Flare held her breath with anticipation as Silver took a tentative step into the mud, then released it in a sigh as his hoof sunk into the earth. Oake's mudshoes weren't quite able to support the weight of a horse, and although Silver was definitely able to walk easier than he had a day earlier, he wouldn't be able to make it through all the marshes without quite a bit of difficulty. Disappointment surged throughout her body. The journey would have been so much easier with the aid of a horse, but now it looked like she was going to have to do it all alone.

"Looks like I'm going to have to take you back, Silver," she said, stroking the horse's velvety coat and leaning down to unstrap him from the shoes.

"We'll bring him back to the beginning of the marsh," Holly said kindly, taking the horse's fraying lead from Flare, who handed it over somewhat reluctantly.

"Thank you," Flare replied. "And thank you so much for your hospitality. You have no idea how helpful you've been."

"It's no trouble," Holly smiled.

"We wish you the best of luck on your travels," Oake added. "Say goodbye to Flare, girls."

Per their father's request, Cottonia uttered a nice, albeit quick, farewell, but Fuchsia burst forward and squeezed Flare in a tight hug.

"Bye," Flare laughed as Fuchsia released her iron grip.

"Come inside for lunch, darlings," Holly ushered her daughters inside and looked at Oake expectantly.

"I'll be there in just a moment," he assured his wife, who, satisfied with his reply, shut the door behind her.

"Flare, it would be on my conscience forever if I didn't warn you of this. Just don't tell them that I told you," Oake said under his breath, flicking his eyes around.

"Who?" Flare asked, too afraid to be perplexed.

"The Qias Voavro," he hissed. "Loosely translates to people of the bogs. Barely human, though."

"Why do I have to be warned of them?"

"I've said too much. They could be watching right now. Just, whatever you do, do not injure one." As Oake talked, the leaves of the trees rustled, and although Flare tried to convince herself it was nothing but a breeze, a cold shiver ran down her spine.

"Good luck, Flare," he said, giving her a final pat on the back before dashing inside. Flare adjusted her feet so they would sit more comfortably in her mudshoes, and as she did, she could only think of the bog people that Oake had warned her of. Her heart raced as she imagined what they could be - cannibalistic tribes who emerged only at night, monsters who appeared as humans until they devoured their prey, shriveled hands that reached up from the muck to pull people into a watery abyss. As Flare's mind wandered to dangerous places, Abby meowed softly and gazed at Flare with wide and curious eyes. It immediately comforted her as she realized that Abby would probably easily be able to protect her. The cat sat perched on a branch, her tail lazily flicking back and forth. In the marsh, the trees were close enough together that she could simply crawl from tree to tree on the branches. Flare, however, would have to rely on her mudshoes, but if the ground was simply too mucky, she'd use logs, rocks, and the occasional salvation of a small island. The marshes were vast, quaggy, and gloomy, and the journey was not shaping up to be a fun one.

***

The sun had buried itself in the horizon, but Flare trudged on, searching for a suitable place to spend the night. Her mudshoes squelched, a disgusting noise that plagued Flare with every step, and Abby sulked alongside, her fur covered in a layer of mud from when she fell off the trees and decidedly resigned to her fate of being muddy after a feeble attempt to wash herself off.

After a few more minutes, Flare gave up on trying to find a comfortable sleeping place and decided to sleep on a small cluster of branches. She climbed up and nestled in, wincing as the sharp sticks jabbed her skin. Abby curled up on a small rock below the tree, and Flare watched the cat's chest rise and fall with every soothing, slow breath before curling up in a tight ball and closing her eyes.

Even with the reassurance of Abby nearby, Flare couldn't sleep. She wasn't sure if it was simply anxiety getting the best of her or if her intuition was actually trying to tell her something, but whatever it was, she didn't feel safe. Her imagination wandered with the threat of the bog people, waiting in the trees and in the mud and watching her every move with beady, pitch black eyes. The branches shook as she jolted up, her heart racing and breathing shallow. Abby startled awake and immediately looked up, but settled back in when she realized everything was fine. With a sigh, Flare laid back down and tried to sleep yet again.

Just as she was about to drift off, she heard a noise that was so deep and quiet that she strained to detect it. It sounded vaguely like the throaty growl that a dog makes just before it jumps. Flare sat up in a panic, and her instincts yelled at her to run, but she knew it would be smarter to sit quietly and wait for the sound to go away. She held her breath and remained still, but the guttural noise only grew louder. Frantically glancing around, she tried to pinpoint where the noise was coming from, but it seemed to be coming from all sides with no specific location. Out of nowhere, Abby shot up like a rocket and, after scampering up the trunk of the tree, vanished into the cluster of branches above Flare. Quickly tossing her backpack over her shoulder, Flare jumped onto the ground and backed away slowly, still able to hear the obvious signs of a skirmish; Abby's snarls and shaking branches. After a few seconds the noises gave way and a large figure fell to the ground, hitting the mud with a smack. It lay there, unmoving, and Flare decided it was safe to creep closer. Abby pounced off the tree, landing with agility, and followed her.

The being that lay in front of the pyromancer was of a humanoid appearance, but once she observed more closely, she realized there were a few key differences. The creature's skin was a scaly, rough texture and a dark color between green and brown, and sharp, gnarled claws grew off it's fingers. It was completely bare of hair, and didn't have a distinctly male or female appearance, although it did wear clothing - a single ragged piece of something that looked like a sack - and it clutched a long spear of poor craftsmanship.

Tentatively, Flare rolled the creature over onto it's back where it remained unmoving. She then ripped off a piece from the worn piece of cloth that it wore and bound it's hands and feet together as tight as she possibly could, as well as tying a strip around it's mouth. After frisking it for weapons, she found nothing besides the spear it had been holding, which she confiscated promptly. The decision Flare then had to make was whether to stay or go. Although she desperately wanted to leave the monster behind, she knew there would be more, and if she stayed until it woke, perhaps she could coax some information out of it.

She crawled back towards the tree and hunkered in its shadows, waiting for the being to awake. A few anticipation-filled moments later, the creature gasped suddenly, startling Flare. It tried to get up, but couldn't, and it lay there struggling against the bonds. With an angry groan, it flipped over onto it's back, and lay there breathing heavily, apparently oblivious to Flare's presence. Shooting out towards the creature, Flare flipped it over onto it's stomach again and sat on it's back, pressing all her body weight into the scaly frame of the beast. It struggled, thrashing with all it's might and trying to yell, but any noise was quickly absorbed by the cloth.

"Calm down," Flare said in a stern voice, gently jabbing the creature with the edge of the spear it formerly possessed. The weapon barely made a mark in the creature's tough skin. It stopped moving and tried to talk, but just made muffled noises because of the gag. Flare hopped off and it roll over onto it's back, where it glared at her with malicious yellow eyes so evil-looking that they sent shivers down her spine.

"I'm going to let you talk now, but only because I have questions that you'll have to answer. If you scream, I'll tie you back up and kill you. Do you understand?" Flare hissed, trying to make her threats seem as intimidating as possible although they were all empty. The beast squinted it's eyes, then nodded with reluctance. With some slight hesitation, Flare allowed the creature to sit up and then removed the gag.

It pulled in a deep breath of air, and released it in a low growl similar to the one Flare had heard before Abby fought with it in the tree. As it slowly turned to look at her, Flare was tempted to bolt, but she planted her feet firmly into the ground.

"Who are you?" she asked, holding the spear out in front of her. She hoped it didn't make her seem scared. Something told her that this creature could smell fear. It didn't respond, just looked at her in an unsettlingly analytical and calculating way.

"I said, who are you?" Flare snapped, her fear replaced with anger as she pointed the spear directly at the creature.

"Who are you?" the being asked in a slow, oddly calm voice that sounded like whoever's mouth it came from had just swallowed gravel.

"I'll be asking the questions."

"I am Das," it replied.

"Das," Flare repeated in a whisper. It translated to 'bog'. "Are you a Qias Voavro?"

"I'm a Qiasan, yes," the creature growled in a strangely predatory way.

"What are your people like and why are you dangerous? What do you want from us?"

"We want to eat you," it said, a blood curdling smile spreading across it's face. Flare resisted her urges to scream and run, and waited for an elaboration.

"But since that's generally frowned upon, we want to eat your animals. Your pigs, horses, cows, dogs. We used to be in a constant battle with the phytomancers that overtook this swamp territory. Every night, we would sneak in and devour what we could, and every night, the phytomancers would stand there waiting with their weapons on hand," the Qiasan shivered as if recalling the painful memories. "Of course, the phytomancers would be killed every time. So, to save them some trouble, we've established a better system."

"And what's that?" Flare inquired.

"Every phytomancer town gives us occasional lavish gifts of previously slaughtered food, which isn't as good as the live stuff, and performs nightly expensive rituals and bonfires in our honor. Of course, if they don't meet our demands or are unable to provide the funds to perform to our expectations, they must give us one large animal or two small animals for us to feast upon per week, and one human per month."

Flare stood stock still, unable to process what she had heard. One human life per town every month? The creature seemed to detect this, and it laughed coldly.

"Don't fret too much, they usually only give us their sick or elderly anyway. You should've stayed in that pyromancer town so that you could've witnessed one of the weekly killings."

"You were watching me?"

"Of course. That horse of yours was of great interest to us," the Qiasan said with a smile, seemingly enjoying making Flare squirm. She didn't want to think about Holly's town being one of the gruesome murder villages with weekly slaughters. She didn't want to think about Holly or Oake perhaps being the ones to help make the decision of who would be eaten.

"So, when you were in the tree. You weren't going to eat me? Because of your deal with the phytomancers?"

"If a swamp dweller that is not a Qiasan injures one of us, we have permission to eat them. We're technically not supposed to initiate it, but no one listens to that rule."

After Flare was silent for a bit, the creature began talking again. "So, are you going to let me free? I'm pretty sure you've injured me, and according to the laws of this land, I could eat you the second you let me go."

"No," Flare said. "I'm not letting you go."

"One of my people will find me. You're just digging yourself a deeper grave, Flare."

"You-" Flare began, then paused. "How did you know my name?"

A smile spread across the Qiasan's face, a sick and twisted smile complemented by teeth that looked like they could rip into the hide of an elephant, not to mention the flesh of a human. Flare shuddered.

"We know everything."