Long hours have passed after the group had found the boat they came across. The boat slowly moved away from the mountain ranges and into an endless view of a fog, killing their vison of looking ahead.
Naìra was asleep at the back of the boat snuggled up if she was on a bed at home. Flavius sat next to her. Wonomi and Monico kept to the sides of the boat. Galvin was at the front of the boat. Flarefur sat in the middle of the boat. Marina had gone swimming ahead and scout where the boat would be heading. Before she left, Marina left her quiver of arrows and bow with Wonomi.
Vaeludar sat himself at the back near Flavius and a sleeping Naìra who appears to have easily forgetting the kidnapping.
“She’s fast asleep,” said Flavius.
“The question is: how did they get her and come this far north this fast?” stated Vaeludar. “We traveled in the mountains by foot and with flight power. It would have taken them weeks to walk towards the mountain border. How did the witches and the Piper kidnap Naìra?”
“Who are these witches and this piper we’ve met?” asked Galvin. “What is with you have something personal with them?”
Vaeludar turned and sternly said, “The witches and the Fluting Piper from today were people Flavius and I met four years ago. They tried to take his twin sisters and other little girls. They are witches who drain girls of their youths to make themselves younger. Naìra here almost became one of those little girls who have lost their youths. And the piper is called the Fluting Piper.”
“The Fluting Piper?” grunted Galvin. “I’d never heard of him, and there are three ugly women who are witches. I don’t anything about them.”
“That isn’t surprising,” said Vaeludar. “It seems these witches show up out of nowhere and end up kidnapping girls. The village I was raised in was would have been one. They tried to kidnap all the little girls by hypnotizing them by the sounds of their music.
“But I happened to be there and the witches retreated when I harmed their Fluting Piper. I scarred him before he retreated into the Greenwood Forest. They never appeared since.”
Now Wonomi, Monico, Galvin, and Flarefur understood why their hybrid leader had something personal to do with the witches and the Fluting Piper: the people who tried kidnap Naìra and Andrei, but Vaeludar was there to save them from the witches.
“And back then, I was reluctant to kill; I was hesitant to kill them. So I scared them instead of killing them. Now I regret that decision of letting them go. The next time I see them, they’re going to be in unmarked graves,” finished Vaeludar, with great anger.
“You managed to kill men when you saved Marina,” said Flavius. “Why couldn’t you kill the old women and the old fluting men?”
“I don’t know,” answered Vaeludar. “I just reacted so quickly. But the answer is oblivious: my dragon persona. My dragon persona must have taken over and felt the need to kill the people to save the Siren from dying. But whatever. Let’s stay to the focus at hand.”
With that said, Vaeludar kept his eye on the fog and ready for anything that could attack them at any time.
Vaeludar could feel the morning turning into midday. Then the fog started to fade and the group could see more of green plants and a large body of water and murky trees rising from the water: they were entering into a large terrain of swamps and marshes. The boat shifted itself from the north to the northwest.
Vaeludar could see the boat had come across a vast body of a large and wide large and he couldn’t tell how far the lake reached.
The lake was wide and flat. Vulgar moss and dried leaves covered the water’s surface. The water was moldy brown no one could see one inch deep from the surface. Thin clouds evaporated from the water. A foul stench swelled the air as the boat descended into a dreadful swamp.
There were sounds of monkeys and birds that sounded like no other. Branches of trees wisped a sound of a crack when an unseen monkey jumped. Trees grow up the deep waters of these unknown swamps. Every hour, a monkey or a bird echoed an alarming sound from the leafy bushes that grew from the waters.
About three hours after midday, Marina returned with some fish with colored fins. She come up short handed with a handful of fish but still managed to gather seafood from underwater.
“Here’s some seafood we have for an empty bag,” said Marina, dropping the dead fish. “Since we are running out of meat, I thought having some seafood would be a perfect replacement for the meat. But I fear these may last a day at the most.”
“Thank you, Marina,” said Vaeludar. “Go out and find more if you can.”
“Fish is to scarce in this scary water,” stated Marina. “Worst of all, the waters the boat is on is not fresh water; it’s toxic water. These waters have been poisoned by something but I don’t know the source of it. If poison wasn’t running here, then we could be fishing for more fish.”
“Then something is at work in these northern lands,” said Vaeludar. “Well, continue again come back when it gets dark. But if you sense any danger, leave immediately and come back, even if you are close to a fish. Leave and come back.”
She nodded and dived back into the water, disappearing into the brown deepness.
“How do Sirens give birth if there are no males?” asked Wonomi.
“Sirens are like some frogs, their reproduction systems can change from female to male, although their appearances don’t change. I learned that from Marina when I first rescued her five
