Tse’a sighed softly, their hide twitching as it was caking in sweat. The Furnace was hot, and despite their travels down to this level of the Dungeon it was sometimes too much. He looked up at his companion, Alcyone. He seemed relatively fine all things considered, that Heraldic tail high in the air and trotting alone. Tse’a lowered their head, breathing softly as they followed.

     It wasn’t too long into their walking that a slight tremor grabbed Tse’a attention. He stopped, letting out a soft snort to get Alcyone’s attention.

     “What? What is it?” the Heraldic questioned, looking skeptically at Tse’a.

     “The ground. It’s shaking,” they said, looking around quietly. There were some cracks in the floor, but cracked floors of the Furnace were normal. A soft squeaking stirred in Tse’a’s mane, then Squeaks poked her little head out. She squeaked repeatedly to Tse’a, who nodded. “You sense it too, don’t you?” he asked, nodding towards her.

     Alcyone blinked, then scoffed a tiny bit. “Tremors? The Furnace is always shaking, that’s like… its thing,” he said in disbelief.

     Tse’a turned their head to glare at Alcyone. “This is different!” he argued, putting a hoof aggressively to the floor. Which started a harder tremor. The cracks in the ground suddenly shot out, and the heat grew stronger. Both Coursers and the small rat looked down, lava was starting to creep up through the cracks, going straight for their hooves. “LAVA!”

     Both Coursers immediately scrambled to skip away from the cracks, Alcyone seemed to know where he was going, so Tse’a followed with haste. They leaped from chunk of rock to chunk of rock, lava splashing as it attempted to get a lick of the Coursers. Squeaks let out frantic noises, clutching itself very tightly to Tse’a’s mane.

     Alcyone found a safe spot, the exit of the room, running into it and turning. “Hurry up!” he called loudly to Tse’a, backing up to give them a spot to run. Tse’a was breathing hard as they ran, the rocks crumbling at their hooves. They squeezed their eyes shut and kicked hard, a final push to get them into the cave exit as the floor crumbled under them. Tse’a turned their head back to look, lava basically swallowing the rocky flooring they were once standing in. They sighed deeply and exhaustedly, lowering their head.