Elysium

Chapter 2: The Night of the Raouhs

Darkness crept over the swamp and quickly extended its menacing tentacles to the stand of woods on a firm ground where we had settled. Tired and scared, wet up to our chests from wading in the muddy water, we sat down between the plank roots of the massive trees that reached to the dark skies above us.

Along with the dusk came swarms of mosquitoes. The boys were irritated by them while Brynhilde seemed to be more used to them, only slapping on the ones openly sitting on her bare arms.

"No repellent?" I asked, worried about the exotic diseases these bloodsuckers potentially carried.

Roland shrugged, then started rummaging about his backpack. "We may have something", he murmured, and I was surprised, as my question had been a desperate dark joke rather than a serious suggestion.

"We'd better make a campfire", said Max.

"Is it a good idea?" I asked, looking at Brynhilde, who was supposed to know more about this world than we did. "What if it attracts predators? Or hostile people, like those at the station?"

It was Brynhilde's turn to shrug and cast me an indifferent look. "Some may be attracted to the light, while others it keeps at bay. I'd support the Prince on this."

"Fine for me, then", I said.

"Here's the repellent", said Roland and gave me something that was wrapped in banana-like leaves. "I figured the stuff extracted from this smelly fruit helps. Not that we have this much mosquitoes anywhere on the island."

"We're gonna miss the island so much", said Max. "Give me some of that stuff too."

Finding any sticks dry enough to catch fire was a challenge, but we went through holes under the plank roots, cavities in trunks, and any dry place we could find, and after determined efforts, we managed to make a fire.

It was a blessing, as the night had brought in a cold breath and all our clothes were soaking wet. We started removing them in the light of the campfire and hang them on the surrounding branches to dry. While doing so, we discovered several leeches on our legs, which we pulled out, one by one, using our knives.

"A million years of evolution, but the mosquitoes and leeches are still the same", said Roland.

Brynhilde looked at him with a dull face, but with a strange fascination at his words in her eyes.

"You haven't seen shit yet", she sighed. "In these swamps, you have to watch out for the iki-turso. They say it's very dangerous."

"Like, what?" I asked.

"The watcher in water. A monster, with many tentacles, which lives in the swamp", said Brynhilde, and she appeared annoyed at the fact I didn't know about this creature. "An ancient thing. The mahis call it nen-omrit."

"You know mahi language?" I asked.

"Not like Giovanna", said Brynhilde, and at remembering her leader and friend she cast her eyes to the ground, blinking her lashes. "Only some words."

The campfire was now burning better, and it provided us some warmth and flickering light. We surveyed the three backpacks that Roland, Max and I had brought. Brynhilde had none. We had few change clothes as we had intended to be back in the Base after a couple of days of investigating the Secret Garden. Well, that had turned into something quite different now. In any case, we gave some clothes to Brynhilde too, so she would have something dry to put on, and then we all pushed closer to each other.

In the light of the campfire, we made a short inventory of the contents of our bags, so we would know what we had. There was some dried meat and other small food items. For the four of us, they would last for some days, if we ate sparsely. We had some basic tools and weapons that would be helpful. Roland had a small medical kit. I had a short sword and the green-handled dagger. Max and Roland had probably a few concealed weapons in addition to the swords and bows I could see.