The two of them were side by side, sweat dripping their brows as they rounded a corner, and skidded to a halt.

“By the deeps!” Meg’s first mate exclaimed.

Flames covered the tunnel in front of them, dancing, writhing, the heat rolling off onto them, and more sweat dripped down and out.

“We’re going to die. Trapped in this bloody magical cave. We’re going to bloody die.”

Meg backhanded him, a smart slap on his cheek. “We are not going to die Hector.”

“There’s a fire in front of us, and a flaming monster behind us! Not literally flaming, but it might well be when it catches up to us!” his arms were gesturing wildly, his hair failing out of it’s usual neat ponytail.

“Trust me.” Meg held out her hand to him.

“With what?”

“That,” she nodded to the fire in front of them, “we’re going to walk through it.”

His eyes went wide, and his mouth slack, “Are you mad?”

“A little, aye.”

“What makes you think that we won’t just roast to a crisp?”

“A badly worded trade and a bit of gut instinct.”

Hector ran a hand through his hair, pacing the short distance of the corridor. A roar echoed back from where they had come through, and he threw a glance that way.

“To hell with it, I’m a bit mad too,” Hector reached out and took her hand.

Meg took in a deep breath, and stepped through into the fire, leading her first mate behind her. It was probably only ten paces of so, but the warmth of the fire as it surrounded them was immense, almost no air for them to breath, but the fire didn’t burn them as they stumbled through and out the other side.

Hector took a few paces, and then collapsed to his knees, shaking all over, “I don’t know how you did that cap’n, but I ain’t complaining.”

“Like I said, badly worded trade. You should never really trust Djinn’s.”

A roar echoed from the chamber, closer than before. The two pirates looked at each other, and then pushed to their feet and started running again.

“Some days, I wonder if this is what normal pirates have to go through.”

“Where’s the fun in normal?”