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the one piece of
rock he’d been lucky enough to emerge upon, was absolutely free of
rocky islands. And he was starting to consider himself lucky.
Imagine if he’d actually emerged in the sea of flames? Although
immune to some forms of fire and resistant to others, Sam doubted
even he’d be able to survive in that sea for very long. He scanned
the sea with renewed interest. The fires were almost solid, but
like a sea, had peaks and troughs. It undulated like something
alive, hurling hot gusts of sulfur-redolent air straight into Sam’s
face.
    He was about to
give up when he saw movement, movement that wasn’t part of the sea.
He watched again, more carefully this time, focusing on the area
where he’d seen the earlier movement. There! A tail, reminiscent of
a serpent, broke the surface for a moment. It was almost the same
color as the fires that surrounded it but more vivid, a brighter
hue of orange and red. If Sam’s sense of scale was correct, just
the tip of tail that he’d glimpsed must have been at least twenty
feet long. That meant … Sam gulped. No wonder there were no fire
demons resident in this sea. Sam didn’t blame them. If there were
fire serpents over a hundred feet in length living in this sea,
then he wouldn’t want to be in there either. The residents of Hell
weren’t exactly inclined towards friendship with one another.
    Sam shook his
head despairingly. Even if he could survive in these fires, he
didn’t fancy his chances against massive fire serpents. Crossing
the sea was clearly out of the question.
    He examined the
rocky precipice again. Nothing. The landscape of Hell seemed to be
a uniform black volcanic rock. The rock he stood upon looked
exactly the same as any other piece of Hell. No help there. A
thought occurred to him. Lying flat on the rock, he dragged himself
to the edge and looked over and directly down the face of the rock.
The rock was broken and cragged - perfect handholds. He could
easily descend - but to what? A smile slowly appeared on Sam’s
face. Down at the very base of the rocky finger, down where fiery
waves lapped at the edges, there appeared to be a platform. Sam
didn’t know what the purpose of it was but it was definitely better
than sitting here.
    He stood up,
adjusted and tightened his backpack and swords, and began the long
climb down.
     

     
    Some
indeterminate time later, Sam reached the bottom. He was sweating
and his fingers were torn and bleeding, but he’d made it. It hadn’t
been the easiest of climbs – the rock was treacherous and kept
crumbling away even after he’d tested it, but here he was. He had
also discovered something interesting during the descent. The
sharp, volcanic rock here in Hell had the ability to pierce his
skin – something that would have been impossible on Earth. At
first, he’d thought that the rock must have contained a high
content of iron but that made no sense. He certainly couldn’t sense
or smell iron, which he often could. Also, all demons were
extremely sensitive to iron. Why would Satan create a place that
was filled with it? It might have been a cruel little joke,
something that his father would find amusing but it would also
serve to continuously antagonize his followers. Not to mention that
it would probably inconvenience Satan himself.
    That wasn’t it.
Sam knew there was no iron here. It was something else. And then he
realized. Humans needed the sun to live but it also had the
potential to kill them, just like the water in seas, oceans and
lakes. The natural environment on Earth could be deadly to its
indigenous inhabitants. For demons, their environment in Hell had
the same effect. Sure, some of them had more immunity to fire than
others, but the actual landscape seemed to be a different story
entirely. It had the potential to kill him. Good to know. Sam was
suddenly glad that he hadn’t followed his impulse to jump straight
into the sea of fire. If the rock could harm him, then being
immersed in that sea