The Royal Knight Academy

Chapter 17: Mount Inferno

After Blake and I had made our way out of the Forbidden Woods, we were fortunate to have found that our horses had made their way out safe and sound, standing just outside the forest's entrance.

Now, with the first quest completed, we were one step closer to completing the King's order. Two weeks later, it was time to retrieve the next ingredient, the Forever Golden Flame. This time, my partner would be Xavier. The two of us set off to the location, Mount Inferno. We left the castle in the wee hours of the morning and walked for hours. Walking far distances without the use of horses was apparently part of our training according to Duke. As we trudged through the large grassy field below the cloudy sky, I was growing tired from all of the walking. But even though I was tired and my feet were hurting, I had to keep going. I wasn't going to give up. Wanting to know if we were close, I looked at Xavier who was a few feet in front of me. He was looking closely at a map as his hair blew in the wind.

"How much farther until our destination? We've been walking quite some time. We should surely be there by now. Also, how are you not tired yet?"

"Easy," Xavier answered, not looking up. "I pay more attention to the map, and less to my legs and feet. Helps ease the pain. Learned it from my mom. Also to answer your other question, we will be at Mount Inferno right about...now!"

He looked up from the map and motioned ahead of us. I followed his hand to see what he was pointing at. There, standing tall in front us was a grand looking mountain with tiny cliffs jutting out along the rocky surfaces.

"Wow," I said, astounded. "That mountain is the biggest one I have ever seen. Though, I guess it's also the only mountain I've ever seen."

"Okay, we're here," he announced as he folded up the map. "And you're right. It is huge, but not as big as the ones in Lolan. Those ones make this mountain seem small."

I suddenly got a burst of energy. "We should probably get a move on if we want to get this mission accomplished!"

The two of us moved quickly towards the huge mountain. We ran across a large field of tall green grass and soon we came face to face with the base of the mountain that seemed like a giant stone wall. The question going through my mind was, what do we do now?

"Okay now that we're here," Xavier started. "What do we need to do to get The Forever Flame?"

"I was thinking the exact same thing," I answered, pondering the question for a moment.

"Hmm.." I thought to myself, "Do we need to travel around the mountain and the Forever Golden Flame is on the other side? No. That would be way too easy. How about climbing to the top? I don't think it's that either! I don't think it's just out in the open. It is a flame after all." After a few more moments, I finally thought of a solution.

"I think that there could be a secret entrance somewhere in this mountain and the ingredient we are looking for is actually hidden inside."

I patted the side of the mountain with my hand.

"How about you? Do you have any ideas?"

"Hmm..." he murmured with a puzzled expression on his face. "Since there is nothing visible to get inside, how about we feel around the walls with our hands. Maybe there is something that we can't see that will help us find the flame."

"Good idea!"

We both went separate ways and started to feel for anything that might stand out on the rocky surface. We carefully ran our hands against the rugged surface to make sure we touched every area that we could reach. Time passed quickly as we made our way around the mountain, but we hadn't found anything at all. We had covered only about a quarter of the base of the mountain at this point with absolutely no luck. We were losing precious daylight every second of the way, slowly losing hope too. I needed a break to think and started feeling like maybe we were wrong and there might not be anything to find. However, just as I sat down on the grassy ground almost ready to admit defeat, I sat on something hard that seemed to not belong.

Was it just an almost perfect rock, or maybe the key to everything? I stood up to get a better look at the peculiar thing that I had just so happened to sit on. When I looked down, I was shocked at what I saw. It wasn't a rock at all, but a solid square piece of gold with tiny markings of some sort. It looked like someone had carefully hidden it there, placed there for a reason. The beauty of the gold and the shock of finding it, seemed to freeze time.

I regained my sense of focus and looked up from the shiny stone and called to Xavier, "Hey! I found something you have to see!"

He quickly came running.

"What is it?" he asked excitedly.

I pointed towards the ground where the shimmering gold lay.

"Whoa," he said in disbelief as he looked down. "What is that?"

"It's a block of gold. I just so happened to sit down on it. I don't know anything about it besides that."

Kneeling down on the ground, I cleared the grass surrounding it, but when I did, I noticed something on the special stone that I didn't notice before. The markings on it weren't just random. They were actually words.

"Oh my! You need to see this! I didn't see this before!"

I gestured for him to kneel down next to me.

"Wow," he said. "This could help us find what we are after."

I paused for a moment to look closely at the stone again, thinking I might be able to make out what the words said. In small writing it read:

To get inside the giant lurking near

You must follow this one single clue:

Push me to unlock great riches

Then be brave and strong in what you do!

"This is to get inside the mountain!" I spoke. "We were right! It's talking about a giant, which must be the mountain, and the thing to press is probably this gold stone. Hopefully, the riches are the Forever Golden Flame."

"Yes! So I guess all we have to do is press it."

I reached down, placing my hand on the gold and pushed it down slowly. Suddenly, from the mountain came a loud rumbling noise. Just then, a part of the curved rock wall in front of us started to move to reveal a door-like opening. Then just as fast as the noise started, it stopped and the air was still.

"Should we go in?" Xavier asked hesitantly, peering into the shadowy doorway.

"Well, I don't think we have any other choice.''

We both looked at each other and entered the dark entrance to the mountain, hoping that it was the right choice.