"Hey, didn't you see the notice?"

Korsair turned to the Shoyru stranger that had addressed him. Several others were looking at him, as well. Curious, the fire Eyrie paused and asked, "What notice?"

"This one right here," the Shoyru said, pointing towards a piece of paper that was attached to the window of the National Neopian Bank. The crowd of Neopians around the notice moved back, allowing the Eyrie to inspect the paper.

Korsair squawked in surprise. "Queen Fyora is asking for our help?" The Shoyru who had pointed the notice out nodded. "Queen Fyora has never asked us to help her with anything before... this must be really serious!"

"I wish I could help," the Shoyru said, and several of the others who were grouped around nodded. "Do your best for us!" he said, smiling at Korsair.

The fire Eyrie nodded. "I will. Thank you!" The Eyrie backed up a few paces, opened his wings, and leapt into the air.

He flew as fast as he could towards the island. In the distance, the Eyrie was sure that he could see other fire painted Neopets soaring towards the same destination. At one point, he spotted a boat below him, and Korsair noticed that it was crammed with all sorts of Neopets that were all flickering with flame patterns.

Just as he was nearing the island, a fire Shoyru swooped up towards him. "Hi, I'm Galvin. Glad you're here! We need everyone we can get to help out!"

Relieved that someone may have an explanation as to what was going on, Korsair asked the Shoyru what was happening.

"From what I've heard..."

Korsair nodded, taking it all in. He wasn't sure what to make of it. Did this mean all of his fellow fire Neopets would need to go into the volcano and find out what was wrong? Couldn't they just paint a few heroes fire and let them handle it?

No, that was ridiculous, he thought, looking over his shoulder at the boat he had seen earlier. As it came ashore, quite a number of flame-patterned Neopets came off of it, some appearing very nervous and unsure of what was going on.

He and Galvin landed near the docks, fitting in easily with the others of varying shades of black, yellow, orange, and red. More Neopets were coming down from the boat now, and the little beach they stood on was becoming crowded.

The air was full of indistinct conversation as the fire Neopets mingled in with the others. Since the excited and nervous talk was so loud, barely anyone noticed a tall fire faerie step up to a platform in front of the group. She cleared her throat, and when that failed to alert the group, she let out a shrill whistle.

Korsair's head immediately snapped in her direction; he and the rest of the fire Neopets were suddenly quiet, intent on hearing what this faerie had to say.

Again the faerie cleared her throat, standing tall as she surveyed the large group that had been summoned. "Queen Fyora has appointed me to direct you lot," she began, "so it would be best if you listen closely to what I'm about to tell you…"

All heads turned towards the volcano, bubbling and boiling in the distance. Pillars of smoke polluted the air around it. It looks like a sort of gigantic black curtain, Korsair thought numbly.

"Techo Mountain has no reason to behave this way," the faerie continued. "The only explanation comes from deep within Neopia's core. Unstable activity could trigger a terrible volcanic reaction, and the heat wave could very well transform Mystery Island into a lifeless wasteland. We wouldn't want that now, would we?"

The murmurs from the crowd quickly turned into gasps of panic. A gigantic Grarrl in the front whimpered aloud. Korsair was tempted to do the same as he tried to comprehend the faerie's words.

"I never knew it was that serious..." Galvin whispered to the Eyrie beside him. Everybody was in shock.

The faerie raised her voice again. This time they all stopped instantly to listen, anxious to hear what other news she had to give them.

"I'm not implying, of course, that such a disturbance would only affect Mystery Island. This could affect Neopia's entire climate as well. Fyora has, with all due respect, wracked her brain trying to come up with some way of preventing this crisis from ever happening."

She pointed towards a small cave near the base of the mountain. Three thousand Neopian eyes suddenly stared at it intently, wondering what importance it could have.

"Do you know where that leads...?"

Korsair himself had never seen the cave before, and wondered whether Galvin knew what it was. He leaned over and whispered in the Shoyru's ear.

"No, I haven't seen it before," Galvin replied in a quiet voice. "I wonder where it leads?" Before they had a chance to continue their conversation, the fire faerie continued speaking.

"That cave leads to the Chamber of Great Mystery, which in turn leads to the very center of the volcano itself," she said. "This is where we faeries believe the source of the trouble to be." She glanced over at the cave, which was blasting out intense heat over the island. "The Chamber is surrounded by a strange force that prevents any magical beings like faeries from entering. That is why we need you. Follow the clues and prevent a horrific disaster from occurring."

Korsair gulped, his flaming ears twitching nervously, and took a deep breath. He knew that Neopia depended on him and all the Neopets that were gathered here. I will do this, he thought to himself.

"If you are to survive the perils of the Chamber of Great Mystery," the fire faerie said, "then listen carefully. Inscribed on stone tablets outside the Chamber is this:

The monster's mouth is lined with teeth,
Watch for the gaps that lie beneath.

Once at the tongue that wiggles and squirms,
Bow to the floor, below the boulders that turn.

Hurry on through, to the stone Neopet.
Keep your eyes open; do not get wet.

When you finish where the red floor moves,
Go right or go left, this you must choose."

As she finished reciting the inscription, the fire faerie scanned the crowd of Neopets. She looked down and pointed to the front row. "In an orderly fashion, carefully try to make your way through the Cave," she ordered. "What lies waiting in there for you, I do not know. This is something you must find out."

Korsair made his way to the front of the Chamber with Galvin. As they entered the black cave, his fellow Neopets seemed to just disappear into the darkness as if by magic. It looked like this was something they all had to tackle on their own. Now all he had to do was remember those clues...

This must be the mouth of the monster, the Eyrie thought tentatively. Now, where are those gaps that are supposed to lie beneath?

A piercing scream suddenly disoriented him, and he felt the ground detach itself from his feet. Korsair didn't have time to spread his wings before finding the ground again, rather painfully. The hard, cold dirt tasted like dried oatmeal.

Well, at least I found the gaps, Korsair thought feebly.

He flexed his wings to see if anything was broken. Next, the Eyrie tried to fly up, but he realised that the ceiling was quite low. This puzzled him. Where could he have fallen from?

A groan echoed from the far side of the cave. Squinting, Korsair could make out a few weak, flickering flames in the distance.

"Galvin! Are you alright?" Korsair asked. He tried to force himself to sound concerned, but he was really relieved that someone was going to go through the tunnels with him.

"I - I'm fine," Galvin spluttered. "Where are we? Are we lost? Where are the others?"

Korsair thought about his answer carefully. "We're right here in this… er… dark tunnel, so we’re not really lost," he said. "It's just that everyone else is lost."

"Great," Galvin muttered. "Well, we might as well see where this tunnel goes. Hopefully, we'll find everyone else."

They walked for a long time, until reaching a dead end. There was nothing but a few boulders and darkness.

"Now what?" Korsair asked.

"Once at the tongue that wiggles and squirms,
Bow to the floor, below the boulders that turn," Galvin recited absentmindedly. "Bow to the floor, below the boulders that turn… that's it! We’ve got to bow to the floor!" Galvin said excitedly, dropping his head to the ground.

"Oh, come on," Korsair said skeptically as he started to move towards Galvin, accidentally knocking the Shoyru over with his tail. Galvin went tumbling across the ground.

There was a faint click, and the boulders parted to show…

"Come on!" Galvin said, scrambling to his feet. "We need to keep moving."

"Hurry on through, to the stone Neopet.
Keep your eyes open; do not get wet," Korsair repeated. "What does it mean by 'do not get wet,' though? There's no water in sight."

He'd spoke too soon, though. The two Neopets had just stepped through the entrance of the passageway, when the boulders suddenly scraped back into position. They were now trapped in there!

"Oh no!" Galvin cried. "How are we going to get out?"

"Er...Galvin?" Korsair asked nervously. "I think you'd better look down."

The Shoyru did so, then gasped at what he saw: a hole in the side of the passage had opened, and it was filled with running water that was quickly gushing into the cave. Already, the floor of the cave was covered in a layer of water.

"Run!" Korsair cried. "Hurry on through, to the stone Neopet!"

Together, Korsair and Galvin sprinted along the tunnel. The water level was rising, hindering their escape. Soon, the water was all around them, making them unable to move quickly.

Fortunately, Korsair suddenly noticed that the path was leading upwards. The level of the water got lower and lower as the Neopets scrambled up, and soon it lay far behind them.

The path smoothed out and opened into a large cavern. In the middle of the cavern was a huge shape.

"I think we've found the stone Neopet," Galvin said in awe...

"Wow... it's -- it's amazing..." Korsair whispered, unable to take his eyes off the statue.

Galvin, too, stared with huge, trance-like eyes at the Techo, but he soon shook his head to clear it. He grabbed Korsair's shoulders and shook him as well.

"Snap out of it!" Galvin commanded.

The Eyrie blinked and looked at him.

"When you finish where the red floor moves,
Go right or go left, this you must choose," the Shoyru continued. "What does that mean?"

Korsair stopped to think for a moment, then shrugged. "I don't know," he sighed, placing his head on the Stone Techo. Suddenly, the two Neopets heard a great rumbling. The ground above and below them began to shake devastatingly. The mouth of the Techo began to creak open, and the floor of the cavern began to split apart.

"Oh no! What's happening?!?" Galvin cried.

The cracks along the floor gave off an eerie, red glow, as a red liquid began to pour out of the cracks. Korsair immediately knew what was happening. "Lava!" he cried. "The red floor is lava!"

The Eyrie turned and jerked Galvin away from the statue, just as it disappeared into a crack in the ground, engulfed by steaming lava.

Korsair and Galvin bolted out of the cavern, and soon arrived at a fork in the cave. One tunnel led to the right, while one led to the left. Both looked exactly the same. The ground beneath the two Neopets was beginning to crack, and the lava was making its way through the cavern.

"We'll have to split up!" Korsair yelled to Galvin over the rumbling and the roar of the lava. "You go left! I'll go right!"

Galvin nodded and disappeared into the darkness of the left tunnel. Korsair took a deep breath, then spread his wings out and lifted himself off the ground. He flew down the right tunnel, hoping for the safety of Galvin, the other fire Neopets, and of course, himself...

With labored breathing, he followed the tunnel as it twisted and curved bewilderingly, until at last it plunged downward. The drop was so deep that Korsair began to wonder if he was diving into the heart of Neopia itself. The pursuing lava had been left behind somehow, but the hot air he flew in felt almost as thick. Before long, the darkness was so complete, that Korsair could see nothing but himself, convinced that he would crash into rock any second.

Suddenly, a voice in his head chanted some words he didn't understand:
Deep within the boiling earth,
There the monster has its birth.

Brilliant pinkish-white light burst all around him. Through dazzled tears, Korsair saw the lava beneath him just in time to pull up. Gasping, he aimed for a small spire of black rock and clung to it, panting for breath and waiting for his eyes to adjust.

Once they had, his mind was as dazzled as his eyes had been. He stared in awe at the enormous cavern he'd entered -- a dome of black rock with innumerable blacker channels leading from it to... where? He'd entered the cavern from one of these channels; the others had to go out further. The huge one up there, he wondered. Does it go out to the peak?

Not far below him, magma swirled and seethed in a red sea throughout the floor of the dome. In the center, glowing white-hot and trembling, floated and bobbed a monstrous egg...

As Korsair recited the words to himself, a chill came over his body (despite the blazing heat). "So... inside that egg is a monster!" he gasped.

"To stop this horror long foretold,
Remove your foe into the cold," the strange voice continued.

"I have to dive down into the magma and carry that giant thing all the way outside?" Korsair groaned.

Just then, Galvin burst through a tunnel into the cavern. "Hurry!" he shouted.

Korsair was completely shocked. "How did you get here?" the Eyrie asked.

"Reached a dead end, turned around, and found another passageway," Galvin gasped, arriving at the rock that Korsair was clinging onto.

"Did you hear the voice, too?" Korsair said.

"Yes!" Galvin yelled. "Now come on! Before that thing starts to crack!"

The two Neopets dove down towards the magma and the egg. As they did so, the heat closed in around them, threatening to consume them. However, the pair was protected by their fiery coats. Finally, they reached the egg.

"How do we hold on to this?" Korsair asked.

Galvin shrugged. "Just t--" He broke off when a magma bubble exploded dangerously close to him. Shakily, he said, "Let's just try, ok?"

Galvin and Korsair grappled with the egg for several minutes, until they finally had it balanced precariously between them. Taking a deep breath, they started flying up towards one of the large black openings in the ceiling of the cavern, hoping that it was the right one...

The Eyrie soon felt movement between his claws, and he watched in horror as a small web of cracks spread out from under his talons. He and Galvin exchanged looks of terror, both aware that they mirrored each other's expressions perfectly. Glancing down, Korsair saw the boiling lava floor, so close to them that it seemed like they had made no progress at all. Galvin noticed a lower tunnel being swallowed up. "The lava! It's rising!" the Shoyru cried, pumping his wings harder. "Come on!" he grunted. "We've got to make it! We've just got to!"

Korsair felt the Neopet inside the egg turn as another crack appeared. He felt himself losing his grip, as his claws scrabbled on the egg's smooth surface for something to hold onto, but no such hold existed. For a moment, the Eyrie thought that all was lost. At the last second, though, he found his grip. The egg's bottom came dangerously close to the surface of the lava, but the two Neopets flew it up and away. They just managed to hold onto the tunnel edge and push the egg ahead of them, away from the inferno.

Korsair paused, catching his breath.

"No, we've got to keep going. The lava is still rising. Come on!" Galvin cried, straining agaist the egg. The Eyrie joined him and, together, they pushed the egg forward. The tunnel began to slope steeply upwards.

"Well, this must be the right tunnel, since it goes up," Korsair gasped. "I wish it didn't go up quite so steeply, though."

"You and me both... if we don't get this egg out, though, then we're going to have a baby on our hands. Who knows what kind of baby it'll be?!?" the Shoyru answered. He stopped pushing for a second. The bubbling magma could be heard not far behind. "You could always just not bother and get cooked."

Setting his shoulder against the egg, Korsair grinned ironically. "I don't really fancy getting cooked," he said. "Especially not without the proper seasoning." Pushing with all the strength they could muster, the fire-coloured friends slowly but steadily made their way up the tunnel. The egg narrowly fit, but it fit neatly, almost as though the tunnel had been made that way on purpose, carved into the rock by ancient Neopians.

Korsair could feel the heat rising as the lava followed them upwards. He knew there was little time left. A loud cracking noise from the egg confirmed this.

"This isn't good," the Eyrie groaned as a bead of sweat ran down his cheek, quickly evaporating.

"Keep going! We're nearly there," Galvin said. He didn't sound totally sure, though. "We must be," he added hesitantly.

"I hope you're right," Korsair answered. He felt like he was about to drop, when suddenly he heard the mysterious voice again:
"You are here for a reason,
Creature of flame,
Do not give up; hear your name.
Korsair! Korsair!"

"Korsair! Korsair! Stop daydreaming! Can you feel that?" Galvin exclaimed.

"Feel what?" Korsair said, looking up. A slight breeze ruffled his feathers. Wind! The outside world! Oblivious to the pain that racked his body, he pushed with all his might.

One final push! The egg gave way and, carried by their enormous last effort, teetered on the edge before tumbling down the mountainside. Just ahead of the magma, Galvin and Korsair soared from the tunnel mouth, emerging from the side of the mountain, just below the crater. Spiraling upwards in elation, the two Neopets saw the thick, black smoke gradually disappear back into the crater, as it stopped pouring from the volcano. Korsair laughed out loud and looked at Galvin. For the second time, his expression and the Shoyru's were the same, but this time they radiated pure joy.

Glancing downwards, Korsair saw the great lava-coloured egg, his fellow creatures of flame gathered around it. In the cool night air, the egg no longer looked hot and menacing. Gliding towards the gathered flame Neopets, the Eyrie and the Shoyru went to witness the hatching of the mysterious lava-coloured Neopet.

The End