Warrior Priest of Dmon-Li: The Morcyth Saga Book Three (8 page)

The trail suddenly begins to run along the
banks of a larger waterway that’s moving very slowly, almost like
it’s standing still. Large creatures can be seen out in it,
cow-like creatures that act an awful lot like hippos, though they
sure don’t resemble them very much. They seem harmless, only
lifting their heads when James and the others pass by on the
trail.

“The fish aren’t eating them,” observes
Jiron.

“No, they’re not,” says James. Taking a
closer look at the water, he continues, “It doesn’t look as if
those fish are in these waters. Maybe they prefer the stagnant
water in still ponds.”

“Hopefully we’ll not have to put it to the
test,” Jiron says.

“Yeah,” agrees Miko as they continue
alongside the waterway.

The trail slowly becomes less distinct the
further from the island they go, until it all but disappears. “Did
we go the wrong way?” asks Jiron when all traces of the trail
finally disappears.

“The fact the trail ended would suggest the
natives don’t go into these parts,” reasons James. “Of course that
could either be a good or bad thing.”

“What do you mean?” asks Miko.

“Well, it’s good in that we’re unlikely to
run across any band of native warriors,” he says to which Miko
sighs and smiles.

“However, it would stand to reason that
there may be a reason
why
they don’t go here,”
he explains further and watches the smile disappear from his
face.

“Why, uh, what would keep them from coming
here?” he asks, a touch of nervousness entering his voice.

“I don’t know,” James tells him. “But relax,
it could be as simple as it is far away from their village.”

“I hope so,” he says.

“Where should we go now?” Jiron asks as he
takes in their surroundings.

James pauses a moment and considers their
options before saying, “Going back the way we came is out, I think
we can all agree on that.”

Miko nods his head in agreement.

“Then lets try to maintain a northerly
direction, staying on as firm a ground as we can,” he suggests.

“Sounds reasonable,” Jiron says a he studies
the ground ahead of them and then heads out, leading the way.

James goes next, still hobbling with his
stick. His leg continues to throb and he’s beginning to feel weak
and tired from the loss of blood, not to mention the magical
exertions during the battle with the witch doctor.

“Ahhhh!” Miko screams from behind them.

Turning quickly, they see him staring at a
little furry creature sitting at eye level in one of the trees
close to the road. It’s just sitting there, staring at him as he
stares back at it.

To James it looks like a little monkey,
similar in nature to the one that had enthralled Miko back in
Willimet. “It’s a monkey,” he tells him.

Turning red in embarrassment, Miko turns a
sheepish look to James and says, “A monkey, I knew that.”

“Leave it alone and let’s get going,” Jiron
tells him as he resumes trying to find a halfway decent way through
the swamp.

As Miko catches up to them, he says, “It
just popped out of nowhere and startled me is all.”

“I know, we’re all on edge,” replies James
as he pats him on the back, trying to reassure him.

They continue for a while, at times having
to force themselves through the dense, tangled undergrowth. The
stench of decay and stagnant air is at times almost overwhelming,
but they cover their noses and press on.

It starts getting dark and that’s when Miko
begins to realize that they’re going to have to spend the night
here. The thought of being here in the dark totally terrifies him,
thoughts of rhino-lizards having him for a midnight snack keep
running through his mind.

Jiron brings them to an area that will do
for a campsite. It’s not very large, but it’s on dry ground and
wide enough to accommodate them.

As he goes out to try to get some food,
James and Miko clear a spot for a fire and begin gathering wood.
“Let’s make sure we get enough to last the night,” James tells him
as he brings in a load. “Try to find the driest pieces you
can.”

“It’s all soaked from the rain,” complains
Miko, “but I’ll do what I can.” He continues gathering wood and
then says, “All the trees in this area seem to be either dead or
dying.”

“Yeah,” James replies, looking around at the
wilted vegetation. “I noticed that too.”

“What do you suppose happened to them?” he
asks as he deposits an armful of wood. Near the edge of their
campsite lies a pile of dead wood. He moves the top ones to the
side as he tries to see if there are any dry ones at the bottom,
but isn’t having much luck. Picking out the driest, he collects
another armload before returning and adding it to the pile of wood
already collected.

“I don’t know,” admits James. “Several
possibilities come to mind, like too much water in the root system
causing rot. Who knows?” Taking some of the wood Miko had already
collected, he begins stacking several of the smaller pieces
together. Once they are set to his satisfaction, he makes a small
fire starter spell and catches the wood on fire. Feeding the flames
with more of the smaller sticks, he gets a good sized fire
burning.

Jiron returns with a trio of animals that
James has never seen before. “What are they?” he asks as Jiron
brings them into the camp.

Shrugging, Jiron says, “Don’t know, but
roasted they should taste good.” He then proceeds to skin them and
places each upon a skewer which he fixes upon a makeshift roasting
spit over the fire.

The smell of fat dripping into the fire
makes their stomachs growl in anticipation of the meal to come. The
light from the fire seems hell bent on attracting every bug in the
vicinity. Not only that, but the bug repellent has begun to lose
its effectiveness. So James redoes it, only this time he coats the
entire area; ground, trees, as well as themselves. When the spell
is over, the bugs are gone.

“Thank god!” Jiron says when they’re finally
left alone. The incessant buzzing in his ear had begun to drive him
crazy.

“I know,” says James. “They were getting on
my nerves too.”

“It doesn’t smell as bad this time,”
observes Miko.

“Probably because you’re used to it,” James
explains. “You’ve been smelling it all day.”

“Suppose you’re right,” he admits.

When the critters have cooked sufficiently,
each takes one off the fire and proceeds to eat. The only water
they have left is the lone water bottle that Miko had attached to
his belt when they went into the sea after the breaking of the
dinghy. All the rest of their packs and things are sitting at the
bottom of the sea.

They share the water, conserving it as best
they are able.

“How’s your leg doing?” Jiron asks while
they’re eating.

“Still throbs something awful,” he replies.
“I just hope this swamp doesn’t get it infected or some parasite
gets into it.”

“Parasite?” asks Miko.

“Parasites are small creatures that you can
barely see that take up residence inside you,” he tells him. “Some
are fairly harmless and your body can get rid of most of them on
its own. Others will feed off you until you die.”

Shuddering, Miko looks at him and asks,
“What can you do if you get one?”

“Here?” James says, gesturing to their
surroundings, “not very much. Back where I come from, they have
medicine that will remove most of them. But here, you’d have to
have them cut out of you, assuming you could even find them. But,
if we’re careful, you should have nothing to worry about.” Having
finished his meal, he yawns and stretches out next to the fire,
getting comfortable.

Jiron says to Miko, “I think we should split
the watch and let him sleep. It looks like he could use it.”

Nodding, Miko replies, “You want first watch
or should I take it?”

“Can you stay up and keep the fire going?”
he asks him.

“Not really tired right now,” Miko says.
“You go ahead and sleep and I’ll wake you in the middle of the
night.”

Settling down next to the fire, Jiron looks
over and sees that James has already fallen asleep. Closing his
eyes, he lets the pop and crackle of the fire lull him to sleep as
well.

Sitting there by the fire, Miko keeps watch.
Throughout his shift, he jumps and starts at every noise coming
from the darkness around them. At one point, a roar could be heard
coming from far off and he jumped to his feet and was about to wake
Jiron but he hesitated. He listened to the roaring for a while
longer and realized it wasn’t coming close to their camp. So he
settled back down and didn’t wake anyone.

Putting more fuel on the fire, he sits in
close and manages to stay awake until it’s time to wake Jiron for
his turn. Before falling asleep, he tells him of the roar he’d
heard earlier.

Jiron nods his head and steps out of the
firelight into the darkness as he does some investigating.

As Miko falls asleep, he can hear Jiron’s
footsteps as he walks around the campsite.

The next morning when James is awakened by
the lightning of the morning sky, he discovers Miko lying near him
still asleep but Jiron is nowhere to be seen. Sitting up, he has a
sudden sharp stab of pain from his leg which causes him to gasp.
The blood on his makeshift bandage has turned brown and the bandage
itself seems to be attaching itself to the wound as it scabs
over.

Hoping the pain is just from the trauma of
the wound and not something more serious, he grabs his stick and
pulls himself up to a standing position. He scans the surrounding
area but fails to see any sign of Jiron.

Worried, he hobbles over and wakes up Miko.
“Do you know where Jiron went?” he asks him once he’s awake.

Sitting up and rubbing the sleep out of his
eyes, he glances around and shakes his head. “No,” he replies. “He
was here when I went to sleep after my watch last night.”

Grimacing, James again looks around but is
unable to see very far through the trees and undergrowth.

“Where is he!” he says to himself
quietly.

“Jiron!” Miko hollers out.

“Shhh!” James says, shushing him. “You’re
going to attract anything wandering around out there.”

Suddenly nervous, Miko looks around
fearfully, expecting a rhino-lizard or something else equally nasty
to come out of the swamp. When no monster is forthcoming, he
gradually relaxes. Turning to James he says, “Sorry.”

“We’ll just have to wait until he returns,”
he tells him.

They wait for another ten minutes or so
before they hear the sound of someone approaching. Standing up,
they turn in the direction the sound is coming from and wait. Soon,
Jiron emerges from the trees and makes his way over to them.

“Where did you go?” James asks, accusingly.
“We were worried about you!”

“Sorry about that,” he apologizes. “Was just
doing a little scouting.”

“And?” Miko asks.

“I think it’ would be best if I just show
you,” he says, then motions for them to follow him.

Not liking the sound of that, James nods his
head as he follows Jiron away from the camp, Miko close behind.

He takes them several hundred feet deeper
into the swamp, during which they notice that the state of the
trees they pass progressively deteriorates. Where some back at the
campsite were dying, here they were positively withered.

“I see what you mean,” James says as he
pauses to examine one of the trees.

“This ain’t it,” Jiron says as he continues
leading them on.

James and Miko look to each other as they
continue following him, their apprehension growing.

Leading them a little bit further, he
suddenly stops and points to a spot further ahead of them. “That is
what I’m talking about,” he says.

James looks to where he’s pointing and sees
a pyramid shaped stack of white stones up ahead. He glances to
Jiron who nods his head.

Moving closer, James begins to feel the
prickling sensation he feels when magic is being worked. He stops
suddenly when he realizes that it’s not stones that comprise the
pyramid, but human skulls stacked in layers.

Backing up, he motions for them to back away
from it as well. Once they’ve backed far enough away that he no
longer feels the prickling, he says, “It’s magical in nature, I can
feel it.”

“Could this be why the natives don’t come
this way?” Miko asks him.

Jiron looks to James who nods his head. “I
would think so,” replies James.

“What do we do?” Jiron asks.

“Find another way,” he replies. “I don’t
know what it’s doing, but I really don’t think we want to go that
way.”

“Alright,” he says. Once again taking the
lead, he turns back and tries to find a way around the pyramid.
Miko hurries along behind, anxious to put as much distance between
them and the pyramid as quickly as possible.

He takes them west back toward the waterway
and when they reach it, turns north again. But the waterway curves
and brings them back to the area where the trees are withering.
“Not this way,” he says, turning again to the south as he back
tracks.

Retracing their steps, they find their way
back. Taking them to the east this time, he’s able to find a path
where they can walk without having to take the chance of slipping
into the fish infested stagnant water.

They move a short ways east when a noise can
be heard, like something moving through the undergrowth. He has
them wait for a moment while he continues down the path and sees
what it is making the noise.

He disappears through the trees ahead of
them for a moment and then they suddenly hear a crashing sound as
he comes running back toward them. Bursting out of the trees behind
him is a rhino-lizard, charging fast.

Miko screams as he turns to flee.