[Northstar.]

Prompt Nine
Enter the Lavalands
Featuring Aaheru, Meredith, and Luca
Word Count: 425

From Aaheru's POV

Breathe.

...

Thick, hot air stifles your lungs.

...

Thumpthump, thumpthump.

Your heart beats an old warrior's song in your chest.

Warm, cracked earth cradles your feet with every step, black with ash. The heat takes it's payment harshly and without remorse. Small streams of lava cut through the land like living veins. Your companions lag in the distance. They drink water like parched earth does after a drought.

But not you.

No. This climate is not wholly unfamiliar to your wandering soul.

In fact, it brings up memories long forgotten.

Home.

Mother walking through the clay hut, mending a small shirt that was yours... Playing with a leather ball in the dusty streets with other dirty kids.. Laughing... Dry, dry desert. Dunes for days... One could get lost out there... Don't go far, Aaheru... Storm clouds on the horizon. Blackened. Rain. Rain. Will it ever stop? The water rising, churning--Mother?!--

You snap out of it, a bittersweet smile curling the corner of your mouth. Your heart clenches painfully. Time never did make it easier.

Perhaps some memories should stay buried.

And what better way to bury memories than distraction?

* * * * *

Meredith lagged a quarter mile behind the lilac kalon. Her hammer dragged a clear line in the dry dirt. The wild kid, Luca, trudged a few steps ahead-- not much better off. Her water supplies were half full. Definitely not cut out for this smoky, ashy, volcanic land. Perhaps of she had put her mind to it she could have caught up with her companion. Yet, she felt the need to give the eclectic merchant some space. Aaheru seemed melancholy ever since they stepped foot in this wretched land. That odd sparkle in his eyes vanished. It worried her.

Far ahead of them, Aaheru crested a rise and disappeared. That in itself was fine, until they heard a shout. Meredith looked at Luca, who nodded, and both of the kalons rushed forward to their companion. They panted and huffed, sweat dripping in their eyes. Meredith hefted her war hammer over her shoulder, gripping it with two hands, as they crested the rise. And both kalons stopped abruptly.

There were two flaming chickens pecking at the ground, and Aaheru was kneeling down-- dusting off a teapot.

Meredith sweatdropped.

They needn't have worried. Well, maybe it was okay to worry just a bit. The teapot, after all, was cursed. Not to mention the two chickens on fire.

Now-- what to do with them? (And Meredith definitely wasn't going with Luca's vote, dinner).

[necropoliis]

Prompt 9

Zadkiel is not faring well, to say the least

[beautea]

prompt nine
kalon used: althea, peregrine, & james

The air might as well have been fire, Althea decided. She could manage the heat, as she's had worse before. But this was close to the worst she's had. She wasn't the only one who thought this; she could hear Peregrine and James start to complain.

"Can't we go a different way?" Peregrine groaned, clearly not happy about the new arrangements. They hadn't exactly planned for the heat to be this extreme. They, luckily, had brought enough water to keep themselves hydrated, but it didn't make it any less miserable.

"I'd dump my water on me, but I'm pretty sure the water would just evaporate," James muttered, trailing behind Peregrine. The three were like ducklings, all in a row, following the one in front. Althea had been leading, unsurprisingly. She let out a huff, clearly upset that they were reduced to kits as far as their behavior went. But, of course, they never encountered anything close to this hot before. It only made sense. However, she had figured they would be fine. The three of them had all changed their attire,
and their clothes were lighter than before. It seems like it didn't even matter, since they were all still sweating.

Althea saw something in the distance. Her ears turned slightly backward while approaching, for she saw the silhouette of a moving flame. After all the enemies she had encountered thus far, she was exhausted, and she didn't want to fight anything, not to mention the heat made her more irritable than usual. She got closer, at the ready for a fight. But when the party approached the figure, they heard ... something.

"Cheep!"

"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," Althea relaxed, seeing a medium-sized chicken. It was ... on fire? It didn't appear to mind, maybe this was normal for it. It looked up at Althea quizzically, while James chuckled at Althea being too tense. Peregrine, however, adored the chicken. He approached, smiling, and clearly happy that they had found another animal friend. Althea had noticed while on their trip, he did have a rather large fascination with birds. A reoccurring theme, she would say.

"Why hello there, my friend!" Peregrine cooed, bending down to the chicken's height. However, he had not anticipated how fast the chicken would approach, and the fire from the chicken caught on to the fur on his paws.

Almost immediately, chaos had broken out. Peregrine let out an enormous scream, fanning his paw in the air in an attempt to cease the flames; which didn't help. James thought quickly, grabbing his canteen that was half-filled with water, and dumped the whole thing on Peregrine's paw while he had been running around in broken circles. The fire was put out, and Althea let out a sigh, looking down at the calm chicken, who hadn't moved an inch despite the commotion.

It's going to be a long journey, Althea thought to herself, scoffing at the chicken before moving on.

[womp womp]

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→ Kalons Used In Prompt : Pip (( Non-owner, referring to Pip as a ''she'' )) ←
────────────────────────────────────────────────

Pip stared at the impossibly hot lava gurgling in front of her. Once and a while, she was able to hear a noise that seemed to be a clucking chicken, followed by the low growls of dragons. As of right now, Pip felt like she was put into a toaster. Sweat dripped down her side, and not even splashing some of her bottled water helped. In fact, it just made her more hot. "I'm going to have a darn heat stroke in this," Pip grumbled, moving away from the lava she was looking at before. "Why did I think it was smart to sign up for this?" Pip sighed, then heard the chicken then dragon noises again. It didn't really bother her, since she only was focused on simply completing her task and hopefully moving on. Pip walked along, still feeling hot and sweaty. Honestly, it felt like a billion degrees at the moment. "I'm surprised I'm not melting." Pip thought with a quick shake of her head. A few sweat drops flew off in the process. Pip wasn't paying much attending to her surroundings, and she stumbled over a pile of black rocks. She started to fall, but screamed when she saw a patch of lava. Luckily, her reflexes were quick enough. In midair, Pip rolled and fell with a thud right next to the patch of lava. "Moving on," mumbled Pip as she got up and brushed off tiny specks of black-ish dirt. "Okay. This officially feels like a nightmare." Pip commented, plopping herself on a large rock. "I need to sit down for a bit, even if it feels like the sun is directly in my face." She took out her water bottle from her handy-dandy leather handbag, and drank what was left. "And I'm out of water. Great." Pip said with a groan. "Let me guess, the next one's going to be the complete opposite of this one and it's going to be a freezing ice thing." Pip muttered, getting up from her rock seat. "What am I doing anymore?"

[ 344 words ]

[PeanutButterRum]

Butter Rum
Fern

He doesn't like heat very much

[Carnations]

Prompt 9
Feat. Jaden
*Ride Fire Chicken to avoid the ground that's litERALLY ON FIRE?? to avoid some of the heat secreting from the ground.

[Takk]

Eɴᴛᴇʀ ᴛʜᴇ Lᴀᴠᴀʟᴀɴᴅs!

Three kalons stood at the foot of the boiling land, looking at the glowing lands. Ico was already sweating with his long fur, breathing at a quickened pace. The other two were prepared for his complaining but it didn't come as they entered the new area. It was certainly hot, but they had to ration the water out more carefully now...
Allariia wiggles her staff above her head, summoning a bit of snow above them but it only lasted a few seconds. Creating water was difficult and somewhat wasteful of her mana as well... Thankfully it was a cloudy day so they didn't have to deal with the sun st the same time.
The area was fairly flat expect for the mountain; or perhaps it was a volcano. Best to avoid any of the liquid fire however, Ixion had dealt with it before and getting within a few feet could boil your blood before you had time to pull back. It was an unforgiving land, all of them found themselves missing the cool forest or city.

[Vanillasaur]

Prompt Nine
Feat. Arian, Cieran, and Ikena

I'm too hot(hot damn)

[cervidae]

linked: x
tfw you sketch something terrible to meet the deadline
save them

[✧ 花chéngzhǔ.]

Day Nine Prompt is over! Day Ten is up!

The banks have been updated for days 1-7!