The Scorching Summit

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"Maybe... hope nobody minds us bein' in here," Megumi said with a perplexed expression as she tried to make sense of the cave carvings.

"WHO GOES THERE!?" A shrill voice boomed throughout the corridor. "SHOW YOURSELF."

"I spoke too soon."
 
Lava Girl was startled by the loud voice, indistinctly went behind Megumi. "Uh... we're just looking! We don't mean to trespass on your territory!"
 
"Yeah! You had your cave wide open!" Megumi said, standing her ground. "Wanna fight about it!?"

"You are a thousand years too young to challenge me," the man's voice boomed back. "...Come forward. Rarely do I find anyone enter my domain. Of course, you may choose to leave, but my brethren may not take kindly to your sudden departure."

"I'm not letting some scary voice try and scare me away from big treasure," Megumi whispered to Lava Girl.
 
Lava Girl seems hesitated and actually wanted to leave, but Megumi's determination gave her a bit of courage. "Y-yeah! We can't let all this hiking go to waste now!" Lava Girl whispered back.
 
Megumi nodded and walked forward into the well-lit room that lay ahead.
fire-temple.jpg

Sitting in a throne atop of the center stairs was a cloaked skeleton man.​
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https://imgur.com/VOO1LXW
"... oh, it's just a bunch of children."​
 
"W-whoa... I have no idea that this place even existed..." Lava Girl's voice was riddled with fright. The structure of the room, the lava pouring towards the pool around them and the sole man sitting on the throne simply added onto her fears as she hanged tight on Megumi's shoulders. "I hope he's friendly..."
 
"Who are you callin' a kid, you dusty bag of bones!?" Megumi sassed. 

"Kids these days can't ever respect their elders..." The skeleton man muttered. "What's a human doing here of all places?"

"None of your business, Skellington!"

"Try me. I've been guarding this temple for the last 50 centuries. I'm surprised none of the cavern monsters have eaten your meatbag of a friend here," He says to Lava Girl. Even though he looked intimidating, he made no motion to leave his seat.
 
"Sorry for intruding on your territory." Lava Girl spoke out, trying to defuse the bad air and confusion. "She was just is looking for a friend! Since she isn't here, we thought it would be nice for her to bring her a present, like the Obsidians."
 
"Obsidian?... Hiking up the summit for some Obsidian crystals eh..." The skeleton man rubbed his chin. "I suppose I do know where you could find such a thing." He stood up and popped several of his joints. "Only I know where those happen to form around this part of the Summit, so I'm obliged to lead you."

"No way! You're really gonna help us out, old guy?" Megumi asked.

"It would leave a bad taste in my mouth if some kids were to perish from exposure out here because they got lost looking for some crystals that I'd know about." The Skeleton man said. "Name's Jack Marrow. The youngsters used to call me Uncle Marrow."
 
"T-thanks!" Lava Girl offered her gratitude. "Sorry if we're interfering with your schedule, Mr. Marrow!" Lava Girl added an honorific at the end.
 
"Yeah, thanks a ton, Uncle! Looks like you don't go out into the soot fields much." Megumi's clothes had a light dusting of volcanic soot on them from the trek up here.

"To tell you the truth, I haven't got much to do these days besides guard this old temple." Uncle Marrow replied. "Gives me a good excuse to pop these old bones back into place. As promised, the Obsidian is quite a rare sight. It only forms at the outer surface. You probably won't find them growing in the cave systems down here since there isn't enough cooling going on for that to happen. As you can see, it's rather toasty in the cavern." The skeleton explained. "The temple does have a tunnel that leads to the top of the summit fairly safely compared to the dangers of just hiking up the mountain, but you ought to prepare for some less-than-friendly monsters being possessive over it."

"Prepared is my middle name!" Megumi said confidently. "But I bet once they catch sight of Lava Girl, they might change their minds. She's too cute to go up and fight against without a guilty conscience."

"You humans are so weird. I know nothing about this "cute" you speak of," Marrow said with a clenched jaw.
 
Lava Girl blushed. "Um, I'm not cute! I'm a scary monster! See!" Lava Girl tried to mimic a typical stance a monster would do when they spotted someone to scare, but it seems to bring out all her cuteness even more. "But wouldn't the monsters flee from the mere sight of you, Mr. Marrow? Unless it's been so long they become confident of their skills?"
 
"I haven't come out of my little hole in so long, I'm not sure I'd even be remembered. Those who do recognize me however, they perhaps would be wiser than the other young monsters on this Summit. But this old bag of bones still has plenty of strength to fear." Marrow responded, while Megumi giggled at Lava Girl's display.

"Still, it would be best to be on your guards when we come to that." He began to lead the girls down a set of stairs that lay beyond the curtain behind the throne of the Fire Temple. "This way."
 
"Right..." Lava Girl. "I'm not very useful in terms of combat since my people often tried to avoid confrontation with humans... especially those swordsmen that come here and kill for sport. But, I'll help out whenever I can!" Lava Girl pumped her chest out. "Right Megumi?"
 
"Totally! We can kick their ass, no problem." Megumi said with a haughty tone, hands on her hips.

"Spunky kids." Jack Marrow mutters. As they walk down the corridor, it was obvious this passage hadn't been accessed in a long time, being lined with sooty dust. Any illumination would reveal the air full of specks of dust and volcanic ash.
 
Lava Girl looked around, examining the foundation of the passage. "Mr. Marrow... you say that there are people that aren't kind to visitors... but it looks like this place hasn't been touched in years."
 
"We haven't made it out yet, child. You'll see what I mean once we reach the end." Jack responded. "This passage is too inaccessible for most of the monsters on the other side. Even then, the Fire Temple is nothing of interest for a long while now."

Megumi wondered what he meant by inaccessible, but kept quiet for the time being, as she was trying to keep the soot from getting in her nose.

"Does this place always smell like a coal mine?"

"Sometimes it smells of burnt flesh. That's what I hear, since I don't have a nose."

"Oh. Right."
 
"I see..." Lava Girl said. "Inaccessible huh..." Lava Girl thought up another question. "Wait.... has there been well, you know, raiders that come to this place? We often have those swordsmen that come in and kill monsters for sports or training purposes."
 
"Hm... last I remember a huntsman like that coming into the Fire Temple, he was roasted to ashes by the hidden traps I placed in the event I had to battle a human like that. Perhaps their kind have learned from his arrogance and have avoided the caves from then onwards, as I've managed to exterminate the pitiful fools that came to rescue him." Jack replied. 

"Man, you didn't even give em a chance to live?" Megumi asked. 

"I gave them a few warning fires, but they decided that picking a fight with a skeleton would be enough to avenge their comrade who fell solely due to his own stupidity. Humans are arrogant like that. Either way, it seems after that attempt, they've learned not to go near caverns by principle. Hunters like them probably prefer having a relatively even fighting ground with their opponents where they can see everything and have more wiggle room than a place like where the Temple is. Aside from this tunnel, I'm sure there are a few alternate paths one can take to go around, but none of them are easy to traverse if you're an amateur climber. That might be why many of them prefer to hunt at lower altitudes."
 
"So that's why..." Lava Girl said. "I have to agree with Jack... humans are often arrogant that they blindly do anything for the sake of satisfied their own ego." She turns to Megumi. "B-but not all humans are like that though! Just those hunters, really!" She clarified. "Those hunters killed dozens of our people whenever they appeared... always after those rare items we have... As long they're easy to defeat, it's enough for them to make due and boast back home."
 
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