Devouring the Neverglades (Beta Version) Chapter 7

I raced out of the compound eager to find my group. The three boys thankfully weren’t hard to find. They were settled in the bend of the east section of the stream that passed by the compound just under where our little camp was located playing in the shallows. 

“How’s the traps!?” I called out and got three raised heads in turn, all of them waving at me as I raced down the embankment.

Willis looked pleased as he pulled one out of the water and even with the distance as I was running up I could see it was full.

“Great!” He smiled brilliantly holding it over his head, which was a mistake as one landed right on his head making him jerk as it flew off.

“Hahaha!” Sam giggled, but before the boys could rough house I hurried over and peered into the trap Willis was holding.

“Looks amazing! Gumbo? Or maybe boil them all?”

“Ooh. I wouldn’t mind a gumbo. That takes forever though.” Sam called out. And I nodded. We would have to do a lot of cooking…

“Well why don’t we cook most of them, make the gumbo, and have one of us working on fishing while we work as well?” I asked. Crawfish made great bait out here, and we all had fishing rods now.

“Oh! Yeah that! Let’s do that!” Sam cried out. 

Erik just laughed. “Sure, but I’m calling rod duty. I hate prepping crawdads.”

“What no way!” Willis and Sam both called out. “I want to fish!”

“We will share rod duty and prep duty.” I called in moderating the boys. “Cause I want some time with the rods too. I held out my own fishing rod that I had brought with me. “Let’s all prep bait really quick, and then get to work. And the rest is just busy work while we wait for fish to bite anyways.”

“Fine.” Erik grumbled. Under his breath whispered words of “But I called the rods first!” were heard and ignored. He would be fine once he got some food in him anyways!

We quickly got to work popping open a trap and cutting a few crawdads open and hooking them into our lines.

It was quick work and with a quick toss four lines went sailing into the stream.

“Alright boys! Boiling time!” I called and while Erik settled in for some quiet fishing the rest of us ran up the embankment to get our pot started.

Soon water was heating and crawdads were dumped by the trap into the water.

I grabbed a smaller pot and went to work on the gumbo base as well. I would have to run back to the kitchen at home for some of it, but I had the seasonings for it, and we all just worked to prep everything together.

“Hey! I got one!” Erik called out cheering in delight and we dropped everything to go check. 

A nice catfish hung from his hand as he held it up and I laughed in delight and cheer.

“Food!” I called and the boys joined me. Quickly running around Erik dancing and cheering, happy.

—--

The cup of mana fuel was placed in front of me by Papa, as Old William sat across from me. 

It had been months since our little conversation, and twice I had been called to mana infuse something. Although both times had been part of a trade.

We weren’t the only compound out here, and a cheap and much more effective mana infusion was…

Well incredibly useful. Both times the deal involved me infusing a Harpoon for different compounds, and Papa had mentioned there was a lot of talk about mass orders to do all of them.

Nothing concrete yet, but it was something I had to think about.

“Alright Vicky, it’s only a small amount. Go ahead.” I nodded at Old Williams words.

I had been working on taking mana out of the air on my own, but I hadn’t made any progress.

So this was my one chance. If I could figure out how to take mana out of water naturally, then maybe… Just maybe I could take it out of the air as well.

I took a breath and then reached a single finger into the water. I had done this so many times. But the next part was weird.

I brought it up to my mouth and dropped the droplet onto my tongue.

Oh that was different.

Instantly the mana diffused with my saliva, but it was still there, and my mouth felt like it was full of buzzing cotton.

Already it started fading, but I felt the buzzing not taste of it on my tongue and focused my wavelength on trying to… Find it? Gather it? It was literally on the tip of my tongue, surely in my own mouth I could control the mana?

It dissipated and I sighed, exhaling.

“Vicky?”

“Nothing yet. But… it definitely… It’s definitely in the air.” I muttered Moving my mana wavelength through my body was pretty easy. I could do the marking magic circle in my sleep now. So… If I had mana right there on my tongue. I should be able to gather it up. I breathed constantly! Why wouldn’t I be dragging in tiny bits of mana?

I gathered a new droplet and tried again. Once again my mouth was full of fuzz, but instead of focusing on that, I inhaled.

As the mana diffused into the air it definitely moved, along air currents, I was… Well kinda huffing the mana into my lungs. 

The mana faded and I tried again. Trying to suck the mana into my lungs.

It took a few tries before I managed it.

I could actually feel it, but now. It was inside me. I sent out my wavelength, from my heart. I had been practicing controlling that odd sensation of vibrations coming from my heart and so I was able to easily bounce it into my lungs.

And instantly the mana in my lungs was mine.

I gasped, which thankfully didn’t disrupt the feeling. The bouncing vibration of mana continued moving around under my nominal control.

Did I finally figure something out!?

Okay calm down. If I had mana in my lungs… Could I gather more?

I opened my mouth, keeping the mana inside already secured and breathed. In and out. Let the manaless air exhale, and then breathe in air that should have some tiny amounts of mana in them.

Over and over. Eyes closed I kept working. Inhale exhale. Was it working? There was definitely a mana trap in my lungs, and it didn’t hurt, or feel weird, but was I gathering more?

I couldn’t really tell. So instead of just giving up I just kept working at it. Slowly I noticed everyone around was getting agitated so I opened my eyes and just threw up a finger at them. Asking for a minute. That calmed them down as I returned to my breathing.

And slowly. Over twenty minutes I finally was able to tell.

I was. 

I was gathering mana out of the air for sure!

I realized quickly I had a problem though. I couldn’t get the mana out of my body without it dispersing into the air!

I gestured, getting everyone's attention as I desperately clung to my wavelength keeping the mana in my lungs. I mimed a drink and at first Old William offered me the cup of mana fuel I shook my head and gestured again. Papa finally understood and brought me a cup. And I quickly took a drink of normal water, filling my mouth and then letting the mana in my lungs come up.

I could feel the water taking in the mana instantly, as it had nowhere else to go and when I was sure it was all absorbed, I dumped the cup of water on the floor and spat a mouthful of shining blue mana fuel into it.

“Ugh!” I groaned as I settled back, mouth buzzing with mana and I felt exhausted. I sat there bonelessly as everyone looked around the cup and then Old William started smiling before laughing in delight.

“There is more!” He assured everyone. I mean yeah? I had only used a few drops of the practice cup.

“Vicky! You did it!” Papa was there lifting me up and spinning me around and I couldn’t help but laugh a bit in delight at the spinning.

Yeah. I had done it. I guess… I breathed in again and nothing. This was going to take some practice.

—--

I spat another mouthful out into a cup and groaned. Sure I could comparatively make a lot of mana fuel in a day. Way way more than we could normally get just from breaking down monster cores that wouldn’t sell…

But it took all day! It was boring.

At least it gave me a lot of time to keep practicing the new skill.

It had been almost a month since I first figured it out, and I had already brought our mana fuel reserves to the highest it had ever been. But I was very very bored.

Breathing and spitting water into cups and then pouring it into the fuel tank wasn’t exactly exhilarating work.

Especially since the reward for the work was going to be more work. Already there had been talk of other compounds sending over a lot of their equipment to be ‘enchanted’ since we had so much mana fuel.

The worst part? I was hungry. My little growing body was used to all day snacking along with the hefty food we all ate. 

My stomach rumbled as I took a minute to catch my breath without the tingling sensation of mana filling my mouth and lungs like I decided to breathe in pure carbonation.

Now I wanted a soda.

I groaned a bit as the idea of a drink only made me hungrier. 

“Something wrong Vicky?” Aunt Isabel called out. I turned to see her, sitting at another table and handling laundry, pulling the dried clothes from the lines and folding them into baskets to go to each household.

“Just tired and hungry.” I grumbled. I stood up from the long table I had been sitting at. The open air of the communal meeting room was best for gathering mana I assumed.

Also it was close to the tank so I could dump the extra mana fuel.

I wandered over and settled across from the woman. 

“Heh. Running you ragged with all that magecraft?”

“You have no idea. Mana fuel feels like having a mouthful of bees. It’s all bzzzzz.” I motioned wiggling my fingers around my puffed out cheeks to give the example.

That of course caused a jingling laugh from the older woman.

“That sounds like an experience alright.” She agreed then handed me a shirt to fold. Since I was a child, I did as I was bid. One of the worst negatives about the compound, even if I did like living with everyone, was that children were simply expected to do chores when told. No whining allowed. 

“Aunt Isabel, hummed quietly as she worked, handing me clothes to fold alongside her, without saying anything more.

I was thankful for it in a way. Magic was cool, but all I was doing was making glowing water spew out of my mouth after constantly breathing for a while.

“Good.” She explained as her task was finished all the laundry folded and placed into a hamper. “Vicky, go take a break.” She ordered and I blinked at the sudden words. 

“But I have to finish-”

“You’ve finished for the day. Go on. Run around and scrounge up something to eat.” Aunt Isabel demanded and then winked at me. “I wouldn’t mind a treat myself.”

I hesitated. There was a short circuit in my child brain used to following orders of adults, and then also knowing I couldn’t slack off on a task. “But what about the Mana fuel?”

“We have more of it than ever before. You taking an afternoon off won’t hurt us, also dear, your stomach has been rumbling for the last hour. Go! Go on! Shoo!” She demanded, waving me off and I giggled as jumped up.

“Thanks Auntie!”

“No problem child.” She called back as she hefted up her hamper and then I was off.

I hadn’t been able to go get food for myself in a while, and I felt like I was starving! Rushing out of the compound my feet slapped on the ground as I escaped into well earned freedom!

“I’m here!” I called out as I reached out camp, the boys already wandering around, half messing around, and half actually helping.

“Vicky!” Sam called out, the boy was already heading back to the camp, holding something large in his arms as he waddled forward. As I approached I finally recognized it.

“Mud Pups are out!?” I called rushing up. Looking over Sams’ catch.

Mud Pups were frogs. Only they were the size of small dogs. A monster that used all of the mana it gained straight towards size so it can swallow whole bigger and bigger things.

A frog that was three feet long and had a twenty foot tongue could eat a lot of stuff in a very short amount of time.

“Yep! We had some rain last night, and they are all popping out. C’mon!” Sam called waving me behind him, and I hurried over.

Erik and Willis were both still working to catch them. Working together because a three foot frog could clobber a kid if they weren’t careful. They would go on each side of the thing and spook it causing it to leap away and then the other would launch themselves onto one and knife it until it stopped struggling.

The three boys together must have worked together on the first one, because as I pulled up Willis and Erik were looking a bit rumpled, and both were struggling to get a Mud Pup.

I crouched down and engaged from the side, the two boys were chasing after one, but it was hopping away so I charged at it from the front, startling it, and its little brain reacted by jumping backwards. 

Right into Willis.

“Got it!” He roared as he leapt on top of it and started stabbing. Erik hung back his knife out but didn’t charge in.

Then a few moments later Willis roared, knife raised above his head. 

“Got it!”

“Yes!” Erik cheered before turning to me, both boys had smiles. “Vicky! What’re you doing here?” 

“I earned parole, boys! Let’s get some more Mud Pups rustled up, yeah?” I asked with a vicious grin and the boys matched it. 

“Erik, let's get that one.”

“On it!” he cheered and Willis started carrying his catch away.

I practically flopped into the mud keeping myself down to the ground, uncaring that my clothes were liberally coated. 

They were work clothes, so getting them dirty was fine!

Instead I started slipping through the muddy pit towards my target.

A big bullfrog, croaking loudly just begging to be hunted down. Erik and I’s eyes met and we nodded, I leapt making myself big and loud. 

“Heeeeey!” I roared as I charged, and the frog leapt once, and then again, and Erik who had been crouching low leapt. Landing right on top of it.

“Yeees!” I cheered. We had gotten lucky to be able to catch another one so easily!

I walked over, and once it was dead, grabbed one of its legs and threw it over a shoulder as Erik took another.

“I’m glad you’re here.” He finally said after a while. “It’s never as much fun without you. Your cooking is better.” Erik offered and I laughed at his words.

“Well I do have seasonings I picked.” I pointed out, but I knew it was more than that. 

We were friends. 

Humming a happy song we made it half way back before Willis came charging back only to stop and grin at our catch. He helped, grabbing the frogs forearms to lighten the load and the three of us made it back to camp.

Sam was already gutting the first Mud Pup, and left our catch for the boys to handle as I went to help.

“So then Sam loses his footing, waves his arms around, and then slides right down the way into the water. Disappeared for a bit too. Erik almost jumped in.” Willis explained waving his knife around a bit.

“Willis! Don’t tell her that!”

“I killed the little snake, and Sam ate it that afternoon.”

“Ugh.” The little boy whined at the embarrassing story.

“It’s okay Sam. Something jumping out at us makes everyone flinch. Well if they’re smart.” I added and the boy smiled up at me as I took his side.

“What’s all this then?” The four of us looked up and a smile broke across my face.

“Aunty!” I greeted, waving, at Aunty Sibil. She obviously was coming back from gathering some herbs and had stopped by.

From the interest in her eyes I knew why.

She was sniffing the air, as the pot cooking our frog Gumbo was already going happily.

“Hungry?” I asked, with a smirk and she scoffed, waving a finger at me.

“Don’t you start with me little missy. Mud Pups?”

“Yep! They were out today.”

“Hmm. That does sound like good eating today. Don’t suppose you’d be willing to trade a bit for some…” And she dug into the basket she had on her. “Got some-”

“Throw in some of that Ogre Grass and I think we can fix you up a bowl.” I offered, Ogre Grass was really good. Like Garlic and onions had a baby. Great for adding a bit of flavor to the gumbo.

“Deal.” She agreed, walking over, a moment later she took over the pot from me crushing the grass and tossing it in as she started stirring. I went to help finish gutting the second pup.

The Bull one was a big sucker, and Erik was still struggling to get it dismembered. 

I dove in, cutting and slicing, the meat would be taken back to the compound after. It was too much for all of us to eat. 

Then as I stabbed in to get through some muscle I felt it.

The tingly zap feeling.

“Hold on. Don’t cut anymore.” I demanded as I started being much more careful slicing through the skin.

“Vicky?”

“I think this one's Mana Core is still whole.” I told him eagerly. Which caught Aunty Isabel’s ear as well.

“You think so?”

“I felt it.” I explained and then as I cut away some of the chest the faint glow of mana reached my eyes as I revealed the heart.

And the Mana core wrapped around it. It wasn’t large, but still!

“Nice!” I cheered as I went to work carefully cutting the heart out and then holding the still glowing crystal in my hand. The tingle of mana making it an almost ticklish experience.

Then I realized.

We didn’t really need it. I looked down at it, realizing putting it into the Mana tank would be pointless. It’s already basically full thanks to all my efforts.

“Huh, what should I do with this then?” I asked aloud, distracted as the light flowed out in that strange aurora wave.

“Why not talk to Uncle Will? I’m sure he’ll have an idea.” Aunty Isabal offered, and I shrugged.

“Yeah I’ll run it past him later.” I wrapped it up and just stuffed it in my pocket. I’d deal with it later.

Food first!

—--

“It’s a good question.” Old Will said as he ran a hand over his chin. “We certainly don’t need to use the mana cores like we used to anymore. Perhaps, it would be good to begin gathering them up? Selling them? It would transport better than mana fuel.”

“Well… Do you think I can keep this one?”

“Keep it?” He blinked owlishly for a moment before seeming to remember that I wasn’t just a little girl, but a mage. “You think you can do some magic with it?”

“Well I mean… We bring them to the city specifically because someone has a use for them, right?” I asked, staring up into his grey eyes as he seemed to consider it.

“Alright. You’ve got a better handle on the magic stuff than we do.” He agreed, then reached out and placed a warm hand on top of my head. “You may keep it. Let us old timers know if you come up with anything interesting, alright?”

“You got it!” I agreed happily, practically bouncing as I gripped the mana core in my hand, the pulsating vibration crawling up my arm.

Now just to figure out what I could do with this thing.

I hurried back out of the compound, I would meet up with the boys, finish cooking our Mud Pups and see what I could do with it on a fuller stomach.

My legs raced across the gravel through the secure entrance and then back out into the wilds. Already I could smell cooking meat on the wind and it made me all the more eager to return. 

As I raced down the dirt path, I noticed much to my amusement that the camp wasn’t as empty as I had left it. Michael and his little posse of teenagers were all hanging around with hungry eyes.

“Oh no you don’t!” I shouted as I raced up quickly, interposing between myself and the cooking fire. “This is our snack!”

“Heh. Only you would think three Mud Pups would count as a snack.” Michael offered with a smile and I scoffed at his words. “The extra will go to the kitchen.”

“And so we’ll eat it then, what’s the harm in letting us get a bit early?” He offered and I glared while Willis walked up behind me.

“They haven’t taken anything, Michael was trying to trade.”

“Oh?” I asked, surprised. Older boys and girls weren’t always great about not just taking things we had gathered. 

“What? We aren’t thieves.” Michael offered with a shrug, and I noticed there were some irritated looks from the other teenagers at the words, but it was more directed towards me.

Ah. I guess being a mage and everything I had done, I had earned a lot of brownie points from the adults. Even the usually wild teenagers knew better than to take something from me, since I had all the adults ear now.

I realized that with my mana infusing I had shifted the normal way things were done on its head.

Usually young kids like us, followed after the teenagers, learning things when they bothered to teach us, and using us as extra labor. The teens of course would get first pick from anything the kids would make or find. 

The teens were treated similarly by the adults in a lot of ways. Although usually with less outright theft involved.

But my pack of goblins was a bit different. We were pretty self-sufficient with how good we had gotten at hunting around the place. We brought in a surprising amount of food for four children.

“So what are you offering exactly?”

“Well The four of us eat okay, but we could use some extra snacks, same as you.” Michael added with that smirk of his. “So how about I get you each a harpoon, all the hunters use them for a reason, and in exchange, you guys give us some of your food.”

“One week. We’ll give you a good bit of what we hunt for one week.”

“Each. For each spear you guys have to provide us snacks for a week.” He argued back instantly, and I glared.

It was a good deal, and the harpoons weren’t super easy. I wasn’t going to even start asking where he had gotten the metal to give four of us harpoons, but it would make hunting easier.

“Fine. One week each, you’ll get at least half of what we hunt.”

“Deal!” The older boy offered, reaching out and grabbing my hand in a shake. “Now then! Food!”

“Fine. This counts as the first day of payment, but you better get us those harpoons!” I demanded and he just shrugged as the teens all settled into our little camp.

The boys mostly took the trade in good spirits. Only Erik looked a little annoyed as all the teenagers came in close to start grabbing food. I just walked past him nudging him a bit and Erik eventually let his grump disappear.

All of us wanted a real Harpoon after all.