Inside was a big area lit up bright red by the flowing lava. There were also waterfalls flowing from up above and leading to the pool below. Even though the lava was coming from too far up, the flow of it was slow and the splashes were minimal, being controlled by the 'mist' inside the area.
The warm air Ling previously felt was coming from here, however, the temperature inside was not too hot.
As he was staring amazed at the view, he didn't notice that the dragon beside him already ran to the pool. Before he could stop it, the dragon already dipped its head in the pool.
"Maga!"
When he got near, he saw that the dragon was drinking the lava. It stopped drinking when it felt Ling beside it. Turning its head to look up at the boy, its expression seemed to say, 'Do you also want to drink?'
Dazed, Ling shook his head instead to answer the unvoiced question. It was reasonable that Maga can drink the lava since he can breath fire. However, that was not the case with Ling even though he was also thirsty as well as hungry.
Looking around him for something edible for him while Maga went back to his drinking, Ling noticed that the previous 'mist' flow he saw was going past the pool to something below.
He tried to look down the gorge on the side of the lava pool but all he can see was darkness. If he fell down, he might see where the 'mist' was flowing to. Good thing he was not that curious.
When he turned back to look for Maga, he saw that it was missing beside the pool.
'Where did it go now?'
Turning his head elsewhere to look, he was surprised again when the dragon was actually under the lava waterfall.
It had its eyes closed with its exuded 'mist' surrounding its body.
'This seems familiar. Isn't this how I trained under the waterfall back in the village?'
"Maga!"
Upon hearing the shout, the dragon's eyes slowly opened and the red before was somewhat brighter. Ling was afraid to approach at first but still stepped forward when the dragon started lying below the falls, rolling and enjoying the flow.
"Stop playing around. Do you know the way we can go to get out of this cave? You might like it here but I can't live here and the food in my village was better! There's meat and stuff! My mom even grows vegetables!"
The dragon showed a disgusted expression but titled its head in a nearby direction. When Ling followed with his eyes, he noticed that a smaller 'mist' flow was going somewhere aside from down below the gorge.
___
After walking for some time, Ling was slowing down because he was tired but the dragon beside him was still so active. When another creature crawled in their path, it blew fire on it which cooked the creature and they have something to eat.
Ling missed his mother's and sisters' cooking during these times. Even though his sisters always tease him, they were still better cooks than Maga.
Sometimes, Maga only slapped the small animals and let it run for a while before eating it whole. It trapped it by its tail, it has a tail, tails if it has more than one with its two claws, and the sound in the cave was only the scared squeaking of the small animal.
There was also a time when it chased another small animal until Ling lost sight of it. Good thing it came back fast but Ling didn't know what happened to the animal. Maybe it also went inside the dragon's stomach.
What was surprising was that they didn't encounter any other large animals aside from the bears Ling was with before.
As they walked farther and farther, Ling noticed that the way was getting darker. However, the 'mist' surrounding them lights up the path slightly but whenever Maga breathes out fire, the area was brighter.
Ling, therefore, had an idea. He asked Maga to blow fire and he caught and trapped it with his 'mist' like what they do in the village or during a hunt. Satisfied with himself when the ball of fire was flickering steadily, he turned to his companion to brag. However, what he saw shocked him. There was also a fireball in front of the dragon and it was curiously circling it a couple of times to look.
Ling was devastated, 'What took me months to learn, Maga has already learned in a few seconds. No, maybe it was because he has more control over fire.'
Ling harrumphed at his companion, "Let's see who's better next time." Though this made the dragon confused.
They continued walking and, in a while, another light was illuminating the way forward.