Our talk was all smiles and pleasantries, at least for the first brief moments of complete introduction. I had even felt the first tugs of admiration and respect when Apollo declined my offer with gentle taste. He was amusing, mostly because of respectful attitude that one could only wish every high-strung unicorn wore. It was a rare trait among Helovia’s wild children, usually their rough sunrise to sunset lives fashioned selfishness and unstable greed. In a way though, I envied his freedom--untethered by position and responsibility of clanlife. Instead I was at the beck and call of a Sultana’s whim, but what right did I have to complain? Others were surely less fortunate and wasn’t herdlife the existence I had chosen?

Above everything else, were not my vows so important that even if Kri judged all homeless lads and ladies scum of the earth and called for a mass rising. Wouldn’t I join brothers and sisters in arms and give those same orders to my soldier underlings? Would this gentle spoken man, pleasant and friendly, become my enemy? It was easy to call a brother traitorous or even see hate when they spat words of discontent, and threw weapon around to jab at what passed.

Apollo wasn’t like that, and neither was Ktulu.

It wasn’t until my mouth opened to give entire purpose that second thoughts about my judgment began to take shape. Rumor had led me here, and now it was rumor that I shared and offered willingly enough to pursue. The only creature fanning the flames of gossip was me. I stared into the murky water stricken with wondering, did he think me for a complete idiot for chasing stories of ghosts and ghouls?

“Do you mean… that the dead rise here?”

His shuttering words and snorting gave me cause to look up and catch friend gazing around with surprisingly huge eyes, almost as if he expected the swamp to come to life by merely talking about death. My lips twitched, not out of jest for his fear, but mostly in comfort of the fact that my own reaction had been of similar proportion. Tor must be proud to know she had given reason for a warrior to shiver and shake. Had I only taken a moment to think, what did all of Helovia have in common with tales of the undead and unnatural? Magic. Magic was the likely culprit in just about every instance involving stories. I wasn’t sure why this knowledge felt comforting; power could be dangerous and unpredictable, but it could also be explained.

Somehow the idea of explanation made me calm and reasonable sounding, “Those rumors were most likely the jest of a stranger who happened upon this place during the darkness of night and fell prey to childish pranks given realistic life by a mortal.”

Any location could play tricks with the mind if said hour was late and heart weak by either physical or emotional stress. This marsh was covered in sticky brown green, from treetop to moss covered floor. It allowed very little daylight to filter through the denseness, even less so on a moonless night. Shadows and smells were strong enough to tickle the sternest of resolve during afternoon hours; lord only knew what they would do when darkness fell. I hadn’t heard of any conjurors of late. Though I had met an immortal child a few seasons back, what’s to say that this entire place wasn’t full of tricks and traps?

I glanced down again, taking comfort that the Overo hadn’t witnessed anything either.“But…” Gaze trailed up curiously, but, “what?” I wouldn’t have to ask or wonder long, Apollo spoke quickly enough, “If, perchance, the rumors are true, shouldn’t we look deeper into the marsh? What if someone gets hurt, because we don’t find the truth of it all?” muzzle followed neck to proper level while considering eyes locked into the dark pools of this valiant friend.

Sure, I thought after a moment of pondering, why not?

“Perhaps your right,” I said with bemused tone, “we can keep searching for signs.” A weight rose from shoulders, and for the first time in awhile I felt relieved at finding another soul that actually seemed to care about the world and its inhabitants, “Led the way if you want, I’ll guard your flank.” This wasn’t a territory were we could walk side by side, unless one decided to take a waddle through murky liquid; which that person wasn’t going to be this sap. Just the mere thought of squishing and squashing over hidden treasures made my skin prickle.