Strange Beginnings

Ch:1

Strange Beginnings

She walked peacefully in the field of flowers while the screams of pain and agony filled the air. Just another normal morning in an otherwise boring life. She looked, stopped and sat down on some purple flowers and looked over at the mysterious source of the sound. The humungous wall of burning lava that surrounded her fair village. Kanaka studied the wall as she often did for she found it quite curious.

The wall made a giant square with her village at the very center and the heat could be felt from anywhere in the village. It was far enough removed that none of the buildings were ever in danger yet taller than any building.

Kanaka laid down to look up at the clear sky and noticed the screaming had stopped. She was curious about that sound. It could often and randomly be heard coming from the wall though no one ever paid it any heed. After all it was forbidden to go anywhere near the lava.

Of course, that never stopped Kanaka. She would often go to the forbidden wall to try and learn more about it. But she could never get too close, and not because of the heat; that never bothered her anyways. The wall had a tall fence the size of the buildings protecting it. Of course, Kanaka learned about many different materials, stones and woods and such, in school. But this material was different. It was a dark blood red and felt almost alive, and evil.

Kanaka closed her eyes and sighed. Maybe she would never find out the secrets of her little village, her tiny world. But she would try nonetheless.

"Kanaka get off the grass and come eat!" Called one of the adults. Kanaka rolled her eyes as she heard the voice of her "protector" Cali. She got up and rubbed the dirt of her shirt then walked slowly over to Cali who looked sad, as always.

Cali was a young woman, only ten years Kanaka's senior. She was pretty by the village standards, not that there existed any other standard thought Kanaka. She always had messy blonde hair that was so long it went down to her hips. With big clear blue eyes and a tanned skin tone from working all day in the sun. She could have married anyone in the village, but she was assigned "protector" to Kanaka's family. Which meant a life of solitude for poor Cali.

None of the adults really seemed to care about Kanaka, well except for the elder and Cali. But Kanaka always noticed that they looked at her with sad eyes. Perhaps it was because of how Cali had told her that both her parents had died under mysterious circumstances. Or, thought Kanaka, it was because of how the elder told her that everyone in her family was cursed to die soon after the birth of their child.

Neither of the two thoughts bothered her very much though. After all she could not miss parents she never had. Not to mention they obviously knew they were going to die. Her own death did not concern her either since she no one in the village really liked her, and she did not really like anyone in the village. She always thought they were too dumb and willing to accept any answer, while they thought her constant questions and search for answers was annoying.

Kanaka shrugged the thought away as she walked over to her protector who had a guardian next to her.

Kanaka always wondered about two things. Why did her family need a guardian if they only died after giving new life? And what where the guardian?

Everyone knew about the guardians, or at least claimed to know about them. The truth was that they were giant creatures made of a special stone that was not taught in school. They were all 8 feet tall and moved awkwardly, as if they never learned to walk. They did not speak or have any emotions for that matter. But they were always there, watching the villagers with their bright red eyes that glowed in the dark. They shadowed the protector and the elder but otherwise seemed to move randomly.

Everyone just accepted them as a part of village life and never really questioned them. The elder claimed they protected the village and sometimes they would bring people flowers or water. Then again the elder claimed nothing ever could ever go in or out of the village. He claimed that all the guardians were the same. But Kanaka knew better than that.

She had started following the guardians and eventually learned that they did not feel anything. They also had a blind spot which she used to mark them with a number. That way she could keep track of them, and she noticed two things. The first was that they did all have a different marking on the bottom of their left foot. Which she noticed after almost getting stepped on by one when marking it. She also learned that they worked on a rotation of twenty.

There were five sets of twenty guardians making a total of one hundred all together. But nobody ever saw more than twenty. They rotated every three days but nobody, including Kanaka, ever saw them rotate shifts. She also never managed to find out where they all go to rest but she figured it must be outside the walls.

She walked past her protector without hardly giving her a glance as Kanaka walked back to the center of the village. At the center, she could see all the villagers gathered around the "Holy Well."

Kanaka never understood the big deal. Every day at the start and end of the day all the villagers gathered and ate together. They ate close to the Holy Well that no one was allowed to go near, which Kanaka found very ironic. The well was made of the same material as the fence around the wall and was as tall as the tallest building. The weird part was that the well had a pit of lava that surrounded it. Of course, it also had a 6-foot-tall fence around it; but still, who put a lava pit around a water well? The weirdest part though was the fact that the water did not come from inside the well, but from the top. Water continuously flowed down from the top of the well, and would rush down like a contained waterfall.

Or at least that was how Kanaka imagined a waterfall to be like. She had never actually seen one but had read about them in books and they sounded like fun. Kanaka took her spot to the right of the elder while her protector sat to his left.

"Your late" said the elder in his raspy voice "again."

"Sorry" replied Kanaka with a smile "I was busy listening to the music of live creatures being burned to death."

The elder sighed but smiled softly, he was used to her quick-witted responses of course. "And how do you know they are the screams of someone being burned alive?" He smiled as he looked at her with kind and gentle though ultimately sad eyes.

Kanaka smiled wide as if she had just received a new toy. "Jimmy got caught on fire the other day while playing with the other boys. He screamed similar but not as loud or horrifically. Not only that but whatever screams must be alive and when it gets quiet one can assume it has died. Not so mysteriously since we are surrounded by a wall of lava. Go figure, right?"

The elder chuckled and smiled wider as if he had anticipated her response. "True, but as you say. It is a wall of lava and would surely burned anyone to a crisp. So, who would be alive and dumb enough to knowingly walk into it? After all you must have learned by now in school about the survival instincts that all living creatures possess."

Kanaka thought for maybe half a second and then responded "actually elder. I think they do not willingly walk into it. It seems to me that they are somehow dragged in and do not know that there is a wall of lava. I have been paying attention and noticed that before they scream in pain they first yelp in surprise and then scream in terror, not pain. As if they did not expect to get dragged in, and only noticed the lava once it is too late."

The elder laughed and patted Kanaka on the head. "Me to be so young and full of imagination. How I envy you little one." Kanaka smiled back and thought of how much she liked the elder.

The elder was the only one who seemed not to mind her constant questions and ideas. He always laughed and smiled and was nice to her. He listened and seemed to care, and even though he was not her family he always treated her like family.

Kanaka ate some bread and then threw a little bit at a guardian who was standing a little to the side watching the gathering. She of course received scowls from everyone except for the elder who looked at her with some confusion.

"Why would you throw bread at a guardian? Surely you know you cannot harm it." Kanaka smiled and innocently replied "I thought perhaps they get hungry. After all, according to survival instincts everything must be nourished and I have never seen them eat. Perhaps they nourish themselves in the same way as plants do."

The elder laughed loudly and shocked everyone who sitting close to him. No one could ever understand how the cursed girl could make the wise elder laugh when no one else could.

"My dear our guardians do not need to eat, or get nourishment. Because they are not alive, they are gifts from the divines meant to keep us safe."

Kanaka grumbled as she bit off some of her bread. "That is highly arguable, guards are not meant to keep the inmates safe. Only captive and complacent."

The elder looked down at Kanaka curiously and lowered his voice a little. "Please do share your new theory." Kanaka smiled and looked him in the eyes with such joy as she only found with him. Whenever he lowered his voice it meant he did not want the rest of the village to overhear, which meant she was on to something.

"Well, I was reading some books the other day" replied Kanaka in a hushed voice. "Apparently, rulers would oftentimes need to punish people so they invented incarceration. There are many different forms but the ideal, if a bit extreme, form is the one we are in."

The elder stayed quiet and listened attentively to the young woman who was clearly eager to elaborate. "Well the first thing you need to do is rather all the degenerates and place them in a central location that is not too big. Also, it must be detached from the rest of civilization. Once that is done you must construct a tall and powerful wall or defense that prevents the inmates from escaping. However, if you want to be truly effective you must make it so it also stopped people from the outside to enter, so as to give the inmates the illusion of safety. Once completed you should give them work to do within the confines of their prison, for example make food and educate themselves. Very important though, you must dictate what is taught and how so as to make the inmates nae and complacent. Otherwise they begin to think for themselves and free will always leads to rebellion and insubordination. That is why armies take away soldiers free will as well, but I digress."

The elder smiled for he knew she often would get excited when talking about something which would lead her to talk about something else. "Stay focused, one goal at a time" she would often hear him chastise.

"Next" continued Kanaka "you must put the guards on a seemingly random interval, so they are always at peak performance. But, the inmates do not know when the changes in shift occur and cannot take advantage of the momentary confusion. Ideally all the guards should be of similar height and body texture so they appear almost as if they are all the same. To further the illusion, it is best to give them exact uniforms so that they are indistinguishable from one another. Even better would be if they are either expressionless or have something to cover their faces so they appear expressionless, if you cannot tell their emotional state it is harder to take advantage of them or fool them. It would of course help if they were unable to talk which is nearly impossible with any living creature, unless they are not living creatures."

The elder chuckled as he saw how his own words were quickly implanted into her ideas to work against him. Truly she was a quick-thinking girl and excellent at adapting herself.

"But now you want the inmates not only to feel safe, and be complacent, but to never want to leave" Kanaka said with a mischievous smile. "The best way to do that is to fool them into thinking they are better inside than outside. They are not incarcerated; they are free because they are saved. The guards are not jailers; they are guardians or saviors. A gift not a punishment, a blessing not a curse. Once you have them all fooled they will foolishly teach their off springs the same thing, and since you have already dictated what they may learn, you force them to believe the lies as truth. Does not hurt that the new generation will know nothing of being incarcerated or that you controlled what they would learn from the very beginning."

The elder waited a second until it was clear that Kanaka was done, for now. "But why not just kill the inmates to begin with?" His question did not shock Kanaka in the least because she herself had asked that question and could only think of one answer. "Because they were important to kill, but too powerful to leave unchecked in the world."

The elder nodded as if this sounded plausible, but then smiled teasingly and Kanaka knew he was going to try and mess with her somehow. "But where are these so-called jailers? Shouldn't they be watching my every step?"

Kanaka rolled her eyes, "yea because it's not like you can't take eat break some bread without a giant stone monster hovering over you like a freaking tower of horror." The elder laughed at her typical sarcastic answer and her usual eye roll that always seemed to accompany a smile.

"Perhaps but you have never seen them try and hurt you?" The elder wistfully replied. "But they do not try and help me either" Kanaka replied in a heartbeat to which the elder shrugged. "Perhaps they have never had a reason too."

Kanaka jumped up and threw herself forward, she hit the floor with a loud thump and started screaming in the middle of the crowd. "HELP I'M HURT AND CAN'T GET UP!" She shouted in agony as the crowd moved farther away and scowled at her foolishness. After hearing the elder laughing at her for a few minutes she got up and calmly walked over to him.

"Nope they didn't even flinch" she replied in satisfaction as if she had just proved her own theory. "Perhaps you are simply not a good actress" the elder replied still laughing. Kanaka struck a ridiculous pose and exclaimed "ME!? Why I am the best actress in all the land! I have traveled far and wide performing at every single stone monster theater in all the known world!"

The elder continued to laugh as he responded "truly that makes up for a small crowd little one!" Kanaka smiled and looked around to see that everyone was leaving. Either she had bothered the hunger right out of them or dinner was over. Well either way it seemed like dinner was over, Kanaka thought to herself.

She walked over to the elder and hugged him tightly then wished him goodnight and walked with her protector back home. A guardian trailing close behind.

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The ground burned underneath her feet as she ran. She could hear the growling closing in behind her, so she spun around quickly and stabbed out with her dirk. But nothing was there, yet she could see them off in the distance. Terrible creatures with horns and scales, some had fur and pointed ears, all of them had plenty of teeth and looked like they ate people.

Kanaka could hear the screams of pain and torment all around her of people being ripped apart, shredded to bits, burned alive, buried alive, beaten into the stones, and so much worse. Bodies hung in the air all around her, a nook around their necks and blood covering their bodies. She was not sure how, but somehow she knew they had hung themselves to stop the pain, except it did not work. They screamed in horror from where they hanged as fire would rain down from the sky and set them slowly ablaze.

She could hear that laughter, like nailed on stone that echoed throughout the place. "We have been waiting for you young one. We have not forgotten, and will have our revenge. He cannot save you, he does not want too, he saves no one anymore child. He will watch and laugh as we punish you for his crimes against us. Our war shall never end!"

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Kanaka woke up with a jolt, covered in sweat as she caught her breath. Yet again she had that same terrible nightmare that kept her up many a night. It felt so real, she thought, how could it simply be a nightmare. She was suddenly comforted by the sound of screaming that was coming over from the wall. Strange that the most comforting sound would be that of pain, she thought.

It did not matter though, she to get dressed and quickly. Or else she would be late to breakfast, again. So, she jumped out of bed and quickly threw some random clothes on her as she rushed out to where her protector was not so patiently waiting for her.

"Oh you look like mess!" Poor Cali said and Kanaka simply rolled her eyes. "I feel like a mess so it fits me." Kanaka was fully aware that her hair was a mess and her clothes probably did not match but she could care less. It was not like she had anyone to dress for anyways, Kanaka thought to herself.

"Oh how will you ever find yourself a suitable mate looking like that?" Cali looked like she was going to have a heart attack which made Kanaka smile for the first time that morning. "Well it is not like anyone likes me anyways Cali" she said "and quite frankly the feeling is mutual."

"Perhaps it is because they would prefer a lady" Cali said with a scorn. Kanaka laughed "nah, I think perhaps they simply like dolls to play with" she said with a snort. Cali frowned all the more and said "young lady how will you ever have children with anyone if you continue with that attitude."

Kanaka rolled her eyes "oh I'm sorry for wanting to live. It must some sort of pesky survival instinct or something. Perhaps you should ask the elder about it."

Cali looked like she was ready to smack Kanaka with how mad she was. Which in all honesty Kanaka probably deserved, she thought but would of course never openly admit. "Why can you not just accept this as part of life? Why must you be so difficult? Cali seemed truly flustered.

"Perhaps I just think there is more to life than farming and being used to repopulate our village. Which by the way will backfire since I will give birth to one child and yet me and my spouse will die so up one and down two. Sounds like bad math to me" Kanaka said with a defiant shrug.

Cali stuttered a few times as if trying to decide the worst thing she should shout at Kanaka but before she could Kanaka suddenly had a thought. "Are all my true blooded ancestor's women? Does my family only give birth to women?"

Cali stuttered yet again but this time with surprise. Finally, she nodded and weekly replied "yes" as if ashamed of the response. "That is part of the curse."

Kanaka groaned loudly. "Great so not only does my guy die and I die, but if I want a son I am screwed because the universe was all like you know what? That one family, lets mess with them. BOOM! No sons for you ha-ha."

Cali stuttered yet again, Kanaka couldn't help but think of how funny it was that Cali still got shocked by her sarcasm. She laughed and walked happily over to the village center. Cali would later on realize that Kanaka clearly did not care if she had a son or daughter since she clearly did not care to have children. She was only seventeen after all, and she had lots of mysteries to solve, she was much too busy to worry about some stupid boys.

Breakfast was uneventful, Kanaka was not a big morning person so the elder did not talk to her much. Afterwards she was off to another boring day of school. She always sat in the back of the class and next to the window. She liked the outdoors and hated having to be trapped in a tiny little room with people she did not like. It seemed to her that one should learn outside since the world was outside. After all, how much could you learn about anything from the confines of a room?

The teacher was of course deep in a lecture while Kanaka was looking out the window and doodling in the back of a book she had been reading. "Kanaka are you paying attention!?" Kanaka groaned, of course she was not paying attention and of course the teacher knew that but she still chose to call her out every time. It was a rather annoying routine that Kanaka could have done without.

"No ma'am I wasn't" replied Kanaka while still looking out the window. "And pray tell why not?" Kanaka turned to face the scolding teacher and students. "Well miss, it would appear that I have no interest in paying attention in any institute that proclaims to want to educate its inhabitants and yet works effortlessly at sucking the life and intelligence out of its victims."

The teacher's face turned red as she shouted at Kanaka. "How dare you be so insolate you ungrateful little child!" Kanaka rolled her eyes "oh yes you definitely convinced me. My argument has all but been completely destroyed by your masterful use of words" Kanaka's voice dripped with sarcasm and the teacher looked ready to jump over and smack her.

Kanaka sighed "I can actually feel you sucking at my intellect like a pesky mosquito, except I am not allowed to hurt you, so yes I chose to ignore you." The teacher yelled at her "do not think I will not talk to your protector about this young lady!" Kanaka simply rolled her eyes "oh no whatever shall I do?" She spoke in a greatly exaggerated voice which Kanaka assumed must be how a damsel would sound. "Oh the pure horror! Please do not invoke the ever-powerful protector! She might make me listen to one of her dreadful lectures!"

Kanaka ended her comment with a smile as she saw the teacher getting flustered. "If your parents were still alive they would certainly disapprove! They would be extremely disappointed in you" shouted the teacher in frustration. The class got extremely quiet as even the teacher seemed taken back by the harsh comment. Kanaka simply smiled though, it did not bother in the least and the teacher just gave her yet another tool for her argument.

"Wow" Kanaka said as she fainted surprise "trying to guilt trip me? Is that really how low you would scoop? I'm impressed, however since they are not alive it seems I cannot disappoint them, now can I? Perhaps they would not approve of my behavior but I will never know that, so thank you for reminding everyone that I have no parents to discipline me. I am sure we all needed a reminder, especially the girl who has no parents and is given reminders everywhere she goes. Oh, well, since I am just some rebellious and stupid child who has no family I guess it is just a waste of time for me to be here. I am clearly not going to learn and there is no one to force me too."

Kanaka grabbed her things and walked out of the classroom. She knew everyone would be talking about this for days but she did not care. The teacher gave her the perfect excuse to dismiss herself and no one would argue with her about it. So, she was happy, except now she was not sure what to do. She had not planned quite that far out.

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"Perhaps we should get started" he said with a wicked smile. "Should it rain down fire? Or perhaps we could have a massacre!? How about we flood the Valley with cheese!?"

He smiled as he thought of many ingenious ideas. But then he suddenly sighed as his mind gathered together in one place. "No, I need something simple and personal. I need her to prove what she is capable of. I need the plan to work, I need her to work, or die trying. It is what I did after all, though I guess her situation is very different."

He shrugged as he summoned a purple butterfly and sent it off to show her his latest gift for the Valley.

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She walked slowly around the purple flowers as she thought about the latest book she had read. It was a weird book about an apocalyptic world and a single unwilling heroine, she thought it was cute but of course had to try and analyze all the deeper meanings and ideas behind it.

She realized it was dark out and her protector would be furiously looking for her but she did not really care at the moment. For some odd reason, she felt at peace, as though life had suddenly become wonderful and lovely instead of annoying and boring. Suddenly she saw a strange thing.

Something went through the lava wall.

Kanaka thought she must be going crazy but sure enough she could see it getting closer. A purple butterfly that moved faster than anything she had ever seen. Not that she had seen a lot, but still it was pretty fast in her opinion.

Half a million questions suddenly whirled around in her head. How did a butterfly survive a wall of lava? Why would a butterfly go into a wall of lava? Why was it flying so fast? Did they all fly super-fast like that? Why did it seem to fly with a purpose? Why was it making a b line? Where was, it heading?

The butterfly moved past Kanaka's head and kept flying towards the center of the village. Kanaka immediately ran after it but kept a distance of about fifteen steps, by her count. She was curious but had heard all too well the lesson of the cat, and she only had one life to spare.

The butterfly flew right over the Holy Well and stopped. It just kept flying in circles over the well, like it had found something. Kanaka looked around and noticed immediately the lack of presence in the area. It was true the villagers would all be asleep, but where were the guardians? Had she found their shift trade time? Or were they hiding and waiting for something?

She walked slowly closer to the well, staying crouched low to the floor like she had been taught in combat training. As she got closer she could hear a splashing sound coming from the well, clearly it was no longer empty. She stopped about five or seven steps from the well and then lunged forward in a roll so she landed with her back to the well and her arms up defensively, in case the guardians attacked. But after several seconds of nothing moving except for whatever was in the well, she decided to turn and face the well.

Before she did though she suddenly noticed how nice the fence around the well felt, how cozy the heat from the lava made her feel. The fence was of course extremely hot, but the heat made her feel more confident and it did not seem to burn her, which was strange. She figured she did not have time to figure out why though and moved up to look at the well.

The water flowed as it always did except now it had some strange creatures inside it. They seemed like fish, from what Kanaka had seen in books, but nothing like the fishes in her books. These fishes had a skinny and sharp body like that of a sword, yet thick like a hammer or mace. They had glowing red eyes like the guardians and gleaming scales that shines with a mysterious yellow color. They had razor sharp teeth, each one looked like a tiny sword, except Kanaka suddenly doubted she could ever get her sword to be quite that sharp.

The strange fish kept jumping around like they were trying to get something, which Kanaka figured much mean they were hungry. Was the purple butterfly trying to find the yellow fishes of death? Was this an evil gathering of rainbow colored animals? Where were the stinking guardians when weird things actually happened?

Kanaka sighed and looked up at the butterfly in confusion. What was her next step? She found the unburnable butterfly and crazy killer fish. Now what? Kanaka turned around and saw a guardian staring right her.

Funny, Kanaka thought, they always seemed to make so much noise when they moved. How had she not noticed this one? Why was it staring at her? And why did she feel like something bad was about to happen?

Suddenly and without warning the well, shot water out from the top and crazy fish flew down to the ground. Kanaka jumped and rolled and dodged every one of the evil sushi beasts. "I should probably think of a better name for them" she whispered to herself as she smiled. That smiled disappeared into a look of surprise when the guardian grabbed a fish from the floor and threw it at her!

She ducked and then looked in confusion from the fish to the guardian. "Is this about the bread thing? Because if it is you totally win buddy" she said with a confident grin. Then she noticed more guardians gathering around and the well erupted yet again, only this time the fish all landed closer to the guardian. "Worst game of dodge ball ever" she said with a pout as she suddenly understood what was about to happen.

As expected they all began throwing fish at her and the well-kept providing more and more ammo for them. The good news was that life was no longer boring, but that was a minor thought as she spun and jumped around avoiding the toothy projectiles. Why couldn't they have thrown something simpler? Like butterflies? After all she only threw them bread, and only at one of them!

Kanaka could feel herself getting tired as she moved quickly, she had to retreat somehow. But the only space available was the well that she had behind her which was the source of all the killer fishes that apparently loved to try and bite her. Without warning one of the guardians ran forward and punched the floor right where she was going to land. She saw the attack coming and used her own momentum to grab the guardian's arm and front flip onto his back. She was happy she did because her landing spot had suddenly turned into a wide hole which she assumed was how her legs were going to look like.

She had very little time to congratulate herself though as the guardian started jerking around like crazy, clearly trying to throw her off of it. It did not help that the flying fish kept coming at her, so she got to guardian ride and dodge fish projectiles while counting how many guardians there were.

Kanaka knew her combat instructor would probably say she was getting distracted by counting heads, but she was sure she was doing something productive. Especially since she only counted nineteen guardians and that was including the one she was currently attached to. She remembered the guardians had a blind spot and realized she was getting a view of how they saw things, which meant now she had a blind spot.

Not a second to late she scrambled to the head of the guardian and jumped off when she heard the smacking sound off the twentieth guardian attacking not so lucky number nineteen. She turned around and saw a pile of rubble where her attacker had been and her newest opponent seemed a lot less friendly then the first one.

Suddenly she had a thought, vultures did not circle something because they found what they were looking for, but because they found prey. Perhaps the butterfly ate the fish? It made sense in Kanaka's mind, except that the fish were like the size of a hundred butterflies and the had sharper teeth. But then again nothing else seemed to make sense so she figured she give her stupid and crazy idea a try.

She back flipped onto the fence which warmed her bare feet under her. Then she spun and jumped as she tried and failed to reach the top of the well. She did grab a railing though so she climbed quickly to the top, where to her dismay the butterfly had disappeared. "Great" moaned Kanaka "even the butterfly avoids me."

She looked down and saw the butterfly floating happily over the lava which clearly did not affect it. Kanaka sighed as she began dodging more fish, clearly being able to jumped the forbidden fence and climbing the forbidden Holy Well to catch a mysterious purple butterfly did not excuse her from extreme sports class.

Kanak kept trying to dodge the onslaught but had a lot less room to move, she never realized how tiny the top of the well was, or at least the part that did not include the flying crazy fish. She just realized something else, she got right next to where the fish were being shot out from. Clearly not her hottest idea, she thought with a grimace as she lost her balance.

Suddenly all she saw was red and she plunged down into the pit of lava. So, this is how I die, thought Kanaka. Shot at by my guardians with vicious shinny fish and mocked by a lava proof butterfly while I become one of the many screams of the night. Except she didn't scream.

She landed face first into the pit and felt a warmth within her that was foreign and strange. The lava did not burn her, it actually seemed to make her feel better. She opened her eyes and saw the flow of the burning lava, it moved in spirals all around her. She looked down and saw how the lava pit just continued to flow down into forever, but she was determined not to flow down now that she realized she was apparently also lava proof, which would have been nice to know a long time ago.

She thought of how she wanted to go back up to the top of the lava and suddenly felt the flow change. The lava began to push itself upward as though it had understood her thought and changed accordingly. She burst through the lava and found herself standing calmly on top of the lava as easy as if it were earth. All the guardians were staring at her as if waiting for something, so she lifted her arm and opened her hand towards them.

Perhaps if the lava could lift her at her command, it could attack the guardians as well, she reasoned. She commanded the lava to attack but nothing happened, and she suddenly felt very dumb standing in front of nineteen guardians with an open hand while riding a lava pit. This was not a normal day, she thought to herself. Perhaps there could be a way to plunge the guardian into the pit, she thought.

As soon as she thought that a chain bursted out of her hand. The chain was silver in color and at the end was a sharp thing that looked kind of like a spear end but bigger and scarier. Also, the chain was covered in a raging fire, oh and was coming out of her hand!

Kanaka looked in surprise as in a matter of seconds the chain covered the distance between her and the guardian and stabbed into it. Then the chain came back and brought the guardian with it. Kanaka yelped as she jumped back and the guardian landed belly first into the pit of lava and the chain disappeared back into her hand. The guardian slowly sank into pit, clearly dead.

Kanaka looked in surprise at her hand and then back at the guardians who were now moving away in what seemed like fear. She opened her hand and smiled as she mocked them. "Yea what now? Bet you've never seen a girl with a fire chain ready to drown you in lava. What now, you stupid piece of rock?"

She immediately regretted making fun of all eighteen guardians who decided to rush at her all at once. She shouted and jumped backwards as they broke through the fence and jumped at her. They reached far and seemed to understand the lava would kill them, which would explain why they reached out to break the well behind the lava pit.

Kanaka fell backwards into the well as it bursted all around her. The water sucked her in as the lava mixed with the well and hardened over her. She could feel the fish moving all around her trying to bite at her and many of them managed to snatch skin here and there but they were also getting dragged down. They smashed into the walls and she could feel them dying all around her. The world was dark as she spun down and down until she hit the wall hard and gasped in pain. Her lungs suddenly filled with water as felt her head ready to explode. She racked the walls with her hands and she felt an opening. She grabbed the bottom of the opening and hung there as the water kept flushing down.

Once it was all gone she hung there for what seemed like an eternity gasping for air as she felt her whole-body aching. Finally, she lifted herself unto the opening and slumped down on the floor. She laid there thinking, replaying the entire scene multiple times in her head when she realized she was extremely cold. She looked down and learned something else, for like the hundredth time that day. She was lava proof, her clothes not so much.

Kanaka groaned as she hit her head on the floor. "WHYYYYYYY!?" She exclaimed loudly to only get a reply from her own echo. "Good thing Cali cannot see me" she said quietly "she would have a fit. Then again she would probably kill me for summoning a chain of fire from my freaking hand and killing a guardian with the lava I was walking on. I feel like she wouldn't consider that very lady like."

Kanaka laughed at her own joke then grumbled as she pulled herself off the floor. She began limping forward as she explored the damp dark cave, keeping her hand against the wall the entire time. She wandered around for what she calculated to have been about three hours when she began to feel the tunnel moving upwards. Kanaka figured that was good, she fell down to reach the cave so she had to go up to get out, or at least that seemed right. It was getting hard for her to think with how dizzy she was.

After an ever growing long walk she finally saw a light and began to ran, well about as good as anyone could run with a limp while dizzy and seeing spots. But she scuttled forward quickly nonetheless, determined to make it to the light. She moved out of the tunnel and was assaulted by an unknown view. She was standing in a dessert, but she could hear a loud roaring sound behind her. She turned around and saw a wall of water and looked exactly the same as the wall of lava from her village.

Kanaka realized she must be on the other side of the wall. "Wow" Kanaka said "those builders were evil." She realized why there were constant screams coming from the wall. She was in a dessert, so of course people would gladly run towards a giant wall of water, only to get sucked in and burned alive by the wall of lava that was right behind it. How did the lava and water not mix though?

Kanaka shrugged and then looked down to the hole she had climbed out of, a hole that was sucking itself in until it disappeared. Kanaka shrugged and turned away, that was not the weirdest thing that had happened to her so she figured she might as well start walking. After all she had very little clothes left, no food or water, no way back into the village, and no clue where she was or what to do. She was tired and in pain, limping, was dizzy and seeing spots. Now she was sure she was going to die.

Unless she suddenly found out she was immune to starvation or dehydration. "I wouldn't even be mad" she said and laughed in pain as she walked slowly forward into the unknown world. A world she had been told did not exist, a world full of danger and enemies. She saw the butterfly again flying steadily right over her head. "Stupid butterfly" she muttered as it flew faster but stay fifteen steps ahead of her. She sighed and followed the butterfly yet again to hopefully not her doom.