The Rage Eater

Chapter 24: The Swamplands

Sadie, Aubrey, and Sim walked through the Swamplands under the glow of a full moon. The only other light guiding them was from an alchemist's lamp in Sim's trembling paw. A low fog curled around their feet, and it smelled of muck and earth and rot.

"Dylan? Dylaaaaaaan!" Aubrey called, her voice hoarse from screaming. Tall, dark trees loomed overhead, and flies buzzed somewhere in the distance, filling Sadie with a queasy dread.

"Look, I'm sorry," Sadie said, guilt creeping into her voice.

"It is not me you need to apologize to," Aubrey said curtly.

They moved deeper into the forest, passing a gurgling pool of muddy water thick with tall bulrushes. Frogs ribbited nearby and an owl hooted in the distance.

Venturing into the Swamplands was dangerous even in the light of day, but downright foolish at night. There were all sorts of feral beastlies roaming under cover of darkness, not to mention rumours of elementals and the Rogue Wizard. But what choice did Sadie have? She had only narrowly escaped expulsion. Losing her beastly in the Swamplands would surely be the excuse they needed to send her off for good.

"Where do we go now?" Aubrey said, looking around. The righteous edge in her voice was gone. She sounded uncertain, fearful.

"We can't track him," Sim said, looking up at Sadie. "He doesn't leave any footprints."

Sadie studied the ground, looking for some sign of Dylan. Within the Swamplands, he could hide easily amongst the darkness and dead trees. But he could only move so fast, and when he did, he left...

"A trail!" Sadie said.

She was pointing to a thin line of green slime, leading deeper into the Swamplands.

Sadie snatched the alchemist's lamp from Sim and sprinted along the trail.

Aubrey and Sim hurried behind her, calling out as they did.

Sadie followed the trail until it stopped at a muddy clearing. She looked around, examining the sickly grass and rotting tree stumps. Her heart was racing, her skin slick with sweat. "Dylan? Dylan, where are you?"

Aubrey and Sim arrived, panting.

"He should be here!" Aubrey said. "Where is he?"

"Just keep looking!" Sadie said.

Clutching the alchemist's lamp, Sadie walked through the mud, sweeping aside tall stalks of green-and-brown grass.

The sounds of the forest had receded, the flies' buzz reduced to a low hum. It was quiet now, eerily so.

"He's here!" Aubrey called.

Sadie turned. Dylan sat at the edge of the clearing, next to a decaying tree stump dotted with dozens of tiny grey mushrooms. He was wobbling like a bowl of pudding.

"Dylan, it's okay," Aubrey said, scooping him up in her arms. "We're here."

But Dylan kept trembling. His eyes were wide with fear, fixed on a copse of dark trees on the other side of the clearing.

"What's wrong?" Aubrey said.

That's when Sadie saw it, the thing that had Dylan so scared.

Out of the trees emerged a towering creature, its body a thousand violent waves compressed into a vaguely human shape. It roared, sending a murder of crows flying towards the glow of the moon.

Sadie froze with fear.

A water elemental.

She'd always thought elementals were fairy-tale monsters to scare children from straying too far from home. But here was one moving towards her, its eyes deep pools of soulless white, its mouth a gaping black hole in a roiling ocean.