Chapter 12
Zack took a deep breath as he passed into the magma planes. These planes were wide open spaces; however they were so named because of all the volcanoes that had sprung up in this area. There was an eruption going off almost every five minutes, and Zach hoped that he could find the coordinates that he had taken note of back up in the mountains before he got caught in one.
Looking around Zack noticed that there was a trail leading up to one of the volcanoes. This trail had seen activity recently. Zach could see tracks in the dust leading up the trail towards the mountain's peak. Switching is comcom to scan mode, Zach scanned the volcano to see how long ago an eruption had occurred.
Zack was aware that the eruption's occurred in a somewhat rhythmical pattern.
Seeing by his comcom screen that the last eruption on this mountain had occurred five days ago, Zach knew that he had enough time to climb the peak and see what was going on before another eruption occurred. That was a course assuming that somebody else didn't set one off.
Looking around Zack started up the trail. He was conscious of the fact that he was exposed here. After all someone had just climbed the trail, and Zach had just come from what could have certainly been an ambush set up for him. He had been lucky enough not to be seen in his last search for Alain, but here there was no place for him to hide. If an ambush was waiting up ahead for him, they would see him long before he had any inkling they were there.
Zach had climbed about halfway up the trail before he noticed anything new. The tracks in the dust on the trail had not abated, if anything another pair had joined these tracks, so they were still heading up. The thing that Zak had noticed however was the fact that another trail branched off the one he was climbing. The second set of tracks seem to come from that trail, and Zach debated with himself on whether or not to continue following the trail he was on or switch to the side trail that somebody else had come from. Deciding that he could take the time to check, Zach turned to the right onto another trail and headed up more of the mountain. This, however, did not take long, as he soon came to a solid iron door firmly shut.
Zach realized that someone had come out of this door, walked down the mountain, had met someone else coming up the first trail from the bottom of the plains, and had given them some kind of message. Or at the very least had had a conversation. The two heads then continued up the trail that Zak had originally been climbing, and they could be waiting anywhere ahead of him.
Zach side and took another look around from what he could see. It wasn't much. Although he did notice the ground slightly shaking. Frowning Zack switched the comcom back in to scan mode and scanned the mountain. To his surprise the mountain wasn't showing signs of an impending eruption, and yet the ground was slightly shaking. What could be causing that? Zack started back down the trail, while keeping the scanner on his comcom pointed at the mountain,
Arriving back at the intersection where he had turned, Zack turned back onto the trail he had been originally climbing and continued up the mountain.
It was about 20 minutes later that Zack came into view of the mountains peak. Since this was still an active volcano, Zach was surprised to see what looked like some kind of metal Suspended over the crater at the top of the mountain. This was keeping the lava in a volcano from irrupt Ing out, and Zack suppose that was the source of the ground shaking. Glancing around Zack noticed off to the side another building. And it had apparently been erected recently, as there was very little sign of the elements where in tears on the walls and roof.
Zach had read a study once, that said buildings in magma planes could only last at most a year. And that was if the eruptions didn't consume them. The heat and humidity in the air would break down every man-made material and reduce it to scrap. But this building didn't have even a day's worth of wear and tear on its walls.
Shrugging his shoulders, Zack walked up to the building, and walked around it. Looking through the windows to see what was on the inside.
It was a one-story house, painted white witch surprised Zack. After all, in this climate a white painted object would be consumed even far faster than if it had been colored black. After all the light was reflecting off of the white object, and that reflected back end of the environment which caused erosion to occur even quicker.
The house appeared to consist of only two rooms. A kitchen on the far eastern wall, and from what Zack could tell another room leading west out of there. He couldn't get a good look into this other room though, so he had no idea what was in there.
Circling the building again, Zach noticed that the only door in the building seemed to be boarded up. "Yeah, how would one get into a building with a door like that" Zack thought as he continued walking around the building. Coming back to the window that looked in on the kitchen, Zach finally noticed that the window was slightly ajar. Studying the window, Zack realized that he could reach in slightly and pry the window open far enough that he would be able to climb through and see if anybody was in there.
Strapping his sword to his waist, Zack pried open the window, and did his version of a backflip through the window landing in a crouch with his back to the open window. Scanning the kitchen, Zach saw no living individuals inside, just the center island that had a leather sack sitting on it. As previously mentioned, there was a door through to the west that led into a larger room. Crouching down and using the island as cover, Zack Crab walked around the kitchen until he could see into the other room. To his surprise there was an obvious trophy case sitting against the northern wall. There was a rug covering the center of the floor, and what looked to him like an eleven-made sword suspended above a fireplace on the southern wall.
After waiting a few minutes to see if anything would happen, Zach stood up and walked into the other room to examine the trophy case. Sitting on top of the trophy case was what looked like an old fashion brass lantern, and tied to the lantern was a note.
"The passage beneath the trapdoor is guarded by a troll of all things. Thankfully we were able to slip past the creature with our prisoner, and head for the altar found below the torch. My hope is that if any of our compatriots find this note they will know where to look to find us."
Zack looked around the room again. Not seeing any kind of trapdoor, he instead looked for hidden exits.
It took longer than he would like to admit, but Zack finally moved the rug in the center of the room. Revealing a closed trapdoor.
Unsure if there would be any light down there, Zack grabbed the lantern and opened the trapdoor revealing steps leading down into total darkness.
"I was right to grab the lantern then" He thought as he stepped on to the stairs.
Zack was concentrating on his footing, when he was startled by the slamming of the trapdoor from above. Not only did the noise nearly make him lose his balance, but the light coming in from above was snuffed out leaving Zack in complete darkness.
Lighting the lantern Zack looked around at the room he had descended into. This room looked like it had been a cellar at 1 time. A doorway leads north out of the room and sounds of something hitting the walls could be heard in that direction.
To the west was a metal-looking ramp, and Zack thought that if anyone could climb that, they would deserve metal for not only bravery, but also recklessness. The ramp twisted as it climbed. Disappearing into darkness more than halfway up.
To the south was a tiny Crall space. It seemed to lead toward a crack in the wall and disappeared into darkness just around a bend.
Realizing he would have to face whatever was making that noise, Zack walked across the room, and through the doorway. The room he walked into was quite large. Spanning more than 5 square yards, the room could have been mistaken for 1 of those battle arenas that had been so popular a century ago. It was easy to see that there had once been passages leading out of the room all over the place at 1 time. However now most of these passages had collapsed leaving only a passage leading south witch was where Zack had come from, 1 to the north, and 1 leading west.
Standing in the middle of the room was what Zack recognized as a troll. It stood at over 8 feet tall. It carried a battle axe in 1 hand, as if it were simply a club. And from what Zack could see, it was angry.
"Well scramasax!" Zack exclaimed as the troll roared and swung its axe at him.
Zack had to admit he had never fought an opponent as tough as this troll before. Almost every slash of his saber was blocked by the battle axe. What attacks that did get through did hardly any damage due to the troll's tough skin. Zack was getting tired, and annoyed with a fight he wasn't sure he could win.
"This is getting me nowhere" Zack complained as he dodged yet another attack from the troll.
"Tap into your power..."
Zack stumbled, and nearly lost his head as a soft voice echoed through his mind.
"My power? What does that mean?"
As Zack focused inward, he felt something at the edge of his senses. Not sure exactly what it was, he pushed at it a little.
"DIAMOND SLASH!"
This time the voice nearly deafened Zack's ears as they shouted. The results, however, spoke for themselves. A beam of pure white light shot out of the blade of Zack's steal saber and cut through the troll's battle axe as if it were made of paper. The beam continued until it crashed into the troll's head, destroying its head along with most of its upper torso.
With a splatting sound the troll landed on the ground dead.
"What was that" Zack asked himself. "I've never seen that attack, much less heard its name."
Deciding to research whatever that attack was at a later date, Zack walked across the room to the northern exit.
Zack found himself in a room even larger than the last 1. This room was perfectly circular with exits leaving off in all 8 directions. Zack looked around. The message upstairs had given no instructions on where to go from here. Deciding to try something that Alain had told him about once, it was called Senkio, and it allowed a person to track another by their energy signature.
Zack closed his eyes and tried to sense the energy of people that had passed through this room recently. It was faint, but he could just detect an energy heading for the southeastern exit. Opening his eyes Zack walked over to that exit and peered into the next room.
The next room was small. Maybe 5 ft on the side. The room twisted from the exit Zack was looking in through, curving around to an eastern exit. Besides these 2 exits the room was covered in engravings. They were on every wall, the ceiling, even the floor.
Smiling at the thought that Christine would love this room, Zack walked through the engravings, and out through the other exit.
Zack found himself standing atop a dome that overlooked a bright room down below. A metal railing ran around the dome, preventing anyone from falling to their death by accident. A rope extended over 1 section of railing allowing someone to reach the floor below.
"Quite a trek" Zack thought as he grabbed the rope and climbed down from the dome.
Zack found himself in what looked like some kind of antechamber. A pedestal stood in the center of the room holding a torch made of ivory. Studying the torch Zack was able to determine that this torch had burned continuously for 10 years. He wasn't sure how this was possible, since he had determined that the house that led down here hadn't been standing for even a single day.
Zack saw a path l eading through some pillars to the south. Following the path, he came upon a temple. A bell lay discarded between 2 of the pillars. A path of crushed stone leads even farther south.
Ignoring the bell, Zack continued following the path, until he arrived at a large stone altar.
The altar itself was nothing special, but next to this altar was a steel door.
As Zack was about to reach for the door handle, he spotted a note lying on the altar. Shrugging to himself Zack picked up the note.
"Mr. Starfield.
We must commend you on making your way to this alter in the caves under the White House on the magna Plains. We have as you have probably guessed kidnapped your sister. If you wish to get her back, all you need to do is come to the Ombra Forest found to the southeast of these magna planes.
We give you our word that your sister has not come to harm by the time this note was written. How long you take to get here, however, will determine how much damage she will take before you reach her.
We will not be responsible for her death if you take more than three days.
You might want to hurry Mr. Starfield."
Sighing, Zack opened the door and found himself stepping out of the door he had spotted after climbing the side trail. Stepping out, Zack took a look around and hurried down the mountain trail.
Pulling out his comcom as he reached the base of the mountain, Zack called Christine.
"Chris" he said into the comcom.
"I'm here bro" Christine answered. "What have you found?"
"I feel like I've been sent on a scavenger hunt. I have been sent to three different locations so far, and in the first two I was nearly ambushed. Thankfully I escaped without any significant harm, but I've just found a note that tells me to head for the Ombra Forest, and somehow I don't think I'm going to have an easy time there."
He could hear Christine sigh into the comcom. "Just be careful, OK" she said. Zack could hear the worry in her voice. "And please bring her back so that we can continue to be a family."
"I promise," Zach said.
"Until then" Christine said disconnecting the call.
Zach had meanwhile left the magna Plains and turned Southeast heading for the Ombra forest.