Elephant Graveyard

Anoixi knew this was a bad idea. Obviously it was. The volcano that was still spewing smoke and ash and occasionally fire was so close here. It rumbled audibly in the distance, the glow of it's rage just visible through the cloying smoke and ash that hung heavy in the air. But if Ixi was anything it was endlessly curious and dang it if he wasn't just dying to know what it was like at the places closer to the source of the calamity. He’d skirted around the lands as much as he could, moving slowly and methodically. He knew he needed to do his best to avoid expending too much energy, at least until he’d arrived at his destination…. Wherever that was.

The boy had decided to walk until he found something that interested him. He’d finally decided he’d arrived when he spotted raised pools through the trees, just barely visible through steam. Anoixi moved through the trees carefully, noting the bare branches that by all rights should have been budding this time of year. But then there wasn’t exactly any sun for the trees to bask in. The ground was caked in ash and as he walked it puffed up into the air with each paw step. He tried to keep his breathing minimal, he didn’t exactly want to breathe in the stale ash he himself was releasing into the air.

The closer he got the more the steam blocked his view and he had to walk even slower. Another sound joined the ominous grumblings of the volcano, a sort of wet gurgling, something he’d never heard before. He was used to the sounds of gentle lapping or the crashing of the sea against the shore, but this… well, it was different. This he couldn’t even begin to picture the way the water was moving. Anoixi could feel the heat building in the air as well, notable as the continent had become so cold following the disappearance of the sun and he moved even slower, scared he’d not see a hazard right in his path, the heat filling his head with images of bubbling lava pits ready to swallow him up.

Finally the stone walls he’d seen appeared before him, many stone cauldrons that worked their way up the landscape. The lowest one was close enough the boy could wander over to it, and peer over its walls to see why there was so much steam rising from behind its lip. A pool or roiling water met his gaze and a strong sulfuric smell assaulted his senses. Anoixi reeled back, nose wrinkling against the scent.

WC:437