Malevolent Swamp I

The picturesque doppelgangers, Sky and Kames, rode silently through the soggy land known as the Malevolent Swamp for hours casting the glowing radiance of their fair features in every direction. This made a sharp contrast to the dark, dank, and extremely humid interior of the wet and ancient forested land. Their fears and worries never dissipated.

The last word they heard of Gheehae was that he visited the Emerald Merefolk off the southern seaboard. Unfortunately, that report was given to them a year before from wonky sea trader contacts that lived near the Majoran coast.

As they began to tread through the wetter and soggier ground, they stopped to discuss their options of travel since their palfreys were starting to have trouble moving. The squelchy morass and the sultry air were becoming stifling which caused their breathing to become heavily labored as well.

"This land sinks in deeper mud pits with each step we take. We must think of something before our steeds' hooves get too bogged down!" Kames reported.

"Yes, but wait! I sense a presence. We are not alone here anymore!" Sky replied as she uneasily searched the premises with her glowing blue eyes.

Sky was indeed correct, and maliciousness surrounded them, drawing nearer with every second. As Kames drew his sword, they appeared – Crocodilians! And not only a few! At least twenty of them closed around the couple, hissing and snarling, wearing nothing but the slimy mud of the ground. They carried no weapons except their immense fangs and the thick razor claws upon their hands.

Crocodilians were a vicious set of creatures, barely out of their primitive form in the way they lived with massive longevity of their lives, they still held a keen sense of mind. Their ways never changed since the swamp provided them with enough food, shelter, and protection. They couldn't read, write, build, or design, but they could speak the common language by learning from victims they had captured before devouring them. Heinous creatures indeed!

"I sure hope you have a powerful fireball spell or something right now because we're in dire straits," Kames said nervously while he stood with his back to Sky carefully circling with his blade raised.

"No, I do not possess such destructive magic. I can blind them though, so we may make our way out of here. Get ready to ride!"

After muttering the Zubian language under her breath, she opened her eyes wide with a sparkle. An incredible glowing aura surrounded her and suddenly burst out, sending a flare of blinding light throughout the swamp. The Crocodilians reeled backward shielding their eyes and let out awful growling cries. Kames and Sky turned their palfreys back toward dryer land and sped off while Kames attempted to cut and stab two of the blinded Crocodilians. He merely made small flesh wounds in their thick scales as the couple made their speedy retreat.

Kames and Sky rode as fast they could, but it was of no use. For another group of the Crocodilians blocked their path and the former group began to creep in from behind them as they regained their eyesight. Either side of them was too crowded with fallen trees and mulch and provided no speedy escape.

At once, Kames dismounted and drew a crossbow from his pack and began to fire at random but to no avail. The Crocodilians' hides were too strongly covered with scales, rivaling those of dragons with their thickness and strength, and the arrows fell from them, barely making a scratch.

"If the bow won't work, then let's hope my sword will! I may only kill a couple of them before they tear me to shreds, but it's better than sitting here waiting for the inevitable!" Kames cried out.

He once again drew his blade made of the rarest cobalt mined from the Dwarven Mountains, a gift from King Armenious received once he became of adult age.

The Crocodilians were closing in fast, growling with saliva dripping from their fangs. The darkest green, nearly black creature moved forward saying in a terribly raspy voice while laughing,

"Such golden beauties! Our feast will be most delectable today!"

No sooner had the words passed his sneering jaws than a piercing cry rang out as if a Banshee were upon them. It was a shrieking wail causing Sky and Kames to double over, holding their ears. The wail forced the Crocodilians into moaning and grimacing and they aimlessly ran off.

Suddenly, before the couple, five tiny violet lights appeared, floating around them at random. They merged and burst out with a sparkle of a bright green and violet color, flaring in the thick air. Making a low-pitched screeching sound that the humans could barely hear and causing the remaining Crocodilians to fall over and tremble violently before passing out.

The light then faded and what remained was a tiny being, no larger than a swamp-moogie. She had pinkish glowing skin, red eyes, yellow-orange hair, dressed in tiny greens and browns from the land, and transparent wings that fluttered in flash.

"I am Aoife, of the Pixie Clan and I was informed by Gheehae, the Goblarian you seek of your arrival here. We must go with haste, for the Crocodilians will retreat until they know the danger is averted. They will march then with a fuller force, more vicious than ever. This way, with alacrity," she said rapidly with a voice that held a tiny echo, changing again to the violet glow, and flew off dissipating into five parts.

"I guess there isn't a choice," Kames said as he mounted his horse. "I think this Pixie is safer to trust than battling Crocs!"

"Yes. I have a good feeling about her. Let us follow, I believe her. I can feel her true intentions in my soul," Sky replied as the couple began to gallop over the passed-out bodies of the remaining crocodilians.

They followed Aoife's flickering violet lights. The riding was many grueling hours at top speed, bending and twisting on every turn, traveling through brush and rotten logs, with the light of day long gone. With Aoife's sparkling leading the way, they stopped abruptly to see she had paused before a magnificent and out-of-place Cypress Tree.

The trunk was of immense girth and it stood hundreds of feet high. The great Cypress beheld carvings in the symbols and cipher that made no sense to either of the couple and held remarkable beauty.

As they stared at the dazzling tree, their horses began to stumble. They were run to near death, and Sky's fell with exhaustion spilling the princess to the earth with a hard thud. Kames dismounted his staggering steed, and gathered her up safely,

"By Zubian magic! Are you alright, Sky?" he asked.

"Yes," she said as she brushed herself off, "but our steeds are finished, even yours looks to fall over at any moment."

"Indeed, let's unpack them…"

"No!" Aoife said as she reformed into her natural self again.

"Listen to me closely if you want to survive, yes, listen closely. Your lives are in extreme peril, yes, extreme peril as we speak your long laborious language!"