They had to take a small winding road that skirted a swamp in order to avoid the city, the swamp itself went miles towards the north before the ground became firm. She occasionally had to plug her nose from the smell of rotten vegetation and the sulphuric vapor. If one wanted to disappear the swamp was a good place for it. She had overheard many a guard talk about people fleeing from them and hoping to escape them by fleeing the swamp, once inside the guards would never follow. The screams they said they heard justified their hesitation. The trees, never looked healthy and moss made the look a sickly green. With the daylight turning to dark she thought she could see lights drifting withing the thick vegetation. Even silhouette walked on the furthest side of the road. The horse didn’t like it and Saorice trusted his instincts. If he wouldn’t go in there it was no place for humans either.
Braoden didn’t seem to take notice of the swamp, but ran along side them without diverging in his path, they had been moving like this four two hours. There was just no way that this giant was human. The high priest never gave any detail to the mans origins or character and Broden did not speak. She was glad to have the thick body man in her party, she was sure his stregth would come in handy. Dillon kept his eyes on everything, every time Saorice turned around to look at him he was always scanning the road ahead and behind as well as the border of the swamp. Sometimes he his stare would settle on the swamp for a while and he would frown.
“What do you see?”
“It’s not what I see, but what I feel.”
“Feel?”
“I’ve always could feel the land around me, it helped when I hunted. I could sense a presence it generally is vague, like a fleeting shadow, but I knew it was small game like a rabbit or porcupine, bigger game have more of a presence, but still not strong. But here the presence shouts out at me. It is so large that I’m sure it would fill the entire swamp.”
“My guards told me they think something evil lives in the swamp.”
Dillon rolled his lips. “It doesn’t feel evil, nor does it feel good. Still it would be best to avoid what is in there. I don’t think I would want to meet with it.”
Saorice shivered. “As long as we keep to this path we won’t need to enter.”
They spent another two hours traversing the road and had to stop to make camp. Found dry flat ground where they were able to lay out blankets to sleep on Broden had his own back and placed his close to the road. He sat down and just stared at the road.
Dillon picked up a couple of twigs, looked at them and through them back on the ground. “Lets not have a fire tonight, we’ll attract attention and I’m sure Jermain still has some people looking for you. We won’t be warm, but we won’t die of hypothermia either.”
Saorice didn’t like the idea of making camp without a fire, fires helped drive away biting insects and worse things. “What about the animals, won’t they get come to us without a fire to ward them off.”
“Normally I would yes, but we have two things in our favor, most animals don’t want to come near the swamp.” Dillon pointed at Broden. “And what animal would be crazy enough to challenge someone bigger than a bear.”
Dillon had a point, but she still didn’t like it. “What do you mean most animals?”
Dillon was lying down looking into the sky starry sky. “Most like bears, large cats, wolves and of course the less troublesome one such as the vegetation eaters. Those kind of animals wouldn’t enter this swamp. If any are in there they don’t have a fear of the presence that I felt earliar and would most likely be very dangerous for us to deal with. I wouldn’t be surprised if there were very large snakes and swamp lizards out there. Maybe some night creepers. Who knows what else. If my uncle were here he could tell us more.”
