Scouting For Romance

Entry 56, Part 2

Jovaisa brought us into the Ashlands proper. Deep inside the volcano cluster, where the air was thick with smog and ash and death. So little could grow between the bright glowing lava rivers that flowed from the volcano peaks, especially when frequent earthquakes had shattered the rocky landscape so thoroughly.

He turned to us, tired, bruised, wounded, and spoke in Lèonese. "[All that's left now is to drag yourselves east. The training stops when you've made it to the far side of the Ashlands. Good luck.]"

And then he just walked away. No further instruction, no words of encouragement, no specified time limit or how many miles it was. Once he disappeared beyond one of the many crags in the landscape, the rest of us filtered out. Not only did we have to survive in this volcanic wasteland, but we had to travel as well, just like what we'll do on Basugio.

But really, the survival bit was the worst part. The torture may have been the worst single event over the course of this final test, but the prolonged act of survival was worse over time.

It was unbearably hot, oddly humid, and seemed to affect me more than Tytus. The ash choked my lungs after anything more than a moderately deep breath, and the hunger pains and thirst never went away. There were the occasional animals to hunt, but all were absurdly dangerous.

Well armored, hulking predators with panels all over their body. Incredibly thin pack hunters with massive ears to regulate heat. Giant worms which dug through the obsidian and rock. Enormous swooping birds with leathery wings that used the heat of volcanoes and geysers to never touch the ground. A mess of bugs and parasites made the land their home, and it wasn't rare to see any of the above creatures covered in boils and sores from these bugs slowly eating them from the inside, or spreading their toxins.

As for the plant life, it was mostly moss that grew on the undersides of rocks, or in the occasional cold, damp cave. The cave network around the place was a sprawling complex beneath the cluster of volcanos, and while there were often crystal clear springs of water, we were warned not to tread any deeper in those caves since we'd get lost and nobody would look for us. From historical experience, I know those caves held vast forests of edible plants somewhere inside, but they were deep underground, and we lacked the native-beasts intuition to safely return without getting lost. Luckily, water was more important and no beasts would try to eat us around the watering holes. It's a weird phenomenon where animals wouldn't attack each other near the springs. Tytus and I often sat down near the waters to rest, and the beasts would just come walking up, paying us no mind. They were so docile we even got to pet some.

The only plant I saw during the whole excursion, except for the moss, was the rare pink volcano bud, growing in the center of a cavern pool. It's a plant of such incredible cultural significance that I just had to explain it's value to Tytus, even if I lacked the proficiency in Lèonese to word it. Luckily, after I began speaking in Low Peldish, the Ashlander who came to beat me understood my excitement and allowed me to tell Tytus all about the history of the plant before he started whacking me with a stick.

But yeah, it was hell. We never got to rest after our month of only 15 hours of sleep, so we were all suffering throughout. We lugged around our heavy metal training swords, which were really only useful when hunting the beasts covered in armored chitin. One solid swing and the panels tended to crack violently, and the momentum crushed the meat underneath more often than not. I saw Jovaisa cooking meat in a stream of lava at one point, so we got the idea from him.

But the food we got wasn't just from hunting. At points throughout the cluster, the Ashlanders brought in several small crates of food and water. We were free to take whatever we wanted, so long as we could get past the guards. This place was the origin of the Ashguard (who defended cargo transports from thieves) after all, it only makes sense that we had a challenge like this.