Chapter 2

Night came. And while there were no more insects available, Lisa could hear thousands of them chirping, cheeping, serenading each other in the darkness. There was life in the river around her, as the occasional splash told of something moving, perhaps hunting, nearby. There was also no moon, and the stars seemed to take up the entire sky with their brilliance. Lisa lay on 'her' rock, gazing upward and listening to the night, remembering the years she had spent in the prehistoric past (somewhere in the far distant future from where she was now) with Vlad. She had loved being with him... 'at least on the nights that he didn't tie me to a friggin' tree and carve chunks out of my leg to roast for his dinner... '

But that sky had been brilliant like this one – unencumbered by mankind's ... there was that bilious feeling again... 'people! And the way they dirty everything they touch!'

Her mood ruined by her own tainted thoughts, Lisa rose up into the night sky. She had no idea where she was going, but she just needed to go. Somewhere.

There was a reddish glow on the horizon and, curiosity interrupting her self-hatred, she decided to find out what was causing it. The moon came up behind her as she traveled, lighting up the landscape with varying shades of soft grays and blacks. The forest gave out to a rocky landscape where great rivers of black rock had carved through the lowlands. She could smell the volcano, now; its vast clouds of dust and ash easily visible in the moonlight as it towered over the landscape.

'This is close enough, ' she decided as she breathed in some hot and acrid smoke, and gently alighted on the barren landscape.

Once on the ground, she could feel the vibrations caused by the monstrous, spewing mountain, as well as the heat being released beneath her. She walked toward the glowing, open top, amazed at the molten scene as slow, reddish rivers of melted rock roiled down toward her in seemingly slow motion. The soft flames licked upward from the flowing lava, then hesitated as the surface blackened and crusted, then burst open in a thousand brilliant, glowing cracks to flow a beautiful, flaming red and yellow a bit closer before crusting over again as it cooled.

Enraptured by the view and the sensual vibration of incredible power just waiting to be released, Lisa rose up into the sky and soared over the hell-mouth, hoping to see inside. She easily countered the ferocious heat rising from the crater with her own Phoenix fire, then dropped down to walk on the lava lake even as it bubbled and boiled over to send new rivers of destruction down the steeply sloping sides. The heat and the raw energy flooding through her body was incredible. She couldn't get enough as she sucked the volcanic fire into herself to feed her ravenous hunger.

The heat was stimulating her entire body, and the transformation into pure radiant energy exhilarated Lisa as she became one with the goddess of fire and brimstone. A huge lava bubble rose up and burst right in front of her, covering her fiery body with molten rock. The liquid lava sliding harmlessly down her fiery flesh was beyond sensual. The fire lake was alive, and it was eager to consume her. She could feel its desire to burn through her very soul and take everything she had to offer.