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Chapter 4

"Wren? Hey Wren what's wrong?"

I turned round at the sound of Wendy's voice in time to see Wren collapse on the floor.

"She probably used up to much magic energy transporting us all inside the volcano" Erza said gravely.

"So do we wait here for her to wake up?" Natsu glanced hopefully onwards, clearly wanting to carry on and find the volcano demon. "Hey, maybe Lucy could call on Horologium to pick her up and then we could carry on walking."

"Nice try Natsu" I peered at my keys, suddenly terrified one was missing for some reason. "Horologium can't walk remember? Also that would include me being hauled along too. Not that there's anything wrong with him but at this moment in time, I'd rather be outside than inside."

Natsu gave a depressed sigh and Grey hefted Wren up onto his shoulder.

"Come on Natsu, no need to look depressed, we're still moving forward" Wendy grinned. "And beside, now we're actually inside the volcano, I quite want to find this demon. It's intriguing don't you think Carla?"

"I cannot share your opinions child" Carla huffed. "My thoughts resolve around the words 'the sooner we get out of here the better'. It's terribly warm anyway and what happens if it erupts whilst we're inside it? We can't just teleport out or fly out. Nothing is that simple child."

"Well if the demon is here then surely that means that we can stay here as well" Happy cried.

I stifle a laugh. "Maybe the reason that we're here is to get rid of the demon because it is causing the volcano to erupt so frequently. That would mean that it's a lava demon that can with stand heats of up to one thousand degrees centigrade. And anyway, if you were a demon and died in fire or lava or hot temperatures, would you want to set up camp in a volcano? Stupid cat."

"Hey Lucy, that's not fair" Happy sobbed. "It's not my fault I'm not intelligent. I'm only a cat after all and cats aren't that clever"

"Speak for yourself" Carla snorted. "I am just as clever as many human beings."

"So you're saying it's just me, the unintelligent cat huh?" Happy looked thoroughly hurt and for a moment, I regretted saying what I did. But for only a moment.

"Yeah it's just..." my reply was cut short by a monstrous roar that shook the rocky place we had appeared. I clasped my hands to my ears and cried out as did Happy, Wendy and Carla.

"Argh" Natsu cried. "What is that noise?"

"It's the demon" Erza said, summing up all of our thoughts and secret dreads. However much we wanted to find the demon and get rid of it, we also didn't."

"Well then" Grey shifted Wren to his other shoulder. "We'd better get a move on hadn't we? If we don't start moving soon then it'll find us before we find it."

"And also..." Natsu pointed in the direction of a glowing orange light. "There's like totally a load of lava coming in right now, the volcano is blowing up and we're all going to die"

"Oh nooooooo" Happy screamed, his paws still clasped tightly to his ears.

"Well stop standing there and thinking about it" Grey shouted at them. "Lets move it."

I didn't wait to see if the others were following, just turned and ran in the opposite direction of the lava. It wasn't coming fast, kind of crawling along the ground and sending sparks out in every direction with a slightly gloopy noise. It was going so slow that within minutes we'd outrun it and were sprinting along passages inside the volcano.

There was a door embedded in the rock. A metal door with a turning handle like you get on boat. When we got to the door, Natsu flung himself at it, trying to push it open and it was only after Erza had pointed out that there was a handle that we got inside. We fell through the door and Wendy slammed it as fast as she could behind her, listening as it clicked shut.

"Where are we?" I asked, stating the obvious in everyone's minds. The room was like a huge dining room but the front of it was a huge window that looked out into the centre of the volcano. Right now, there was lava climbing the window but not making a mark on it somehow. There was controls everywhere, covering most counters closest to the window and one of them was a huge, flashing red button. There was a bang and a claw hit the window, not even cracking it.

"Is that..." Wendy whispered, terrified.

"Yes" Erza said, staring, transfixed at the window. "That's the demon."