Mau, Suvdaa, and Andy's camp was well hidden. Tucked away under the roots of an absolutely massive tree, the trio had dug themselves a nice little resting place into the dryer earth under the tree in a few small tunnels that Andy had so handily dug out for them. It had taken him about a day's time to do so, but the result was a comfortable, dry, place away from the rest of the nastiness of the swamp.

Mau yawned as she made her way back to the big tree in the darkness and rubbed at her eyes sleepily. She could use a cat-nap but first she wanted a taste of the stew that she could smell simmering over the nasty methane stink of the swamp gasses that pervaded all around her. She plopped down by the embers of the fire that Andy and Suvdaa had started, and set down the crate that she had been lugging with her the whole way through the swamp.

Suvdaa frowned from her spot where she had been keeping watch up in the tree's branches and slowly clambered down to meet Mau.

"Yo." Mau said.

"Welcome back." Suvdaa replied as Andy poked his head out from under a nearby tree root and rubbed at his eyes sleepily.

"Oh hey, Mau." He said, before a heavy silence fell over the trio. Suvdaa and Andy were eyeing the crate dubiously.

"So..." Andy said, sounding just as bewildered as he looked.

"Mau. Why did you bring an empty crate back with you?" Suvdaa asked point blank while Mau slowly climbed into the upturned box. "Did you even bother to cover your tracks?"

With her chin resting on the lip of the crate Mau flashed an impish little grin.

"If I fits, I sits." The catgirl replied cheekily. "And of course I covered my tracks, it's no big deal."

Suvdaa and Andy stared in dumbfounded shock that lasted for a solid minute.

Suvdaa eventually broke the quiet, clearing her throat. "Well, will you at least tell us what you learned?"

Mau's tail flicked over the lip of the box as she nodded her head.

"The camp is pretty heavily populated, but manned by a skeleton crew of watchmen at night. Though they have beefed up their patrols and watches since we started our game of Predator, if we're quiet and careful we can still sneak by them pretty easily. Almost kind of too easily really." Mau considered thoughtfully as she rubbed her chin.

"Anyway I found where they're keeping their prisoner, there's just one huge problem in all this." She said.

"The Demon Lord's General?" Andy hazarded a guess. Mau nodded.

"It's like the guy never sleeps or something. Getting him alone is probably going to be impossible, too. Plus there's the fact that I have no idea what kind of tricks he has up his sleeve. I'm like one hundred percent sure he's not human, though."

"And what makes you say that?" Suvdaa asked.

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"Well," Mau said, pursing her lips. "He looks human... But he doesn't smell human. I got a little whiff of him when he got too close to my hiding spot. And I mean he got close. Pretty sure he smelled me right back, but didn't notice over the overpowering smell of orc musk in his face."

"As long as he's not another lich..." Andy huffed, hugging his knees to his chest. "I've had enough undead for a while."

"He didn't smell like death." Mau said, "Just like something... Wild and dangerous."

Andy and Suvdaa nodded as Mau slowly climbed out of the box and plopped herself to sit on the loamy earth. She picked up a twig from nearby and began to draw out a basic map of the enemy camp.

"So they have our mystery hostage here." Mau pointed out an x that she drew close to the center of the drawing. "Enma's tent is probably close by, but I didn't want to get caught so I didn't make it my life's mission to chase him down last night. We can probably sneak in, in the next night or so and quietly rescue our mystery friend and make the witch happy at least."

"Wasn't one of the stipulations of the deal you made with the hag to kill the Demon Lord General, though?" Andy asked.

Mau nodded. "Yep, but we're gonna deal with one thing at a time. First we spring the prisoner. We'll deal with Enma after that."

❧

Mau hummed quietly to herself as she wiped another orc's blood off her shortsword and rolled the body into the murky swamp water. The corpse's armor made him sink out of sight into the noxiou, green, algae infested waters, and something very large and probably very hungry stirred under the surface shortly after, so Mau wasn't all that worried about leaving any evidence behind.

Right up until whatever it was belched and spat up a crumpled mass of chain and plates out of the water.

"Huh." Mau mused. "Well I guess you don't have an iron deficiency."

It had been growing dark again when the patrol bumbled their way right into the middle of the party's camp. They didn't stand much of a chance thanks to the traps Mau and Suvdaa had so intricately spread around their sleeping tree. Mau reached into the depths of a shallow, spike-lined pit and scruffed a dead goblin.

"Guess you're having a feast tonight, though." She muttered and tossed it into the water next.

Suvdaa was busy tugging an arrow from a gap in another dead orc's armor while Andy poked at the still twitching corpse of an orc pinned to a nearby tree, whose head had been bashed in by a hefty rock on a hand-woven rope

"We're going to have to move our camp." Suvdaa said, irritably. "If they realize another patrol was lost this way they're bound to figure out where we are in no time."

"Yep." Mau agreed casually and stretched her arms over her head with a lazy noise, "I'm gonna miss this big tree. Oh well. Guess it's time we took the fight to them. How about we go tonight?"

Suvdaa spent a beat in thought before she dipped her head in a nod.

"Now is as good as ever." The raider agreed.

"I'll find a new place to hide." Andy huffed. But then Mau shook her head.

"Nah, you're coming with us tonight. We're gonna need your healing in case the prisoner's in bad shape. Knowing how orcs and Demon Generals tend to their guests... They'll probably need the help." The catgirl said.

That was when a loud cackle interrupted the trio's discussion. Mau's ears twitched, Suvdaa nocked an arrow to her bowstring and Andy held his staff up defensively as the three looked up to the sight of the gigantic moth alighting upon a branch over their heads.

"Making good on our deal yet?" The voice of the hag, Spetti, resounded from the moth as it twitched its antennae and gave a lazy flutter of wings on its perch. "I know you've certainly been having a lot of fun with those patrols." She crooned.

"You'll be happy to know that tonight is as good a night as any." The moth said in the hag's voice.

Mau cocked a brow.

"Oh?" She pressed the witch to explain.

"The orcs all just left their camp. Nary a one left behind to so much as watch over their captive. ... You'll rescue them for me, yes? Oh I hope you do; that is what you promised, after all. Kehehehehee!" With one final screech of laughter the moth lifted off the branch and flitted away into the darkness in the direction of the orc encampment.

"Well that's fucking ominous." Mau said.

"You think?" Suvdaa huffed as she lowered her bow.