Stumbling Up: A Loser's Guide to Progression - Chapter 35: Tree's Company

"It bit me! Oh my god, I'm going to die."

I don't know what I'd been dreaming, but Meredeath's panicked voice pumped adrenaline through my veins. I grabbed my hammer, triggering the [Molten] effect. The loft flared with light, blinding us all. Shit.

"What is it? I can't see anything." Leo's voice was loud, and I could see him clutching his axe. What I couldn't find were any monsters.

"It's a rat!"

Oh. Just a rat? What was the big deal? My muscles relaxed. Did they not have rats on Meredeath's world?

"It's got rabies. It's foaming at the mouth," her voice was frantic.

What was the big deal? Barns had critters, and rats weren't uncommon. Sure, it wasn't great that they'd gotten diseased. But no one died of rat bites.

"Found it," Leo called out, and, with a meaty thunk, the rat was finished.

As my vision slowly returned, Tandy was kneeling, looking at the bite on Meredeath's ankle. Two thin lines of blood dribbled from the wound.

"I don't see what the big deal is? It was probably just after the food in our packs." I'd learned a long time ago that it wasn't worth the hassle to hide a snack in my room. There were too many hungry mouths in the wild.

"It was foaming at the mouth. Diseased. It had rabies." Meredeath said, choking the words out. "I don't imagine you have rabies shots? A lab to test it?"

Remind me never to foam at the mouth.

I had no idea what rabies was, but I agreed with Richard. No foaming at the mouth.

"No," I said, the word carefully. "But if you've got a diseased state, we can get a [Cure Disease] potion for you. They don't cost much."

Meredeath looked up at me, eyes streaked with tears. Her hair was tangled, and she looked miserable.

"[Cure Disease] potion?" The word came out as snuffled.

I knelt next to her, handing her a handkerchief Leo'd dug out of his pack.

"Yeah, check your status. Do you need one? We always have a few on hand out here."

Meredeath got a distant look, as though checking her status. The three of us shared a look.

Tandy went over to inspect the rat.

"I don't think I'm diseased," Meredeath delivered the news we were all expecting.

"Can you die from a rat bite in your world?" I asked quietly. Her world sounded awful.

"Yeah, rats in general have been responsible for a lot of disease. A lot of death. How many children has your mom had?" Meredeath asked quietly.

"Six." Was this a trick question? She'd met all my siblings last night. Morning had begun to break over the farm, and the first notes of dawn could be heard out the window.

"No one died in childhood?" Meredeath's voice was shocked. Leo, Tandy, and I looked at each other. What kind of world did Meredeath come from?

After the shock of waking, getting ready to go happened quickly. I wanted to get out of the barn before my family finished breakfast. As we climbed down from the loft, a basket of food sat undisturbed on the stairs. A little note from Share was pinned to it.

Come back safe. The wedding is on the fall equinox.

I tucked the note into my bag as we divvied up the supplies. I would do anything to make the wedding.

It was time.

No one dared stand up to my mom and Flo by wishing us a farewell. I'd deal with that trauma when I came back for the equinox.

My first problem was going to be the swamp and the bone lady. I'd handle my family later.

Tall fence posts followed us to the edge of the property. Each one set by hand. I paused a moment, wishing my family well. My mom may have disowned me, but I was going to be back. I had a map to find the way, and a wedding to give me a reason.

It didn't take us long to backtrack along the two-track to get to the main road south. If followed, it'd take us all the way down to Dusridge.

I'd only been down there a couple of times for the regional fair.

"It's time to cut east," Tandy said. The mid-morning sun hit her auburn hair, highlighting the red in her braids.

The finger of dread in my gut spiked.

"Are you sure?" Leo asked, white faced.

We all pulled out our mental maps. Sure enough, we'd gone as south as needed. Any further, and he'd have to backtrack north to get to the bone lady's swamp. My dad's map didn't have any details, just a loose blob marked with the skull and crossbones. Everyone knew where the swamp was, even if no one went there.

We all started off the road. Bramble had taken over the understory of the forest. It was going to be a hard push with no trails.

"I'll go first," Leo stated, as though trying to affirm that he wanted to do this. None of us wanted this.

He swung his axe, slicing through the bramble in an arc. The elderberry and creeper parted from his blade, almost leaning away as it sang. Meredeath stood behind him, and I took the rear position with Richard watching our backs.

Meredeath and Tandy both held bare blades. I kept a hand on my hammer and scanned the brush with my eyes.

"Any words of advice, Richard?" I murmured to my companion.

Go without me?

For all his bluster, he was terrified of the bone lady. His little body scrunched closer to my neck. He quaked like an aspen in a breeze.

“I can if you want. Just leave you right here.” I gestured to one of the low-hanging branches covered in moss.

No. I go where you go.

A glob of anxiety-induced slime slithered down my back. I almost wish he’d agreed to stay.

The ground was damp, even this far West. The swamp, on the map, should have been at least a mile or two's hike. It pointed to changes in the landscape that didn't bode well for our quest.

The sun was high in the sky, which was perfect. We didn't need to be doing this at night.

An hour of brush clearing and careful steps through the growing mud got us to the true edge of the swamp.

The forest gave way to a waterlogged landscape. The trees were fewer and less healthy, and reeds dominated the landscape with pools of water lilies bobbing in the sun. It looked like a swamp, if I was being honest. It didn't look particularly haunted or deadly, as bugs buzzed us in the heat.

Leo smacked his bicep, squishing one of the innumerable mosquitoes.

"Alright, where to next?" Leo asked. The swamp was vast, extending east into a large valley between two ridges that descended from the mountains. It was a fair question, but I had no idea.

She lives at the apex of the valley.

"And how do you know that?" Tandy's questions were sharp. She was done with Richard pussyfooting around the quest. Richard sensed it too.

We knew each other.

"No shit, tell me something I don't already know." Tandy's tone sent Richard scrunching up further behind my neck.

How about I tell you later?

"I think now is a good time." Tandy was determined.

"I agree with Richard on this one. Let’s deal with this first," I said as lights started dancing in the marsh behind Tandy. She turned to see what I was looking at when the water by my feet began to move.

We'd found the tidemaw.

"Okay, don't touch any of the trees," I said, as I stopped myself from reaching out to a trunk for balance. "What other tips do we have on defeating this creature?"

I'd suggest running away.

The ground yanked at my feet, and a tree branch swept by my head, catapulting Richard into the swamp. All of us were thrown to the ground, as I watched an airborne Richard.

I take it baaaack!!! His mental shout echoed in our heads as he flew tail over antenna. Fight the monster! It's a giant water bladder with teeth!

The splut of his landing must have knocked him out as his mental voice went silent in my head.

Well shit.

If I could climb a tree and get a better look at the maw, I could [Analyze] it.

I triggered [Analyze] on one of the trees within reach.

[Velcroak tree - This vine-covered tree has fast-drying sap that traps insects and small animals. This tree is aiming higher for its prey.]

Nope, that one wouldn't work.

[Gloomsap - Cursed tree grown only at the base of a tombstone. This semi-sentient tree hungers for the world of the living. Anyone unfortunate enough to fall for its wiles will find themselves eternally entombed.]

"Guys, we definitely want to stay away from the trees,” I called out, just as Tandy pulled herself up on a small island with a velcroak.

I saw another tree, shorter, that was looking healthier. I triggered [Analyze].

[Mawthorn - Typically grows near tidemaws. This bark-skinned mimic masquerades as a tree. Its sap is a digestive lure that numbs and dulls the screams.]

It isn't Rhi Voss we have to worry about, it's the fucking trees. None of the trees in the swamp were friendly.

I looked back towards the forest we'd left.

[Sickened Cedar - This cedar has been subjected to a flood or a change in landscape. It is sickly and will succumb to death if environmental factors are not changed.]

It would work. I stood up, covered in mud, and slogged against the current trying to draw us deeper. Tandy and Leo had grabbed onto clumps of reeds, holding themselves in place. Meredeath stood with her feet apart, a dagger in each hand.

I moved, each step hard won as the swamp sucked at my boots. Finally, my feet came out of the mud, and I started climbing the gnarled bark. It twisted up, branches extending out like a ladder. It was almost as though it was built for a climb.

I scrambled, the sweet scent of cedar enveloping me, as though the horror of the swamp didn't lie a few feet below.

I climbed twenty, then thirty feet. The tree waved in the air under my weight. Wedging my feet in place, I hugged the trunk like it was my lifeline and peered out over the swamp.

The swamp spanned miles towards the Ursine Wall, with clumps of trees forming small islands, while reeds and lilies bobbed in the deeper water. What hadn’t been evident was the bone colored ruins of an ancient town strewn across the valley.

Not a town. I squinted hard, trying to decipher the pattern. Square sets of blocks sat staring at me. A graveyard? An ancient expansive graveyard? My mind broke at the scale of the place. How many died here?

The tidemaw was evident from my position. The mouth gaped open like the ground itself had grown teeth. A notably empty pool of water sat at the heart of the beast. Its body sank low into the ground as though it’d carved a giant sink hole as a home. I could see Richard, the speck of yellow trapped between a set of reeds.

Triggering [Analyze], I got the following:

[Corrupt Tidemaw - Normally at home in ocean-based marshes, this tidemaw is far from home. These creatures typically use and control local tides to draw larvae and other small biological life to their maw, filtering through the creatures like a whale. Corruption has led to a shift in the maw’s diet to larger wildlife, including humans. It's ravenous for food. The maw is ancient, and the ravenous stomach extends several stories deep, holding enough space and water to hold the local swamp in its thrall.]

I tried imagining the shape of the beast. Large, bloated, full of water. The tidemaw sits stationary, below the waterline. The beast uses skills to control water levels, currents, and tides to draw prey towards its maw.

It was nothing but a ballooned stomach, full of hunger. Ready to pop.

“Leo, I’m going to need to borrow your axe,” I called out to my friend as I climbed down the cedar.

I had a terrible idea. It was time to burst some expectations.