Mud Waters.

Those two words can be put together as one to make mudwaters and that would be the swamps that spread twenty arms up in the north, used as a smugglers port, an illegal fighting ring, a home for deadly creatures to hide and grow and gain strength until they come out into the world and attempt to surprise us by swallowing us whole.

But Mud Waters was a town. No. It was a community of people that had made the mudwaters their town, using the beasts as food, the smugglers for trade, and the fighting for prophet. Most that lived in Mud Waters were thieves and witches and people on the run.

Or at least, that's what it once had been.

But this self-sufficient community had managed to grow. They had children and raised them there, they taught their people to fight and defend themselves instead of to steal or fight away the Knights that hunt for them. Most who spoke of this place said the name with disgust, but any who had been there for any length of time learned to love it.

Oh, it was still filled with deadly creature, thieves and smugglers, and runaways, but it was a home too.

But it has been years since I stepped into the swamp and even longer since I lived there, hidden on a scrap of land as Jovian trained me from noon to night until I was too exhausted to even scratch my bug bites.

In the summer, it was similar to a desert as there was no drinkable water, little shade, and the heat that came from the waters below made you hotter then the air made you. More often then not, people died of starvation and dehydration as they attempted to cross, as the water was too sickly to be drinkable.

In the winter, even late as it was, it was just fine as there was only a bit of warmth from the water. So long as you had water to drink, you were fine.

And so long as you knew your way through the swamp.

We stood on a raft and pushed it through with poles while also keeping sure the pole ahead of the raft was not too low to sink down. The swamp was riddled with drop offs and that was where the darkest of creatures hid, so those were to be avoided at all cost.
However, it was also a maze. Looking around the foggy waters, it looked like there were several places to land only to find that it had been a mass of reeds or ancient, rotting roots from before the Eastwood spread into the mudwaters several hundred years ago. These were the best way to go, however, and when Aitch went to turn us toward a clearer part, I corrected him.

"Go east."

He paused, pole in the water. "But we're going north."

I shrugged, either way would get us where we were going, it would simply be more complicated his way. Aitch hesitated and looked to Arion.

Arion shrugged and motioned, so Aitch turned East as I had said. Not an hour later, we were going North again and there was the first hint of people, sparing on the shore. They paused when they saw us and called out. "Where you headed?"

"North boarder." Arion called back.

"It's high tide for another hour, best rest up at the shore."

Arion called out his thanks and we passed, but then he turned to me. "High tide?"

"Meaning heat." I explained, glad to know something he didn't. "Not the water. Just a slang mud term. Every few days a piece of the waters will turn hot enough to boil."

"We still alright to pass now?"

I nodded. "We can pass, but he's right, we should land at shore for the hour."

He pursed his lips, debating, though I wasn't sure why. When I questioned him, he only gave me a look that said the reasoning was ovbious, which it was not,

He sighed. "You, on a small spot of land with thieves and smugglers? If I bring you there, I'm asking for trouble."

But in the end, we did go there.

Arion regretted it instantly.

"Fighting matches." He said blandly.

I grinned. "Just in time for the bloods." I said with excitement but tugged my hood further over my face just the same.

The shore should actually be titled like a name - it was where people gathered for fights, trade and just about everything else, except the shore kept moving from one spot to the next depending on the change in landscape. It was always easy to find however, do to how loud it was.

Today it was even louder, the crowd wider as people placed bets on which masked fighter should win. I remembered being up there, fighting against people other then Jovian for the first time. I had loved it. It had been the first time I understood how strong I was, even with my natural magic suppressed my entire life. It was no wonder the Greyov family had been so feared and revered before the Beoworth's rose up with the power of the Grey Stone.

We watched the fighting from the edge of the crowd, the Shadows and I, and I desperately wanted to find my old mask and join in. I wanted, I realized, to impress the Shadows who seemed to think I was a doll that would break at the slightest tap.

My hand, still healing, itched beneath my glove, reminding me that they had every reason to think such a way.

"... Greyov.."

I straightened, my heart instantly pounding. Someone had said my name. I'd picked it out of the crowd of talking with selective hearing but could not pin point it now. Had someone recognized me? Did I need to run? I searched for anyone looking my way but found no one.

But I found the ones speaking. A rough looking man with spots in his eyes, and a young woman seeming eager for gossip.

I stepped forward before I could think it through and they turned to me.

They cannot see beneath your hood. I reminded myself.

"I'm sorry, I couldn't help but overhear..."

The girl grinned and faced me, "isn't that amazing? The girl still lives!"

"I doubt that very much." Said the gruff man with a wave of his hand, eyes on the fight. "He would have found her with the Stone years ago."

"I'm telling you," insisted the girl, "that's what they said."

"Who?" I asked.

"The dragon Knights. I overheard them talking and they were saying there was no sign of the lost princess after all. That the source had been mistaken."

The man snorted. "How could it have been mistaken? It comes straight from our heads. The girl is dead. Now stop spreading that story around or the dragons will be back to take you off."

That was it for the conversation, but it stuck with me for a long time after we left.

Those dragon Knights had been looking for me? But how? Who had seen me? And what kind of source could be so unreliable that the king didn't send his entire army to search the land thoroughly? If he truly believed I was alive, surly he would have sent his army even through Eastwood to...

The siren. She had known who I was. Sirens are able to manipulate thoughts and force people to see who they wanted to see, they were also able to use these images to lure them to the pools where the siren waited, which is exactly what she had done to me. But though they were powerful, they were still simply animals with inhuman thought processes. It was very possible that the Stone caught pieces of the sirens thoughts and saw it to be the daughter of the long-dead queen.

Would he stop looking now then? Or would he search harder? Surly he knew I was alive, or at least his father had known. They'd told the public that I'd died with my parents but King Carigus Beoworth knew it to be false. Surly he had told his son.

Yes, he had, because Jovian told me the Stone was ordered to find me specifically, as well as any sort of rebellious thoughts against the current crown. They would not have done so if they did not know what I was still alive. If they did not still fear me.
But they would crush me without a power strong enough to counteract the grey stone, and so to the Black Mountains we would go.

But I kept my hood tighter around my face then before, and I would not again insist on stopping into anywhere crowded. It would be the five of us from then on and that was that. Because if he believed I was alive, he would hunt me with a thousand dragons, and I would fail my father.

Suddenly, the raft was too slow once again. As we maneuvered through the dangers and worked around the worst of them, I wished only to hurry. I had all the time in the world, but with the king focusing on finding me, my time was only running out.

***

"What's going on?"

"Why have we stopped?"

I opened my eyes, groggy. I'd fallen asleep at some point through the long journey across the mudwaters and it had been so silent, I probably could have slept for the remaining week of the journey expect for the sudden voices.

"What's going on?" I croaked, then cleared my throat, wishing for water. I looked around, seeing everyone was standing now and doing the same. We were still in the mudwaters and it was foggy. There were a few wil'o'wisps glowing, showing a way to a witch, no doubt, but they were distant and could not have been what cause the ruckus.
"We've stopped." Said Arion, he had his sword in hand though he could see nothing to fight.

"Why?"

Aitch looked guilty as if he'd done something wrong. "I don't know, we just can't go any further."

I stood quickly. "You mean, we're stuck?"

"No. We're just..."

"Frozen." I understood, feeling how still the raft was beneath my feet, and grimaced.

Arion noticed. "You know what it is?"

"Burrs."

"What?"

"A swarm of burrs." I explained. "Under us. They're holding the boat." I cursed to myself. "Must be mating season. They mate every few years, but they can only lay eggs if warm bodies pass by at the right time."

"Let me guess," Jaz said, "that time is now."

"Apparently." I tightened my cloak around myself. "Put those weapons away, they won't do any good."

"What's going to happen? What are they?" Asked Arion, not looking pleased to be the one having to ask me as he put his sword away.

"Snakes."

"What?" Aitch squeaked in a way that would have been amusing if I wasn't so angry - something else to delay us.

"They're just small and annoying but they'll bite." I warned. "A lot. It's how they lay their eggs. I was attacked out here as a little girl for this and it's a pain I'll never forget, but you can't do anything about it, just let them bite you and get it over with because if you don't, they'll just keep coming anyway." I motioned everyone down. "Get down here and cover up best you can. They won't be long, they're just gathering below."

They all started to bend down. Aitch nearly dropped and tugged his cloak so tightly around him, he actually made himself look somewhat small.

Jaz was more hesitant. "You just want us to let them lay eggs in us?"

"A witch can get it out." I motioned to the wisps. "We just have to wait this out."

So we all curled into little balls and pressed against each other on the raft that was perfectly still in an unnatural way on the water. Our heads were pressed together so closely that my skull would surly bruise, and our cloaks were tightly wrapped around our bodies, tucked under our knees and over our faces, but still when the burrs came, we were not close enough.

The pain was just as terrible as I remembered, but the memories were worse.

As the thin, hay-coloured snakes weaved over the wood and pierced my back with the narrow tubes behind the fangs, I remembered the young, twelve summer old me alone on the raft, watching them swarm me. I remembered how I had felt so powerless. I'd been running from Jovian again, I remembered, tired of the constant training and tired of the constant need of a friend. I'll cut my hair! I'd told him. And keep my marks covered! No one will know who I am!

I said no, Mir. It's not safe. If the dragons come-

Then I'll kill them all!

Mir-

No! I'm strong, Jovi! Just because of some stupid Stone-

I said no!

And I had run off, faster then Jovian at such an age could and taken the raft, planning on running and never returning.

Then the burrs had stopped my raft and I'd been helpless.

Having no idea what they were, I'd fought them off as best as I could, screaming at each pierce. I'd been more then terrified by the pain, I'd felt alone and helpless and Jovi wasn't there.

When they had finally stopped and left me alone, I'd been a shaking mass of tears. When Javi had finally come upon me drifting aimlessly over the water he had told me what had happened and gotten me to a witch. I had a few scars from my encounter, but I was generally fine.

But that was when I'd put my every effort into my training. That was when I realize how helpless I was, how much I needed to learn, and I vowed to myself to do my best at every step.

"Mir? They're done."

They were. I sat up from my crouched position and wiped the tears from my face - I hadn't even known they'd fallen. The raft rocked noticeably.

I ached all over.

"Follow the wil'o'wisps." I said with a grimace, motioning. "Quickly. We only have a couple hours before this can't be undone and we end up harvesting those things with our life in a few weeks."

Arion twisted his gaze to me while Aitch started yanking the pole hard enough I was surprised it didn't crack. "Why did you not say that before?" Then he frowned as he saw my eyes, apparently it was bright enough to see that I had been crying beneath my hood.

"It wouldn't have done any different." I said to distract him as I shook out my cloak and wondered how I would cover the marks on my back without Jovian's help. "And, I didn't want Aitch to start screaming like a little girl."

Aitch grinned at me, as he always did to anyone who insulted him. Aitch was a man who seemed to appreciate every insult so long as it was a good one, whether it be said cruelly or in jest. "I hate witches just as much as I hates snakes, little one."

"Well you'll have to endure it unless you want snakes coming out of every orface."

Aitch shuddered violently and pushed the pole hard enough to make the raft rock.