Metroid: The Last Aurealian *REWRITE*

Beasts of the Marshland Wilds

Skye laid beside me, his scales brushing mine, spitting and sputtering water as I raise my head, gazing in astonishment.

A great marsh stretched beyond the horizon, a wide expanse of tall reeds, lone trees, and a network of interconnecting lakes. Marsh herons swoop above, insects swarm around us, and hornfrogs croaked in the grasses. The Marshlands seemed a different planet entirely. A far cry from the bustling industrialized city and its capital. From the receding reeds lay a vast wetland channeled by deep ponds surrounded by twine sedge as thin as human hair, yet sturdy enough to support their weight and the weight of the miniscule fauna foraging through their seeds.

Daiban lotuses dotted the water, decorated with a single blue flower emerging from their bulbous seedpods. At the night the pods would open, revealing their bioluminescent seeds and the ponds would glow from their beauty. I rise onto my hind legs, raising my muzzle and sniffing the air. My forelimbs rest at my side while my tail flicks the air. Information pours into my nostrils in the form of various scents and presences.

The air is damp, tinged of brackish ponds and the musty scent of marsh beasts, sprinkled with the slimy sweat of water creatures. I hear relaxed breathing of the fresh green flora, the rattling of the enormous reeds in the wind, the heartbeats of different life forms, the tranquil streams and lucid lakes, detecting the fish life beneath them. If I listened very closely, I could hear the gentle thrumming of my heart, faster paced than before with a pounding rhythm. Here was untamed wilderness, dangerous and beautiful.

I struggle onto my feet, my claws sinking into the moist sand. My senses intensified at the feeling of the wild. Here was a place I can roam without being seen or feared. Where I can hunt and sprint with ease, where I can be myself.

Skye stands beside me, amused of my fascinated expression and uncharacteristically nervous. He was a natural born urbanite tossed out of his element. Like a fish out of water he didn't know what to make of this strange new place, devoid of skyscrapers and rushing crowds. He felt lost and unprotected by the different environment, but he would adapt, that city instinct will compel him to adapt.

"You don't see something like this every day." I twist my head, glancing at the new environment, processing all information, storing it into memory for years to come. I lowered onto my forelegs, head chords twitching as I gaze onward. Skye grins. "Well what are standing around for? Let's check this place out."

I explored the Marshlands with a heightened heart, snooping among the six-foot reeds, nosing the numerous burrows of the rabbitrats beneath. One poked his head out and squeaked noisily at me, annoyed at its unexpected guest. My claws wet with soft mud and seeping water, making a noisy squelch and alert the fauna to my presence. I trailed through the lower sawgrass, letting them whack against my scales and itch my neck. Skye rustled in the beside me, and I could catch a glimpse of his deep purple scales and flinty yellow eyes. I heard him snap up a rabbitrat with a pitiful squeaking, gulping it down his gullet and smacking his lips in satisfaction.

A family of star-nosed hogs furrowed through the undergrowth for the natural tubers making up their diet and using their tendrilled snouts to search for wayward prey. The male spots me, squealing a warning to the group as its entire face opens like a flower, flaring a defensive warning and revealing its tusks. I grunted and trotted off, not wanting to cause any trouble to this family. This was their home and I was only a visitor.

A shrill trumpet blared over a grass laden hill, followed by several blasts of responding calls. I stalked quietly through the grass, crawling with my belly to the ground and my head low. Skye followed silently beside me, his attention also drawn to the elephant-like trumpeting and lay low among the reeds, observing abroad clearing and a glimmering pond amazed.