Too cute for my toes

Quite by accident Aku had stumbled upon the underground fire river. As he was becoming accustomed to, it was yet another thing Boreas offered that he'd never seen before. Considering all the new things he'd seen already, he took the river in stride and didn't quite freak out like he would have if he'd seen this land first on his tour of Boreas. He'd approached the river cautiously, but upon finding the caverns empty of tempting spirits and foul creatures he'd relaxed and allowed himself to enjoy the warmth.

It was impossible to get close to the lava which Aku was fine with as he had no desire to get within grabbing distance of it. Just in case. Who knew what sort of thing might live in there. He had never heard stories about lava beasts and he didn't want to find out if they existed. So he got close enough to warm himself and immediately laid down to thaw his frozen paws.

No sooner had him made himself comfortable did a brilliant blue woman in one of the side caverns. She was making her way towards him with purpose and as he'd never seen a wolf colored quite like that his first instinct was to think her a lava monster come to punish him for trespassing on her sacred ground. He was on his paws in an instant, his chill forgotten. "Blessed mother!" he swore in alarm. "Forgive me for trespassing, I only wished to be warm."