The Dragonwalk Highway: The Fellowship of Thirteen

21 - Madam Munglebee

It didn't take long for the Fellowship to rediscover the treachery of the King's Highway. The woods melted into a boiling swamp to the northwest of the Arachnite village. The twisted, hollow trees remained but now they rose up from a bog like skeleton hands reaching up through the dark, bubbling water. Most of the road had been reclaimed by the swamp but it appeared sporadically through the mist and Oron managed to always find it even when it seemed they would never see it again.

At first, Abyss and Midnight stuck mostly to the trees overhead, swinging from branch to branch and acting as spotters to help the others navigate safely through the swamp. But then a limb snapped and Abyss suffered a nasty fall. After that the brothers trounced through the muck with the rest of the group, remaining well ahead of Carl who would continuously shriek when the Arachnites got too close.

As for the rest of the Fellowship, Zelda and Oron had to constantly pull Mo from the mud and muck since the supplies weighted him down. His legs and underbelly were constantly caked in mud.

"I miss being taller," he said with a pitiful bleat.

By midday they needed a proper rest. They found a patch of relatively dry ground just off the highway near a patch of skunk reeds. It smelled terrible, but the smell was a small price to pay for the dry ground and some rest.

No one spoke (unless sobbing counts as speaking, then Carl spoke plenty). Any hope that had been rekindled by the stay with the Arachnites had been instantly extinguished in the swamp. The darkness and the muck and the grey, grey, grey brought all the misfortunes they'd suffered back to life again...and dropped everyone they'd lost right back into the grave. Even the Arachnite twins felt the weight of the journey even though they had just begun their adventure along the highway. They weren't used to walking great distances and stumbling through the mud instantly slaughtered their thirst for adventure.

Finally, Zelda couldn't stand the morose atmosphere any longer. "Time to go," she said. When no one moved she stood and stomped back into the mud alone.

Then a high-pitched, wet fart cut through the tension.

Everyone turned to Mo.

"It wasn't me!" he said.

Zelda glanced down and noticed the water around her feet had drained into a hole beneath her. Oron noticed, too, and the color drained from his face.

"Move!" he screamed.

He shot to his feet and tackled the princess just as a tower of flame rose up from the hole beneath her. Everyone rushed to check on the Princess. A series of farts erupted around them and the water drained around their feet.

"Scatter!" Oron yelled.

Everyone dove for safety as the geysers of fire lit up the swamp in an eerie greenish glow. Then more farts erupted around them. Soon the entire swamp was ablaze.

"Help!" Moloch bleated. He was sunk down deep in the mud. Zelda ran up and pulled him free. She untied the supplies from his back and hauled him onto her shoulders. The extra weight made her sink down deeper into the muck but she marched him safety between the towers of flame—until she got stuck, too.

"Gotta let me go," Mo pleaded. "It's too much weight."

"We're not losing anyone else on this quest."

A fart erupted beneath her and the water drained at her feet. Zelda struggled to move, but her feet were sunk into the sludge. She dumped Mo and told him to run but instead he began headbutting her in the butt, trying to jar her free. Streams of webbing wrapped around Zelda and Mo's waists and yanked them to safety just as the flame erupted from below. Zelda followed the webbing back to Abyss and Midnight who began to reel them in like fish on a line...which seemed like a good idea until a wall of flame rose up between them and burnt the silk to ash.