Pudge crouched amidst the gnarled roots of the massive mangrove tree. It smelled atrocious, and he could feel all sorts of tiny creatures swirling around his fur-covered feet. But that was true of almost everything in the swamp. Even keeping to the edges, his instincts screamed at him to turn back. And rightly so. Some of his earliest memories were of his mother leading him and his siblings along the edge of a swamp. The natural denizens of such a mire were peerless ambush predators, and he’d lost two of his siblings when a pair of giant reptiles had attacked. His mother had driven them away, but not before she’d lost some of her children.

Back then, Pudge hadn’t really understood death. He’d expected them to soon return, but as they’d left the swamp behind, his expectations faded away, replaced by fear. That feeling had been with him ever since, and it had never been more powerful than when they’d been forced to wade into the murky water.

Sure, they could have turned back. That was always a possibility. But with that option came the surety that his reunion with Zeke would be delayed by months. He couldn’t stomach that, and so, he’d pushed his fear to the side and entered the swamp.

Still, he’d hoped it would be a short detour. The moment they found a way back to dry ground, they would take it without hesitation. However, the days passed, one by one, until their time in the swamp had stretched into weeks. And even now, there was no end in sight. In fact, he found himself facing yet another obstacle.

A few hundred yards behind him, a miserable Sasha waited. Doubtless, she regretted her decision to accompany him. They’d barely made any progress in their journey, and already, an impassible barrier lay in their path.

Pudge watched for a few more minutes, remaining cloaked in [Concealed Steps] the entire time. It was a constant drain on his reserves, but he was more than willing to part with mana if it kept him from sight. If he’d had a pool like Zeke from which to draw, he would never need to worry about running dry.

Eventually, Pudge had learned everything he could, and he slowly retreated through the stagnant water to where Sasha waited. Predictably, she wore the same perpetual frown that had decorated her snouted face for the past few days.

From Pudge’s recollection, pigs were dirty animals who could often be found coated in mud. Sasha displayed none of those characteristics. Instead, she maintained a level of cleanliness that bordered on fastidious obsession. Of course, that wasn’t possible in a swamp, and that had left her even more irritable than the constant air of danger that had followed them since wading into the swamp.

“What did you see?” she asked when he stopped beside her. She’d set herself up on a piece of relatively dry island. It was only a dozen feet across, but it had allowed them to spend a few hours out of the tepid water. Not that the dry land was much better – it was just different, and played host to its own dangers. Venomous spiders as big as Pudge’s paw were particularly common. A single bite from one of those horrible creatures would be enough to kill someone with Sasha’s constitution, so they needed to be ever vigilant.

She’d brought along some potions that were supposed to cure such ailments, but the finite supply meant that she needed to avoid having to use them unnecessarily. Easier said than done, Pudge knew, but that was the situation nonetheless. For his part, he didn’t really have to worry about poison or disease. His endurance and vitality were robust enough to deal with the weaker variants, and where those fell short, he had Zeke’s borrowed healing skill to pick up the slack.

It wasn’t perfect. Far from it. The skill took forever to do anything worthwhile, but he wasn’t the sort to complain about something that could save his life.

“Not good,” he said. Then, he haltingly explained the scene he’d been watching for most of the day. They hadn’t really intended to, but they’d inadvertently followed the troll hunting party through the swamp. It wasn’t that surprising, really, considering that they’d taken the only viable path. The trolls may have been swamp creatures, but they obviously preferred to avoid the deeper parts of the bog just as much as anyone else.

“So, there’s a village in our way,” Sasha said, summing up his explanation. “Hundreds of trolls and even more captives. Anything else?”

Pudge shook his great, furry head. Her summary was a lot smoother than his own description, largely due to his lagging ability to articulate his thoughts. He wasn’t stupid. He just wasn’t used to talking, and he hadn’t had the chance to work on it yet. Soon enough, he and Zeke would be reunited, and they’d figure it out.

“We should go back,” Sasha stated.

For his part, Pudge agreed. That was the most prudent choice. However, he couldn’t imagine a world where he did any such thing. The mere thought of being separated from Zeke for even an extra day, much less the months a retreat would add to the total, felt like a stab to his heart.

“No.”

“What? No? Why?!” Sasha demanded, obviously exasperated, the questions punctuated by an errant snort.

“Same as always,” Pudge said, his mouth straining around the words.

“Your brother,” she said.

That was the explanation he’d given her. For some reason, he didn’t think Sasha would understand the soul bond he shared with Zeke. She’d already shown more than a little disdain for the outside world – and the other races that populated it – and Pudge expected that prejudice would extend to humans. Never mind what she’d say if she knew about Talia. So, Pudge had settled on describing Zeke as his brother – an apt description of their relationship even if it wasn’t technically accurate – which had mollified her at least a little.

Before, she couldn’t really understand why he was so desperate to leave the Pale Moon Territory. But the concept of family, she could grasp. After all, she would do whatever she could for her own. Even so, there were limits, and traipsing through a troll village filled with captives of all sorts of races seemed to cross that line.

“You go back,” he said, pointing back the way they’d come. Then, he pointed toward the east – or the troll village – saying, “I go on.”

Sasha looked at him as if he’d gone crazy. And in a way, he had. Pudge could feel the bond tugging at him. Without it, he would still want to be reunited with Zeke, but with the bond dragging him along, it became a mandate rather than a suggestion. He didn’t just want to go to Zeke. He needed it.

“You know I’ll do no such thing,” she spat. “So stop suggesting it. I’m with you until we find what you’re looking for.”

“Why?” he asked.

“Because I won’t spend my life hiding in the village and hoping no one attacks us,” she said. “You don’t know this, but the Pale Moon Tribe is barely holding on. We’re safe enough because we’ve hunted down anything powerful enough to threaten the tribe. That safety comes at a price, though. No danger, no advancement. I’m the strongest of my generation, and you make me look like a novice. If we’re going to survive, we must venture away from the territory and grow. Otherwise, sometime in the future, someone – one of the other races, perhaps – will descend upon us and tear everything asunder.”

To Pudge, it made sense. Without struggle, there would be no improvement. And without improvement, they would be vulnerable. Every monster knew that right down to its very core. And at their most basic level, the beastkin were still monsters, albeit sapient and evolved versions.

“Okay.”

Sasha’s eyes widened. Then, she sputtered, “What? That’s it? Just ‘okay’?”

“Yes,” Pudge answered.

She looked like she wanted to argue, but after a few seconds, she thought better of it. Once she’d regained her composure, she asked, “So, what is your plan? How will we get past the village? There are hundreds of trolls there, right? Maybe as many as a thousand. It won’t be easy.”

Pudge tried to grin, but judging by Sasha’s expression, it probably came off more as a snarl. Then, he slapped his chest, saying, “No problem. Ninja bear.”

“What the…what does that even mean?” she asked.

“Ninja. Bear,” he repeated.

“Saying it twice doesn’t make it any easier to understand,” Sasha pointed out.

Pudge shrugged his immense shoulders. It wasn’t his problem that she didn’t know what a ninja was. Clearly, she hadn’t been raised properly. Even so, he took a few minutes to explain what he wanted to do. It wasn’t a particularly complicated plan. He intended to wait until night, then use the cover of darkness to sneak past.

“You know this isn’t going to work, right? Trolls have notorious noses,” she said.

He grinned again, and she blanched, but her jaw dropped when he reached down and scooped a paw-full of mud from the ground beneath them. Then, he said, “Camouflage for nose.”

“Oh…oh, no…”

“Yes.”

The next half hour was an exercise in torture for the porcine mage as Pudge helpfully slathered her with smelly mud. He didn’t slack when it came to his own camouflage, either, copiously coating his own fur until it was entirely covered. Once that was done, night had fallen, and the pair set off in the appropriate direction.

Their pace was incredibly slow. Pudge used his [Concealed Steps] skill, but Sasha was forced to rely on natural means of cloaking her passage. The two stuck to the deep shadows, moving through the thigh-deep water so slowly it barely rippled. Like that, they eventually reached the troll village.

It wasn’t really what Pudge would have expected from the primitive people. Their homes were well-made and built from stone, even if there wasn’t a right angle or straight edge in the entire village. If he had to describe the settlement in one word, Pudge would’ve called it haphazard. There was no symmetry. No rhyme or reason to the layout. Just random, lopsided structures constructed with huge, grey stones and bearing thatched roofs.

As for the population, they were, down to every single troll, congregated around a central bonfire. Pudge didn’t think their numbers quite reached into the thousands, but even a few hundred trolls gathered in a single place was a daunting sight. Still, it was a lucky thing because the meeting meant that Pudge and Sasha were much less likely to be detected.

Or that would have been the case if Sasha hadn’t reached out and dug her fingers into his arm.

He let out a low hiss of annoyance, but when he looked back to glare at her, he saw her gesture toward the bonfire. When he looked in the indicated direction, his heart jumped into his throat at what he saw.

The captives.

Or what was left of them, at least. Humans. Elves. Beastkin. It didn’t matter what their species, they were all treated the same.

A tall, thin, and wizened shaman troll stood next to the fire. In one hand, it clutched a staff topped with a reptilian skull. In the other, it held a long, wicked dagger that in the hands of a human would have been a shortsword. A pair of burly trolls shoved their captive – a man who had the features of a striped cat – toward the shaman. The troll’s dagger arced out with immaculate precision, slicing the cat-man’s throat. Even as he clutched at the wound, another burly troll shoved him into the fire, where his burning body joined dozens of others.

For a moment, Pudge had no idea why the trolls would do such a thing. He’d assumed that they had captured their prisoners for food, and though he found that disgusting, he could at least understand it. However, this was just wanton slaughter.

And then he felt the swirling mana in the air, and it only took him a couple more seconds to recognize it as a skill.

Or a ritual.

More, only a moment later, he felt a familiar tingle of corruption in the air. It was barely an undercurrent, but to a half-demon like him, it was immediately recognizable as a connection to the demon realm.

“We must go,” he growled.

Sasha let out a confused snort, then spat, “What? No! We must save –”

“Demons are coming,” he said, grabbing her arm and pulling her along much more quickly than before. He didn’t precisely abandon stealth, but given her level of struggle, he may as well have. It didn’t matter, though. The trolls were all occupied with their sacrifice, and judging by how quickly the corruption intensified, it would soon reach a crescendo. Pudge had no intention of being anywhere near the village when it did.

If they were smart, the trolls wouldn’t be either.

Nothing good came with contacting the demon realm. He didn’t think they could manage to open a portal – after all, it had taken the warlock an immense level of power to do so back in those obsidian caverns – but they could let something else through that might eventually manage it. And Pudge wasn’t so naïve that he thought he could handle such a foe.

They were a couple hundred yards past the village when the screams began.

As soon as those blood-curdling sounds crashed over them, Sasha stopped struggling and bent her efforts to moving as quickly as possible through the muddy water. Pudge pushed her to the front, putting himself between her and whatever had caused those screams. After all, he was better equipped to deal with it.

Still, he continuously urged her to go faster and faster as the night wore on. Fatigue gripped them, but they didn’t dare stop. Not until well after dawn when they reached dry land. Even then, they kept going as long as they could before finding a sheltered overhang under which they collapsed in exhaustion.

“W-what was that? What happened back there?” Sasha breathed. Pudge noticed that foam had collected around her lips, just as it had on his own snout.

“Demons,” he grunted, too spent to expend the energy to better articulate his thoughts.

“Have you…what do you know about demons?” she asked.

“Bad. Very bad.”

Sasha looked as if she wanted to say more, but she either didn’t have the energy to do so, or she didn’t think she would get much more of an answer. So, she fell silent.

Not long after that, the pair fell into an exhausted sleep. In any other scenario, one of them would have kept watch, but neither were capable of maintaining consciousness for any longer.