Between The Crystals

Ch 11 Snake Swamp

The air shimmered and cleared as I stood in Briar Village. Like our village, it was a deep, narrow ravine in the desert. We traded a lot with this place, and they knew me on sight.

Mark walked over. "Hey, Natalie. How are you doing?"

"Good. Did you hear about Veredyl Village?"

He winced. "Yeah. We have extra sentries on the upper ridge just in case an airship comes this way. It won't give us much warning but..." He sighed heavily. "If I hadn't been so tired last night, I would have had a hard time sleeping. We can't be in two places at once, and we only have so many ports."

I nodded in understanding. "We fret and worry when we're gone, but we need to leave to gather food. And unless the airships show up in the morning, there's no way we'd get more than a fraction of the villagers out."

"And the Saursunes would wait by the crystal to catch any returning porters," Mark added darkly. He shook his head. "Unfortunately, worrying won't change things in this situation. All we can do is be careful."

"Our village is already taking every possible precaution," I quietly said.

"Ours is too."

Being "careful" wasn't going to help if an airship showed up. But he was right; fretting about the village wasn't going to help. They were as safe as was possible in this world, and far safer than those who had to leave the safety of the desert to gather food. The very people I was worried about were the ones relying on the porters and our groups.

"Are you ready to see the marsh?" Mark asked.

"I'm ready whenever you are."

The porter grinned. "Excellent. Be prepared to be eaten alive by midges, mosquitoes, and every other bug with a taste for human blood."

He grabbed onto a spire, and I held onto his shoulder since I had never been there before. It was so strange to see the world around us haze out of focus without the light shimmering through my veins.

I had envisioned a marsh with sunlit cattails and frogs, but that was not what appeared. I stared at the gloomy swamp. Spindly trees grew out of smelly humps of soil. Their branches hung down like bared claws and every exposed section had stringy moss hanging from it. Green film covered what I assumed was water. The bugs had already discovered us and were buzzing around.

I waved a few insects away. "What do you collect down here besides bug bites?"

"Mostly snakes. Occasionally a caiman. Some of the moss is old man's beard. It's edible, if boiled long enough, and has some medicinal properties your doctor will know about. Once you memorize the location, I'll show you a few other edible plants."

I turned my attention to the crystal. The spires weren't quite full grown, but it still refracted the dappled sunlight onto the plants and ground around. I ran my hands over, committing its feeling to memory so I'd be able to port back here again.

When I stood up and faced Mark, he said, "Grab a stick and use it to check the ground before you put your foot down."

A handful of sturdy branches leaned against a nearby tree. I grabbed one and followed him on a quick tour, taking mental notes of the plants he showed me. We prodded the ground before trusting our weight to the spot. Sometimes my stick practically sunk out of sight. When Mark moved his stick forward, dirt flew up as a snake lunged at it. We both skipped back.

"That's the other reason to use a stick," he muttered, his eyes not leaving the dappled brown snake that was as long as my arm. "The snakes around here like to hide in the water or bury themselves in soft soil, and as far as we can tell, they're all venomous. Good eating if you can kill them without getting bit."