It didn't take long for us to come to a tenuous peace with the environment. The gators, while being weird looking to my eyes, were the largest predators around and since they were content to do nothing but stare at us everything else followed their lead. And man were there a lot of animals once we started seeing them.

The islands here and there had small bugs that kept well away from the water but seemed to root and rip around on any of the roots they could find. They were fairly normal looking too, not unusual, not magical, or mutated at all, just pigs. That was nice, actually it was amazing, since I knew a good few recopies for pork that I loved and hadn't been able to make in some time. Not sure where I was going to find vinegar, but if I could we could all be rolling in pulled pork.

Other animals were similar, large birds, snakes, and even some fish, but nothing obviously magical. I wondered briefly if that was good or bad for this world, but then again, magical animals weren't exactly common anywhere. There was also a distinct lack of mosquitoes, a blessing from whatever power had brought me to this world was that that particular pest hadn't made the transfer. On the other hand there were plenty of biting flies, but those were easier to deal with in a lot of ways.

“I know that look, what are you thinking?” Isha asked as I reflected on this about a week into our journey.

“This place is rather peaceful compared to the last few we've been to.”

“Speak for yourself,” Chien griped, he'd gotten on the wrong end on several of the biting flies.

“Devoid of...” as I spoke there was a roar, it seemed out little boat had run over one of the gators. “Actually dangerous animals.” This was neither the first, nor would it be the last time we'd his one of them.

“I'd rather not tangle with one of those,” Isha pointed out as the creature tried, and failed to follow us.

“Eh, we've seen worse.” It was true too, those things would've been considered a problem back on Earth, but in this world? They were nothing to those like us.

“Better than the damn ice birds,” Chien said with a shudder, having to run in the middle of our night was awful. Both Isha and I nodded in agreement at that one, happy to be away from them.

“There's something ahead,” Isha said, pointing.

I'd missed it, but out of the trees and off to our side was a small rise sticking up out of the swamp, a large rounded hill. Oddly round, like almost perfectly symmetrical, and devoid of anything other than a small layer of moss upon it. On the whole I would've guessed it was maybe fifty feet end to end, sticking out of the muck by about ten feet, and easily the largest spit of land we'd seen.

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“That looks sort of...” A beaked head popped up from the water and I banked away. “Like something we want nothing to do with!”

I had been wrong, thinking we were the apex predator of this swamp and now the true king showed himself, or herself, I didn't know and didn't need to.

“A turtle!?” Chien asked, grabbing on as I cranked our speed to the maximum I felt comfortable with.

“A SNAPPING TURTLE!” I yelled as the creature turned and began to chase.

“Snapping!?” Isha cried in confusion.

She was just in time to see said giant turtle snap, its head shooting forward like a rocket and grabbing one of the gators we'd passed in our flight. The poor creature had no chance, head and tail flying as the larger beast clacked its mouth shut upon it. It didn't stop though, didn't even pause as it swallowed down one of the beasts that had so stressed out Chien in the night.

A few moments later it snapped at us again, head thrusting at our boat again, just a little high. I was near the back, but so was Isha, and a few strands of her long hair ended up brushed by the beast's beak as we pulled away, sending her jumping back away from it.

Something about that pulled on my emotions like a finger on a harp, stressed until it snapped and sent a wave of fury through me. This overgrown bowl of soup had chased us, had scared us, had gotten a meal already, but it wanted more. Well, if it wanted more, then it was only proper it got some.

“Chien, get the boat, fast as you can.” He was quick, and I felt his magic wrap the vessel and pull it in less than a second.

As soon as he was in control I leapt upwards. Flying was still weird, the visualization of it still strange and disorienting, but I didn't need to be that accurate, after all, this thing was huge and I was just getting on its back. I heard a gasp of surprise as I took off, another as I landed behind the head and high on the shell.

Many people thought of fury like a fire, and in some cases that could be true. Rage could burn, smolder, blaze, but it could also be cold as ice. I was used to fire as well, but it felt wrong here, failing, so I took a different route. I slammed my open palm onto the shell of the beast and began to cast.

Fire was energy, pure and simple vibrations. Perhaps that was why I did so well with it, perhaps it was that it matched well with my thoughts on kinetic energy, my other favorite spell, but there was another direction too wasn't there? Rather than tell the creature's flesh to vibrate, I commanded it to stop, to stay where it was and no further.

There was less resistance than I would have expected. All creatures imbued with the power of magic had some innate protection against its effects. This could be minor, or major, or anywhere in between, but they would resist it. Even the weakest of magical beasts would be able to fight against some spells, but this thing had almost none of that. Perhaps it was because it relied on its shell, no doubt a powerful defense, instead of the innate aura that others focused on. I didn't know, but I was happy to take advantage of the fact.

I sent a wave of cold down a several feet into the beast's body, spreading out like the roots of a tree. Around me frost cracked and blossomed along the shell, forming fractals and sparkling patterns in the algae and moss that had made a home upon this monster. It was so easy, so simple to send the energy like a spear deep into the body of the turtle, ruining flesh and blood as it went, making razor sharp crystals tear and rip into flesh that had no protections against it.

The creature made a sound not unlike a scream and tried to stop its momentum forward, pulling into its shell and trying to curl up against the attack. That didn't help in the least though, it wasn't some tooth penetrating it, but shards of ice, shards that broke as the monster's powerful muscles contracted and pulled it inwards, sending spears of frozen water through even more flesh, lancing like needles for precious seconds.

It wouldn't be fatal, at least not immediately, if nothing else this thing was big, and I was pretty sure that I'd missed any of the organs that kept it going. However I got a feeling our cold blooded foe wouldn't be chasing anything with the temperature shock, and had learned a valuable lesson about messing with boats. That was enough for now, and so I ripped my hand away, leaving a layer of skin behind, and tried to fly forward and catch up with my ship.