The ground was muddy and soft on the edge of this vast swamp. There was water flowing in the distance; trickling, dripping. Like the inside of a cave, they had been in many times before. It wasn't closed in here, though they might as well have been.

  "The fog's so thick, I can barely breathe." The warm human air filled his lungs. He couldn't see too far ahead, but he wadded forward boot by boot into the mist. A glittering in the distance caught his eye. "Is that it?..." Rushing forward, he lunged his legs down into the muck to pick it up. Fumbling, he dropped it back into the mud. Bending down he covered his chest with the sludge. Rubbing the slick to search for it. He felt his way along the slimy ground until he could hold it in his hands again.

  "It is a gemin! I called it." He took the stone into his hand hurriedly, examining it. Covered in the mud it was hard to judge fully. A green translucent stone, about the size of his closed fist. A little jagged on one side, but otherwise flawless.

  "Incredible. I've never seen a gemin this clear before. This is..." He held the stone out in front of him as he assumed a squatting position. The gemstone sparkled under the dim sourcelight. "I've seen dozens this large, but never this translucent." Delicately, the stone was placed into his backpack, the one object that managed to remain unsoiled by the swamp. He dropped the backpack gingerly onto a nearby damp stump, poking just above the marsh water.

  Wrapping the stone in his second change of clothes, he buried it deep into the bottom of his pack. He pressed on, marching into the mist, mud squishing underfoot. His ankle gave way, slipping him into the muck; where he landed on his knees. The young man scrambled to find something secure to stand on. Worryingly, he yelled across the marsh toward his fellow scavenger.

  "I don't think we have the equipment to keep moving through this! We should return to camp!"

  "You know what Cowel! I think I agree!... I agree mate! Let's call it a night!" His partner in the hunt about-faced with no resistance. With the notion of giving into the elements Cowel turned around as well, but a strange noise stopped his tracks cold. He held his breath and tried to listen. There it was again. The sound of running water.

  "There, do you hear it? In a swamp like this, running water?" Cowel pointed to what he thought was the direction of the sound. His partner approached his immediate vicinity to give a shot at detecting the sound himself. The second man shook his head. "There is nothing here but muck and mosquitoes. I don't know how you can pick out any sound with all this buzzing."

  "I don't think it's anything physical Ed. I just hear the sound of running water." Cowel squinted his eyes and strained his ears. Desperately, he reached down deep into his senses for any sign of running water nearby, but came up dry. "It must be your imagination." The fellow young man boasted, interrupting Cowel's concentration.

  "If it is, it's a powerful flow. Like a river. What makes the sound of running water, that isn't running water?" Cowel stared straight up at the dim perfect orb in the sky.

  Ed thought for a moment as if encountering some ancient and forgotten riddle. "The wind?"

  "No, the wind wouldn't make a sound like this." Cowel continued pondering in complete sincerity, as his partner watched. He remained completely oblivious to his colleague's patronization. "Maybe it is some kind of creature. I might even be a keygemin. Though, it sounds so near to me. I would surely have seen it by now." Ed glared at Cowel as if thinking rashly, before shrugging. "Let's return to the camp. If you think it might be a threat, then you should inform the captain." Cowel nodded in agreement.

  Cowel traveled with his subordinate to the camp. This took several uneventful hours of laborious trudging. It was now that they regretted going too deep into the marsh. Once out of the mud, they removed the thick-crusted cake of slick off of their hide pants with wicker brushes soaked in a half-barrel of hot water. The captain sat up in her chair.

  "Still awake captain?" Cowel asked probably louder than he should have. She slid over in her seat to face him.

  "Yes, and I trust you have a good reason for showing up back here after allnight, boy."

  "To be frank with you mam, we just can't push through with this equipment." She looked up at the sky and chewed her lips. "You sure it isn't that you have bird legs?". Giving a glance at the two men, suggesting they might be physically weak.

  "No mam. I'm positive it's not just us. We stopped for a rest every beat. I've been through mud, snow, and ice before. This swamp is something else." The captain sensed something in his tone and peeked at Cowel over the top of her navigational material. Placing it aside, on top of the small table next to her chair. "So what's going on?", delivered now with mild concern. Cowel disrobed his backpack, opening its top flap to reveal the fist-sized green gemin. She leaned to overlook as the backpack was opened, gasping as it was revealed. "It's... it is bigger than I thought it would be."

  "When Edven saw it fall, he said the same thing." Cowel turned to his subordinate crewman and marching partner. He nodded in agreement.

  "Well, we can't keep going like this." She signed looking over to the dwindling amount of rations.

  "Can't we just fly over it?" the first mate inquired. "We could use the ship, and hover over the area. Then lower ourselves down to grab stones." She rubbed her furrowed brow and shuffled some of her navigational material around on the table. "Cowel. Hover where? Over this swamp?" She pointed haphazardly at the crude map, then retracted her hands to rub her temples. "I know it's dangerous with this fog, but we really have no choice." Cowel spoke assertively, taking a step toward the captain. She shook her head wildly. "We're not losing anyone else. No way."

  "But-"

  "No buts. That is all."

  Cowel clenched his fist. "We can do this. The team has had its past failures... I know. We have to find it. Otherwise, all our work will have been for nothing."

  This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

  There was a long pause. Cowel's chest tightened as he awaited her reply. She sighed again. "Fine, we'll push forward. This is your risk to take." Relief flooded over him, and the captain returned to planning. "We aren't going to use the ship to do that. I just can't risk losing either of you two, or forbid the ship herself. Then we would truly be stranded out here until we die from starvation or get picked up by the military, and I don't know which is worse."

  "Me and Edven are gonna take a niner though, I'll see you at brightset." The captain nodded. "Alright, I'll have preparations made by the time you get up." Cowel turned to walk away, taking a few paces forward when she called out to him. "Oi-."

  "Yes, captain?"

  "How is the torrent's taint did you get that far through the swamp?" She nearly winced in his direction.

  "Simple captain. I walked twice that far the first time."

  "The first time?" Her eyebrow raised.

  "Yes, mam. Now if you'll excuse me, we have to get that niner in." He turned away, heading back to his tent. The captain remained staring at the place he was standing. For a moment there was silence. "You're dismissed." She thought she had finished her conversation alone. "Yes, captain. I'll make sure Edven puts that gemin in the ship's hold." He yelled while breaking way into the tent. She rubbed her temples, again. As the others departed, she was left with only herself to think about. After a short self-assessment, she decided to finish examining her navigational material.

  The small crew got a good night's rest. The captain received less than the other two. As it does every morning, the orb in the sky switched its state. From dim dark to alight in an instant. Some insects almost immediately flee from the air. Others emerge from the ground and trees. The land of the swamp became flooded in sourcelight in dead silence. Not a siren could be heard. It was good to be able to sleep in.

  Not long after daybreak, the captain stood from her bedroll. Walking to the edge of a small clearing of brush, she stared into the swamp's thick fog. Her eyes narrowed as she scanned the area, looking for any sign of movement, hearing the faint squishing of boots as her crewmates took to breaking down their encampment.

  As the warmth of the morning flooded over her and the swamp, the fog cleared momentarily. The captain walked to the edge of the wetland, mud sloshing over the sides of her own boots; which up to this point have stayed surprisingly clean. With the mist around them dissipating, she squinted her eyes. She spotted a figure step into the light of the source from its borrow. A long, curled-up creature covered in green scales. Waist-high when standing while on for legs, she knew this Parumin and her brood were passive creatures.

  The captain removed her hand from her rapier. Taking a deep breath, she stepped into the murk. The cool mist of the morning continued to fuel the humidity of the swamp, becoming damp and musty. She stepped into the water, squinting her eyes to shield them from the light, as they were still adjusting from rest. Now that she could better see her surroundings, there were a few tall trees enclosing this clearing. Near them, she could make out the vague outline of three more of these creatures leaning against the trees... asleep.

  Squatting low to the mud line, she took a few steps closer. Parumin had small heads with short, stubby snouts. Their ears were small, pointed, and seemed to be able to move independently of the direction of the head. Green scales covered each section of their body. These creatures were currently napping, with their tails wrapped up to and over their waists.

  The captain waited for her eyes to adjust before she made her next move. Her hand brushed along her belt where her rapier was fixed. She pulled her sword from its scabbard as quietly as she could manage. The creatures didn't move, nor make any sound. Slowly, she stepped forward, dipping her bots into the mud which rose to her ankles. Two steps. Three. She saw the glint of sourcelight on the creatures' tails. The silvered surface of the rapier reflected this light as well.

  Through the air, her rapier punctured. Its tip bit into the creature's scales. A squelch of wet skin woke the poor siblings who jerked their tiny heads toward the monster captain. Their nostrils flared as they snorted, and they rubbed their eyes. These dashed madly away from her direction.

  She let out a chuckle. "Damn things are fast." She thrust toward the three creatures, one injured, with her sword when she could come close to one. They tried to back away into the gloom, and the captain followed them. The sounds of the blade rang and clanged against the scales of the parumin, echoing throughout the swamp. Three parumin carcasses laid on the ground around her.

  "Enjoying yourself out there miss Alanea?" Edven yelled across the clearing, a tied tent and bedroll bundled on the ground next to him. "Well, I was." She dipped the rapier into the murky mud water, scouring the blood off with her thumb. One at a time, she carried the bodies back to the campsite. The captain then laid the carcasses over a fallen tree trunk and started the process of breaking them down into meat.

  "We are going to need to cook these before we leave." The captain waved her field knife in the direction of the pitiful ration supply. "We'll have such a surplus of meat we can finally eat these rations." She leaned down, resting her face against her knees. She'd come to the end of her hunger and closed her eyes.

  The morning passed, and with it, the fog was lifted. The camp was blanketed by the smell of wood smoke. Alanea held her hand out, and the others rose from sitting to come to her. They all made their way to the pit and looked down into it. Two large, scaled mammals' bodies were spit onto skewers over the fire. Cowel was in the process of cutting up a sizable pile of meat from the third.

  "Looks like they put up a fight." Edven examining the piercing marked through the pulled scales, approached the captain. "I'm impressed they didn't bite. You handled those critters better than I would have."

  "They were no challenge." The lady captain grinned. Cowel trotted to his other crewmates triumphantly holding a wooden plate piled with several pounds of gamey red meat, browned well with suet. "Since we are cooking the rest through to salt, I figured we could have some of the meat now." He smiled in pleasant expectation. "I know none of us have had fresh meat in over a grad that wasn't poultry. For me, it's been six weeks."

  Cowel plated the meat, with boiled tubers and wild onion. The meat was similar in texture and flavor to venison, but with an off-putting pungent smell. "This will tide us over for a little while, but we'll need more if we are going to make enough headway without starving."

  "It seems that we have some time. The fog will be clear until evening." She pointed lazily to the youthful men. "I hope both of you can keep your stamina."

  "The question is do we head out now or later? The longer we spend here the more likely it is that a search party from the city will spot the ship. We don't want that. It'll provide us a few more days to camp, but we'll have to move quickly if they come." The captain looked at each of the men.

  She stepped back to the edge of the fire pit. "the longer we stay here the more likely it is that the city will send out a ship to search for us by air. I'd rather take my chances out there with the unknown elements, than with the prying eyes of the military. We will leave after we have eaten, and before the midday fog rises. You understand" Affirmation from the two men was confirmed from the look on their faces.

  "Good." Alanea turned back to the meat.

  "You did a fine job with these boys. We'll have enough meat for a week." The captain stood and walked back to the poorly concealed aeroship; the others followed. The aeroship was mostly clear, though the three large parumin carcasses would have to sit with them in the galley until they could be salted. The crew members took their place beside the ship's hearth furnace.

  "I'm glad these creatures have such fine scales." Alanea picked at the dried blood she didn't get entirely off of her rapier.

  "I must confess, however, that I don't like the smell of the red meat." Cowel recoiled.

  "It won't take long before you get used to it. I've hunted many strange creatures out here." The captain finally took the time to properly clean her sword.