City'. There are certain people in the TzHaar species that do different jobs. You must have attacked a TzHaar-Hur, a type of TzHaar that do the crafts, weapon-making and such in here. They are highly respected yet weaker than other TzHaar, and if attacked they will call for assistance. That's why they attacked you; you accidently tried to harm a TzHaar-Hur. I warn you, do not attack the TzHaar any more, because they are very cautious about outsiders and you really do not wish to incur their wrath. They are powerful fighters. If you wish to fight safely with them, you should look for the Fight Pit."

"That explains a lot," I said. He nodded.

"There's a lot more to them than that, obviously," he told me. "I could stay here all day and explain to you everything about the TzHaar and this city, but I really believe you should explore, do some research by yourself and get to know the city and the species better." I asked him for the way out, and he gave me directions to an exit. I thanked him profusely for his help and I followed his directions.

I examined the TzHaar as I passed them, interested. They were very strange beings, and I certainly would be researching them in the library in Varrock when I returned. They looked very dangerous, but it occurred to me that if I didn't harm them, they wouldn't harm me. They were just very defensive.

Sooner or later I found myself by a ladder. There were no more veins of lava in the floor – I must have left TzHaar city. Nearby I saw some red spiders that looked slightly dangerous, so I decided to climb the ladder. As I climbed, I thought about RuneScape. The TzHaar were only one species out of hundreds and thousands of creatures, and at that moment I thought about how vast RuneScape was. I knew one day I'd return to TzHaar city, and then I'd be more prepared to explore it fully.

I appeared at the surface, not far from the top of the volcano, I walked higher up and I saw Osrie1 and Amy11 standing nearby. I called to them and they turned around, looking very relieved to see me. I began recounting my story, and as I did that, I looked out over Karamja. It was glorious, and I looked forward to exploring its depths very much.

I hope that was to your liking. I hope my representation of the TzHaar was correct. If you spot mistakes I missed, please point them out to me. Thanks.

I have a very big announcement to make. I have decided to write a sequel to 'The Adventure Through RuneScape'! The reason it's taken me so long to get to this point was due to me not feeling inspired enough, but now I feel inspired and ready to write! Thanks to everyone who showed their support and voted 'yes', or left a review/sent a PM supporting the idea of a sequel. Expect to see the first chapter of the sequel during September 2011.

Until next time, toodles!