McLovin blinked his eyes, the way someone might get their bearings after a flash grenade potion gets smashed. The heat clung to his hair and sweat dribbled down his legs. Still in the Earthen Furnace. McLovin whined.

When his vision totally cleared, he could see where he'd ended up after plucking his top from that booby trap in the mouth of the human-- cave-- thing! Alone, the pink horse sat atop a massive boulder. Lava flowed steadily by on every side. A small horse stranded on a big rock. Other boulders were scattered in the flow.

Crispin, who had been in the trap with him, was nowhere to be found.

"Help!!" McLovin screamed, "help please anyone, I'm just a sad little man who just wants to be in bed!! Why me..." McLovin stuck his top in the little leather bag he'd been gifted from Crispin. Someone would come by... right? The rock felt oven-warm on his belly as McLovin settled in. Any minute now.

Minutes.... hours...

McLovin was getting pretty thirsty.

Just as he was debating drinking his own sweat, the whole cavern quaked. McLovin jumped to his hooves. There was the sound of glorping magma. The lava flow that was steady suddenly became choppy, as something under the magma moved towards McLovin's rock. A form, massive, surged forward. It cracked the surface of the flow. It lept into the air.

McLovin let out a high pitched scream. 

A magma snake breached and arched over the rock. McLovin zigged and zagged to avoid the little magma droplets that rained from its body.

McLovin was not fascinated or curious or brave: he was freaked out. And so, as soon as the magma snake's tail dipped under the lava again, McLovin JUMPED. 

He jumped to the next rock in the magma river, and the next and the next. For the first time in his life, McLovin did something athletic. 

Hardly aware of where he was going, as soon as McLovin made it to the shore, he peeled away at breakneck speeds, descending further into darkness.