The Priestess and the Dragon (Dragon Saga Book 1, Wattpad Version)

Chapter Seven

Kaito’s acquaintance lived in a swamp. Though Suzume had never had the displeasure of stepping foot in a swamp before, she imagined this was the worst of them all. There were no pathways, so they were forced to jump from slippery, slime-covered rocks across a bubbling brown mud that somehow constituted water. Suzume had slipped at least ten different times and her pants were soaked up to the knee. Hundreds of thousands of tiny buzzing insects had made a feast of her and her skin was already marred by angry red welts where they had dined upon her. Now would be a good time to learn how to zap things with my powers. She thought as she swatted at another insect that had landed on her neck.

Her veiled hat had been lost when they had entered a bamboo forest that marked the entrance to the swamp. A branch had snagged the hat and Suzume along with it. She had made the mistake of trying to force her way free and bent the bamboo forward. The branch was much more pliant than she had calculated and when she broke free, her hat came off her head and was launched into the forest, never to be seen again.

As Suzume lamented the loss of her hat, her foot slipped on another slick rock and she went into the boggy mud. She landed with a plunk. Mud flew into the air and landed back on Suzume on her face and hair. The thick brown water squirted and squished as she tried to climb back out. The mud that had landed on her face was rolling down her cheek leaving a slimy trail on her skin.

Kaito –She could not keep calling him ‘the dragon’—stood a few feet ahead of her at the edge of a rare patch of earth.

“We don’t have time to stop and play in the mud,” he called out to her.

She scowled at him but it lost some of its power when she was covered head to toe in muck. “I am not playing in the mud. I slipped. Why does your friend have to live in such a disgusting place anyway?”

“Looks like you’re playing with it to me.” He smirked and ignored her protests.

She had no rebuttal, and she decided to revert to more childish antics. She stuck her tongue out at him.

Kaito laughed and then said, “I don’t mind this place so much. It’s tranquil.” He held up his hand and dragonfly with shimmering blue wings landed on the tip of his finger.

Suzume huffed and dragged herself out of the mud which made a sucking sound with each labored step. Her pants were clinging to her thighs and her long sleeves were weighed down with saturation. She trudged over to him on the island in the center of the mud.

“Your idea of tranquil and my idea of tranquil vary greatly.” She shook her hands and mud went flying in all directions. Kaito dodged a particularly large glob that she had aimed at his head. “How much farther is this place?”

“We’re here,” He replied with a wave of his hand around them to indicate the dirt patch on which they stood.

Suzume looked around they were on an island perhaps the length of her arm span before it widen to maybe twice that at the far end where a grass cover mound sat.

“You brought me into the middle of the swamp for...this?” She swept her arm across the landscape. The trees were different here than anything she had seen before. There roots were above the water line and they looked like hundreds of coiling snakes curling and jutting out of the brown muddy water. Land was a rare sight and it was predominantly water and trees.

“That I did. Maybe we can make this our summer home,” he grinned.

She narrowed her eyes at him but before she could snap back a retort, something else spoke instead. “I know this voice, though long has it been since I heard it.”