Our leaving the village was actually a bit of an event, not something we'd planned. It seemed with the few visitors, and the fact that we'd stayed long enough for Isha to make a few friends that people had come to find us fun. Though introducing a new game for the kids had also endeared me to them a bit.

Well-wishers came as we carried the raft from town, a few walking with us down the street of the little town growing until much of the village came. The children were looking for something interesting, the women chatting with Isha, even the local Elder looked amused to watch what we were up to now.

“Bye everyone,” we said as we threw the little boat into the river that separated this area from the swamp, “See you!”

The first few moments were a bit anticlimactic, being that we weren't going all that fast. Then the spells I was planning to use for this fell into place. The boat began to push forwards and over the murky water, faster and faster until we were bouncing lightly over the gunk.

Soon enough we were really going and we all began to get some air. Each time we went over something we went up, being thrown about.

“We really need tie-downs!” Chien said as he hit the floor hard. Before he could jump upwards again I saw and felt him spin out a spell and thin ropes of force began to tie us all in place.

“Thank you!” Isha said as she tried to hold herself in place, white-knuckling the straps on our gear.

“Maybe we should slow down a bit....” as I spoke I lessened the speed just a bit. “And not sure about tie-downs, there are ups and downs.”

Sure, it would be nice to have something to hold me in place, but what if the boat flipped? That could be really dangerous. Maybe we could do some for the gear and then bury ourselves in it? I didn't know yet, something to think on as we did this. I wondered if I could even add something like that right now without reconstructing large parts of the boat.

“We're making decent time,” Isha said as she looked back at the few people on shore who were now fading from sight, walking this would have taken us hours.

“Hmm, some way to keep it going without effort on my side too,” I mused as we went.

My thoughts went back to some of my projects before the war in Atal really took all of my time. In my first life I'd been designing computers, and now here I had the time to make one of pure magic, with the crystallized magic I could make something truly neat would be possible. I might even make it able to impart some effects to make things happen in reality.

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While I was getting deeper into the weeds on those thoughts Chien shouted.

“BUMP!” It seemed that while I was distracted I'd missed a little spit of land, tossing us all into the air as I steered us at it. Perhaps it would be better to pay attention to what I was doing now.

“Er, sorry,” I said as Isha turned to glare at me.

For the next few hours we just plodded along at moderate speed, until my mana started to get low. Chien was less interested in speed than I was, so while I got comfy and rested a bit he had us floating at a slow clip. It meant that I didn't need to do as he had and keep us all secured, which was nice, but I also liked going quick.

Even though we set out near dawn we weren't expecting to see anything for a long time, so as the large fiery orb began to sink we looked for a place to park.

“So land?” Chien asked.

“Might be better in case there's rain, but I don't know that we really need it. The bottom on this thing is thick enough that it'll be fine if we sit on the water too.” I started to get the top set up, since we wouldn't want to be exposed to the air as we rested, I could only shudder to think what kind of insects would live in a swamp like this.

I realized how dense I was as I put the roof on. We already had a few spots where things could be secured, kept from flopping everywhere. Tomorrow I'd see if we could set up something, but for tonight we just needed the rest.

As Chien pulled onto a little muddy island in the middle of the water I shut everything up, sealing the boat from the outside world just as dark truly began to fall. We could still hear the outside though, birds chirping, splashes every now and then as a fish or something jumped around in the water, the wind on the trees. It was pleasant, and something I'd much gotten used to in this life, sleeping to the sounds of nature.

Isha and I curled up on one side of the craft as Chien took the other. We talked for a bit about the day, about what had worked and hadn't, where we could improve. Before long though we all started to drift off, after all, it had been a decently long day.

“Hey, boss!” came a slightly worried call in the middle of the night.

“Problem?” I asked, sitting up quickly and trying to spin some combat magic into place, there were few reasons to wake me, and none of them good.

“Maybe?” he sounded unsure.

I quickly joined him at the door where he stood, the opening halfway undone. The little ball of light he'd made hovered there over the swamp, reflected in dozens of eyes. The creatures themselves looked rather like gators, though wider than any I'd ever seen and standing slightly higher up off the ground. They were still large reptiles though, and none were attacking.

“I just got up to go relieve myself and...”

“Yeah, we might not be doing that outside at night. May need to set something up for the day too. Anyway, they don't seem to be aggressive, so for now we can just keep to ourselves.”

“I still gotta pee,” he complained.

“Need a chamber pot... or a bag I guess...” We had the materials so making one in the morning wouldn't be a problem.

“Fine, I'll figure something out.”

I tried, and failed, to get back to sleep, the number of predators here was bugging me. Animals on this world were far more aggressive than those on my previous one. Made sense though, back on Earth humans had been at the tippy top of the food chain, feared by everything that had survived our ascent, or rather only the things that had feared us had survived our ascent. Here though, plenty of things could get away with eating elves now and then, and many did, so few of the animals in this world feared us.

After an hour or two of failed sleep I grumbled and got back up. Chien was there too, looking at the doors.

“You can rest if you like, I'll keep a watch.” Watch was another thing I'd hoped to avoid with the larger raft, but it seemed we wouldn't be able to.

“If I could I would, don't think I'll get a wink for the rest of the night.” I smiled at how he put it, some of my sayings were rubbing off on him.