I looked at the entrance of the volcano, Lory seemed to be ready to move on. Looking at the sun, the others should be awake by now. I wonder what they are going to do, what Haley is going to do. Maybe she will follow us. Lory looked at me, “Do you think she will follow us?”

I chuckled, “Did you just read my mind?”

“We should move on.”

Lory nodded and took my hand, we started walking through the only path in the volcano. Lory looked around, “What is the plan if she follows us?”

I smiled, “This is an important coming of age decision for her. She might have been trained very well, but she can choose now, go back and live peacefully and be ready if something happens, or, follow in our footsteps.”

Lory sighed, “I have no clue what she is going to do.”

I started sweating, “Is it just me, or is it hot in this volcano?”

Lory wiped sweat off her forehead, “Yep, it sure is hot in here.”

We kept on walking, I saw some creatures, they did not seem interested in us. Hot smoke started rising from pockets in the ground, everything has turned red from the heat. It seemed to be calm in here. Lory started panting, “I can’t take this heat, Steve.” She bent forward, “We need to go back.”

“You will be fine, Lory.”

She swept her tail towards me, a lot of sweat dripped from her tail. “This is just too hot for me to handle.”

I grunted, “We really can’t go back.” I walked over to her and lifted her with my right arm and hoisted her on my shoulder. Then I charged forward with Lory on my shoulder, she wrapped her tail around me while rubbing her hand over my back. “Hold on, Lory, we are going to get through this.”

She tried to chuckle, “This is very macho of you.”

“No talking, safe your strength.”

In front of me, something crawled out of the smoke, it seemed to be some kind of lizard on four legs. It makes sense, there are Lizardians on this island. It is red, it seemed to barely have eyes. Its body is hanging close to the ground. I have no free arm. The lizard thing has a big mouth, and it opened and a some kind of bomb rolled out. I jumped backwards, and it exploded in front of me, more lizards came out of the walls. “Lory?”

She mumbled, “Yes?”

“Things are going to get rough.” She kept on mumbling.

I started running forward, more bombs came my way, I jumped over them, and they exploded behind me. While jumping, I wrapped my arm tightly around Lory. She really has problems with this heat. One of the lizards scratched my leg, blood splattered over the lizard as I grunted. I kicked the lizard and he rolled away. One of them wrapped a tongue around my leg, I let energy infuse my leg and the lizard backed off.

I kept running through the volcano while occasionally dodging aside from the lizards, I am going to call them bombers. The voice of Agent rang in my head, “You seem to be in a pickle, do you already want my help?”

I jumped on top of a lizard’s back, then I jumped towards a bomb and kicked it, the bomb landed inside a lizard that just wanted to spit out another bomb. It exploded into tiny pieces. “Shut up, liar, I am doing fine here.” I infused my legs with silver energy and made a majestic leap over a group of lizards, I used my wings to glide. Bella told me the path through the volcano is not long. It is getting damn hot in here. It seems my body can handle it fine. But if I were to touch the wall, I would get burned.

In the distance, I saw light, and I felt a breeze. Then a giant version of the lizard fell out of the ceiling, right in front of me.

It came at me with an open mouth, I jumped aside and ran towards a small bomber, it spit a bomb at me. I turned around and saw the big bomber coming for me, I kicked the bomb and the big bomber ate it. I covered myself and Lory from the blast. It did not seem to be done for, I ran over to another small bomber and waited for another bomb. Then I repeated my tactic. The big bomber tried to dodge the bomb, but he failed, the bomb exploded in his stomach. It fell down, and the other bombers walked over to the big bomber. I had no clue what they were going to do. However, this seemed to be my cue to leave. Quickly I started following the light breeze.

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Soon I managed to burst out of the left nipple volcano. A little ahead, I saw ruins and a river. Slowly, I walked over to the river and put Lory down. Then I put down the tent, I put Lory in the tent. I grabbed a washcloth and I made it wet in the river. Lory seemed to be soaked in sweat, she is also very hot. I undressed her to her underwear and started cleaning the sweat off her and cooling her down with water.

After a while, I was satisfied and then I cooked some meat. Agent spoke up inside my head, “I am amazed, you saved her, and you did not die.”

I sighed, “Can’t you just shut up?”

“I could, but I am keen on getting out of here. You see, there are things I need to handle before you screw it up.” I leaned back and ignored Agent in my head. After a few hours, Lory woke up and joined me.

She sat down on my lap, “I think a volcano is not good for me, thanks for getting me through there.”

I smiled, “No worries, have you cooled down a bit?”

Lory nodded, “A bit, thank you for that. My head hurts, though.” I handed Lory some cooked meat, “Oh, thanks, my love.” She slowly ate her meat, after she was done, she got up and ran over to the river and jumped in.

I smiled at her, “We should take another route when we go back. Did you see the bombers?”

Lory looked at me, “Not really, I think I blacked out. Was it bad?”

I shrugged, “There were these lizards, and they threw bombs. I am unsure what happened to the big one, and to be quite frank, I was not interested in finding out. What should we do?”

Lory looked around, “Once we have cooled down a bit, we should go on. You should take a nap, you have not slept for at least a day.”

“Alright,” I went into the tent after giving her a kiss, then I fell asleep in no time.

Lory shook me awake, “Steve?”

“Yes?”

“Get up, we have to go.” Quickly, I got up and shot out of the tent. Lory had packed up everything except for the tent. She pointed towards the broken down buildings. I saw red eyes glistening in the dark.

I looked at the volcano, “Do you think if Haley is going to follow us, she will be alright?”

Lory nodded, “I am sure of it. We should keep following the river while keeping an eye on these creatures, I can only see red eyes, but they do not seem to be friendly.” We started following the river, more and more red eyes kept staring at us. I heard cackling coming from the buildings.

Lory took my hand, “I don’t like this one bit, why are these creatures awake in the middle of the night?”

“I am not sure, and to be honest, they can stay right there.”

The broken down buildings seemed to be ancient, made from the same stone as the nipple volcanos. Lory pointed somewhere, it seems to be a sign, it says, warning, don’t visit this area, take the long route, the creatures awaken at night, then they will drink your blood. I sighed, “I hope they are not vampires. How are you doing, Lory?”

“I am still feeling hot, I think we are going to need speed soon.” She had been walking around in her underwear, but she undressed herself, and then she transformed into a wolf. “Get on my back.”

Gently, I jumped on her back and grabbed her fur. “Alright, Lory, get us out of this awkward place.” Lory walked over to the river and walked through the shallow water. I leaned forward, “Does that feel good for your paws?” Lory nodded.

Lory stopped and used her wolf ears. “Grab your sword, Steve, I think the creatures are going to come out soon.” She looked at one of the broken down buildings, something started shuffling in the dark, towards the exit of the building. Lory started running at top speed. Behind me, I could hear more cackling and running sounds. Lory infused herself with energy and kept running.

Water splashed everywhere, behind us, we could hear them chasing us. “Run, Lory, they are coming for us!”

“I am going as fast as I can, Steve! There is an open clearing ahead of us, if we can make it there, we can set up an ambush and hopefully fight them off.”

“Alright, I am trusting you here, get there as fast as you can,” when I looked back for a moment, I saw a horde of black robed monsters. I could not see them properly, to be honest, they emanate an aura of fear.

I heard a voice in my head, it was Agent. “Steel your resolve, and wait for Lory to reach the clearing, you can do this, Steve.”