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.
