_______________

Magic overload damage (mental strain): 25%, Exhaustion (mental strain): 95%
Memories of last event have degraded to only 10% retention.
Time for restructuring: 25 minutes. Sleep Mode automatically engaged.

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Restructuring done. Last memory recovery: 35%. Sleep Mode ended. Accelerating time... Done.

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I opened my eyes and I was still on my side in the boat. I lifted my head and looked around to see that we were in a part of the marsh that I hadn't seen before. I honestly couldn't remember where I was or how I got there. I sat up as I pushed the blanket off and only Roy was there. He wasn't tied up, either. I immediately felt for my bandoleer and noticed several potions were missing.

“You...” I said and stood up as I used the vigilance technique.

“Whoa, there!” Roy said and held his hands up to stop me. “I didn't touch them! Alex and Donna took your healing and poison potions!”

I could tell that he wasn't lying; but, I didn't trust him. “Where are they?”

“They went out into the marsh that way.” Roy said and pointed. “They said something about scouting enemy territory, which is honestly the craziest thing I ever heard.”

“Why were you left behind?” I asked.

“To protect you and the boat.” Roy said.

I laughed. “You're funny.” I said and looked around. The two half sacks of ingredients were there beside my bag of panther pelts, as were the wooden plaques. I checked my pack and none of the ones I had previously carved were missing. “They left without a ward?”

“None of us are magic users and we can't activate it.” Roy said with a shrug.

_______________

You have a choice to make. Will it be the right one?

A) Stay and wait. B) Leave with the boat. C) Go after them. D) Knock Roy out. E) Choose two.

Oh, that's a simple choice. I choose D and C.

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“They were lucky, because anyone seeing animals fleeing can follow it back to where it happened from.” I said and swung a wooden plaque at his forehead. There was a solid thunk sound and Roy was knocked unconscious. “I can't have you try to follow me.” I said and tied his hands up behind his back and packed my things.

I slipped the pack back on, in case the others were farther away than I thought they were. I didn't know how long I was unconscious, so I was starting off with no previous knowledge, no current knowledge, and no idea how far into the marsh they had gone. I noticed that the bag with meat jerky was only half full now, which meant they were planning to be gone for a while.

“Damn idiots.” I said and hopped out of the boat. I looked where Roy had said was the direction they went and nothing was disturbed. I huffed at the obvious lie and slowly walked around and checked for footprints, especially army boot prints. I found them easily, three sets, and shook my head. They weren't even trying to cover up their tracks.

I used my bare feet to wipe out the evidence of each boot print that I could see. If I was lucky, I wouldn't be too far behind them or they would be on their way back. If I was unlucky, I might have to bring their bodies back.

I'm glad I have lots of rope. I thought and moved off into the marsh.

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Montage mode engaged. Travel times compressing... Done.

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Nearly eight hours later of travelling, I was poised behind a partially fallen tree and watched a small group of oddly dressed men walking around in large circles in a huge dry area. I had no clue what they were doing and watched for nearly twenty minutes before they suddenly stopped, broke up and kind of saluted each other, then they moved off in different directions.

“Go! Go! Go!” Alex hissed under his breath and then he and Donna came out from a hidden spot nearby with and unconscious Rich carried between them. His arms were over their shoulders and they held him tightly as they crossed into the part of the marsh I was in. The funny thing was, they were dressed the same as those other people.

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You have a choice to make. It will be critical for your standing with the army and especially Alex and Donna.

A) Confront them. B) Attack them. C) Let them pass. D) Help them. E) Run. F) Choose two.

That's a bit more complicated. I thought and read the options again. I'll choose D and A.

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“Hand him over.” I whispered and stepped out from where I was hiding.

“David!” Donna gasped.

“Shh!” Alex hushed her. “We have to go! They're searching with spells now.”

I felt something like a magic protection bubble come near and held my hand out towards it. I used the same dispel spell and the bubble popped. There was a yelp of pain and then someone cursed. The bubble didn't come back.

I turned around and bent down to let Alex and Donna hang Rich over my backpack and gave me his arms to hold to keep him in place. “Stop leaving tracks. Follow me and step where I step. ” I said as I grabbed Rich's wrists and stood up. I started out with a jog and kept that pace for nearly an hour.

“Uhhhh.” Rich moaned and I came to a stop. I knelt as I let his arms go and he flopped off of my pack and onto the ground on his back.

“David!” Donna whispered as she came to a stop, her breathing heavy. “Be more careful with him.”

“Why?” I asked, not bothering to keep my voice down. We were far enough away from wherever that was to not be heard.

“He's unconscious and a fellow soldier.” Alex said and knelt to check him.

“He's waking up.” I said. “He stole from me, just like you did.”

“David!” Donna gasped. “We appropriated the required resources need for the mission!”

“Without waking me or telling me.” I said.

“We couldn't wait that long.” Alex said.

“Ugh. What hit me?” Rich asked and rubbed his head.

“I'm pretty sure it was a rock about this big that was flung with magic.” Alex said and made a shape with his hands.

“Why aren't I dead?” Rich asked and sat up.

“We applied healing potion to the wound and made you drink the rest.” Donna said and gave me a look.

“You still took it.” I said and she sighed.

“I ordered her to take them from you, so we wouldn't have to take any from the crates.” Alex said.

“I don't have snake juice or spider juice in the crates.” I said and he sighed this time. “You used them all, didn't you?”

“Yes. We didn't know there would be so many snakes and spiders to fight.” Alex said.

I frowned at him. “You drank one after every bite, didn't you?” I asked and they nodded. “That was stupid. I've told you...”

“Now's not the time.” Donna said. “Rich, can you walk?”

“Yeah.” Rich said and stood up.

“Let's go.” Alex said and looked at me. “We'll follow your lead.”

“What's that mean?” I asked.

“We will do what you do and follow your actions as closely as we can.” Alex said.

“You haven't so far.” I said.

“That's because I am the commanding officer and you have to follow my orders.” Alex said.

“Not if they get me killed.” I said.

Alex gave me a stern look. “I'll do my best to not do that.”

“You went after that baby dragon and that was really stupid.” I said and his face paled. “I never would have done that.”

“We didn't know it was a baby.” Donna said.

“You don't know a lot about the marsh.” I said and she sighed.

“We can discuss this later.” Alex said. “David, lead the way.”

_______________

You have a minor choice to make. Will you stay calm or act out?

A) Run. B) Lead properly. C) Show off. D) Go slow to irritate them. E) Make him do it.

I don't think I want to lead them. They can take my stuff whenever they want and now I don't have any snake juice or spider juice to save myself if we get attacked. I don't have the ingredients to make any more, either. I thought. So, screw it. I choose A.

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“No. I don't want to die because you don't know what you're doing. You can find your own way back, since you're in command.” I said and turned around. “You better not get bitten by anything, because you'll die, since you wasted all my potions.”

Donna took in a sharp breath and I took off running at my top speed.

“DAVID!” Donna yelled.

I heard her be hushed and shook my head at their stupidity. I took out my knife and did my best to kill anything deadly that came anywhere near to where their path back to the boat was. They had a long trek back to where it was and I was sure that after they spent another eight or ten hours walking, they were going to be angry at me.

I couldn't leave the dead creatures lying around either, since that would lead someone easily back to us. I stopped and took out a protection ward and used some potion to fill the spaces and activated it. From that point on, I walked. They would never catch up to me until I stopped moving, just like back at the Addams farm.

That brought my thoughts back to what happened earlier and I wanted to kill them all. They dared to have a great life, all because of me, and not one of them said that they were sorry that it happened. Except for Hope. She said she was sorry I was sold and her thoughts said she missed me. No one ever said that to me before. Well, neither did she, really.

I shook my head and my eyes caught sight of some nice fresh ingredients. I diverted over and grabbed several handfuls, then slipped off my pack and stuffed as much of them in as I could. I needed to replace those venom juices, because needing them was practically a necessity in the marsh, even if I didn't know where I was at the time.

I went back to the main path and continued on. I mentally marked the spots I recognized as good ingredient areas, even though I wasn't actually planning to come back this way. It was just something I automatically did, because I had done it ever since I was a little kid. I also knew that if I ever did come back this way, it was definitely a much better harvesting area than back where I lived.

The problem was having to go through the dragon's territory to get here. That was a big no-no, so I gave up on that idea. I sighed, because the dragon's main nest was the fungus bulb site. I wasn't getting any of them again, unless I found some other source for them. That was unlikely, since finding those had been a lucky break that the Hag and I had benefited from for years. That was definitely too much to ask for.

_______________

Montage mode engaged. Travelling sped up. Resuming.

_______________

I arrived back at the boat and Roy stared daggers at me and was clearly angry. I ignored him and climbed onto the boat. I was very tempted to take a canvas bag back into the marsh while we waited, then decided that was a bad idea. The last time had been near disastrous, so I took off my pack and took out the ingredients and added them to one of the half-filled canvas bags.

I closed my pack and opened up the canvas bag with my stew in it. The smell was great and I sat down to wait for the others. I reached into the sack and pulled out a handful of the contents and started eating. I occasionally tilted it up enough to drink some of the broth and it was delicious, even cold. That fungus powder was great stuff.