AO 7 Ch 22

"I swear to God, Ard, even though you healed me, my hips are still killing me." Emlyn grumbled and rubbed her hips.

I groaned in agreement as we walked out of the village. Our carriage would have to stay behind for the moment. My hips still ached from the night on the rock.

The horses were sold to Beth, and I was certain she would find a way to make a nice profit trading them out before we got back. It wasn't that big of a deal. I suspected I would be in a rush to get to Sienna once we were done with our trip to Zenovia.

Sadly we needed to keep a low magical profile when moving between the countries, lest we get noticed by the mages in Zenovia.

"Ow," Emlyn said again.

I had been a little more vigorous than usual. There was something emotionally powerful about being with your childhood crush back in your childhood home. "You were the one who decided to get all horny while we were on a rock," I shot back.

"Me? Uh-uh, you were the one who became a feral beast trying to prove to me that you could use my hips to drill through stone," Emlyn scolded me.

"Can you two shut up?" Bad Kitty twirled on us, clearly irritated. "Stop bragging about your great sex."

Emlyn and I shared a look before smirks crossed both of our faces. "It hurts so much I can barely walk straight," Emlyn said again, leaning on me for support.

"Well then, you should have stopped begging for more. I'm sure the whole damn town heard you last night." I called back to Emlyn, ignoring the way that Bad Kitty grew more irritated.

"You do realize they're just trying to egg you on," Missy said, as we picked our way over the fields.

The ground was becoming spongy and each step was accompanied by a wet squish of our boots. Yet somehow, despite that, the three goddesses remained completely clean.

"Hey, could you give me some of that?" I asked, pointing at Ditzy's completely impractical shoes that were still in their pristine condition.

“Some of her pent up frustration?” Ditzy asked.

"Well, when you put it that way, it does make me seem a little like an ass," I admitted. 

"Well, you kind of are being one," Ditzy rolled her eyes and turned back towards the bog. "After that, there's no way I'm giving you shiny clean boots.”

I shrugged. "I kind of already figured it was a lost cause. Can't hurt to shoot my shot, however. Besides, Emlyn thinks her hips are hurting. I'm the one who did all the work."

Bad Kitty's tail flicked into existence only to smack my hip and disappear.

I looked down at the phantom appendage, then up at the mischievous goddess's face. "That's never going to end, is it?" I asked. 

"Not on your life," she replied, giving me a massive grin. 

"Well, putting Emlyn's silly complaints aside, Aurelia, what kind of monsters can we expect in the bog?" I asked mostly to change the subject and almost immediately regretted it. 

"The Vual are pretty common," she said. "After all, bogs are a very powerful cycle of life and death." 

I nodded along; that made plenty of sense.

She continued through, her eyes scanning. "And most of the concern in bogs comes from the terrain disadvantage. Things that can swim or are amphibious just move around a lot better than us.”

 As she continued, my feet squelched deeper into the muck. It was nearly swallowing my boot.

“That and most are going to be ambush predators.” She scanned our surroundings. “As for specific species, I’m not sure. There’s a tact agreement between Avente and Zenovia to use the bog as a neutral zone between the two of us.”

"Well, if you see something, say something," I said as we stomped through. The environment around us rapidly changed. What had been fields gave way to tall reedy grass with ankle-deep water, and then eventually the water became deep enough that the grass didn't thrive.

Instead, the only vegetation were trees standing on roots, and the occasional floating flotsam that told long gone stories of merchants that tried to pass and failed. The trick was to follow the grass. Anywhere there was grass, it was at least shallow enough to walk. But shallow was a relative term as I found myself waist-deep in water following the long reedy grass.

"Something touched my foot," Emlyn froze. 

"It might have been a fish," I offered, not wanting to think about the alternative.

"It was big." Emlyn glared at me, daring me to refute her statement.

"I was just offering plausible answers for why something may have bumped into you. Besides, it's not like we've seen a whole lot." I gestured around. There were birds and bugs, but little else prowling around. 

"That's actually not a good thing," Aurelia spoke up. "Usually when there's nothing, that means in fact that there is something." 

"So cryptically unhelpful," I said. 

"What she means is that nothing is a sign of a larger predator being present." Zuri added.

"See, that was helpful," I gestured at Zuri. "Sometimes you have to explain the small details to someone as simple as me." 

Emlyn squinted at me. "Did you just call yourself simple?" 

"I think I did, and I am in fact regretting it." I answered. The jokes were because I was nervous that something indeed bigger than a fish had touched Emlyn. The bog was the place that growing up we were told we’d be eaten if we got too close to.

Some part of that childhood was coming back and I hated every second of being in this bog.

"Well, at least you know how to regret things. You can't be completely hopeless," Emlyn smirked. I had no idea how she was taking the bog so well.

"Har har. Laugh it up. Just so you know, one of these days I'm going to be right about everything. And who was it that was just crying wolf about something touching her leg, hmm?" I teased. Please be a fish.

"I told you, there was actually something," Emlyn argued, only to shriek as she was sucked underwater by something.

Of course, I reacted appropriately and shrieked before calming down. "Huh," I said, staring at where she had just disappeared. "There was in fact something under the water." 

"Ard, don’t just stand there. Do something," Eva said, spinning around in a circle. 

I reached out with my magic, however, I couldn't actually affect water and thus couldn't sense whatever was in the bog with us.

There was another splash down the way.

Then I threw up a massive pin of earth to stop whatever it was from getting further away from us.

However, it seemed I was a touch late because the stone that I brought up came with a massive serpentine body with two large lobster pincers at the end. It was like someone fused a lobster with a serpent and then decided that they should put a dozen little mouth arms on its face to make it even more hideous.

"Okay, that thing is not beautiful," Ditzy said. 

"Thank you for the commentary, but that is supposed to be my job," I said, scowling. 

"Oh, my bad, Ard. Emlyn," Ditzy bowed. "But perhaps you want to get Emlyn before she gets too upset?" 

I turned back to the other problem at hand. "Yeah, you're probably right. She's going to be pretty pissed after this regardless. Maybe we could just leave her be for a little while? You know, just long enough that she cools down." 

"When this is done, I'm going to tell her that you suggested that," Ditzy smiled and batted her lashes at me. 

"Hey, that is not fair. Using Emlyn against me is cheating. She's my weakness." I argued.

The serpentine monster had Emlyn by its whip-like tail, pulling her out of the water as it tried to go over the stone I had pulled from the ground. At the same time, it was whipping her about, and she was flailing rather comically at the end of the tail. 

"Anytime now Ard!" Emlyn screamed, though she was wrapped in plenty of earth magic. That magic was currently making her tougher than steel.  

"What, you're not really in any danger, are you? Just beat it up." I called back.

Emlyn growled, and when she landed in the water the next time, electricity crackled over the surface, wrapping around the monster as it let out an inhuman shriek.

The next time Emlyn was pulled out of the water, she had a murderous glare I was glad was being sent at the monster. She grabbed onto the monster's tail before it could squirm away. Her hands squeezed so hard that she broke some of the scales in her grip as she dragged it back towards her. 

I smiled, proud that I was right not to be too worried. Really the biggest risk was her getting dragged away and lost. She had a terrible sense of direction.

My whole group watched as fist over fist, Emlyn dragged the monster back towards her. Meanwhile, the earlier lightning crackling off of her shifted to the golden tones of earth magic. The fire in her eyes only kindled brighter and the strength in her grip was enough that she began to crush and rip the monster apart. 

"You freaking freak," she shouted as she began pummeling it. "Do you realize how much muck is going to be in my god's damned ponytail?" 

She got closer and closer to the head of the beast, her fist smashing recklessly into it. I almost felt sorry for the monster as it tried to squirm away. 

"Maybe if you let that one go, it'll tell all the others to not come anywhere near the scary two-legged monster," I shouted to Emlyn, only for her to whirl on me with an angry glare. 

"Don't think this is too funny. This is partially your fault." She told me emphatically.

"My fault?" I shouted back at her. “Who was the one that let themself get pulled underwater?”

Emlyn had a chilling look in her eyes. "Alright, if you go after him, I will release you," she told the monster, and let it go.

Immediately, it shot over the stone pin I had tried to create and slithered as fast as it possibly could away from her. It was rightly terrified of Emlyn.

"Oh yeah, you really told it off," I teased. 

"Watch it," Emlyn pointed at me and stomped back through the bog to rejoin our group. As soon as she was near, she spun on Ditzy. "Have I told you how beautiful your hair looks lately?" Emlyn said, all bright and smiley. 

Ditzy beamed, and with a snap of her fingers, the dirt and muck bled off of Emlyn. Not just her hair, but her whole body. I was certain if she pulled her boots out of the water, they would be spotless. 

"Hey wait, why did you give her that?" I argued.

"Because she asked nicely, Ard," Ditzy rolled her eyes. 

"Well, we had the monster attack, and we had assassins. Things are going well on this trip," I said with a crooked smile. "But we've got the hard stuff out of the way. Now we need to just get on with the rest of it, right?"

As I said those words, a strange sensation fell over me. I paused, along with the goddesses. 

"What was that?" I asked, spinning in place. 

"What was what?" Emlyn looked at me like I was an idiot. Which, to be fair, I was on many occasions. But not this one. 

"I don't know, it felt like a weird chill." I frowned.

"Didn't feel anything," Emlyn said, looking at the rest of the group. 

"Unfortunately, I do have to agree with Ard," Ditzy sounded almost pained. "But there was an odd sensation just a moment ago."

"Well, if the goddesses felt something..." Emlyn started, only to get a glare from me. 

"Is it not enough if I felt it?" I raised my eyebrows.

"Nope," Emlyn answered shamelessly. "But if the goddesses felt it, then it must be real," she continued. 

"It is concerning," Bad Kitty said. "That only those with our level of power have felt it, and the others have not."

"What? Do you think it was something related to being gods?" I asked. 

Bad Kitty frowned for a second and reached out with her hand. Yet, nothing happened. 

"Ditzy, could you please do something with this water?" Bad Kitty gestured around our waist. 

Ditzy didn't dally in the slightest.

The water around us rippled, and some parts of it pulled out into the air before falling back into the bog. 

"That's not good at all," Ditzy said and trudged back through the water, past where we had all felt the strange sensation. This time she lifted her hands, and the water came to her call spiraling around her. "Well, at least it comes back," she said. 

"Well, that's nice," I agreed, "but still highly concerning, don't you all think?" 

"It is incredibly concerning, Arden," Missy said as small magic sparked off her fingertips. "This is not some small trick to be taken lightly. If Freya is really as established as we think she might be in Zenovia, it seems she's quite entrenched and not taking chances."

"Yeah, that's a concern," I said, "because the last thing I want is for Freya to be up to more big-titted fuckery." 

The glower I got was priceless.

"Okay, okay, hint taken. Well, what would you call it?" I asked Emlyn.

“At least something that was moderately respectful." She answered.

"Well, I tried," I shrugged. “She might be a goddess, but she certainly isn’t my goddess.”

"Oh, well, he tried, ladies. Let's pack it up and go home," Ditzy dusted her hands off. 

"I'm just not great at following rules, but I do try. Anyway, if you three are going to be weaker, then you might just want to hop into Soulgard, at least for now." I told them.

Though they shook their heads for now.

I tested my own magic, feeling that my spheres reacted perfectly fine to a quick test. It was, instead, the Ardenium that failed to answer my call when I tried. 

"Is it going to be okay?" Emlyn asked. 

"Oh, probably not," I chuckled. "But I'm sure it won't be a big enough problem to stop me, even if I don't get to use all of my tricks. I'm still pretty darn strong, I might add." 

I winked at my anchors, knowing that if there was ever a time for false bravado, it was now. I didn't like losing my access to Ardenium, but it wasn't entirely up to me anymore, was it?

My anchors and I were already too far along this journey to even contemplate turning back. Beyond the bog was where I'd find out, finally, what happened to my father. And even if it meant becoming powerless to get there, I would march my way all the way to Zenovia with nothing more than a stick to my name if it meant getting answers.