Fire scorched the sky. The deep yawning pits of magma beneath the earth had awoken from a thousand-year slumber, and now shot out in all directions from the towering summit of Mount Nova, lighting up the night sky with plumes of molten rock. The towering geyser of the great volcano stood higher than any nearby peak, christening the surrounding forest below in super-heated ash, igniting everything green for miles around. The ground shook and broke apart as the impact of the explosion shattered the very bedrock upon which the crater stood, and great rivers of lava had begun to flow down the mountain face, smothering everything in its path in a choking, blazing heat of yellow and white.
There was only wilderness for miles around, no sign of civilization to witness the cataclysm that wracked the mountain range that divided the country between its eastern and western halves. The only signs of life to be seen, beyond the trees and plant life that burned at the base of the mountain, were the fleeing birds and forest creatures. Predators and prey both ran in equal terror from the greater disaster that threatened to consume the land.
Amidst the chaos of falling fire and blistering winds, a lone figure bounded down the mountain face, who also seemed to be fleeing the coming destruction that raged at his heels. His clothes were in tatters and his long, course hair trailed behind him as the scorching wind rushed by his face. His face was marred by smears of ash and soot, his skin glistening from the heat all around him. Overhead, plumes of fire rained down overhead, obliterating everything they touched as they struck the ground across his path, forcing him to divert left and right to continue onward.
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Then another great explosion from the volcano caused the ground to shake again, this time so violently that it split into fissures, vast chasms opening up in jagged paths across the entire base of the mountain range. The running man had to halt his advance as he found his path end in a sheer drop where two fissures met, leaving him no solid ground on which to retreat. Across the fissure, much too far to leap, the other side of the earth drifted away as the tectonic plates beneath them shifted to accommodate the force of the magma shooting up from beneath the planet’s crust. Between him and safety lay a deep, deep chasm, too deep to even see the bottom.
He turned to face the direction he had come from but already the lava bulging from the top of the volcano like a geyser came rushing down towards him. The lava had already reached the ends of both fissures in his way, cutting him off from alternate routes and any hope of escape. As he gazed up at the coming doom rushing towards him, he took another appraising glance at the seemingly bottomless chasm at his feet.
His options left him with little recourse.
He bounded off the ledge and hurled himself into the abyss. Moments later, the lava reached the lip of the crevasse and sailed over the ledge after him.