Steam and Lizards

Half from the force of the blast, half out of sheer shock, Wanderer stumbled back from the entryway.

A wall of white steam was billowing out from the doorway, no longer sealed inside by the doors.

The Golem didn't understand where it was all coming from, the room they were inside right now was near completely dry, yet there was enough vapour in its adjacent chamber to fill a small lake.

The steam had created another problem as well, as before the chamber was only uncomfortable now it was swelteringly hot, and not showing any signs of cooling down.

“Maybe this is how the other explorers disappeared?" ,Wanderer thought errantly, humans were more fragile than them and a place this hot might be a real danger for them.

The trio backed away to where the air started to cool once again and waited for things to calm down.

Eventually, all the steam equalised as cool droplets of condensed water rained from the ceiling, the air still boiling hot, yet bearable to the Golem.

The same could not be said for Emio however, their bushy body unsuited for the situation.

They shifted and shuddered their herbal body in discomfort, and showed all manner of reluctance for the veritable oven in front of them.

Wanderer moved to oblige their friend's wish and take a different route until they had a realisation, if this same steam had stopped other humans, then surely it could force their pursuers to lose their trail.

The room in front of them was a wall only Wanderer could pass, a barrier only surmountable to them.

Yet how were they to take Emio with them, it was obvious to all that they couldn't stand the heat.

In that very moment, the Vessel stepped into a particularly large patch of dead moss and was struck by a brilliant idea.

“Perhaps I can find some living moss!”, they thought, receiving praise from their Spirit for their ingenuity.

Emio could take on the traits of the plants they consumed, and the moss in this room was only dead because the lack of moisture had killed it.

Undoubtedly, behind the doorway would be living moss which they could gather and bring back to Emio, providing the heat resistance the plants undoubtedly possessed.

Both Spirit and Golem approved of the idea thoroughly, and so, with a few hurried commands to the verdestry Wanderer headed toward the steam.

As they entered a wave of scalding heat blasted over them, easily matching that of the daytime desert, yet from above them, cool condensed water fell with frequency and made the whole experience just cold enough to keep the Vessel’s mind clear.

And while heat was not an issue for the time being, a different problem showed itself rather quickly.

The room was so filled with superheated fog that Wanderer couldn't even see their feet, let alone the floor.

The only things even remotely visible were a few silhouettes of nearby walls and an odd, red glow coming from their right.

But the light wasn't the only thing coming from that direction, as it was consistently accompanied by a cavernous roar, like a million quiet whispers combined into one, amplified by the rock walls and enclosed space.

At this moment, their Spirit decided to illuminate the situation, stating that the steam was caused by hot lava coming into contact with water.

The roar was likely water in the process of being vaporised, and the glow was molten rock that was exposed to air.

Wanderer was fascinated by this, they had never before seen water being boiled, so the very idea that something could go from one state to the other was foreign to them.

While the Vessel did want to go check it out, they also knew that lava was rather hot and that approaching it was a bad idea in general.

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Besides, their goal here was to procure moss and any plant was unlikely to grow so close to molten rock.

The Vessel crept their way away from the lava and their entry point, careful not to step on a stray lava flow or hidden enemy they had no way of seeing in the steam.

As they moved, the world around them gradually became darker and darker as they left the magma behind and just as Wanderer began to consider going back, for fear of getting lost in the room which was far bigger than they had thought, their hooves touched soft moss instead of hard stone.

A bolt of joy struck through Wanderer, as they were getting rather nervous about whether there even was moss in the room and they had been wandering blind in the steam and heat for nothing.

The Golem knelt down and grabbed a handful of the bryophyta, surprised to find that it possessed a greenish brown colour, which contrasted with the white world around them.

The moss seemed to grow in belts, as connected to that particular chunk Wanderer found its kind growing in almost every direction, surrounding the beginning of a pool of water.

The Vessel resisted the urge to explore further and stuck to their task, eventually having loaded themself up with four full armfuls of soft moss.

Figuring their task done, the Vessel began to make their way back when their foot hit a small boulder in the middle of the floor, a boulder that let out a sound somewhere between a yelp and a bleat.

Wanderer took a step back in surprise, then knelt down to see what exactly they had tripped on in the fog.

Out of the steam was revealed an oddly round stone about the same size as Emio, one which revealed its true nature as an animal because of a bright yellow eye which was preoccupied with staring the Golem down.

Wanderer, seeing that the monster in front of them wasn't attacking, decided to get a little closer and observe the creature.

Their inspection revealed that the monster seemed to be some variety of lizard, with drab yellow scales which blended in with the rock around them and fit into each other in such a way that they curled into a perfect ball.

Just as the Vessel finished their inspection, the lizard closed its single open eye as two surprisingly long legs unfolded from its shell.

Wanderer took a few steps back out of concern, an action which may have very well saved their life as the monster’s legs kicked off the smooth floor, sending the whole creature into a barrel roll while it let out a disturbingly human sounding scream.

The Golem leapt to the side just in time, the rolling monster scraping the tip of their hoof as their Spirit screamed in surprise at the sudden threat.

After a few moments, a loud thud echoed through the room, slightly muffled by the fog yet audible all the same, as was the sound of that same bleat-yelp coming from many places all across the room.

Wanderer scrambled to their feet, slightly dazed by the sudden change in threat, finding themself surrounded by a wholly different situation.

Presumably, they were surrounded by aggressive tumble-lizards all of which could presumably see Wanderer (as the one they had found had been watching them before they ever got within viewing range), and as a result, would doubtlessly come rolling with all the force of a boulder in mere moments.

There wasn't much time to think in this kind of situation, the Golem ran before their Spirit could ever come up with a logical answer.

Wanderer’s plan was simple, reach Emio outside and hope the tumble-lizards wouldn't follow out of the steam.

They ran in the direction of the glow, knowing the exit was close to the lava and making it halfway there by the time they heard another scream in the distance.

The Vessel leapt to the side, yet the muffling fog made it difficult to tell the exact trajectory of the monster and it smashed directly into their right leg before rolling over it.

Wanderer’s mind went blank with pain for a moment, remaining that way a moment more before they travelled back to the realm of the waking, where their Spirit was begging them to get up.

Their right leg was squashed flat, completely unusable and Wanderer had no chance to reform it, already another scream was echoing out through the room and the Vessel had to get out of the way.

They rolled out of the way as a living boulder missed by a hair, the Golem thinking quickly on how to escape their situation.

Usually, in a situation like this Emio would be beside them, a reliable rock from which solutions could be derived, but now they had no such option, Emio couldn't enter the room if they wanted to.

They began to reach for their satchel, in order to use the flare-bow, but their Spirit warned them otherwise.

The flare-bow only had a single shot and little other effect than creating light and heat, both of which were things the tumblers were well accustomed to.

In all likelihood, the weapon would do nothing, the Vessel had to find another way.

Their leg was ruined, there was no chance of standing on it any time soon, as such their only option was to crawl.

The Golem threw their bundles of moss in the direction they believed the exit to be and began to drag their clay body forward, a process faster for them than it would have been any other due to their four arms.

Periodically, as Wanderer inched toward the exit, screams would echo from their front and back and they would have to make a split second decision of how to dodge.

Luckily, sound was not their only means of navigating, as their Spirit had wizened and shared a single glimpse of their strange vision every time a tumble-lizard approached, providing just enough info for the Vessel to dodge by a hair every time.

The situation was so fraught Wanderer didn't even have time to become jealous at the visions, merely continuing on with every glimpse of the unknown they had seen, trying to ignore the growing pain in their mind which resulted from the forbidden knowledge.

Step by step, moment by moment, Wanderer crawled across the room, stopping every now and then to dodge an oncoming missile until their escape was so close that they could see the vague silhouette of freedom in the steam.

Perhaps the lizards wizened to Wanderer’s escape or finally learned to work together, or perhaps it was sheer dumb luck but just as the Vessel reached the threshold of the doorway a scream louder than any they had heard before hit Wanderer, as three tumblers charged at once.