Chapter 34: Swamps & Skvader

Just like in my dream, it was raining when I woke. I could hear both the sound of it falling around our shelter, along with the sounds of nearby streams and small waterfalls fed by the rain.

Thankfully the burrow remained both warm and dry, the roots and fallen branches that made up the walls of our shelter keeping out the rain while the embers of our tiny fire left the interior warm and slightly smoky. The soothing sound of the rain and warmth of  blankets and the bodies either side of me threatened to send me back to sleep.

Then there were the smells.

Rain, mud, wood smoke, safe body odors and the slightly minty scent of the herbs that Gael had hung above our small fire to cook in the heat. All calming scents that left me feeling lazy, safe, playful and relaxed. I fought the urge to wriggle and squirm and lost. Wriggling my hips in my blankets, I began rolling my wrists and fists pressing them into what was in front of me in a satisfying rhythm that left me feeling happy and content.

Something moved behind me and I felt my back cool slightly causing me to wriggle in closer to the heat source in front of me. The sounds of movement continued, followed by the sounds of canvas dragging on canvas. Cold damp air blew in, leading me to try and burrow deeper in my blankets and the warm mass in front of me. 

The movement returned to behind me and I felt fingers flicking at one of my ears sending it into a flickering spasm. Twisting around I turned to look and growl at the source of annoyance.

Only to receive cold droplets of rainwater flicked at my face.

What!? Who dares?

Gael!

Wait…  I blinked to clear droplets from my eyes and felt a mental fuzziness I hadn’t been aware of receding. 

“You awake now?”

Rolling onto my back, I groaned with embarrassment. 

“Yes…”

* * *

Once our taskmistress had let the hot air out and cool rainy morning air, it wasn’t long before we were all fully awake, dressed, fed and ready to face the day. 

That is if it hadn’t still been raining. In such circumstances, facing the day meant sitting around in our little hollow discussing our plans. 

The night we had left the capital, we had been flown across the Duchy and transported to a discrete location just inside the Barony’s border but behind the current battle lines. A spot that from the nearest road was unhindered by road only a long day’s ride from the Haverhill Barony’s seat of Port Marchnad.

Unfortunately we neither had horses nor a snowball’s chance in hell of traveling along the road unhindered. Our guide had accounted for this by taking us cross country through the forest and what I only now learnt were the Haverhills with the plan of returning to the road after camping at the Forest village ruins, assuming that the roads would be less guarded once we were deeper within the Duchy.

From there the plan had been to follow the road west along the forest’s edge until it reached the marsh, the only road north crossing it and then onto Port Marchnad. 

Haverhill was a barony split in two by terrain. Between the vast forest, the Haverhills and the swamp there were only two roads that linked the northern and southern halves of the Barony together. One road at the Barony’s eastern border and the Imperial Coast Road that crossed the swamp.

As Gael explained it, the Parcosian Empire had managed to build a straight road across the swamp consisting of a series of man-made islands linked by a series of stone bridges. 

Because of the importance of the road, the empire had built towers at both the Northern and Southern sides and stationed dedicated maintenance teams and a small garrison at both. Which was something that had been continued all the way to the modern Warring Duchies era with Parcosian Duchal soldiers garrisoning the towers and overseeing repairs despite its position in the middle of the Haverhill Barony.

Gael had originally been planning on crossing there hoping the Duchal troops were still in control of the road.

Anyway, those plans had been torched when the ruins were attacked by Haverhill forces.

That raid had not only revealed that the Baron could afford to spare soldiers away from the battlefront hunting rebels and refugees within the depths of his Barony and it’s wilderness. Meaning he had forces to spare patrolling the roads and garrisoning checkpoints.

Also the Raid along with the sheer level of conflict in western parcosia and the number of Haverhill soldiers in the south of the Barony despite being in active rebellion suggested that the Imperial Coastal Road’s tower garrisons had been encircled and besieged or breached and overwhelmed. 

Which would mean that the Duchal forces no longer controlled the Imperial Coastal Road and that we were no longer safe to travel it. It also didn’t help that there were Haverhill soldiers that survived the raid on the forest ruins to pass on descriptions of us.

So… New plan.

Gael had taken us north and deeper into the forest and Haverhills to avoid patrols  before swinging west again when we reached that stream bed, which we followed until we reached the swamp. We had exited the forest at roughly the swamps halfway mark, leaving us only needing to cross half of it as we swung north again. 

So from here, Gael’s plan for us was to travel north along the forest swamp fringe, where the terrain is smoother than the Haverhills and forest, but not as waterlogged as the swamp proper. Easier than continuing north through the forest or the swamp, but we would still need to cross the forest’s many streams small and large, where they passed through the fringe and emptied out into the marsh.

Sounds like a fun day and soaked muddy socks and pant legs.