Sun enters Misa's room and she awakens. It's the first time she slept well in ages. It's nice to awake to sunlight instead of the loud ringing of bells like is normal for slaves.

She goes to the market and buys a couple of strength potions with some of the extra gold that Lycerta gave her. It's supposed to give you the strength of a bear for a few minutes, after which all your muscles will hurt for about a day. Use with caution.

Misa says her goodbyes to Pachua and Venenia, who each go their own way as well. Perhaps they will meet again in the future, after all the Arcana kingdom isn't that large.

[image of swamp]

After a short while she crosses a wooden bridge over a small stream.

This side of the forest looks far worse. There's lots of old dead trees, there's puddles everywhere and mosquitoes, so many mosquitoes. Misa can't do anything about them.

It doesn't take long before she's forced to stick to the main road, because it's the only stable ground around. The swamp smells awful, like rotting animals and plants.

Unlike the previous route, there are a lot less travellers here. She only ran into 1 merchant and his mercenaries during the entire day. Luckily they didn't bother her.

She has to take this road through the middle of the swamp in order to make a sacrifice to one of the altars. At dusk she arrives at the altar. It doesn't seem to have a bowl, so she places her arm above the altar and then slits her wrist, leaking blood on it. Its symbols glow faintly. Then she climbs into a tree and eats some of the dried foods from her pouch before sleeping in the tree. It's difficult to fall asleep, the constant buzzing of mosquitoes keeping her awake.

The following morning she continues her path. Shadowing the main road further, it isn't long before Misa runs into a cluster of water slimes near one of the many ponds in the swamp. The drop-shaped blue creatures are looking for food. One of them has absorbed a squirrel, clearly visible through the slime's opaque body. The others are filled with some seeds and leaves. One of the slimes attacks Misa, and attempts to swallow her whole, but it's body is far too small so it gets stuck on her ankle.

Let go of me stupid slime! Misa shakes her leg but it won't leg go. Now that the slime has a taste of her it can't let go, although its attempt is futile, as slimes lack the teeth necessary to tear their prey into smaller pieces. Then she stabs the slime with her knife, it pops into chunks and slides off.

Yuck. I could defeat these slimes for practise, and maybe they have some food inside of them. She attacks the remaining slimes, and defeats them quite easily, as they are incredibly weak. Some of the slimes try to hop away from her but they stand no chance. Luck finally graces her and one of the slimes had recently absorbed a fish, which she cleans off and eats.

That night she barely gets any sleep either, as she is awakened by strange screams coming from the distance. She's not even sure if the screams were real, perhaps she is hallucinating from her exhaustion.

At this point the main path is largely overgrown and almost unrecognisable as a path. She's not even sure anymore if she's really following the path outlined on her map. Exhaustion sets in from all the walking and the lack of sleep. Near a rather clear looking stream she decides to rest and wash herself. There's mosquito bites all over her body, rubbing some of a healing potion on it seems to alleviate it a little.

She dozes off next to the stream, in one of the few spots where the sunlight manages to pierce the canopies.

It isn't long before she is awakened by the presence of a male figure approaching her. It's a tall man. He looks well-fed, and middle aged. He has a bit of a beard, and thick arms.

What are you doing here? I don't see a lot of strangers around these parts here. The man asks, smiling at her.

I uhh.. I'm on my way to the mines. Although the man looks friendly, Misa remains cautious. She remembers what Lycerta told her. But at the same time if this man had ill intentions, he probably would've already harmed her at this point. Yet she doesn't feel good about this. Maybe it's the circumstances she tells herself.

Oh the mines? then you still got quite a ways to go, he replies.

You look exhausted. Camping in these swamps is no pleasure, I know, I've lived here for 8 years!

I got a shack not far from here, where I store my hunting supplies. Why don't you come with me and take a rest there? It's better than sleeping where the bugs will bite you!

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She agrees, and he takes her to a small boat that he peddles upstream. She almost dozes off during the longer than expected trip to the lodge.

Here, there's a sleeping bag on the ground. You can rest, I'll be out checking my traps. when I return I'll make some food!

That's very nice of you sir, thank you. She says, before collapsing on the sleeping bag and falling asleep near instantaneously.

Something is touching me! She awakens to the feeling of a cold hand touching her thigh. What's going on? Its pitch black inside.

It grabs her thigh, now with force. Let go of me! She quickly reaches into her portal bag and draws her knife, she starts aimlessly slashing around her, striking the thing several times. It lets go of her thigh. She grabs her bag and tries to make it to the door in the darkness, but she can hardly see anything.

Go away from me! she yells! Something grabs her ankle, and she trips.

Come here! it yells at her, you are mine now! Misa fears for her life. She has no idea what is happening but she has to get away from here, this can't be good. She reaches in her bag again and grabs a strength potion but before she can remove the cork the creature punches her hand, knocking it away from her and it breaks on the floor.

You're only making this worse for yourself! Stop resisting! An unrecognisable voice tells her. She has to do something quickly!

Moonlight enters through the glass from the door. Misa throws the sleeping bag into the direction of the thing, and runs for the door as it is occupied with removing the sleeping bag.

It doesn't open, so she jumps through the glass panes and cuts herself on several places. The creature is slowed down as it has to open the door.

I have to run now. Moonlight reflects on stream outside of the lodge. She hurries for the boat as the creature, now identifiable as a large man with multiple arms, follows her rapidly.

But she is there first, and she paddles downstream, the movement of water greatly aiding her. It's still chasing her, running past the bank. Eventually the stream is going to slow down and he'll catch up, she realises. So she banks the boat on the side opposite of the man and starts to run into the forest.

She can barely see anything. HELP. SOMEONE HELP ME she yells into the nothingness of the forest. But the forest remains dead silent.

She runs and runs till her legs almost give up. Then she climbs up a tree. She waits and sees the man pass under her tree, seemingly still on her trail.

When he passes she climbs down again, and she starts walking , to the opposite site of where she last saw the man go. So back to the stream. She notices the boat is still where it was the previous night. She crosses the stream without the boat, hoping to mislead the man.

At this point Misa is extremely scared, she wants to get back to the original roads. She walks all day and night but at this point she is lost. It isn't until the following day that she feels safe enough to rest. And she does so by climbing in a tree and tying herself to the branches so she doesn't fall off. She decides to sleep during the day.

The following day she finds another altar, but this one isn't on her map. Or if it is, she has no idea where she is supposed to be anymore.

This altar looks particularly overgrown and old, but it nevertheless accepted her blood sacrifice. It doesn't really feel like the gods are helping me at all she thinks to herself. Slowly the scenery changes, there's less puddles and swamp plants, and this new part of the forest has more older trees.

Many of which are dead, or at least, unhealthy without any leaves. There is almost no vegetation on the ground except thorny shrubs and dead weeds. Even in the middle of day it's dark on the forest floor. At least there's no more mosquitoes.

There's no path to follow. so she walks in the direction of a mountain, where she thinks the mines are supposed to be.

Its been 5 days. She should've arrived at the mining site today. But its nowhere in sight.

It's getting colder too, perhaps because of the rise in elevation. Soon she's going to run out of food supplies.

As she is foraging for what little edible fruits this forest can offer, she hears a zooming sound.

As she turns around to see what is happening an arrow pierces her upper right arm, going right through it before getting stuck about halfway through.

AAAH. It's painful. Misa wasn't even aware that there were living things near her, she thought she was alone.

She quickly begins to run again, in what she assumes is away from the source of the arrows. Why am I being shot at? I haven't done anything bad? Maybe its the hunter from several days ago? Did he really follow me all the way here? She doesn't even know for sure if she is running away from the archers.

Misa doesn't know it, but this part of the forest is filled with bounty hunters. They make some easy money by killing or capturing slaves who escape the mines, and Misa, being clearly not a bounty hunter, is an easy target.

Then a second arrow strikes her body, right above her heart, and it is stopped by her ribs. The pain is excruciating. She falls over backwards and starts to cough up blood. Blood is leaking out from the wound in her back too, and spreading rapidly. She is laying in a small puddle of it.

She doesn't have the strength to get up anymore. Her legs are tired, her arm hurts. Even breathing is painful now. She tries to scream but she cant produce any sound. At least I tried she thinks to herself. I guess this is the end for me. I'm glad I at least got to enjoy some freedom. that mushroom soup was really delicious. and Pachau, Venenia and Abaddon were nice to me. So it wasn't all a waste. At least I didn't die for nothing. A calmness sets over her as she gives in to her faith. Then she starts crying silently. Every breath hurts more than the last one. It will be over soon. Still, I wish I would've had more than just a single week she thinks to herself. As she loses consciousness from her blood loss, her heartbeat stopping shortly afterwards.