Well that worked.

Holding the male’s heart in one hand, I clung to the side of the cliff even as it started to melt in my grasp.

The world was too noisy to shout for Miss Beak. Between the roars of the female monarch, Miss Beak’s mother, and the constant boiling and evaporating of the ocean water below there was no way my voice or hers would be audible. My eardrums kept exploding, only to heal and adapt and then explode again as the temperature rapidly changed all around me.

Sliding a little, I slid along nasty gloop until my free hand finally found solid substance again. I dug my fingers into it, as to hold myself in place as I glanced around for any foothold I could find.

The world was hazy. I could barely see more than an arm’s reach in front of me, and what little of the world I could see was some weird mixture of stone and lava-like slag.

I knew somewhere below me was the male monarch. Or at least, his body. I had ripped his heart from his beak mere moments ago, and the mother was still screaming not too far away. She sounded like she was still up above on the cliff, just above me, but I knew how sound could act differently under such hot temperatures. I’d experienced it before while fighting them, it somehow got distorted or something thanks to the extreme heat, making it sound like it came from different directions or even something else entirely.

All the same I couldn’t stay on this cliff wall. If I fell into the ocean below, which was undoubtedly boiling like crazy, I’d be unable to kill the other monarch. It’d be able to escape before I could get free from the torturous boiling of the sea water and…

“Vim!”

I heard my name, from what was undoubtedly my friend, but it took a moment to see her. A great puff of movement in the hazy smoke revealed a pink giant. Miss Beak slammed into the cliff I clung to, dislodging me, but had done so near enough that I had been able to get a hold of her before falling off.

Feeling, and hearing, her mighty wings beat as she pushed off the cliff and flew upward, I felt my whole body get pushed down hard enough to almost break my lower spine from the angle I was forced into from the pressure as she raised in elevation so quickly it sucked what little air was in my lungs out, forcefully.

We exploded out of the hazy evaporation of the sea, and I ignored my bulging eyes and squeezing lungs at the lack of air. Miss Beak had flown all the way above the atmosphere, as to escape the heat.

Leaning over a little, to look down at the world I searched for any sign of her mother.

“Where is she?” I shouted, using what little air was in my lungs to use.

“I don’t know Vim. I don’t see her,” Miss Beak said calmly as she opened out her wings, as to start gliding. She began to circle the area, the huge cliff we had been fighting at.

The ocean winds were trying to disperse the thick clouds of steam and evaporation, but they were basically useless. Too much water was boiling too fast. Bright gleaming lights could be seen within the white haze, which I knew were sections of pools of molten slag and rock. It made me wonder what was burning faster, the rocks or the salt water.

Yet no matter where I looked, I couldn’t find any sign of Miss Beak’s mother. Which should be impossible. I still heard her roaring, didn’t I? Or was that just my mind playing tricks on me? I felt the weird headache from the lack of oxygen, but I hadn’t been up here that long yet.

Glancing at the heart in my hand, I glared at the larger than normal orb. It was the same pink color as their feathers, and it felt hot. It wasn’t burning my hand, but I didn’t know yet if that was because I was still adapted to the extreme heat or not.

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Once my lungs adapted enough to breathe in without wanting me to puke my lungs up, I took a deep breath.

“How are you Miss Beak?” I shouted as she flapped her giant wings, to keep us above the very visible bubble of extreme heat.

“I am fine Vim. Nothing I won’t heal from,” she said calmly.

I glanced around, to see the wounds she no doubt had, but couldn’t see any. She did have some sections of feathers that were sticking out, all askew and cockeyed, but I saw no great wounds or blood.

Her heart was still within her, I felt it beneath me, but I still worried.

Not everyone could endure pain. Even if they’d heal from it. Even if it didn’t last long.

I had lost many in the beginning, during those wars, not because they had fallen in battle but because their minds had broken. Their spirits. From similar trauma.

“Vim she’s not here,” Miss Beak then said, drawing me from my thoughts.

Tossing aside all my previous thoughts, I leaned over to stare down at the world below.

I could still not see well through the steam or haze. It was too thick. But…

Right. I couldn’t hear any screaming anymore. No more roars. No more bursts of hot air sizzling as it impacted the cold, or not as hot.

And…

Focusing on one section near the cliff, I noted the way the thick haze was staring to roll along the cliff and raise upward into the sky.

The heat was dissipating. The winds were now starting to pierce the thick bubble of heat the monarchs had created during the battle.

And she was right. There didn’t seem to be feather or beak of her mother.

“Where’d your father fall?” I asked over the wind that started to grow stronger. Was the heat expanding and mixing with the cold air forcing the winds upward? Possibly. Air currents were weird sometimes.

“Near that larger clump of still melting stone,” Miss Beak turned a tad, as to point towards a larger glowing section of the haze.

“Head that way. Swoop through and down near that area,” I said. Maybe I’d be able to sense her mother’s heart if we did. Right now I couldn’t sense it.

Miss Beak said nothing, but instead tucked in her wings and immediately dived. She dived so quickly, so surely, that I was barely able to tell if I sensed another monarch’s heart or not as we swooshed through the hot air and steam, and then back out of it.

Going from one extreme temperature to another hurt. It made my teeth shatter and bones crack, but I ignored all the pain and wounds as I hurriedly looked around for another direction the mother had possibly…

“Miss Beak! She’s swimming!” I said as I realized what happened.

She slapped open her wings, nearly dislodging me from the abrupt stop, as she quickly turned to face the open ocean.

“Of course!” she agreed with my assessment, and we both scanned the ocean. It went on for as far as the eye could see, and some of it in the distance was rather violent. This was not a calm sea at all.

And all we saw was ocean. No sign of her.

“What do you want me to do?” Miss Beak asked hurriedly as she flapped her wings, sending us higher again.

“Fly outward. To the sea. She likely can’t swim as fast as you can fly, we might be able to track her down. Look for strange steam or waves, maybe bubbling surfaces as if there are volcanic geysers,” I said.

“I know not what those are Vim,” Miss Beak said, but she flapped her wings again and flew forward towards the ocean. She lowered as she did, as to fly not far above the surface.

I didn’t try to explain them to her, since she’d recognize bubbling and boiling at least. But I knew it was likely a mute point.

She’d likely not be using her heat ability while she escaped from us. Especially not now with her mate dead, and she alone and hurt.

The problem though was this ocean became deep very quickly. There was a huge trench not far from here. One I’d accidentally made during my battle with one of the gods. Being a monarch she’d easily be able to survive that depth and pressure, even though a bird of fire.

“C’mon,” I groaned as I focused. I focused my senses, all of them, as Miss Beak flew as fast as she could in search of her fleeing mother.

Squeezing the heart of her father, I grimaced as more and more time passed… and I realized we’d likely lost her.