Volcano, a mystery that has a deadly beauty.

Last year, my English teacher asked us to write a story of fantasy. My story was Volcano Dance, a farewell between a young couple. Yet their spirity were joined together by immortality. Notice that both of the names of the couple have something to do with fire. Although it is not a story of ostentatious language, it is still one of my favourate stories I have ever written. Enjoy.

Werewolfscene, 2007

The hot air made her blood boiling.

She was falling. The lava in the large magma chamber inside the volcano greeted her with open arms. The next second, she fell into the pool of deadly lava, and evaporated instantly. Her soul turned into streams of light with colours of the rainbow. The streams shot directly to the sky high above, and beyond.

With a gasp, Sparkly woke up from the nightmare. She knew it was not true. But it would happen very soon.

The earth was trembling. She sighed, staring her reflection in the mirror which was placed on the stone-made night table. She was a very beautiful girl, with big black eyes, rosy cheeks, red lips and a well-shaped body. The ground roared and shook again, more furiously this time. Small pieces of stones were starting to shear off the stone ceiling.

Suddenly, a stone hit the mirror and smashed it into pieces instantly. Sparkly buried her face in her arms and started crying.

She was a girl of Volcano Tribe, a clan which was created by volcano god thousand of years ago. The people of Volcano Tribe lived in the caves inside the volcano. The volcano god cast strong spells at the edge of the caves to separate them from the pipes, which linked directly to the large magma chamber that stored the lavas. Thus, they were protected from the deadly lavas. However, when the volcano erupted each time, a girl of the Volcano Tribe must step out of the cave and jumped into the pipe, sacrificed herself into the lavas, in order to prevent the spells from weakening. This time, Sparkly was selected.

A hand gently rested on her shoulder. Sparkly looked up and saw Vesuvius, her beloved boyfriend.

“Are you afraid, love?” Vesuvius asked her. There was warmth in his voice. Sparkly did not feel cold and despair any more.

“I guess.” Sparkly said. Her voice was still trembling.

Vesuvius sat down beside Sparkly, turning his head to her and wrapped his arms around her. “Listen, my dear,” he said softly, “I really enjoy the days with you. I treasure every minute and every second with you.”

“But I don’t want to leave you!” Sparkly cried, hugging Vesuvius tightly and buried her face in his chest.

“Me too,” Vesuvius said honestly, “How I want to die with you, so we can live together in the eternity. But if both of us perish in the lava, we’ll break the rule of Volcano god and the whole clan will be wiped off the surface of the world.”

Sparkly raised her head when she heard this.

“To be the one. To sacrifice myself. For the clan,” she muttered to herself, “For Father, for Mother.” She wiped off the tears on her face with the back of her right hand, but there were still some tears glistened in her eyes. Then she stared at Vesuvius into his eyes and giggled. “And for you.”

She drew out her left hand from his, and stood up.

“Destiny.” She whispered to him and walked away.

Vesuvius stood up and tried to stop her, but no word came out of his mouth. He stood where he was quietly, gritting his teeth with pain and closed his eyes, as if darkness could engulf his pain. Hot tears rolled down at the very moment he closed his eyes, forming tiny streams and flowed into his mouth and to his chin.

One hour later, it was time. The main cave was filled with the volcano people, standing silently. Vesuvius was one of them. They were all bare-footed, dressing in red robes, and red colours were painted on their faces. Their facial expression was serious, and a bit sad. They were holding bright torches, eyes flickering. The torch light lit up the whole cave and cast wavy shadows on to the walls.

Sparkly entered the cave. To everyone’s surprise, she was smiling. She was beautiful than ever, with pretty eyes and the waterfall-like black long hair. Her eyes reflected the light and were as if they were burning. She dressed a bright red dress, with the colour of blood, with the colour of fire, with the colour of the setting sun. She was holding a red flower in her mouth. A few meters away, Vesuvius could see pride in her eyes.

Sparkly strutted to the center of the cave, people stepped back to make way for her. When she reached the center, she started to dance slowly with delight. At the same time, the crowd waved the torches and began to chant. She was such a professional dancer that she had captivated every volcano people. Every motion of hers was graceful and beautiful. She looked like a wonderful swan when she stretched both of her arms and spin; she was as if a beautiful peacock when she held up her arms, hands slid through the air; she could be likened as a magical phoenix as she jumped, shining hair swaying through the dim light. Soon she picked up her speed. She danced so fast that she looked like a red shadow to the rest of the people, who were chanting more loudly.

At last, she reached the other end of the cave, which connected with the pipe. She did not stop dancing during the whole process.

She could feel the hot air rushing in from the pipe outside the cave and started sweating. She felt dizzy and tried to steady herself when the dance came to the end. The crowd stopped chanting exactly at the same time and fell into horrendous, solemn silence. Only the crackles of the flames could be heard. Sparkly’s eyes scanned through the crowd and fixed with Vesuvius’ eyes. There was no fear in her eyes but calmness.

Despite the nightmare that flashed into her mind again, Sparkly took a deep breath, opened her arms as if hugging the air, and exclaimed triumphantly.

“Even in the death, may we be together forever!”