Chapter 108: Swamp Entrance

Chapter 108: Swamp Entrance

The five heroes and Zaydra travel to the northwestern part of the country.

They are now in a dim swamp, full of muddy water with long blades of plants sticking out of it. They walk along a boardwalk.

“This place gives me the creeps,” Emily says, holding her arms close to her chest as she glances around with unease.

“It’s not that bad,” Zeth replies. “It certainly beats the mansion.”

“We are almost at our destination,” Zaydra says.

They keep walking, soon spotting something hanging out of the swamp water. It’s a human skeleton. Not far from it are even more skeletons.

“Those skeletons…” Joe says, his words trailing off.

“This swamp is unfit for humans to live in or even traverse on their own,” Zaydra explains, answering before anyone could ask the question. “They were foolish.”

The boardwalk stops at the side of a swamp river. With nowhere to walk farther, they stop.

“Where can we go from here?” Sasha asks.

“You can come out now,” Zaydra says, looking into nearby fog.

The fog spreads throughout the river, and then a large canoe-type boat slowly appears into existence. On the canoe is a humanoid skeleton wearing a black cloak.

“It’s been a while, Miss Zaydra,” the skeleton says politely.

“Whoa, who is… he? …it?” Kurt asks, uncomfortably stuttering.

“He is a grim reaper,” Zaydra replies.

“A grim reaper?” Zeth asks. “For real?”

“Yep, oh, and call me Mark,” the grim reaper says with a goofy smile. “Grim Reaper sounds too… ‘Grim’. Har har.”

Zaydra sighs and then smiles. “…He tries to be a funny one.”

“So, what is a grim reaper doing in this swamp?” Emily asks, still slightly creeped out.

“It’s the perfect place for a grim reaper,” Mark replies. “Foolish humans come looking here to search for the abundant amount of dinosaur fossils in the area, and then they die trying. Well, they are not really called dinosaurs, but that’s what you humans call them.”

“Enough of that,” Zaydra interjects. “We need you to take us to the Swamp Underworld safely.”

“The Swamp Underworld, you say?” Mark asks.

“Yes,” Zaydra replies with a nod.

“Why would you want to go there?” Mark asks, tilting his head with a curious smile.

Zaydra points at Zeth. “My brother needs to drink the Kraysheen there or he will die.”

Mark looks at Zeth, focusing intensely for a moment.

“I see,” Mark says. “So, you are Prince Zeth. It’s nice to meet you.”

“Same to you,” Zeth replies. “But it does feel weird talking to a living skeleton in a black cloak.”

“It’s a shame you are without your divine powers,” Mark says. “I guess we’d better get going. All of you get on.”

They all get on, and then the canoe starts moving forward through the swamp river.

“Things going on in the Swamp Underworld have been… interesting, so to speak, these last three years,” Mark says, wanting to keep conversing.

“What do you mean by that?” Zaydra asks.

“It has become somewhat of a hellhole to live in,” Mark replies. “There is a power struggle going on. If you think it will be easy to get the Kraysheen, you will have to think again.”

“Yeah, I figured,” Zaydra says, placing her hand on her forehead with some frustration. “It’s just our luck.”

The boat moves into a cave that the river flows into. The cave is dark. As the canoe flows through the water, many monsters are roaring and trying to get on the boat but they can’t.

“I see what you mean by safely,” Kurt says. “These monsters would be big trouble.”

“Indeed,” Zaydra replies. “We could fight them off but they aren’t weak. We would certainly take damage among the group.”

Soon, the monsters mostly give up on attacking, allowing the boat to continue smoothly farther into the cave.

“The atmosphere feels like it’s changed,” Joe says.

“The Swamp Underworld is partially an underground part of Earth and partially a different dimension,” Mark answers.

“That sounds confusing,” Zeth says.

“Don’t worry about it,” Mark replies. “Otherwise, your mind might blow, and then you’d just have an empty skull, just like mine. Har har!”

Eventually, the boat reaches the end of the cave, and the river comes to an end at the top of a hill. The sky above is a variety of shades of purple. A city is in the background below.

“Whoa…” Sasha says in awe.

“Welcome to the Swamp Underworld!” Mark announces.

“This is incredible!” Zeth says, voice raised.

“I want to see what kind of weather this underworld has!” Joe says enthusiastically.

The heroes and Zaydra get off the boat.

“You all better get going,” Mark suggests. “I mean, if you don’t, I might have to take Prince Zeth to Earth’s God of Death. Har har!”

Zaydra sighs. “He’s a Divine Being, though.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Mark replies. “Don’t sweat the details… or your skin might get dried out from losing all of those fluids and become just bones, just like me! Har har!”

The heroes give him a squinty-eyed look after his joke.

“Har har!” Mark laughs. “Well, I’m sure you will do fine. I guess I will spend some time here as well.”

The heroes turn around and head for the city nearby.

“Did he say ‘Earth’s’ God of Death?” Zeth asks.

“Yes,” Zaydra replies. “Every planet with life has its own God of Death.”

“You will have to tell me sometime about it,” Zeth says. “But right now we have stuff to do.”

The heroes head in the direction of the city, hopeful that there will be little trouble.

The journey in the Swamp Underworld begins.

Chapter 108 END
To be Continued in Chapter 109: Hirro City Bar