Monster Legends - Volume 1: A World Of Monsters

7. The Vada Volcano

"Bolt!" I cry with alarm, I charge towards the uncocsious body of my starter Monster, lying a couple meters before me. I let out a sigh of relief as I see his stomach rise and fall in the rythm of his breathing. I pick him up from the ground and hurry to Stella, who was now out of the cover of the bushes and was running towards me. "Is he alright?" She asked. Her voice quivered with worry. "He's alive." I say. She smiles briefly and then strokes Bolt's golden fur. "We have to get him to a healer! The nearest city is..." She says, searching through her map with her eyes. "Here." She points. "Claymoore city. About 5 kilometers east from our campsite. Let's go. " I hurry after her.

Bolt was alive. But I had no idea what the impact of the heavy club could have done to him. He's only level two. I push back the tears already welling up in my eyes and I hold Bolt tighter to my body, his warmth spreading through my body, calming me.

At last, thanks to Stella's excellent memory, we step out of the trees and into our campsite. I saw a fraction of the sun already rising in the horizon. We pack the tents and everything else into our bags, and we set off to the east, towards the city Stella has found on the map.

"Claymoore. I swear I heard the name somewhere before. I can't remember where though." I say. Stella looks at me and shrugs. "Don't know. It doesn't sound familiar to me."

We walk for another hour through the grass plains, and then stop for a rest. "Jeez this is exhausting." Stella said, wiping sweat from her face. I grin at her and then check Bolt's pulse for perhaps the hundreth time of the day. "How's he doing?" Stella asks. She takes her Monstagram out of her pocket and calls for her favoutite Monster, Rarawr, who she caled Rawry. "Fine I guess." I answer. I pat Rawry's leathery skin. He seemed to appreciate my touch. We eat in silence, thinking through everything that has happened.

"Hey, what's that?" Stella asks suddenly. We've been walking half an hour, when Stella spots smoke coming from the horizon. "A campfire?" I ask, but Stella shakes her head. "No. Too much smoke. And it doesn't even smell like wood burning. Smells more like..." "A volcano!" I interrupt. Stella looks at me, and then her face lights up as she remembers the same thing as I did. "The Vada Volcano." She says.

I nod enthusiastically. "Exactly. The supposed home of the legendary fire Monster, Vadamagma." Stella shivers with fright. "Maybe we shouldn't go any further." She says. I look at her as if she's gone mad. "Are you kidding? There's a legendary Monster here! Of course we're going!" "But... it's scary." I roll my eyes to Heaven. "Well duh! That's why they're called, Monsters!" She frowns at me, but then makes up her mind. "Fine. But I'm not going anywhere near the volcano." I groan, but shrug as if I did not care one bit. "Suit yourself. You can stay with Bolt while he heals, while I go and have some fun." "Fine with me. Although i doubt you'll be having fun when the great Vadamagma will be right next to you, threatening to cover you in a wave of hot lava."

We walk in silence as we near the Claymoore city. The citizens welcome us lovingly and I can't stop looking every now and then at the fuming volcano. Its massive in size, and the ammount of grey and white fume coming out of the crater is unbelievable. "I think its getting ready to erupt." I say to Stella, and she looks at the volcano with even bigger worry. I hold Bolt firmly in my hands as Stella asks for directions to the healing centre. It takes us five minutes to get there, and Stella opens the glass door, letting me and Bolt pass first.

"Good day to you young lady, gentleman, how can I help you?" She was slightly taller than me, and quite young too, probably in her early twentys. She wore a long, white coat and a medical cap. "Good day to you too, Julie." I say, reading the name on the badge, pinned to her med coat. "We had a bit of an accident with some Tartarus and a club landed on my Monster's head." Blushing slightly at the ridiculous sentence. She smiles sweetly and takes Bolt carefully into her arms. "Do not worry..." She stops and looks at me. "Shay." I tell her my name. "Don't worry, Shay. Your Gigram will be fine soon. Would you like to stay and watch?" Julie asks, but I shake my head. "That's okay, but I was wondering, could I go and check out the Vada Volcano a little closer?" I ask. She looks at me with a sad smile. "On normal occasions, the Vada Volcano is always available to travellers to climb and visit. And every month, we even have a show with the great Vada, but we're afraid the Vada is dying." I gasp. "How is that possible?" I ask with great worry. Even Stella looked a little shaken by the horrific news. "Did you see the foul fume? That's the indication of an eruption, which is estimated to happen in just under three or four days. Vada has kept this city safe from volcano eruptions for years, but now, Vada is nowhere in sight. We haven't seen her in weeks, and the citizens all think the great Vada has fallen dead. That she is gone now." I shook my head, not wanting to believe what I was hearing. "She can't die." I say. I remember my younger years, when I played with my Monster toys, and my favourite toy ever was the small plastic toy of Vadamagma. She was my hero.

"Is there anything I can do to help?" I ask. Julie shrugs. "This town is beyond saving. The last expedition is gonna happen tomorrow morning, the last search for Vada, but I doubt they would let you youngsters go with them. It's way too dangerous." "But I've gotta help!" I cry with despair. They would never understand. Actually, Julie would. She lived with Vada for pretty much ever. Stella didn't. I didn't either, but Vada was my childhood hero. My dream Monster. I have to do everything I can to save her. "Meet you here gotta go somewhere." I spin around and run outside in a flash, leaving Bolt, Stella and Julie behind me.

I won't let this happen. Vada is dying, she might even be already dead. The adults will not let me go on the expedition. So I will have to visit the volcano by myself. I knew what I had to do. If Julie was right, I should be safe to climb the volcano at this time. Of course, it's gonna be incredibly hot up there, and that's why I have to buy a fireproof outfit.

I enter the Vada's Accesories store and look around in awe. The walls of the small shop were painted a fiery red, and there were shelves with all sorts of amazing products on top of them, like Vada toys, a life sized Vada plushie, plates, mugs, curtains, carpets with the Vada imprinted on them. This was like a dream come true. I could spend hours looking at every product in this shop, but I only wanted to buy one.

"Good day sir." I say to the shop keeper. "Hello young trainer, how can I help you?" He asks with a smile. "I was wondering if I could buy a fireproof outfit?" "Yes you may, however it is very expensive. Thirty gold coins for the one for your size." "That's okay. I have the money." I say. "As you wish." He says, and walks to the back of the shop, where only now I noticed the long outfits hanging from the wall. "Red, black or yellow?" He asks. "Red please." I answer. He picks one of the long outfits and walks over to me. "Let's see if it fits." It was made with a soft fabric like material, and I knew it was unrippable. The outfit came with a fireproof coat, a hood that went all around your face, where the front was transparent so you can see. There were also gloves, and trousers of course. The outfit was made to cover every single spot on my body. I take it off, and then pay the shop keeper. "Thanks." I say, holding the outfit in my left hand. "Thank you for stopping by!" He says. "Bye." I say, and leave the shop. That was the first part of the plan done. Now the second part. Take control of Tarty.

I leave the town in a hurry before anyone sees me, and I run behind a hill, where any onlookers would not see what I was doing. "Alright Tarty. Last time I let you out, you weren't necessarilly friendly to me. Let's see if we can change that." I open up My Monsters with the Monstagram, take a deep breath, and call for Tarty to come.

I look as the white energy beam shoots out and it forms into the giant cyclops like Monster. My first ever epic. My level 33 Tartarus. He looks at me, and smiles sadly. He points to his hand, and then to a nearby tree. "Hello Tarty, what's up?" He points to his hand again, and makes a smashing like motion, as if he had a club in his hand. A club. "I'm sorry Tarty, but we left your club where we captured you. We were scared for Bolt, and we left in a hurry. I completely forgot you might need one." Tarty's head falls down with sadness. "My...club." He rasps. I nearly jump out of my skin. "You can talk human?!" I ask with amazement. "A...bit. A...lot...of us...can." "Wow. That's fantastic! So, can you help me? Please? I need you to talk to Vada when we get to the top of that volcano, I'm afraid she might be dying." "I need...club. I...not help...with no club." I frown. "Oh alright. But how do we get your club back. It's five kilometres away. We don't have that much time! Tarty thinks for a moment, and then he gets an idea. "I make one." He says, pointing to a young oak tree. "Are you sure?" Tarty nods. "Okay then. Can I be of any help?" Tarty shakes his head. "I do this...alone."

I watch with curiosity as he cuts the tree down with a solid punch of his rock hard fist. I hope no one will miss the tree. He picks it up and snaps it in half with amazing strength. This guy was a beast. While he did this, I let all my monsters out. They were grateful. I fed some of them with Monster food, and Tarty came over to eat a little himself. I though with the size of him, he would eat a whole tonne, but fortunately, he said that he only eats a little at a time. He picks up a large rock and using it, he cuts the tree trunk to the shape of a club ans starts to shave it and shape it into a deadly weapon. It takes about two hours, but he is finally ready. "This a good...club. I ready...to help." I smile. "Great job Tarty. Alright everyone. I think you will all have to return now. I need to speak to Stella before I attempt this plan. The Monsters didn't argue and they one by one returned in white beams into my Monstagram. I look to the pile of wood shavings. The remains of the destroyed tree. "I hope no one notices." I whisper to myself, and I turn back towards the town gate.
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