[Firetra]

Zaniphon slept restlessly while the two sisters busied themselves with preparing dinner. Alse turned to her sister as she was gathering together some tableware for the three of them to eat with when she said. "Ok, so what are we going to do with him."

"Pardon?" Lillia responded as she stirred the pot of stew over the fire. "What do you mean by 'do with him'? We are going to help him recover until he is able to go back to his home."

"And then what? Stay here for a few more years, just barely surviving in one of the harshest places on this planet?" Her voice growing ever louder as she spoke to her sister, anger rising with each word she spoke. "I don't know why we stay here, we have the means to leave this place and find somewhere else to live, someplace more hospitable. But instead, you insist that we stay in this cave where there is always the risk of getting melted by the lava outside." She paused to catch her breath as she angerly shouted at her Lillia, her sister turning to give her an angry look as if to say 'be quiet'.

[Firetra]

Lillia looked at Zaniphon sleeping against the wall, watching him to see if he had stirred himself awake from Alse's yelling. She gave a quick glare to her sister before retorting, "I don't like it here just as much as you do. But we need to stay here, or else mom will never find us."

"Mom is never going to find us! She is never going to find us because she ABANDONED US!" Alse yelled, tears welling up in her eyes. Lillia moved to go console her sister, but the dark grey haired child instead turned and ran out of the cave, sniffling as she left. "Oh dear," Lillia whispered to herself as she watched her sister leave.

[Firetra]

In his light slumber, Zaniphon moved slightly as he had been stirred awake by the yelling of the two sisters. He slowly opened his eyes, taking in the scenery just as Alse left the cave. He blinked a couple of times in order to rid his sleepiness and turned his head towards Lillia. "What happened to her?" He asked the child, his tongue dry from drooling on himself in his sleep.

Lillia stirred herself back to reality and turned to face Zaniphon, looking at his exhausted face. She tried to gather her thoughts in order to say something to put the man at ease. "Oh its nothing, me and her just argue from time to time. She will be back when she gets hungry." She paused for a second to look back out of the cave before adding, "she always does come back."

[Firetra]

Lillia returned to cooking the and Zaniphon eased himself back against the wall of the cave again in order to try and recover some more. He didn't get to sleep long as his stomach started to growl once the stew was almost finished. At least his stomach still worked.

Lillia passed him a bowl carved from rock and pored some of the stew into it, the meat rising to the top of the broth. He hastily slurped down the meal, asking for a second helping once he was finished with the first bowl. But when he looked up he just saw Lillia with a bowl in her hand staring out of the cave. Zaniphon's call for seconds startled her awake, but he could still tell that she was anxious for her sister. But soon Zaniphon was also worrying over the young girl as the sun started to set on the horizon.

"If you need to go look for her, go ahead." He said to Lillia, "I can handle myself here." He chuckled a bit and flexed his left arm, slightly wincing in pain as he accidently brushed his shoulder against the wall. The girl nodded at him and placed the bowl on what looked to be a table carved from the wall of the cave. Zaniphon watched her leave the abode and waited in the cave as night drew ever closer. "Well, might as well get some shut eye while those two are gone." He said to himself, and soon he had pushed himself into a deep slumber.

[Firetra]

Night had fully set in when Lillia returned from her search. Unfortunately she was unable to find her sister, and it was getting too dark to try and find her. The danger of stepping in un-cooled lava was a big risk, so she decided to head back home. She found Zaniphon sleeping right where she last left him, a string of drool dripping from his mouth onto his destroyed puffy jacket. He lightly snored a bit and Lillia giggled softly as she brushed his hair out of his eyes. He stirred slightly, but he didn't fully wake as Lillia went further into the cave to try and get some shut eye before trying again in the morning to find Alse.

[Firetra]

Dawn had broke and the soft light shone into the cave. The light rays slowly creeped their way across the cave floor and up the walls until they landed exactly in Zaniphon's eyes. Because of course they did, nothing could leave him in peace, even the blasted sun. Zaniphon yawned and instinctively tried to stretch his sore arms, but that of course just flared up his injuries and some air escaped out between his teeth as he tried to hold back yelling in pain.

"Glad to see you are awake." Said Lillia mixing up some plants together for what looked to be a meal. "Sorry if this isn't what you are used to for breakfast, but I thought it would be better for you rather than eating more of the boar from yesterday." She walked over to him an knelt down, placing the bowl she prepared into his hands. The food looked like green mush, and if he didn't know better Zaniphon probably would have thought it was a medical ointment.

"Thanks," he said sheepishly as he slowly tried to eat the food handed to him.

[Firetra]

"Ok, so." Zaniphon said between spoonful's of the mush. "Whats the plan?"

"Plan?" Lillia responded to him, turning around after preparing some of her own food.

"Yeah, the plan to find your sister?" He said, scooping another bite into his mouth.

She giggled and said "oh, no plan. I just figured I would walk around and call out for her. And while I do that, you stay here and rest up." She poked her finger into Zaniphons chest to reiterate her point.

"Oh come on, I am done with being stuck up in this cave. I want to move around rather than develop boils on my butt from sitting down in one spot all day!" Zaniphon exclaimed to the child.

[Firetra]

Lillia sighed and finished eating her food before responding. "Fine then, you want to come? Stand up." She said crossing her arms.

"Ok, I will!" He responded, not trying to be out done by a child.

He used his left arm to prop himself up, trying avoid placing down any weight onto his right leg. He strained as he had not really moved in a while, and his muscles were getting stiff. He turned towards her and put out his index finger as if to say "give me a moment", and he puffed his breaths a couple of times as he prepared to push himself up.

[Firetra]

Zaniphon counted down in his head, "3, 2, 1..." and he pushed off from the ground. But it wasn't the best of ideas as he immediately tried to catch himself by putting down his right foot and adding a lot of weight onto it. His calf screamed in pain from the burn and he could see black spots populating in the corners of his eyes. He resisted the urge to scream in pain as tears welled up in his eyes. Zaniphon then turned to Lillia and put a thumbs up while contorting his face in a mixture of resistance and pain.

"See, all good!" He managed to squeak out.

[Firetra]

Lillia just responded with "just sit back down before you hurt yourself any further. My word, how stubborn are you?" She added as she moved over to help him onto one of the stools. Once she had settled him down onto the stone chair, she wiped the hair away from her face and said, "look, you are in no shape to go out there like this. You are a danger to yourself and risk getting injured the second you step out of this cave." She poked him hard in the shoulder, causing pain to flare across his body. "You need a few more days of rest and recovery, and I need to find my sister. So stop complaining and stay put!"

[Firetra]

Zaniphon grumbled slightly and slouched into the chair, but as Lillia was getting ready to leave he piped up, "could you at least give me a crutch to walk around with? Just so I can move around without sitting on the cold hard ground all day again?" Lillia turned back to him and rolled her eyes slightly.

"Alright, fine. But no more, you are not going to use it as an excuse to follow me." She said sternly to him, as she moved further back into a cave where they had set up what looks to be a closet. It was small alcove dug into the cave's walls with a bunch of random junk and crap strewn about. Lillia waddled into the mess, moving various bits and pieces around before she came back out with some rope and some sticks. She tossed the mess to Zaniphon and said, "alright, there are all the parts you need to make one. Now I really need to go." She said aggressively, taking the hint Zaniphon just nodded and went to work making his crutch as Lillia walked out of the cave and onto the lava flats.

[Firetra]

Lillia had finally been able to leave the cave with the needy man behind and search the volcanic region for her sister. She brought her hand to her eyebrows to block out the sun as it was shining heavily in her face. That was good, there was no sign that there was going to be any bad weather coming in. She did a quick scan of her surroundings before making her way east to a specific location. She was sure that her sister was going to be there as that was the place she usually went when she wanted to sulk. Only issue was that it was about an hour away, and she wasn't able to make it there last night before it got too dark and dangerous to make the journey.

[Firetra]

Lillia marched over tall and sharp rocks, deftly moving around the small lava streams and pools that pockmarked the landscape. She clenched up a bit as she almost had her foot slip in after a chunk broke away underneath her, but she was able to grab onto the surface she was on in order to stop herself from getting burned. She knew her constitution could allow her to accidently touch the lava, but the burns would make traveling harder. The only reason she and her sister had been able to survive out here was due to their naturally thick skin, and the fact that they are part rock when the shift their forms. But with that small scare out of the way, Lillia continued onward and upward, staring at her destination in the distance.

[Firetra]

Alse was curled up and laying down on the rocks when she heard some shuffling down below. She knew what it was so she just curled up tighter as if that was going to change anything.

Lillia had finally hoisted herself up and over the small cliff face and sprawled out on the ground, her arms completely tired from the climb up. She huffed in exhaustion and turned to face her sister. "Good morning, hope you slept well." Lillia said to Alse.

Alse just murmured and wound herself into a smaller ball.

"You know, that guy that you carried in. Zaniphon right?" She said to her sister, trying to coax her out of her mopey state. "Yeah, he is a big pain in the ass. Always trying to talk when I keep on trying to get him to rest. Heck, he even tried coming to help me find you...." She paused, waiting for a response from her sister.

[Firetra]

"Good for him." Alse said, completely disinterested in Lillia's attempt to cheer her up. "Why don't you just head back and help him out then, since you just left him there." She paused before adding, "just like our mom did..."

Lillia propped herself up on her elbows and faced her sister's back. "You know," Lillia paused, not really knowing what to say. Was she suppose to say that their mother had a plan for this? Because she as sure didn't know what that plan was. Did she try cursing at their mother? That wasn't going to help the situation whatsoever. "You know... your right."