Facing almost certain doom!

Of course there was no way to predict how the eruption before us would develop. Chances were low that the fissure would expand into a dangerous direction for us. And even then, the ice cover would (for some time at least) protect everything above from the worst below, because it wouldn’t evaporate instantly. There was a time buffer that would allow Reeza and Yára to react and take protective action.

That's at least what they were counting on. In the worst case scenario. So I didn't know what they possibly thought when they saw us actually driving backwards into the direction where we’ve come from.

But Lily and I were in agreement that we’d first need to put some distance between us and the spewing, fiery behemoth in front of us. She because her instinct told her so, and I because I feared unexpected steam explosions fracturing the ice cover and swallowing us as a whole.

Unfortunately it came even worse! We hadn’t driven even for a whole minute when suddenly a severe ice quake hit us, rocking the Munchie violently back and forth.

We stopped immediately and jumped out of the velomobile. Nothing is more dangerous than becoming trapped in a vehicle that may fall into a crack or a ravine. And indeed, huge cracks were radiating outward from the giant sink, fortunately not directly targeting us, but boy, where they awfully close!

The real nightmare hit me when I looked back toward the crater and saw the ‘Ice Wallow' becoming swallowed as a whole from an incredibly powerful steam explosion, whose shockwave flung me back against the side of the Munchie. An instant later a deafening, almighty, terribly violent thunder rolled over us, flattening me to the ground.

More steam explosions fractured the ice, breaking up a line that roughly stretched across the route we’d intended to take and building a giant curtain of ash and violently upward exploding steam. The ice shield groaned and fractured more and more, slowly sinking in towards the epicenter of the new eruption fault.

Lily jumped at me, screaming and motioning frantically towards the Munchie. I didn’t understand a single word, hearing everything muffled like through thick cloth, but I understood: We had to get out of here! Not long and we would be swallowed too, like the ‘Ice Wallow' and our friends…

We jumped into our vehicle and started moving, but it was already too late. A fresh crack trapped the forward wheels, rendering us immobile. Lily jumped out again and pulled the Munchie in an unbelievable display of strength out of it.

“Move! Move!” she roared at me on top of her lungs and this time I actually heard her. She stayed out in the open and kept scouting the best route for me, while I slowly and carefully drove behind her. Unfortunately, as I said, it was already too late. A multitude of cracks had the Munchie trapped, not too big to jump over them, but certainly too wide to drive over them. Already I thought to feel the back sinking ever so slightly, but at that moment two figures landed not far away in a crouched stance as if dropped straight from the sky.

‘Superhero landing!’ my inner nerd screamed, but I just stared in disbelief at Yára and Reeza, having pulled off the unbelievable, surviving the unsurvivable, a goddamned volcano eruption directly underneath their feet!

Their clothing of course was largely destroyed, scrapped off, burned off by the incredible power of the explosion, but somehow they’d managed to shield the worst off their bodies. Yes, they were badly burned and scorched, but they held themselves upright and proud.

I felt my Munchie moving, gently lifting up into the air and cruising towards the two girls. The tires made ground contact again and Yára and Reeza tumbled into the vehicle, the last of their energy spent. Lily managed to catch up on her own and took the seat next to me, as usual. She cast an angry look at the two magics in the back but bit back a harsh remark.

“Now move!”

She didn’t need to tell me! The fissure was still growing and the black and white curtain from ash and steam now reached high and far enough to block the afternoon sun. Fortunately the wind was still in our favor and blew the billowing clouds away from us.

I set the electric assist to the highest level - what I hadn’t done in a long while (nobody protested) - and Lily and I pedaled away to safer ground. Behind us the ice gave way steadily, cracking, bending and sinking towards the fissure, feeding with its meltwater the uninterrupted steam explosions that hurt our ears. Thankfully no explosion was as big as the first one anymore. I suspected it’d been especially vicious, because it was the one that blasted off the ice cover.

When you know, in what direction the fault line approximately runs, it's not so difficult to avoid it. Now at least it was clear how it stretched from northwest to southeast, growing in length and power.

“When it follows the same mechanism as the eruptions on Iceland it should reach its final length in a few hours, pardon candles, and start to shrink about tomorrow.”

“Is Iceland your home?” Lily grumbled.

“No, Iceland is the country I was travelling to when I got summoned here, have you forgotten?”

Something unintelligible was the answer.

We were in a dire situation now. Most of our supplies had been on the ‘Ice Wallow’, now splintered and blasted to smithereens and burned to the crisp. Thankfully I hadn’t moved my own supplies and still had enough to eat, also my dishes, kitchenware and so on. Sadly my soap had been on the ‘Ice Wallow’, same as my towels and some of my clothes. There were still a few left but Yára and Reeza would need some of them - if they could stretch them a little bit (remember: both were taller than me).

Of course I felt conflicted right now about these two. On the one hand I was incredibly grateful they had survived, on the other hand I was seething, thinking about their stubbornness. Granted, there was a lot of bad luck involved (what are the odds of an eruption directly beneath your feet?!), but still…

For the time being we drove as fast as the conditions allowed to get as much distance as possible between us and the raging fissure that was still growing and expanding, howling, thundering and spewing ashes, rocks, boulders and clouds up high up into the air.

I shuddered at the thought of what would’ve happened if I’d stayed with my Munchie on board of the ‘Ice Wallow’. Could we all have survived like now? Or would the timing have been slightly off and we’d had luck? I just knew: If Lily had agreed with Yára and Reeza, I surely would’ve stayed on board. With all the dire consequences...