Meera makes her way slowly into the volcanoe. Her steps are placed with the cautiousness that lava lay all around her. She lifted her head and leaned over a little to the side to peer down at the bubbling hot red liquid. She leaned back again and continued. She searched for a stone, a lava stone to heal her. She stared down at the horrible burn marks that circled her arm. A dragon breathed its hot flame and burnt her arm. Meera could not see how a lava stone itself would help heal her. But she trusted the old healer in her village. She took one last look at the burn on her arm but that was a huge mistake. She stepped on a stone and lost the precious balance that kept her out of the lava. she fell and at the last second her hands grabbed the edge as she hung on for her life.

Master Ace had just finished pulverising a horge of goblins. If they were smarter the might have been able hurt him. His pants were a little burnt but there was no real damage. He had to travel without his over-sized robe. It always got in the way. He didn't intend on meeting too many people on his journey any ways. His eyes were crisom red and his hair was scarlet. His scales had a ruby red shine. His wings were at a length that he could actually fly with and his tail was about two feet long. He walked casualy down the paths of the Volcano. As he turned a corner he noticed Meera hanging for her life. She wasn't too far away. He teleport by her and be gan to hover. "I are you trying to burn yourself alive?" he asked as he reached out to grab her.

Meera's hands began to sweat from the heat. She replied "no" and reached her hand to grab his and pull herself up. Pushed her feet on the side of the wall and used it to push herself up. Her foot slipped but she still held herself up. She looked up at the person who had just rescued her. "who are you?" she asked.

'Meera!' Selena shouted as loud as she could. She got to her feet and hurried up the steep, rocky path through the mountains. As she reached her friend she leaned over to her, sweat pouring down her hot, tired body. 'Are you okay? I lost you for a moment there...'

Meera said "yeah I'm fine now that this guy saved me" She leaned over with her hands on her knees breathing heavily. She said "I just saw my whole life flash before my eyes. I was so scared." She whiped some sweat off of her face with the back of her hand and contined panting as she stood up.

Master Ace flew over to them. "I am Master Ace. I'm here for my own reasons, but what are you doing her. Your not handling this kind of heat well. If you go much futher you'll be cooked well done. What on earth are you doing here?" Master Ace yelled. "I'm sorry, the heat has its effect on me as well, even if it is less harmful to myself. It just seems that one with no special protection should be traveling this close to molten lava. It seems like a complete waste of life," He said after cooling himself down. He landed and twitched his tail about anxiously.

Meera said "i look for the lava stone to heal my burn" and she pulled up her sleeve to reveal the horrible burn marks surrounding her arm. It was turning a brighter red every day. She said "the heat does bother me but if i do not get the stone, the poison of this special fire will kill me."

Selena nodded. 'Yes, Ace, we really have to do something about Meera's burn. Otherwise... It will be fatal...' She sighed. 'As a fire diviner I know the dark powers of the green flame and I also know that without the stone we are hopeless. We need it.' She looked at her antique watch that hung from a chain that was attached her belt. 'We only have two more days to seccure it. If we don't find it in time the poison will spread through her entire body, attaching itself to all her insides, humbling her. Hurting her... Killing her...' She helped Meera up. 'I don't suppose you know where we can find this lava rock? It is also called the Eye of the Cobra and it is a red stone, glowing like a million flaming stars.'

Meera nodded at every single fact that Selena noted. She said when she was done "exactly what she said" and smiled at her friend. She took another glance down at the burn. It was too horrible to remember how she had gotten it.

"Well I suppose Selene has spells to keep the heat from cooking you alive. I don't know of this lava rock, but I suppose it will be much deepr in Therab. Since we are both headed the same way and what I am here to do can wait, I'll help you look for a lava rock. I might be of some use, but I must give a little forewarning. as you just saw, my temper seems to grow shorter as I go deeper into Therab. I totally lost it on the last bunch of goblins. Hopefully things don't get too much worse. Well, Let's not dawddle around with idle chit chat. Let's get movin'," Master Ace said as he streched his wings and wiggled his around tail anxiously.

Meera smiled as he said that he would go with them. She says "great then lets get moving. And by the way, if you turn on us, we can handle you" and gets in a fake Karate position then stands back up laughing. She mutters "I sure hope so" and frowns slightly. She then starts walking and says "Let's get this show on the road!"

A grin appeared on Selena's face as she heard Meera say that. 'Yes...let's...,' she slowly spoke, getting to her feet. She looked up at Ace. 'So, what direction are we going anyway? All we know is the name of the stone and what it looks like and this it can be found in this area. No specific location at all. Can you help us out there too perhaps?'

"I have been making my way deeper into Therab slowly today. This is my first visit so I don't know what's ahead of us as we get deeper. I am sure I didn't see anything that loooked like the lava rock as I came down, but by what I've heard it sounds like something that might be in the hands of goblins. They like shiny objects. My guess is that it is either in a den full of goblins or it is much deeper in Therab," Master Ace said as he wondered where the lava rock might be.
"We can go deeper and see if we can find it there or we can go back the way I came and inspect some goblin dens," Master Ace said pointing respectively in the two directions.

Meera says "well I say we go a little further into the volcanoe and if we don't find it we can always come back and search the goblin dens. And if we get tired we can always take turns riding Enzo" and she pats her fire pegasus." She winces as the pat sends a jolt of pain through her arm. She starts to breathe heavily and sweat wildly. She leans over for a while then gets back up and says "the poison's getting to me"

"Well, if that's the case then let's get a move on. You and Selene can take turns on Enzo, I can handle myself well on my own feet. I think it would be best if you were were to stay on Enzo though." Master Ace replied as he began walking. "I hope we can find this stone in time," Master Ace thought to himself.

Meera replied "no I think i'm fine right now and I wouldn't want Enzo to get tired of carrying us if we were to really need it sometime" then takes a deep breath of the hot, sticky, smoky air. She coughs a little then starts walking forwards.

Selena followed Meera. 'You know, you can always count on me if you need someone to lean on. I'd never forgive myself if you collapse on the spot. That'd be terrible.' She cursed. 'If only I'd bought that spellbook that witch in the elven town were we came from had offered me. Then I'd now be able to perform the cleanse spell and rid you of that terrible poison. Even if we would have needed to repeat that a couple of times, there would have been of great chance of success... If only I'd bought that spellbook. How very foolish of me!'

Meera smiled at her friend she was happy to have such a good of friend as she had in Selena she continued walking and said " I have learned a clense spell but I am afraid to use it because my teacher warned me that it does not come without a price"

Selena couldn't feel more guilty as Meera said that. 'And if I wouldn't have been so preoccupied with my whole new vampire life that I suddenly discovered and that whole animal instinct I had going on, I'd have spend more time with you and you would have been fire resistant for weeks adn then the harm the clensing flames would bestow upon you would have no negative effect at all...' She shook her head. 'Tell me, Meera, what kind of friend am I?' Not a good one, that's for sure. This is really all your fault, Selena. You shouldn't have let this come so far...

"How did you get poison from a burn?" Master Ace asked as they walked deeper into the volcano. He had been thinking it over for some time, but the whole thing didn't make any sense. He knew a bit about magical beast and magical ailments, but had never heard of anything that could burn and cause poison. "I understand that you may wish to keep that knowledge to yourself and will respect your thoughts if that is the case," Master Ace said as he looked towards her.

Meera replied to Selena first she said "You are a great friend, and i would not understand how you could doubt yourself in that way" and slung in arm around her as she smiled at her. Then she answered Master Ace, shuddering at that terrible day, she said "I was visiting a friend in the mountains and suddenly, for no reason, a dragon lumbered towards me. I had no where to run, being on the mountain, and just stood there. I had never seen this sort of dragon before, but when it burned me I knew that I would alway remeber this sort of dangerous dragon."

"A dragon whose flaming breath poisons and burns... interesting," Master Ace said quietly as they walked. Master Ace quickly ran his mind through his vast knowledge of dragons, but still could not think of a dragon that had such a breath. "Do you remember what the dragon looked like?" Master Ace asked hoping to find pieces needed to solve the puzzle which was now riddling his mind.