//------------------------------// // 4: It's Dangerous To Go Alone // Story: Volcanic // by Uberdeathninja //------------------------------// Andrew's PoV I panted hard as I finally stopped running, despite my lack of lungs and need for breath, and it came out sounding just as horrifying as it always had since I got here. But at last, I was done running. I was so far away from that wretched place, they would never start looking for me here. The mountains loomed above me as I looked around to figure out where I was, and after a while, I didn't care. I was in a caldera, in a mountain range, in the ass-end of nowhere. Finally hidden and safe from anything this world could throw at me, I sat down at long last, and remained silent as tiredness crept over me for the first time since I arrived in this hellish land. It was so hot... and I ran for almost the whole day, non-stop, trying to escape from colorful, angry, foot-tall ponies that were trying to kill me for some reason. I wondered, suddenly, if they were really small, or if I was giant, being the Smelter demon and all? Well, I suppose it doesn't matter now. At last, I was safe. Tired, lonely, and scared witless, but safe. Finally, after I had gathered my fevered thoughts together, I looked around once more, and took in my surroundings, my new home, as far as I was concerned. If this is where all those other cosplayers go, then I was going to have to get used to this place, seeing as I had yet to hear of a single one ever returning, save one fellow, some kid named Chris, and he disappeared again just after reappearing and spouting something about being a god or something. So, seeing as I am a reasonable teenager, one of very, very few in my own world, I guessed that I'll just have to live with this. After all, it's not so bad. I don't need to breath, I'm never cold, and I probably don't need to eat, seeing as I don't... "Grrrrmblmblrumble..." ...On second thought, it seems that even the mighty Smelter Demon needs to eat, seeing as my belly-flames just growled at me. "Ugh, can't it wait, belly-flames? I'm trying to hide from homicidal ponies here." I try to reason with my disgruntled 'stomach', but another sharp, deep growl let's me know just what my flames thought of my well-being: "GRRRRRRUUUUUUUURRRRRRRRMBLE...!!!" My flames growled again, their guttural way of saying 'We care not for your little agonies, mortal, now feed us!'. So, with a great, echoing sigh, I finally got up, causing a loud, resounding, metallic groan to echo throughout the caldera, and I began to look around for, well, I didn't know. I didn't know what Smelter Demons ate, maybe rocks? Metal? Lumber? So, having no idea what to do, or what I was looking for, I began to look around for something that caught my eye, assuming I had any, and soon managed to crawl my way out of the caldera, looking over the scenic landscape of the land before me. "Well... guess I have to go back out there, or I'm going to die. Fuck my life." I mentally groaned, and I set out of the mountain range, but quickly stopped once I was past the caldera's rim: I wasn't setting foot out there without a way to defend myself. So, realizing my folly, I quickly slammed my palm into my face, and looked back at the caldera, and began to think, despite the insistent growlings of my stomach-flames. A caldera used to be a volcano, and I know that this was a caldera, though I can't quite place how I knew in the first place. Smelter-senses, perhaps? Anyway, as soon as I climbed back into the massive crater, I realized something quickly, noting the gasses coming from the fissures in the rock around me: This place was still active. "Hah... how convenient. But how to get it to yield its liquid metal..." I thought intensely on the problem before me, and soon came up with a viable solution, one that seemed outlandish, but was just as viable as any other option at this point. Lifting one foot off the ground, I then braced myself, and thrust it into the stone ground below me, focusing all my willpower into that one, seismic stomp, and sure enough, I felt the ground below me quake and shudder, booming loudly as gas exploded outward from the already-present fissures, sending chunks of stone outward and upward, and despite my preparedness of anything that was to happen, I jumped and yelped, startled by what I had done. However, soon, the earth calmed down, and everything quickly fell silent again, save for the hissing of the steam and gas vents and the wind as it blew over the massive, forlorn crater. So, I soon calmed down as well, but seeing no further reaction from the inert volcano, I then decided to go one more round, before just turning around and finding something to eat by myself. So, bracing myself once more, I raised my massive, armored boot once more, and focused my willpower once more, and prepared to stomp down one more time. "Alright... here goes..." I thought, preparing myself physically and mentally, and with a loud, angry roar, I brought my foot down on the stone earth below me one last time... and nearly fell over at the suddenness of the crater's reaction, at the stony ground as it cracked and shook violently beneath my feet, and I quickly fell flat on my ass as the ground churned and heaved up, explosions sounding as gas erupted from their crevasses, and fiery, glowing liquids spewed from the cracks in the ground, setting the gasses alight and swathing the whole caldera in flame. Finally, in a last, superior, earth-shaking tantrum, the whole ground below me exploded outward and upward, though I was not thrown anywhere, and was instead engulfed in the lava as it flooded the massive crater, and spilled out over the rim, flowing like glowing, deadly water into the rocky, barren valley below, incinerating any shrubbery in the way, and creating whole rivers of lava as I clung to the rim of the caldera after just breaking the lava's surface. So, I can swim in lava now... cool. However, I had no time to celebrate my survival at the center of a volcanic eruption, for soon, my relief was struck down by overwhelming dread as I began to realize what I had done. "Oh... oh, they'll see this eruption, won't they..?" I thought, and soon, I realized that, inevitably, the ponies would know of this, and follow me here in their hunt to end me where I stood. But, on the other hand, my hunger seemed to have vanished into thin air, as if fed by the sheer destruction caused by just whatever just what I had wrought by prematurely activating the volcano... or the burning shrubs, either one worked. "So... I feed on destruction... God, this is just a swell thing to discover about one's self." I mentally sighed, not seeing any way to make peace with the ponies now that all the evidence has stacked to me being a monster that feeds on burning stuff. But still, nonetheless, I crawl out of the lava, will to survive still burning within me, and I get out of the pool, and quickly realize that I'm holding something I don't remember holding before. So, as soon as I get out of the lava lake, look to my right hand and see... "A... sword..?" I think, almost out loud, as I look at the long, sharp object I now held, which seemed to me to be a long, singular piece of formerly-molten metal, though of what variety I could not say, and it looked like the sword the original Smelter Demon had, except... not very refined... or forged, for that matter. Looking closer at the deadly piece of metal in my hand, I noted that the massive sword lacked a hilt, and seemed to have been simply formed from flowing molten metal, instead of properly hammered and shaped. Still, despite the fact that my inner metallurgist cringed at the very thought of carrying around, let alone USING such a piece, it still weighed nicely in my hand, and honestly, it didn't look too bad a weapon; nice, sharp edge, even surface, and when I finally swung it as a test, the handle didn't snap in half. Plus, when I swung it, I could swear I saw flames coming off of it. This, in my professional opinion, had to be the coolest sword I'd ever seen. But, I had to wonder... where did it come from? I thought about how on earth this lethal piece of metal ended up in my possession without my knowing, but ultimately, I decided that I didn't care. I had been plucked from my world, put in one full of little rainbow-pastel horses, and given the body of the infamous butthurt demon. This sword was just another incident that just happened to work in my favor. So, that said, I finally looked back to my now-flooded caldera, and began to climb further up the mountain, unaware, and ultimately uncaring, of just what kind of damage I had done by setting off that volcano. Now, I had a weapon, a hiding place, and time to think. That is, until I got hungry again. Still, I had to think of a way to either get home, or make life here a bit more bearable. Either way, the outcome required time and thought. I only hope that my time doesn't run out too soon.