ULRIC KNIGHT
After walking a few miles from the mist the heat hits like a slap the moment.
It's sudden, almost violent after the cold damp that clung to us for hours. The light is sharper here, glaring off black stone and turning the ground into a shimmering haze. My eyes take a second to adjust, but the air doesn't give me that same luxury, it scrapes down my throat with a taste like rust and ash.
Hayden lifts a hand to block the sun, squinting at the jagged rise ahead.
"Well," he mutters, "at least we're done with that shitshow...now we can just roast alive."
Elias walks past him without slowing, his gaze locked on the stretch of mountains in front of us. Black rock. Split open in places to reveal glowing veins deep beneath, pulsing with molten light like the earth itself is breathing. Every so often, a distant hiss cuts through the air, followed by a blast of heat that makes the ground tremble.
"This is the pass," Elias says, voice clipped. "We go straight through."
The path isn't wide, maybe two men side by side and the drop on either side is… well, I don't bother looking too long. The wind carries heat up from below, the smell of sulfur so strong it burns the back of my throat.
We start moving. The stone under our boots shifts sometimes, crumbling into small cascades of pebbles that disappear into the smoke below. My shirt clings to my back almost immediately.
A sudden blast erupts from a vent in the cliff face to our right. I throw an arm out to push Hayden back just before the wave of heat sweeps across us. The hairs on my arm curl at the ends, the side of my jacket smoking faintly.
"Holy!-" Hayden coughs, waving at the air.
Elias glances over his shoulder. "Stay close to the wall. The vents are unpredictable."
We press on. The path narrows, and I feel the vibration of the mountain in my boots before I hear the rumble. A sharp crack, then part of the ledge ahead shears away. Hayden's foot slips toward the gap, but I grab the back of his jacket and yank him hard against me.
"Watch it," I growl.
He exhales a shaky laugh. "You planning on catching me every time or do I get a quota?"
"You fall once, you're gone," I say.
We keep moving, but the air gets worse, heavy, dry, and sharp enough that every breath feels like pulling glass into my lungs. My vision blurs around the edges from the heat radiating off the stone.
Elias stops, scanning the way ahead. The path disappears into a jagged climb with vents hissing on either side, small bursts of flame shooting out at uneven intervals.
"We won't make it like this," he says.
Hayden leans on his knees, panting. "Oh, so this is the part where you say we should turn around? Can't do that, We need to do this for our Luna."
"No." Elias straightens, his eyes catching the molten glow in the distance. "We shift. Wolves can handle more heat, move faster, and leap the gaps."
Hayden stares at him. "Right. And we just keep going the rest of the way naked when we shift back? Sounds fantastic."
"It's either that," Elias says flatly, "or we collapse here and burn."
I look ahead, gauging the terrain. He's right. Human form won't cut it, not with the vents firing this close and the air stripping the strength from our lungs.
"We'll manage something after," I say. "Move."
Hayden throws his hands up. "Fine. But if I end up running into a pack of strangers bare-assed, I'm blaming both of you."
We shift.
The change is instant, the ground feels different under my paws, heat searing through the pads but not crippling. My wolf's lungs draw in the air more efficiently, sifting the heat and sulfur. The scents sharpen: molten rock, burning stone, the faint tang of Elias and Hayden ahead of me.
We move faster. The world narrows to the path, the jumps, the timing of each leap to avoid the bursts of fire. A vent erupts just as Elias lands on the far side, he flattens low, the heat curling over him in a shimmering wave.
Hayden miscalculates a jump over a narrow lava river. His paws hit too close to the edge, stone crumbling beneath him. I lunge, grab his scruff in my teeth, and haul him back before he drops into the glow below.
He snarls once, more embarrassment than anger then keeps moving.
The worst stretch comes near the peak. The path is gone entirely, replaced by jagged vertical rock. The vents here breathe in a rhythm, heat building like the inhale of some enormous creature before each burst. We climb between them, claws scraping the stone, paws burning against the heat.
At the top, the ground flattens just enough for a final sprint. The glow fades. The air cools with each stride until, finally, the black rock gives way to hard brown earth and the scent of scorched grass instead of sulfur.
I shift halfway, just enough to breathe through the bond. We don't shift back until we're through this forest, I say. We don't need naked Hayden scaring strangers.
Hayden's laugh crackles in my head, even through the exhaustion. Well, that's so thoughtful Ulric, will make it up to you later.
I ignores him, standing rigid at the treeline. The RedHollow Alpha told us that the CrimsonHollow decides who enters. We need to stay sharp. If we lose focus–
We don't come back out, Elias finishes.
We stand there for a long moment, the three of us, the fire-mountains at our backs and the witch's forest ahead. The air between us thrums with the bond with resolve, with the quiet kind of fear none of us admit out loud.
Then I lower my head. We move as one.
And we step forward.
❦︎ To Be Continued ❦︎