Chapter 29- Crimsonandil and her group's arrival in Bism
Meanwhile, in another Domain
While Quaoar and company headed for Waknuk high in the sky, a few of the members who had left the group in Nuvola to go on a journey to get a new weapon had arrived in a different Domain of the Narnian world, one that was directly opposite to the Sky Domain. This group was Crimsonandil the Vermillion Bird and the Meerkat group, one of them named Scuttle. Crimsonandil and the Meerkats had departed from the others in Nuvola to get a new flywheel forged to replace the one the former had unfortunately destroyed during a skirmish on the Land Domain against some rogue Talking Beasts. Once she had obtained her new flywheel, she will be returning to Quaoar and company with the Meerkats. Crimsonandil and her group had managed to arrive at the Transporter Pad in the Extreme Western Skylands along with their escorts, a family of Blue Bat-Bird Winged Dragons and the Sunling and have transported from there to the Domain of their choice, the Underground Domain. They obviously couldn't transport to Asgard Sky City for the Bifrost Transporter to there even from the other Sky Domain transporter pads were severely restricted by the wicked Kurama. The Underground Domain was largely inaccessible by other means of transport besides the Bifrost Transporter. The only manual means of accessing the regions deep underground was by digging but that was impractical. It would take probably YEARS to dig a tunnel from the surface to even one of the underground chambers. Because of the Bifrost Transporter being the only means to get to the Underground Domain, absolutely NO human has EVER visited these regions among them Bism and the Really Deep Realm areas as the Bifrost Transporter was deadly to humans.
Bism and the Really Deep Realms were deep under the land of Narnia, possibly at the VERY bottom of the land disc. Due to this, the Underground Domain had its own very unique assortment of environmental traits, flora and fauna and ecosystems. First off, it had ABSOLUTELY no sun and thus no day-night cycle those aboveground were most familiar with. That would make one wonder: if there was no day-night cycle in the Underground Domain like there is for the aboveground Domains, how can the dwellers down here monitor the passage of time? They have found a way to do this via other means but living in perpetual darkness of the Land Domain save for the few light sources like the lava areas was simply no different from living in constant polar darkness in the extreme latitudes of our world, Earth, during its winter months because of its tilt (the polar areas would thus be pointed away from the Sun resulting in the Sun never rising for those months). Another, Bism and the other deep underground regions did not have water save for a few areas. Instead, lava and lava flows were their main 'water' areas. The Underground Domain dwellers got most of their water from other sources such as their food as we will see later. Just like the Land Domain FAR above, the Underground Domain regions had lakes and rivers but instead of water like the Land Domain, their lakes and rivers were of lava and magma. Such lakes and rivers would be UTTERLY inhospitable for creatures living in liquids aboveground like water but there were fauna that thrived in these rivers and lakes of molten rock. One such were Fire Salamanders, Lizards there were 'amphibious', capable of living in both the lava and out of it. In lava, they were VERY bright, almost white hot and nearly impossible to look at directly but out of water, they took on a duller appearance with a red-orange glow. In this form, they were easier to look at directly. Another Domain that was classed as a Really Deep area was the Abyssal Domain, located deep under the Eastern Ocean. Like the Underground Domain, the Abyssal Domain was far from the sun in total perpetual darkness like the abyssal zone of our world's deepest oceans. The flora and fauna living in this Domain was also bizarre and unique. One such inhabitant of the Abyssal Domain was an Aquatic Being called Cthulhu, a Giant aquatic Humanoid whose face resembled an octopus' with tentacles covering his mouth. Cthulhu was the guardian to the entrances of the regions of the Abyssal Domain such as Atlantis, the capital city of the Domain similar to how a specifically chosen Rainbow Serpent was for the Narnian Sun.
"Good grief it is SO DARK down here," Crimsonandil's voice echoed from the inky blackness of a chamber, a few slivers of light cutting through it and reflecting off the shiny surface of the Bifrost Transporter pad, "Where in the Underground Domain are we?"
"We're in the Extreme Western Underground Caverns, Crimsonandil," one of the Blue Bat-Bird Winged Dragons, the husband and father of the family, replied. The Bat-Bird Winged Dragon family escorting Crimsonandil and the Meerkats was a family of five, consisting of the father, mother and three young adult individuals, all sons. Nearby, the Sunling escort lit up a portion of the dark cave. Like Fire Salamanders, Sunlings were naturally fiery and luminescent. However, this was because they lived on the Narnian sun and almost all creatures and plants that lived there glowed. Sunlings were very simple creatures with a simple body plan and build. They were rounded balls of glowing flame-like fur with white eyes with black pupils and a mouth, a pair of thin, lanky red legs extending below and each ending in a pad-like foot and a pair of antennae rising out of their top, both antennae tipped with a spherical knob like a butterfly's antennae. They did not have arms and instead used these antennae as arms to handle things. The bodies of the antennae were coloured deep pink and their clubs, bright orange. The Sunling did not have a torso like most other creatures. The Sunling was sexually dimorphic with the males having bright orange fur and the females, bright yellow. However, juvenile Sunlings of both sexes were bright yellow but when a male reached puberty; he shed his yellow fire fur and grew the adult bright orange pelage characteristic of the male Sunling. This maturation physiology was similar to how most birds with extreme gender differences started out similar but upon passing through puberty, the male acquires his adult male plum age which was often more colourful and brighter than the females. Among these birds were Peafowl, Chickens and Fenghuang. Sunlings reproduced like birds and Peach Elves: they laid eggs; only these eggs resembled bright red-orange baubles and not peaches as in Peach Elves. The Sunling escort accompanying Crimsonadil and the Meerkats on this trip was a male and he had fiery neon orange fur that glowed brightly, lighting up the dark cave like a torch. Sunlings visiting the Underground Domain was EXTREMELY rare for Sunlings did not like the perpetual darkness of the underground caverns, quite the opposite to how most Underground Domain dwellers did not like the sun aboveground, so this Sunling was one of those ultra-rare visitors.
"You will have to walk ahead of us, Beric," the Bat-Bird Winged Dragon father said to the Sunling whose name was Beric, "You're the only member of this group who can give off light."
"Where are we to meet ze Gnomes who will take us to ze Urulite Forging Chamber, Draco-Blau?" asked Beric. The 'th' sound was absent in all dialects of the Sunlings' language system so they often pronounced words with this sound as 'z' instead. For example, 'thing' would become 'zing'. This linguistic trait made the Sunlings sound like they had a lisp though they could pronounce their 's's, a sound that does occur in the Sunlings' languages, fine. Few Sunlings, however, have managed to master the 'th' sound, albeit with some difficulty. The absence of the 'th' sound was not unusual as some human languages lacked certain sounds while some others had that sound. For example, Norwegian did not have the 'J' sound whereas English did. Beric continued, "The lead Gnome you contacted via crystalline screen, Granitefoot, before we entered ze Bifrost should be on his way here wiz his group by now, along wiz some Basan, Karura and several ozer creatures that live down here."
"Um, Beric," said one of the Meerkats who stood in his light, Scuttle, "I think those Gnomes and company are on cue over there."
Beric, Crimsonandil, the other Meerkats, Draco-Blau and his wife and sons followed the Meerkat's gaze and saw a small crowd of strange looking creatures heading their way through a passage to the cavern. Some held fireballs on sticks to provide some light as they walked towards the group. Immediately, Draco-Blau walked over to the approaching group lead by a chubby Gnome and greeted the latter.
"Granitefoot," the Blue Bat-Bird Winged Dragon said gladly and with that, he shook the Gnome's free hand (Granitefoot's other hand clutched the torch) with the thumb of a bird-bat-like wing in greeting, "Glad you could find us here."
"I 'ope transporting here via the Bifrost hadn't been too much," the chubby Gnome, Granitefoot, replied as he broke the handshake with Draco-Blau. Draco-Blau then turned and ushered the rest of the group toward the lead Gnome to meet him. Behind Granitefoot was a small group of other Gnomes as well as Basan and Karura and several other creatures called Spinks and Naked Mole Rats. Gnomes resembled the garden gnomes of our world and they were the main inhabitants of the Underground Domain regions including Bism. They sported mostly earthy grey skins but some Gnomes also had a variety of other earthy colours like brown. Most Gnomes disliked the sun aboveground and would rather stay underground well away from the surface. Gnomes were also sometimes called Earthmen due to their main home areas being largely the Underground Domain deep under the Land. Basan were Fire Chickens whose plumage bore fire colours like red, orange and brown. They had fire abilities like fire breath and like Regular Chickens (both dumb and Talking forms), Basan were sexually dimorphic with the males, called Roosters, having a brighter, more colourful and decorative plumage than the females, called hens. One Basan Rooster played a significant role during the Age of Winter when Gandalf and Seresute, the parents of the ENTIRE Magical Fox kind, were alive. He had led a group of assistant Basan who helped the Kitsune couple with their base duties and his deeds during the Age of Winter were remembered among the Underground Realm inhabitants, taught in their history lessons among other ways. Karura were Humanoid fire creatures that had birdlike facial features such as bills and they also had a significant member who had helped during the Age of Winter. Spinks were Quail-like burrowing birds. Instead of wings like most birds, Spinks had forelimbs ending in a spade-like appendage that they used for digging like shovels. Their bodies were shaped like a mole's to reduce resistance when they dug through the earth to make their tunnels. Dumb Spinks lived in the Narnian desert while Talking Spinks lived also there and in the Underground Domain as well as some other Domains like the Land. Finally, Naked Mole Rats were furless creatures armed with large incisors that they used for digging though the Talking forms also used these in tool making and sculpting. They were blind and mostly relied on other senses to communicate and get around. However, the Talking form could still talk. Both Spinks and Naked Mole Rats lived in a strict hierarchal society. In the Talking forms of both species, their societal structure was patriarchal with a chief and his wife at the top. The chief had an inner circle of advisors and assistant leaders who helped him carry out decision making for the rest of the group. In dumb Spinks and Naked Mole Rats, their societal structure was similar to eusocial insects like ants and bees with a dominant breeding pair at the top and workers below them.
After Granitefoot and his group finished their greeting of Crimsonandil and her group, the lead Gnome moved onto the main subject.
"So, you've come 'ere to get a weapon replaced, am I right?" the chubby Earthman asked, "Is it some type of spinning weapon on string?"
Immediately Crimsonadil stepped forward and presented said weapon, her destroyed flywheel. Granitefoot took the flywheel from the Vermillion Bird's wings and examined it, taking in its destroyed discs.
"Hmm, you certainly 'ave struck something pretty hard to destroy both discs of this thing, Vermillion Bird of the South," Granitefoot said and he handed the destroyed flywheel back to Crimsonandil, "Did you smash it against sommat hard durin' a battle?"
"We were engaged in a fight with some rogue Talking Beasts from Asgard Sky City when they tried to kill our King," Crimsonandil explained, "I tried firing my flywheel at some targets but I missed and my flywheel smashed into the ground, destroying both discs."
When Crimsonandil mentioned Asgard Sky City, Granitefoot and some of his accompanying Gnome, Spink, Naked Mole Rat, Basan and Karura companions flinched.
"Asgard Sky City?" said one of the Naked Mole Rats.
"Isn't that the main city of the Sky Domain that has become inaccessible through our Bifrost Transporter pads?" asked a Spink.
"We have a few visitors up there who should have returned here well over a year ago," added a Basan, a Rooster, "among them the family of Fire Salamanders headed by Mustafa, but they have been unable to return here and we have been unable to go to Asgard to get them."
"We have been unable to contact them as well," added another Spink, "Either by crystalline screen communicator or verbal-distance communicator or other means."
"An evil Kitsune has closed off Asgard Sky City and has turned it into a base for his wicked Cult of the Lion," Draco-Blau explained, "We have been investigating that evil Fox's actions such as his lackey groups' external activities and have concluded that he has put Asgard into a state of isolation."
"So THAT'S why-!?" Granitefoot blurted out.
"That is VERY serious," said another Basan Rooster.
"And a cult centred around the Fiery Lion that does not abide to his rules he has written in his word, the Book of Narnia-?" added a Spink, "That is playing with LAVA."
"Indeed it is," said the Meerkat leader seriously, the other Meerkats including Scuttle nodding in agreement.
"Zat is why we have some spy force teams such as Yong Bao ze Kotobuki and Ombro ze Fiery Bat-Bird Winged Dragon's forces going out to gazzer information surrounding zis Fox's activities," said Beric the Sunling. Granitefoot then gazed at the group for a bit before moving on.
"Well, let's not waste any more time standin' 'ere talking about what's happening to Asgard in the Sky Domain, shall we," the lead Gnome said, "Let's get our Vermillion Bird visitor a brand new flywheel. You want it made from Urulite, don't you?" as he asked this question, he turned and began to lead the group and also Crimsonandil's group further into the caverns.
"I do," said the Vermillion Bird.
"Momotaro was the one who suggested that we come here to get a flywheel made from Urulite for Crimsonandil," said one of the other Meerkats. A Karura gazed at the small Land Domain Mammal when he heard this.
"Momotaro?" he asked, "Isn't he the Peach Elf who came here with a Talking Common Cock Pheasant, Talking Dog and a Talking Macaque to get some weapons made from Urulite months ago?"
"Yes he was, Duckbill," said Granitefoot, "and he an' his three Talking Animal friends are among the few aboveground visitors to come 'ere with that order besides the Vermillion Bird of the South there. We don't make many weapons from Urulite down here an' neither do the forgers on th' Narnian Sun or the Abyssal Domain."
"You don't make many weapons from Urulite?" asked Crimsonandil.
"Urulite is an EXTREMELY difficult metal to forge into products such as weapons," explained Draco-Blau, "Not only does it require extreme temperatures that are unreachable on the Land Domain to melt and cast, but you have to be VERY careful when handling it because of its magical properties."
"Yes, Urulite-made products 'imprint' on the first one that touches it when it is freshly forged," said Granitefoot and with that, the chubby Gnome turned a serious gaze to Crimsonadil, "So when we make this flywheel from Urulite, you MUST be the first one to touch it and NO-ONE ELSE."
"If anyone else tries to use a weapon made from Urulite other than the owner the weapon has magically imprinted on, it will backfire at them with injurious results," said a Basan.
"Momotaro and his trio of friends' Urulite-made weapons are a circular shield, a bone staff, war hammer, boomerang and a sword, aren't they?" asked Scuttle.
"Yes," said a Karura, "and as soon as those five weapons had been made and had cooled, those four had to touch their respective weapons for the magical imprinting effect to take place. As soon as they had touched their weapons, it became theirs and theirs alone. The only way to break the ownership of an Urulite weapon is through the death of its owner. Then that Urulite object can imprint on someone else who touches it."
"How are you able to forge Urulite down here?" asked another Meerkat.
"We in the Underground Domain have volcano caverns with lava flows for the job," explained Granitefoot, "while the Abyssal Zone also has volcano areas and the Narnian Sun has plasma flare pits. Down here, one of our few areas where we cast Urulite is the Urulite Forging Chamber. We channel extreme heat from the nearby lava flow and lavafall to a melting kiln containing ingots of Urulite. That'll be the area where we'll make the Vermillion Bird her new flywheel."
"Do you 'ave assistants to help channel the extreme heat to melt the Urulite ingots?" asked Scuttle.
"Yes," said another Gnome, "We have assistant forgers that are Basan, Karura and Fire Salamanders as they can handle the extreme heat. The forging group members not of those species handle the kiln pot and the cast boxes using special handling tools like prongs. Heat from the nearby lavafall in the Urulite Forging Chamber will be channelled through special rings to the large kiln pot containing ingots of Urulite and the job of the Fire Salamander forgers is to keep those rings open. It is too dangerous to build a forging pot directly above the flowing lava.
"And then once the Urulite ingots have melted in the kiln pot, the molten Urulite is poured into a casting box shaped into the appropriate weapon," Granitefoot added before he gazed at Crimsonandil, "which in your case will be a flywheel. We have a flywheel mould for that job and it can cast both of its discs and its connecting piece. In other words, the ENTIRE weapon can be made in one piece but what it needs is string to allow it to be used once it is forged. Do you have any string for that?"
Immediately, Beric the Sunling came in and produced a bright red-orange coil of string from his satchel, holding it in his antennae.
"We'll use zis," he said.
"What's that?" asked Scuttle, the other Meerkats looking on.
"It's sun-string, a special string made from ze tufts of ze solar flare tree, a type of fluff tuft tree zat grows on ze Narnian sun, my native home," Beric explained, "Zere exists a wide variety of fluff tuft trees in different Domains. On ze Narnian sun, ze solar flare fluff tuft trees resemble fiery balls of fluff on sticks."
"We've been in a forest of fluff tuft trees before," said Scuttle, "The fluff tuft trees were of the butterfly milk scent species. They came in a variety of different colours such as red, orange, yellow and purple."
"And the fluff tuft trees of the Sky Domain are the fluffy rime trees," said one of Draco-Blau's sons as he walked alongside his parents and brothers, "They're often white but also came in the colours of silver and light blue."
"Interesting," said Scuttle. Then the Meerkats put aside that subject and continued walking alongside the group as they ventured deeper into the underground caverns.
The group walked through more caverns and passageways connecting them. Some of the caves' ceilings were decorated with icicle-like stalactites and a swathe of underground 'stars' (actually glowworms like in our world) and they sometimes froze the Meerkats into place for a while with their beauty. However, they had to carry on for getting a new flywheel, one made from Urulite, for Crimsonandil was more important than simply sightseeing down here. The group of Spinks, Naked Mole Rats, Gnomes, Karura and Basan lead by Granitefoot continued to lead Crimsonandil, the Meerkats, Draco-Blau and his wife and three sons and Beric down through more caves and caverns and the aboveground visitors had to be quite careful at times for the environment of the Underground Domain was at times treacherous. One time, one of the Meerkats nearly stumbled into a pit but was caught in time by one of Draco-Blau's sons. Another time, Scuttle had begun to get agitated by the lack of sunlight and the enclosed environment and had to be calmed. Even Crimsonandil herself was struggling to keep her composure for she was not used to being in such an environment as these caves. However, she had to go on if she was to get a new flywheel. The group continued until they came to a certain cave. Crimsonandil and the Meerkats were unsure of how deep they were underground now but as the group entered a particularly large cavern, they got some relief from the claustrophobic environment of the other caves and caverns they had trekked through. They were now in the cave system that was headed for Bism, a place that was FAR from the surface of the Narnian land disc and in its very bowels.
As the travellers entered into a large cave, they came across something startling. Crimsonandil and the Meerkats flinched when they saw it. At first, they thought it was a cave wall but on closer inspection, they saw that the 'wall' was in fact scaly. Furthermore, the scaly wall differed from the rugged rocky surface of the cave's wall and appeared more organic. In the light of the fire torches held by Granitefoot's group and also from Beric's natural bright luminescence, the scales glinted and their colour was not greyish, but deep green and blue. No natural cave wall, certainly not those this far down into the earth, had these colours. As Crimsonandil and the Meerkats and also Draco-Blau and his family and Beric examined the scaly wall closely, they saw that the wall rose and levelled at the top like a hill. However, this hill was not a giant lump of earth like what Crimsonandil and the Meerkats were familiar with on the Land Domain, their home aboveground or from Crimsonandil's native area, the Kingdom of the Southern Vermillion Birds. This scaly hill was continuous and entered and exited the cave through either end as though it was casted into the cave at those ends. Crimsonandil turned to Granitefoot.
"What's this scaly thing?" she asked.
"That," Granitefoot replied, "is part of the World Serpent, Jomungandr."
Crimsonandil and the Meerkats exchanged looks of surprise.
"Is this Yomun-thingie a Rainbow Serpent?" asked Scuttle.
"No, Rainbow Serpents are native to the Sky Domain with one specially selected male guarding the Narnian sun, that Sunling's home," said a Basan with a nod to Beric who nodded in agreement.
"Rainbow Serpents are a species," added Granitefoot, "But Jomungandr is one of a kind. He is currently asleep; his jaws latched onto his tail like an Ouroboros Snake and he will remain like this until Ragnorok."
"What's Ragnorok?" asked one of the other Meerkats.
"Our name for the end of the world and of time," said a Basan, "It's a time when the Fiery Lion King returns to do away with the entire Narnian world and judge ALL the inhabitants that has ever been born throughout its history in EVERY SINGLE Domain of the world."
"When Ragnorok comes," said Granitefoot, "The Fire Maned Cat will call for the destroyers to rise to the surface and destroy everything and among them will be Jomungandr here. He will release his tail and head to the surface with the other Ragnorok Dragons and also the Great Supergiant Father Time to carry out their tasks."
"Ze last Rainbow Serpent guardian of ze Narnian sun will also do ze same," said Beric. As he said this, Scuttle went to the fleshy wall with scales and tapped it to see if it would respond.
"Jomungandr will not feel your taps, Aboveground Meerkat," said Granitefoot, "He's in a DEEP sleep. Only when Ragnorok comes will Jomungandr awake but in th' meantime, he is in a deep slumber with 'is companions and Father Time. Now let's move on."
Crimsonandil and the Meerkats gazed at the section of the World Serpent passing through the cavern one final time before pulling their gazes and leaving the cavern, UTTERLY stunned. Seeing a section of the World Serpent will be one thing they would NEVER forget as after all, this was a RARE opportunity for aboveground visitors to actually encounter. Staggering from stun upon seeing a part of the massive Jomungandr, Crimsonandil and the Meerkats moved on with their escorts and guides.
The group passed through more caverns and tunnels until finally, they arrived in the area of Bism. As Crimsonandil, the Meerkats and their escorts exited the cavern and into a MASSIVE chamber, they were greeted with an awesome sight. Bism was an enormous underground region deep within the bowels of the Narnian world. It was the largest region of the Underground Domain and was the main home to various species built for living underground like Gnomes, Karura, Basan, Talking Spinks, Naked Mole Rats and the fiery Fire Salamanders. Glowing red-hot rivers of liquid fire flowed in rivers and pooled in lakes in this strange underground world and living in these lava rivers were the Fire Salamanders and various other fire creatures. Groups of Fire Slamanders carried out their daily activities in both the lava rivers and lakes and on their shores. Those in the lava glowed very brightly and so could not be looked at directly while those on the shores were duller and red-orange yet they still glowed like embers. Crimsonandil tried looking at the Fire Salamanders bathing in the lakes but had to give up when her eyes strained from the bright light emanating from the Fire Lizards. Fire Salamanders were only able to be looked at directly when they are out of the lava and on land in their duller red-orange form. They were eloquent creatures with a penchant for speech talents and some even spoke in rhymes. There were other creatures that lived in Bism's lava rivers and lakes as Bism, like every other domain in the Narnian world, had its own strange assortment of flora and fauna but let's briefly describe Bism's land flora and fauna first.
Like the Land and Sky Domains, Bism had forests but these trees and other plants were completely different from the trees in the Sky and the Land aboveground. They were Gem Trees and Metal Trees and the former bore Gem Fruit and the latter, literal gold leaves. Crimsonandil and the Meerkats, together with Beric the Sunling and Draco-Blau and his family were UTTERLY awed by these unique forests. They were among the select few aboveground visitors to get a glimpse of Bism's flora and what was familiar to the Bism dwellers was UTTERLY bizarre for visiting Abovegrounders. Bism's Gem Trees shared a similar body plan as the trees aboveground and in the Sky but with their own set of unique features. First off, the trunks and branches of most Gem Tree species resembled naturally grown crystals and their fruits which grew on the tips of their crystalline fingers resembled cut gems and cabochons. For example, one type of Gem Tree, the Aquamarine Tree, had a thick pale blue trunk resembling a giant aquamarine crystal. That crystal branched into smaller branches and at the end of the crystal branch fingers grew aquamarine fruits resembling cut aquamarine gems. Another type of tree was the Rutile Willow. Its trunk was deep red and its branches were Y-shaped bifurcations, each branch splitting into two and not any other number. Growing out of the branches' finger ends were metallic yellow straw-like 'leaves'; these leaves drooped down similar to a Land willow. Trees of other beryl and quartz varieties were also present, their crystal trunks and branches coming in different shapes and colours. The Rose Quartz Gem Tree had pale pink trunks, branches and cabochon fruits while the bodies and fruits of Ruby Trees were mostly deep red.
"It's like a treasure world down 'ere," said Scuttle to his Meerkat teammates, "I've only ever read about Bism's Gem Trees in a book back 'ome aboveground. I'd NEVER thought we'd be able to see them with our own eyes."
"Glad we came then," said the Meerkat captain.
"Those Gem Trees are the source of our gems aboveground," Crimsonadil explained, "When those trees wither and die their remains become crystals which then migrate to the surface via geological activity where they are harvested by Abovegrounders like us for use as jewels and decorations. The same thing happens to those Goldleaf Trees and also those Gem Fungi growing on some of the Gem Trees or near their trunks."
The Meerkats gazed at some Yellow Topaz Trees and saw some strange glistening mushroom-like fans sprouting from their bright yellow crystal trunks. Gem Fungi also grew down here and one sort was the Bismuth Fungus. This Gem Fungus was a parasite and grew out of the uncut gem-like trunks of Gem Trees and there was a set of them on some of the Yellow Topaz Trees. Their caps resembled bismuth crystal fans and like actual bismuth crystals were square-stepped and rainbow iridescent.
"Those Gem and Metal Trees and also those Gem Fungi are one of our main sources of food," Granitefoot explained as he continued to lead the group into Bism's HUGE cave, "Some of those forests are orchards and crops. It's the fruit of the Gem Trees that we eat while some of our inhabitants down here eat or use the leaves of the Goldleaf Trees like that group of Ramidreju farmers are doing over there."
Crimsonandil and the Meerkats looked and saw a strange green snake-like weasel creature picks some golden leaves from a Goldleaf Tree. These snake-weasels had vivid green fur and their snouts were shaped like a Hog's. The staple of a Ramidreju's diet were gold leaves and other metal leaves but gold leaves were their favourite. Ramidreju were sexually dimorphic with the males, called Boars, being a darker green with lighter green stripes like a green tiger and possessing small tusks on their Hog-like snouts while the females, called Sows, were a lighter green and were not striped and did not have tusks. Juvenile Ramidreju were called Kits and they were smaller with the males lacking tusks and the fur tiger stripes until puberty. Additionally, the fur colour of both Ramidreju Kit sexes was light green. As Crimsonandil and the Meerkats continued watching the Ramidreju farmers then hand the golden leaves to some Gnome assistants to take away and process, Draco-Blau's wife came in.
"Ramidreju cuisine is incredibly interesting," said she, "It centres mostly around the use of golden leaves and Gem Fruits. One of their dishes is the Goldleaf Wrap. What they do is they use large golden leaves as a wrap for other foods serving as fillings such as Gem Forest Flish and Gem Dragonflies."
The Meerkats shot the female Blue Bat-Bird Winged Dragon a surprised look.
"They have insects and Forest Flish down 'ere?" asked Scuttle. Beric the Sunling gazed at a small cluster of Emerald Gem Trees and pointed an antenna like a finger point in their direction.
"I zink zat's some of zem over zere," he said. Crimsonandil and the Meerkats followed the Sunling's point and saw some glistening creatures flitting about the Emerald Tree's branches and their fruits resembling cut emerald gems. These were indeed Forest Flish but they were different from the Forest Flish living in the forests of the Land and Sky Domains. They were gem-like and resembled glass sculptures though they were not completely transparent. One Gem Forest Flish hovered near an Emerald Fruit and inserted its beak into some sort of hole in the fruit to feed on its juices, its sparkly wings beating the air and glinting in the light from the lava rivers and lakes. Crimsonandil and the Meerkats were surprised. They did not know where the Gem Forest Flish was feeding off the fruit or were pollinating it but that was because unlike the trees of other Domains, Bism Gem Trees did not flower. Their fruit were their 'flowers' and they had openings for forest creatures like the Gem Forest Flish to feed from and when they were ready to fruit, these openings closed and the fruit ripened. Only then the Gem Fruits can be harvested for use as food. In the nearby lava river danced several more bizarre fauna of Bism. Another type of Flish, the Lava Flish, flapped over the surface of the river of flowing molten rock and snatched smaller creatures, Lava Goldswimmers, lava-dwelling crustaceans similar to the Eastern Ocean's Silverswimmers, and rose into the air with their catches. These Flish resembled Ocean Flish but were bright orange, red and yellow and glowed when swimming in the lava. Yet another species that lived in the lava rivers and lakes was the predator of the Lava Flish, the Magma Squid. It was the lava counterpart to the Rainbow Squid living in the Eastern Ocean and like its water-going counterparts, Magma Squid changed colours to imitate the shoals of the prey of the Lava Fish to lure them into a trap. Crimsonandil and the Meerkats flinched when they saw a fire-gradient coloured tentacle rise out of the lava and snatch one of the Laval Flish from the air as it swooped in thinking the area where the Magma Squid was, was a shoal of Lava Goldswimmers. Pulling their gaze from the sight, Crimsonandil and the Meerkats walked on. Suddenly, a flock of small glowing dragon creatures rose around the group and flitted into the air. These were Glow-Wyrms (not Glowworms like those on the cave's ceilings, but Glow-Wyrms) and they lived like eusocial insects like bees and termites with a dominant king and queen at the top and workers below. They made gem honey from the pollen of Gem Trees and Glow-Wyrm keeping for this source of food was one of the jobs down here in Bism. As the flock of small glowing dragons continued to fly into the dark cave air, Crimsonandil and the Meerkats continued following their escorts towards their destination.