All the worst sorts of insects buzzed around Elijah’s head as he crouched beside a bald cypress tree whose roots and the lower reaches of its wide trunk were submerged in the murky water. Beneath his feet was mud, decomposed organic matter, and quite a few creepy and crawly freshwater creatures. He could feel each and every one of them with One with Nature, so it wasn’t nearly as nerve-wracking as it otherwise might have been. He’d walked through a swamp before the world had changed, and back then, he’d had no idea what was in the water, leaving him anxious and certain that any given moment would see him being bitten by something nasty and venomous.

He didn’t have to worry about that anymore, though. Even the few times those sorts of animals passed him by, they just ignored him.

Still, it wasn’t exactly pleasant, feeling the muck between his toes or the insects buzzing around his head. So, after watching the compound for a few more minutes, Elijah decided to stop procrastinating and waded forward. For most of his time on the edge of the swamp, he’d remained in his lamellar ape form, but he didn’t think the sight of an ten-foot-tall lizard-gorilla would make the best impression with the people who lived in the compound. So, when he approached the collection of raised buildings, he did so in his human form.

And that meant that he was walking in water up to his waist, which he was sure would ruin his good pants. And his shirt. Hopefully, it wouldn’t hurt his Cloak of the Iron Bear or his Sash of the Whirlwind, though as Simple-Grade items, they were probably safe enough.

Plus, he had a small bag of cleansing powder in his bag, so he was prepared to wage war against the swamp muck.

As he approached, Elijah raised his hand, waving toward the structure as he shouted, “Hello?! Anyone there?”

Only then did he notice a pair of eyes peeking out from beneath the largest building. Elijah knew enough to recognize them for what they were, and he stopped in his tracks. The alligator swam forward, swishing its great, meaty tail back and forth as it slowly closed on him. Then, it passed within the boundary of One of with Nature, and Elijah got a sense for the thing’s size.

“It’s a damn dinosaur…”

And it was. The huge reptile was at least thirty-five feet long, which meant that the beast assuredly weighed more than two-thousand pounds. Probably closer to three. But even as it swam closer, Elijah didn’t react with alarm.

Because he could feel that it didn’t mean him harm. Instead, it was just curious. It was also plainly a guardian, just like the panther back on his island or the bear whose hide he now wore as a cloak. Elijah wasn’t certain precisely how he knew the difference, and in fact, he wasn’t sure what separated a normal mutated beast from a true guardian. But he knew one when he saw it.

And the alligator was definitely a guardian.

Which made no sense to Elijah. The guardians he’d encountered so far were tied to powerful natural treasures, and Elijah felt nothing of the sort in the general area. More, while guardians were typically stronger and smarter than normal beasts, they were still wild creatures. So, he had no idea why one would have been camped out beneath the compound.

Still, Elijah didn’t have much time to think about that, because the alligator was bearing down on him. So, he held a hand out and, using his most soothing voice, said, “Whoa there big guy. I’m a friend. Here.”

Elijah reached into his pack and found a parcel of meat. He’d hunted a little while traversing the wilderness and while building his Dragon Circle, so he had extra. He unwrapped the package and threw the chunk of still-bloody meat – Elijah thought it was boar – at the alligator. The monstrous guardian erupted from the swampy water, snapping its enormous jaws around the hunk of wild pork, splashing down after it caught it.

“Well, that’ll ruin her appetite, for sure,” came a voice. “Bessy, leave that dirty man alone!”

Elijah looked up to the deck that ran along the front of the building to see an older, dark-skinned woman in a pair of overalls. Covering her black, braided hair was a John Deere cap, and Elijah noticed that she was just as barefoot as him.

More importantly, the giant alligator splashed around one more time before turning around and returning to its place beneath the building. For some reason, Elijah interpreted the creature’s body language as petulant. Which made no sense for a thirty-five-foot reptile.

“Uh…hey,” Elijah said, giving the woman a small wave. “I’m Elijah.”

“You lost?” she asked with a slight smirk as she leaned on the balcony. “You look lost. But Bessy likes you, so maybe you’re alright.”

“Uh…Bessy’s the alligator, right?”

“I don’t see anyone else ‘round here,” she said, her smirk turning into a wide grin. Though she was close enough that Elijah could see some tension around her eyes. “You’re not slow, are you? My cousin’s daughter was a bit like that. Sweetest kid you’d ever meet, but…well…never mind that. Come on up, I s’pose. Konnie ain’t gonna be back for a few more hours. You can meet the family in the meantime.”

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At that, a gaggle of children came storming onto the deck. Elijah counted ten, each one under the age of eight. And none of them looked remotely like the woman on the balcony. Or one another. One look, and Elijah knew that none of them were related.

They all looked excited to see him, though.

That’s when Elijah remembered what he never should have forgotten. Back in Argos, someone – he couldn’t remember who – had mentioned an Alchemist who lived on the edge of a swamp to the south. And clearly, Elijah had stumbled upon that alchemist’s compound.

That put him on his guard. He was friendly with Biggle, but Nerthus had been quite clear that Alchemists were typically Devourers, meaning that they made no efforts to live in harmony with their environments. They consumed everything they found without thought for long-term benefits or consequences. At the time, Elijah had considered it a black-and-white sort of thing – kind of an us-versus-them situation – but since, he’d come to realize that there was a whole world of nuance between the extremes. Still, the tree spirit’s words of caution when dealing with Alchemists had persisted.

So, Elijah approached the dock where he saw four aluminum, flat-bottom boats moored, with no small degree of caution. When he reached the floating dock, he slapped his crook onto the wooden surface, then pulled himself up. Upon seeing all the muck and a handful of insect bites on his legs, Elijah made a choice to reveal one of his tricks. He used Healing Rain.

Then, with the clean, fresh precipitation showering him, he scraped the worst of the mud and muck from his skin. It wasn’t perfect, but it kept him from tracking filth all across the dock. As he did his best to clean himself, the woman and the children descended from the deck via a set of stairs connecting the house to the dock. When she arrived, she looked at him, then up at the localized storm cloud, and said, “Interesting. It heals?”

“It does,” Elijah said. “It’s pretty useful for showers, too.”

“Useful, he says,” she muttered, shaking her head. Then, she raised her voice and said, “C’mon, kids. Get yourselves into the rain!”

The children descended, and soon, Elijah was surrounded by a bunch of dancing and playing kids. It was a little disconcerting.

The woman extended her hand, and Elijah took it. She said, “I’m Marcy. Sorry ‘bout the kids. Can’t afford to pass up free healin’. Usually, Konnie takes care of that sort of thing, but if we can save a few pots, it’ll make everything easier.”

“I can do more focused healing if you need it,” he offered. “I’m Elijah, by the way.”

“Nice to meetcha, but the rain should be fine. Mostly just to take care of the different diseases the bugs carry ‘round here,” she said with a shake of her head. “It’s crazy. Used to be all we had to worry ‘bout was malaria from mosquitoes. Now, without healin’ or pots, anybody who ain’t opened an archetype yet would die in a place like this. I keep tellin’ him we should move, but he just won’t hear it. Says the swamp’s the best place to do his work. And now Bryce is missin’ and…”

That’s when Elijah saw her puffy eyes. She’d clearly been crying.

“What’s going on?” he asked. “Who’s missing?”

“You don’t need to worry ‘bout that…”

“I kind of do. Come on. Tell me what’s going on.”

It took a little more prodding, but after Marcy sent the kids to the other side of the dock where they couldn’t hear the explanation, she eventually told Elijah the story. Apparently, one of their daughters – the eldest – had recently gotten her archetype. And because of that, she thought she was strong enough to take some of the burden from her father by going out into the swamp to gather herbs herself. The whole explanation was couched in hints and sideways statements, probably to hide the severity of the situation from the children if they overheard. It worked, too. They had no idea that their father or sister was missing.

“And she never came back,” Elijah guessed. He glanced at the kids, adding, “Yet.”

“That’s where Konnie went. He knows the swamp but...he’s been gone almost a whole day,” she said. “I’d’ve gone after him myself, but then the kids would’ve been alone.”

Elijah sighed, then pushed himself to his feet. Leaning on his crook, he said, “I guess I know what I have to do, then.”

“What?”

“I’ll go find them,” he stated. Then, he slid back into the swamp water. “Ugh. I just got out. No – it’s fine. It’s a good cause.”

“You don’t have to –”

“Oh, come on. You don’t really expect me not to go after them after all of that, do you?” he said. “Obviously I’m going to go. And don’t think I’m not onto you. You told me that whole story because you hoped I would go. Makes sense, I guess. I’m a stranger, and I’m obviously capable of traveling through the swamp without dying. But I’ll tell you right now, you’d better not be lying to me to set some kind of weird and convoluted trap. That’ll annoy the hell out of me.”

He looked up at Marcy, who was just staring at him in disbelief.

“What?”

“You’re really going to go?”

“Obviously. I’m not some kind of monstrous asshole.”

A couple of the children slapped their hands over their mouths, eyes wide at his swear.

“Oh. Sorry. Butthole.”

They giggled.

“Jerk?”

The giggles only increased.

“They’re not worried about…uh…what’s-his-name?”

“They don’t really understand what’s going on,” Marcy admitted. “It’s not the first time Konnie’s been gone for a while. He always comes back.”

One of the children raised his little fist into the air and crowed, “Daddy always comes back!”

And then, the children ran back up the stairs. Once they were gone, Marcy said, “Thank you.”

Elijah shrugged. “Don’t thank me yet,” he said. Then, he asked, “Which way did they go?”

“Southeast,” Marcy answered. “There’s an area a few miles into the swamp where Konnie usually does his herbin’. That’s where Bryce would’ve gone.”

“Alright,” Elijah said with a shake of his head. He wasn’t looking forward to walking through the swamp for untold miles, but he didn’t want to take one of the boats, either. If something was out there hunting Alchemists and Alchemists’ daughters, he didn’t want to be stuck in a boat when it inevitably attacked him.

As to his reasoning for choosing to help, that was even simpler. He’d told the truth. He’d have had to be an absolute monster not to help when he could. And while Elijah didn’t consider himself a heroic knight in shining armor, he’d long since chosen to help wherever he could.

So, with that in mind, he set off into the swamp, hoping to save the Alchemist and his daughter quickly so he could continue on his quest to find Alyssa.