"I don't want to smear the chimney smoke on the wall..." Rahul began today at sunset, when the Athamana had already been stomping around in the place that Achilleus had given them for a good two weeks. "But this thing really doesn't want to appear." He shook his head and kicked a pebble. He had been up and down for a while now and was getting bored of this situation. "Are you sure we're in the right place..." The boy didn't have a chance to finish the sentence, because the next moment the ground disappeared from under his feet and he started falling again. "To hell with it!" He screamed and squeezed his eyes.
"Rahul!" He also heard someone calling after him, but he was no longer concerned with anything but his loudly beating heart. He fell again, there was nothing under him again, he will be lost again, again... Suddenly, pleasantly warm water surrounded his body. Out of sheer habit, he began to swim upwards and took a huge breath when his head broke the surface of the water. However, when he looked up, he screamed at the sight and to his greatest surprise, the something covered in black with orange veins screamed as well, which only made Rahul scream again.
"Coming!" Rahul immediately raised his head at the sound and it was only thanks to his reflexes that Citar and the others did not fall on his head. Of course it's typical, only the Athamanas are reckless enough to jump headfirst into a fucking chasm.
"Rahul! Are you okay? You screamed!" Citar swam to him with a worried look, when the team members had all come to the surface.
"Nyium... Nyium... Nyiumgyi!" Rahul raised a trembling hand and pointed towards the black cube.
"Nyiumgyi is your great-grand mother!" The black cube grunted as its figure suddenly began to move and became a human figure with glowing orange skin, black hair and completely red eyes. Under its skin, it was as if lava was boiling. "It is not enough that they damaged my energy system first. Now they won't even let me bathe! What kind of sweet granite do you want again hegins, huh?" The creature put its hands on its hips, and its mouth was completely red. The team just blinked at it with wide eyes and open mouths. "Staring is impolite and if one of you doesn't answer damn fast. I'll make sure that the bath water becomes boiling water." It pointed down to the water.
"Ex... Excuse us?" Citar muttered.
"We didn't want to disturb you." Teveli continued.
"Just to collect minerals." Achilleus finished.
"Oh, you wanted to clean." The creature turned its head. "You won't find much now." It shrugged. "Anyway, you could get out of the bath and tell me how you got here. Hegins don't usually find themselves this deep into the ground." It waved and then made a strange popping sound, before several smaller black and orange veined cubes jumped into the room from the passages.
"What the hell are you?" The question slipped out of Rahul.
"Not a nyiumgyi, I can assure you." The creature sat down on one of the cubes.
"Rahul fell down, and we jumped down." Said Citar, with which he managed to make everyone look towards him. "What now? It is appropriate to answer if you are asked."
"If you're not a nyiumgyi, then what are you?" Rahul asked again, and the creature chuckled.
"Me? Something more ancient than nyiumgyis. I am the magma under the volcanoes. This is my territory as long as the mountains surround this basin. You can say that I am the heart of this place. I'm Lamassa, the lifeblood of the valley and the source of its strength." It spreads its arms, but the team just looked at it in confusion. "I don't have time to explain everything to you." It snorted. "I have a lot to do. I have a lot of things to sort out. Last year was my last five-year renewal..." It said as a small cube with a bag on top of it jumped towards it. The creature took the bag off the top of the cube and stroked it. "Thanks, little massa."
"Are you the heart of Madüjawr?" Citar prodded with wide-open eyes and the creature turning towards him and noded its head to the side.
"Is that what you call my territory?" It asked back and when Citar nodded it giggled. "Yes. I am. So, as I said, last year was my five-year renewal, but this year someone from above tapped my energy flow, so now I have to tidy up and renew myself again." It grumbled. "You mean no harm." It stated as if it was aware of their intentions. "There you go. You wanted minerals. This is from my current renewal." It threw the bag at Rahul.
"Your renewal?" Razvan asked.
"Yes. Just like you shed your hair and skin, I shed my old shape every five years." It picked up a small cube and threw it up. "It takes me five years to eat up my energies, which I use to keep this land alive." It patted the nearest wall.
"Five years?" Achilleus blinked. "Then the territory of the tribes is moving because of you?" He asked, and the creature gave a firm nod. "But how?" The boy grunted before the creature raised the small cube in his hand.
"All right, listen. I'll just say this once, I have about four lava drops left before I have to get back to work." It shook its head. "This little massa was once me, but for the sake of simplicity, imagine that it is me." It said, as the boys gathered around it curiously. "Each side of the massa represents an area. The seventh area is the center of massa. Every five years, when I have to peel myself off, my current skin falls to pieces." As it says this, the small cube grows, the veins on it become more lively and the sides separate, and then each piece falls to the ground, becoming seven smaller cubes. "The biggest part is my new shape, its cracks decide which area is where. In the terrain above, it shows with the boundaries opening up and my energy flowing out. At the moment of the crack, each area is a separate whole, which my energy moves to its new place." Lamassa explained.
"And the minerals?" Citar asked.
"Broken pieces after the two areas collided." The creature shrugged its shoulders and raised its head. "It's time for you to go. It is not healthy for people to stay here for long. Do me a favor and don't come back, I have enough trouble with your kind anyway. Draining the power of my lava flows without question." It shook its head.
"You don't want to kill us?" Benkó asked suspiciously.
"It's unnecessary. To me you are nothing but dust. No matter how many of you I kill, there will only be more." The lava creature stood up and turned away from them.
"Does anyone know how to get out?" Suk asked, but the team members only looked at each other with worried eyes.
"Up the tunnel to the right." The lava creature said to them, and the team immediately started in the given direction.
"That was weirder than going through the Shadow World." Achilleus remarked softly, when they saw the light of the sun at the top of the tunnel.
"It was." Benkó and the others agreed as they all left the tunnel.
"Now, let's go back to sleep." The team turned as one towards Lamassa's voice coming from the tunnel, but before any of them could speak, the mouth of the tunnel closed as if it had never been there, leaving the surprised Athamanas alone.