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reached the end of the underground passageway, his legs buckled and he crashed headlong onto the ground. His six companions tumbled unceremoniously on top of him.
    A muffled oath sounded from beneath the pile. With some difficulty, the gasping lizardmen disentangled themselves and rose to their feet.
    Lynch’s face was savage as he looked down the passageway. The red glow of the figure ahead of them had vanished. “You idiots!” growled Lynch. “You let him get away!”
    Another lizardman spoke up. “You didn’t exactly help!”
    Lynch spun on the speaker. “You were supposed to paralyze him! Why didn’t you do that?”
    “I tried,” said the lizardman. “The spell didn’t work.”
    “I told you so,” said a third lizardman.
    Lynch spun on the third lizardman, who continued, “Elementals are immune to magic. You’re wasting your time trying to catch him using magical means.”
    Lynch was about to respond when he thought better of it. Instead, he said, “Shut up, Lyrr.”
    Lyrr leered, his unusually long snout bristling with long, pointed teeth.
    Lynch frowned and shook his head. One could never tell when Lyrr was leering. His name was certainly appropriate.
    “What happened to the vial?” asked Lyrr, his ‘leer’ vanishing.
    Lynch pulled the vial from his pouch. “Right here.” He looked at the clear fluid inside the vial and shook it. “There doesn’t seem to be any change.”
    “Do you think it got hot enough?” asked another lizardman.
    “You can count on it,” said Lynch. “I called upon the forces of fire to heat that fire pit to its extreme limit.”
    “And called up the fire elemental while you were at it,” smirked Lyrr.
    Lynch looked at Lyrr. “That was merely a side effect.”
    Lyrr shrugged and then grinned. “It must have been awfully hot. Even the fire elemental couldn’t stand the temperature!”
    “Come on,” growled Lynch savagely. He started back the way they had come. “We’ve got several more tests to perform. We don’t have time for joking around.”
    The other lizardmen followed Lynch, and Lyrr looked after them for a moment in the dim tunnel. Once again, he wondered why he was the only one with a sense of humour.
    * * * * *
    Tyris risked a look over his shoulder. The orange glow from his body revealed nothing. His pursuers had given up the chase. He slowed to a walk and caught his breath. He didn’t know why he had been summoned from the fire pit, but knew it was for no good reason. Lizardmen were devious and foolhardy, and he wasn’t about to stick around to find out what they had planned for him. It was fortunate they had tried to stop him with magic. With the exception of summoning - a skill Tyris had thought long forgotten - elementals were immune to magic.
    When the lizardmage had cast a spell intending to make the lava hotter, he had inadvertently summoned Tyris himself. Appearing in the pit, Tyris had noticed that the lizardmen had a long chain with a glass vial dangling from it. They had been holding it above the surface of the lava, obviously trying to heat whatever was inside the vial. When the lizardmen had seen the fire elemental, they had cried out to each other, and one lizardman - the one casting the summoning spell – had pulled the vial up from the pit while the others tried to capture Tyris. A nearby tunnel was Tyris’ only escape route and he had run as fast as his fiery legs could carry him. He felt magical spells being cast his way but had ignored them. A long chase ensued but he had managed to outrun his would-be captors.
    “Now what?” mumbled Tyris. He had been summoned from his home in the fire pit. Now he was in human form somewhere inside a mountain. He looked around. It had been a long time since he had explored beyond his realm. Perhaps some things had changed. Perhaps there were new things to be seen. He smiled. Yes. It was time to go exploring.
    Taking one last look back the way he had come, Tyris marched calmly down the