The Ancient Lands: Warrior Quest, Search for the Ifa Scepter

by Jason McCammon

  Chapter 10

  FIRE AND WATER

 

  It was dark. Extremely dark. Very dark. Pitch-black dark. They sped through that darkness along an underground river, their boat totally submissive to the will of the tunnel and where it wanted to take them. The river twisted and turned through the belly of the cavern, carrying them swiftly through this obscurity at full speed. Farra held on to Bomani tightly, and Pupa nestled into the crook of Farra’s arm, while Bomani held on to the boat securely with every turn as the obedient boat rode the stream. Right then, though he would not admit it, Bomani was glad that Farra had come along.

  The pace of the current began to slow down. Gradually the darkness began to give way to a faint red glow at the end of the tunnel, making it barely possible to see looming silhouettes of the shapes around them. The light slowly spread along the walls of the cave revealing the deep, knotted roots, which hung overhead from the trees above land and outlined the cavern walls like huge spiders.

  The end of the tunnel was defined by a bright red glow. What the red glow was remained unknown, though the prospect of reaching some form of illumination seemed more appealing than the eerie darkness that had enveloped them before. As the water pushed them closer to the light ahead, its red glow became larger and larger until they found themselves airborne in a large fiery-red chamber. In an instant, they hit the ground and the old, rickety boat smashed to pieces.

  The air was thick and stifling. The children found themselves panting to catch their breath. It was terribly hot inside. The children could see swells of heat waving from the surfaces of the large rocks that lined the room.

  “Are you okay?” Bomani asked Farra.

  “Yes.” She said. She looked worried. “Where’s Pupa?”

  Beyond the enormous rock they stood upon, that bulged from the wall of the cavern like a fantastic slab of flooring, there lay a sea of molten rock. Huge blocks of rock poked out of the smoldering sea of hot magma, creating haphazard stepping-stones in plateaus and peaks.

  Farra looked around intently for Pupa and then she suddenly stopped. She heard a faint whimpering, just barely, through the sound of the boiling magma. She followed the plaintive cry to the edge of the rock upon which they stood and peeked over. Her heart dropped the instant she saw him.

  Pupa hung desperately from the ledge below. He clawed frantically into the surface of rock trying his best to gain traction to lift the lower half of his small body. Farra gasped. She reached down as far as she could, but she could not reach him.

  “Here, take my hand,” Bomani said.

  Farra took Bomani’s hand and leaned over, but they were still too high to reach him.

  “Okay, I’m going to lie down and reach as far as I can. You hold my ankles,” she commanded Bomani.

  “It’s not going to work,” Bomani said. “He’s too far down.”

  “Bomani, we’ve got to try!”

  Bomani held on to her firmly as she leaned the upper half of her body over the edge. She reached down, but she still could not reach little Pupa. He struggled not to fall. The steam and hot magma below made the heat unbearable. Perspiration coated them completely, making their hands slippery and clumsy. Farra reached desperately for Pupa as far as she could while Bomani strained to stay balanced against the pull of her weight.

  Suddenly Farra’s shoulder bag gave way and slipped down her arm. She caught it just as the strap was about to pass her wrist and fall through her hand. It dangled from her hand in the thick air, and then it came to her.

  “Bomani, you have to lower me just a little bit more.”

  “I can’t. We’ll fall in,” Bomani said.

  “You’ve got to try!”

  Bomani managed to lower her a few inches more. She could feel his sweating hands begin to slide and loose grip. Farra swung her pouch behind Pupa, and when she believed that it was beneath him securely, she yelled, “Let go Pupa!”

  Pupa dropped to the pouch, and gripped his teeth down to hold on. Farra hoisted him up, immediately wrapping her arms around him.

  “I thought I had lost you. I don’t know what I would do if I had,” she cried to Pupa.

  Pupa barked at Bomani once and panted gratefully as Farra fussed over him.

  They walked back toward the tunnel where cool water spilled into the molten sea below. Bomani looked over at Farra. Her eyes were closed now, and she heaved with effort, trying to take in enough air to strengthen her. A glimmer of light moved across the mark on her face, and he stared at her in amazement.

  “Uh, your mark got bigger,” he said to her as she stirred and righted Pupa in her arms. She touched her cheek gently.

  “Yes, I felt it.” She replied. She held Pupa up to her face and looked into his eyes, and Pupa licked her cheek, affectionately. Pupa’s mark had grown as well.

  “Our marks,” she said to Bomani, still looking at Pupa dreamily.

  “Marks or no marks, it’s hot,” Bomani said. “Do you have any ideas on how to get out of here?”

  “I’d guess we’re inside of a volcano or something. There is a hole at the top. Seems like a long way up, and a short way down. It’s so hot. This is not good. Not good at all!” Farra said.

  Looking up through the volcano opening, they could see the sky. It seemed as if it would take days to climb it; however, days they did not have. The heat inside was unbearable, and below them, the boiling magma stirred violently. The lava seemed to breathe as it slowly rose up and turned into itself, like an awakening monster.

  “We’ll never make it out of here,” Farra cried. They both looked up at the mouth of the volcano. “It’s too high. I don’t think we can last in this heat much longer,”

  “Hey, we made it in, and we’ll make it out,” said Bomani trying to feed some determination into her with the will of his eyes. “Never give up without a fight. Come on.”

  They jumped down to the rock below them then further down, following a path that brought them even closer to the hot liquid below.

  The pressure inside built up and gave way to geysers of hot lava that shot up from the boiling pool of magma like a sun flare in mild and violent spurts. Bomani and Farra were watchful and headed toward a rock formation that made a narrow crossway ahead. “We’ll never get across that!” Farra said sounding terrified.

  “It’s the only way, Farra. We’ve got to do it,” he said.

  The crossway was formed from thin rock which barely looked as if could hold their weight. There was nothing hold on to. One careless step or a collapsed rock could be the end for one or all of them.

  They took the crossway cautiously. They were exhausted from the heat and every step seemed to take an immense effort. As they walked, Bomani suddenly fell down.

  Farra gasped, “Are you okay?” she asked.

  “Yes, I just felt a little dizzy for a second.”

  “It’s so hot in here. What are we going to do? I can barely breathe.”

  “We have to keep moving,” Bomani said. She was right. The heat was so unbearable that he was heaving for air.

  Suddenly a burst of magma from below splattered upon the walkway ahead. The weight of the molten rock cracked the narrow pathway and it crumpled, leaving them separated from the other side.

  “I don’t think it can get much worse than this.” Farra said. “Back the other way,” she suggested.

  They turned around to go back when another burst of magma crashed upon the narrow pathway in front of them again. Suddenly their platform had no support and fell, smashing into the hot liquid rock below. They balanced, floating on a slab of rock that was no more than ten feet across.

  “If I didn’t know better, I’d say this volcano had it in for us.” Bomani said.

  “Oh Bomani, this is no time for jokes!”

  “I’m not joking.”

  “I changed my mind, this is much, much worse,” said Farra.


  “Even worse than that, I think we are sinking,” said Bomani.

  They balanced themselves on the shaky rock as it wobbled back and forth, trading buoyancy for the weight of the kids. The edges dipped into the liquid, and the smoldering matter melted their raft, bit by bit. They backed into each other, both trying to stand as close to the center as possible. As Bomani stated, it did seem that this volcano had it in for them. Farra grabbed Bomani’s hand.

  “Bomani, I’m getting really tired, and dizzy. Getting hard for me to stand up,” Farra said, fighting the sensation to lie down and rest.

  “I feel it too. Try to fight it. I need your help to balance this thing, but we won’t make it, unless we get out of here, quickly. Do you have any ideas?” he asked, hoping that she could not sense his fear.

  “In the water — when we were back in the water, we used the water rune. Maybe lava is fire, and if so, then...”

  “Then that means we use the fire rune. It's worth a try,” Bomani interrupted.

  He pulled out the fire rune, and then took a deep breath. Farra grabbed him for a second. “Wait a minute, when we used the water rune, it made a whirlpool, we went into the water, I got all wet.”

  “So?” replied Bomani.

  “So, I don’t think…” She took a moment to catch her breath then continued. “I don’t think we’d survive—going into the lava.”

  “You have any other ideas?” Bomani replied, trying to shake off the effects of the intense heat.

  “No,” said Farra.

  “Neither do I.”

  Farra looked at him earnestly, “Well, whatever you’re going to do, do it quickly,” she said. She clutched Bomani frantically, but he was not immune to the heat either.

  He knelt to the ground and breathed in heavily, trying to get enough air into his lungs with each breath. He too was on the brink of passing out.

  The boiling lava ate away ever more quickly at the rock upon which they stood. Bomani dropped the fire rune into the magma below, and for a second nothing happened. Suddenly they heard a loud rumble and the whole volcano shook. A spurt of magma erupted directly under the slab of rock they stood on, pushing them upward. They rose swiftly. Had they the energy to scream, they would have, but the heat had drained them.

  They rose higher and higher. Bomani watched in amazement as the burst of lava pushed them quickly toward the volcano’s opening. It would have taken them days to climb to the top, but within seconds the volcano’s hot belly burped them out.