Cantalax Chronicles Chapter 1

The stone pulsed softly as the girl ran her hand over it in a gentle sweeping motion. It seemed to hum as she removed her hand, the light slowly dying away. The girl turned to stand, her dark hair falling around her face, a few beads of sweat rolled down her face. She turned to look at her companion who stood a few feet away, seemingly unaffected by the heat. Buried in the walls throughout the dimly lit cave, many identical crystals could be spotted, glimmering and shining in the faint light from a small orb of fire that floated near the girl's shoulder

"The crystalline structures are all within normal parameters, Bayle. They should direct the lava away from the research station just fine." She set her eyes on her companion, one eye was an elegant crystal that caught the light, glimmering like a rainbow.

The other girl looked up from her tablet "I hope you are correct or we will have to ask Carbonne to carve gullies and erect walls to divert the flow and you know how she can be about that." She tapped a few buttons on the tablet, entering the data she'd recorded upon entering the cave, the tablet bleeped and flashed in response.

"Perfect Pae, we can leave now, normally I'd go deeper but the sulphur readings are higher and I don't have a mask"

Bayle turned to leave, sliding her tablet into a leather satchel that hung around her shoulder before dusting her trousers off, Pae mimicked the movement, dust and pebbles falling to the rocky ground.

Whistling, Bayle turned to leave, the ball of flame following after her like an puppy dog, Pae stumbling after.

Half an hour later, they emerged from a crack in the volcano, shielding their eyes from the sudden burst of sunlight.

Slowly they started down the mountain, feet sliding over loose stones. But as they neared the station Pae suddenly thrust her arm out, stopping Bayle dead in her tracks

"Eh. That ..."

"Shut up Bayle, what's that down by the station, near the crane" Bayle squinted at where Paellucidus was pointing. In the shadow of the crane a wolf-like creature was skulking, drool slipping from it's dagger like teeth and splattering to the ground. From what they could see, it had thick scales covering it's body, a long reptilian tail and jagged plates shielding it's head.

Bayle looked over, an expression of fear plastered over her face " Mon Dieu! I thought they were just a fairy tale told to scare naughty Athelan children. It's probably someone with memetic type abilities trying to scare us. I mean a Criaggita isn't even real!"

She held a hand over her heart as Pae looked over curiously.

"When we were small, we were told if we were caught out of bed and stood in a shadow for too long, the Criaggita would eat us and leave our organs behind" Bayle's face was as white as snow "Apparently it regurgitates what it eats once it starts rotting in it's stomach to savour it later. It leaves the bones in a pile in a cave, some say it builds structures from them to raise it's young"

Pae quickly covered the French girl's mouth, pulling her down to the ground as the Criaggita cast it's head around "I don't want to make that thing's acquaintance. Keep quiet, we're not in shadow so we're safe"

Together the two girls peered down into the gully where the research station lay, watching in horror as the Criaggita bounded in through the open fire escape with ease. Soon screams of horror and gunfire could be heard from within as the personnel tried, in vain, to fight the creature off. Pae covered her ears, trying to block the screams out

Twenty minutes later, the Criaggita bounded out of the station and into the shadows. Slowly Pae and Bayle made their way down, Pae holding onto her hammer as she walked, ready to implant it in the beast's face if it returned. Carefully, the girls stepped inside, Pae taking a moment to erect a towering wall of crystals that covered the fire escape behind them

"If it comes back, I'll know".

The girls advanced carefully through the facility, slipping through puddles of blood and organs until they reached the control panel that was covered in blood. Pae reached out with a shaking hand, grabbing hold of the headset, placing it on her head, .

"This is Volcanological Station C34-6G in charge of monitoring Mount Kandagis. We have suffered a massive loss of life and require immediate evacuation"

She stood there, Bayle holding onto her arm in fear as they waited for the answer. Soon, the radio crackled into life. ""This is Orbital Station 905-X09-Alpha. Unfortunately evacuation from your current location is currently impossible due to increased volcanological activity in your vicinity. Reccomended course of action, make your way towards the coast, I will make contact with a Federal Navy ship to evacuate you from the coastline.

"Let's get going Bayle. There's two survival packs in the closet. We can make it to the coast together" Pae opened a cupboard, reaching into pull out two olive green backpacks and camouflage outfits

~~~~~~~~~~ Colmieta Mountains~~~~~~~~~~

Halfway up Colemiota Mountain, Glace was directing a snowstorm away from a small village nestled in the valley. She stood upright, arms raised as she directed the storm like a conductor controlling an orchestra. 

With a flick of the wrist she sent a  thick bank of fog spiralling away into a valley. For a whle she danced with the storm, enjoying the feeling of power and control as she controlled the storm. 

The wind and snow whipped around her ankles. as she took a final bow, dissipating the thick storm clouds. 

Turning away from the cliff, Glace smiled to herself, pulling her thick coat around her as she began her perilous trek down the craggy mountain, feet sliding over the icey stone