The storm was beginning to subside, and turning into a light drizzle. Boophis had been on this stealthy trek for nearly two hours. He had kept cover near trees in the fens, and swam underneath rivers in the marshes when he was too exposed. Tracking this arduous route was not hard, you just had to follow the stench of death. “Carrion stream” is what Ghost named it. The fresh-water bogs neighbouring the Frogmarch River became flooded with salt water, ever since the Eye of Abendego. The further in he went, the more dead-trees he found, the more his minor cuts stung, and the worse the smell got. The fat Boggard came across a dam made of rotting dead fish, separating the water from the rest of the swamp. The bones of small creatures littered in the polluted water and on the dying grass, scavenging birds picked apart the meat contained in the pile. Despite the morbid appearance of this place, it was quite safe, no one in their right mind would look for food here. After so long without any real challenge Boophis had gotten lazy. The Fat Boggard sat against the pile, the diseased carrion moving aside to allow him room. He took out the dead rat from his pouch, and stuffed his face.

Consecutive snapping of a nearby leafless shrub started the Boggard to his feet. The tail of the rat was still dangling from his froggy lips,  so he sucked in, and gulped. Boophis raised his wand with his left hand, and extended his off-hand outwards, frost crackling between his fingertips. From behind the shrub, a familiar grey boar's head peeked up to look at Boophis. It squealed loudly and fled. Boophis instead of firing his ray, flew into a rage. 

'You always do this! Come back and face me you coward!' His cries were dampened by the wilted trees, and the Boggard kicked up some fish bones in frustration, 'how does Fallax kill so many of those things, they are so timid!?' He sighed. Gogunta has given me so many boons for a reason, they could not be failing me, these dumb animals do not know their place.

A roar passed through the swamp, distant, from the east, miles away. Its ferocity caused the carrion to fly off. Boophis acknowledged the roar, but tried to stay focussed on his anger. The Eye of Abendego still stirred in the distance, though it was not in sight, the gale could be heard at all times. The trek distracted him from the noise, but now he was out of distractions. Just like that, Boophis’s mind had become lost once more.

 

The needle pierced the fat juvenile’s flesh, the pain he would have to bear, it was a price to pay for Gogunta’s love.

‘What was it like… before all this?’ Boophis asked, through gritted teeth.

‘Wasn’t born,’ answered Shiitake, the druid was focussed on inking the fat Boggard's belly. Despite the psychedelic mushrooms in her system, she was still quite adept with the needle.

‘Did my father ever talk about it?’

‘Oh yes, he told me the tale, once.’

‘Well,’ Boophis was slightly frustrated, ‘could you tell me about it?’

‘Ehh… I can tell you what I recall, but it might break my focus.’

‘I… can handle it.’ Boophis said, unsure of himself.

Shiitake laughed, and jammed the needle in just a little too far, Boophis yelped - and quickly covered his mouth, hoping no one heard. Shiitake’s expression went sullen, and she set down the needle.

‘Before the Eye,’ she began, ‘over… twenty something years ago? It was the humans. Lirgeni they called themselves. They would cull our people, so we would try and take revenge, it was a time of… stagnancy. But we all worshipped the Frog Mother, with a few exceptions so it was… better, I think.’ Shiitake picked back up the needle.

‘Why did they stop?’ Boophis jerked at the sight of the needle.

‘Hmm…’ Shiitake sighed, ‘Breviceps prayed for the “Lirgen kingdom” to crumble, and that prayer was answered in the form of the Eye. It brought destruction to these Sodden Lands and…’ Shiitake interrupted the speech mid-sentence to yawn, her eyes glazed over, fell shut, and she began to snore.

‘Erm… elder?’ Boophis leaned forward and shook the druid’s shoulder, ‘elder, what happened next?’

Shiitake awoke, and jammed the needle into Boophis’s belly, its pierce felt deep - but no blood was drawn, the fat Boggard covered his mouth to prevent a scream.

‘What happened?’ she scrabbled the needle across his chest quickly, with precision. Her eyes were pupil-less and faded, she was not paying attention to her inking, ‘one god’s answer was mistaken for another. A pretender named the “Great Beast” took their minds-!’

‘I - !’ Boophis recoiled instinctively, Shiitake shoved the Juvenile to the ground and pressed her weight against him.

‘Shh… “the Frog Mother was killed, leaving behind a hundred widows. And those widows died too. She was killed by a Great Beast, and the rest were killed by us.” That is what the heretics said, Breviceps’s father was murdered, and so were all other fathers. We are the last of the true faith, the rest worship the Great Beast. We run so they can’t catch us, and hide in holes so they can’t find us. We claim to follow the faith, but to live, we must break it…’

Shiitake flicked the needle away, stood up, and fell unconscious. She snored. Boophis looked down, his tattoo was finished, adeptly done, he could not smell blood. A reed was sticking out of his belly, so he ripped it out, the smell of the swamp began to fade.

 

Boophis shook away the vision, he was squatting down by some reeds next to a downhill stream. On either side of the stream were plenty of solid ground and tall trees. The air smelt oddly clean, and the lighter humidity made Boophis realise he was out of place. This was no swamp, it was a jungle.

Curses, hexes, damn it all - where am I? I have never seen this place before, it is uncomfortably mild. This place holds none of Gogunta’s beauty, I need to leave, just try to find the smell of corpses... Boophis began to turn away, but his escape was intercepted by a most intriguing noise, not a roar, not a squeal, but a low frequency buzz. He reluctantly turned to face the stream, and saw glistening reflective lights floating above it, barely visible through the drizzle. Focussing on their swift movements, he could tell they were insects for sure - but they were not bloodseekers no, they were dragonflies. Blue Dragonflies Boophis completely froze. They were so elusive, and his father had begun to hoard what few they had all to himself. It had been so long since he had eaten one of those Beatific insects, that it was starting to dull his connection to Gogunta. The Priest clutched his head as a sudden pulse of pain rang through his brain, it truly had been so long, he felt lost, he hadn’t seen the Mother for weeks, or heard her song for months. It was as if he was reminded of a headache that never went away. He had to have it, now. Boophis crouched behind a small hedge.

The dragonfly was streaking across the air, moving in clean direct patterns - getting closer, it was fixated on… something, it did not matter, Boophis was close, his tongue could definitely stretch and snatch it. As it began to get within reach, there was another earth shattering roar, coming from the distance. It did not startle the dragonfly, luckily, but it did remind him of something, the roar, the buzzing… It was all so familiar, his instincts silenced the buzzing, his senses honed into a new sound, whistling. 

Boophis leaped out of the hedge as two sharp javelins ripped through the foliage and planted themselves into the grassy dirt. Boophis landed, spinning his heel in the dirt to face his attackers. Boggards, three of them, their flesh had a muddy grey colour. The trio were armed with javelins and light leather armour. He did not recognise them, or their strange markings, but evidently, they wanted him dead. Three were far too many for him to handle.

The assailants let out a cascade of discordant croaking, Boophis cocked his head to the now retreating dragonflies, then back to them, two thoughts crossed his mind: Do these idiots not know her Song has no effect on Boggards? The other was they scared off the dragonfly, now he was angry.

Boophis drew his wand and fired a Ray of Frost towards the one in the centre, enveloping the fool in ice. They staggered backwards - and its two companions ceased croaking to give Boophis a look of shock, quickly turning to rage. Boophis lowered his hand slowly, regretting his decision. One discordant song still rang out, not from the attackers though, a fourth Boggard burst out from the leaves of a nearby willow tree, and smashed the rightmost Boggard’s head in with a club. The Mother granted an opportunity, he was not going waste it. The Priest fled down the river banking and dived in, going a few feet deep - almost smashing his head against the streambed. While swimming, he noticed a dark expanse to the left, similar to an underwater cave - the current was going to drag him past and he was unsure if venturing in was sound. The muffled splash of a creature diving in after him made that decision easier. Boophis beat his webbed feet like a salmon and made a sharp turn into the opening, swimming as swiftly as he could. 

It was dark, very dark, his low-light vision picking up on little pockets of light bleeding through the muddy floor overhead. While he was quite accustomed to the water, he was out of his depth here. Twisting his body to look back, it seemed as though he was not followed, Boophis pondered if that Boggard was a coward, or if the Priest had made some terrible judgement.

 

Boophis swam for a while in the sump, he was not sure how long. But it was quiet here. He wasn't struggling to breathe, but he couldn't stay for much longer, the lack of oxygen was starting to play on his mind, not helped by the rapid beating of his heart. Gogunta forgive me, my heart is beyond my control, I ask you, because the sump will... and my body… my body weakens, the Priest swam up and pressed against the dirt ceiling, it was solid, this waterbed was thicker than any he’d come across. Now Boophis started to panic, he could not escape.  Something swirled passed him. He strained his neck to look, but it was futile, there was no longer any visibility. 

His gut was pierced by several sharp pin pricks. He clutched at the assailing entity, it felt like some sort of spiny fish - so yanked it off. But then something chomped his leg, he sank further in the sump as tried to deal with this one.

He heard the body of water swirling around him, fish, dozens if not hundreds of them. For the first time today, Boophis had completely stopped thinking. He drew his Blatt-knife, shot back up towards the muddy ceiling, and desperately hacked away with all his might. He battled the resistance of the water with each swing. Little teeth began to penetrate all around him, he could feel his body leak. The pain was immense, yet he continued hacking away. One bite went deep, and Boophis gasped, taking in a breath of water. His senses grew frantic, as did his strikes. By the grace of Gogunta, one mighty swing sliced open a small hole, creating a pocket of red tinted light. His vision outside was obscured by all the blood floating in the water, his blood. He thrust his hands through the pocket to get purchase on either side, and pulled awkwardly upwards, kicking against the water and fish as he did. After some pushing, shimmying, and twisting his head surfaced. He tried to breathe, but coughed instead. He pulled further to get his torso through, his belly got wedged in the small gap, so with a better grip, he just pushed harder, down against the ground. Finally, he was free. 

He coughed up water from his lungs, gasping for air in between each expulsion. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a few of the toothed fish had got stuck in the ground trying to follow him out. Piranhas, freshwater fish in a saltwater marsh, what sense does that make?

‘Argh!’ Boophis ripped off some stragglers that were clinging on to his feet. He hoped he had not screamed too loud. The Priest decided to investigate one thing at a time, looking down to inspect his wounds, he  felt shame. Imagination and panic made it all seem so much worse than it really was, mostly superficial teeth marks, the fish could not bite into his rubbery hide deep enough to cause real damage, the bleeding would stop on its own. Boophis decided to lay there, for just a few moments.

 

The rain had stopped, the fat Boogard lay in a clearing surrounded by vine wrapped luscious trees of varied types, the grass had a nice parakeet hue, and the ground was muddy, but otherwise fertile and squishy. Birds chirped in the distance, but Boophis was otherwise alone.

A sharp jostle of foliage alerted Boophis to the east. A Boggard leaped out, and hurled one javelin whilst in mid-air. Boophis rolled out of the way, and the javelin sunk into the grass, the ground bleeding muddy red water. As the Boggard landed, the whole ground bobbed, and he bounced back into the air a few feet before landing again, finding his footing. Boophis jiggled just as the ground did, it seemed the clearing was one large waterbed, a thick layer of soil sitting atop a body of water. The fat Boggard sighed, his pursuer found him.

Boophis fired a ray of frost straight towards the enemy toad-folk, capitalising on his foe's disorientation. It was a direct hit, the assailant was enveloped with icy wind. Boophis knew this was not going to be enough, so he plucked the javelin out of the ground, and stowed his wand in favour for the Blatt-Knife in his off hand, the new hole now spurting bloody sludge. His enemy had already shrugged off the frost, and ran haphazardly towards Boophis, still not acclimated to the new bouncy environment. Boophis quickly seized up his foe. Malnourished, pocky flesh, not tall, almost three feet. Thin leather straps offering no protection, strange eye-mouth tattoo on a large mump on their shoulder - armed with a morningstar. Seems they were out of javelins. The young Upstart hissed a series of insidious characters as they closed the gap, speaking in Abyssal, the language demons. Boophis already devised a plan to deal with this fool. 

The Upstart closed in, Boophis leaped hard into the air and flew a short distance back, the waterbed shook, and the force created a ground ripple, tripping the Upstart. Boophis landed, clumsily, and hurled the javelin towards his foe before they could stand up. The sound of shredding meat and shattering ribs was delicious to Boophis's tympanum (frog ear). The Upstart cursed the chest wound, tore out the javelin, and tossed it aside, continuing its pursuit. Boophis, now with a free hand, attempted a ray of frost, but no magic came for he forgot to draw his wand. In an act of desperation, Boophis attempted the jump again, but before he could, the Upstart shot out its tongue - latching onto Boophis's arm. The fat Boggard leaped a few feet back, then with a jerk, came crashing down onto his arse, dragging the Upstart across the waterbed whilst the ground bobbed in protest. They squatted onto all fours and leaped forward, striking quickly across Boophis’s face with the morningstar. Boophis felt his jaw crack and his already cut up flesh slice from the barbs, the Upstart landed on him, but the waterbed cushioned the impact.

Boophis got angry. With his free hand he clutched onto the Upstart's sticky tongue, then reeled his leg back to deliver a full force kick to its belly. The abdominal smite made the Upstart's eyes bulge, and the force launched them away. Their tongue reached full extension, and the force pulled the Fat Boggard to his feet.  Finishing this manoeuvre, Boophis sliced the upstart's tongue with his blatt-knife, severing it - and causing the weakling to bounce back down and sprawl about in pain, winded, and stunned, bleeding from the mouth and chest. This still did not abate the Priests' anger. Boophis wrapped the severed tongue around the Upstart’s neck, and tried to garrote them.

'No,' Boophis said as they squirmed in his grip, 'let the Swamp deal with her traitorous filth.'

The Priest dragged the Upstart across the ground like a sack of meat, over to the opening in the ground he had made earlier. 

'You run from the Mother!?' Boophis screamed, ‘face her!’ He rammed their head underwater, the Upstart squirming as the piranhas dined on their face.

 

‘Why must he die?’

The onlookers turned to face the fat juvenile’s innocent question. A few shook their heads, whilst others looked at him ferociously.

‘Apostates receive no quarter,’ answered Breviceps, ‘Once you run from the Mother’s grace, you are already a faithless corpse.’

The Priest King used his powerful magic, water rose from the stream and was forced down the apostate's throat. The Boggard squirmed as the water filled his lungs. They fell, their vocal sac expanding with the river's contents, then their belly expanded. The helpless creature rolled onto its side, and reached out to Boophis, before falling limp. It took seconds for them to drown.

‘Life is truth, truth is love, Her love. If you turn from Her love, then you turn from life, let this be a reminder.’

‘What if they do not know?’ Boophis asked, ‘those toadies who drove us out the swamp, they need death, but their children do not know any better, so is it right that we-’

Boophis felt a sharp pain across the back of his head. The next thing he knew,  he was being carried downstream by the river. He was not sure who did it, but he knew why it had been done.

 

Boophis yanked the juvenile out of the water, and they coughed relentlessly, piranhas still latched onto their face. Boophis grabbed the morningstar off the ground, and stood over him.

The heretical Juvenile frantically ripped the jungle fish off their face. Sprawling about in the muck as they desperately gasped for air. They saw Boophis, and tried to dart to their feet. 

'Don't,' Boophis warned, 'lay there.' 

‘Viik malas Valla?' The Juvenile growled in response.

'Speak in our tongue,’ Boophis warned, ‘else your brains be mashed into sludge, I would not want to waste any for my next meal.' Boophis said this, but he actually wasn't sure how Boggard brain tasted.

'Fine mathter,' the juvenile replied sarcastically, their half-tongue struggling to enunciate in a mouth of blood, ‘what you want?’

Boophis took a minute to think of what to ask, his head still sort of throbbed, but it numbed the pain in his jaw, 'I demand to know what you are doing here,' was the best he could manage.

'Ki’ing you!'

'Excellent job, by the way,' Boophis's arm was starting to get tired, so he lowered the morningstar slightly, 'I'll rephrase then, when did you move here? We were the only tribe near this side of the Frogmarch, you couldn't have been here long.'

'Fithy big-thpawn, thith plathe is ourth, the Eye of Rovagug made it ourth.'

Boophis was starting to get put off the idea of Boggard brain, 'that hurricane is not the work of your “great beast,” heretic.’

The Juvenile rocked onto their side to get a better look at Boophis, ‘of courth he did!’ They hocked up a globule of blood, ‘he ith dethrtu- detht… Carnage! Death itthelf… only he…’

'Mother,’ Boophis felt a vein bulge atop his head, ‘grant your most loyal prophet the strength to teach this child a lesson…'

The Juvenile laughed, 'your Bitch-Mother couldn’t kill a fly!’

'HOW DARE YOU! Your insolence is nothing compared to your ignorance - I should smash your face in till the pulp fertilises the soil! That Hurricane is not even anything to do with… “Rovagug”, you are not only misguided, but stupid, stupid beyond belief!'

‘We were made to desthtroy! The Eye tellth uth to spread death, that goeth for the thwamp!’

‘We were made to protect the swamp! Gogunta made the swamp, then put us here. We live, we fight, and we die for her, that is as it has always been!’

The Juvenile spat blood into Boophis’s face, 'you’re right, you’ll die and tho will she. We kill you down here, Rovagug killth your brine-gutthling bitth mother up there! He’th nearly free, he-' 

The bestial roar permeated through the swamp once again, the Upstart suddenly paused, facing off in the direction of the roar.

Boophis grabbed the Upstart by the throat and pulled them up towards his face, "We." Boophis repeated, 'there's more than just three of you here aren't there? A school of you?' Boophis was eerily calm, 'you are not even a Boggard anymore, you are a husk, an empty shell, just meat for the swamp.'

The Upstart for the first time, looked frightened.

'When I escaped from you, I robbed you of a meal, apologies, it is time to give back to nature.'

The Upstart looked beyond confused, but then realised Boophis was not speaking to him.