Far ahead, where the volcano Shoyru had Voltager by the arm, flying swiftly across
the towns and cities, they soon encountered the volcano, deep in the depths of
Neopia. Voltager was still badly burned, but she stirred, only for a brief moment,
to speak.
"What are you doing, Brother?" she whispered. The Shoyru did not answer, for
it had taken a long dive and headed for the volcano's mouth.
"AGGGGGGH!" screamed Voltager, suddenly finding her fear again. The Shoyru
dived right through the gaping hole leading to the lava hot interior of the
volcano, flew straight for a rock and landed, whisking Voltager to the side,
nearly throwing her into the lava pit. The lava rumbled fiercely, and Voltager
was on her knees in terror. The volcano-like dragon paused for a minute, and
cast a spiteful smile at her and began to speak.
"Your friends aren't with you," he said spitefully. There was a deeper note
in his voice than Voltager thought there would, and her brother was going crazy.
Not treating his sister like a sister. Acting like an inferno, and his whole
body was gleaming as if he were on fire. Unlike a Fire Shoyru, this one is the
sort that can blend with flames, she thought. Its dark, rocky-brown wings with
yellow scruffy streaks move as if they were actually flames against a rock in
a lava pit. However this was created, it wouldn't have survived without turning
evil.
"Did you hear me?" the voice repeated.
"Y... yes, I heard," stuttered Voltager, weakly. The intense hot flames from
the Shoyru's body made her feel hot and sick. Nevertheless, she took two steps
forward.
"Why are you treating me like this, Brother?" she cried aloud suddenly. Her
burns felt hotter and more painful than ever, and she fell again.
"Call me Inferno," the Shoyru growled, fiercely. He swept his fiery tail and
caught Voltager in the stomach. The force sent her flying into a rock ahead
of her. The Shoyru paused as she struggled to get up, and spoke again.
"You're not as powerful as you think you were," he said, with a sly grin.
"W...what do you mean?" she yelled. Tears of pain and frustration were slipping
down her cheeks. Electric jolts conducted this, causing sparks to hit her body
beneath the tar, hurting her even more. "Y... you've never s... seen me in com...
combat before!"
"What makes you think that?"
"Another sly grin, he's up to something," Voltager thought desperately. "But
what? He's turned evil, Aqua can't have been right about what he said. He has
turned evil."
"Now tell me," he inquired, threateningly. "What do you think set off the
fire in the hospital?"
"My... my electric shock, of course!" she bawled back at him.
Inferno glared. He moved towards her, grabbed her by the throat and shook
her.
"WHAT," he thundered, shaking her faster by the second, "DO-YOU-THINK-STARTED-THE-FIRE?"
"It's," she gasped breathlessly, "it's the electric s... shock why... which
cured Shoyru's i... illness but blew t... the hospital up!"
"Don't be stupid," he said disgustedly, letting go of Voltager's throat. He
paced back and forth in short, brisk paces. Voltager backed away to the edge
of the rock, held her breath and threw up. She rested her head on the rock next
to her and tried to breathe fresh air, failed, and rushed to face Inferno.
"Just what do you mean, Brother?"
"DON'T EVER CALL ME THAT!" Inferno hurled a huge blast of fire directly at
Voltager's body. Caught by the blast, she fell back beside the wall of the volcano,
bruised her head and fell to the floor of the large rock, unconscious. Inferno
cast another evil grin.
"Just think yourself lucky," he chuckled, grabbing Voltager by the arm and
beginning to swing her whole body around vertically, aiming for the night sky.
"Think yourself lucky that Big Brother ain't going to throw you into the volcano
to die, HE won't, he wouldn't dare, but you'll find out who will. Now get out
of here!" And he released his grip from Voltager, sending her sailing airborne
and flying so far across the sky that she was heading toward the same place
where Shoyru and Kacheek had landed after escaping the forest peril.
Shoyru and Kacheek were fast asleep under a rug outside the town. They were
so tired and sleepy that they even slept through Voltager's fall on top of them.
Not even Shoyru stirred. Along with Goldy and Red, Wingman and Felicity were
nowhere to be seen.
After a good night's rest, Voltager had started to recover a few burns. Shoyru
and Kacheek were still asleep, and Goldy, Red, Wingman and Felicity were still
missing. Then, slowly, Voltager stretched and sat up on the rug. Her mouth still
tasted awful and she felt starving, but she was glad to be safe, for now.
Just then Shoyru was waking up, and to his surprise, he found Voltager squatting
in front of him on the rug.
"V...Voltager!" he said in a hushed voice. "You're safe." He gave her a friendly
smile and brushed her head to soothe her.
"Am I?" she said, a little confused. "But Inferno hit me with a huge ball
of fire, and..."
"Who's Inferno?" asked Shoyru, startled. Voltager hesitated. Kacheek snapped
awake and sat bolt upright at the sound of Shoyru's voice.
"But..."
"Sssh, Kacheek, not now." Shoyru said. Kacheek hushed, yawned and pulled the
rug over himself, back to sleep. At last Voltager gave a sigh, then spoke.
"Inferno," she began, slowly. "He's... he's my oldest brother. He... he's
in the volcano!" Voltager panicked.
"Calm yourself," Shoyru whispered, frantic. "You're safe with me, but you're
badly hurt, so you must rest. Your older brother must be tired by now."
"But... but he shows no mercy!" Voltager screamed, clapping her hands over
her own head in frustration. "He has become a menace! Aqua wasn't even there,
so he can't even see that h--"
"No enemies show mercy so soon," Shoyru said hushed. "But please keep the
noise down, otherwise you'll wake the whole town up."
Voltager looked behind her. A large brick building with tall, pike gates and
indecipherable words scrawled on the front gates came into view. She stared
at the writing, frowning.
"This town must be foreign," she whispered. "Tell me, what happened to Felicity
and Wingman?" Her voice got a little more panicky. "And Aqua? Is he still in
the forest?"
"I doubt it, but I don't think he's far, either. As for Goldy and Red, I don't
have a clue..."
"Maybe they've gone to fight Inferno alone!"
"Will you PLEASE calm down!"
Shoyru clutched his head and stood up, dizzily.
"You... you've got a strong voice for a small Shoyru like you," he said, weakly.
He sat down again carelessly next to Kacheek, but gently enough to not wake
him up. "I can tell that Shoyru did a great deal of damage to you, and he didn't
half throw a fireball. But like Kacheek and I before you against the Skeith,
you put up a good fight. Did you use your electric power?"
"I couldn't," Voltager quivered. "I was too weak. I tried to send out a jolt,
but my tears only conducted the electricity. I'm not going to go in that volcano
again in a hurry." Tears were blinding her eyes again and were shining as if
made of expensive glass models. She slumped down on top of Kacheek, who woke
up with complete shock and sat bolt upright. He screamed.
"EEEEEEEKK!"
"Sorry Kacheek, bad landing," Voltager muttered, shaking. She stood up again,
and this time Kacheek did the same. He'd had enough.
"So what is going on? And where are the other guys?"
"We don't know," Shoyru told him promptly, eyes watering. He covered his eyes
with his wings to hide his tears. "But I'm going now to investigate." He held
his splitting headache-head tightly in his arms, and stood up weakly, wobbling
from one foot to another.
Kacheek stood up. "Wherever you go, we go to! Too many times we end up with
a situation where you become half-dead! I'm not going to let it happen again,
OK?"
The three pets turned 'round and ran back into the forestland. It was a long
walk, and Shoyru even started to drag his legs. Voltager was nervously lagging
behind, looking round from side to side to see if anyone was there. Then she
hurried to catch up. The forestland now smelled of burning wood and ashes, and
no wealthy tree was left standing. Others were burned to the ground.
Blinking back tears, Shoyru pulled back the burnt branches to see what was
behind. After pulling back the branches he suddenly noticed a tiny droplet of
blood fall to the ground. An icy chill flooded his body and nearly grounded
him. Kacheek bustled up behind him.
"W... what's the matter bud?" he said hurriedly. Shoyru pointed to the ground
and said nothing. He pulled the branch back completely and stared into the clearing
behind. He saw nothing. He blinked again, throwing back the tears that blocked
his view. Then the same icy chill darted through his body like a thunderbolt
and filled his head spilling more tears as he caught sight of Felicity's body
sprawled across the ground. Her wing was torn, her arms and legs were burnt
and her body and face was scratched, leaving only bleeding cuts and what looked
like a corpse of a young, blue Shoyru.
"NO! N... NO WAY! NOT FELICITY!" he cried.
To be continued... | 
