Tommy and Ruth entered another room, which had a heated atmosphere surrounding it. There appeared to be a sizeable gray floor with craters, cracks, and small holes plastered all around the floor. There lied a big hole up on the ceiling where all the air got carried out.

As Tommy took his first step, a big geyser rushed out upward abruptly, catching him off guard and making him jump back.

Ruth couldn’t believe how lucky they were to have avoided a sudden death, and how neither of them noticed those were geysers sooner. Why would the butterflies take them here? Is the way out closer than they realized?

They traversed the area carefully, trying to avoid coming into contact with any of the erupting hot springs. To them, it felt like walking through a minefield, afraid to touch anything on the ground and getting caught in its devastation.

Luckily, Tommy and Ruth made it across the room without getting hurt. On the other side of the caverns, there appeared to be a significant gap in the wall, as if it was a passage to somewhere else.

The two also noticed a shadow emerge from the hole as if someone came through; they both readied themselves to defend. The person arising had black hair with a burgundy headband on, and the duo dropped their guard entirely.

“Maggie, you’re ok!” The two exclaimed, rushing over to check up on her.

“Hey, you guys!” Maggie waved as soon as she got to the ground.

“It’s great to see you again,” Tommy greeted. “But how did you get here?”

“It’s a long story, but I’m looking for your friend; he got captured. Have you seen him?”

“No,” Ruth responded somberly. “Not since the Echinosauropteryx trapped us in and took the boy away...”

“No way, that’s unbelievable!” Maggie thundered.

“That’s not even the strangest part,” Ruth mentioned. “The creature acted a lot different than when we first encountered it back up above this place! I’m sure it was the same one we saw from before.”

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“Oh, could it be because of...” Maggie reached down into her pocket, pulling out a purple object, and showing it to Tommy and Ruth, “This?”

The Orso Looba jumped back in horror and gasped loudly.

“That’s a dark crystal!” Ruth exclaimed. “It’s the most dangerous and destructive crystal of all! Where did you find that?”

“It was inside the yellow backpack, but I don’t...”

“But that’s strange. Why would Antonio have such a thing?” Tommy pondered.

“This is bad,” Ruth panicked. “If something like that falls into the wrong hands, who knows what that person could do! They could use this power for horrific purposes! World conquest, mind control, gen—”

“Calm down, now’s not the time to panic.” Tommy interrupted. “This might be the only purple crystal there is, who knows. Maybe he wanted to preserve it and hide it from the enemies? Nevertheless, we need to find Antonio before it’s too late, and something bad happens to him!”

“But how will we know which way to go?”

“Well, knowing that creature you described, it probably went up toward the skies.”

“I got an idea.” Maggie proclaimed, pointing upward. “See that hole up in the ceiling?”

“Yeah, but what about it?” Tommy inquired, not having any clue where she’s going with this. “You don’t think we can get out via that, do you?”

“It’s worth a shot. I’ll get—” Maggie planned to turn around and walk off, but Tommy grabbed her arm to stop her from doing so.

“We shouldn’t split up again!” Tommy warned her.

“What do you want me to do, then? If you follow, we might not find this place again!”

“Well, there’s got to be a better—”

“Guys, we don’t have time to argue!” Ruth exclaimed. “Why don’t we ask the butterflies for help again?”

“Butterflies?” Maggie shook her head, dumbfounded. What a ludicrous idea!

“Yeah.” The bear repeated, nodding his head in agreement. “What did you want to do?”

“Well, I found an empty minecart that could be useful to us. I was hoping to drag it over here and...”

Just then, the orange and black butterflies showed up again. Gathering around the mine cart, they lift it into the air. The vehicle appeared to be bigger than the ones from before and could comfortably seat all of them.

The butterflies pushed the cart over to a hole where a geyser could pop up any minute now; Tommy, Ruth, and Maggie climbed aboard and prepared to hang on tight.

“Have I pointed out how weird this is getting?” Maggie asked.

“I don’t think so,” Tommy replied. “Are you going to declare that now?”

“All right, get ready, everyone,” Ruth advised. He turned to the butterflies and nodded. “Thanks for everything.”

The geyser erupted, carrying the mine cart up in the air along with Maggie, Tommy, and Ruth, past the hole up in the ceiling.