Aid

That's not exactly what the princess was expecting, but the unexpected was par for the course in these strange caverns. The creature was still too hot for her to come any closer; it's golden torso was thick and held a round head atop - its arms and legs were both longer than the average person.

"How do you know my name? and what is my quest?" quiried the princess. Her voice seemed to resound within the enormous cavern. It echoed from above and all about.

The lava pool continued its burping while the lava man only stood motionless. The heat of the whole chamber was becoming unbearable, yet the princess resolved not to flinch from such a strange creature.

For some brief moments, the only sound was the fading echo of the princess' voice and the bubbling of the lava pool. Her eyes turned to that pool: it was easily the grandest aperture within the earth that she had ever laid eyes upon. To the north (at least what her senses took to be the north) the lava overflowed and it moved on, slowly, down some endless subteranean path. The odor of sulpher was overwhelming and she coughed some.

"Greetings, Princess Astra," said the creature a second time. "Names I know and quests I follow. I am of the Earth, but you are only human and easily break."

"Then tell me where the dragon is," demanded the princess, her voice cracking a little as it began to dry.

The creature tilted its head. "Dragon? Your quest is not of dragons. You seek inner fulfilment, you seek the priceless pearl, you seek--"

The creature was interrupted by the sound of screaming. It resounded from above the cavern. From out of some upper lavatube (long dead and now cold) a wild-eyed Lord Fred fell, landing into a puddle of mud in a near corner of the cave.

He gathered himself, muttering something about strange librarians and began to look for an exit. What he found were the stares of the astounded princess and a faceless mudman. Coughing, he approached. The sulpher was tremendous and he wanted to leave quick, yet another sight grabbed his attention: the enormous pool of lava in the middle of the cavern. Lord Fred, Grand Seaman of Her Highness' Royal Navy had gone far and wide in the world aboard the seafaring vessels of his Queen, yet he had rarely gone into the bowels of the earth. Lava pools were something of a novelty to him.

As he pondered the pool a new thought entered into his mind: why would the King send a Knight of the Navy into a grubby hole of the Earth? Before he could ponder that question, however, he violently coughed up some blood. "Let's get the hades outta here!" he said to Astra.

"Agreed," she answered. "Will you come along?" Her question was aimed at the earthman.

"Yes," he answered, and they began to run up the only corridor they saw as an exit. Up the rock-hewn path they walked and away from the sulpherous chamber. The earthman walked slowly but did not turn his back; when his deed was completed, he would know the way back home.

1. As they rounded a corner they nearly fell over the inert bodies of three men. Upon inspecting them they discovered that they were pirates. "What would pirates be doing down here?" thought Fred, and then he realized: dragon's gold.

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