The Road Goes Ever On

Chapter 15

Still reeling from his confrontation with the embodiment of chaos, Jason raced through the collapsing caverns back towards the surface as boulders crashed down around him. He leapt and scrambled upward with desperate, draining effort. If the exit sealed before he escaped the mountain, all hope was lost.

With a final burst of adrenaline, Jason threw himself out of the smoking cavern entrance just as the entire side of the mountain fell in thunderous ruin, dust and debris billowing outward. Though battered and burnt, miraculously he had survived.

As the haze cleared, Jason perceived the landscape was no longer choked in fire and darkness. The stark black clouds lightened to gray, then finally parted to reveal blue skies. Lava slowed its advance and cooled to solid rock. Life began to return to the ravaged domain.

Down in the village, the petrified inhabitants blinked and looked around in confusion as Daphne's cleansing magic freed them from their living death. Joyous cheers went up w