Talon was fast on the ball, hand already on the hilt stuck in his scabbard. “Tell me.”

“There’s a bunch of them running all around in circles a bit over there,” she pointed over her shoulder as if a pack of monsters were just some kids causing a ruckus a few houses over. “Six or so.”

“That’s it?” As she nodded, Talon was already on the move, the two of us on his heels. “What were they doing?”

“Don’t know. They were all just around this big pool of mud.”

“Six isn’t large for a pack of Bog Rats.  The rest must have split off. Still,” He was near a run now, focus drifting away as something in his head turned. It was a marvel that he didn’t go ass-over-teakettle in that state. “They work as a group, so they must have stayed behind for a vital enough reason.”

“Like they had kits or something,” Kes asked, her run more akin to bounding leaps as she almost flew across the mud.

“Or food that’s hard to get.”

The world went away. Maybe they said more, but sound didn’t mean a thing. My feet had no grace, mud threatening with each step to steal my balance or snap my ankles. There was nothing to see, nothing that would stay in thought until I saw them. Six bodies of raggedy fur caked with mud clots pasted with remains of past feasts, thick hind legs, and narrow snouts that came up to past my shoulder when they stood. Large black eyes, opening and closing with a thick membrane. Clawed feet with webbing between the toes. The horrid yellow teeth the length of my forearm, sticking out amongst the rest of the misshapen fangs that hid within their maws. And the tails, whip-like with a collapsed point at the end tinge with mucus, the ache of my cuts they inflicted crushed to nothing now. They were frantic, sticking their forepaws into the mud for just a second before stepping back to chitter with the rest of the pack.

In mass, they were a nightmare. A demon stitched together in mottled flesh that wailed their hunger with a gluttonous mouth. Now, here in a small number, they were nothing more than killable.

Locked in the bog, trapped in a solid shell that it so despised, the water called to me. Whether it pushed or I pulled meant no difference. A final stomp that cratered the mud. It snapped back, launching me. The Rats had noticed, but in that brief moment, before attention turned to alarm, I soared. My fist broke the black orb of their eye, sinking into the cavity of its socket before the rest of the impact followed through and snapped the rat’s skull back. 

The daze was brief. Surprise dulling its pain before the injury took hold, and it howled. The rest reacted to the agony of their companion, giving me the gap to fling over its shoulder as my momentum carried me onward. Softer landing be damned as I hit the mud hard enough to send a shock through my teeth. On my back, the rest of the Bog Rats finally saw the source of their member’s injury and hissed. The closest one lunged. I darted to the left as it dove past, my feet pinwheeling for a foothold on the slick ground. Finally finding a purchase, I leapt to my feet as another snapped at me. My arm crossed my body in a wide arc, bringing forward a ball of mud. What should have had the force of a solid punch was more comparable to a slap, doing little more than knocking the rat off balance, hopefully getting in its eyes.

Pain exploded in my calf. A rat was behind me, tail finishing a swipe with a thin coat of red fresh on its tip. A stomp sent a wave of mud crashing over it. It flailed on its side to right itself as I constricted the muck coating it, lungs expelling air at the grip holding it down. 

A pair came at me from the other side. Rising another grim curtain to douse them, a third propelled through it, slamming into my side. I left the ground, only to be quickly reunited again and again as I tumbled, the world a whirl of muted colors even after I came to a stop. 

My body was in a panic before I could gather that my lungs had lost a breath, frantic to correct the loss. The rats charged. Standing became a kneel, the world yet to still, and the sudden impact reminded my body of the rush of energy I had expended in seconds.

They pounced as one, a fragment of a greater, hungrier beast at the ready to snap me apart. The space between us shimmered in a thin wall of pale green light. As the rats met the wall, it exploded. The force sent the pack sprawling, flinging me into another airborne tumble. Before the ground found me, however, a breeze gathered beneath me. It gently slowed me enough that I landed with barely a thud. Kes stood over me, the battle-ready set of her face failing from the wild smile that split from ear to ear. 

“Sorry about that,” She said as Talon tore onto the scene, yelling, “You dumbass!”

Talon drew his sword, trailing flames from the scabbard. Starting at the hilt, the metal grew to a bright amber until the weapon appeared to be crafted from pure flame. The unfazed rats went for him shoulder by shoulder, claws and teeth gnashing in sync. Without breaking stride, Talon met one of them head-on, teeth meeting steel. It pivoted enough for Talon to spin in the new gap between the beasts and bring the weapon down in an arc of embers, carving a deep wound in the second’s side. 

Kes hollered as she clapped her hands, interlocking her fingers. Drawing them apart, a swirl of that emerald wind gathered before she released her fingers. The boom made my ears ring as the cluster of wind rocketed into a rat, flipping it onto its back.

“Come on, girl! Get back in there!” Kes grabbed my sleeve and helped me stand. The rats were regrouping, keeping their distance from Talon. When one attempted to approach, Talon swung, and a blast of flame became a brief wall, singing the beast’s whiskers.

I drew the waterskin from my belt, wrapping the ropes around my forearms so that the bags could dangle just above the ground. The rats, overcoming their fears, charged through the next wave of flames thrown at them. The wind shifted, batting away three of the rats. Talon met the next two, parrying the claws that came at him. A tail lashed his side. He caught the limb with his arm and sliced it off with a swing of his blade. The sixth rat, in a vulnerable moment of the rebuke, found its opening and sprang, ready to dig its teeth into Talon’s back. 

I drew back my arm and swung, the water sack following along in a wide arch. The relief of the presence of the water within it, pure of any of the muck, was almost as refreshing as diving into a stream at the perfect cooling temperature. The lack of effort it took to spur it onward, to speeds far faster than I could have swung it, was a dizzying change. The sack collided with the rat’s head with the most pleasant CRACK.

Talon spared the moment to look over my choice of weapon with a cocked eyebrow. I said, “Not all of us can afford the fancy shit,” before bashing another rat head. 

The scene became a haze of teeth and flying fur, the scent of burning meat making an awful combination with the rat’s natural odor. The cuts were nothing but dull reminders that I needed to swing harder, go faster, and hit these fuckers so that something would break. 

A rat got underneath the arc of my makeshift flail. Claws reached for my face, the very tips just finding skin. Then, its face was swallowed in a jet of flame that was the closest breadth away from singing my skin. 

In our frenzy, only the briefest glimpses of Kes reached me, and she was beautiful. If we were in the shit, she was on the stage. The rats that broke away to face her found the futility in doing so. We could wield the elements like they were part of us, but in my hysteria, Kes was the wind. Tails would lash her, only for Kes’s figure to vanish, spinning away to engage with another partner, running her hands through its fur before vanishing again as it bit at her. The wind bellowed around her, lifting her steps so that she barely graced the ground, filling her clothes and making her now free braids float. She leapt and flipped to blast a rat into the ground before landing already in a spin. The air retreated before it came rushing back as she flung her arms forward, whipped into a roar. The rat left the ground, flung over the branches of the looming trees, and came crashing down. It didn’t get back up. 

Talon dug a wound to cross the one he’d done on his first swing, downing the creature. He was burning, choking the space with his flames as with each slash, a fresh set of embers alighted. Two came at him, one high and the other following low. Talon fell, bringing his full weight down to drive the blade through the skull of the bottom rat, the metal entering the mud with a crackling hiss. The other rat landed and spun, ready to slash with its tail. Talon's hand lit on fire before the element jumped from him to ignite the monster’s fur. It roared as it was devoured, falling in a spasm.

The last two were with me. They moved awkwardly as multiple bones of theirs were broken, one listing to the side as it favored its damaged paw. I whipped the mud from under their feet. They fell against each other in a mess. I brought my arms up and back above my head, the waterskins swelling as my power flooded in. I screamed as I swung, the horrible times of how long it had been escaping me. The waterskins busted their skulls, each of them blasting apart as the impact broke bone and leather alike. 

We stood amongst the remains of the Bog Rats. Talon waved his hand and extinguished the one still aflame. Kes, sweat staining her clothing and panting from the exertion, laughed. Talon and I were in a similar state, minus the mirth. His skin had reddened, and my body was shaking. The rush went as fast as it had started. The flush of our powers matched the sudden wear and tear on our forms. My injuries were starting to sting in full. 

Talon reached into a pocket of his jacket and drew out three bundles the size of hard candies. “Take these,” he said between breaths. “For the infection.”

The battle over and packet in my mouth (surprisingly pleasant, herby mush inside), my reason came back. I went to the mud puddle, searching for signs.

“Anything?” Kes asked before gagging when she ate the packet. Talon glared, and she kept from spitting it up.

“Hold on.” I put my hand fully in the pool. Though blurry, something was in here. Something large, lurking just underneath the surface. “Step back.” Arms together in front of me, I pushed up, wrist flat against wrist, palms pressing towards the sky. The resistance was almost physical like a pile of bricks was pressing down against me. I spat and pushed harder. Slowly, too slowly, the mud parted, and the thing emerged.

It was almost all mouth. A reptilian body with small legs tucked to its side. Easily 15-feet long, it flopped onto the ground. Its mouth hung open, wider than my wingspan and consisting of almost a third of its total size.

Kes seemed sickened between the thing and the pellet. Talon wrinkled his nose. “A Mudweller. A dead one.”

I knelt next to it. I parted its mouth and crawled inside. Kes screamed, the sound well muffled inside the Mudweller’s body. Even though its skin seemed like paper, it was still pitch black inside. I dug around the slime of the insides before I found something solid. A hand.

“Pull me out!”

Hands tugged on my legs. The hand was slick, my body was tired, and I held on like the entire world would fall apart if I let go.

We breached into the mud. Kes and Talon were huffing above us. Everything was going blurry. I kept a hold of the hand, following it up a ruined sleeve until I saw his face, and everything felt whole. Covered in the same slashes wounds, hair caked in mud, looking horrendous was Bass, his chest rising and falling in a weak slumber.

“Thank the Stars,” and the world went dark, the last thing to slip away was the hand clasped in mine.