“Eugh, it’s a lot more humid in here than I expected,” Rainbow Dash said as she and the others trudged along the jungle path.
“It is a jungle after all,” Daylight Gleam said.
“Yeah but the temperature and weather around the rest of the island didn’t make it seem like it would be this way.”
“I agree with Rainbow Dash… this humidity is making me far too sweaty,” Gilbert said as he wiped away some of that sweat from his brow.
“I’m used to way worse but I was kind of hoping it would be more of a dry heat here,” Rainbow said.
“It’s just going to get plain hotter the closer we get to the volcano,” Breakwater said. “I think the smoke over the island might have something to do with the weather as well.”
Rainbow Dash nodded. “Yeah, it boxes in the heat. But I still wasn’t expecting it to be so wet you know?”
“The smoke being so thick over the island-” Gilbert said as he grimaced up at the smoke clouds covering much of the sky. “That’s not a sign that the volcano may actually be erupting soon, is it?”
“Naw, not really,” Rainbow Dash shook her head. “If like, ash was regularly falling I’d say we have a problem. But just smoke coming up from a volcano? Doesn’t mean anything. Least as far as Equestrian and Dragon Land volcanoes are concerned, and I’ve seen a few.”
“Mmm...” Gilbert hummed noncommittally, stroking his chin.
“If the volcano was about to erupt it would explain why the island’s so… empty. The scientists probably had a way of figuring out what was going to happen before it’s did, that’s probably what some of their machinery was for. And the animals could probably just sense it was going to happen and fled too,” Breakwater said.
“But if the Necklace is here we can’t leave. In fact that’s even more reason to be here now. If the volcano erupted the Necklace would be lost forever,” Daylight said.
Rainbow Dash glanced over at Senax, seeing a look of anxious worry on the merpony’s face. That was a mare who wore her emotions for everyone to see. “You okay with all this, Senax?”
“Huh?” Senax seemed surprised to be spoken to. “Y-Yes. I’m sure there’s nothing to be worried about. We’ll all be fine… we’ve always been fine.”
Rainbow Dash was worried for her, she seemed to be trying to convince herself of that more than anyone else. But that wasn’t to say she disagreed. Rainbow grinned and walked over to Senax, patting her back. “That’s right. We’ve got this.”
“I bet you wish you could fly ahead to make this trip faster...” Daylight said.
“Well, yeah,” Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “But then it would just be me and Gilbert sitting at that temple waiting for the rest of you to get there. Not like we even know where exactly it is at the volcano either.”
“Could carry us,” Breakwater grinned.
“You and Daylight are too heavy.”
“Pff!” Daylight snorted and shook her head.
“If only there were at least some ponies to talk to along the way, or perhaps some other ruins from the old civilization to see,” Gilbert said.
Rainbow Dash looked around at the road they were traveling down and the jungle that surrounded it. Unlike the road from the ocean to the small “village” they had gone down earlier, this one leading in the direction of the volcano wasn’t taken care of nearly as well. Ponies probably hadn’t traveled down it as much lately. There were roots and vines growing across it, grass and other weeds pushing up through the dirt. It was slowly becoming reclaimed by nature. And if the scientists and archaeologists or whoever never came back, Rainbow imagined it would look indistinct from the rest of the jungle within the year.
“Maybe there are. We still don’t know everything about this place,” Daylight shrugged.
“I wouldn’t even complain so much about how long it’s taking us to get to the volcano if it wasn’t for all this sweat...” Rainbow Dash grumbled.
“Can’t exactly run and tire ourselves out. The food and water we got from the outpost was just enough to tide us over for the day,” Daylight said.
“We’re technically not in a hurry anyways, since the volcano is definitely not going to erupt. Right?” Gilbert asked.
“Right,” Rainbow nodded.
“And my brother might not even be able to get here.”
“Double right.” Rainbow Dash grinned. “And even if something bad did happen then I could totally show off my awesome chops some more. I’d carry you guys then, except for Daylight since she’d still weigh too much, and bring you all to safety.”
As Daylight glared at her, Senax let out a muffled chuckle of amusement and briefly smiled again for the first time in a while. That was more than worth the glares.
Rainbow Dash stuck her tongue out at Daylight and walked ahead of the group before flapping her wings and taking to the sky again. Just staying low and within talking distance, she merely wanted to enjoy the sensation of flight for the moment. The trees of the jungle were pretty wild, all growing over each other, but the jungle itself was kind of a bore right now without any colorful birds or other animals living here. She didn’t see anything particularly interesting. No old ruins or other settlements on this part of the island like Gilbert hoped they could come across.
She turned her eyes to the smoking volcano in the distance instead. The good news was they had made it more than halfway there already. The bad news was she still had kind of a cold feeling in her gut the more she looked at it and the smoke rising from its peak. But there hadn’t been any other, more direct, signs of the volcano erupting anytime soon. No earthquakes, no lava flow, nothing. She wasn’t a volcano expert but she still knew enough about them—as far as disasters go they were kind of the coolest to learn about. Not that she’d want to be around one, or didn’t feel bad for the ponies that had to deal with them, but a volcanic eruption was just plain cool compared to something like a hurricane, blizzard, or earthquake.
At this distance she couldn’t tell if there actually was a temple built up on the side of that volcano. Didn’t look like it. But it could’ve been on the other side or perhaps located at the foot of the volcano instead. There definitely had to be something if ponies kept coming to the island in search of treasure… and for some of those seekers to not return.
Rainbow Dash flapped her gums and looked down at Breakwater. “Yo, Captain? You ever hear anything about why so many who came here never came back? The temple booby-trapped or something? Cause I’d figure that the archaeologists here would know something about that.”
“Not really—it’s just not the kind of news I really keep up with,” Breakwater said to her. “But if I was guessing then yeah I’d say there’s probably something up with the temple that supposedly has the treasure we’re looking for inside it.”
“Well I’ve read enough Daring Do books—and been on enough adventures with her—to know how this is going to turn out,” Rainbow said to herself as she stared at the volcano again.
The sheer quiet of the jungle was starting to get to her, to all of them, the more they traveled through it. It just wasn’t right for a place like this. The looming volcano grew larger and more oppressive with every step and flap of the wings they all took towards it. The one decent thing they had going for them right now was the road being pretty straight and not taking them on a bunch of winding turns again like it had before. As Rainbow Dash had nothing to gain from paying attention to the quiet jungle, she looked ahead down the road and with her higher altitude she saw something coming up before anybody else did.
She shrilly whistled to the others and grinned down at them. “Hey, got a fork in the road coming up, and there’s some sign planted there, let’s see what’s up!” She then shot towards the sign and left the others to follow her.
Daylight Gleam shrugged at Senax and briskly picked up the pace. “Is a sign really a big deal?”
“It could just be directions… or perhaps it has something to say about why the island is abandoned,” Gilbert said.
“Regardless, we should check it out,” Breakwater said.
The other four all walked together and shortly came to the fork in the road and the sign that Rainbow had first seen and was now hovering in front of. When Rainbow heard them walking up she waved them over to her.
“Meh, not as interesting as I was hoping but you guys might still want to look at it,” Rainbow said.
It did turn out to just be a directional sign. On the left side of the signboard was an arrow pointing down that jungle road with “North Harbor” written below it. On the right side was the same but with “Volcano” written below. Directions as simple and straightforward as they could possibly be.
“I guess we know for sure where we’re going then,” Daylight Gleam said and turned to start walking down the right road.
“Hold on,” Rainbow said and grabbed her by the shoulder. “I was thinking that too but the whole North Harbor thing made me stop and think about something else.”
“About what?” Breakwater asked.
“Well… if there’s a harbor there then there has to be a village or something like the other one we walked through. What if the ponies that live there are still there? Maybe we could get some answers for why the island seems abandoned. Or even just get some more food and water if nobody is there,” Rainbow said. “It can’t be that out of the way, the island’s big but it’s not huge or anything.”
“I didn’t think you’d suggest doing something that drags us astray,” Daylight said.
Rainbow shrugged. “I’m just putting it out there cause I thought you guys might want to do that. I’m totally fine with going straight to the volcano.”
“I suppose the real question is do we actually expect to find anyone at that harbor?” Gilbert put forth.
“And do we want to take up anymore time here than we absolutely need to,” Breakwater said.
“No.”
The other four all looked at Senax—who had her eyes firmly staring down the road to the volcano.
“The answer to both those questions is no. We should stick on our path to the volcano and find the treasure that’s here as quickly as possible.”
“You’re the boss,” Rainbow nodded and darted over to the volcano road. “I’ll lead the way again.”
Senax quickly followed her despite the worried looks the others were giving her and the sign was left behind by the party. By Rainbow Dash’s estimate, the volcano should be less than an hour’s march ahead at this rate. Thankfully it was in the middle of the island and not at the complete opposite side from where they landed, otherwise they would’ve probably had to stop for a bit.
Rainbow Dash idly thought though that if it erupted the entire island would be covered in lava instead of just one side. If that actually happened absolutely nowhere would be safe.
She briefly glanced behind her as she flew ahead, discreetly looking at Senax for just a moment before facing ahead again. Like the others, the merpony’s attitude was kind of worrying her. She didn’t know why Senax had gotten so much blunter, and seemingly anxious and impatient. It didn’t fit the positive, friendly, mare she knew. It couldn’t just be stress from the strange situation on the island since she had always been supportive and strong in the face of danger previously. But Rainbow Dash felt she just had to let the merpony be for now. If there was something bothering her then Senax needed to deal with it herself and speak up on her own terms.
“At least things are colorful here,” Gilbert said as he walked down the road, his face turned to the jungle bordering the road. “The jungle has plenty of blooming flowers and rather beautiful plants inside it.”
“It’s not as tropical of a spot as the Sea Lion Reefs but yeah, it’s nicer looking than most of the Hundred Kingdoms at least,” Daylight said.
“There’s the Isle of Flowers just off the coast of Winderbadon, if we didn’t have so much else to do I’d take you there. Most ponies will tell you it’s the most beautiful place on the Grand Ocean,” Breakwater said.
“Isle of Flowers sounds a little… girly for my tastes anyways,” Rainbow Dash said from above.
“Someone’s insecure,” Daylight grinned at her.
“Hey, I just know what I like and what I don’t like,” Rainbow shrugged.
“As for me I’m always interested in seeing something new,” Gilbert said with a happy smile. He looked over to Senax. “What about you, Senax? Would you be interested in visiting the Isle of Flowers? If we had the time of course.”
“It...” Senax bit her lip and looked up at the looming volcano. “It sounds like it would be a nice place to see, yes...”
“Splendid! Perhaps once all this business with finding Merlantis is done, we can take a vacation there to celebrate!”
“You guys can,” Rainbow rolled her eyes.
“Ah—right—you wouldn’t be with us anymore at that point,” Gilbert nodded.
“No—that’s not what I, ugh, you know what? Yeah. That’s why.”
“By the way, have you seen anything interesting from up there, Rainbow Dash?” Gilbert asked. “Anything besides just jungle and treetops as far as the eye can see?”
Rainbow Dash snorted. “There are some hills around us. But there’s nothing like another town or ruins, or, like, literally anything. Maybe if I went higher I could see something but I don’t want us split up like that. I guess the ancient civilization that used to live here was pretty small cause I can’t imagine there ever being too many buildings on this island. There’s no way I wouldn’t see something by now.”
“It’s possible they only lived around the volcano and other mountains,” Daylight said, raising an eyebrow at Breakwater.
The Captain shrugged. “Don’t look at me. I’m not an expert.”
“Well then maybe we’ll see some old structures when we get out of this jungle and reach the volcano. Besides just the temple,” Gilbert said.
“Maybe. Not like we’re here to sight-see or uncover the mysteries of some old civilization though,” Rainbow said. “We oughta stay focused or something, right, Senax?”
Senax just minutely nodded and kept her eyes on the road. “Right. To find the Necklace, that’s what we’re here for.”
“And I won’t let anything slow us down,” Rainbow grinned.