It took just over two days to get to Koto, he could have gotten there faster if it wasn't for Prometheus' disobedient behaviour. At every village they passed the donkey would refuse to move until he got a stack of the village's best straw. This, of course, cost a fortune but money wasn't the problem, the problem was that there were at least 50 villages between Old Corona and Koto. "We're here Ruddiger," Varian exclaimed as he saw the front gates to the kingdom. He stared in awe as he entered the gates, the red and brown theme of the kingdom making his eyes sparkle with wonder. He grabbed out his mother's journal and read a passage she had written about the fire kingdom, 'Koto, formally known as Boyangor, is a chinese inspired kingdom. The townsfolk are friendly, family is the most important thing to a Kotoian so don't bring up their family unless you want to be stuck talking for hours.'  Varian smiled as he saw a small sketch of Ulla and him as a baby.

Varian looked at the buildings, he has never been to China, two days ago he hadn't even left Corona, but he remembered an addition of The Tales of Flynnigan Rider where Flynnigan went on a heist in Beijing and explained what Beijing looked like in heavy detail. That book was Varian's favourite, he even drew fan art.

Ruddiger snickered in Varian's ear, turning his attention away from Koto. "What is it Ruddiger?"

The raccoon continued to snicker as he looked ahead, Varian followed Ruddiger's glaze until he saw an apple cart, "Oh! You're hungry."

Ruddiger nodded, making Varian grin, proud of himself for being able to decipher what his friend was saying. Prometheus sneered making Varian rolled his eyes, "Let me guess you want some straw?"

The donkey didn't answer but there was an unsaid agreement when Prometheus started moving closer to the apple cart.

The cart was much bigger now that Varian is standing right next to it, from a distance it looked almost unimpressive but now that he can see that is not the case. Varian's mouth started to water as he looked at least 100 bright red apples, each one shiny and fresh. Varian grabbed four and gave the lady at the stand a grin, "Just four apples please."

The lady was in her mid to late thirties, though she looked to be at least ten years older, the same with the man standing next to her, Varian assumed the man was with her husband. Next to the couple is a three teenagers, a boy and two girls, the boy looked to be slightly older than him, maybe twenty-one, and the girls looked around the same age as Varian. The old lady stared at Varian as if he was speaking a different language, the boy walked up to the lady and whispered something in her ear. Varian didn't catch what he said but whatever it was the lady, and her husband took it as a reason to leave. "Sorry about that, my parents don't speak German."

"Oh-" Varian blushed, "My apologies! I'm so sorry."

The boy shook his head, "You have nothing to apologise for, most people in Boyangor speak German but my parents just simply didn't want to learn."

Varian took note that the boy called Koto by its old name, maybe that's what all the locals do. "That's r-"

BANG!

Varian dropped the apples that he was holding when he heard a loud, ear-piercing explosion, Varian has had his share of accidents to know what a chemical explosion sounds like. Suddenly a young boy covered in soot, walked onto the cart, "勇！ 那是什么？你还好吗?"

The young boy, despite being covered in soot, was grinning, "我的烟花奏效了 米拉!"

The boy's older sister went to continue scolding the boy but was interrupted when he walked up to Varian. "Oh- My- FIREWORKS! You're Varian!"

Varian shuffled uncomfortably as the boy recognised him, he prayed that he recognised him from his role as royal engineer and not his wanted posters. "No way," the other girl said as she gawked at Varian.

"Um... hi?" Varian hated how awkward he sounded. Ruddiger picked up one of the apples off the floor and took a bite, Prometheus eat the other four.

"This is so cool! You're my hero!" The younger boy exclaimed, Varian felt uncomfortable at the compliment and shuffled. "I'm, Yong!" Yong held out his hand for Varian to shake.

Varian shook his hand, the soot on the boy smudging onto him.

"It's nice to meet you, Yong."

The boy beamed as Varian said his name, he couldn't help but find it adorable. Varian looked around the village and then at Yong and his older siblings. "I'm a little lost," Varian explained how he was looking for a place that symbolizes fire, the older brother commented how that won't be difficult seeing as they were in the fire kingdom. Yong's sisters started listing popular tourist attractions but none that sounded like anything his mother wrote about.

"OH!" Yong bounced, "Try 火山!"

"Huǒshān?" Varian grabbed out his map of the seven kingdoms and saw a volcano in the middle of Koto, "That's a volcano!"

"It's dormant."

"Yong! You can't just tell a tourist to walk into volcanos!"

Yong shrugged.

Varian bit his lip, a volcano makes a lot of sense, these trails aren't supposed to be easy, they're meant to be a challenge and what could be more challenging than the destruction of ego in the middle of a dormant volcano? "Thank you," Varian handed the family a handful of silver thalers before heading to Huǒshān.

Varian didn't know what he expected Huǒshān to look like, a part of him hoped for a small dormant volcano with a pathway leading to the fire trial, but he wasn't so lucky. The volcano was dormant like Yong had said but it was huge, and Varian couldn't see any front door leading to the trail.

Ruddiger chatted in Varian's ear, "Don't be so negative, we haven't even searched for any secret doors, this is Demanitus after all."

Ruddiger shook his head in disapprovement. Varian flashed the raccoon as halfhearted smile, as much as he knew the chance of him finding a secret door was low, he had to give it a go. Varian grabbed out his mother's journal and rereading her pages on the fire trail. "'The door will only appear to someone who is worthy' well that's useful isn't it Ruddiger?" The raccoon frowned in response.

Varian sighed. He took a step off of the caravan and started to search the walls of the volcano, maybe there is a secret button or something, 'someone who is worthy' Varian hoped he was worthy, he worked closely with Demanitus' work in the past, he hoped that would make him worthy enough.

The volcano had a weird feeling to it. Varian can't pin what exactly felt weird about it but it felt familiar, like he had touched the walls before even though this was the first volcano he has ever seen.

"Ruddiger?" Varian turned to the raccoon, "Come feel this. It feels familiar, right?"

Ruddiger walked up to the volcano before climbing up to Varian's shoulders and touching the wall, he chattered.

Varian tilted his head, "I don't understand what you're saying buddy."

Ruddiger frowned. The raccoon held up to fingers, "Oh! Is this charades?" The animal nodded. "Two words." Ruddiger grinned. He charade a hat, Varian easily guessed it, Ruddiger then charades a wand, this took Varian a little bit more to guess but he eventually got it. "Hat and wand?"

Varian tried thinking about what that could mean, his first guess was a witch but that didn't make any sense, then he remembered Clementine. Clementine was a member of the Separatists of Saporia, someone from Varian's past that he would prefer to forget but then Varian remembered. "Oh! Clementine's wand! That's where I've felt it from. Magic! This volcano is made from magic."

The animal nodded.

Suddenly a loud noise came from the other side of the volcano. "Yong?" Varian called out, as he raced to the other side of the volcano, the explosion sounded exactly like the one the young boy made.

"Hi, Varian!" The kid waved as he stood next to a fire.

"Are you okay?"

"Not really." Varian watched as the fire from Yong's exploded firework spread and moved closer and closer to the boy. Varian grabbed out his bag and searched for his water bomb, "I didn't mean for it to go off so early, my fireworks never do what they're supposed to do!"

"That's okay, kid," he said, still searching for the water bomb. "Found it!" He exclaimed before throwing the vile at Yong, safely putting out the flames. Varian walked up to the kid and placed a hand on his shoulder, "None of my experiments worked when I was a kid, it took years of explosion and failed experiments for me to create hot running water. Don't worry about failed experiments," he looked around at the burnt grass around them, "Though made next time do it somewhere a little bit less flammable."

Yong grinned, "Will do!"

The boy's grin made Varian frowned, it reminded him so much of his own smile, the one he had worn so many years ago, before he met Rapunzel, before the black rocks destroyed his him, before he had done something he will forever regret. Varian grabbed out his notebook and quickly made a note that he had to make another water bomb. When Varian looked up from his notebook, he found Yong starring at him. "Um... Can I help you with something?"

"Actually, I was hoping I could help you with something! When you said you where looking for something that symbolises fire, I think I know what you are talking about."

Varian eyes widened, "You do? Where is it?"

Yong shook his head, "First you tell me why it's important."

Varian really doesn't have time for this, Prometheus is on the other side of the volcano waiting for him, Varian wouldn't be surprised if the donkey had already walked off on him. "Look, what I'm going to tell you is top secret! You can't tell anyone about." Varian watched as the young boy crossed his heart and bounced impatiently. Varian sighed, "I'm looking for a totem, you receive it at the end of the fire trial. The fire trial is one of seven trial. My moth-... This book says that the door will appear to someone who is worthy."

"A trial? Cool! Are you on a top secret royal mission for Queen Rapunzel?"

"No, this quest is for me."

"Hmmm..." Yong seemed deep in thought, the young chinese boy was completely still, Varian would had guessed he was asleep if it wasn't for his eyes being open and him standing up. "I know a door, though it never opens for me."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it's actually not to far from here. Only a few feet to your right-" Yong started to walk in that
direction.

After this Varian needs to talk to Yong's parents about measurements before the walk was a lot more than just a 'few feet'. Varian stood in front a large oval carved into the volcano, it definitely looked like a door but there was no handle and when Yong pushed on it, it didn't move. "This looks right."

"But it doesn't open!"

Varian looked at the carving. There was a frame carved into the volcano and then a door in the frame. The closer Varian got to the carving, the more detail Varian saw, there was old Boyangor symbols on the frame. "Yong, what does this say?"

"What does what say?" Varian pointed at the symbols. "Oh! I can't believe I've never seen this!" Yong muttered a few words to himself, some he understood, some he didn't. "This is really old Boyan, like my parents don't even know half of these words. But lucky for us, I know what these say."

Yong pointed at the first one, "This says magic," he then pointed at the second symbol and the third, "This one says alchemy and the other says unity."

"Magic and alchemy, Demanitus' work," Varian muttered to himself. He grabbed out one of his viles, "I have alchemy, I don't own anything with magic though..."

"I do!" Yong grabbed out a firework from his pocket, Varian raised an eyebrow, fireworks are chemistry and physics, not magic. As if reading Varian's thoughts, Yong explained. "They are animated differently, I used magic to get the sparks to move in a directive way, that's why they never seem to work..."

"That's so interesting, Yong! I've never heard of fireworks used in such a way."

Yong blushed at the complement, "That's because I'm the first to try magic based fireworks."

Varian touched the carving with his alchemy vile, Yong followed after with his firework. The frame on the door started to glow and slowly there was a door in front of them. "That's so cool!"

"Woah." Varian twisted the door handle and it moved, Varian softly opened the door and Varian and Yong founded themselves standing in front of a pathway into the volcanic.

Ruddiger chatted.

"You're right, Ruddiger. Let's start this quest!"