Tisis

Swamp (S)

We approach these things Nym called 'towers', but I am worried.
I know they look a lot like those...towers they had back on the ship from where they watched us work, but my gut tells me, that something's very fishy about these things. That Zero has been acting up ever since the ground softened up only made things worse, but Nym seems to be intent on examining whatever is out there.

Well, I did promise to listen to her, but I just can't shake the feeling that we should not be getting any closer.

What in the...

I rub my eyes to make sure I didn't just imagine it and finally ask, "Err, Nym?"
"Yes?"
"Are these...towers...supposed to be moving?"

Nym looks up and notices it too, however while she still ponders the question, she takes another step...and breaks through the grassy ground.

She lets out a surprised yelp and I immediately run over to help her, while Zero starts barking as if trying to scare off another animal.

I grab Nym's hand and manage to hold her just before she falls over, but I can't seem to pull her back.

"S-something's pulling at my leg!" she exclaims, frantically trying to pull her foot out of the muddy water beneath her.

She jolts to the front and I have to pull with all my might to keep her from falling down, as multiple long and wiggly things emerge from the water, each almost as big as my arm, and attach themselves to Nym's leg.

"Zero! My spear! Bring me my spear!" I yell over to Zero, who is cowering and shaking about two meters behind me.
Nym cries out in pain as the water assumes a more reddish tint.

But Zero's not moving, while Nym keeps yelling, "Get it off, get it off, get it off!"

"Zero! My spear!"
Nym whimpers, while she apparently sends a prayer to her god.

Zero finally breaks free from his state of shock, picks up the spear I dropped when I rushed forward to hold Nym and brings it to me.

"Thanks little guy, now stand back."

Zero obeys, I raise my spear and say, "This might hurt a little."
"Just get the thing off!" Nym howls out.

I look at the angle Nym's leg is and where most of those wiggly things are attaching themselves to it, pulling ever stronger.

"Please let me hit something..." I mutter and thrust the spear into the muddy waters.

I don't feel any sort of impact, but I must have hit something, because the wiggly things spasm and momentarily release Nym, who winces in pain.

"Pull!" I yell and yank at Nym with all my might, finally removing Nym's foot from the murky waters.

Some wobbly creature comes along with it though and crashes next to Nym.
I quickly stab it multiple times until it finally stops, when the towers suddenly start moving a lot more.

In fact they now start moving directly towards us!

"Run! For all that is holy, run!" I yell, grab her arm and pull her away as fast as I can just before one of the towers smashes down right where we had been mere moments before.

We don't turn around, we don't stop, we just keep running until the ground beneath our feet is solid again.

Then we finally drop to the grassy grounds, panting and sweating heavily.

I roll on my back to face the sky and ask, "Yo...you still alive?"
"I...think so...Garkla be praised that we managed to get out of there..."
I look over to Zero, who looks at me with a relieved expression on his face...I think it's 'relief' anyway.

Heck, I know I am relieved at least.

Then something shoots through my head.
"Crud...we lost our stuff..."
"You want go back and fetch it?" Nym asks weakly.
"Hell no...one miracle a day is more than my luck can handle I think."

Nym sits up and glares at the still visible towers that have returned to reach towards the skies and mutters, "...such a horrifying creature..."
"You can say that again...what do you think it is...?"
"...let's just settle for 'monster' for now, okay?"
"...works for me...either way, what was that place anyway? I mean...that clearly wasn't a lake or anything. Why was the ground...I don't know...swimming?"
"That kind of territory is called a 'swamp'...maybe it's also a bog...heck, I don't even know. Let's just stick with 'place to never go to ever again'."
"And...the ground?"

Nym proceeds to recite a lot of information about swamps, their wildlife and their peculiarities and I can't help but marvel at her ability to even remember all that crap.

After she's done with her explanation, she suddenly says, "...thanks for saving me, by the way. I...was careless."
"No biggie...guess that makes us even."
"Yeah...I guess it does...let's try to avoid situations like this in the future though, okay?"
"Can't promise that, but I'll try."

After we recover from the immediate shock and after I wash the pants I peed somewhere during the process at the nearby river, we determine that we should head to the mountains next, seeing how the river seems to be leading us nowhere.

Nym argues, that those mountains are often home to caves people might use for shelter...not that she really needs to convince me, as long as it takes us into a different direction than the one we just fled from.

But first, we need to recover some of our essentials, which fortunately isn't all that difficult.

It is fascinating, how quickly you can adapt if only your life depends on it.