Heir of the Dragon

The Swamp Pt. 1

When I awoke, I was alone in the cave. The damp cool stone left all of one side of me chilled and slimy. I arched my back and rolled my shoulders, letting the thick air curl into my lungs. I could immediately feel his absence, but I glanced once around the cave anyway. He wasn't here, but the saddle bags were still in a messy pile a little ways away, so he mustn't have gone far. I smiled to myself as I realized my chains still hung useless from my waist. It pleased me that he had trusted me. It didn't make a bit of sense, but it was true. The way he'd been looking at me lately...it was as if the hatred was gone. But was it his that had fallen dormant, or was it mine? Images flitted through my mind, his telling amber eyes, the way his own blood had run down his angled, stoney chest, how his voice had sprung up in my mind. I shook my head and rubbed the chills from my arm. What had he done to me? I grit my teeth together, angry with myself. how could I let him in this way? He was the man behind every moment of soul-crushing suffering I had every endured in my life! I took another deep breath and pulled myself to my feet. The resentment pooled sulkily at the bottom of my stomach.

I stood and waded through the wet air to the mouth of the cave. The morning seemed to have pressed the thick fog to the ground and it swirled around the roots of the trees and the still surface of the water. The sunlight was grayish and eerie looking, reaching through the stringy, vined forest roof. I began to walk, wandering aimlessly along the slippery bank. With each step I took, I slowly realized that there were no birds, no squirrels, not a thing moved but the reeds that swayed slightly in the water. I shivered slightly and an eerie feeling crept up my spine.

I hadn't walked far when the reeds along the edge of the lake gave way to the rotting remains of a small dock, stretching out onto the water and disappearing into the fog. I stepped up on one decaying plank and peered out onto it. The fog shrouded the entire end of the dock but I could see a dark shape looming up at the end of it. I took slow steps out over the lake, hesitating at every creaking board. The shape gradually grew sharper and finally materialized. In an initial wave of relief, I recognized Shadaii's silhouette. He looked as if he were kneeling, but he was holding eerily still. I had an overwhelming urge to call out to him but the air was bearing down on me like a stifling blanket.

My steps brought me closer and suddenly every ounce of relief drained out of me as I realized he wasn't alone. There was something half submerged in the water, a woman, that ran it's fingers methodically over his chest, in slow, a steady rhythm with the lapping water. Something spiked up inside of me that I refused to acknowledge. What was this? I took one more hesitant step and, as the fog thinned, I stopped dead in my tracks. The thing was a fish. It's skin became green and scaly at it's hips and on it's back. It had what looked to be fins lacing up it's spine and shoulder blades. It's head was buried behind shadaii's jaw..where I had just stitched his wound closed. The fish creature was running it's tongue up his neck while he did nothing but stare blankly into the distance. I began to feel the panic rear up in my chest. What was he doing?! Plans sprouted up spastically in my head and then withered within seconds when I realized I had no idea what I was dealing with.

The thing was progressing sensually up his neck and onto the ridge of his jaw, using it's grip on his shoulder to pull it's finned lower half further out of the water. It was hairless and the fish scales that ran up it's back and shoulders covered all of the back of her head, leaving only her stunningly human face, chest, and arms fleshy and pink. Somehow it had not noticed me, but neither had Shadaii. His head rolled submissively to one side as the thing dug it's sharp fanged teeth into the flesh of his cheek. It's glowing, inhuman eyes rolled back beneath its eyelids in a look of unrestrained pleasure. She slowly released her grip on his shoulders and began to slip deeper into the mirky water, pulling him down with her. His blood ran down her perfect features and slipped onto her neck and bare chest. His dead, unresisting weight was being pulled nearer and nearer to slumping into the water. When I could stand it no longer leapt toward him.

"Shadaii!" I screamed at him, grabbing his shoulders and yanking his slumping form up toward me. The creature screeched, detached itself, and wildly bared it's teeth, it's every fish-like fin rising up on end. I felt fire flick up between my shoulder blades and race down my arms searing the tips of my fingers. Instinct took over and, shoving Shadaii's unresponsive body back onto the dock, I slashed my nails across her face.

In sudden horror I stared wide-eyed at the four deep gashes torn through her features. It let out a ear piercing screech and it's face lost all semblance of humanity. It's lips pulled back off it's teeth in an expression of pure demonic torture and it dove into the fog covered water. I was breathing heavily, but not even the pounding in my chest could drown out the chorus of wailing screeches that began to pick up around us, their owners hidden beneath the fog. With no time to think, I knelt down next to Shadaii and screamed at him.

"Shadaii! Shadaii, get UP!" My voice was almost silent beneath their earsplitting cries. His eyes still stared blankly up at me, unseeing and dilated. Breathing hard, I frantically shook him, trying hard to ignore the fire blooming hotly across my back. One, then two webbed hands grabbed hold of the edge of the dock behind me. I spun around and watched in horror as a head rose up with them. The thing pulled itself slowly up onto the dock as others of the same creatures surfaced all around the dock.

I grabbed hold of Shadaii's shirt and began to drag his weight toward the shore, kicking at the slimy hands that grabbed at my ankles. I subconsciously realized that Shadaii should have been much heavier, but we were only halfway to shore and I was hell-bent on reaching it alive.

As I looked up toward the shore, my entire soul sank. One of the monsters was on the dock, having pulled itself through a hole in the rotting boards. Smoothing It's hauntingly beautiful features, It looked on as I let go of my human burden and turned to fully face it. What should have been the whites of it's eyes were inky black and it's pupils burned with a dull white glow. I swallowed hard and, for some reason, began to submit to the fire that flicked inside all my limbs.

It flared up from deep within me and I felt it begin to consume my flesh. I felt muscles wind up atop both my shoulder blades, as if wanting to spread up toward the sky. The feverish heat pricked painfully at my fingers and fire ants began to dig through my skin, first across my back, then up the backs of my arms, and finally began to travel up my neck burning at the sides of my face. My vision flashed blinding colors and my breath came in shaky gasps. No longer able to support my own weight I slumped down onto my knees. I was regretting my submission to this torture more and more every moment. What is this? What had I done?

The fire raged through me jolting my every bone into what felt like painful disarray. I fell onto my hands and, feeling as though it were my last sight, I looked up at the creature that was baring it's teeth in a look of hungry disgust. In a flash the demented delight vanished and was replaced with a look of pure agony. The head of an arrow stuck out from the right side of it's chest, dark green and wet with it's blood. My body gave a shudder and as my head hit the wet wood, my vision went black.

**I attached a sketch of the water creatures...you'll learn later that they're called isloaken (with a silent 's' like in 'island') Its awful and it was actually on the back of a math worksheet..but hey! why not upload it right? enjoy! (:***