“…whole village makes a living off the swamp rats…”

“Pull!”

“…we catch them in traps but sometimes they make it back into the dams. That’s what we use the snapper pole for, you never climb into a rat dam mister, my grandpa said so…”

“Pull!”

“…their fur is really luxurious, there’s a big market for it outside swamp valley…”

“Pull!”

“…its water proof and lasts a really long time, my grandpa said he and his friends bought this valley. It’s an old quarry I think, and they turned it into a swamp rat farm…”

“Pull!”

“They are tasty too, you can eat nearly the whole rat, except the must gland, that’s what we use to repel the mosquitos”

“Pu…what did you just say?” he had pretty much tuned the kid out at this point. They had loaded the sled down with the five trogs and the handful of swamp rats Lu had managed to catch while Mark recovered. The sled was really remarkable, it worked like a snow sled on the mud. The flat bottom displaced the weight, so it road the surface instead of sinking.

It was now too heavy for Lu to even move, and Mark was only able to move it with the boy’s help. They had ended up tying ropes to the sled, walked until they were tight and pulled the sled to them, often using trees or rocks as leverage.

Between the fight and the parasite, Mark was in a terrible state. He had nearly shut down completely, only able to slap at mosquitos and pull the sled where Lu directed. He stopped mid word however, when he heard the chatterbox mention repelling mosquitos. Somehow, he hadn’t noticed before, but now that he looked, the kid wasn’t being swarmed by the little bastards at all.

“Huh, mister?” Lu seemed so surprised that Mark had been listening he forgot what he was saying. “…oh, the musk gland? Yea, we extract it and boil it down. it makes a paste that when lightly applied to the skin keeps all the creepy crawlies away. Here…see mister?” he pulled a little tin out of his pocket and held it up for Mark to see.

Without the slightest hesitation; Mark snatch the tin from the kid’s hands. Spreading the oily substance over his exposed skin.

“You didn’t have to grab mister. I would have shared…” the words were spoken in a whisper meant to be heard.

Mark looked at the kid with exasperation clear on his face, he really didn’t know what to think. If this was his kid he would tan his hide. He still might come to think of it.

“Are you honestly telling me, that you never noticed me fighting off the mosquitos this whole time? Don’t, because I won’t believe it… you had this in your pocket and you let me suffer…you know what, forget about it. Just forget about it. Let’s go.”

His temper had nearly run away with him, but seeing the hurt and confused look on the kids face he had to let it go. He was honestly too tired to be angry.

“I’m sorry, mister.” The kid’s voice was soft, and he sounded genuinely remorseful.

“Me too kid,” Mark said with a sigh. “Come on, lets get this stuff back to your village, ok? I bet everybody is worried about you.” After Lu nodded his head, mark moved forward again and braced his legs. “Pull!”

He didn’t know how much time passed like that, but eventually he heard shouting and raised voices. He could hear people rushing at them and see Lu jumping up and down waving his arms around and shouting back excitedly.

Mark just stopped moving when he heard the shouting, dropping his rope and sitting down on the sled. He watched tiredly as six people approached them warily. Trying to keep him in view at all times. All except one old man, who threw caution to the winds and rushed forward the moment he saw Lu.

“Lucy, sweetheart,” he cried. Tears ran down his cheeks as he swooped the kid up in a hug. “Are you ok my girl? This guy didn’t hurt you, did he? Does your old grandpa need to teach him some manners?” he continued on in that manner, thoroughly convincing Mark that Lu had come by that chatterbox nature of his…hers, honestly.

It took a while for the words to register in his tired brain. He blinked a few times and looked down at the skinny boy with the hollow cheeks and sunken eyes. The youth was wearing boys clothing and was so covered in filth that Mark was still having a hard time believing that this; runaway rat catcher was a girl.

He just shrugged his shoulders, thinking he really was getting old. A moment later he closed his eyes to go back over the trip here, had he ever called Lu a boy? He shrugged again, figuring it didn’t really matter, and waited for the pair to finish reuniting.

Eventually the old man turned Lu over to one of the others and moved over to stand in front of Mark. He looked him over thoroughly, eyes lingering on the bloody hole in his jumpsuit’s thigh. The skin beneath was mostly healed by now, leaving only a pink and puckered scar behind. Next, he looked at the small mountain of bodies on the sled and whistled.

“Hello, mister, I’m Bernard Trapper.” He said eventually, tipping his swamp rat hat back with a finger. “Don’t mind my words to the girl just now, I just want her to feel safe. I could tell right away you didn’t touch her, hell mister… don’t take offense, and I was only kidding.”

Mark just stared blankly at the old man while he tried to figure out what he was talking about. His gaze must have unnerved the old timer because he started shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably. Finally, Mark realized he had been referring to when he had asked Lucy if he needed to teach him manners. He had been so shocked to find out that Lu was a girl that he hadn’t really been listening. Once he figured it out, he laughed weakly.

“No harm done Bernard. I’m Mark,” he said extending a hand which the old man shook. “Lu explained a bit of your town’s situation to me on the way here. But I’ll be honest with you, I’m dead on my feet. Have a corner I can grab a few hours of sleep in before we talk?”

“Of course mister, of course. Right this way, the rest of the boys will get the sled from here don’t you mind.” Mark got back to his feet and moved to follow the old man. The four remaining men moved forward and grabbed onto the two ropes and strained against them. The sled moved, but not very quickly. These men were just as thin and malnourished as Lu was, and pulling the sled was obviously draining what strength they still had rapidly.

With a sigh, Mark moved back and grabbed a rope. Bernard tried to object but he waved him away. Once his strength had been added to the other men’s the sled picked up speed. They were now towing it along at a walking pace and their combined momentum helped to keep it moving.

More time passed, and a small town came into view. It was built on a hill and was surrounded by a stone wall. Looking at the wall, Mark assumed it was built as a retaining wall to keep out the mud, rather than with defense in mind. At least the town was dry, there was even grass growing up there.

“This is far enough mister,” Bernard said when they reached a slab of stone that jutted into the mud like a dock. The other sleds lined up near it gave weight to that impression as well. “The towns folk will take it from here, please follow me up to old Bennies place. You can sleep there tonight; he won’t be needing it anymore.”

Too tired to ask, Mark followed him up onto the dock and down a cobbled street. They finally arrived at a small mud hut with a thatched roof where Bernard bid him get some rest. After Mark entered the hut and insured it was empty, he poked his head back out and watched the old man round up the rest of the towns folk and send them down to the dock.

They moved slowly, and Mark figured that it wouldn’t have been much longer before people started to starve to death…if they hadn’t already. Nothing he could do about that now though, he had brought them what he could. Now, he intended to get some sleep. Not wanting to get mud all over the straw bed, he shrugged out of his clothing and scraped himself clean as best he could, before flopping down and passing out.

* * *

Mark’s eyes had barely closed when he was being shaken awake by a gentle hand. He blinked his eyes, the artificial eye only lagging slightly, as he tried to get his Bearings. Between one blink and the next, memory flooded back into his exhausted mind and he snapped upright reaching for his Broken blade. He had been careless. He’d only spent one night since entering the tutorial without someone watching his back. It had been his first night, when he had passed out after fighting off the shuttle pilot and treating Terra’s wounds. On that occasion he had woken up to Terra’s knife at his throat.

His eyes adjusted quickly to the dark interior of the hut. Showing him a gaunt woman in her thirties, who’d shrunk away from his rapid movement to cower against the wall. After taking her in, and judging she wasn’t a threat, Mark scanned the rest of the hut. It was empty. Only then did he remember that he had stripped out of his clothes before climbing into the bed. He sighed, as he covered himself with a handful of straw.

“Who are you and why did you come in here?” he asked the cowering woman. He decided to ascertain her motives before he started feeling guilty. After all, if she was trying to kill him or something, there was no reason to feel embarrassed. She couldn’t be here to wake him up, his interface told him he hadn’t even been asleep for an hour.

“M-my name’s Lilly, Mister.” She said, after realizing Mark wasn’t going to hurt her. “I used to be the medicine woman’s apprentice. I-I’m the medicine woman now that grandma passed. Elder Bernard told me to get you a bath ready and once you were cleaned up I’m to inspect your wounds.”

Mark sighed, setting the blade down. He didn’t want to deal with any of this right now. he was exhausted and just wanted to sleep.

“Thanks Lilly, really, but I just need to get some rest. I shouldn’t need healing, and I can take a bath in the morning.” There, that was diplomatic enough. Hopefully she would take the hint and leave so that he could get some sleep.

“P-please mister,” Lilly pressed. “Grandma told me a little about regeneration parasites. You might be ok, but your wounds got really dirty, and Lu told me how hungry you were. It won’t take long, just let me clean your wounds and get you a few supplements and you can go back to sleep.”

The cowering woman was rapidly being replaced by a stern, no nonsense one. She was probably used to watching the old medicine woman bossing the other villagers around. At least that was Mark’s experience with doctors. He hadn’t seen many in his life, but after the accident he had seen far too many of them. Each thought they knew more about what was better for him than he did. He sighed again, deciding to just get it over with. Besides, if she knew anything about the regeneration parasite, it was more than he did.

“Alright Lilly,” he said at last. “Just let me get my clothes on and you can show me where the tub is. Alright?” he said with a tired smile.

“Your clothes are to be washed and mended while you bathe and get your wounds treated.” She said in a steadily more commanding tone. “I brought a pair of robes with me, one to get you to the tub, and another for after I have finished examining your wounds… also I’m not sure if it’s related to the parasite or not but there seems to be something wrong with your body hair and I feel I really should look into it. Otherwise I’m not confident that I will be able to heal you properly.” She said the words with a straight face, but Marks enhanced eye caught the reddening of her cheeks, even through the darkness and dirt.

“Thanks, but I don’t think that will be necessary. The robe please, if you wouldn’t mind.” He said, reaching his hand out. He was starting to wonder if some of those cosmetic enhancements had been such a good idea. After handing over the robe, Lilly reluctantly left the hut.

Once she was gone Mark quickly rose and wrapped the robe around himself. He hadn’t looked at it, or thought much about it, other than a means to cover himself. After he put it on however, he paused and looked down. It was by far the softest robe he had ever worn in his life. After giving it a thorough once over he started to believe all the bullshit stories Lu had been spouting all the way back here about how fantastic swamp rats were.

The entire thing was made of a soft suede. It was light to the touch and silky smooth. There was also a lining of clean swamp rat fur. After running his fingers through that fur, he couldn’t help but do it again. It almost felt like a crime, to put something this wonderful on while he was so filthy. It actually made him want to go take that bath, if only so he could wear this robe while he was clean.

“One way or another I’m taking one of these with me when I leave.” Gathering up his soiled clothes he walked out of the hut, keeping them as far away from the robe as possible to avoid getting mud or blood on it.

Upon exiting the hut, a youth of five or six took the pile of dirty clothes. Mark watched as the kids expression changed to one of near revulsion as he took the bundle of clothes and moved away. He felt bad about it at first, wondering if he was really that gross. Then he laughed, because he was pretty sure he had seen that same look on Derik’s face whenever he was asked to do chores around the house. Kids…the same no matter what world you’re in. With the young boy gone with his clothes, Mark was once again alone with Lilly.

“Follow me please,” she said with a smile. Picking up a basket covered by another robe, she led him around the outside of the town.

Mark looked at the now bustling town square as they walked. When he had arrived it had been dead quiet, what people he had seen hadn’t been moving much. Now, only an hour later, it was a hive of activity. Being a trapping town there were several skinning wracks set up in the area, each one held the body of a swamp rat… or trog.

He didn’t know if they were going to eat the trogs. Lu had said that his, her, grandpa had said he thought he could make some real money off those scaled hides. Given the state of starvation the town was in however, Mark didn’t know if that was all they would be doing with those bodies. A twinge of pain from his leg reminded him that it really wasn’t his problem and he focused his attention back on where Lilly had led him.

It was a squat stone building with a thatched roof that had smoke rising from a chimney. It reminded Mark of an old world root cellar he had seen on tour once in his youth. Lilly opened the door to a staircase that led down and without a pause proceeded him down the steps. A spark of worry hit him when he thought about entering this unknown location with someone he didn’t know, then he remembered he had been passed out naked at the mercy of this same someone and stopped worrying about it.

The spiraling steps took him further down than he would have expected for a house built in a swamp. Eventually they exited out into a stone room with a small in ground pool at its center. It was perhaps ten feet across and maybe four feet down at its deepest. A shrouded metal brazier was in the water, providing dim illumination and heating the water. Mark blinked, trying to come to terms with what he was seeing here. This place didn’t look anything like the rest of the village’s buildings.

“What am I looking at here?” he asked Lilly, who was standing by the pool, a knowing smile on her face. She set the robe covered basket she had been carrying down on the lip of the tub, motioning him over as she explained.

“Elder Bernard asked me to give you an overview of our town while you bathed and I took care of your wounds mister.”

“Mark,” he said before she could continue. “My name is Mark.” He had been Mr. Lee for most of his adult life, but the last few weeks with terra had changed him. Her multitude of nicknames for him just made mister sound boring.

“Very well… Mark.” She said his name with a sly smile, she agreed so quickly Mark nearly rolled his eyes. She pulled a cloth and a bar of tallow soap out of her basket and handed them over. “Anyway, take this and start getting cleaned up. I’ll talk while you wash and then we can look at your leg and back and things.”

She moved away from the pool, giving him access and a little privacy. Her wanting to use this time to explain things derailed his plan of kicking her out as soon as he got here. It was just as well though, he was so tired that if she had left him alone he likely would have fallen asleep in the water. That was a likely possibility even with her here and talking.

“Swamp rat valley used to be a stone quarry,” she started her story with something Lu had said. “It covered several miles, and the stone here was good. I don’t know how long this place was actually a quarry but this entire valley is artificially made.”

Mark let her words wash over him as he removed the robe and stepped into the pool. It wasn’t very hot, but it was above room temperature. The accumulated mud and blood that had dried on his skin began to loosen up and float off almost immediately.

“Eventually they hit an underground stream or something. The whole placed was flooded with muddy water. It’s only a few feet deep in most places but there are a few areas where it gets quite deep. They tried to work around it for a while, but when the demand for the stone dried up they pretty much abandoned this place.”

Mark had settled in, and after getting off what he could with his hands picked up the cloth and the tallow soap. He had little doubt it was made from swamp rat fat. He worked some into the cloth and started scrubbing. Lilly’s story was actually fairly interesting.

“This place was left alone for years, I think they hoped it would dry out so they could get back to work but it never did. Anyway, while they were waiting for it to dry up, stuff started growing in here. Before anyone really realized it, this place was a swamp. That’s when elder Bernard found this place. He was sent here with a group by the old owner to ascertain if it had any viability as a quarry.”

The soap smelled a little but it was doing a pretty good job of removing the grime. When Lilly stopped speaking for a minute Mark took the opportunity to dunk under the water to get his hair.

“Elder Bernard was a trapper by trade,” she continued when his head cleared the surface. Her voice sounded louder than before, maybe he’d had mud in his ears. “After moving around the whole perimeter, he decided there was no saving it as a quarry. But there was only the one entrance and the walls were steep and made of solid stone. The place was perfect to contain and breed swamp rats. So, he told the owner it was a write off and picked it up for a song and a dance…here let me get that for you.” she said, her voice coming from directly behind him.

Mark spun around, causing the water to surge out with the force of his movements. Lilly was now in the pool with him. She’d moved over to him as she talked and was now only a few inches away. She held another cloth in her hands, lathered up with more tallow soap.

“What are you doing?” Mark asked as he took her in. The brazier was shrouded and might not have provided much light to normal eyes, but Mark could see just fine. She was naked and clearly malnourished; her cheeks were sunken and there were bags under her eyes. she didn’t look quite as bad as some of the men outside though, she might have gotten extra rations being the medicine woman. Still, she looked like she needed to eat and get some sleep at least as much as he did. Mark felt bad being waited on like this, no matter the reason.

“Thanks for the thought, Lilly, but…” he was cut off by an upraised palm.

“Ok Mark, I’ll be honest with you.” she said once he closed his mouth. “You saved Lu from trogs and brought her home. Not only that, you brought along enough food to feed the whole village for quite a while. My belly is full for the first time in I can’t remember how long, and your wounds really do need cleaning. I could see as I approached that there is junk still in there.”

Again, Mark made to speak, and again, she raised her hand to stop him.

“Also, while I’m being honest, it takes a ton of wood to heat this pool. So much in fact that we hardly ever heat it, we usually bathe in cold water. I can only ever remember two times before, when I was allowed to bathe with warm water. On both occasions, I had to share the pool with all the women in the village.” She gave a self-deprecating smile, “I’m full, I’m taking a hot bath and I feel safe. I get all that, and can help the man who made it all possible. Plus, the light is thankfully dim enough that you can’t see how bad I look now; all skin and bone with my ribs poking out.”

That shut him up. He really had been being selfish without realizing it. he’d grown up when a hot bath wasn’t a once or twice in a life time luxury. That’s to say nothing about the fear of being eaten by trogs. What made him feel the worst though was that she had called it, weather she knew it or not. He really had been looking at her sorry appearance. He hadn’t been disdainful of her, rather he had wanted her to get some rest, but still he was glad she hadn’t known what he was thinking.

“Alright Lilly, you win” he said at length. “You looked like you could use a bath anyway. So, come over here and help me with these wounds and finish telling me your story. After that I’ll help you clean up too, to return the favor. Deal?”

She turned away slightly, rubbing her shoulders with her hands. In the dark it could have been mistaken for bashfulness. Except, Mark wasn’t in the dark. He could see the self-satisfied smirk on her face all too well, and knew he had been played.

“Deal” she said. Moving toward him before he had a chance to change his mind.