Fog drifts around you, and you wonder where you are. Warm tendrils brush your face and stick in your hair, and you gaze around. The air has a strange hue, lavender and violet and mauves, shades of shimmering purples. It's not dark, but it doesn't seem like the middle of the day, sort of a prolonged twilight, that lasts.
You realise you're lost, but you see the beginning of a path. On each side is a pole, with softly burning torches lighting the start. For lack of anywhere better to go, you follow it. Wandering throught the dusky haze, it seems like hours and hours. Your legs are beginning to ache, and the not being able to see isn't pleasing you too much either.
Finally, after an eternity, you spot a clearer area. Grateful, you collapse into a heap on a soft warm patch of grassy earth. 'Even the grass is purplish' you think. The gentle warmth of the area sends you off to sleep, and you dream of mountains and mist.

Waking, you are surprised to see bubbles floating around above you. Even more surprising and confusing is when you hear big gloopy popping sounds, and you jump up and try examine the floating bubbles, wondering how they make such sounds.
You hear a tinkling laugh behind you, and jump around. You see a blue haired fairy 'nice change from purple' giggling at you, standing shyly with her hands behind her back. She flutters her wings gently and comes closer.

"Hi!", You say, happy to have found someone, especially someone so beautiful
She laughs again, and brings her hands out from behind her back, revealing the bubble mixture she has in her hand. She blows some at you, then runs off behind a craggy pile of (purple) rocks. You laugh and follow.

The path climbs steeply for a moment, then you come to a small flat clearing, within it is molten orange lava pool. Ringed by pebbles and rocks, and wee purple fern plants, it bubbles and pops, the source of the bubbling popping sound. You exclain in surprise and scamper over for a look.

"Don't get too close", the purple fairy says softly, in a gentle melodic voice. "It sometimes sends up flames". She comes close to you and introduces herself with a smile. "I'm Khilandra. I live here, in the Pyran Mountains, and look after any travellers that come to visit."
"Hi" You smile back. Bubbles rise and pop with loud bangs in the lava pit. "What is this place?" You ask. "It's not like anywhere I've ever been...I mean, the foggyness, the lava pools, the purpleness..."
"This is the Pyran Mountains" she says again, as if it explains everything. You look confused, so she elaborates.
"This place, is unlike any other. It has an almost constant fog and mist. This is because, being high up in the mountains, the climate is supposed to be cold, but we are very near to the Pyran Volcano chamber - I can take you there later if you want - and so the cold reacts with the warm, and produces this constant fog. It also means that the Pyran Mountains aren't cold, instead, always warm and dusky, and have numerous hot swamps."
"Like this?" You gesture around the clearing.
"Yes. And see the purple plants? They love to grow in these hot swamps. They don't even mind the fire." She grinned. "Often, wandering around, you'll find fires in strange places. They never get out of control, they are just a part of what the hot swamps are, and the mystery of the Pyran Mountains. This is a mysterious place...calm and quiet, but somethings always going on below the surface, theres always something here to learn." She grins again.
You absolutely cannot wait to explore, though you still don't know why theres all this purpleness. She guesses what you are thinking. "The purpleness comes from some strange chemicals in the lava from the Pyran Volcano. The lava itself isn't actually purple, but it seems to make everything else purple."
"Can we explore now? You said something about a volcano chamber??" You're bubbling with excitement.
She laughs merrily. "Of course! Just remember to be careful. This way!"
Khilandra starts up a speckled path between purple rocks, and furthur up you see a lava stream running along beside. You can feel the warmth pulsating off it. You follow Khilandra up the path, looking everywhere, trying to glimpse something through the purplish fog.

As you travel along, ever gaining altitude, you notice boggy swamps beside the path, though you're glad they don't smell bad. Their dark purple waters are almost like velvet. On the odd occasion you catch a flicker of a gold or purple flames, and often see the lava stream, meandering down the hillside.
Suddenly, you notice the path has ended and before you is a cave opening. Looking up through the fog, you see the ruins of a castle atop a cliff, tumbled rock walls and broken towers with curling mist all around. You start looking for a way up, but Khilandra beckons you on into the cave. 'Later, I'll explore the castle' you think, and walk towards the velvet black mouth of the cave.