CHAPTER 29

Into the Swamp

I DID NOT LIKE SWAMPS. I didn’t like them when I was an owl and I could fly over the top of them. I liked them even less now that I was a human and had to wade through them.

The dark water smelled of rotting things. Not good. Squishy stuff would get into my moccasins and stick between my toes. Not good at all. Then there were the two hungry monsters lying in wait, eager to attack and kill me. Well, at least I had something to look forward to.

By now there were no tracks to follow. The trail was under ankle-deep water. The mud beneath was firm enough not to swallow us up, but too soft to hold a distinct print. In any case, I couldn’t see more than a finger’s width down into the brown water.

However, I had no doubt that it would be easy for us to locate those two monsters that had gone into the swamp ahead of us. It is very easy to locate a large, bloodthirsty creature when it attempts to tear out your throat. Just as this giant lizard was doing right now!

“HISSSSSS!”

It launched itself at me from its hiding place among the thick hummocks of grass by the trail. I ducked down so low that my face went into the water. Yuuucchhh! But the creature went right over me to land with a huge splash in the deeper water on the other side of the trail.

I’d been expecting that attack. Malsumsis and Wigowzo had made me aware of the creature’s location before we reached that wide swath of thick brown swamp grasses. Standing in front of me to stop my progress, Malsumsis had whined.

Danger. Just ahead.

Wigowzo had placed herself next to him, her head pointing in the creature’s direction. Squinting my eyes, for the light of the Day Fire was bright as it reflected off the water, I’d made out the shape of a long brown tail coiled around one of those hummocks of grass. It was just a few paces ahead of us.

I’d motioned for Malsumsis and Wigowzo to wait. Then I’d strolled ahead, acting as stupid as a baby duckling swimming across a pond full of snapping turtles. Monsters are seldom suspicious of stupid behavior from humans. They’ve grown to expect it.

My plan worked even better than I had hoped. The water the giant lizard landed in was very deep. It floundered about, trying to get its feet under it to leap at me again. But even though the creature looked to be at least twice as large as I was, its gaping mouth big enough to swallow me whole, it could not reach the bottom. Instead, it just raised its large green head higher out of the water, making it an excellent target for...

WHONK!

Head Breaker. It was a good solid blow, but it didn’t finish the job. Not only was Big Lizard’s head bony and thick, it was floating in the water. So my first blow, while painful, just knocked it back under the dark surface. A moment’s pause. Then a large, yellow, splay-toed foot emerged from the water to grasp the hummock of grass next to my leg. I stepped back as it heaved its head and its other front foot up. With one sudden surge it was out of the water and onto the trail. It had moved rather more quickly than I had expected. I took several rapid steps backward, trying to stay on the solid trail and not slip off into deeper water. But Big Lizard did not follow. Instead, as it tried to pull itself forward, it failed to move.

It is hard to advance when two large and determined wolves have just grabbed your tail firmly in their teeth. Big Lizard began to swing its head back. It was, I suppose, still slightly stunned from my first blow, which had put a noticeable dent in its skull. It seemed to forget that Head Breaker and I were still there. Time for a gentle reminder. I stepped forward and made our presence known with an upward swing aimed at its jaw. Hoo-hoo!

THWACK!

I suppose my three additional bone-crushing blows along its spine were not needed, even though it was still twitching its tail. Nor was it absolutely necessary for Wigowzo and Malsumsis to rip out its throat. But it made us feel better.

The only problem with our destruction of Big Lizard was that we made a bit of noise doing it. Malsumsis’s and Wigowzo’s loud battle growls and my occasional Hoo-hoos were, I am certain, heard for a considerable distance. I suppose we no longer sounded like foolish, unwary prey.

As a result, we made our passage through the rest of the swamp with nothing larger than a mosquito attacking us. That was disappointing.

In the mud on the other side of the swamp, we found the tracks of that large cat creature, as well as that of at least one other with large webbed feet. Those tracks led away from the swamp. The webbed ones were spaced so far apart that it seemed this creature was running as fast as it could. I looked a little closer at those webbed tracks. They were familiar. I had seen them before.

I started chuckling. My old acquaintance Toad Woman was surely the one who had made those tracks. And from the look of her hasty stride, she was heading as far and as fast away from us as she could go. Perhaps she would find another valley beyond this one, one that was even more safely far away from either disagreeable owls or human warriors who (in spite of their best effort) still hooted like owls when they were excited.

I did not chuckle for long. We were out of the swamp, but not out of danger. The tracks of that cat creature led out onto a wide plain. It rippled with small hills and ridges, but there were no trees. The land that rose up before us from the marshy edge of the swamp was gray with ash. Everything had been scorched more than once by fire.

I placed my hand on Malsumsis’s back as he leaned against me. Somewhat to my surprise, Wigowzo came and leaned against my other side. I was fully accepted now as her pack leader, as her friend. They both stared out at the wide dead plain before us. They saw, as I did, a cloud of dust in the distance that seemed to be growing closer.

“Be ready,” I said.

The low-rumbled growl that came from both their throats assured me that they were.