Face down, medium black hair streaming behind him, he was free-falling in a spread-eagle position.

Below him, in the declining light, he could see the faint outline of the black bull, falling at the same speed. And just beyond the bull, the stone.

At this point, they had been falling for over an hour now, with no end in sight.

The s.p.a.ce around them grew darker as they plummeted. Until only pitch blackness surrounded them.

Gradually, faint amber markings started appearing on the craggy walls.

Mysteriously, the stone leading the way started to respond to an unknown signal. It pulsed orange. Bright, then dim. Bright, then dim.

Van watched with a numb, detached curiosity. He'd fallen into the h.e.l.l's gaping maw, resigned himself to his death, and yet, it seemed that the Heavens were playing with him. It had been over half an hour and he still had yet to die!

His initial fear had long worn away into a cold, heavy stone in his chest. Still there, but numbing. Waiting for your death for that long tends to have that effect on you.

In fact, with the pretty glowing markings whizzing past and the ethereal dancing glow of the stone below him, Van perked up. A light show before the death! Superb, he thought sarcastically.

What lay down there?

Probably death. And a messy end when he splattered against something hard. Or maybe the bull's bulky ma.s.s would soften the blow. And then he could die slowly, instead of instantly.

Van clenched his fists. Unreconciled.

He imagined his little sister's devastation, her being kicked out of the village, her living harsh days without her elder brother by her side to protect her – No, he could not die here!

He was not allowed to!

The air slowly warmed. Below, the stone had become a tiny, iridescent flame. Brilliant rays of light scattered in all directions, and the wall patterns – which had become denser and more intricate – responded with excitement.

A steady thump, thump, thump emerged above the white noise of air rus.h.i.+ng past. The sound started off a steady, faint sound that Van rather thought sounded like a heartbeat. But no human's heartbeat could be that loud.

As they descended further, it slowly grew into a reverberating boom, boom, boom that rattled Van's eardrums and knocked his ribs. The markings on the wall began to change from a light amber to a startling deep orange.

Below him, the bull let out a miserable groan.

It had never experienced this kind of heat before. The hot, dry air was thin and unsatisfying to breathe in and scorched the lungs painfully. It was uneasy, and never more uncomfortable in its life – after all, its habitat was the cool, lush forests of the mountain side, not a volcano! The great, mighty bull flailed about crazily. It could not control itself - deep within its hind brain was an instinctive fear of fire.

The heat was oppressive, smothering, but Van could barely feel it.

Since young, he had had an unnatural affinity for fire. He had never been burned.

To him, the licking of flames against his palms felt dog-like, eager to greet him. A funny and pleasant sensation. In the past, he liked to stroll up to a campfire and stick his hands inside flames just to watch Finn's eyes and mouth turn into little 'o's of wonder and astonishment. But after that, she had burned herself trying to copy him. He had been half-expecting that she would share his ability, and was shocked and confused when she cried out in pain. Cradling the little white hand and the painful-looking red blister on it, he could not forgive himself. So, he never did it again, and slowly, his strange ability to resist flames became just a quirk of his he paid little attention to.

Well, it was coming quite in handy now.

The walls thundered. The orange glow deepened into a blood orange.

Boom. Boom. Boom.

Van's heart beat to the rhythm as he fell.

________________

Softly, from far away.

A boom, boom, boom.

The lotus s.h.i.+vered. A fractured mind. Curled within.

A bright spark. Coming nearer. Nearer.

[...could it be...?]

Softly. Closer now. A resonating heartbeat.

________________

Burning air seared Van's eyes and nostrils. Falling below him, the bull tossed its head a few times in misery before slumping down in a dead faint.

Van tossed it a disgusted look – we wouldn't be here if you weren't greedy!

Although Van maintained a constant slew of insults towards the bull in his consciousness, he knew himself that, even if the bull had not come, another beast would have. A stronger one would have killed him in one strike.

The dense wall patterns glowed and pulsed vermillion. Van felt as if flames were dancing on his skin.

The stone shuddered. Rainbow light spilt from it as if it was releasing all of its energy in a final act.

Far in the distance, a speck of seething red appeared.

[Not good!]

Van's expression paled.

The speck of red grew larger, closer at an impossibly fast rate. Soon, Van could see and feel it for what it was – a roiling ma.s.s of seething molten magma.

The boy instinctively knew that the vermillion magma was not something he could resist. If he fell into it he would be nothing but ash in a matter of seconds.

Far below, the stone stopped and hovered just above the magma.

Weng weng weng!

Pulses of energy radiated outwards from it.

At first, nothing happened.

Then, with a great shudder, something began to rise up. An indistinct, but ma.s.sive shape could be seen within the vermillion magma. A strong pressure squeezed Van's lungs.

Suddenly, a brilliant blue edge sliced through the red. Then another. Slowly, a diamond-like blue lotus emerged from the magma. Like a sacred Buddha, it seemed untouchable, immovable.

The stone pulsed again.

Weng weng weng!

A pause, then, the lotus responded. Crystalline petals started to unfurl. It seemed to communicate with the stone. As Van watched, the stone floated downwards. The stone and lotus seemed like two long-lost friends, glad to be greeting each other. One by one, ma.s.sive crystal lotus petals opened outwards. The stone maintained its steady downwards descent, seeming to want entry into the lotus.

At the precise instant, the stone softly touched a petal - a small object shot out!

As if fleeing, the object made a wobbly, mad dash upwards. But even as it did, a scaled figure flew out of the boiling vermillion magma and intercepted it! The menacing, black, dragon-like serpent opened its fanged mouth wide and gnashed its teeth at the small fleeing object.

There was a faint, desperate cry.

The object barely managed to evade the sharp teeth of the scaled beast, still shooting upwards. Its flight was still wobbly, but quickly stabilising. Bizarrely, it seemed to be aiming for Van.

And following right behind? The wide-open maw of the menacing dragon-serpent.

By now, Van was so bewildered, shocked and in awe of the situation that he didn't know what to think.

Thinking of events up to now, it was incredible!

Incredibly stupid!

First, he'd been unjustly attacked by a red bird, which mocked him. Later, he killed it but bizarrely found a pebble in its stomach. For this pebble, he was chased by an angry powerful bull that smashed through trees like mas.h.i.+ng potatoes, and just when he thought he'd won, the stupid bull dragged him into the strange hole in the ground!

If that wasn't crazy enough, the random stone he'd found started magically glowing and pulsing, and summoned some kind of lotus. And now, from out of nowhere, there was a fearsome, flying dragon-serpent with its jaws wide open for Van to fall into!

Van wondered if he had hallucinated the past couple days.

[Boy!]

Yep, he was hallucinating. He was even hearing a human voice where there was no one else but himself! He didn't know whether he should laugh or cry.

[Boy, save me! I can help you escape from here!]

The voice was a bit louder.

Really, his wishful mind was really taking it too far - as if he could be saved in this situation! He was falling at great speed and just a few hundred metres below was fearsome boiling magma, and flying up towards him was a serpent grim reaper! Really didn't know which option was better.

[Down here, you f*****g ****!]

Van froze.

He would be an idiot if he didn't realize by now that the voice wasn't his imagination. What the heck came after f*****g?

****? He didn't know that was even a word!

[Down here!]

Van looked down. The scaled figure was chasing after the fleeing object as it snapped its jaws.

[OUCH! Ow! G-get this - ow - death wyrm off me! Oi - are you listening, down here!]

Van blinked. The only thing 'down there' was the two figures down below happily dancing away. Could it be...? Well, a talking inanimate object was hardly much in the scheme of the last couple of days. He felt oddly jaded.

[I swear to the First Heaven, if you stall it, I can rescue us both from this s.h.i.+tty place!]

A chance at life?

Van dared to gamble.

Sharpening his vision, he quickly drew out a fire-starting rock and aimed it at the death wyrm with all his strength.

The stone struck with determination. Thwack! It hit the eye of the death wyrm. It flinched in surprise. It had not seen the small human plummeting down towards it, only the large ma.s.s of the bull in front. Hatred flickered through its eyes. Just this one moment was enough to lengthen the distance between it and the small object in front.

The object flew upwards with lightning speed, the death wyrm only a few metres behind.

[Brace yourself, kid!]

The small flying object flashed upwards and with no warning, rammed itself into the s.p.a.ce between Van's brows. There was no pain, only a brief scalding feeling.

[Allow me!]

A small, black ring appeared in his mind.