Thomas followed Logan until the King stopped a few feet away from where they had just been. He pulled the human onto a stone tile next to him and suddenly the ground was rushing away, hurtling below them while they rose up on their tiles. Suddenly, they were standing on raised pillars in the middle of the air while Logan stepped onto a stone shelf, walking cautiously along.

"Take care," He commented. "I do not have the ability to save you, should you fall."

The human swallowed, following after Logan, making the mistake of looking down. It was a dizzying drop and Thomas felt his stomach do a small flip and he pulled back quickly, catching up to the Earth King. Logan was holding a large, leather-bound book in his hand and Thomas tilted his head.

"What's that?" Logan shrugged and Thomas just stared at him. "You don't know?"

"Hmm?" Logan glanced up. "Oh, sorry, shrugging is almost a default for me sometimes. Yes, I do know what it is. Follow me." And the King continued to walk across the ledge and then he opened a door painted to look like a bookshelf. It wasn't a secret room, there was no lever. It had just been a door that someone had painted to look like a bookshelf, yet Thomas was in awe at how realistic it was. He swiftly hurried after Logan and shut the door behind him.

The room he was in wasn't a secret room. It was a bedroom, but it certainly didn't look like one. A single bed was tucked in the corner and there was a closet opposite it but the rest was just books. There were books littering the floor, books on the bed and books tucked into shelves. Large sheets of parchment and paper housed crazy squiggles of theories and ideas, notes and research that Thomas couldn't even begin to imagine what it belonged to.

Logan pushed Thomas onto the bed before moving to a desk that Thomas had hardly noticed with all the books and paper. He tried hard not to disturb anything and was in awe that the stone human walked and searched effortlessly through the mess.

The King returned to him, sitting next to him on the bed with a large book. He flipped it open and showed Thomas a page covered in boxy writing.

"That," Logan started, "Is a page about a prophecy. I've been theorising it for some time and it's all about the five Kings of the races and bringing around a peace. You did say you lived in the palace, right? Were you a prince?"

Thomas pulled back, wide-eyed. "Yes, I did say-! Wait, I wasn't-!"

Logan didn't hear him, suddenly grinning as he jumped to his feet. "Oh. My. God. I knew it! I knew the prophecy had to be coming soon because it was talking about, 'pillars of smoke,' and, when I saw the smoke last night, I knew something must've been happening but I wasn't sure, I needed proof!" Thomas smiled back awkwardly and Logan grabbed his wrist. "Come, Prince Thomas, we must find the other Kings and establish peace again! To avenge your people!"

The human was pulled out of Logan's' bedroom, onto a large stone pillar that rose swiftly to greet them on their way down. Thomas didn't know what to do.

On the one hand, there was the truth. He was a failed chef's' apprentice and there would be no prophecy about him. If he said nothing, he'd be deceiving King Logan and the Stone King was known for his grudges. And yet, on the other side of the argument, prophecies aren't always literal. It could mean five people with really good beliefs that make them a 'king,' and, besides, Thomas was receiving attention. And he was seeing a humanoid's' face. Surely, he could come clean later.

Thomas gave into silence as Logan chattered orders to the trolls and the human swore when he saw a giant come up to them.

"Don't be alarmed, friend," Logan smiled and Thomas's' stomach lurched with guilt. "This giant will just be our ride to the Fire Kingdom. He'll return as soon as we get there."

Nodding, Thomas tried hard to keep still when the giant reached down with large, rocky hands, scooping the King and the kitchen boy up. It began to walk along slowly but every stride carried them a good distance away from the castle.

"Have you ever met the Fire King?" Thomas asked, trying to be casual.

Logan sighed loudly, glaring at a memory. "I have, and he is very, very-"

.:*:.

"Cool!" Gasped Thomas. They'd been riding the giant for an hour and Thomas had awkwardly managed to deflect any questions about his, 'royal' heritage back to Logan when they reached the Fire Kingdom. The meadows they'd once been walking in had suddenly been torn deeply, leaving the rifts in the grassy ground. Each valley was steaming with heat and the giant hunkered down, placing them gently onto the ground.

The moment the stone giant wandered back to the Earth Kingdom, Logan and Thomas were swarmed by sprites and fairies.

Each one looked like a blazing autumn day, red and orange glistening skin with golden locks of hair. They were tiny and skinny, perhaps the size of a thumb or forefinger, and they had glossy wings on their backs.

"King Logan! King Logan!" They gasped to each other, reaching out to stroke the mans' stony skin with awe. Logan pulled away, continuing to walk past them to a singular pit. It didn't look like a tear, instead more like a hole one had just drilled into the land that smoked more than the rest.

Logan turned to Thomas. "We should find the Fire King down here," He said, and he pulled Thomas along with him.

The moment Thomas took a step into the pit, he was sweltering. The air was boiling and he was working himself up into a sweat already. However, he followed Logan deeper into the sauna and realised he was having it easier. His new friend was breathing heavily and the stony man began to steam up.

"Logan? Are you okay?" Thomas asked.

Logan glanced at him. "The problem with being made out of stone..." He panted. "Is that you can't sweat to cool your body down..."

Thomas grimaced but was suddenly grateful for being able to sweat, if only temporarily.

The deeper they got, the more Thomas wanted to tear off his shirt and die. But he didn't and he kept going down and down until the steps stopped and he was in a large, square room that was surprisingly large.

Painted with small flames, the walls around him were white marble and they shone in the heat, along with the carpeted red ground. It wasn't too significant, for a room, and Thomas guessed it wasn't even an entrance hall, just an empty room in someones' home.

A grunt made him look up and he saw a surprisingly attractive young man swinging a sword with murderous intent at a training dummy. He whacked it and it whistled across the ground to a new position but the man was ready for it and he swung low, cutting the dummy in half. He stood above the severed body, panting softly when Logan cleared his throat.

He looked up, grinned, and Thomas saw his face. His skin was several shades of red and looked almost scaly as tiny corners would shine randomly as he moved, like glitter. The eyes were entrancing: a molten gold, filled with ember-like flecks and ashy lines, beautiful beyond compare. His fingertips ended in a smooth blend to charcoal black and his smile was radiant.

"Logan!" He cried, sheathing the sword. "What a lovely surprise visit! Did the fire-light I gave you die out or something? Can you no longer read?" Thomas recalled the flaming fireball that light up Logan's' palace, quickly placing the name.

Logan frowned. "No, Roman, the fire-light hasn't died."

"Then who has?"

"The human race."

Roman, Thomas assumed, blinked slowly and noticed Thomas. "Who's..."

"This is Prince Thomas, the only survivor of a massacre," Thomas flinched as Logan introduced them. "Thomas, this is King Roman."

King Roman. The Fire King. Of course. He frowned. "There's no way I'm believing that. The human race couldn't have just died like that."

"It did!" Insisted Thomas. "Everything's burnt to the ground! See this?" Thomas showed the burn wound and Roman observed it for a moment. "You're the Fire King, you know this can't be fake! A flaming stone hit me in the chest and burnt me. Do you think I'd do that for fun?"

Roman hesitated, mouth opening and closing. "I-"

"And did you not see the smoke? Everything was on fire, everything has been destroyed and I found no one!" Thomas teared up, the memories far too fresh and vivid as the flashed behind him. "I only found bodies, a-and blood and I couldn't f-find anyone! Th-The only thing I-I found," He stammered, reaching into a satchel and pulling out the teddy bear he'd pocketed, "was this! This was the only other intact thing I could find in my home."

Logan and Roman looked at each other as Thomas wiped the tears on his sleeve, trying to regain himself. Neither had heard about the true destruction of the human kingdom: Roman had only just been introduced and Logan had been too excited about his prophecy.

 Roman bowed his head, his face apologetic. He walked slowly up to Thomas, sheathing the sword. "Nice to meet you, Thomas. I... I don't really know what to say apart from 'sorry,' for your race."

"It's fine," Thomas smiled shakily. "It couldn't have been your fault."

"Roman's a little insensitive," Mumbled Logan.

Roman gasped loudly. "I am not insensitive! I have just been bombarded with emotion very suddenly with no build-up or foreshadowing, I'm meeting the last human, a prince, no less, and I am obviously in shock!"

Logan rolled his eyes as Roman huffed haughtily and Thomas felt the anxiety in his stomach rise like bile. Were they acting comfortable around him because they believed he was a prince? Usually, royalty wasn't comfortable with anyone who slaved away on them and Thomas was nervous these two Kings would be repelled by where he really was in the food chain. Maybe he'd wait a little longer. Wait until he was sure he could tell them.

Lost in thought, he'd missed the conversation and realised both Kings were looking at him as if waiting for him to say something.

"I- sorry, it's been a long forty-eight hours, I kinda zoned out," Thomas apologised.

Roman smiled at him. "That's alright, man. We'd be in the same boat. We were discussing the prophecy in Logan's' book and thought maybe we should pop by the Air King?"

"Sounds good!" Thomas agreed quickly. He really hoped neither of them would discuss politics on the way there. He knew next to nothing about politics.

Logan nodded. "Then that's the plan of action. We can't get to the Water King without him, anyway, Roman can't submerge himself in water for over a minute and the Air King might know a trick that could help."

Thomas smiled awkwardly, nodding along like he had a place in the conversation. He felt very, very awkward when he left the pit with the two Kings and was saddled onto a large horse that was made out of fire. Somehow, the fire didn't burn him and Roman sharply whistled while on the back of the largest, firey horse. The trio started trotting away, picking up into a gallop, and they were rushing past the smoking ravines and valleys.

And the pit in Thomas's' stomach grew.