Ahiga's shortcut became less and less convenient, the path got thinner and muddier. and quickly became overgrown with a smelly plant Inola referred to as stinky weed. The path dead ended at the edge of a muddy pond. 

"Let's turn back and head for the main road," I suggested but Inola was already taking off her boots.

"No way not without the horses!" She complained, then she stepped into the pond with her bare feet holding her boots above the water.

"Step where I step and if you see a snake stand still and let it pass you by," she ordered like it was nothing at all.

I really didn't want to walk through water that could have snakes in it, but like I established before I didn't want to be left on my own. So, I took off my shoes and socks and followed Inola into the pond. The pond was wide and stretched for half a mile, but it was shallow the deepest part only went up to the middle of my calves. The bottom of the pond was made entirely of slimy green mud that squeezed between my toes. My feet continued to get stuck and sink deep into muck, at one point I stepped in a bad place and my leg plunged in up to my knee and Inola had to help me get out. 

Inola was in the lead walking ahead of me with proud steps that splashed pond water onto the bottom of her dress. She gasped then stopped walking she stood on her left leg and held her right one out of the water.

"Are you okay?" I asked trying to get a look at her foot.

"I'm fine, I just stepped on a rock that's all," she said stepping back in the water.

She made a detour around the rock and continued trekking through the pond. I noticed she was walking kind of funny, limping a bit.

"Are you sure you're fine?"

"Yes mom!" She said sarcastically continuing to limp. 

We made it out of the pond, and I got a clear look at Inola's foot. There was a purple bruise the size of a quarter on the side arch of her foot, there were two small holes in the middle of the bruise leaking blood. The blood mixed with the pond water, and she left a thin bloody tail behind her.

"That looks pretty bad do you want a bandage?" I asked pulling off my backpack and searching for a bandage I had almost used them all up.

"I'm fine," she said with an eye roll walking on her tip toes so the cut wouldn't touch the dirty ground.

"It'll speed things up," I figured if I gave her a good reason, she would take it and she did.

She sat down on the stump and held out her foot. I had expected her to do it herself, but I had nothing against doing it, so I got down on my knees and awkwardly held her foot in my hand. I dumped some clean water from my water bottle, and she flinched. I dried it off with my shirt and put the bandage on.

"Thanks," she said putting her boots back on.

I cleaned my feet off the same way, and we continued heading down the trail.

I noticed Inola was walking slower than normal, and she chose to walk behind me which was a little odd since earlier she had been making an obvious effort to stay in the front. I made sure to look over my shoulder every once and a while to make sure she was still there. Dark circles began to form under her eyes and her skin fist turned pale then a strange color of green.

"Inola, you don't look so good" I said, I looked down at her feet and saw that her right boot was leaking blood.

"I'm fine," she said angrily her voice dry and raspy.

"I think you need to sit down."

"I told you I'm- "she started saying then she fell over onto her knees and threw up.

I handed her my water then helped her stand up. Her knees were wobbling, and her forehead was burning hot.

"Stay here and I'll find help," I told her sitting her down on a fallen log.

"You won't find any help no one lives out here," she muttered.

"Do you need help?" I heard a squawky voice say from behind me.

I turned to see a bright blue parrot sitting on the branch of a tree with a large black beak and a rainbow of feathers hiding underneath the main blue ones.

"Yes," I said, and the parrot nodded.

"Follow me!" He squawked then flew into the air.

I lifted Inola up by the arm and helped her walk as she hopped on her left foot. The parrot flew as slow as he could and we followed him, he led us down the path and through the swamp. We came up on a wooden bridge leading over a pond a sign sat on the edge of the bridge that read Honest John's apothecary. The parrot flew over the bridge, and I slowly walked after him practically carrying Inola. The bridge had no side railings and wasn't very wide. Inola passed out halfway over and I had to drag her across.

I found the parrot waiting for us in front of a very old house painted black and made of rotting wood. The windows were boarded up and the front porch was falling apart. A rocking chair sat near the front door holding a skeleton with a blanket draped over his lap and a cap on his head. A man came bursting out of the door dressed in a black cloak with a pointy beak nose, his eyes were cold and light blue, and his fingernails were inches long painted pure black.

"Let's get her inside," the man said in his very deep voice, lifting her by the upper arms.

I lifted her feet, and we walked up the man's porch I was a little scared to pass by the skeleton, but when I did, I saw that it was fake probably carved from wood with screws placed in the joints.

We brought her inside the house and laid her down on a velvet red couch. The inside of the house was dark and dirty with tall shelves full of hundreds of oddly shaped bottles filled with liquid in every color of the rainbow and then some. The parrot sat in the corner of the room on an empty hat stand his head turned sideways, his little black bird eye staring us down.

"What happened?" The man asked pouring himself a small cup of a very dark orange colored drink from an elaborate tea pot that sat on his coffee table.

"She stepped on a rock and then she got really sick," I said trying not to look at the shelf full of bottled organs, especially the jar full of blinking eyeballs floating around in dark green jelly.

"Show me the wound," the man ordered.

He sat down in his armchair and a long green snake slithered out from under the chair and began climbing up the man's leg. He pulled the snake off of his leg and began to pet it like a cat, stroking its scales with his long bony fingers scratching its head with his super long fingernails. I pulled her boot off and showed him the large bruise on her foot and blood-soaked bandage.

"Please remove the bandage," he said setting the snake back down on the floor, leaning in for a closer look.

I felt sick to my stomach when I looked at the bandage, I held my breath and pinched the very corner of it in between the tips of my fingers and slowly peeled it off. The bandage wanted to stay stuck to her skin and put up a bit of a fight, blood pouring out from the sides. I yanked the thing off and revealed two bloody holes puffed up and pulsing, the wound looked infected, and I didn't know how much longer I could hold in my lunch. The creepy man smiled at the infected wound, almost hungrily.

"That's not a cut it's a bite, do you know where she obtained this injury?"

"We were walking in the pond. Do you think it could be a snake bite?"

"No, it's much too small for a snake it was probably a clam and judging by the poor state she's in a poisonous one."

"Is there anything you can do?" I asked and he nodded.

"I have lots of ways to help, but it's going to cost you."

I pulled the coin the fairies had given me out of my pocket and showed it to the man.

"This is all I have."

"I'm afraid seven awphs isn't enough to buy the antidote," The man told me "What else do you have?"

"This is all the money I have."

"Empty out your bag maybe you have something I would like to trade?" The man suggested and I dumped out my backpack.

Out feel bandages, my flashlight, my grandpa's compass, my blanket, and all our food. The man picked up my flashlight and examined it, I showed him how to turn it on and he found it ever so fascinating.

"What is this?"

"It's called a flashlight, it's from the human world their super rare."

That was a total lie it was actually 3.99 from a cardboard bin at the grocery store, but I learned from having a little sister that the best way to make someone want something is to pretend to want it yourself.

"Can I please have it back?" I asked pulling it from his hand and putting it in my pocket.

"I'll make a deal with you, give me all your food and your light stick then I'll give you the antidote and one potion from my selection free of charge."

I didn't mind giving him the flashlight but losing all of our food was going to suck.

"How about you take the compass and my blanket instead," I suggested, and he frowned. "I want that light stick,"' he practically growled.

I got a little scared, but I had to sound confident "Alright then I'll give you the light stick and you give me the antidote."

"The deal stays how I made it take it or leave it."

I looked over at Inola she looked terrible, I wasn't sure if the clam poison was deadly, but I didn't want to risk it. I didn't think I could find another person to help so I agreed to the man's deal and gave him my flashlight and all our food.

"Wonderful I'll start on her antidote while you pick out your potion."

He brought me over to the tallest shelf stuffed full of potions and told me I could pick any bottle from the third shelf down. There were bottles in every shape and size some with clear glass where you could see the liquid inside and others made from glass too dark to see through. I picked up a small circular flask with a dark red liquid inside topped with a cap similar to a nail polish bottle.

"What's this one?" 

"That's leech blood and clover extract, one of the deadliest poisons out there," The man explained, and I put it back not wanting to select a poison I might accidentally smash open.

The man pulled a large black cauldron out of a cabinet and began to make clam chowder, with cream, butter, and clam chunks. I picked up a tall bottle of dark yellow liquid, light and sloshy like water.

"You probably don't want that one, it's a mixture of troll pee and lemon peel it's very sour but does wonders for your liver, best to drink a splash of it in your daily cup of tea," the man explained pulling a tall bottle of the shelf and adding a few drops to his soup.

I quickly put the yellow one down whipping my hand off on my sweater, I was beginning to think I wouldn't want any of these when I spotted a tiny pink bottle shaped like a heart hiding in the back.

"What's this one?"

"That my dear boy is a love potion," he said with a smile stirring his cauldron with a golden spoon, tossing in a couple of slugs.

"Does it really work?"

"Yep, it can make anyone fall in love with anyone, do you want me to give some to your lady friend?" He asked with a sly smile.

"Oh, gosh no!" I said shaking my head, just the thought of doing something like that to Inola made me sick to my stomach.

"Does it wear off?"

"No, it won't wear off on its own but it's very easy to break the spell."

"How do you break the spell?" 

"Any un-love charm or hate potion will break it, and it's very mild it won't make someone kill for you. The person you give it to stays in complete control of their emotions it just makes them like you better."

"How do you use it?"

"You simply give it to the people you want to fall in love with each other and make sure their standing within two feet of each other at the time they drink it."

The man began spooning the soup into Inola's mouth and her color began to turn back to normal.

"She'll wake up in a minute or two," The man said putting away the cauldron.

"Thank you so much," I said, the man had been so nice I almost felt bad for tricking him, but if flashlights really didn't exist here then they must be worth something.

"Would you like to help me feed my pet while we wait?" He asked and I nodded we used to have a parrot and I would feed it all the time.

But we didn't feed the man's parrot he took me outside and around the house to the back porch. He opened up a rather large wooden box and removed a large bucket of dead fish floating in a red colored water. They were about the size of salmon they were bright red and soaking wet. The fish didn't have any fins or scales which I thought was odd. 

The man picked up a fish and chucked it into the air. A woman jumped out of the water she had wild green hair and slimy blue skin with sharp scales. She had black soulless eyes and razor-sharp yellow teeth. She caught the fish in her mouth like a seal and swallowed it whole.

"Wow that was amazing," I said watching her swim back under the water.

I reached into the bin and grabbed a fish, realizing with horror once I picked it up that the reason they were so smooth and red was because their skin had been removed and the water they were floating in was their own blood. The man laughed at my disgust.

"I apologize for not warning you, I catch the fish for their scales and give them to my drykes as treats," He picked up another fish and threw it into the water where it was instantly devoured "feeding them fish helps to keep them from feasting on humans."

We went back inside and found Inola sitting on the couch rubbing her eyes. I gave her boots back and she put them on.

"Where are we?" She asked looking around in disgust.

"Honest John's apothecary," the man said proudly holding out his long arms cloaked in black gesturing proudly to his many shelfs of strange items.

Inola looked the man up and down and by the thin frown on her face you could tell she didn't believe the honest part of Honest John's name. If that even was his name.

"Let's go," Inola mumbled pulling herself off the couch.

We headed for the door. I made sure to grab my backpack which was much lighter now that all the food had been removed and we left Honest John's apothecary, promising to tell our friends.