Windy flew and flew, and finally they were all soaring above the white clouds.
"It's high!" cried Raska.
"How can a fish like him can fly this high??" cried September.
"Whales' are not fishes, you idiot." replied Emily.
"Keep quiet now, we're landing!!" cried Miru, as they all saw the island with some flat and high mountain below.
Windy swerved his direction and began to dive down to the island.
"WAITWAITWAIT NOO!!" screamed Emily, clinging onto Kyle, as it seemed obvious that Windy's going to bump into the island.
But he was keeping his degrees slightly low so children won't fall, like 50 degrees in a triangle shape, then he was spinning again to land slightly above the ground.
All the kids were now feelling dizzy-but maybe excluding Raska.
"That was amazing! to ride the miracle whale, it felt wonderful!"
"Are you not feeling dizzy, or something?!" cried Emily.
"No! it felt perfectly wonderful!"
".....Aww....shall we get off now..?"
Then they all got off to land onto the ground, and Windy was looking as if he did not know what to do next.
But then, Miru told him to go back to Oceanland for now, that they're gonna call him with a whistle when they need him.
Windy seemed to have understood, and he left them by flying up and diving back into the sea.
"Can mermaid guys possibly communicate with sea animals..?"
"Well, I can't. but some Oceanlanders can. it's just like learing foreign languages. but Miracle whales can understand our words, although we can't understand what he says."
"Foreign......ehh...???" September haven't learned about any other languages than what he speaks now.
"Well, then he understood, anyways. that's good."
Then Raska urged everyone to get up, now they need to go to the place where his relatives stays for today.
"Now,now! let's go!"
"Uhh....according to Ms.Gray's map here, it seems that we're in the right island. but the problem is...ughh..as always, we don't exactly know the location where crystal is."
"Aww, don't worry, Kyle! maybe my relatives might know about that, after all, they're volcano keepers!"
"Volcano keepers?"
"Yes! as LD's volcanoes are magical, the magics filled into volcano might sometimes erupt and explode, then both ocean and land would be damaged of exploded lavas and rocks, and air polluted by smoke coming out."
"Well, another same thing of our world and LD, huh?" muttered Emily.
"What is it, Emily?"
"No, nothing."
"Anyways! I think we know where we are, we'll find our way there soon!"
- - - 🌋 - - -
Then in about half an hour, they found a volcano....a only huge mountain located in this island.
And Raska led them straight toward the volcano, and they found a stairs leading up to the top of volcano.
"Wha-a stairs?? on a...volcano??" cried Emily in disbelief.
"This is...really surprising. are you sure your relatives lives here, Ras?"
"Aww, please! me and my family have been visiting them over decades, see! they live in there, and if they moved, they would have informed us!"
Then they climbed the stairs to the top of the stairs, and there was another stairs, a bit steeper and narrower than what led them up.
So they got down the stairs carefully, and landed on the ground.
And around them, they could see the lake of lavas with high rocks surrounding them, and the whole inside was having the crimson shade from the deep color of lava, and there were walls of reddish volcano rocks, and so was floor.
Only exact 'ceiling' in the volcano was that of a small space of sky showing through the hole of the volcano.
Then Raska saw someone in the distant, and waved and called at them.
"Heyy~~!! Cindra!! Cole! it's me, cousin Raska! guys~~I'm with friends!!"
Then two figures standing in the distance turned to him, and suddenly flew toward them in a full speed. and-
"Raska!!"
"Ras!! hey, it's been so long! how've you been??"
"Is this guys your friends? hey, did you brought your girlfriend?"
"Haha, no! I don't have any relationships like that yet-how about you two?"
"Nah, why would we? always staying here fine and all!"
"Guys, these are my cousins, Cindra and Cole Nifers."
"Hey."
"Hi!"
Cindra and Cole seemed like brothers.
Cole was a lot younger boy, and Cindra was an older one.
Both of them had dark hair and strangely bright orange wings, wearing eye catching orange scarves around their necks.
"And guys, these are my friends, fairy girl's called Miru, and from the left, they're Kyle, S.S., Emily and September."
"Nice to meet you!"
"Are you guys all different species?"
"Well...uh, September's a beast, and Miru's a fairy...and...me and Emily are...siblings. and...we're humans...but...uh..." Kyle hesitated a lot, afraid that these children's behavior of bright friendliness to shift to alert despise.
"Oh, is that so? that's cool!"
But fortunately, these children were one of those people who didn't mind that.
"Come to our house! our parents won't mind if your Raska's friends!"
Then they were all headed to Raska's cousins' house.
It was a small house built of volcano rocks, but it certainly looked comfortable.
And there was a strange big lump right next to the house.
It seemed that Cindra and Cole's scarves are made of that thing--
Wait a second.....
Suddenly, the lump, which was curled on the sturdy map, moved and stretched, and something like lizard's tail stretched out.
Then it obviously stretched its body to show its yawning head.
All of them screamed and yelped excluding Raska and his cousins.
"Sally!" called Cole delightfully.
"S..Sally..?"
"My, Sally, you'll scare our friends!"
"Is that a salamandra?"
"Don't say 'it', Ras! she's a decent creature!"
"She...?" muttered Emily, thinking that the creature obviously looked like a literal dinosaur, and yet its a female and has a cute name like...Sally? seriously?
"Yeah, she's a volcano keeper, just like us!" said Cole, approaching Sally.
When a small fairy boy approached her, Sally purred and nuzzled his patting hand with her snout.
"Ah..."
And all of them accepted that the creature's gentle unlike how she looked.
"Here, we almost forgot! you need to get your scents checked by Sally, or she might think of you as a stranger. don't worry! she's really good at smelling scents, even if you get lost, she'll find you well!"
"Um...okay?"
So five of them got their clothes or hands smelled by Sally, but when it came to Emily's turn, she was all stiff and shaking, and Kyle informed them that Emily's scared of heights and reptiles.
"Reptiles? like...lizard or snake?"
"Well. yes."
"........"
And after they all got their smells checked by Sally, she actually licked Emily's face like a friendly dog kiss, but for someone who were afraid of reptiles, that was a torture, so she nearly cried, but she only clung onto Kyle and didn't say a word.
- - - 🌋 - - -
And after they got into the house and met Raska's aunt and uncle, they got to know that Cindra brothers' mother was Raska's mother's sister, so that's how they were related.
And after they had the special volcano foods, a stew made of special vegetable growing in the woods-something like, our world's tomatoes, Mrs.Nifer would say,
"Sorry~we couldn't prepare that much, for plants grow outside of the volcano."
"Ah-it's fine! really! we're greatful for your foods and help!"
And September and Emily snickered and taught Miru about how to act and live in their journey.
And meanwhile, S.S. and Kyle would learn from Raska and cousins about how they actually 'Keep' the volcano.
"We use our family's special magic. Sally can also use that!"
"What magic?" asked S.S..
"You see, we can explain, but we can only show you when we have to keep the volcano, you see..." murmured Cole.
"That's okay. it's fine by just an explanation."
"Really? well, you see! we swallow the magics coming from the boiling lava! we swallow the smokes with magic in them, with our magic, so that lavas won't escape."
"Um...is it okay to do that?" queried Kyle.
"It's okay! our family have been living as a volcano keepers since our grandpa's grandpa, so it's fine!"
"That's great!"
"..Kyle. we need to go ask Mr. and Mrs. Nifers about that thing."
"Ah, right. I'm just worried whether we would bother them or not..."
"About what? what is it?" asked Cole.
And Raska told Cindra and Cole about four friends journeying to find the nine crystals to make Riverside siblings return home.
"Crystal?"
"Yeah-according to the map which...uh..our..teacher? gave us, it said that crystal's located in this island."
"But none of us in family had noticed anything like that..."
"Anyways, how's that crystal thing looks like?" asked Cindra.
"Ah, it looks..well, like..this." said Kyle. showing one of their crystals to them.
"Woah! it looks beautiful!"
"Can we touch that?"
"Guys, it's not safe to do that, they're containing dangerous magics in them."
"Oh--! okay, then..but no, we haven't seen anything like this."
"..Okay."
"S.S....what are we going to do if we can never find it?"
"...We'll have to search the woods, then."
- - - 🌋 - - -
That night, six friends spent a night in a spare room where Raska and his family used to stay when they come over, and since there were only three beds, they needed to decide who's going to sleep where.
"Well...I'll sleep with Raska, and Emily/Miru and Sep/S.S. would be good. those anyone has problem with that?"
"No."
"It's fine."
"Okay."
So they spent a night and fell asleep.
And next morning, Miru saw that Raska was having a slightly queer glow to his wings.
"Hey Ras...what's wrong with your wings?"
"Oh this? this is what happens when my family comes over to volcano place! me and my father are not actual volcano keeper fairies, so effects show on our wings-an effect from lava's magic."
"Huh...I see."
Then next morning, kids decided to search the woods and find some meal ingredients&search for crystals.
So they all went to search for things, and when they gathered at the front of the volcano again to gather their ingredients and for four friends, to check whether they found anything like a crystal,
"No...I couldn't find anything."
"So did I."
"Huh? what do you mean? you guys did excellent jobs in collecting ingredients!" Cindra was saying.
So they all just smiled and sighed.
But they couldn't deny that ingredients were great.
Kyle had shot some fruits down from the high trees, and September and Miru caught some fishes from seashore.
And when September asked Miru whether it was fine to catch fishes, she replied:
"It's undeniable that it might look wrong, but mermaids also hunt seashells and seaweeds to eat. and fairies make soup and foods out of crops and fishes. so, it's not that much of a trouble for us either..."
"Uh...okay..??"
And Emily collected some berries and good herbs, from her knowledge learned from Ventus City, and S.S......
"WHAAAAT??"
She came back with her basket half full of plants, and half full of creatures with either sharp teeth or claws.
"I was collecting herbs, but then they came lunging at me. so I caught them...but I let some of them flee."
"Hey...that's great! but...they're some of the dangerous guys living in the corner of the woods...I wonder what drove them out to attack people.." muttered Cindra.
"Well...at least their meats are good, so I'm sure mom and dad would be amazed...let's go.."
But everyone could tell that Cindra was shocked to see such dangerous creatures caught and became their food for a week.
And S.S. herself didn't care a less for that.
She only turned around to take a look at the woods one last time when she heard a word 'Drove out' from Cindra.