TRAVIS

Travis looked at the two colliding scaleless dragons as they stood eye to eye. Costasiella looked brown and sickly compared to the darker greens of the larger being.

"Release her," Myrllen said, his ears flattened; magic sparkled around his clenched fists.

"What are wyou doing here?" The being took a step back on his own accord, his voice deeper than Costasiella's. They moved their large flexible horns to point backward, but did not retract them. They also had a pair of tiny green tendrils on their nose, like whiskers or a mustache. The stranger glanced at the group of humanoids and eyed Myrllen's magic. But overall, they looked more confused than intimidated. "Who are they? Why are there humanoids with wyou? How can I understand them?!"

"They'wre my new Copia, Kuroh," Costasiella stated. She kept her horns out and relaxed them back, but even her largest pair of horns were tiny compared to his smaller set. Her eyes held a steady gaze. "They—"

"Copia!?!" The being raised their four horn-like tendrils and stared at Costasiella with his mouth agape. "With humanoids?!?! When Costasiella nodded, they continued. "Why? Are they threatenwing wyou?

"They cared for me, saved me from cahptwure, Kuroh. They gave me a pwlase to live, unlike Limax and everywone who voted to banwish me." Costasiella briefly extended all the spots down her back in leaf-like shapes, flaring like an unfurled canvas sail. However, she soon retracted the tendrils along her spine except the ones on her head. She submissively bowed as if she had made a big mistake.

Travis gently put a supporting hand on Costasiella's back, and she glanced back at him with the tiniest of smiles.

Kuroh hesitated. "Why are wyou here, then?"

"We need a Whitewater cup, to save someone's life," Costasiella stated, looking into Kuroh's disapproving eyes. "They only need a seed."

"They've tricked you, they're here to poach and destroy more of our home, trudging through our home and damaging everything." Kuroh raised his horns threateningly.

"No!" Hibisca held a hand out as she tried to run over. However, she barely got a few steps before her feet stuck fast in the muck. "No," she struggled slightly to keep her balance as she slowly retrieved her foot from the non-newtonian muck and put it down in a more stable placement. "I have plant-based magic. I was going to grow more flowers. But I have to find one before I can."

Kuroh looked at her in a distrustful half-glare.

"I can prove it." Hibisca looked at the ferns that populated the small patch of partially dry land and magically made the ferns grow. The fronds that had once been the length of Travis's forearm were now nearly as tall as him.

Marin climbed out from beneath the tall fern and stood. Though covered in mud and orange spores, she didn't seem bothered. "We haven't purposely destroyed anything. If we did, wouldn't we have brought more tools and supplies than these small packs?"

Kuroh's horns relaxed, but distrust hung in the air like morning fog. "I'm takwing wyou to Limax. Costasiella, lead. I wanna keep my eyes on wyou from the rear."

Costasiella nodded and began to walk like she knew where she was going.

The group followed in a slow mucky march, with Kuroh in the rear. Even though he wasn't the last person in the line, Travis still felt Kuroh's gaze drilled into the back of his head.

'Is, is everything ok?' Paragon's worried telepathic voice whispered like a breeze into Travis's mind.

'We've just run into some hiccups,' Travis promised, 'I'm sure we'll get this sorted out soon. One of Costasiella's kind found us and thinks we are trespassing.' He tried to make his thoughts as loud as possible, in case the distance made it hard to hear his typical volume.

Travis felt Paragons stress like a pebble balanced on his head. 'I can't help you well out that far,' the liveship fretted. 'Not even my cannons can shoot that far.'

'We'll be fine and return shortly,' Travis assured.

'I don't know what I would do if you don't,' Paragon admitted. 'I don't like being alone, I can't even talk to the townspeople because of their superstitions. I feel like I'm losing my mind again.' Travis almost felt her fidget anxiously, but he was convinced the feeling was simply a bug landing on his arm.

The captain swatted his arm without looking. 'We'll be safe, I promise. Just stay moored in Verona, don't forget who you are, the amazing Paragon.'

'I... I can do that.' The liveship promised.

Travis couldn't help but feel like there was something else bothering her. He stepped into a hole hidden beneath the murky water and forgot the feeling, instead of focusing on walking through the rough terrain.

They continued through swampy water for what felt like hours. In places, the water was waist-deep, but Costasiella was trying to lead them along shallower areas while still satisfying their captor's will to go straight to Limax, whatever or whoever that was.

"A Lillyfairy." Hibisca breathed as she looked off to the right.

Travis followed her gaze and looked into the distant mire, where a white flower seemed to float on the water's surface. The bright petals stood out among the darker woods like a shining beacon. Little bugs surrounding the white cup-shaped flower glowed like tiny fairies in the light that filtered between the leaves above the land.

Kuroh huffed and nudged Myrllen with his horns when he searched for the flower in the distance. The mage narrowly avoided falling; his boots lodged the in the increasingly sticky muck beneath the deepening water. Thankfully, the tendrils lacked sharp points, but Myrllen flinched as if the hit bruised him.

"Kuroh, don't hurt him." Costasiella glanced back, glaring slightly.

The larger being huffed but didn't prod Myrllen any further as the Stellan finally managed to free his feet and continue traveling.

Soon, they reached a swampy settlement. Dome-like structures made of branches woven together and sealed with mud dotted the area. Many of the constructions were built next to and even between trees. Plants decorated the buildings, from vines covering doorways to flowers and ferns growing on the top.

More creatures like Costasiella took notice of them and stopped to watch with wide and cautious eyes; their horns slightly raised. Some of the larger ones ushered little ones through the vine-covered entrances of the structures. Travis noticed that the smaller ones were all shades of purple with white spots. But the adults were other colors: grey, brown, yellow, orange, red, green, and blue-green with spots a brighter shade of the color of their body.

"Beautiful," Hibisca awed as she looked around.

"I guess is, for a place in a swamp." Marin nodded in agreement.

"Go to the ring," Kuroh instructed, and Costasiella nodded as she changed directions, skirting the edge of the town. Thankfully the tree roots provided space to traverse the land, as the water surrounding the down was too deep for the humanoids to walk, like an invisible moat.

Costasiella lead the group into a ring of trees that grew closely together, with large branches and mud filling the gaps to form a high wall. Travis nearly lost his balance as he peered up to see the top of the structure.

Kuroh motioned for them to climb over a log from an immense tree placed across one side. Trees of increasingly smaller diameters were stacked like stairs next to the massive wall, and Kuroh urged the entire group up them. "Go into the ring," he ordered, gesturing with his horns rather than his hands.

Costasiella went first. She climbed up the smaller logs, then jumped off of the top. She disappeared behind the staircase.

Travis jumped in panic and caught himself on a tree trunk as his foot slipped into the water. "Costa—"

"I'm fine, I'll cahtch wyou," their draconic crewmate called over the log.

"I'll go first," Travis promised, then climbed the moss-covered log, stepping between the fungi that also populated the waterlogged wood. When he reached the top, he looked down into the deep hole. The area was densely shaded; he could barely see her against the dark mud.

Costasiella smiled weakly at him and used her arms and horns to motion him to jump. "'I'll catch wyou, I prahmise." Faint lights appeared on the tips of her horns, but Travis wasn't sure if that was filtered through the trees or from Costasiella herself.

With a deep breath, Travis jumped. He felt like he was falling far longer than e1reality, but he landed in Costasiella's arms. Her skin was soft to the touch, softer than expected. "Thank you, Costasiella," he smiled at his crewmate as she set him down on the ground.

"My pleaswure," the draconic creature nodded to her captain, then looked back up the top of the logs to catch the rest of their group as they jumped. Even up close, Travis wasn't sure if the light was coming from her or above.

Travis glanced around the space. The ground was slightly muddy but above water. Ferns and moss lined the perimeter of the ring, framing the circle in green.

"Heh, I've never seen a dragoo send one of their own down here." A deep voice spoke as a figure stood from the ferns. Mud covered him from the waist down, and his hair bun had a piece of frond stuck within it. "And with a human, no less? I would have never expected a pure human here. Humanoids like that Stellan over there, sure, but not a true human. I thought you humans avoided the region around the source lands like a plague."

Travis glanced at Costasiella as she caught Marin and Myrllen floated down with his magic. He refocused. "Who are you?"

"Name's Jericano." The unfamiliar figure watched Costasiella catch Hibisca, "So who are you, and what are you doing in the lands of the beastoids?" He flicked a bit of mud off his long tail and barely glanced at Travis.

"Beastoids?" Travis blinked.

"Really? You humans don't even teach your children the basics?" Jericano huffed. "You, the pointy-eared ladies, the stellan, you're all humanoids. Ancestral humans were affected by the source during the Awakening and became different species. Me, the dragoo, the Pantherin; we're all beastoids, the source granted our ancestors with intelligence gave us far more than it ever gave the humanoids." He grinned as if that made him superior to humans. "But you didn't answer my questions: who are you, and why are you here with this ragtag group?" 

"I'm Travis," Travis spoke, "and we're here to find a lillyfairy flower."

Jericano burst out laughing. "Aren't we all?"

"We need it to heal someone. We won't sell it," Hibisca interjected as she strolled over. "And we will use magic to grow more of the plant before we leave."

Jericano laughed, then grinned. "That's a good cover story, I'm going to use that one."

Hibisca fumed slightly, and even Marin flexed her hands.

"Let's not fight."'Travis stepped between them.

Humans," Jericano huffed, "always have to control everything."

Travis frowned, but before he could open his mouth,

"Fighting will get us nowhere," she stated. "We just need to wait here until Limax calls us."

"Right, right." Travis slowly bobbed his head while Jericano rolled his eyes.

"Limax? Who is that?" Myrllen asked, looking up to Costasiella

"The leader of the Copia." She replied, but Jericano interjected.

"The Dragoo with the biggest horns," The beastoid stated, "he controls everything in the dragoo culture."

"That's a way of puttwing it." Costasiella slowly nodded.

Myrllen paused, "So does that mean Travis is our Limax? He's the leader, and Costasiella," he looked up to the draconic figure, "you called us your Copia."

Travis stood in shock as Costasiella nodded. "Yes," she slowly responded, "he is."

"Oh, he's your Limax?" A deep voice from above stated. A towering silhouette stared down from atop the log wall. "Then I shall twalk to him fwirst."

Author Notes!
DUN DUN DUUUUNNNN
XD

Two cliffhangers in a row!??? Is that allowed!?

I hope you enjoyed the chapter!