He was adept at molding rock and dirt into mud and had learned to control dirty water in the same way. Now he just needed to make it work another way around.

He focused his senses on the moisture in the wood fibers. It held tightly to the saturation like it was its sole purpose for existence.

He felt the Qi in the platform and the water that made it all possible.

He intuitively understood how moisture content changed the density and texture of the soil that he shaped to his will

It felt completely natural to change the concentration in the dirt where the wood was absolutely stubborn.

He willed the soil to harden to the further extent he could and then consolidated his control on all of the moisture around the dry rock.

The grass and wood wicked some of their moisture into the porous material below them but it would take far too long to wait for it to naturally occur. He steeled his Qi all around him, freezing all the moisture nearby into inaction except for the water inside the wood.

With a flourish of his core, he sucked up as much moisture into the rock below it as it allowed and watched as the wood and grass cracked and shriveled under his very own eyes.

He let a strained gasp fall from his lips. The platform slowly fell down to the ground where the creature waited for them and returned the area to how it once was.

“Soooo? How did it go? You awake?”

Her eyes fluttered open once again and caught sight of the dry grass. Her hand slowly lifted from the ground and the faitest whirls of magic shot toward the tinder, lighting it ablaze immediately.

Egosum scooted her closer and collected her discarded clothes to dry.

The anxiety that wracked his body fell from him as he saw her life was finally far from extinguishing.

“She will need time to rest but she should make it through this. Is it safe around here?” He could feel the ache in his leg where the beast had made him a chew toy. He was in no mood to fight and had no interest in much beyond relaxing while he waited for her to come back to her senses.

“Oh yeah. Nothing scary knows about this place. We might get a visit from some baby crayfish or a swamp rat but nothing to worry about. Well....yeah. It'll be fine.”

He plopped down to the ground and took a deep breath to try and fight back the exhaustion.

“Sorry about the house. I can fix it in a bit. I just really wanted to make sure she would live through this. It is kinda my duty at this point.”

It waved its small hands in the air.

“Don’t worry about it. I totally understand….I don’t think we ever introduced ourselves. My name is Natan.”

“Ah,” He had barged into its home, burst through the ceiling, and ordered it around and he didn’t even know its name. ”I apologize. My name is Egosum and my friend here is Cinera. Thank you for helping us.”

Natan smiled broadly at the introduction.

“So, what brings you to these parts? Not very often do we have friends like you stop by with all of the behemoths that call these parts home.”

"I actually wanted to make a base here." It looked at him with a strange quirk to its mouth.

"You want to make a base? Here? This murder whirlpool of a swamp? This eternal battlefield? This genocidal war machine? Here?"

They were blown away by the mere thought of setting up shop in this place.

"You know, the only reason we haven't been attacked here is because it is a hidden grove. If we were in the actual swamp, it would be a nonstop gauntlet of combat until something big and bad enough came through to eat you whole."

Egosum nodded in response.

"Yeah, that is fine by me. I need stronger opponents anyway. " Natan scoffed.

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"Whatever man. I'm just looking for a husband. Not many of my kind are out there and I need to live long enough to get eaten out." They looked to the treetops in thought.

"Um, what do you mean by that?" Egosum squinted his eyes in confusion.

"Oh, you know, meet a man, get knocked up, hide underground for thirty-two months, pop out a handful of cuties, and get eaten alive. The usual motherhood."

He looked at her with a complex expression. He opened his mouth several times to talk only to fail before he began.

"What? I can find a man. I'll have you know I am perfectly beautiful. B E A UT I-ful." She said each letter with was and confidence to the perplexed toad.

"Yeah, that's not what I am struggling with here. What I am concerned about is the eaten-alive thing. Like, what do you mean?" He fought through his thoughts to explain his point.

"I'm a cannibal-clawed caecilian. When we give birth, the women get eaten alive, and the babies take in her knowledge. It's the way we always did it. Nothing strange about it." She looked proud as she recounted her ancestral history.

"You are just okay with getting eaten? You know you just die right? Do you understand the concept of death? Cessation of thoughts, no more feelings, and friends and family mourning the loss."

He struggled to wrap his mind around the complete acceptance she showed.

"None of that stuff happens. The mother's spirit moves on to the babies and the father celebrates the occasion. It is the perfect birth. I still get hints of my mother popping through occasionally. It makes me cry tears of happiness knowing she is watching over me."

"Huh." He was left stumped.

'Cannibal-clawed caecilian. Did we have anything like that? I don't think I heard of anyone even close to that description. They wouldn't have been in the vernal pools so that might explain it but it seems so backward.'

A moan from his back signaled his friend's waking moments.

The salamander had regained most of her color as she curled around the sweltering heat the fire offered.

"Cinera?" Egosum rushed to her side and watched her stir.

She blinked a few times before fully coming to. The fire flicked out of existence while the shared remains slowly smoked away.

"Its.....where?.......Wait, what happened? I just...Egosum." She turned her gaze to the toad as it slowly turned murderous.

"Hey Cinera. Glad you are awake. We made sure to get a fire going to get you in tip-top shape. After you fell off due to your poor balance, we got you out of the water and to safety right away. You...totally don't believe me." His shoulders shrunk as the lie failed to gain hold.

"No...you are an idiot. I can't keep doing this. That time in the forest and now this. I can't rely on you anymore." He gulped as she finished the thought.

The fear of loosing one of his best friends burgeoning in his heart.

"Listen, it was a freak mistake. I promise it won't happen again. I can-" He stopped mid-sentence as she held her hand up.

He felt his stomach drop and his heart still as she spoke up.

"I want your help in figuring out a way to fly. I am dead tired of getting dropped or almost dying because all I can do is scuttle around." He quirked his head to the side and blinked repeatedly.

"Uh...you want me to help fly? Well, I can try, but you know I can't fly right?" She looked at him as if he were the dumbest creature she knew.

"No, but you have better control of your mana than any mage of our generation. The way you bent the environment to your will is something I have only seen the most senior professors do." He felt pride well up from deep within his chest.

"Maybe I can. If you have an idea about how you might get started, then I am certain I can find a way to make it work. Breakthroughs come to me like water from a...cloud? Yeah, that works." Cinera turned to look at the other creature that stared at her with wide eyes.

"Who are you? "

"This is Natan. She is the person who pulled you out of the water." The long creature clawed her way through the mud to stare up at the salamander.

"Hello!" She waved her claw in excitement, flinging bits of mud around the place.

"Ah, yes.... Hello. Thank you for pulling me out after my friend's less than stellar performance. I don't know how it would have gone if you didn't step in." Cinera nodded her head in the caecilian's direction.

"You would have drowned." Natan spoke without a hint of uncertainty.

Cinera looked over to Egosum with a questioning gaze. All he could do was shrug in response as he willed the pilar down to the ground level.

"Are we safe here?" Cinera looked to her friend who turned to Natan.

"Um, we should be. Nothing has come to bother me before except for some otters and a few smaller things." She looked between the pair with an interested gaze. "So, what are you guys planning to do from here on out?"

Egosum took note of the change in her answer but avoided pointing it.

"We need to find our other friend. He disappeared as we were crossing the mountains."

Natan's mouth fell open as he spoke.

"You crossed the uncrossable mountains!" Her shouts startled something high in the trees.

The pair looked out for dangers above before responding.

"It isn't that impassable. Literally just climbed it". The caecilian's mouth sat agape at the uninterested retort.

"Well, I haven't ever heard of anyone passing it so color me impressed. Oh wow. The things you must have seen over that wall must be insane. I will need to hear about the stories while you have time." Cinera was the one to stop her in her rant.

"I'm sorry but we really do need to find our friend. We can't just stay in this grove. Our goals and ambitions will lead us out into the greater expanses of the swamp." Natan began moving towards her hole as she finished speaking.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. We can do that. I just need to get a few things before we head out. Give me one minute before I get ready." She disappeared below the mud under a pair of confused gazes.

"What just happened?" Cinera turned to look at Egosum.

"I think she just invited herself on our adventure." He was equally unsure of how the creature came to that conclusion.

"That's what I thought, but why? Like, we definitely didn't invite her while we were talking. Did you say something while I was recuperating?" He thought back to the conversation.

"Nope. I think she just decided she is a part of the crew now."

"Do we say something?" Cinera deferred to the toad.

"I doubt she will be safe. We are a well-tuned group of warriors, but, even protecting each other, we end up in danger." The salamnader gave him a side eye as he spoke.

"Sure we are. Do you know what she can do?" He shook his head.

"Well, why don't we ask her first before we make any decisions?" Egosum deferred to her judgment and waited for what felt like an hour before the caecilian reemerged from her hollow.

"So where are we starting the search first." She looked between the two well-traveled amphibians with a glint in her eye.

Her excitement was palpable in the air and her face was turned up in glee.

It made the next words hard for Egosum to say.

So, he didn't.

"You got this Cinera." He turned away from the others and looked around the pond with faux interest.

"Ugh. So dumb." She wiped the annoyance from her eyes.

"What is it? Do you guys need something before we head out? Look, I already got snacks. She held out her claw with a bundle of worms sitting cupped inside.