“I bet it’s all lies. I bet they just say that to keep us away from the logging operations. We’ll go in there and kill one- bring back a head. Then we’ll be drowning in the Morians, no? A little surprise for that bastard top hat” – excerpt from a letter found on the mangled body of a wanted poacher in the Minnian swamps- It was addressed to his lover.

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It stunk. That was my first thought as I woke up, my eyes seeming to take an eternity to focus. This task was not made easier by a disgustingly painful headache and a feeling like my guts were twisting in on themselves. I pulled myself to a standing position and instantly puked, the droplets splattering on my boots and the marshy ground at my feet.

Judging from the humidity and the swarm of biting insects hovering excitedly around my face, I was in a swamp. Lesson number one of any swamp: Never simply endure the bites, swamp insects carry nasty diseases and have no qualms about sharing their gifts with you. I did not want to be stuck wandering through a swamp in the middle of nowhere suffering the debilitating effects of a fever, or worse.

Hold on, I have no idea where I am.

I was stunned. Try as I could, I couldn’t remember who I was either. My headache throbbed, intensifying each time I probed my mind’s depths. It was infuriating! Can’t dwell on that now though, I thought, scanning the environment. First I had to make my way out of the swamp.

I daubed mud on the exposed skin of my wrists and face to at least partially protect myself from the biting insects. It was a good thing I had good, water-tight boots on.

Did I put them on knowing I’d be coming to a swamp? Was my being here planned or an unlucky accident?

I shook my head as if to clear those thoughts away. Now was not the time, besides I doubted that I would be so bereft of supplies if this was a planned trip.

My first order of business was to secure a weapon. There were no suitably large trees from which I could break a branch off from in my immediate vicinity so I set off to find one-walking towards the sun as I lacked even a compass to guide my directions. Calling the footing ‘treacherous’ would be a huge understatement. The consistency of the muck beneath me seemed to be different with every step, one second being firm enough to take the edge off my fevered concentration, the next sucking in a foot and showing a great reluctance to release its prize.

It was getting increasingly obvious that I would die in this swamp without extreme luck or external help. The landscape was nigh featureless and the need for me to constantly watch my footing robbed me of any ability to note the few landmarks. As a result, I was merely going around in circles, my aimless wandering accompanied by the discordant melody of a thousand different species of insect.

It was exhausting, I had been wandering around the swamp for around three hours by my estimation and it was mid-afternoon. Alright, you’re still fine. Rest up for a few minutes and you’ll be up again. I was trying to stay positive but my inability to even find a measly stick to serve as a weapon was weighing on me.

It certainly didn’t help that the damned insects would not leave me alone. During the course of my wanderings some of the dried mud had flaked off and the smarter or luckier insects had gotten a few bites in. I patched up my mud “armor” the best I could but if I was unlucky it was already far too late. I’d end up fevered and raving in this forsaken swamp thanks to a few noisy bugs.

Hold on

 Lost in my thoughts, I had not realized that the swamp was now deathly quiet and the cloud of insects buzzing around me had thinned. It was odd, but this was somehow much more terrifying than everything that had already happened to me, the back of my neck prickled and it seemed as if all my senses had sharpened. I was still trying to process all this when I heard a roar from a distance.

Whatever had loosed that roar was at an immense distance and thus the roar was muted, however, the sound seemed to reach into my body and grip my heart tight. I was literally frozen still with fear even as I saw a massive flock of birds form on the horizon and darken the sky as they fled overhead, away from the dread thing that even now took flight behind them.

The dragon was smaller than I expected considering all the commotion surrounding its emergence but it was still massive. It was at least sixty feet long,  its hide rippling with dull green and brown scales. Its wings were similarly coloured and lacked scales, and its long, serpentine head was adorned with five horns, three of which formed a line along its snout.

I was paralyzed with fear and could do nothing but watch as it descended and landed in the stagnant water in front of me. The resulting splash causing me to inhale the filthy liquid and fall to my knees spluttering. It slowly drew closer giving me a better view of its features. There were three black lines across its forehead flanked by two other, glowing vertical red lines and its yellow eyes glittered with a bestial intelligence as they focused on me with what seemed to be…recognition. It knows me...I thought as I got back to my feet. Strangely enough, I was no longer afraid, just very intimidated.  The dragon seemed to recognize that with a snort that nearly knocked me over again, it turned its head while keeping an eye on me and blew out a stream of emerald energy from its mouth that seemed to linger in the air for a few seconds after the dragon was done.

Seeing that I had noted the direction it blew the stream in, the dragon took to the air again with one flap of its wings, hovered for a few seconds to blow out another stream of energy in the same direction, and then flew off somewhat… lazily. Well, who was I to argue with the giant magical lizard? I headed off in the direction the dragon had signalled, momentarily forgetting that I was in a treacherous swamp.

That was a mistake.

I didn’t need to walk too much longer to find a copse of reedy, thin-looking trees. I fished around in the murky water near the roots for a branch that might have rotted off and eventually came up with a stick that was about four and a half feet long, conveniently tapered to a point at one end. I finally had a weapon.

The next order of business was to find a patch of ground that wasn’t totally drenched and perhaps build a fire. It was getting dark and anyone could tell you that the truly nasty swamp creatures are big fans of darkness. I found a small, elevated area through pure luck, rather than anything resembling skill.

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I was walking a straight path through the swamp in the dying light, without any deviations or turns when I spotted something that looked suspiciously like a large cedar to my left. I was correct. There was a small circle of mostly dry ground, raised slightly above the surrounding ground, like a hump in the back of the swamp if it was a camel. The irony in suggesting the swamp shared any characteristics with the environments in which humped animals were found didn’t escape me.

The raised circle was loosely surrounded by trees, the species of which I wasn’t familiar with other than the cedar I had first spotted. It all seemed faintly suspicious to be completely honest, but at this point, I was tired and eager for the smoke from my fire to rid me of the insects that had plagued me since I woke up.

It wasn’t too hard to start a fire. The sticks I collected were dry and old and there was no shortage of them. This further raised my suspicions, but then again I don’t think I’ve ever been one for looking a gift horse in the mouth so I ignored it. I dug a small hollow for my fire, started it, then wearily laid my head against a nearby tree and drifted off to sleep.

I really, really shouldn’t have done that.

There are few things worse than waking up from well-deserved sleep to find yourself looking down the maw of a very large serpent that’s halfway through eating you.

Very few.

I woke up to see the snout of what appeared to be some sort of constrictor inches away from my face. This shitty situation was made worse by the fact that it had taken advantage of my unconscious state and wrapped itself around me with no resistance, crushing my body against the tree.

It noticed I was awake and moved to finish me off by striking at my neck. I barely dodged the strike by leaning hard to my left and its snout smashed against the bark of the tree which allowed me a moment or two of respite to figure out how I was going to get out of the situation. My left arm was firmly squashed against my body and the constrictor’s grip grew tighter every time I exhaled. My stick was close, on the ground next to my right hand and if I stretched I could probably reach it...

The snake had recovered from its encounter with the bark of an evergreen tree and was now squeezing even tighter. I felt my eyesight start to fade as I lost any ability to draw air into my lungs.

This was it, I was going meet my end here in this swamp, squeezed to death by an overgrown snake, without anyone here to witness it, without even knowing my own name. My body would probably be found in a decade or two, unidentifiable, no personal possessions besides my clothes and that stupid stick…if it hadn’t rotted away yet.

The stick!

A flash of hope! I used the last of my strength to grab the stick and feeding on that hope, draining the little drop of hope for all it was worth, I jabbed at the constrictors tail, jabbed so hard that the tip of the stick splintered and broke.

The constrictor uncoiled from me with a pained hiss and I was able to see it well for the first time. It was at least twenty feet long, yellow and brown, with black spots and red ridges down the middle of its body and at the side of its snout. The red ridges appeared to be faintly…glowing and I could tell at a glance that there was something very unusual about this snake.

I couldn’t stand, despite all my efforts. The only thing I could do was to point the broken stick towards the snake. An empty gesture, I wasn’t any threat, I was just barely holding on to consciousness. Fortunately, the snake appeared to be unused to the idea of food that fought back so it turned around and fled into the swamp.

It was terrible. I could barely use my left arm and judging by how much my torso hurt with each breath, one or two of my ribs were probably broken as well. It was early morning, perhaps an hour or two past dawn as I set back down the path the dragon had signalled. I had found a much longer stick amongst the trees and was now using it as a walking stick, limping my way through the fetid environment of the swamp.

In a daze. Walking blindly in a straight line, with every step wracking my body with pain. I was contemplating giving up and letting nature take its course when I spotted what seemed to be… smoke? Rising up from the horizon.

I immediately set off towards it with renewed vigour. It’s wondrous what a little hope can do for aches and bruises. In my haste, I tripped on a floating log and landed face first into the disgusting water. The “log” then snapped at my ankle as I tried to get up. My terror soon turned to amusement as I looked at what had snapped at me. It appeared to be a very small crocodilian.

At less than four feet long it was more of a caiman nuisance than a crocodile terror with the only slightly intimidating thing about it being that the protrusions on its back and tail were red and glowing softly, contrasting sharply with the dirty green colouration of the rest of its body. It charged at me with a roar that sounded too menacing to be coming from so small a thing.

At another time perhaps, I might have been less likely to punt it ten feet across the swamp but I was tired and hungry and eager to see other humans even with there being a possibility that they were inclined towards cannibalism. It splashed into the water a few feet away from me and I turned around and walked on towards the smoke.

I was brought up short by a sound behind me and received the shock of my life with the sight of the tiny reptile now standing upright on two legs and using its tail for balance. I was surprised to silence by that, I was even more astonished when the softly glowing ridges on its back began to flare  with a savage red light and a small patch of water near the reptile began to ripple and rise, finally coalescing into two medium-sized balls of filthy water. Stunned speechless, my mouth hanging open, I was helpless to react as the lizard seemed to grin and the balls shot out towards me at an impossible speed. I could do nothing but accept my fate and grit my teeth as they sped towards me

… and hit a barrier of earth that had risen up in front of me, inches from my nose.

What just happened?

I backed away and tripped again, landing a few feet behind the earthen wall that was even now receding back into the muck. The reptile looked just as surprised as I was but recovered fast enough to charge forward on a torrent of water. I rolled away desperately, filling my nose, mouth and eyes with water. I stood up and cleaned my face just in time to see three more globes flying at me only to be met by yet another muddy wall of earth.

The globes hit with a mighty explosion of sound and in the ensuing silence the crocodile thing squealed with rage. The sight and sound of the little monster throwing a tantrum was too much to bear and I fell to the ground, bent double with laughter.

That’s right you little bastard! You can’t hit me

My smug attitude was uncalled for, I had no idea why he couldn’t hit me either. My laughter was brought up short when the crocodile stamped its tiny foot down and I was launched into the air by a torrent of water. On my way down, while I was still confused and disoriented, two globes of water hit me dead center in my solar plexus.

I was launched fifteen feet and only stopped by an old stump, the jarring impact nearly knocking me out there and then. I was conscious enough to see the victorious reptile flying towards me on a jet of water, murderous excitement in its eyes.

 It was perhaps, three or four feet away from me before what could only be described as a “portal” appeared before me with a sound like a dozen sheets of paper tearing. The portal was semi-circular in shape and glistened with a soft purple light at its edges. The crocodile flew right into the portal and it closed, disappearing from view. A few moments later, another portal opened, this time high in the air. The crocodile fell through, still riding on its jet of water only to be impaled by a spire of solid earth that had risen up from the swamp. It was all finally too much for me and my consciousness started to drift away.

Last thing I saw before I blacked out were two figures-a man and a woman. The man was stocky and broad-shouldered. The woman tall, so very…tall.