The four heroes stared as the bird hit the body of water below with a splash, sending water halfway to where they were still falling, "Hang on, guys!" Byrd held out his arms for Kokoso and Maria to grab, while holding Cathryn with both talons, breaking their fall as the wake magic dissipated.
Cathryn audibly spat out a mouthful of water and the group turned to find her staring into space, a glare on her face as she rose from her knees, "That's purr-fect, I'm drenched head to toe in knee-deep water, and I have sand in boots, mud on my knees, and-" they watched as she quietly looked around as she trudged through the mud under the water, cheeks pale, "Where's the bird?"
It suddenly dawned on them that they hadn't seen it. The tree the hummingbird's beak was embedded in rose from the water, between them and Cathryn, who took a step back, startled from the presence, "How deep does the spring go?" Kokoso wondered.
"It probably just left a crater." Byrd replied casually, "But it must be dead, nothing could survive that impact, the thing had wings, but still couldn't break it's fa-"
Suddenly watch shot up into the sky, and they looked up to see it followed the wake of the hummingbird, who flew between them and the sun, fire and darkness flew to it and coalesced with it's feather, "I thought phoenixes lived in volcanoes." Kokoso remarked, immediately regretting his choice of words as lava spouted out of the water from where the hummingbird made its ascent.
Cathryn shouted and fell to her side as the water bubbled up around her, quickly warming as the earth turned red under her and she lurched forward, splashing away as the ground rumbled, sending her to her feet as lava violently shot up between her and the others.
"Maria, enchant fire, warm my wings, their weighed down with water!" Byrd put his right foot forward, watching as the boiling bubbles neared them and removed his glasses, hold his arm back until Kokoso took them, "Now scram, before you boil too!"
"Better idea," Maria turned to Kokoso, "ready your ice enchantments, I'll use wind, we're going to freeze that lava."
Byrd found flying difficult, the heat from the lava trying to lift him with the steam, he also couldn't see, but he heard Cathryn splashing away from the water, falling and trying to run, but suddenly it all fell quiet, "Cat, are you there?!" he yelled, but no other sounds than the lava reached his ears, soon everything went white and he felt like he was trapped in an oven, "Cat...sorry."
Byrd rested against the wall he was in and heard a commanding voice, "Byrd, rise from the egg."
"Sheesh, I must be dead having the oddest dream of death ever...is the egg supposed to be rebirth or-" suddenly he heard a familiar voice shouting at him.
"Get out of that thing right, ne-ow, or I'll break it for you!"797Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡqLh0V8jrRw
While it was certainly Cathryn's voice, he couldn't decide if he expected them to both be dead or if he was alive and was imagining her voice, but he drew his wings close before swinging his arms and wings open, cracking the walls around him and falling out of it, onto the ground below.
"Ugh, are we in Heaven, Cat?" Byrd inquired, looking up from the sand.
"Not just yet." Cat replied, pointing at the volcano standing behind them.
"Seriously?" Byrd gasped, "Why and how?"
"Well, my Hatchling," Mother Goose said, surprising him with her presence, "the hummingbird has gather the power of a few other monsters, enhancing it's own power, it is, from what I can sense, a presence of many monsters together, acting in unison."
"So you egged us?" Byrd laughed, glancing over at Cathryn, who rested on her legs with the axe held upright by both hands.
"Where are the others?" Cathryn wondered, standing slowly
"They're safe," Mother Goose promised, "shielding one person is just as hard as four, so I egged them, too, I must go now, and hatch them in safety, you two should hurry along."
"So...you okay?" Byrd asked, rising to his feet.
"Yeah...I'll make it, Mother Goose's egg healed a lot of my burns," Cathryn took a breath as she stepped forward, "not all of it, but what do I expect, I was nearly boiled alive."
"Your elbow's still red."
"I'll be fine." Cathryn assured him.
"Ha, yeah...um, sorry."
"Why, you didn't pull a volcano out of the ground in...what, twenty minutes? You also didn't try to boil me alive."
"I mean that I couldn't-"
Cathryn clasped his shoulder and shook her head, "You couldn't have done anything, if things had turned out differently...I would hope you guys wouldn't beat yourselves up about it. Now let's go, we need to regroup and defeat the bird monster before things get really out of control, if it could make that volcano in twenty minutes, I don't want to entertain the notion of it free for twenty hours...or days."
The pair walked along the edge of the spring and found Mother Goose leading the other two toward Byrd and Cathryn, "Good timing, the entrance is right there." Mother Goose said, pointing at the maw of the volcano.
"You both alright?" Kokoso inquired, looking between the two.
"Yeah, we're-" Cathryn was suddenly interrupted by Maria's shout.
"No, you're not!" she exclaimed, pointing at the burns on her arms and legs.
"It's fine, the mystic air of the earth she concentrated on healed the major injuries," Mother Goose assured, "not to mention her time in the egg, which did a great deal to tend to her injuries."
"Back to the flaming flamingo up there." Cathryn said quietly, pointing up at the summit of the volcano, lava still running down the sides of the volcano, and behind the thunder-filled clouds of smoke were two red eyes.
"It's weakness is probably altered more than just a bit," Mother Goose sighed, "being it's surrounded by lightning and fire, and it still has power over its flight, despite being light enough for you to hold it down...I'd say wind is still a strength, which means ice is your best chance of defeating it in the typical manner."
"Typical?" Maria parroted.
"You could call on the ailments of nature to aid you," Mother Goose turned about to stand before the young adventurers, "every element has a ailment closely linked to it and related the usual affect of it, water or ice and poison, fire and berserk, lightning and paralysis, wind and fatigue, there are weaknesses even within it's strengths, and together you can overcome it."
"Well, poison, huh?" Kokoso chuckled, "Why didn't you tell us sooner?"
"Because, you needed to grow stronger before you could use them, otherwise you'd get tired over just trying to call on a little poison; don't worry, I've got my eye on you four." Mother Goose promised.
"I think lightning's the best choice for me." Cathryn decided, "My weapon can pack more elemental damage per strike."797Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡtdT6UKmCW2
"I'll use wind," Kokoso shrugged, "make my swift strikes swifter."
"I'll use ice," Byrd decided, "my stabs have the best odds of shattering that ice that'll build up, might as well have it where I can reach it."
"What's berserk good for?" Maria wondered.
"To make the enemy use more magic than is wise, making it attack with magic whenever it can, but it'll use weaker powers." Mother Goose informed.
"Sounds good." Maria decided, "But will it work on something covered in flames? I guess we don't all have to pick something different."
"It should, though it'll be harder to inflict it on the monster the more powerful it is with that particular element." Mother Goose answered, "Is everyone feeling up to the task?"
"Yep, but what do we do once we're inside?" Byrd inquired.
"Find the crater, I'll form a large egg to contain you all, and you'll be shot up to the top, there might be some tough enemies, be sure to train with them and increase your power." Mother Goose advised, before seeing them off to the volcano.
The team spotted four wolf monsters roaming the cavern, pools of lava bubbling around the makeshift arena, "I think we should avoid one on one fights this time." Maria advised.
"Hang on," Cathryn objected, "I said I'm fine, and there's too many to fight them if they all attack, we'll still need to space out."
"We could switch out, Kokoso can lead, when he's ready to let Byrd take over he can stagger them with his shield, and when Byrd stabs them, I'll follow up with a strike to the flank, and you can strike, then we can repeat with Kokoso stepping in when you step back." Maria found herself in a staring contest with Cathryn and sighed, "You sure you're fine?"
"I wouldn't endanger you with heroics." Cathryn replied, closing her eyes, "Especially after the talk earlier about not doing something that could get us killed, you can trust me better than that, despite my appearances."
"Okay...we'll go with your plan, fall back when you have to, ask for help when you have to." Maria turned around and readied her claws, "Let's send them packing."
"Right, of course Cat's right." Kokoso agreed, "I was so distracted by your burns and then this volcano, I'd forgotten that bonding moment Byrd hatched up."
"Ha, ha, like it wasn't a team talk we should have had earlier?" Byrd crossed his arms inquisitively.
"Oh, we needed it, I was just so surprised that you said it," Kokoso teased, glancing to find Cathryn staring at the ground, a smirk on her lips, "being you're usually...far from touchy-feely."
"You know what, you just think you're so funny?" Byrd rolled his eyes and turned away, "Anyways, we have some wolves to handle, right?"
"Right!" Maria announced, "Let's send them packing! I...already said that, huh?"
"Yeah, but it's just so inspirational, got to say it every time!" Kokoso laughed, rushing past Maria as she started on her wolf monster.
Maria jumped to the side as her wolf pounced at her and swung her arm as it passed, swiping it to the ground. She watched it and it struck again, but she swung her hand palm forward, bumping it's snout with her claw, then unleashing a flurry of attacks with her weapons, sending the monster down.
Kokoso ran up to the wolf, just as it was, and swung his shield down onto it's skull as it readied itself to leap, it snarled in pain and he stepped back. He tried to hide it, but he could be skittish at times, the fear he felt was constant, though he never backed down when the plan was him versus a squirrel monster, even past wolf monsters didn't scare him enough, but this was different, before his friends would swoop in if they saw him in trouble.
"Find your own strength...why do those words seem so familiar?" Kokoso had an even better question next, though, "Where did that even come from?"
He met the wolf's gaze and snarled back at it, and jumped over its head, spinning several times as he glided over the monster, upon landing he spun around, to attack, distance himself from the threat, and to end up facing the monster again. He bashed his shield forward as the wolf jumped up at him, and struck it with his blade, sending it to crumple to it's knees and dissipate.
Byrd jumped to the side and turned as he landed, face to face now with the wolf, and landed a final stab that ended the battle.
Cathryn stepped to the side and spun, jumped back, and back again, then brought her axe down, sending the monster running away and around her, but a well-timed swing caught it in the side and it rolled away, she ran up to it and raised her axe, danced backwards as it jumped, and brought the axe down again.
She turned panting to find the others watching her.
"Still think that axe is good for you?" Byrd wondered.
"It's fine, it's just not that light, and there's a lot of swinging involved, but I got it done, didn't I?" Cathryn nodded as he remained silent, and she turned as the others did to the white winged Animen that entered the room.
"I will now send you up if you believe you're all prepared, but know that there is now coming back down from that height, not with that chaos, not in one piece." Mother Goose stood before the back wall and turned around, facing the center of the room.
"I'm ready." Maria nodded.
"We've got this." Byrd agreed, a short chuckle coughed from his throat.
"Gravity let us down once," Cathryn mused, staring up at the crater to the top, "but if we can fight those wolves alone, then with a little determination we can bring down that phoenix."
"Like she said, I lived through those wolves, and birds were generally just a bit stronger than regular wolf monsters, even if the bird is twice as strong as these wolves were, I'm sure we've got this!" Kokoso replied crossing his arm and donning a goofy grin.
"Very well," Mother Goose nodded and gestured to a point on the floor, "the volcano will erupt again soon, when it does, it will launch the egg, for now stand there, and afterwards, prepare for an extensive wait."
The group nodded and stood facing Mother Goose with grim expressions as the white shell slowly built up around them.
ANs: As per advisement, I'll seek out time to update previous chapters to make them flow better.
ns 18.68.41.177da2
