Second layer,....third layer,....fifth layer,.....eight layer!
So far nothing spectacular had happened, except the intensity of the heat doubling, quadrupling, over and over again. I was not too uncomfortable, being of the fire affinity myself, but I was anxious for Lena.
I looked around me wildly.
"Lena! Lena!"
There were caves formed by thickened magma everywhere. I hurtled through the caves, calling Lena's name.
"Where are you? Lena!"
There was no sign of life here at the eight layer. Had grandmother sensed wrong?
I was just about to plunge deeper when a log-shaped magma rose out from the ninth layer. The log shaped thing had four branches, two around the middle, and.... wait a minute, that was not a log! That was a human. Well, not technically speaking.
"Lena?" I asked cautiously.
"Brrrbbbb, brbbbbrbb," the magma burbled furiously around us when she tried to speak, drowning out her words.
"Use the imprint I placed on you to talk to me,"
A second later I heard within my mind.
/"Sister Nei--I mean, teacher!--good idea! I-- I knew you would come--"/
As she spoke, the magma condensed into an arrow that shot at my chest and grazed it. The more she spoke, the more arrows hit me.
"Lena! Get to the point!" I yelled with my voice, as she started to give me a blow by blow account of her adventures, "where is the core seed? Lead me to it!"
She stopped talking in my mind at once and turned around, plunging into the ninth layer from which she rose.
I followed. And then I couldn't keep track anymore as we shot through the layers at lightning speed. When I started thinking how far more we were away from the core seed, Lena came to an abrupt halt.
"There," she said with her voice, the magma no longer bubbling.
It was a tiny thing the size of a peanut, right at what, I was sure, was the center of the magma sea.
"What do we do now, teacher?" She asked in an almost defeated tone.
"How have you been trying to subdue it?" I asked in reply.
"I -- no, all this while I've just been trying to pick it," she answered in an embarrassed manner.
"Don't worry," and I pushed my fire energy to it's limit, directing it at the locked seal around it, which Lena couldn't see but I knew was there. At the same time, I felt the seal giving way voluntarily, not bothered by my aggressive onslaught. As if someone had finally lifted the seal of their own volition.
Nothing prepared me for the blast that followed.
"Lena! Now or never! Grab the core seed!" I yelled to her as I received the blast on her behalf.
She hesitated, long enough for the core seed to build up enough energy to release another blast. Rushing forward with my wounded body, I received it again.
BLAST!!!
She then understood what she had to do. As the wave of magma pushed me back furiously, she rushed forward like lightning and grabbed the quivering flame seed.
CRRRAAKAKA-CRACK!!
The coagulated magma on her body cracked and dissolved. Standing before me was Lena. My eyes blacked around the edges.
"Bring me back," I croaked and then all became dark.