Flann awoke feeling nauseous. She could not move or sense anything, as her body was still recovering from a comatose state. As her perception slowly returned to her, she could smell the acrid, arid air, and hear screams, some panicked, others, agonizing. Her vision returned slowly, revealing a sky, dark and thick-clouded. She lifted her head. Flann was lying flat on a rough rocky hill, and before her stretched an endless expanse of lava, an agitated pool of fiery orange and yellow. It was the Sea of Flames.
Near the shore where countless human figures, immobile and shoulder-deep in the molten rock. A few Maledicti were chasing down a few victims of the curse, as an older brother chases his younger, turbulent relative. None had noticed Flann had awoken. She watched someone be lifted off his feet by a Maledicti and be taken into the lava, where the demon cast a spell upon him. From that moment forth, the cursed human thrashed around in the lava, unable to move more than his torso.
She looked at her own body, which had been altered by the curse. She, like the blacksmith, was now composed of the partly solidified lava. Somehow, her bones felt cold, even if she knew her flesh was hotter than any human's. She still wore the bloodied and damaged armour that she had been cursed in.
"Flann, is that you?" asked a voice to her right.
Flann lay among several victims of the Maledicti. The voice belonged to one of them, to a figure whose face Flann found quite handsome despite being altered by the curse. The figure had a spiky mass of metallic black hair, wore a mail shirt torn above the heart, and the rings were coated in glistening blood. She recognized his voice, although it was also slightly raspier.
"Is that you, Walgen?" she inquired, careful not to raise her voice.
"Yes."
Another voice sounded from behind Flann, that of the High Priest Caron.
"Listen, you two, we must hide from those demons before they root us in the lava. On my signal, I want you to follow me. Try to wake up those around you, but do not wait tarry."
As he finished that sentence, one of the Maledicti glanced over. It growled, throwing the human it had grabbed into the lava at the feet of one of his kin before marching towards those it had seen speaking.
"No time. Run." hissed Caron.
The three of them, plus a half-dozen who had woken nearby, ran. Caron led them away from the shore, into a strange forest of ashbone trees. The ground was uneven and cover in fragments of ashbone from the imitation-vegetation. The trees were several dozen meters high, and instead of branches and leaves, had ashbone spikes. Flann gasped as they passed by a cursed victim impaled on a low branch. It looked up as they passed by, reaching out and gurgling at them.
Behind them, one of those who had followed was caught; the Maledicti was faster than them and moved swiftly among the trees. It caught a second by the neck and dragged them back to the shore.
Caron continued running for several minutes, but soon all were exhausted. They stopped beneath a particularly large ashbone tree, one whose lower branches were large, fan-like and were weaved with long fallen tree fragments to form a dome – rudimentary tent, two meters high and four in diametre. The branches were bent, so that the tent was formed with the trunk near the wall, and the opening at the opposite side.
"We should be safe here for now," said Caron.
Flann examined the weaved ashbone twigs.
"Caron, this is not natural." she said, "This looks like the works of birds... a nest."
The high priest, scratching his rough stone-skin, remained silent, pensive.
"We need to find a way to restore my mana. Then, I will be able to use magic to fight off the Maledicti."
"How do we do that?" asked a nervous cursed victim.
Flann recognized him as one of the workers in the general store.
"Nourishment is all that is needed to replenish mana," answered Caron, "Then, it is a matter of waiting."
"What food can we find here?" asked another cursed one, "There are no fruit on these trees, nor meat in the demons."
"What do the demons eat?" inquired Walgen.
"Who knows," responded Caron. "Few have ever returned from this place, as you could see from the sheer number of cursed beings along the shore. The few that have returned to the realm of the living had little knowledge and by now are dead."
All turned to the opening in the nest-like tent at the sound of growling.
"They've found us!" cried out the general store worker.
From the opening emerged not a Maledicti, but a much smaller, yet no less threatening, creature. It had a small round body and four arching legs tipped with long pointed ashbone spikes. Its oval mouth had two sets of pointed teeth and two sets of mandibles hanging below. A spiny crest ran along its back and two pairs of eyes peered at the group. One pair was closer to the front, and stared unmoving, while the other, having one eye on each side, watched its flanks.
"What is that thing?" someone whimpered.
"Stand back, it must be dangerous," said Caron.
Walgen ripped a sharp shard of ashbone from the nest wall. He grasped it like he would a one-handed sword and stepped in front of Caron and the others. Seeing the fragment be torn from the nest, the creature roared a shrill, albeit unimpressive, sound. It jumped forward and struck at Walgen with one of its front spikes. Walgen sidestepped, evading the blow, and riposted, aiming for the creature's eyes. He pushed forward, attacking aggressively, and gouged out three of its eyes. With that, the creature roared again and fled.
After a moment of silence, Flann remarked: "That thing had nasty teeth. Maybe it eats other creatures."
"Alright, let us assume that these creatures are predators." said Walgen, on the lookout at the entrance. "What do the prey eat?"
"They could eat fragments of the trees." suggested Flann.
"We should not stay much longer in this nest. I am certain we will find our answers if we push further inland," decided Caron.
They fled from the nest, heading deeper into the ashbone forest. They crossed a few more cursed ones impaled on the trees. Each of them were babbling nonsense at them as they passed by, until they met one who still had his sanity. He was hooked onto a tree near a small pond of lava.
"Look-y here! Still walking on them two feet?" he laughed. "You ain't gonna be free for long – better make the best of it."
Caron approached him.
"Can you help us?" Caron inquired, "I need to know how these creatures nourish themselves."
"A wee bit thirsty, are ya? You'd best wet your parched throats."
The poor tree-ornament pointed at the lava.
"Take a nice, refreshing drink, good man."
The group gathered at the edge of the lava.
"They drink this? I suppose that lava is their equivalent to water, then," remarked Flann.
Caron kneeled at the edge of the pond. He dipped his hand and lifted a handful.
"It doesn't feel hot." he observed.
He swallowed the handful and sat down. After a minute or so, one of the other cursed ones became impatient.
"Well? What do you feel?".
"I do believe I feel the slightest bit of strength returning." answered the high priest.
He once more kneeled at the lava's edge and drank more, a few good mouthfuls.
"I suggest all of you drink as well," said Caron as he stood up. "We must find a place to hide."
Laughter broke out from the tree.
"There's no escape, no place to hide! I tried, tried... tried, but never found anything that ain't already got those nasty stone crabs living in it. Try to get caught close to the shore, unless you wanna end up on a tree," said the tree-man.
Caron signaled the others to follow and led the way. As they headed further inland, the terrain began to rise. Trees were fewer as flat terrain yielded to a small mountain. They kept their distance from the many caves and alcoves in the mountain face, as they were all guarded by the stone crabs, as had warned the one on the tree. They scaled the gradual slope to the top of the mountain, which was no more than a hundred meters above the surrounding forest floor. As Caron reached the top and took a look around, his shoulders and jaw dropped.
"It seems we have few options," he muttered, "We are on an island."
Flann reached the top and saw for herself.
The island was quite large, perhaps two kilometer in length and half as wide, and was almost entirely covered in ashbone trees. The all lava immediately along the shore was speckled with dark figures, other cursed humans, Flann assumed.
"There has to be some sort of main land," she said as she look around them.
The air was dark and opaque beyond the vicinity of the island; nothing could be seen far beyond the shores. The only source of light seemed to be the lava,
"The Maledicti are coming," urged Walgen, "Perhaps we should not have come up here, at least not all at once."
They were soon surrounded by four Maledicti and were subdued without difficulty, despite Walgen trying to fend one off and Caron trying to use what little mana he had recovered. Both attempts failed, and they were carried away, towards the nearest shore.
"At least they are kind enough to take us all the way to the lava." someone commented.
Suddenly, three of the crabs jumped out from a denser pack of trees and attacked one of the Maledicti. The demon had been carrying one cursed human, so it dropped its charge to better defend itself. The cursed one tried to run, but was cut down in one strike by one of the crabs, who caught him in the back of the leg. He fell flat and screamed as the crab clambered on and tore at his neck with its mandibles.
Flann was carried out of sight, but she could still hear the cursed human, the Maledicti and the crabs. All went silent shortly after, and the Maledicti returned to the group empty-handed.