Page 42 of Shinji Takahashi: Into the Heart of the Storm

Tinker’s eye beams continued to light the way as they walked, and eventually they came to yet another cavern, though this one wasn’t quite as large. Stone pillars seemed to march down the center of the chamber, leading to a flight

of stone steps. At the top of the stairs sat the massive head of a stone boar, jaws open in a silent bellow, fangs and tusks jutting up like stalagmites. Two doors sat within the boar’s mouth, a sullen red glow pulsing through the cracks and spilling over the stones. Shinji’s stomach dropped, and his heart beat faster when he saw it.

“This is it,” he whispered. “The heart of the volcano. It’s on the other side of those doors.”

“What is?” Roux asked. “Also, are you seriously going to walk right into that pig’s open mouth?” But Shinji was already moving, hurrying across the rocky floor. The boar head loomed before him, towering and ominous, the eyes seeming to glare down at him as he jogged toward it.

Yes,whispered a voice in his head.Come forward. Free me.

With a low rumble that shook the ground, the huge doors in front of them swung open. Dust and smoke billowed out, and a wave of heat hit Shinji in the face. Startled, he stumbled to a halt at the edge of the open jaws, watching the doors continue to swing slowly outward, until they hit the sides of the cavern wall with a rumbling boom.

Shinji’s heart pounded. Stone tusks rose into the air on either side of him, the maw lined with teeth that looked like they would easily crush him to pulp if the jaws decided to come to life the second he stepped inside. At the back of the pig’s mouth, the open doors beckoned, that sullen red glow making the jaws look almost bloody.

“Shinji.” Lucy’s voice echoed quietly beside him. She

gazed at the open doorway, her face bathed in the red glow beyond. “Are yousureyou want to do this? We don’t know what’s inside. We don’t know what will happen if we go forward.”

“I think I agree with Lucy.” Roux, gazing up at the snarling mouth of the boar, shook his head. Too uneasy to even realize he’d called Lucy by her name for the first time. “That is not the face of a happy pig.”

“We’re with you, whatever happens,” Lucy assured Shinji. “But are you absolutely sure you have to do this? There’s still time to turn around and go back.”

Shinji stared through the doorway. He couldn’t see anything beyond the frame but that eerie red glow. He could stillfeelit, though. The presence that had been calling him. The voice that had been invading his dreams. It was there, just on the other side. Waiting for him.

Carefully, he stepped into the open jaws, between the long, curving fangs. For a split second, his imagination saw the mouth move, the jaws coming to life and snapping shut like a bear trap. But the statue remained stony and lifeless, and after a tense heartbeat, Shinji relaxed. Behind him, Roux gave a loud exhale that showed he really thought Shinji might get crunched and swallowed like a bug.

Shinji glanced at his friends from within the boar’s jaws and smiled grimly. “You guys coming or not?”

Lucy groaned. “If we don’t get eaten, remind me to punch you later,” she growled.

“Noted,” Roux added. “I’ll hold him down for you.”

For the first time ever, the two shared a real smile. Shinji tried not to read too much into the reason behind it.

With Lucy on one side and Roux on the other, Shinji walked through the open jaws of the Storm Boar and into the heart of the volcano.

Hot. It was insanely hot. Beyond the tunnel, the air glowed red, and Shinji could hear the slow burbles and churning of molten lava. Which was not surprising, given the enormous magma lake sitting in the center of the cavern. The entire chamber was a huge lava bowl, with a narrow ledge circling the rim. As Shinji stepped through the door, he could feel pulses of magic coming from the center of the bowl, threaded throughout the whole room. Shinji heard Lucy gasp as she, too, realized where they were.

“The heart of the volcano,” Lucy whispered, staring at the bubbling magma. “It’s…a font!”

A font, like the one they had found in the Coatl’s temple.

A place where magic bubbled to the surface, affecting the land around it. These fonts had once dotted the world, though there were far fewer of them now than there used to be. The magic of the fonts granted good fortune and prosperity to those who used them, but they were also guarded by mythological creatures of great power. Guardians.

“Wait.” Shinji jerked up. “Then that means…is the Storm Boar the guardian of the font?”

Another guardian. Of course. That made sense. If the volcano was a font, strange and magical things would happen around it, affecting the outside world. The weird storm, the creepy fog, the invisible island no one had found…it was all because the magic of the font was protecting this place. And the Storm Boar was its guardian.

But then why was the Storm Boar trapped here? Why did it need Shinji’s help?

Even more confident, he stepped farther into the room, looking around carefully. Along the wall surrounding the chamber, pictures and images had been carved into the rough stone, creating a mural that circled the whole room. Shinji saw images representing men and women, the ocean, the volcano, and several large pictures of a giant boar. They might have told a story if he focused on them, but the creature in the center of the room demanded all his attention.

In the very center of the lake, a single flat rock rose out of the magma. Four stone torches had been placed at every corner, burning with bright flames. Standing in the middle

of that rock, watching them all with a baleful glare, was an old white boar with electric-blue eyes.

Shinji stared in shock. Even after they had seen the white pig and followed it here, he was expecting something different. It wasn’t the same pig, but it certainly wasn’t the Storm Boar from his visions. He thought the Storm Boar would be gigantic, surrounded by lightning and rumbling thunder. He thought it would be angry. But the creature in the center of the molten lake did not look like the fearsome guardian of a font. There were no strands of lightning snapping along its hide, no booming voice in his head, no earthshaking fury. Apart from its unusually colored eyes and coat, it could have been just an ordinary pig.

“Wait,that’swhat you’ve been looking for?” Roux sounded as surprised as Shinji felt. “It’s just an old pig. Don’t tell me we came all this way for a barely alive piece of bacon.”

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