Our next two days were less eventful than the first. Using Kigo’s log, we strapped the bloody snake bodies to it and pushed it southwards. From Tuuk’s hearing, what followed was a massacre. Crocodiles of all shapes and sizes swarmed the snakes until there was not a trace of them left. Blood remained in the water attracting more of the jawed predators until all Tuuk could hear was a writing mass of maws and tails. According to Tuuk, the swamp’s crocs like forming packs numbering anywhere as low as three up to around two dozen—and they are very territorial when it comes to crossing paths with other packs.

Common sense among the Grouaks is to get as little blood in the water as possible for fear of causing an inescapable battle. In our case though, it served as the perfect distraction to clear the path. Thanks to Kigo’s genius idea of continuously adding momentum, I was able to launch the snake-wrapped log several hundred feet giving us ample room to make our escape. The crocs pretty much ignored us after that.

Speaking of Kigo, I found several splinters branching into the pads of his fingers. Despite the tough and happy-go-lucky act he pulled, Kigo had very much overextended his magic. The splinters in his hand looked as if they were taking root and sprouting small stumps. Kigo cried in pain the whole time, but I was able to safely pull out upwards of around forty protrusions before darkness hit us the second day.

Halfway through the course of the third day, the fog broke.

Everyone breaths a sigh of relief at being able to see once more, but Kigo especially jumps and shouts, “WE CAN SEE! WE CAN SEE! The light prevails over darkness ever more.”

“Where’d you learn that from? Sounds oddly poetic for you,” I ask.

“I read it in one of Granpa’s books once. Some story about a blind witch who stole people’s eyes so they would be blind too. Until a shining knight came to her and restored her sight.”

Gebo adds in, “It’s called The Witch of Draneer. It’s as he describes but he forgets the part where the knight and the witch fall in love, but King kills them both because of the witch’s crimes.”

I blink, “That sounds depressing.”

“But love stories are the best no matter what,” says Gebo. “I’m sure what you write will be just as good, if not better Abra.”

I nervously smile at Gebo. Whoops. I’d completely forgotten to finish Escyra’s letter due to all the preparations to leave. Of course, I thought about her and my feelings every day, but only now do I remember promising Gebo the finished product as a gift before I leave. The look in his eyes just now made me think ‘I’ll send a raven’ probably wasn’t the best response.

“Of course! I’ll have it ready before I’m gone,” I lie. At least partially. Do I want to? Yes. Will more beasts attack to distract me? Likely as well.

A light croak from Gebo tells me the response pleases him at least.

~~~

Others on the boat shared equal amounts of small talk. Something about being in the dark fog for so long then opening to the sunshine made everyone more amicable. What’s more, there were apparently no threats in the vicinity according to Tuuk, so our crew grew boisterous by the hour.

Daru, Gando, and Kigo seemed to hit it off really well with Kigo’s camouflage magic. Neither of the former were able to replicate it, but the trio shared equal amounts of enthusiasm for what they could do. Gando specialized in elemental magic, especially in compressing and releasing energy. He couldn’t quite create fire just yet, but he excelled in water manipulation and light. Daru was only able to reinforce and strengthen materials, but he excelled at it, serving as the raft’s engineer by making it sturdy given all our combined weights. I took pride that I had such enthusiastic and gifted students.

Since the waters were calmer and clearer, Mago, Jambo, and Rouk swam ahead to the third stop. They were our fastest swimmers and they wanted to make sure it was safe to avoid another snake incident. According to Gebo the third landmark was a mound of muddy earth, so if it was safe, the trio would pad the land with leaves and sticks to make it more tolerable to sleep on.

With Gebo manning the paddles and navigating us alone, that left me with Tuuk in our own ‘private’ corner.

~~~

The ebony Grouak sat with his eyes closed and ears humming. With everyone else busy, I decided to sit next to him.

“What is it Abra,” he says peeking and eye sounding annoyed, “I am busy.”

“Sorry I’ll try to be quiet. It can wait.”

Tuuk closes his eye and continues listening but comes back shortly. He looks to me saying, “I have confirmed that there are no dangers to us or to the scouting group. I am all ears as you humans say.”

“I just wanted to thank you for getting us through that fog. I mean, I know everyone played their part including me, but I feel like you especially are why we were able to make it through as fast as we did. Every day we save is another day I can spend searching for my fiancé you know?”

“You humans really do like to drag out conversation. Just say thanks and leave it at that. Your heart will stop beating so irregularly as you try to think of the words.”

I raise my eyebrows, “You can hear my heartbeat?” Escyra always told me similar that sometimes I could get wordy whenever I didn’t know what to say or how to approach someone, but I never knew it extended so far as to affect my heart.

“Yes, but it is calming. And do not worry Abra, I’m doing this to thank you as well. More than magic, you brought life to the village that I have not seen since Mago came back from his journey. People can get stale without change.”

“Is that how it is. To me, the village was plenty alive when I got there.”

“That is up for debate, but let’s change the topic because that is the past from before you.”

I sense that I’d touched a bit of a sensitive subject. Of course I knew the village wasn’t some perfect frog paradise. I had never met the tribe elders but from Tuuk’s words, it seems like that was intentional from Mago’s end so I wouldn’t get embroiled in their disputes. Oh! I have an idea on what to talk about.

“Tell me Tuuk, what does it take to become an elder? From what I know it’s not age like with human customs. Kigo himself became an adult by being recognized for his tracking skills and killing a dangerous predator. What does a prospective elder have to do?”

Tuuk ponders for a moment before responding, “To become an elder, you must become a legend.”

“A legend? You mean you need people to tell stories about you and sing songs? Can’t anyone do that with enough hunting accomplishments?”

“No not in that sense and not really,” Tuuk replies while shaking his head. “When I say legend, you must perform something in the swamp that no one else of your time has been able to do. Something to set you apart as wise and understanding of the area. When you become recognized as such an individual, you are granted the rank of elder and are given special privileges. One of them is to call a meeting of elders once per moon at your discretion.”

Thinking back on it Mago spoke to them on my behalf and called a meeting for me.

“Mago was able to speak to them and spoke on my behalf, does that mean he’s one of them too?”

“Yes that does. If you remember the debris around the Mangrove Mound, that wasn’t always there. A long time ago, we had sentries guard the waters while we ate. The wood from the center was stowed away for firewood. It wasn’t until he returned that he proposed sharpening and anchoring some of the branches and laying them out as traps for the larger beasts, but big enough that we can swim through.”

“Wait they’re sharpened?” My hand instinctively goes to my forehead where a branch from that same debris struck. No blood was drawn, however. “They didn’t look like it.”

“Underwater they are. There are also pikes driven into the clay and sand. It is not a nice place to swim if you do not know the proper path,” Tuuk explains.

My appreciation of Grouak engineering, though crude, grows evermore.

“When you say, ‘no one else of your time’, I take it that means you have to do it alone on top of being unique. Isn’t that just setting yourself up for failure?”

“Maybe so, but legends don’t follow paths laden to them.”

“I see…”

Based on his account I doubt I would even make the cut as a candidate much less actually succeeding. If Escyra were here though, I could see her going gung-ho over the tribal culture and heading off to kill the biggest, baddest thing she could.

Curious, I ask, “Has anyone ever failed? What happens to them if they do.”

“And lived to tell the tale?” Tuuk takes a moment to think. “Of the present age, allegedly Rouk.”

“Allegedly?”

“Rouk’s exploits for elder candidate have murky details at best. Are you familiar with dragons?”

“Yeeess…?” I say without much confidence. I recall the strange Grouak proverb Tuuk shared with me and recite it, “‘In muddy waters, dragons make fools of frogs’, you said. Dragons have…scales. And…tails. And they are…destructive…?” I try to give Tuuk the vaguest of details on dragons. As far as I knew, dragons lived in mountains atop treasure troves of gold acquired either legitimately or from kingdoms of old. A creature like that would be far estranged in a swamp where the concept of money was foreign.

“All correct, but again you seem unsure. I shall tell you,” he begins but then narrows his eyes behind me, “and I guess the audience we have grown…”

Behind me, Gebo, Gando, and Daru are likewise sitting attentively. I’m not sure how long they’d been sitting there, but it didn’t seem like it had been for long based on Tuuk’s reaction.

“To resume, dragons are indeed scaled, have tails, and deadly beasts and they are very large—about two crocks stacked in size. Their heads stretch long and end with a serrated poison horn. On each side of a dragon’s head are black bulbous eyes that see in around them all at once. Its maw contains many rows of hands that grab at you and pull you into razor sharp teeth. At a dragon’s lips are two whip-like antennae that sweep the area in front of it. From the head are five plates of scales attached to the base of their total ten legs. Most weird of all, you can see straight through the scales and peer into a dragon’s body—brain, intestines, veins, and all. Their tails are very hard, second to the horn, and glow red, giving the entire body a pink hue. Last of all, their most dangerous aspect: the water ballistae they call arms. A single ball of dense water from a dragon is enough to blast a tree off its roots.”

Kigo and the rest seem completely engrossed by Tuuk’s description. I’m not sure what they must be imagining, but I just blink and stare blankly at Tuuk.

In my head all I can think of is a shrimp. He described a shrimp. In the swamp, what the Grouaks call dragons, an outsider like me would call a shrimp. It apparently had ballistae for arms and a poison horn, but I know a shrimp when I hear one. They’re one of my favorite seafoods after all.

“Uh-huh,” I say incredulously. “And these dragons are how Rouak lost his tongue? I thought he lost it to something else.”

The audience behind me nods to confirm my statement.

“That is because I was not finished,” snaps Tuuk. “Dragons, as fearsome as they are, can be killed with a full hunting party. A lone dragon is easy to pick out if you know where the border to their eastern domain. But legend has it, that even farther east, farther than the dragons’ dens, there lies a nest. In that nest lays the Fire Swan.”

Tuuk pauses and looks around, looking as if he didn’t want someone to hear what he was about to say. Gebo gives him a thumbs up.

“Sorry,” he apologizes, “it’s best not to speak about the swan if Rouk is around. Back to where I was—the Fire Swan. Legend has it, a bird brighter than the sun resides far east of the swamp, feasting on dragons. Like it’s name suggests, the Flame Swan can breathe fire through its long slender neck, boiling the dragons alive and eating their cooked remains after. The Flame Swan is also said to be elegant and floats atop the water’s surface. Earliest legend says it could outswim a crocodile going full speed.”

Tuuk sighs, “Which brings us to Rouk. If you ask him, the Flame Swan did indeed breathe fire and have a long slender neck, but he said it ran on the water’s surface with reed-like legs. Pair that against the common legend and him getting his injury with not so much as a feather as proof, and many begin to doubt his credibility. I believe him to an extent, but much of the village doesn’t.”

Kigo raises his hand, “Mama Uka says he got it bit off while wrestling a snake and the burn was because he had to seal the bleeding with fire. Your story sounds much cooler though.”

“Indeed. Such tales have spread amongst the women,” Tuuk says. “Regardless of the truth or not, best we keep quiet about any Flame Swans or dragons. We’re here.”

Pointing over his shoulder, Tuuk directs our gazes to a mud island covered in lily pads and sticks. Mago, Rouk, and Jambo wave at our raft. After hearing Tuuk’s story, I can’t help but feel a hint of pity towards the semi-mute Rouk. True or not, he ended up failing his candidacy and a portion of the village mocked him for it. I understood the feeling of being shamed for failure all too well.