Welcome to Gaia! ::

Kelirahc nodded. "Come on, it looks like the others are already ready to go."

He motioned to Lin to hop on the dragon, and climbed up behind Leyenda, slipping his arms around her stomach and holding her close.

As they took to the air, Haldia and her roc could be seen, already quite a distance away; but Kelirahc took them in a slightly different direction, towards the volcano that had smoke rising lazily from the crater. It took them very little time to get there - a matter of minutes, when walking it would have taken them the better part of two days - and very soon they were spiraling slowly downward towards the rocky slopes of the volcano.

"There," Leyenda pointed out to Lin as they neared the ground. "See that opening? In there is one of the lava tubes. They're huge, bigger than you would expect - even Kelirahc can't reach the top of them!"

Leyenda laughed. "Just wait until you see inside!" she grinned as the dragon landed and lowered itself to the ground.

Kelirahc was the first to the ground, and he held up one hand to Leyenda to help her down. Shiro and Earendil followed quickly.

Kelirahc chuckled as his spirit vanished. "In very bad weather, the whole village can fit inside," he grinned. "We have not had need, thankfully, but it is possible."

Leyenda grasped Kelirahc's hand and squeezed it gently. "We should see how deep they go," she grinned. "At least, see how far we can go until we can't go any further."

Earendil chuckled and held his hands out to Senka. "Why don't you stay with me, then?" he suggested. "I certainly don't mind if you stay on my shoulder or something, and you'll stay clean that way."

Leyenda laughed. "It's just rock, Senka. It isn't dirty at all!" She ran inside the tunnel and ran her fingers along the wall, then turned and held her hand out to the cat to see. "See? Clean!"

Earendil smiled and pet Senka as they headed into the lava tube. It was easily twice as high as Kelirahc was tall, and equally as wide, and though the floor was flat, the walls and ceiling were perfectly round. The rock was dark, almost like onyx, but it was a bit softer, and slightly crumbly.

"I would hate to hear the echo of someone shouting in here," Earendil commented softly, smiling as he looked around. "This really is amazing ..."

Shiro pulled a lantern from his bag and set it on the floor, and lit it so that they could see more clearly as they got further and further away from the entrance, the only source of light.

"I have to get samples," he grinned, pulling out some test tubes. "I've heard of these, but I've never seen one up close before. They're made when the lava flows slowly enough that the outside cools and hardens, while the inside keeps flowing ... eventually, the lava finishes flowing, and the tunnel is left behind."

He looked around. "This one looks old, I don't think it's had lava flowing for ... probably at least a few hundred years."