Kaito’s acquaintance lived in a swamp. Though Suzume had never had the displeasure of stepping foot in a swamp before, she imagined this was the worst of them all. There were no pathways, so they were forced to jump from slippery, slime-covered rocks across a bubbling brown mud that somehow constituted water. Suzume had slipped at least ten different times and her pants were soaked up to the knee. Hundreds of thousands of tiny buzzing insects had made a feast of her and her skin was already marred by angry red welts where they had dined upon her. Now would be a good time to learn how to zap things with my powers. She thought as she swatted at another insect that had landed on her neck.

Her veiled hat had been lost when they had entered a bamboo forest that marked the entrance to the swamp. A branch had snagged the hat and Suzume along with it. She had made the mistake of trying to force her way free and bent the bamboo forward. The branch was much more pliant than she had calculated and when she broke free, her hat came off her head and was launched into the forest, never to be seen again.

As Suzume lamented the loss of her hat, her foot slipped on another slick rock and she went into the boggy mud. She landed with a plunk. Mud flew into the air and landed back on Suzume on her face and hair. The thick brown water squirted and squished as she tried to climb back out. The mud that had landed on her face was rolling down her cheek leaving a slimy trail on her skin.

Kaito –She could not keep calling him ‘the dragon’—stood a few feet ahead of her at the edge of a rare patch of earth.

“We don’t have time to stop and play in the mud,” he called out to her.

She scowled at him but it lost some of its power when she was covered head to toe in muck. “I am not playing in the mud. I slipped. Why does your friend have to live in such a disgusting place anyway?”

“Looks like you’re playing with it to me.” He smirked and ignored her protests.

She had no rebuttal, and she decided to revert to more childish antics. She stuck her tongue out at him.

Kaito laughed and then said, “I don’t mind this place so much. It’s tranquil.” He held up his hand and dragonfly with shimmering blue wings landed on the tip of his finger.

Suzume huffed and dragged herself out of the mud which made a sucking sound with each labored step. Her pants were clinging to her thighs and her long sleeves were weighed down with saturation. She trudged over to him on the island in the center of the mud.

“Your idea of tranquil and my idea of tranquil vary greatly.” She shook her hands and mud went flying in all directions. Kaito dodged a particularly large glob that she had aimed at his head. “How much farther is this place?”

“We’re here,” He replied with a wave of his hand around them to indicate the dirt patch on which they stood.

Suzume looked around they were on an island perhaps the length of her arm span before it widen to maybe twice that at the far end where a grass cover mound sat.

“You brought me into the middle of the swamp for...this?” She swept her arm across the landscape. The trees were different here than anything she had seen before. There roots were above the water line and they looked like hundreds of coiling snakes curling and jutting out of the brown muddy water. Land was a rare sight and it was predominantly water and trees.

“That I did. Maybe we can make this our summer home,” he grinned.

She narrowed her eyes at him but before she could snap back a retort, something else spoke instead. “I know this voice, though long has it been since I heard it.”

Suzume glanced about looking for the speaker but there was no one there but Kaito and her.

“Did I hear someone talking just now?” Suzume asked.

“You did. It was I,” the voice said.

Suzume was spinning in circles now and mud was flinging every which way as she did so. “This isn’t funny, Kaito.”

Kaito was laughing hard enough that tears were streaming down his cheeks. He was clutching his knees and waving his hand towards the mound. It had moved closer. In fact there were two bulbous protrusions on the top of the mound that she had not noticed before either. Lids slid back from the protrusions and revealed a pair of giant eyes.

Suzume screeched and fell backwards onto her rump. Kaito was still laughing and the creature opened a wide mouth which revealed an enormous pink cavern. It bellowed something akin to a laugh. The creature’s breath stank like fish and the mucky water.

Suzume climbed onto her knees and frowned at the two of them. Kaito stopped laughing and went to kneel in front of the creature which had raised itself off the ground by a few inches and sported short stubby legs that were draped in slimy moss. The creature’s feet were webbed and greenish brown. They sunk down into the soft earth at his feet. His back too appeared to be covered in grass and moss. There was even a small bush growing on his back. His body was round and he had a flat head dominated by his enormous mouth which appeared to cut his head in half. On top of his head were his two bulbous eyes which had a slight sheen that made them appear moist.

“I have not had quite this much fun in a long time. The way she spun and mud went everywhere.” It rumbled and croaked. “My old friend, I thought you were gone for good,” the thing said in a deep booming voice.

“You should know better than to count me out,” Kaito grinned.

The creature nodded its massive flat head. “You’re right. Perhaps I have lost my wisdom in my old age. Once long ago I was sought after for my wisdom and knowledge now I waste away here in my swamp, sometimes dreaming and sometimes listening.”

“Please tell me we didn’t come here to hear the bog monster’s life story,” Suzume said.

Kaito ignored her and address the creature. “Well I hope your ears and eyes are as sharp as they once were. Tell me what has happened in my absence? Everyone is gone, even the small ones are scarce.”

The creature shook his head back and forth, and clumps of grass and mud slid off of his brow and revealed brown molted skin beneath. Suzume wrinkled her nose as the creature sighed and a gust of foul smelling wind hit her.

“They’ve fled south, east, west and north. They were trying to get as far as they could from here.”

Kaito frowned. “What are they running from?”

“Something gained power when you went to slumber. The small ones claimed it was devouring the less powerful and absorbing their energy, but that sounds like small one’s nonsense to me,” the creature scoffed.

“What is it then?” Suzume asked. She had no patience for this chit-chat in the swamp. The sun was rising high and so was the humidity. The insects were buzzing and she waved her hands in front of her face to bat away the swarm of gnats that were circling her.

“I can only speculate as I have never seen it myself but I would wager it is a shape shifter. Those that came through my swamp described it in different ways: Tall as a mountain, small as a gnat or as powerful as a dragon or as meek as a small one. I left my swamp long ago to search myself but by then it had left and none of the small ones returned. The ones I have managed to catch say this land is cursed.”

“Yet you linger here in this stinking swamp?” Suzume said with her arms crossed over her chest. “I would have left too, rather than stay here in this place.” The creature stared at her for a moment and she did not like the way its slimy eyes felt on her skin. “Did you learn what you wanted?” Suzume asked Kaito to end the silent appraisal from a bog monster.

“Not quite. When the shifter rose, where did it come from?”

The creature closed its eyes and hummed a rumbling sound that rippled the muddy water around it. “Now that is a good question. It happened so long ago I think my memories are foggy.”

“He doesn’t remember—let’s go. I am being eaten alive here!” Suzume snarled as she slapped another bug on her arm.

“That’s right!” The creature interrupted, “From the north and the mountain... wait, weren’t you...”

Kaito did not wait for the creature to finish. He was leaping across stones and flying from stepping stone and stepping stone faster than Suzume could ever hope to keep up with. Suzume sighed. Damn him, can he not remember for a second that I do not possession inhuman speed and balance?

“Girl,” the monster called out to her.

Suzume turned hesitantly. “Me?” She pointed at her chest.

“There is no other human here that I see.” He opened his mouth in what Suzume took to be a smile.

“Yes?” She arched a brow. She did not like to make a practice of talking to a bog monster. Good thing no one is here to see me talking to this thing...

“What became of the child?”

She looked at the creature askance. He’s disgusting and confused. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

She turned on her heel and meant to leave.

But he said something that made her pause. “Oh, my mistake. I thought I recognized your spiritual energy. It is so like hers. But now that I think of it she was a human and you do not live quite as long as we do.”

She was tempted to ask him more but Kaito had back tracked by a few feet and was peering at her from beyond some draping vines hanging from one of the large trees.

“Coming? Or do you plan to marry my friend here? You would be his sixtieth wife!”

“One hundred!” The creature called. “I remarried a few more times since you been gone.”

“You have my congratulations. How did the last one go?”

“I cannot remember probably drowned or maybe eaten by one of the other creatures in the swamp. It’s hard to keep track.”

Suzume did not hear any more. She was scurrying across the stones at a surprising speed. I would rather be Kaito’s bride over a bog monster any day. She was nearly to him when her luck ran out and she slipped on a rock and almost went head first into the muck. Kaito caught her about the waist and kept her from falling. He pressed her to his chest and she could smell the masculine scent that was unique to him. This is nice, compared to the swamp smells.

“Were you sniffing me?” Kaito asked.

She blushed and then pushed him away and stomped over to the next series of stones. “Not on your life.” She called out. Never mind. I’d rather marry the bog monster.