The second of the series finally is finished. I'm not as happy with the story for this one as with the red one. Though it was my first time trying writing in first person as well as my first time writing Venus and Zafoo's dynamic, hope you like it though. (Because it's not the greatest I'm not sure whether this one will actually be canon or not)

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"I can't believe you did that!!" I yell,

"What do you mean what I did?!" "You did that!!" He hollers back,

We totally screwed up, no I totally screwed up. I shouldn't have swapped the idols! Now we're going to die, and even if we don't there's no way I'll ever be able to tell Nightshade how I feel now.

Then I feel the wall of heat from the blisteringly hot lava hit me. The lava is flowing quickly from the volcano that my arrogant attempt to undermine Zafoo had made erupt, through angering a very old and very angry Volcan spirit.

My chest burns from a mixture of the smoke and ash from the eruption as well as the strain of physical activity. I was lagging, it quickly becomes clear that there was no chance of outrunning it, another great stroke of arrogance to think I could, I'd redirect it, or at least slow it to give zafoo and the few members of the village below a chance to flee. Zafoo definitely deserves Nightshade's heart more in that moment. but I couldn't help but smile to myself as I selfishly think about Zafoo groveling before Nightshade having to apologise for not having done enough to save me, his oldest friend, as I skid to a halt spraying a cloud of orang sand and turning to face the oncoming lava.
ell back, feeling power surge through my arms as I prepared to block the lava,
"Venus! What are you doing " he yells

"Buying you time!" I yell back

"But... But there's no way you'll hold it off, you'll surely be killed!" He shouts over the roar of the volcano,

"It was my fault so I've got to fix it though" I reply as calmly as the situation would allow "now you go, it would break him if he loses us both"

"But- but you can just come with me, this isn't a major incident, it was just a tribe not fulfilling their volcan spirit" he groveles in vain

"No, no, you get out of here and take the real idol back to the lower temple" I reply waving my arms to shoo him away as well as cast a protective rune.
Reluctantly he flies off and I'm left alone with the consequences of my mistake.

The air burns as the flow smashes into my protective barrier, the force is tremendous, not just from the momentum from the slope, but the fury of Magnigis the volcan spirit behind the blast.

We were lucky that he took a minute to notice the idol, otherwise we'd have been vaporised instantly. He really is overdramatic though, the idols are precisely the same other than the stone they're carved from, with the replica actually being more magically conductive than the original.

My legs ache as I strain to push the flow back, the lava is cooling, slowly I can see it begining to form a stoney crust, but it's still rising. Getting closer and closer to the top of the mystic shield, soon it will breach it then me, and the rest of the valley will be goners.
To the far left I can see a stream of lava escape round the side of the shield. As I stand panting, watching the new lava river slow as it thins out and cools, it clicks, if I slowly make my way down the slope, hopefully I can thin out the lava enough to solidify it.

It's agony, inching down a scorching slope of sand while cautiously moving a mystic shield holding back an eruption's worth of lava. Knowing that one wrong move would be curtain death.

My progress is slow but I can see it cooling as it slowly thins out, I'm getting there, it's taking every ounce of strength but it's working, and I'm going to do it. Or so I ambitiously think, an ambitious thought that's undermined quickly.

It is all a bit of a blur after that, I think it's the mountain that goes first, with a violent boom a distant peak of the mountain exploded to life, I remember spluttering on ash from this new eruption, then without warning a sharp, searing pain to my head as a flaming hot rock struck it at speed sending me clattering to the ground.
The pain was unbearable and my head was spinning, the pain was so bad that I black out, the last thing I remember is seeing my mystic shield fade as the last of my strength wained. The half solid lava that had been restrained now lurched slowly towards me, with the faint noise of wing beats in the background as I slipped out of consciousness I expected that to be my end.

But it wasn't, I came round some time later in a bed in the medical hut in the village. I had it explained that just after I'd blacked out Zafoo had swooped in, ever the heroin and carried me down to the village where they'd treated my injuries.

"But why's the village still standing?" I ask, drawing myself up in the bed.

"Because you and your reckless plan actually worked" Zafoo replies "and you unintentionally managed to rid the land of their biggest problem"

"Huh, I blew up their mountain though, how does that solve anything?" I bemusedly respond

"You blocked Magnigis' attack on the valley, which made him a tad too angry, the second part of the mountain exploding with his rage was his downfall. That bit of the mountain fell on him when he exploded it"

"Wait so I accidentally killed a Volcan spirit?!" I incredulously reply

"Pretty much, yeah" he airily replied with a smile


"I'm sorry for trying to sabotage you" I say after a pause "...and thank you for saving me"

"Don't worry about it" he replies "truce till Nightshade makes his feelings known"

"Ok, truce" I reply, extending my hand for a handshake,
my body aches from the movement, made worse when he turns it into a hug. "Ouch" at least he's soft so it could have been worse.

"Let's go home, before you cause any more trouble" he says, releasing his grip.

"Hahaha, alright" I say, easing myself out of the little wooden bed I'd been put in after the fight. Stumbling a little, I put my arm round Zafoo and we head off, slowly, homeward.

I've got a lot of paperwork to do about this mission, I think as we depart.