He helplessly fanned his face using his tiny arms, but the heat kept up. After their relaxing evening and another round of sleep, they had made quick work of the first layer. Larry and his mother felt reinvigorated to discover what was happening in Mt. Silver. There was a single problem, the closer they came to the weird hazy cavern, the warmer the air around them became. He had reported feeling uncomfortably hot to his mother some time ago, but she couldn’t do much to cool Larry down, except bury him in cool dirt, which he politely declined.

  ‘This is most definitely some Fire-Type tomfoolery, isn’t it?’ Larry thought that he could still bear the heat right now, but it was beginning to go from ‘Room without Air-Conditioning’ to ‘Sauna’ mightily quickly. The annoying part was that he hadn’t played any of the Johto or Kanto games religiously, so he was at best guessing which wild Pokemon could cause this.

  ‘Charmander, Vulpix, Growlithe, Ponyta, Flareon, and Magmar are all first-generation Pokemon which could cause this…’ but Larry only expected two of them to ever make home deep inside of a cave. The Magmar Line was his best bet, with the Charmander Line as a backup, even though he wasn’t sure if they were ever even catchable in the wild in the games.

  ‘Alright, let's go with that then. Some Magmar are doing stuff down here that’s heating the whole mountain. Is that even possible?’ Larry didn’t think even a gang of Magmar would be able to do something of this magnitude, ‘What about a Magmortar though?’

  Magmortar were trade evolutions, they couldn’t be found out in the wild, ‘What’s to say that still the same though?’ He shook his head in frustration, he just couldn’t come to a conclusion with the little amount of information he had. So Larry simply decided to run with his best theory and to improvise for whatever was happening down here.

  The windy corridors continued snaking downwards and the two of them eventually met another body of water, this one far larger than the previous ones. Gazing over it at the edge they found themselves at, Larry almost couldn’t believe such a gigantic body of water was found so deep inside of a cave. He gingerly dunked one of his arms into the water, only to find it to be warm. Not simmering or hot yet, but by no means the ice-cold temperatures he would have expected from a cavern deep inside of a snowy mountain.

  Raising his head, his sight was fixated on the large cavern on the other side of the body of water. The hole from before was just across the body of water, this close Larry could see the hazy heat emanating from the insides of the cavern float along the top of the miniature lake along with the light shining out of the cavern, which reflected off of the pristine body of water quite beautifully, ‘This situation really must’ve been going on for quite some time if it managed to heat up an entire body of water.’

  The outside edges of the body of water were all far too steep to be used to walk across, meaning it would take a significant amount of time to reach the cavern.

  Larry turned back to his mother with a sarcastic smile, “We need a way across. Can you swim?”

  She shook her head honestly, “I can’t.”

  “That was meant jokingly…” Larry sighed.

  His mother looked at the body of water, before turning back to Larry with a confident grin, “I’ve got an idea.”

  Type energy gathered around his mother, coalescing in her chest before she stomped one of her feet down onto the ground. The TE shot through her leg into the ground and Larry had to stop himself from tripping as the entire cavern shook dramatically.

  From the edge of the miniature lake, a small mound of dirt began to snake its way into the body of water. Quite literally raising itself out of the lake for the two of them to walk across. Larry could hardly believe his eyes, as he exchanged looks between his mother who had closed her eyes in deep concentration, and the thin walkway which slowly snaked its way through the water.

  “Woah,” Larry was awestruck, the scene reminded him of the scene in the third generation of games in which the legendary Pokemon Groudon walked on a path of stone through a literal ocean to fight his counterpart Kyogre.

  The path cut through the pristinely clear lake, it wasn’t large, barely large enough for his mother to walk across, but his mother was still emulating a feat he’d only seen a legendary Pokemon do.

  Suddenly, the earth stopped and his mother opened her eyes with a heavy breath, “Huff…That should do for now…”

  “That was so awesome Mom!” Larry hopped around his mother excitedly in celebration, “So cool! Amazing!”

  “Yeah, yeah…” She huffed back bashfully as she picked him up.

  “That was the coolest thing ever!” Larry swooned, suddenly he stopped before turning to his mother with stars in his eyes, “Will I be able to do something like that one day?!”

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

  “No,” His mother started, putting Larry into a state of shock, before she continued with a smirk on her face, “You will be far stronger because you’re trained by me.”

  He threw himself at his mother in excitement, “Oh yeah! Thank you!”

  …

  Larry audibly gulped as he looked down at the precarious edges of their small path from his mother's arms. He had swooned for his mother's abilities before and he wouldn’t take back his compliments, but seeing the loose and muddy gravel the path was made of just barely reach above the water line behind them as they continued their walk made him far more queasy than he liked to admit.

  His mother had stopped several times by now to continue raising the path through the lake out of the water and the feat seemingly got harder the deeper the water underneath them got. She didn’t look exhausted per se, but the feat was still straining for her, as he was cradled in her arms he had heard his mother's grunts of exertion at the feat. Larry could tell that it wasn’t easy work, he couldn’t even fathom doing such a thing himself.

  “We’re here,” His mother announced. With one final step, they finally arrived at the other side, the temperature over her was swelteringly hot, it felt more like Larry was looking into an open oven than the cave it was supposed to be. ‘Glad I’m a Rock-Type right about now…’ He thought to himself as he was let down onto stable ground once again.

  The heat wasn’t comfortable, but he didn’t feel the warmth of the cavern in front of him in any painful way. It felt far more comfortable than the cool caves he’d gotten so used to. Larry spread out his arms and turned around slowly, spinning in a circle to evenly spread the heat across his body like a person trying to warm up their hands after a day out in winter, ‘This is pretty nice actually…’

  “What are you doing?”, His mom asked in an exasperated tone while looking at him quizically as she approached the tunnel entrance, “C’mon.”

  Larry quickly stopped and followed dutifully, speeding up to reach his mother's side, “You have a plan as well? Else I can come up with something.”

  “If it's a Pokemon,” She said heavily, “I’ll beat it up until it stops.” Leaving the statement in the air for a few seconds, she continued, “If it's something else, you come up with something.”

  He wanted to facepalm at his mother's sheer honesty and lack of ingenuity.

  “Sure thing,” He said in a sarcastic tone.

  And so they ventured into the sweltering cavern.

  …

  As they crossed the threshold separating the cavern from the first layer, it immediately became apparent what was going on. The cavern behind the hole was large, not as large as any of the layers but far larger than any simple tunnel. It was a big round cavern with ample flat walking and living space all situated around a giant cylindrical hole in the middle of the room.

  Larry couldn’t make out the details inside the hole, but a blindingly bright light shone out of the middle of the hole. The heat which before had been sweltering now was easily going into blistering territory and Larry felt his eyes dry out just looking at the hole in the middle. Averting his gaze from the hole, he looked to the sides of the cave and felt himself stiffen involuntarily.

  Eyes, ten to thirty pairs of eyes returned his gaze, an entire colony of Magmar stared back at them. Around the entire circumference of the hole, many different families of Magmar had made the place their home. Adorable Magbies looked at him and his mother curiously as they were being held back protectively by their parents. Most of the families had fearful or surprised expressions on their faces, never expecting the appearance of a Tyranitar in their apparent home.

  The silence in the cave was deafening, if a pin were to be dropped right now, Larry was sure everyone would’ve heard it. “Eherm!” He quickly cleared his throat in an attempt to break the silence, only to spook a large number of the families in the process.

  “Oh sorry!” He quickly apologized and the Magmar jumped once again, Larry sighed to himself at how scared they were and continued, “We’re not here to hurt you-”

  “-If you comply.” His mother added on with slightly too much snark in her voice, making the colony of Magmar jump for a third time.

  “Calm down, Mom.” Larry smacked his mom's leg harmlessly before continuing, “This place is heating the entire cavern up and we’re here to investigate what is going on and why it is happening.”

  The Magmar looked between each other, seemingly evaluating who was supposed to be the one to talk until one Magmar stepped forward before kneeling in front of the two of them, “It is not our doing, great mountain queen. We have simply decided to make the best use of the situation for our comfort.”

  “Then what IS going on?” His mother asked in an annoyed tone, she disliked the name but wasn’t annoyed enough to call him out on it.

  “A creature of great power has made its roost in these caverns, great mountain queen.” The Magmar spoke heavily as its gaze traveled to the hole in the middle. The other Magmars followed his gaze to the hole and Larry felt himself look to the impossibly bright hole as well.

  ‘Oh…Is this what I think it is?’ Larry felt his heart drop into his pants at the mention of a creature of great power, ‘If this is what I think it is…’

  The Magmar quickly raised itself off of the ground and thrust its arms to the hole in a presenting manner, prompting the two of them to peek into the hole, “If you would…”

  They approached with Larry hiding gingerly behind his mother. If the heat inside the room was blistering then simply looking at the Pokemon that was roosting inside the hole felt more like setting his face on fire. In moments like these, Larry was grateful his skin was made of stone. Unfortunately for him though, all of his fears were confirmed as he peered into the hole.

  Inside a corona of pure heat and bright light, on a bed of magma and various molten rocks, a legendary Pokemon rested. Fiery yellow plumage burned fiercely inside of its nest, as the Moltres slept. If he was still human, Larry felt that his face might burn straight off of his face just looking at it, it felt as if he was gazing at the sun itself.

  Larry quickly turned away from the hole, while rubbing at his eyes as they slowly regained sight. His thought process had stopped when he had taken in the legendary Pokemon, so his next words as he turned back to the Magmar were quite simple,

  “I see.”