Chapter Thirty:
Mud and Fire
‘Is he breathing?’ A voice asked, not sounding worried or concerned. ‘It would be a pain if he died.’
I groaned, slowly blinking my eyes open. Dagan and a human-form Ulmar stood over me, looking annoyed.
‘Wherever you’ve been better have been worth it.’ Dagan grumbled, dropping into a crouch and letting out an exhausted sigh. ‘After Eilir dumped you through his portal, he ordered me to follow him and find Ulmar.’ Dagan glared up at Ulmar. ‘The idiot was miles away, outside Line Woods.’
‘It only annoyed you because you had to suffer the illusions again.’ Ulmar said, not looking the least bit sorry.
‘Eilir left Laven?’ I asked, sitting up and wincing. I’d woken on my back, squashing my wings. Dagan moved around me to massage them, leaving Ulmar to answer.
‘Yes. His magic is strong, but using it to open rips in space everywhere is dangerous. He usually opens them to certain areas, like Firo and near the seals, to prevent lasting damage. It would have been the reason he was reluctant to send you to Tempit. With this in mind, he couldn’t just open a portal near me and pull me through to Laven, then open another one for us both; he needed to travel to me himself. He then sent Dagan and me through a rip, leading here. Half a day later Tallulah emerged from the water, carrying you.’
‘What?’ I asked, looking at our surroundings for the first time.
It was a similar design to the fire temple, but instead of a bonfire at its centre there was a large circular hole filled with water.
‘How deep is that?’ I asked.
‘It leads to Leaf Lake, which is connected to the ocean. Leaf Lake is where Tallulah guards the seal.’
So she brought me up through there?
‘How did I not drown?’
‘We thought you would know.’ Dagan spoke up, shrugging.
‘It doesn’t matter.’ Ulmar broke in. ‘You’re here now. We don’t need to know what happened; let’s just keep moving.’
Dagan scoffed at this. ‘Easier said than done. You do know where we are, right?’
I glanced around at the statues circling the room and closed my eyes in despair.
‘The water temple,’ I gritted out.
‘Exactly,’ Dagan laughed harshly. ‘The water temple in the centre of the bog lands, close to Lar and Haven. The same route you wanted to avoid in the first place.’
I sighed, whacking away Dagan’s massaging hands and standing.
‘Well, we’ll just have to go through the bog lands then.’
As soon as we stepped out of the water temple I realised how stupid this idea was. I’d assumed the bog lands would be grassy lands with water patches, like after a heavy rainfall. Instead it was a few spare patches of grass in a landscape of mud.
‘This is the water temple’s protective defence.’ Ulmar said, wrinkling his nose and looking pale.
‘I think I preferred the fire temple’s deadly firewall.’ I muttered.
‘And we don’t have a water immortal’s blood to disperse it.’ Ulmar gritted out, glaring over at me. ‘If you had become Firo already your blood would work. She is the creator of all realms, after all.’
I gave him a puzzled look, but didn’t bother asking what he meant.
‘We should try it, just in case.’ Dagan reasoned, his shirt pulled up over his mouth to dull the smell.
Ulmar sighed, but I saw a plant shoot begin to grow in the mud anyway. It didn’t even reach my knee before beginning to shrivel.
‘It’s no good.’ Ulmar admitted. ‘The magic here is stronger than mine.’
I sighed, using my right hand to lift a scale on my left arm. ‘Anyone got sharp nails?’
Ulmar stepped forward, his human nails tough and sharp like talons. I winced and stepped back.
Letting an immortal get my blood…
Ulmar just stared at me, a cruel smirk forming.
‘What? Don’t you trust me, little lizard?’
I glared back.
Before I could react he grabbed my left arm and stabbed his fingertip under the lifted scale. He winced, drawing back quickly.
‘You definitely have a hard shell.’ He muttered. His finger was bent a little, but had a few drops of blood on the end of his nail. He crouched down, dipping his finger into the mud before standing again, cracking his finger back into a natural angle.
We waited for five minutes, but nothing happened.
‘You’re still too weak.’ Ulmar scoffed, glaring resentfully at me. ‘Human.’
‘I guess we better get started.’ Dagan said.
Nobody moved.
Dagan sighed, glaring at us.
‘It can’t be that deep.’ He scoffed, taking a step forward.
His foot sank up to his knee, making him cry out in surprise.
I glanced back at my tail and wings and started laughing.
We are so screwed.
Half a day later we had barely gone a hundred metres through the bog lands. Before we’d even set off we’d had to solve the issue of my wings and tail. In the end Dagan had ripped my shirt off and Ulmar had cut it into strips, binding my wings together and strapping them with my tail against my body. To avoid dragging them through the mud I had to lean forward as much as I could without getting mud in my mouth.
Ulmar was our scout, trying to pick the safest route with his animal senses. Or perhaps he thought his surprised whelps were less humiliating in wolf form, because the height difference wasn’t helping him much. Out of all of us he was suffering the most with his heightened sense of smell. When he’d still been in human form he’d retched up all the food in his stomach and still kept dry-heaving.
‘Is he going to be-’ I began, cutting myself off with a wail of despair. Dagan was half beside me, half behind me, turning to give me a startled look. ‘My shoe’s come off!’
Dagan rolled his eyes.
‘Oh please, I lost both my shoes ages ago! What are you doing?’ he cried out, grabbing my wings to stop me toppling over as I bent down, sinking a hand into the mud. ‘Forget about your stupid shoe!’
‘But-’
He yanked on my wings, pulling me up and shoving me forward, all patience gone.
‘I will not die here because you’re too attached to your footwear!’
I sighed, running a hand through my hair in annoyance. It was only after I realised it was the hand coated in mud.
Maybe they won’t notice, I prayed.
‘Ulmar, what are you doing?’ Dagan yelled at the wolf, watching it try to leap over a large mud patch, and instead landing right in the middle. He started to sink rapidly and Dagan rushed past me, plunging into the mud patch to help.
So he does care, I thought, amused for a moment before the danger of the situation began to sink in.
‘Hey, get out of there!’ I yelled. Dagan had reached Ulmar, pulling the wolf’s head back up above the mud, but sinking up to his chest himself. He glanced back at me, struggling to drag them both back, his movement making him sink up to his neck.
‘Get out of here, you idiot!’ he yelled, seeing me charge towards them. I reached them just as Dagan’s head sank beneath the mud, making me freeze.
What do I do?
The mud was only up to my chest, but I began to choke, coughing violently. Just like in the Forest of Illusion, I could feel something rising in my throat, smoke starting to spill from my mouth and nose, singeing my nose hairs.
This time there was no Ulmar to stop me opening my mouth, hacking up a small fireball that sank into the mud.
What the? That was that?
A moment later the mud began to glow orange, heat cracks forming and quickly spreading past me to the whole bog field, I plunged my hands into the mud, groping around for Dagan. I growled, ducking my head under too.
I don’t know why I did it; I don’t know if I’d instinctively knew I’d be able to see under the mud now, with my magic running through it. I spotted Dagan straight away, still clutching onto Ulmar. Luckily he was still close enough to grab, heaving them up and back to the surface. The mud around us had already started to solidify, so I pulled them both on top of it, panicking that neither were moving or breathing.
Ulmar can’t die, so don’t worry about him. I told myself, turning to Dagan and starting to pound on his chest. Come on!
I’d only done ten heart compressions before the elf began to cough up mud, turning on his stomach so he could retch it up. I helped by pounding on his back, hearing him take desperate breaths where he could.
Beside us, Ulmar the wolf was doing something similar, somehow revived without help.
When Dagan could finally breathe again he sank into an exhausted sleep. I sat back, sighing in relief, but still shaking.
‘That was too close.’ I complained, running a hand through my messy hair, the mud now dry and flaking everywhere.
‘Agreed,’ Ulmar coughed, now in human form. ‘Whatever you did, I’m grateful.’
I said nothing, trying to ignore his piercing gaze.
What did I do? And how?
…What am I now?
Ulmar didn’t push me. He stood, coming over to pick up the unconscious Dagan, and began walking across the solid mud.
‘We don’t know how long this will last. We should cross the bog field as quickly as possible.’
Despite my exhaustion I agreed, climbing to my feet to follow.
Scribbled Thoughts 