Quest (OLD: the new version MIGHT be posted shortly)

Chapter 13-Jae

Sage stood before me, in the middle of the swamp. Her ankles were stuck and she tried and tried to move, but couldn’t. I saw her calling out to me for help, but her voice was gone. I ran forward, trying to help, but my feet got stuck as well. I struggled forward, watching Sage sink down and down and down. I tried to shout for her, but my voice didn’t work either. She wasn’t looking at me. She didn’t was down to her waist, and I kept trying to move forward, but I couldn’t. Sage was almost sunk, the mud up to her neck. She let out a piercing cry.

I jerked awake, looking over to the girl’s side of the fire. Emily was screaming, tears glittering in the firelight.

“Amber!” she howled. “Stop! Stop hurting her!”

“Emily,” Sage said, shaking her awake. “Wake up, it’s just a dream.” Emily woke up, her wide blue eyes looking at Sage in terror.

“Amber is in the Hole,” she sobbed. “She’s getting hurt.”

“It’s just a dream,” Sage cooed, curling her arms around the grieving woman.

“It felt so real,” Emily sobbed. “It was like a vision. I saw things I’d never seen before. Sage,” Emily’s wide, begging eyes found Sage’s spiced ones, “does the Hole have a pile of dead bodies in it?”

“Why in the world would you say that?” Sage asked quietly.

“That was the dream. It was the same with the Jorogumo. Amber was sinking in a pit of, of dead bodies and I tried to pull her out but…” Emily melted into sobs again.

“Come on, Ems,” Carson said, kneeling to rub Emily’s back. Sage stood up to let him shoulder her and she put her hand to her stomach, looking out to the path, away from the swamp. She was feeling sick again.

I walked over to her while people started getting dressed and ready. She looked up at me, her eyes flashing a warning to stay away. I ignored her.

“Sage, you’re feeling sick again. What’s wrong?”

“What makes you so sure that I’m feeling sick?” she asked weakly. I gave her a look of my own, but she wasn’t looking at my face. Her eyes seemed unfocused, staring straight ahead, at my chest. She closed her eyes slowly and took a deep breath.

“Sage, dear,” the kind voice of Serenity called, walking towards us with two mugs of tea. She looked into the cups before handing Sage the tea in her left hand. Sage hadn’t seen it, but took the drink and sipped politely. Serenity handed me the other mug with a small smile and walked away.

“She makes great tea,” Sage muttered, taking a longer sip. She then looked into her cup suspiciously. “This is medicine.”

“What?”

“I don’t feel sick anymore,” she told me. She glanced over at Serenity, and took another sip.

“That’s good then.”

“But she…” Sage shook her head and looked at my bare chest, actually seeing it this time. I felt small under her gaze, but took a deep breath. I instantly regretted it, because it looked like I was puffing out my chest. Sage smirked. “You should get dressed, Freeman. I’d wear boots, too.”

We were all ready to set off. Sage stood in the front and took a deep breath through her nose, but gagged.

“I’m fine,” she said, waving off Heather, Pete, Serenity, Argus and me. “The smell just got to me.” She pulled her wand out of her boots, which were pulled on over tight pants. She also wore a long-sleeved purple shirt with a V-neck. I looked out to the swamp.

“Why’d’ya pull out your wand?” Argus asked.

“I don’t know how deep this goes,” she answered.

She started walking down into the muddy meadow. Her boots immediately sunk deeply into the quagmire. She pulled it up and took a step forward. The mud was up to our knees. It smelled like old meat, rotten and sickening. Nearly everyone gagged. I thought back to the mage-raid I went to in an old butcher shop with my father once. The power to the area had been cut off weeks ago, and meat was still hanging. The stench now was like that, but not exactly. It was something else besides the normal animal meat.

Sage moved as quickly as she could, keeping her face up away from the smell. She stopped once to check on us, but as soon as she stood still she started to sink.

“No!” she screamed. She struggled up, trying to lift her knee over her chest, because she was now sunk to the waist. Pete and I immediately grabbed her arms.

“Keep moving, guys!” Landon called up to us. We circled her as we pulled her up. She had tears in her eyes, but kept moving as soon as she was out. Her clothes now had a layer of thick, brown mud on them. She pressed her hand to her stomach and didn’t look back again. Her eyes were scanning for something, and by noon she was headed for a large rock in the distance.

We walked in the stinking, squelching, sinking mud for hours after that, eating while walking. The sun was going down and the rock was still a ways away long after my legs felt like heavy stones.

“Ah!” someone behind me screamed. It was Carson. “Something tripped me!”

“Carson,” Emily squealed. She held out her hand to lift him up. She stood still for too long and started sinking next to him. She kept pushing him up, though, her hands working under the muck. She tried to pull her hands up, but gasped in pain. “Something’s got fingers in here. They’re pulling me in.” She looked at Carson in fear, then resolve.

“Ems, what are you doing?” Carson asked. Emily knelt down and heaved with all her strength. Carson slowly came up with the combined effort of Jason, Austin and Emily. Emily had sunk too far in. Only her shoulders and head showed.

“I feel a hand in here,” she sobbed. “There are dead people in here. I don’t want to die with them.”

“Shh, Em, we’ll get you out,” Carson promised, trying to get a grip on her shoulders.

“No, the little hands are pulling me down.” A fat tear dropped and dissipated into the thick gunk. “Save my sister, Carson, please?”

“With my last breath,” he swore. His eyes were red-rimmed. He kissed her forehead as her mouth was filled with the filth. Her nose went in too and she struggled for breath. Carson moved around her, careful not to sink again, and stroked her head as long as he could.

We continued on, and as it grew darker we all felt things trying to trip us. We walked more carefully, finally making it to the rock. We all changed, not caring who saw us. It didn’t matter now. One of us was dead. We were broken, cracked. There was a hole now. A hole that used to be filled with cooking spices and warm bread was now full of darkness, foreboding, and the stench of death. That must be what the marsh smelt like: dead people. That’s why Sage was so affected. Even now, she was sitting by herself, only in a loose, long shirt, and looked like she was meditating. She had smelled death before, in the Hole, and now it was back.

“Shall we say a prayer for Emily?” Serenity suggested. When no one spoke up she went on. “Emily, you came here with one of the noblest causes, to save your sister. You died in order to save another. You lived selflessly, with bright smiles and eyes. You deserved a longer life. You deserved a happy ending. We will all miss you, and although we just met you, you will always have a place in our hearts.”

“Goodbye, sweet, little Emily,” Carson added in a hoarse voice from across the rock. He was sitting with his hands on his knees, still in his muddy clothes. We didn’t light a fire. We didn’t say anything else. We just sat there, unable to sleep with the cold weight that had come down on us.

Goodbye, Emily.