"The storm is finally dissipating!" I let out excitedly as I crawl out of my tent.
"Don't worry about packing it up, it's not like anyone will steal it." Brewbrt then tells me as he walks past me. His helmet and loose gear were in his hands before they steadily got placed where they needed to be.
"You don't think you'll need any of it?" I asked as I took note of the many different pieces of equipment that he had. Then, as he did that, I glanced over at the massively changed landscape. All that debris and disturbed gravel had become dunes that had formed far away from our current campsite.
"It is better to travel light, only take what you need to ensure your safety." Thunder clarified as he crunched up to us.
"There's no monsters or beasts on this mountain... Right?" I decided to ask having heard that. Wearily glancing over at my staff after having heard that.
"Depending on how you come to view Lightning, but otherwise, no. Weapons will not be needed if you can cast independently of them." he explained.
"Then I'll leave this here..." I let out as I plant the staff into the loose gravel. Leaning it against a nearby rock on top of that so I did not come back to a fallen, dusty pole.
"And you, Brewbrt? Can you make do without the armour?" Thunder asked as he approached the elderly man. Only for said man to blast a light spell at him so they would maintain some distance. And I frowned at that action.
"Brewbrt, we need to trust him." I say as I move closer to my mother's friend.
"I'll trust him when you descend that mountain with the power to save your mother." he sternly replies before he glares at Thunder in the prelude to our departure.
"I am sorry for any friction." I whisper to Thunder as Brewbrt went ahead of us.
"It's fine. He cares for you and our introduction was what it was. If I must prove myself to earn his trust, then I shall. And from its creation, an unbreakable bond."
"You like to speak about creation a lot." I point out, no matter how annoyingly obvious it might've been to him.
"As a craftsman, I am naturally inclined to do so." Thunder says back to me with a very slight smile.
"Then, I pray to the gods and goddesses that we see a well-made safe passage ahead of us." I tell him, returning the smile that he gave me.
"I am sure they will hear you clearly and grant that." Thunder told me as his expression hardened as well as his fists. And as he started to catch up with a growingly cautious Brewbrt. I found myself slowing down so I could take in the mountain once again. And, as I did so, I saw how the storm behaved.
It was like a wild predator that had just found itself a meal. Teeth were bared and hunger flashed across its features. Of course, this was a storm, so it did so with long strikes and booming thunder. Some of the bolts that came down as well struck me as almost warning-like.
Which, having heard Thunder's words since we started camping with him... I knew very much that these were, in fact, warning strikes. Yet, I couldn't help but feel meek at the destruction they had left. Large gashes had been carved out of the earth and the molten gold quickly filled the new space.
"Is it not safe enough for Brewbrt to fly us over?" I decided to ask after gulping at the sight of a popping bubble. And the less I thought on how the heat was the least worrying issue, the better.
"Lightning would strike you before you could so much as get off the ground. The route must be taken." Thunder answered as he seemingly wandered the coastline aimlessly.
"Well? Where is it!?" Brewbrt demanded to know as he stepped forward. Only to take a jump back like I did when lightning suddenly shot at Thunder.
"LOO-" I began to scream before Thunder wrestled the bolt towards the sea. And, from the high spot I found myself on, I found an odd thought cross my mind. The way the lightning shot out across that sea reminded me of asaminra. A game which required a loosely similar action...
"Come, stick close to me and do not lose your way. Ignore the temptation."
"Temptation?" I repeat to myself before I took Brewbrt's hand so I could descend into the jaggedly parted sea with the pair of them.
"Quickly now." Thunder called back to us just before the gold began to fill out the immediate space I had just been in.
"What the..." I squeaked as the gold slowly poured in from behind us.
"Einervaene, come on, stay close." Brewbrt cautioned as we started to run. Only to come to a halt when we saw the brisk pace Thunder was moving at.
"Don't we need to...!?" I asked him, increasingly on edge at the slow and strange way the gold came in about us.
"No, it is safer to move slowly. You lose focus when you hurry."
"The gold is filling in!"
"Yes, slowly, match my pace and you'll be fine." Thunder pointed out as we did just that. And while the gap that his trick had created was wide. I could still feel the heat of the gold as if I was right up against it. It hurt to be in this place on top of it being unbearably uncomfortable.
"Alright, if we are able to be so calm about it. What are the temptations you spoke of a moment ago?" Brewbrt demanded to know as he cautiously eyed the sides and our recently trodden path.
"Whispers and songs." Thunder answered as we came upon a crossroad of all places.
"Well!?" Brewbrt urged as the gold came in from behind us. Yet, for some reason, Thunder was still.
"Patience..." he encouraged despite what was now rushing in from behind us all of a sudden.
"IT'S COMING!" I screamed just before it suddenly came to a halt. With all but one of the splitting paths suffering a similar fate. And, the old pace returned, but now I did so with a particularly disturbed heart.
"Some forewarning, maybe." Brewbrt growled at Thunder who ignored him completely.
"If we get close enough, we should be able to just fly out..." I tell Brewbrt as we collectively eyed the molten metal at our sides.
"Do not stop." Thunder then said for some reason despite none of us having done so.
"But we haven't..." I started to say before a gentle ringing began to flow towards us before it bounced back at us.
"Trust your eyes, focus on me for I am truth." Thunder told us once we stopped looking back at where the ringing was loudest. Yet, I struggled to hear him over all this ringing and I felt like I needed to hear some of it again. But at the same time, I could see that he needed to focus...
'Trust your eyes' is what I heard clearly.
"So just focus, can't be hard, right?" I nervously asked myself before squealing when a bubble of gold popped near me.
"Go, go." Brewbrt urged as he did his best to protectively wrap his arms around me.
"Einervaene..." something then ringed out when we reached another crossroads.
"I'm fine, it's fine." I told Brewbrt as I loosened myself from his grip. And, well, confused was putting it lightly. I knew that voice all too well but it made no sense for me to hear it out here of all places.
"Einervaene! Help me!" my mother's voice sang of all things before a limb briefly appeared at the end of the path. And when I turned around, the other two were still waiting for the true path to be revealed. And, interestingly, only the paths behind me were closing, their left.
They were closing in a clockwise motion and I saw that hand! Thunder said to trust my eyes so whatever I saw was real! So, having already figured it out, I went after that hand with haste. Steadily moving up into a careful sprint.
"HELLO!? WHO'S THERE!" I called out as loud as I could as I tried to find whoever it was I saw. But, all of a sudden, I found myself coming to a screeching halt. A surge of fear suddenly shot into me as I came face-to-face with a wall of molten gold. And, thankfully, when I fell, I fell the opposite way.
Then, I quickly scrambled to my feet and went back the other way. That was my fault, I should have gone slower like Thunder said. But, where was he? Where was Brewbrt!?
"Guys...?" I called out meekly as I came to the realisation that I had been isolated and trapped. Both my original path and my former destination were closing in on me. Strange as it was to think this way, I was thankful it was moving as slowly as it was. As that gave me time to think.
So, with the brief moment of clarity that I was able to give myself, I headed down another path. This way very likely being where the other two had gone down! So I breathed a sigh of relief only to lock up when I saw where it led to. And fear began to leave every pore of my body.
"H-Huh!?" I let out as I slowly stepped back, "Where are you two... BREWBRT! THUNDER! WHERE ARE YOU!?" I wailed like a baby.
Tears were building up rapidly and the heat was getting closer all around me. And, as it got closer, I screamed more and more. Was this really going to be it? Mother would never see me again and she would have to live knowing a place she dreamed of killed me!?
"SOMEBODY HELP ME!" I cried as I started to erratically blast magic at the hungry mass of molten metal.