Step One

[Albert Wesker]

The brief interlude from the long march lasted for perhaps an hour. Just long enough for a quick breather, and for some scouting of the nearby area to ferret out a path to start in on again to be found. Wesker took full advantage of that time, to rest such as he could, and to get more questions answered. About anything and everything that seemed even partially relevant. In turn he provided answers to the curious queries of the Gorons. He was evasive, choosing his words very deliberately and carefully. Haltingly, he spoke his answers, putting on a show of being confused and trying to find suitable responses. The effort was, of course, very genuine; the reasons behind it were where the veil of lies was cast.

Still, his provided answers served to placate the creatures and ease off the air of suspicion and mistrust. Already he had proven useful, if only mildly so. Sharp eyes on his part, and a deadeyed shot from his subordinate, had steered away wild creatures that they might have otherwise missed until they were much more worryingly close. The few injuries they had sustained from salamander claws and bites had also been tended to by the so-called scientist. Little more than scratches and nuisances, but they were highly painful and even the rocky brutes knew that in such a toxic, smog-laded landscape as this, open wounds were a poor thing to leave untended. Even minor ones.

When they had found the path forward again, the steady march resumed. This time with far more success and less abundant detouring. A long stretch of mostly even ground, the only obstacle being patches of still nearly-molten ground, and bubbling pools of glowing, liquid earth. A recent eruption had likely spilled lava for a huge area, or else vomited it out from below the ground. The going was treacherous, for in places the rock had cooled enough to lose its angry, shimmering red hue but still hot enough to warrant risk of injury for the Umbrella employees, or damage to the goods of the Gorons. Of one particular type of cargo were they especially wary of, and took great pains to steer it along the coolest and safest path they could find.

When next they paused for a short break as the path seemed to veer off toward a craggy hill dotted with caves, Wesker inquired about the odd cargo. The answer he received was...surprising, to say the least. Bomb Flowers, they were called. Naturally-growing plants, packed with substances resembling gunpowder, and every bit as explosive, from the description. Some sort of reaction occurred when they were picked, unless proper care to harvest them was taken, and a sort of 'fuse' would ignite from it. The fuse was several seconds long, so it was easy to dispose of an improperly picked flower; but the damage they could unleash was still substantial. A single flower could demolish a solid boulder the size of even a robust Goron, or crack apart and splinter even much larger structures and walls. Harvesting them was part of the reason they had been in the canyon within the mountains, where the two outsiders had come upon them.

The plants were very particular about where they would grow, and volcanic soil was among the best and most preferred places for them to take root and flourish. There was no shortage of that to be found in the Steppes, it was true, but the place where they had been was a unique area, well-suited to the cultivation of the flowers. There was enough moisture there, seeping up from below, to provide them with what little they needed to grow, while still being in a relatively open area to take in what precious little sunlight actually shone down through the smoggy haze. And of course, it was a secure enough area, where the crop could be watched over and harvested when the time came, with significantly less worry of wild creatures getting into the crop and ruining it.

Ridiculous as it seemed, there were actually creatures in this volcanic slice of world that consumed the explosive fruits as a primary feature of their diet. The explosions, when they went off, seemed to do little more than cause them indigestion. Even more ridiculous, they could be warded off with the potent stench of the smoke produced by the exploding fruit, which could make them ill if directly inhaled, but which seemed to cause no ill effect if the flowers detonated inside their gullet.

"Like something out of a damn cartoon or video game," Agent HUNK muttered, when there was a lull in the conversation. The Gorons knew of what both those things were only by word of mouth from other travelers, and even then only vaguely, but they did agree. It sounded pretty ridiculous and far-fetched, even to them, who had been living alongside and fighting with the creatures for centuries, even back in their home world. Dodongos, they were called, when he finally thought to ask. Giant lizards, covered in steel-like scales everywhere except their tails and underside. Phenomenal lung capacity, able to suck in even a grown man just by inhaling, and capable of breathing fire hot enough to melt stone. And the icing on the cake was they could burrow through even solid stone, and with enough time to grow could reach a sufficient size they could dwarf most moderately-sized homes and buildings.

The only reason they weren't much more dangerous was their phenomenal idiocy and lack of intelligence. They were driven only by hunger and a territorial drive to protect their hunting and living grounds. Stay out of them, or simply outrun them if you ventured into their territory (he later discovered that these Dodongo creatures were not very quick at all, save for their hunting pounce), and they were as harmless as any other wild animal. Details which Wesker made careful note of, for later. Perhaps there was more that he could get from them, if he ever had chance to encounter one directly.