Devouring the Neverglades: (Beta Version) Chapter 8

To my shock the teenagers did actually pull through.

The answer to how, came easily after that. With all the Harpoons much stronger now, there were less of them being broken. So we simply started having more and more excess Harpoons stored up. The teenagers had been granted access to some of them, and they had traded them to us.

They were apparently supposed to have already been handing them out to us for hunting as well.

Michael had tricked us.

While Willis and Sam didn’t care after their first bit of irritation Erik had gotten rather… Pissed.

“It’s not that big of a deal.”

“They lied.”

“Yep. And that was wrong.” I agreed as I walked beside Erik the two of us both had harpoons over our shoulders as we walked along the river. 

“I can’t believe them!”

“Yeah it was pretty mean, but you know what?”

“What?”

“Who cares? We gave them some food that we would have given to the kitchens anyways, and we know that next time they want something they’ll owe us big time.”

“I don’t want them to owe us! I want them to get punished!” He growled. The Adults had thought it was more funny than anything although Michael and his group had been told not to do it again.

He continued to grumble, and I decided to just let it go. Erik got heated, and he didn’t tend to let things go. 

Instead I focused on the river. The reason we were bringing Harpoons wasn’t just because they were super cool, and I felt like an awesome hunter while carrying it.

At least that was the other reason. The main one was what we were trying to find. 

Big Mouth Cats. Monster Catfish to be particular. The Big Mouth was a monster variant, and the adults had said they’d seen a few of them while hunting over the last few days. 

Normally us kids would be shit outta luck. They were too big to try and leap onto or fish up. They’d just pop our lines. But with Harpoons?

Hehehhuehuehuehe!

“Vicky?”

“Wha?” I wiped at my mouth making sure the way my mouth was drooling was hidden. “Seen something?”

“No?” He looked at me funny before just snorting and rolling his eyes. “Think some’ll be around here?”

“I think if it’s Big Mouth season they’ll be everywhere. Want to try?”

“Yeah.” He set his harpoon and looked back. “Where are those two?”

“Probably got distracted. Want me to run and find out?”

“Yeah might as well. I’ll set up.” He grumbled, taking the rope from the harpoons and starting to tie it around a tree, that way if we speared something we wouldn’t lose it.

I headed back the way we came jogging along, I was already sweating like crazy, everyone always was, so there was no point in worrying about it. 

Just back around the bend I found the boys. “Do I want to ask?”

“I saw a Mudpup! It was a small one, and leapt for it!” Sammy called out smiling happily even with all the mud over him.

“Well good try. Let’s get you cleaned up before we start.” I offered half laughing, and we all quickly helped Sammy get washed up, before we raced to catch up with Erik. He was getting impatient I could tell, as we all raced up, and Willis held up the crawfish trap that was full of crawfish. 

“Finally! Did you get lost?”

“I saw a Mudpup!” Sammy said just as happily

“I don’t see it.”

“I didn’t catch it!” He chirped happily as we all gathered together. Erik grumbled, but he helped as we started grabbing crawfish and cutting them up until we had a big pile of cut up crawfish.

“That should be a good start.” I said looking over the pile, and Sammy looked up at me begging.

“Sure Sammy, why don’t you throw first.” I told the youngest boy and he grinned, reaching in and grabbing a handful of mudbugs and then chucking it into the river. 

We all settled in under the shade of a tree to try and keep cool and mostly just lay around as one of us would keep an eye on the river as we threw more chunks of crawdads into the river.

It was a peaceful afternoon, the sounds of bugs screaming and the sound of birds singing. 

Then as Erik was holding the Harpoon over the river he suddenly jerked and made a noise, a bird song that was a signal when you don’t want to shout. All of us sat up, and we rushed over. Willas grabbed the other Harpoon, while I joined Erik. Yep. There it was. A big shadow in the river.

“Draw it in.” I whispered, and Sammy reached for more of the bug chunks scattering it in a bit, and right away I saw it, the water sucking in for a moment as everything that had touched the water disappeared.

Willas nodded to Erik showing he was ready. I waved once more at Sammy who nodded, grabbing another chunk of chum. 

This time when he tossed it in, much closer, we could actually see the massive Big Mouth coming up, sucking tons of water into it’s massive mouth.

Which is right when Erik and Willis struck. We thrust the metal harpoons forward. There was a second where it felt like the entire river exploded as the Big Mouth Catfish erupted, trying to burst away, but the harpoons had hooked. Both of them, and as it exploded the ropes snapped tight. 

Thankfully neither boy got smacked by the ropes, but everyone ducked fumbling around to escape the sudden horrendous force.

“Oh that’s bigger than I thought.” I whispered a bit shell shocked as the fish that was the size of a horse it felt like jerked, and I whipped back looking at the one tree we’d tied both harpoons to, and…

That tree was not doing well.

It was whipping and struggling, the ropes creaking and groaning, and if something wasn’t done, the ropes would snap, and those harpoons would be gone.

Not good.

“What do we do!?” Erik called out having realized the same thing, and so I looked around. There wasn’t anything we could do. We’d bit off more than we could chew, unless the fish started bleeding out really soon-

Before I could even think Willas roared and jumped.

“No!” I called out, but it was too late, the other boys had pulled their knives and leapt too.

This wasn’t a Big Mouth, but a Giant Mouth, the even bigger older Catfish. This thing could swallow a man whole. The boys leapt onto it, and started stabbing, their normal knives seemingly struggling to get through the fishes scales and then because the water was turning and shifting Willas went under.

“Fuck!” I shouted and charged in myself.

The water was completely muddy by now, there was no sight of the boys, but I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I pulled my knife and stabbed right into the fish, it smacked into me in retribution, but where the boys knives failed, mine sunk deep, and then tore as I was thrown away. 

The fish jerked enough I saw a flailing limb from Willas, as Erik and Sammy continued trying and grabbed hold. 

Yanking the boy he gasped for air as I finally managed to get his head above water, and he choked and sputtered weakly.

He must have been smashed down into the mud by the Giant Mouth.

He fought me a little as I yanked him out of the river, but that was mostly because he was just fighting everything. I got him out and turned.

Erika was screaming holding onto the harpoon having abandoned his knife at some point and was just desperately holding on, as the fish bucked and rocked.

Sammy was nowhere to be seen.

“Sammy!?” I called out but didn’t see anything.

Oh no.

I charged back in, was he under the fish? Thrown out into the river?

As I rushed past I stabbed my knife into the stupid fish again just to do something as I rushed past and was about to dive in, when Sammy’s head broke the surface.

“Sammy!”

He was struggling a bit further into the river, and I rushed out wrapping my arm around him as I I tried to help him swim back. But he was panicking, and flailing even worse than Willas.

“Calm-Blurg!” I choked as Sammy pushed my head under as he flailed and I came up choking and fighting. Thankfully a moment later Willas was there and the two of us managed to get Sammy back without drowning although I was coughing up just as much water as Sammy.

I looked back.

Erik was still riding the Giant Mouth, Entire body wrapped around the harpoon as it continued to jerk and fight, but it was becoming less constant.

He was actually tiring it out… That was definitely his plan and he wasn’t screaming in absolute terror.

Both harpoons seemed to keep the fish from rolling over which was the only reason Erik hadn’t been dragged under too.

Now what to do?

What do I do?

“Stay here.” I told the boys and charged in. It was stupid, but my knife was actually able to hurt the fish. Right behind the eye. In front of the gill. It was just a basic way to remember where the brains of a fish were.

I rushed out, the water was completely muddy at this point, and the Giant Mouth was still struggling, but… There, it’s eye. Just for a second popping up as it rolled but couldn’t get all the way as the Harpoon kept it from doing it.

Then… There. The gills.

“Raaaaaa!” I charged and leapt, knife held in both hands and slammed down.

It sunk for a moment into the scales, but then stopped like hitting a rock. 

There was a single moment where I could feel it. Mana. The vibration going through my hand telling me the fish was actively using magic of some sort. 

Then I was bucked, hard, and I went basically flying away. Knife ripped from my hand as I simply had nothing to grip on the slimy fish.

I hit the mud with an oof, as I rolled a bit and managed to stagger back to my feet. 

Everyone was still alive. Erik was still screaming, Willas and Sam both looked shaken, not quite willing to charge back in again, which was good.

The ropes were both creaking and I could see they were already splitting.

If they didn’t break, the tree they were tied around was going, as it was leaning almost sideways now.

Honestly I was shocked the harpoons hadn’t been ripped out, one of them, or both must have caught something inside to not get torn out.

What to do? This was way over our heads. This was adult stuff. We should not have gotten greedy about this.

The knife. It was sticking out of its head still, I hadn’t managed to push it in anymore, but…

I looked around and found it. A rock. Bit enough to hold in both hands and won’t slow me down too much.

I charged in again. Too out of breath to shout as I just rushed in and when I had the chance I lifted the rock, jumped, and then slammed it onto the hilt of my knife.

There was a noise of something giving way, and the entire fish started flailing but then stopped. Twitching in the water…

We all stood there in a tableau, unsure if it was safe to move as I lay on top of the fish. I looked up to see Erik white knuckling the harpoon face just as white as his hands.

Then I felt it.

The buzz of mana under me.

The fish wasn’t moving, but the mana was still there. Still active, as it flowed through it’s final task.

The amount of mana flowing was immense. Way more than anything but the Mana Stone we’d found so long ago.

But this?

I understood. This wasn’t just mana flowing around. It was spiraling. Spiralling…

Spiraling?

No… It was circling. A magic circle? I could feel it, in that buzzy sense of moving mana. It was messy, but it was definitely a magical circle.

That’s how.

That’s how people discovered magical circles! Monsters made them!

I just needed…

The mana was flowing out. The Giant Mouth was dead. The sight of that magical circle was already disappearing.

No!

I needed to save the mana, keep the circle from flowing away. How do I?

It was instinct. Grabbing my knife which took a moment to fully yank from the fish's skull and then slicing off a chunk of the Giant Mouth’s scales and flesh.

The mana flowed through every inch of its scales. 

Every scale had the mana circle writ small. No doubt the spell was what made its scales so hard normal knives didn’t work.

Then I stuffed it into my mouth.

Eewwwwww. Slimy raw fish was not good. This was not sushi, but a fresh slimed river monster.

I was definitely going to get sick from this.

But I kept it down hands on my mouth as I forced myself to breathe through my nose, and in exchange I felt it.

The magical circle.

I could see it. The way Mana flowed. It wasn’t really a circle, but a flow. The mana flowed into specific pathways, and in exchange something came out of it. 

It made no sense, why would mana circling around do something besides just being mana, but it worked.

“Vicky?” Erik asked as he had seen me do all of this but I shook my head at him hand still over my mouth so I didn’t accidentally open it, even if I really wanted to spit it all out.

I had to… Write it down? Yeah lets go with that. I looked around…

Fuck.

Fine mud would do it.

I stumbled off the fish and onto the riverbank and then headed up a bit finding a flat spot, I started digging with my knife.

Like this… There was a spiral here, that then connected back to the outer ring, then across here, and…

I continued working, gesturing for the boys to back up as I worked which they thankfully did without a word as I hurriedly worked. The mana was stuck in my mouth, it wasn’t able to escape, but the circle was breaking up.

Time was running out, but I was focused, my knife cut through the dirt and mud as I worked. The boys had flopped around me. All of us seemed too tired to even try and figure out what to do next as they watched me hurry to try and form a complete circle while I still had the blueprint in my mouth.

Then I stepped back, looking it over from start to finish, following the lines I could feel buzz on my tongue with my eyes and…

Yeah… I think I got it.

I stood there checking, double checking, and then triple checking. But by the time I was nearly done with the third check the mana had broken apart. Instead of a circle, I just had a buzzing mouth full of mana.

I could use it, make some mana fuel, but…

“Yeugh!” I spat it all out choking and gagging on the foul mess. “Oh gawd it’s so awful!” I whined and then Sammy started giggling and Willas wheezed beside him, even Erik cracked a smile as they all watched me suffer.

I was even desperate enough to head to the river and find a mostly not muddy section to wash my mouth out a bit. The fish slime was really foul.

Finally cleared enough I wasn’t dying I looked over what we had done…

“We’re going to need the adults.” I muttered looking at the dead fish that was still there, sitting in the mud and water and… “Oh sh-crap! We need the adults! Something is going to come and try for a meal soon!” I called out, and all three boys jerked to their feet.

“Oh no!”

“Quick! Head back tell everyone we caught a Giant Mouth and we need help! Erik not you! Come on. We can try to drag it up.” I called out and Willas and Sammy took off, while Erik and I rather ineffectually I’ll be honest tried to drag the massive fish through the mud up onto the riverbank.

—---

Thankfully either all the splashing, or just the size of the Giant Mouth kept anything else from coming and trying for a nibble. 

The first group to arrive were the teenagers that had obviously ran ahead. “You lot weren’t kidding!” Michael called out as he stopped to look over the Giant Mouth. “I thought Willas, and Sammy were exaggerating.”

“Nope… I almost wish they were though. This was a bit much.” I admitted to the older boy as Erik continued to glare at him. 

Ah right. 

“Well let’s see what we can do to get it out of the river before something decides to make it a meal.” He waved over and a few of the older boys wadded in, hooking their own harpoons into places, and using the ropes or chains on a few of them to start tugging.

Then the adults arrived.

“Victoria Ferrous!” Mama called out as she looked from the massive fish that could have swallowed any of us kids whole Erik and I.

“We didn’t mean to!”

“You are in so much trouble!”

“I know! Sorry… Wait, don't step on that!” I roared as loud as I could as I rushed over to the spell circle arms wide to stop anyone from getting close. “This is magic stuff! Don’t mess it up! It’s super important!”

Everyone sort of flinched back when I called that, and then looked from me to the circle to Mama.

“What… Sort of Magic stuff?” Mama asked, her previous heat gone.

“Oh! I think I figured out how the Giant Mouth was using mana! I copied the circle. I might be able to actually use real magic with this!”

“It’s… Not going to do anything, right?” Uncle James called out sort of inching around it.

“No? It’s just… Oh! No no! It’s safe! It’s just what the circle looked like. It has no mana. I need to copy it down! I just don’t want anyone stepping on it!”

“Well… Alright.” Uncle James muttered before nodding. “Alright! Ignore it! Let's get this beast moved!”

I exhaled. Had I actually escaped a scolding by distracting everyone with magic stuff?

One could only hope. 

My little troop was mostly pushed away so the bigger adults and teens could work, hauling the mammoth fish out of the river and up the riverbank. A cart used for hauling things was brought down and the fish strapped in, and then everyone worked to pull it along. With a few winches and pulleys, slung over a tree. They managed to get the beast into the cart, and then everyone helped push it back to the Compound.

By the time we got it through the gate, and everyone started sawing it away to start storing the meat, the hunters returned and everyone now had twice as much work.

Thankfully having so much extra food wasn’t seen as too much of a task, and so everyone pitched in. Cutting through the Mega Croc that the hunters had pulled in, and the Giant Mouth. 

I used that time to scurry away back to the circle, and with my notebook copied the circle as accurately as I could. I wasn’t an artist, but… Well I used every trick I could think of. I needed this circle.

Only when I was sure I had gotten it did I head home.

Dinner was full of fish that night, but frankly, we could eat as much as we wanted, and that was something I didn’t hesitate in enjoying. Gumbo, grilled fish, fish pasta, fish patties, anything the cooks could think up was cooked up for the night, and it quickly became quite a party.

I ate and ate and ate until even my stomach couldn’t hold anymore.

“C’mon Monster.” Papa said, hauling me up as if I didn’t weigh a thing and carrying me inside after I’d stuffed myself.

“So much food.” I mumbled, and got to feel the way his chest rumbled as he fought back some silent chuckles.

“Yeah you sure ate enough for any three of us. I still don’t know where you put it.”

“My mouth.” I said without hesitation and that earned me another row of silent chuckles.

“You shouldn’t have gone after a Giant Mouth.” He finally spoke as we walked inside, and I slumped a bit in his arms.

“I know. We almost drowned, and if it had broken the ropes, it could have crushed us, or just swallowed us… It was scary.”

“You kids… You’ve certainly led your little group down a weird path Vicky. You’re hunting things I’d have run from when I was your age. And you lot are good at it. Just don’t bite off more than you can chew.”

I could actually chew quite a bit as proven earlier, but I knew what he meant.

Yet…

It had given me the path forward. Magic circles. I might be able to copy more. Might be able to cast more spells…

What did the Magic Circle I had copied even do? I had no idea, but I’d find out. One circle at a time if I had to.