沼泽儿童

[Yahiko]

flashback
南部的沼泽水国

There were nine of us that mornin'. Well eleven, technically, if yer countin' -- nevermind. Nine of us. It had been one of those nights. Nighttime in the bog is much different then normal nighttime, you see. And that night there'd been no moon, just clouds and darkness. The veil between this world and the next was thinner than Elder Shama's hair, so we were all weary. Our catch was real light that night - we reckoned that the game probably knew more about the night's thin veil than we did, bein' that animals pick up on that kinda stuff more than humans. We did manage a few salmon though.

We were all attentive and steady as we trekked through the night. All except for one - a woman. Her legs shook, her eyes swam, she struggled to keep up but her weak body made her stagger behind our group. Pregnancy and a black night in the bog had taken it's toll. She called to her husband and he turned and headed to her aid. Then the swamp began to shake. I could hear birds cryin' in the distance as they fled to the skies. We all stumbled and fell and could only watch as the swamp up and swallowed the woman whole. Literally, a stream of water rose from the bog, wrapped around her, and sucked her into the water.

Her husband got up and rushed into the water, and searched and searched, but there was nothin'... nothin' but fallen moss and swamp grime. The shakin' had stopped and everything had grown quiet - really quiet. I'd never heard silence like that. Still haven't. I split the silence when I screamed her name, screaming for the swamp to give her back. The water began to ripple, slowly at first but then violently. And then it rose from the water. A massive, faceless salamander - must have been twenty -- no, thirty feet tall. The man yelled to it "Give me back what you've taken, give me back my wife!"

The beast lowered it's head and opened its mouth. It's massive tongue extended and unwrapped to me. Held in it was the woman, and in her arms were two pale, red-haired, baby boys. It was --

"Wait, papa!" a child's voice interrupted. "Ain't no salamander bigger than ten feet in those swamps!" the voice added.

"Will you let me finish the story, boy." an older voice solemnly spoke.