[Silver]

“You’ve got to be fucking kidding me.”

“Oh come on now, it’s not that bad,” Matt said, looking at the wet ground beneath his feet.

“Not that bad? Not that bad? Look at this!” Riley picked his foot up out of the mud with a loud wet schlorp and wet mud dripped off the bottom of his previously stark white shoes. “This place is the worst.”

“It definitely could be worse,” Matt said. What he didn’t want to admit was that one of his feet was absolutely stuck in the mud. He wiggled it around a bit, trying to hide the fact that it was stuck from his brother.

[Silver]

“Ugh,” Riley wiped his face with his palm. “Look, let’s just get out of here as soon as possible. I don’t know how much longer I can deal with this.”

“I’m not sure that it will be possible to expedite the mission,” Ouryu chimed in. “I am feeling an anomaly of magical energy in the heart of the swamp.”

Ouryu closed her eyes and pictured the source of the energy. It was intense, but so far away that she could only get vague glimpses of its whereabouts. She sighed lightly.

[Silver]

This would be an arduous trip indeed. Who knew what kind of things lived within the swamp? Besides that, how would they traverse the shallow, murky waters?

“Well?” Matt asked, watching to see what Ouryu might have to say.

“The anomaly is deep within the waters of the swamp, we will have to travel to get to it. I believe it is very important, and possibly dangerous.”

“Great,” Riley hissed. He already hated this whole thing.

[Silver]

“Water…” Matt said, staring down into the mud. Where they were standing was still (relatively) solid ground, but the swamp was filled with water. That must be why they were called there. The spirit Genbu could guide them through the water. At least he hoped he could.

“What does any of that have to do with this stupid thing?” Riley demanded, holding out a crystal they had been given.

“There are no coincidences,” Ouryu said confidently.

[Silver]

“So you’re telling me that this guy knew who we were, and that the magic would be here, and that the crystal has something to do with all of that?” Riley sounded extremely skeptical.

“Perhaps,” Ouryu said with a nod. “Then again, perhaps they are in fact related. The energy absorbed by the crystal and the energy that drew the anomaly to spawn here may be one in the same.”

“That makes sense,” Matt said with a nod.

[Silver]

Riley continued to scowl. This all sounded like a bunch of nonsense to him, but he would have said the same about meeting a dragon and being bonded to a spirit, too.

“Whatever,” he said. “It doesn’t matter, let’s keep going.”

“We’ll need to, uh, make a boat or something, right?” Matt honestly had no idea how to make a boat, but he was willing to try. He believed Ouryu completely when she said that there were no coincidences. They were there for a reason, and he was going to do anything he could to fulfill his destiny.

[Silver]

“Make a boat? Are you insane? I’m going to go buy one,” Riley said.

“Wait! No we need that money for food…” Matt said, quickly realizing that he was talking to the thin air. Riley had already wandered off.

“He might have a point, you know, keeping water vessels from sinking is quite…” Ouryu trailed off when she realized that there was no chance Matt was still listening to her.

He angrily stomped through the mud, trying to catch up to his brother. Why did he have to be so difficult all of the time?

[Silver]

This could have just been a fun adventure, but no, he had to complain and spend the last of their money trying to do less work. Matt was not pleased.

Matt followed silently in Riley’s wake for a while before he finally found the words to say something. “Do you even know where you’re going?” he blurted out in frustration.

“Of course I do!” Riley grumbled, “I’m going to buy a boat.”

“You’re going in the opposite direction of the anomaly. Be honest, if you don’t want to go I’ll just go without you!” Matt said.

[Silver]

He was having enough of his brother’s petulant attitude. Even though he would probably not follow through on the bluff, he was upset enough to make it.

“Look, man, we can’t bloody walk through the swamp, now can we? We have to think of something. You can’t just go charging in there and hoping for the best. That doesn’t work all of the time!”

“Look who’s talking!”

“Boys, boys,” Ouryu hopped off Matt’s shoulder and landed on the ground in between them.

[Silver]

“What?!” they both shouted in unison.

Ouryu frowned, and sniffed at the air. “This place… I think it may be causing some unrest. We should work together to solve the problem of navigation. Arguing will not allow us to reach a conclusion.”

“Oh no, I’m just arguing because I like it,” Riley said, heavily rolling his mismatched eyes.

“She does have a point you know,” Matt said, looking sheepish. “We should work together. I’m with you, Ry, let’s find a boat, then we can get to the anomaly and figure it out.”

[Silver]

Riley opened his mouth like he was going to keep arguing before realizing that Matt agreed with him. He closed his mouth slowly and turned it into a frown. He didn’t like the abrupt and unsatisfying end to their bickering, but he would deal with that.

“Look,” Ouryu said, watching a little lizard skitter across the ground. It bolted around seemingly randomly, then dashed off behind a tree.

“Ooookay…” Riley said.

“Wait, I think it’s trying to say something,” Matt insisted.

[Silver]

“What could that lizard possibly know that could help us right now?”

“Well we definitely won’t find out if we don’t go look,” Matt said. He had already started to head off toward the tree in question.

Riley was about to yell at him for being an idiot when he heard laughing. Why would Matt be laughing at a time like this? He thought it was unusual enough that he started to run over with concern. When he got just around the other side of the tree, his feet hit a slick patch of mud and silt and he went sliding, ultimately crashing to the ground into the mud.

[Silver]

“Eugh,” he grumbled into the dirt. This was the least fun he had in a while.

“Oh, man, are you going to be okay?” Matt asked, leaning down to help Riley up. Riley pushed his hand away and stood himself up.

“This better be good,” he groaned. He was now covered in mud. He liked this shirt! He spit out a mouth full of sand, but he could still feel the way it coated his mouth. Ugh.

“You wouldn’t believe it,” he said. “It’s a boat!”

[Silver]

“Ha-ha,” Riley rolled his eyes, refusing to acknowledge what Matt said other than sarcastically.

“No really, look,” Matt said, pushing him so that he had to face it and see.

A small tin boat was latched to the tree around that side, partially obscured by the overgrowth of the bushes and tree above it. Someone had clearly latched it there a long time ago, perhaps when this part of the swamp was still under water. Now it was nothing but mud, but the boat remained. The rope holding it on had all but rotted away.

[Silver]

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” Riley said, still licking the sand out of his teeth.

“I guess the spirits are looking fondly upon us,” Matt said.

“If that’s the case, they wouldn’t have tortured us on the way here,” Riley snorted.

“Oh come on can’t you just be grateful for once?”

“Yea I guess so. It is a pretty good find.”

Riley pulled his pocket knife out and used it to saw through a mostly rotted away part of the rope. Now they had a boat. Out of the water, but better than nothing.

[Crystal Synthesis Complete]