Eventually, Qube sorted the matter by setting out along the black path. It took a minute for the others to stop arguing long enough to notice that she was now far ahead of them. She felt no particularly disabling heat, and the others seemed just fine, so she was forced to conclude that her outfit, while looking no different from the one she had worn her entire life, was nevertheless effective.

The volcano loomed above them, and it was only when they got closer that they realised it was not just lava that the volcano was spewing out. In the rivers of molten lava, tiny eyeballs on stalks would occasionally pop up out of the stream and blink at them before retreating. As they got closer to the moat around the volcano, they could see strange gelatinous bodies moving to an unseen current.

By the time they got to the moat itself, several pairs of eyes were looking at them curiously. After a moment, one of the eyes raised up, as a strange creature emerged. It looked like a giant slug made from jellied lava, about the same size as a wolf, with a slit where its mouth should have been.

The slug’s eyes blinked at them one at a time. It was, Qube thought, oddly cute.

“Brrblp?” it blew some bubbles in the lava, tilting its eyes inquiringly at the Chosen One and his party. The Chosen One examined it thoughtfully. Perhaps encouraged by his study, the lava slug pulled more of itself out of the lava and opened its mouth, revealing it to be a perfect circle lined with razor sharp teeth. From that maw came the sound of a tea kettle boiling, a high pitched scream of hot air that washed over the group.

In an instant, the Chosen One had his magical bent stick in his hand, and flung it directly at the creature, hitting it square in the face. The creature stopped its scream-singing with a squeak, its eyes retracting as it sadly submerged itself back into the moat. The other pairs of eyes also disappeared, several bubbles appearing in the lava as if to express their displeasure.

The Chosen One caught his magical bent stick as it zipped back to him.

“That was disgusting,” he said.

“I thought they were kind of cute,” Qube replied.

“Urgh, we’ll probably have them dropping from the ceiling onto us later or something,” the Chosen One said, rubbing his right ear as if to remove the memory of the lava slug’s screech.

“Perhaps our greatest Mage in all the kingdom can tell us something about these beings,” Sewer Bard said with a touch of malice as he idly strummed a few notes on his lute. Definitely Bad Guy glared back at him. Uh oh. Seems they still hadn’t overcome their yelling match from earlier.

“If the Chosen One requires anything from my extensive knowledge, he has but to ask,” Definitely Bad Guy sneered. Sewer Bard looked angrier than Qube had ever seen him before. Come to think of it, she’d never actually seen him interact with a male before for any duration of time except for the Chosen One. Maybe he didn’t like men? She pondered the notion for a moment before dismissing it. No, far more likely, he just hadn’t had a chance to see just how dedicated to Good Definitely Bad Guy was. She would have to make sure they did some bonding exercises after this Fire Temple, so they could get to know each other.

An important part of being a successful Companion was knowing how to resolve intra-party conflicts, after all. And now that she knew how to break her invisibility curse, she would be able to use [Heal] on Sewer Bard and then the whole party would be able to see her, thus vastly increasing her effectiveness as a guiding light!

It would be best to wait until they were in a controlled environment before she [Heal]ed Sewer Bard, though. The image of Sexy Screamy Spider Lady flailing about, and the gouged out sections around her, as the [Heal] took effect, made Qube shudder slightly. Qube looked around for Sexy Screamy Spider Lady, and saw her at the back of the group, bouncing from legs to legs, a habit she did whenever they were standing in place for too long.

Yes, definitely better to be somewhere safe. The fact that this just gave her even more time before she had to control her facial expressions when he was speaking to her was a total coincidence, of course.

Having made sure that there were no other lava slugs near the surface, the Chosen One started the climb up the road. Roughly every loop, they had to stop under jutting-out sections of the volcano and wait for either boulders or spurts of lava to finish. It was, Qube thought, rather strange that it was only around these covered sections that obstacles fell. Or maybe the overhanging rocks were caused by the boulders and lava? Why were so many boulders falling, anyway? Was the area around them really so unstable? Before she could chase that chain of logic any deeper, the Chosen One stopped, and she abruptly realised that they were at the top of the volcano, standing in front of a giant, golden archway.

The thick frame was engraved with lizard-like images, each with tiny ruby gems for their eyes. They seemed to be almost running over each other in their hurry to get to the giant golden dragon head at the top of the arch. The dragon’s eyes were emeralds the size of Qube’s face and, in its open mouth, there was a cunningly cut ruby flame that seemed to flicker as the fading sunlight struck it.

Qube wasn’t sure if the archway itself was solid gold, or just gold plated, but it had to be worth an absolute fortune! How had none of the Forbidden Forest folk taken this away?

As Qube turned to look back at the Forbidden Forest, to puzzle why they had left such a valuable archway untouched, she suddenly noticed the vast vista stretching before her. She’d been so focused on just getting up the volcano that she hadn’t ever really looked around. Now, though, it took her breath away.

The dead landscape they’d traversed seemed like just a strip of grey from this high up, and she could see the giant tree erupting from the Forbidden Forest’s canopy, the curling mists around the treetops giving it an almost bluish tinge. Then, on the very edge of the horizon, she saw the very tip of the castle turret. She quickly looked away, and instead found herself staring at the largest body of water she’d ever seen, a whirlpool in the middle of the giant lake seeming to suck it into unknown depths. Across the lake erupted the pointiest (and only) mountain range she’d ever seen, snow-capped tops disappearing into pure white clouds. The rocky range wrapped around back towards Cobbletown. From Cobbletown itself she hadn’t been able to see them; somehow, it was as if the castle and wizard’s tower had dominated the skies.

Before she had a chance to look any more, she heard a crash behind her. She spun back to the archway, only to see the Chosen One flat on the ground, looking at Sewer Bard balefully.

“I told you to stay still!” he complained.

“Noble Patron, I would do anything for you, but I am telling you, no story I have ever heard of (and I have memorised many a saga) has ever had it end well for a Hero who pries gems out of statue’s eyes!” Sewer Bard complained, dusting off his shoulders.

“It’s an archway engraving, not a statue!” Chosen One said. Sewer Bard just looked at him, until Chosen One sighed. “Fine. We’ll go into the stupid temple without the probably magical gems.” He looked up at the top of the archway. “Stupid morality system. Probably not even individual assets, anyway.”

Qube, dismissing the Chosen One’s muttering, looked at Sewer Bard with approval. Maybe it was just because she was getting used to his slightly erratic behaviour, but he always seemed to have his heart in the right place. The Sewer Bard, perhaps sensing her attention, looked over in her general direction and smiled. Definitely Bad Guy rolled his eyes, before gesturing towards the archway.

“Shall we?” he asked the Chosen One with just a hint of malice. “I do believe the fate of the world rests on our mission.”

The Chosen One refocused, and then passed his hand through a Save Point next to the archway. Qube rubbed her eyes - how had she missed said glowing blue orb until that very moment? Then the Chosen One stepped through the archway and, as its shadow seemed to consume him for a moment, Qube felt the world spin. She closed her eyes to contain her nausea, and when she opened them realised that she was inside the volcano.

Had she — had she stumbled through the archway accidentally? She hadn’t felt this sick since the Golden Prophecy — oh! She shook her head, trying to clear away the fog in her mind. She must be doing something wrong! She was supposed to be by the Chosen One’s side, not staring off at mountains or whatever! She hurried to the Chosen One, nearly stumbling in her haste. He reached out to steady her, and then looked confused.

“I didn’t know you could stumble,” he said. Qube looked at him, now also confused.

Before either of them could continue confusing each other any more, they were interrupted by a soft hissing sound. Looking down, the group realised that they were standing on a rock, which was slowly sinking into lava.

“Quick, jump!” Chosen One called, before running and jumping onto another large rock gently bobbing in the lava, which immediately began to sink. Qube, trying to contain her panic, jumped, and saw a line of rocks, conveniently leading to the middle of the volcano. Somehow, despite the fact that lava was constantly flowing from the lip of the volcano, it seemed as if it was mostly confined to the walls of the volcano itself, with only a small amount bleeding from the sides, creating a mini moat. After a few short hops, the group were all standing on solid ground that covered the entire middle of the volcano’s crater. Next to them was a hole, with a wooden ladder leading down into darkness.

By the time the group had caught their breath, the rocks they’d been jumping across had bobbed back up to the surface of the lava, ready to be used again. Qube, having no real understanding of the properties of lava, could only glare at them for their resemblance to platforms, one of her top five most hated things.

If there were platforms in this volcano, she was going to be cross.

After testing that whatever the ladder led to was safe in the tried and true fashion (meaning the Chosen One kicked Sewer Bard down the hole), the party climbed down the wooden ladder. The heat of the volcano didn’t seem to affect the wood at all — possibly it had been treated with whatever made their clothes Fireproof, Qube reasoned. Concentrating on the rungs, she had to gently nudge aside the Chosen One from the foot of the ladder, as, for some strange reason, he hadn’t moved.

But all thoughts as to the wisdom of using wood inside an active volcano flew out of her head once she landed in the next room and realised exactly why the Chosen One was transfixed. Standing as still as a statue, the Chosen One was looking around him, stars in his eyes.

For this new room was huge. It stretched from one side of the volcano to the other, with only the slowly upwards-travelling lava marking where the walls were. The rest of it was just one giant space.

And all of it, every last bit, was made out of gold.