Some explanations

According to my watch it was around eight pm. But that certainly wasn’t the local time, since it was bright daylight outside.

The battery charge was at 68%. I considered moving the Munchie outside, exposing the solar panels to the local sun, but decided against it. Nobody knew if or when the dragons would return.

Deep in thought I prepared my meal: brown rice with tofu and vegetables. Apparently I was in a potentially life threatening situation. First, there was the looming threat from the dragons, but I also didn’t know the least about the surrounding area. I had to assume that we were surrounded by vast wilderness with many miles until the next sign of civilization, since nobody came to the girl’s aid during or after the dragon attack. They also didn’t seem to expect any. Heck, I even cooked next to an active volcano crater!

I ate my meal on the ledge, where I’d found Al’Reeza unconscious, and looked fascinated into the pool of orange-red molten rock. It was highly active, with big black plates drifting on the blistering, molten interior, sometimes being swallowed by erratic, unforeseeable currents and whirls or destroyed by violent bubbles (bubbles from hell I called them). In other, more quiet parts, I could observe the slow, gradual crystallization process on the surface. That whole cycle reminded me of the big geological processes as they are known by today's science: The creation of tectonic plates at the oceanic ridges, and their destruction at subduction zones, where the material is being swallowed into the planet’s interior again. But what takes on earth many millions of years happened here in mere minutes to hours.

Even after I finished my meal, I still stayed and reflected on the fragility of life, clinging to existence on a thin film of crust over orange-red molten rock, that created and destroyed without any thought, just following the principles of physics.

Then I remembered that it would at least be polite, if I offered Illyána a bit to eat, as thanks for healing me after Al'Reeza's attack. So I took one pack of cookies out of my storage and went after her.

As previously stated, ‘my’ lava cave was near the top of a shield volcano, so I didn’t have to go very far before I spotted her. She sat on a lava boulder and looked concentrated around, but mainly in the direction from where the dragons had attacked. From the position of the low lying sun I assumed it was west. Of course I didn’t know if we were in the northern or the southern hemisphere. In the southern hemisphere it would be east.

When she caught sight of me she smiled and waved at me to join her.

“Hello!” she greeted me when I reached her, panting and wheezing, still adapting to the higher gravity. Even that small climb meant for me a quite serious workout!

“Hello!” I replied breathlessly and offered her some of the cookies. She didn’t know this kind of food of course and was highly appreciative of it (of course only after letting me eat the first cookie). And she did like them a lot!

“Thank you, they are most delicious!” she practically squealed after the first bite and offered me a seat next to her.

“Really tasty!”

Tired, I plopped down and she beamed overjoyed. In a matter of minutes we had destroyed the content of the box (of course I let her eat the lion’s share) and enjoyed the view. The main caldera was quiet, behind us just the lava lake rumored a little bit. The top, where we were, was barren, but further down some greenery started to cover the black rocks, then shrubs and finally trees. In between there were still barren areas from recent lava flows and secondary volcanic cones from flank eruptions. A big beautiful lake surrounded the shield volcano from nearly all sides. Only on our right there was a narrow connection to the main floor of the big caldera. I couldn’t even imagine what incredible forces were at work to create such a vast depression. Despite that, life came back and covered the bare rock with all kinds of plants and animals. I never got tired admiring this marvel!

“So,” I tried to start the conversation after a while. “May I ask what brings you here to this place?”

The beautiful ælven girl smiled sadly.

"That's a long story and I don’t know how much time we have. But I’ll try a comprehensive summary.”

She made a short pause to collect her thoughts.

“We are near the most northern part of Liyúra here.” she started slowly. “Around us is the vast frozen land of Skîbæria, a gigantic icemass that stretches for many thousands of miles and covers the whole northern part of the continent Eyruh.”

Another short pause to let the information sink in. But before I had a chance to ask, she already continued.

“This caldera here is part of a collection of similar calderas that trap the heat from Liyúras interior and harbor life. You can’t see it from here, but around us there is nothing else than a seemingly endless ice covered wasteland, except for some few shattered oases like this one. But as far as we know, they only occur here, in the northernmost part of Skîbæria.”

Another pause. I didn’t dare to interrupt.

“These oases are the home of the flying sky dragons you saw earlier.” she continued. “They feed on rocks and minerals, preferably basaltic rock which is rich in manærite, the mineral that stores mana, the basis of every magical doing. But they are also dependent on plants and animals. They are omnivores in the truest sense.”

Again she paused and looked solemnly over the beautiful, untouched land before us.

“These dragons are the only animals that regularly cover the vast distances of the skîbæriaen icesheet.” she went on. “They are highly intelligent but can’t be tamed as far as we know. They also occur in the Askæliaen Mountains, a giant mountain range that divides Skîbæria from the Tóràya, a vast wilderness consisting of endless grass plains, woods, forests, lakes and rivers. The sky dragons share this part of their habitat with the earth dragons, giant beasts with the same diet (rocks, plants and animals) but no ability to fly or to breathe fire.”

The ælf seemed to remember something, but shook her head and continued.

“In Tóràbun, the northernmost kingdom of humans, near the southern border of the Tóràya, it was noticed in recent years that the earth dragons were moving more and more south, and with them other dangerous beasts from the wild, giant bears, dire wolves, woolefants, giant boars, aurochs and many more. With them came orucs, wilderlings and giants. They trampled crops, fields and farms in northern Tóràbun, devoured stored food and laid waste to cultivated lands. The military barely kept up with the onslaught, so the king turned to the adventurers guild for help. And that’s where we come into play.”

This time she looked directly at me before continuing.

“Our group was one of the largest adventurer groups ever dispatched, the legendary hero Dúran Scimitos our main leader, who has single handedly slain an earth dragon during the siege of Mouran.”

These names of course meant nothing to me. Illyára continued.

“We split into separate smaller groups and examined major parts of the Tóràya and the Askæliaen Mountains. We found that the number of sky dragons in the mountains had dramatically increased. They drove the earth dragons south, and the earth dragons in turn other beasts. It is like a chain reaction, and at the end lies the kingdom of Tóràbun and the other lands of humans. If this were to continue, that was clear, the human kingdoms in the Midlands would crumble and fall, with endless suffering and pain. We couldn’t let that happen.”

Again, a sombre pause.

“There were two major theories why the sky dragons had increased so much. First: they multiplied because of unknown reasons farther north, or second: something else, something unknown was driving them south. In any case, we had to look for ourselves and enter the icelands of Skîbæria. That’s why we are here.”

Another pause, where I finally dared to ask a question.

“Did you find the cause of this mass migration?”

She shook her head.

“No. When we traveled north, the dragons started attacking, but as a big group we easily drove them off. But it was exhausting, so we cloaked ourselves with magic. Unfortunately these beasts are good at detecting even tiny amounts of mana being used. So we split up, because a smaller group needs less amounts of energy to cloak itself. But still the dragons outsmarted us. When we arrived here at this place,” she pointed to the left, “they ambushed us and specifically targeted Al’Reeza, our strongest magician, and took her out in a surprise attack. Their next target was our iceboat which they destroyed thoroughly and completely. Without Reeza and without any communication to call for help our forces dwindled quickly, our strength drained and my friends died one after another. We were also nearly done for, when Reeza came out of nowhere back and drove them off.”

“I’m sorry.” I managed, but in view of this tragedy it felt lame to my ears.

“Don’t be,” she smiled. “Without your help Reeza wouldn’t have recovered so quickly and we would’ve all died.”

“I didn’t do much,” I admitted. “I just gave her a bandage and some water.”

“As small as it seems, apparently it made a crucial difference.” she said. “Maybe the water had specific healing properties for her, maybe she really just needed a small helping touch.”

Again she smiled but got serious very quickly.

“Now we have to make sure to leave this place as soon as possible, survive the journey back over the ice and report our findings in Tóràbun.”

She stood up and peered intently to the west.

“You should take cover.” she said calmly. “They are coming!”