Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 161535 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 538(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 161535 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 538(@300wpm)
I think I’m in a swamp.
I glance around, frowning to myself as a bug lands on my bare arm. I slap at it, eyeing my surroundings. I don’t see a single building anywhere. I don’t see a person anywhere, either. Just overhanging trees that grow so thick they blot out some of the sunlight, and a scummy lake of water surrounding me as I stand on what might be the only hillock of dirt in the area. There’s a small tree right behind my back, and in front of me, the swamp water stretches out.
“Of course the god of decay is in a swamp,” I mutter to myself and slap another mosquito away. “Why would he be in a city? That’d make things too easy.”
Lachesis had said that I wouldn’t like this job. Well, she’s not wrong so far. I look around again, moving in a slow circle and eyeing my surroundings just in case I missed a big honking city on the horizon. No such luck. A white crane flies overhead, and the water ripples nearby.
Unless a boat appears in the next minute, I’m going to have to get into the water and start walking-slash-swimming towards…where?
I take a deep breath. “I’m not asking for anything, truly,” I call out. “But a sign of which way to go would be helpful.”
Another white crane erupts from the brush, circles around overhead, and lands in the water nearby. I stare at it and watch as it swims away atop the water’s surface like a duck, heading in one very specific direction.
Well, I did ask for guidance. That’ll do.
“Thank you,” I call out just in case anyone’s listening.
Then, bracing myself, I step into the murky waters.
My sneaker immediately squishes in the mud, and I slide forward. A horrid stench oozes from the brackish water. I gag, putting my hand to my nose. I take another step forward, uncertain. How deep does this water get?
A few more steps forward, and it seems like the answer is—to my knees. That’s a relief, at least. I wade through the water, slapping at the bugs that land on my skin and eyeing my surroundings for differences. As far as I can tell, this looks just like a swamp back home. Maybe I imagined the whole thing?
Maybe I’m not even here? Maybe this is some sort of hallucination?
When nothing changes as I trudge forward, though, I keep going. What else can I do? I don’t have supplies. I’m in a collared polo shirt with the coffee house logo over my breast, a sun visor, and my greige slacks stick to my legs. I don’t even have my purse.
There’s no god of anything to be seen anywhere, either.
I remind myself that I’m doing this for my brother. That I’m willingly putting myself in discomfort so he can have a life. If Lachesis wasn’t lying about transporting me here, then all I need to do is find the god I’m going to be spending time with, attach myself to his side, and make sure we both stay alive. I have to trust the process.
Another mosquito bites my neck, and I slap at it. Bug spray would be nice. As the sun goes down, the insects are getting thicker—or maybe they just realized how delicious I am and they’re swarming. I think about survival clips I watched online and reach down into the gross water, pulling out a handful of mud. I rub it all over my exposed skin, covering my face, my arms and neck, and even the part of my hair. When I’m covered in goop, I trudge onward.
It stops the bugs biting, for which I’m thankful, but I’m pretty sure I look like a hot mess and smell worse. I’m supposed to be meeting a god? Here? Now? I picture holding my slimy hand out for him to shake as I look like nothing more than Swamp Thing’s cousin, and I chuckle to myself.
As the sun goes down, fireflies fill the evening sky, and distant splashes tell me that things are getting into the water. I should be alarmed over that, but at some point, a calm feeling has fallen over me. The god must be in this direction, and nothing’s going to kill me until I get there.
It’s not part of Lachesis’s plan.
So I ignore the large snake that slithers past, the floating thing a short distance away that looks like a log and might not be, and continue trudging forward. I eye the red moon as it rises high in the night sky, the best sign so far that this is definitely not my world. The red moon is also huge in the sky, easily three times the size of our moon back home, and so close that I can see the craters that dot the surface. That’s a little alarming.