~ 58: The Night of Blessings and Curses - Part 3 ~

"Lucas!" I screamed at him in terror. "You will poison yourself!"

"You know that I can't control my lust for blood," he said quietly. "And you also know that I can't watch you in pain after what I promised. The only way to save you would be to let me suck it out quickly for you."

"If you die because of me, how am I going to live?" I snapped back, the tears streaming down my face at that thought. "You have much control for your lust of blood for otherwise you would have drained me of it."

"You think I can stand and watch you die whilst do nothing about it? I would rather die along with you for my existence means nothing if the mission isn't accomplished. Your blood is too sweet to attract anyone. I would rather be the only one taking some of it than letting another drain it. Now let me drink so that I don't have to see either of us die."

'What is he talking about?' I could ask myself in misery. 'How can both of us live if we both have poison within us?'

He didn't hear my woeful pleas and continued to drink after placing his fangs on a slightly deep cut. He drank it too slowly for my liking like he was savouring every drop of it before he swallowed it.

The light from my torch lit up his white face, which slowly started to get rosier. He withdrew his fangs and licked the blood of them and my leg. When his eye met mine momentarily, the blood-red irises existed for only a second before it went black again.

"I will carry you for the next task," he said kindly as he gazed at the leg whose swelling had reduced considerably.

"I am well enough to walk," I replied, standing up carefully. "It's manageable."

We walked carefully through the marshy land, checking out each step so that we wouldn't trip over roots that had emerged out of the ground. We were about to enter and explore the small pit in front of us when the faint light of the torch gave out.

'Damn,' I cursed. 'Now we're screwed.'

"The batteries expired too quickly," I said with a sigh.

"We'll have to do without one anyway," he responded. "It looks like they have barricaded the area from such equipment."

We carefully trudged along, trying to avoid the pit as we didn't know what lied in it. But the area on the other side was too narrow as more marshy land and pits. My bad foot had slipped and nearly fallen into the pit if Lucas was grabbing my arm while I tested the land. Luckily, he didn't tumble down with me as he was holding on to some strong vines.

"I guess our only way around this task is using the vines to jump from tree to tree like a monkey," I said after mentally crossing out all the possibilities. "That is considering we don't want to start bleeding again."

"We could still try the pit," said Lucas eagerly. "If it is only water, we're safe."

"No, we aren't. Who is to prevent us from getting stung by a stingray?"

"That's why we wore boots until our shins. They won't get spoiled too easily either. We'll take care of the damage once we reach home."

We got a thick, long branch to test the ground of the pit. Lucas kneeled near the edge of the pit while I held him with the vines we had used to wrap around his trunk.

The branch seemed to go in well from what I could see from the dark. Perhaps the land was just a little too marshy. But it didn't make sense that the task would be so easy considering how the previous one had been hard.

"Lucas, don't you think this task is too easy?" I asked after thinking the scenario in my head. But he had completely ignored me as he was too focused on the task at hand.

"Seems like the land is a mixture of mud, clay and water," he said after experimenting with the land. "But I can't seem to get the branch back out. It just disappeared from my hand after I struck the ground."

That alarmed me and I decided that it would be a better idea to climb the vines than face certain death by walking on a ground whose composition we couldn't determine. But still wanted to experiment with the earth and understand what it was made of.

This time he didn't let me hold him as he didn't want me to topple with him. He stood dangerously on the edge, holding onto a vine with one hand and testing the terrain with the other using another branch.

The unsteady vine finally gave way. The marshy edge couldn't hold him either, causing him to lose his hold and fall backwards into the pit.

"Lucas!" I yelled, quickly grabbing onto the vine on his end. "Are you alright?"

"May have sprained the bad ankle a bit," he shouted back. "But I can't seem to be able to move around. I feel like I am drowning slowly."

The panic set in as I whispered out with horror, "Quicksand."

I quickly slashed off another two vines from the nearby trees, ensuring that they weren't any weird creatures by any chance. I knotted it on one end and braided them strongly and delicately as rapidly as my deft fingers could.

"Catch!" I shouted as I threw the new rope at him. "Tie it around your waist tightly!"

"I'm sinking too fast!" he cried. "How am I supposed—"

"QUICKLY!"

His panic would have infected me if I hadn't interrupted him. In a moment, he was waist-deep in quicksand, making it difficult to pull him out as he was near the middle of the pool.

I heaved hard as I tried to pull him out. He would only come out a little and move barely an inch forward before he started sinking again. I was desperate and hopeless, trying to figure out a solution until an idea struck me.

I created more extensions of the vine ropes and connected them, making them long enough to climb up a one-storied building. I tied it to the one directly connected to his body before I wrapped it around a stout tree like a pulley.

"This is going to hurt," I warned. "Try holding onto the rope for support."

"Getting out from this trap with a little pain is better than dying stupidly," Lucas cursed. "I should have thought about tying myself before venturing to explore the pit."

The tugging was painful for both of us but easier with the trick. I gave short tugs, instead of a long continuous one, to not let him lose his breath and my strength. With much effort, he was close to the edge, but there was no more space for me to move backwards with the rope and get him out.

"Shove me out!" he yelled. "Don't go back anymore lest you should fall in this wicked place."

I gave up on pulling him and tried to wrap it around his trunk instead. The thick rope provided enough grip for me to pull him up with my hands rather than using the weak branches of the tree to do so.

On the count of three, I was pulling him up with all my might. I fell on my back as he landed on top of me. I let out a distinct cry to tell him to move over his heavy body.

"Phew, that was a close call," Lucas huffed out after feeling his arms and legs for any injury.

"I would call that a 'death call'," I said with a scowl. "You got yourself and me in good trouble. Let's just do it the hard way and finish things off. It's already half-past one."

"And I was turned into some green being with all these saplings and vines," he said as he huffed out a laugh.

"Indeed, you like a special tree amongst all of these. Lucas The Vine Tree, which survived the quicksand."

He pinched my arm after he stashed the greens in a corner, and I yelped in pain as I laughed at me teasing him. A little while later, we stood up and marched to the narrow area as we took up the challenge of lifting our weight and getting through this thicket.