The Volcano's Neighbour
Laiera traveled across the vast plains, shrouded woods, and green hills of the
Neopian countryside. Laiera had never traveled this far before and appreciated
the nature around her. She stood for a moment, watching some Meekins playing
in the bushes, thinking of how they were not unlike the Mongmongs which were
near her home. Home! Laiera quickly went back to traveling as she ached at the
thought.
After the eighth day of travel, Laiera saw mountains in the distant horizon.
They all looked perfectly normal, apart from extreme steepness and height. But
at night a small wisp of smoke would curl up from one of them, singling it out.
According to what Laiera could divine from the stone, that was the volcano of
Fuhnah.
On the eleventh night since the encounter with the Acara, Laiera could see
the volcano well. It would only be about a day until she would approach its
foot. It was time that she would make a plan to get to its lowest vent, at about
six thousand feet up. With the daunting task ahead, Laiera prepared a camp on
a nice hilltop.
It was the eleventh morning when the sun shining in her tent woke Laiera up.
Drowsily she got up and ate her breakfast (traveling food is never good). Throughout
the time no revelations on how exactly to get to the fires fell upon Laiera's
head.
After about half an hour she decided her best option was to 'call the local
powers'. The Wockess pulled out her wands. First she made and 'x' with her gold
wand to exclude all entities pertaining to fire. She did not want to alarm Fuhnah.
Laiera decided to use the silver wand for the rest of the formation. It would
mean that she was more likely to summon earth or life beings, but the most powerful
thing of any type, except fire, would answer.
Two hours later Laiera looked down with pride at her complex star which was
glowing white. It would be about ten minutes before anything would happen if
a weaker magical force was going to respond, but it could be as long as an hour
if it was something really powerful. On the flip side, if there was the tiniest
of mistakes, the spell was a wasted effort.
For fifteen minutes Laiera sat around, waiting casually. With no activity
she became more apprehensive. She viewed her star to search for flaws. As the
sun changed its position Laiera studied her star more and more frantically.
For a while she could see nothing wrong. Then subtle things began to seem not
so subtle. When the sun reached its apex in the sky Laiera saw mistakes popping
up all over. This was terrible, she thought, I'll never get anything
at this rate!
Laiera was aroused from her dread by a sudden change in the wind. It seemed
to swirling around her more and more. With each revolution Laiera got dizzier
and dizzier. Laiera began to think that the wind was forming clumps.
"Great," Laiera groaned to herself. "I'm seeing things."
Those clumps did not remove themselves from Laiera's sight, even with that
comment. They swirled more and more and more. Gradually, it formed a tangible
shape.
"Let me guess," the Air Faerie said, "you are on some kind of adventure to
get the fires of Fuhnah."
"Tis so." Laiera instantly assumed a business-like manner. "Are you a friend
or enemy of Fuhnah?"
"I call our relationship 'neighbours who mind their own business'."
Laiera frowned. "Is there any thing that you would be willing to do for me
to help, or is their any way I could convince you?"
"I said that we mind our own business." The faerie got a bit nastier. "By
the way, I can tell you that I don't care for Neopians who try to get the fires
just so they can slay great monsters. All things must perish, but to deliberately
do it..." The Air Faerie shook her head. "Killing is what I loathe above all
things. Especially in quantity and heartlessness."
"I only destroy to eat and to defend," Laiera replied.
The faerie would have probably spat if it could. Then faerie's eye caught
on something.
"You have a seer's stone," she remarked, looking straight at Laiera's hand.
She was referring to what the Wockess had won from the Acara The faerie looked
at it desirously.
"I didn't know it was called that," Laiera replied politely. "I had just been
told barely enough for me to find it."
"Seer stones can be quite handy in the right situations, and certainly worth
the trouble of giving you a little, erm, aid."
The rock offered no further guidance since she had reached the hill, but Laiera
had a sinking feeling it still had some purpose.
"I would take you up to the best entrance to the chamber of the fires, and
would maybe add a few bits of advice as freebies, hm?"
Laiera hesitated. She always felt a rushed bargain was a bad one.
"Do you accept or not? I don't have all day!"
Laiera's eyes met the faerie's for a moment. With reluctance, the Wockess
handed over the seer's stone, wondering if she had done the right thing.
To be continued... | 
