Our two adventurers trudged along in the swamp but the landscape began to change. It became less claustrophobic and more wide and airy, though the gloom and atmosphere remained the same. There seemed to be a dry path surrounded on both sides by deep blackish-green water.

As our adventurers went on they encountered very small islands on the side of their path, and on one of the farthest there seemed to be someone who was glowing.

It appeared like a fair maiden, with rosy lips, wheat blond hair wearing the dress of the whitest shimmering samite.

She was singing hauntingly beautiful songs while skipping on the small islands that seemed too far for a normal person to jump across. Both Bart and Topher were unnerved by this apparition, though it fascinated and disturbed Bart more than anyone else.

"Baaaart" moaned the maiden "I've been waiting for you for oh so long!" She smiled a charming and flirtatious smile at Bart. "Your reputation precedes you! please, come here and be my special man, I love you oh so much! I need a warm, kind and charming soul to spend my life with. Will you be my special man Bart?" the maiden sang with a lilting voice.

"Bart.." Topher was about to warn, but before he could anything Bart had taken out his lute and had started using it's magic powers to compress air and cross the islands to the maiden.

Topher was horrified: "Bart! No! Don't think with your dick! This is an obvious trap, what kind of a maiden would be living in a place like this!" he bellowed.

The maiden laughed "Baaaart, who are you going to listen to? This man who always yells at you, or me who can offer you my perfect body and unbroken attention" The maiden smiled, sang, and winked.

It appeared Bart was not listening to either of them, he was too busy trying to get to the maiden while salivating profusely.

Then certain odd things started to happen. As Bart came closer to the maiden, her body began to shimmer and change, subtly and unnervingly. Something just quite wasn't right. Why did Bart see black wings behind her? Why was her smile becoming wider and more toothy? He didn't remember her pupils dilating so much, or wait.. Are her eyes completely black?

Any intelligent man would have turned back at this point, but Bart wasn't going to let something as trivial as intelligence get in between him and a good time, not to mention there was something about her singing that was drawing him to her against his will.

But then suddenly, lo and behold! The jig was up, as Bart drew close enough, in front of him stood a horrifying figure. A bird-like creature with dark crow-like wings, greyish-green skin, hair covering her body, with three breasts, and what appeared to be a nut-sack glued to her face. But most horrible of all she had a wide gaping vagina filled with sharp pointed teeth! She was luring Bart to snatch him, and devour him (and his manhood).

"Come to me Baaart.." cooed the monstrosity "I'll whisk you away, and we'll be like two love-birds in a nest" It smiled with its tooty vagina yawning ravenously.

Topher was rooted in shock, he had never seen such monstrosity, not in his worst nightmares or on the battlefield had he seen something so foul. "Shit!" Topher thought "If I don't act Bart is toast, but what could I possibly do?! All I have is my rage, fists, and bellowing loud voice... My bellowing loud voice! It might be able to throw this bitch off-balance!"

"BAAAAAAAARRT!!!" thundered Topher, his voice rattling the entire swamp, shaking the trees, rippling the water, throwing off and startling the fiend. It hopped to the top of a branch. Bart seemed confused, like he was half dreaming, half awake.

"Bart!" yelled Topher "I told you not to think with your dick! listen it's a battle of sound, I was only able to throw it off for a bit but it's going to resume it's spell"

"Baaart" said the fiend beginning to restore its composure "Baaart, don't you want to leave this fetid, cold swamp? I have a nice warm nest, that's perfect for love making. Don't listen to this boor, come with me!"

"Bart, listen man, listen to me! I know you're not thinking straight and this thing is trying to appeal to your worst impulses of attention seeking and sex, but listen, we've been through a lot up till now, I wouldn't be yelling for you if I didn't care" Topher pleaded. Bart started hesitating under the fiend's spell and began fingering his lute

Topher noticed this: "Bart, think of your promise to the witch, you promised you would treat her lute right, like you were wooing a lady and not hooking with some wench, what do you think you're doing? Do you think this is what the witch would want? Even the lute doesn't want to go, which explains the distance between you and that thing. Think of the witch, think of your promise, is this really how you want to go down? Having your manhood munched by this toothed twat in a place like this?"

Bart's eyes started becoming less clouded and began clearing up, and the bulge in his breeches started shrinking. The fiend noticed and shrieked at Topher with hate and rage: "Stay out this, you back-water piss drinker! I know what's best for him, I love him more than his mother would!"

Topher clapped his hands in delight, he'd figured out his trump card "Bart! Think of your mom, think of the feelings you have for her, that was true love, Bart! Think of your mom! This thing is no different from the girls who used you for your body, or your family that used it for work! It's worse, it wants to destroy what you most cherish: your crown jewels! Your mom, Bart, think of your mom!"

Bart became alert and his eyes resumed their normal greenish hue: "Mom..." he whispered. Suddenly Bart's eyes fired up with the killer instinct, and the fiend grew afraid.

"YOU BITCH! HOW DARE YOU COMPARE YOURSELF TO MOM!!" Bart screamed. Topher was delighted.

"SOUND CLOUD!!!" Bart yelled in furious rage as he violently strummed his lute, it generated a piercing loud sound of anger and hurt. The fiend had nowhere to escape as it was trapped in a violent vortex of sound waves: Its neck snapped, its feathers molted, but most importantly, the fangs in its vagina smashed into a million fragments. Bart had succeeded in saving himself.

Topher sighed in relief and Bart used his lute to sonic jump back to Topher. "Thanks To-" Bart was about to say before he noticed Topher had his hand raised as if he was going smack him, but then Topher closed his eyes, and put his hand down.

"I'm really happy you're back safe Bart, I was worried sick, I shouldn't have tried to smack you, I'm hotheaded, but our time together is making me work on that. I felt like I was in that helpless position I hate being in. Welcome back brother" said Topher as he hugged Bart, and Bart reciprocated the love.

"Let's leave this place man" suggested Bart

"You read my mind" replied Topher

And so our adventurers escaped this dire situation. Will they ever leave this wretched swamp?